returned into Power again Proposit 5. Every one of the Eight Kings Rev. 17. 10 11. is represented by one of the Seven Heads of the Beast Coroll 1. The Eighth King is one of the seven Heads that had ruled before and was revived again Coroll 2. The Eighth King called the Beast v. 11. is the Beast with that Head only which is last in Rule Proposit 6. The Beast all over the 17th Chapter is the Beast in the time of its last Ruling Head Coroll 1. The Beast in the 17th Chapter continues no longer than his last Ruling Head Against Grotius's Notion of the Beast after all his Heads Coroll 2 The Ten Horns belong to the Beast no longer than the time of his Last Head Against the same Proposit 7. The Beast all over the 17th Chapter of the Revelations is a particular Sovereign of Rome in the time of its Idolatrous Rule Proposit 8. The Term of The Beast all over the 13th Chapter does signify the First Beast shown v. 1. Corollar 1. By the Image Mark Name and number of the Name of the Beast chap. 13. is to be understood the Image c. of the First Beast Corollar 2. By the Beast with the False Prophet and with the Image Mark c. in all the other Chapters of the Revelations is to be understood the First Beast with all the same Attendants in Chap. 13. Proposit 9. The Beast in the 13th Chapter is a particular state of the Beast under one of its either Ruling Heads or Horns for all the time of the continuance of the Head or Horn. Corollar 1. The False Prophet or Second Beast Image Mark Name c. do in all the mentions of them in the 13th Chapter belong to that particular state of the Beast under either of one of its Heads or Horns Corollar 2. The Beast with the False Prophet Image Mark c. in all other Chapters signifies the same particular state of the Beast that it is signified to be in the 13th Chapter with the like Adjuncts Proposit 10. The Seven Heads and the Ten Horns in the 13th and 17th Chapters are the same things Corollar 1. The Beasts in the 13th and 17th Chapters are one and the same particular Beast in every successive state of the same Heads or Horns Corollar 2. The Beast in the 13th Chapter is the same particular state of the Beast with that in the 17th Chapter for the whole time of its continuance Corollar 3. The wounded and healed Head of the Beast Chap. 13. is the same Last Ruling Head of the Beast with that in the 17th Chapter Proposit 11. The Judgment of the Dead Rev. 11. 18. is the General Judgment at Christ's Second Coming Corollary The Reign of Christ over the Kingdoms of the World Rev. 11. 15. is Christ's Second Coming in glory Proposit 12. The Beast that killed the Witnesses Rev. 11. 7. is the same particular time of Roman Rule with the Beast in the other Chapters Corollar 1. The Beast in the Revelations is to continue till some Vniversal Reign of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World Corollar 2. The Beast and the Two Witnesses Chap. 11. are Contemporaries for the whole time of the continuance of them both BOOK II. PROPOSITIONS Prop. 13. THE Kingdom of the Son of Man Daniel 7. 13 14. is some Kingdom of Christ Jesus Prop. 14. The Kingdom of the Son of Man Dan. 7. is the Second Coming of Christ in glory Corollary The Kingdom of the Son of Man is Christ's Second Coming to Judgment Prop. 15. The Fourth Kingdom in the 7th Chapter of Daniel is the same thing with the Beast in the Revelations Coroll 1. The Last Ruling Head of the Beast in the Revelations is the same thing with the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast Dan. 7. Coroll 2. The Beast in the Revelations signifies the same particular time of Reign with the Fourth Beast in the time of the Little Horn Dan. 7. Coroll 3. The time of the Beast in the Revelations did not begin till after the division of the Roman Empire into Ten Kingdoms Coroll 4. The time of the Beast in the Revelations is not yet past Prop. 16. All over the Prophecy of Daniel By a Beast as the common Subject of its Heads and Horns is meant a Ruling Nation or People Part. 1. Part. 2. By the Heads and Horns of that Beast the several kinds of Supream Government in that Nation Part. 3. And if they be said to come after one another they denote so many Successive Governments in the same place Part. 4. But if they are described as ruling all at the same time then they signify so many divided Sovereignties in that one Ruling People or Nation Part. 5. And in both the kinds of them each particular Head or Horn does signify the whole time of all the several single Governours that reign either in the same form of Government when they signify successive Forms of Government or in the same particular division when they signify divided Kingdoms Observ 1. Every whole Figure signifying Dominion does all over Daniel signify a Ruling People or Nation Observ 2. The parts of whole Figures signifying Dominion do all over Daniel follow the Rule of the Heads and Horns of the Beast Observ 3. An Head and an Horn are indifferently used to signify the same Ruling Power of a Nation Observ 4. The distinguishing Character of a new Succession of an Head or Horn or of a new Succession of a different Government in the same place is a new name of the Sovereign Power publickly established Observ 5. All parts of Figures signifying Dominion do all over Daniel denote the whole successive Line of all the single Persons that reign either in the same form of Government or in the same part of a divided Nation or People BOOK III. PROPOSITIONS Prop. 17. THE Beast in the Revelations when taken for the common Subject of its Heads or Horns does signify the Rule of the Romans in general The Seven Heads of it the Successive Changes of the Government of that Nation The Ten Horns the division of that Empire into so many several Sovereignties Prop. 18. The Three last Kings of the Eight Rev. 17. 10 11. are three Changes of Roman Government coming after one another in an immediate order Prop. 19. The Sixth King Revelat. 17. 10. was the Imperial Government of Rome in the time of St. John Prop. 20. The Beast was that Supream Government of Rome which came next but one after the Imperial Government in St. John's time Prop. 21. An Head of the Beast is that setled Sovereign Power of the Romans whose Authority is owned for Supream by the City of Rome Coroll 1. Every Head of the Beast is at an end when the City of Rome does own another setled Power for Supream in the room of it Coroll 2. The Sixth Head was at an end when the City of Rome owned another setled Authority in the room of the Imperial Government that had continued
from the time of St. John Prop. 22. At the ruine of the Western Empire by the Heruli and Gothish Kings of Italy the Sixth Head was at the latest at an end Prop. 23. The Beast called the Eighth King Rev. 17. 11. is a Sovereign Power of Rome that is owned there for Supream at this present Corollar 1. The 42 Months of the Beast Rev. 13. 5. are at least 1260 Chaldaick Years Corollar 2. The 1260 days of the Two Witnesses Revel 11. 3. are the same concurrent time with the 42 Months of the Beast Corollar 3. The Two Witnesses in Sackcloth Revel 11. 3. do represent the whole True Church of Christ during all the time of the Reign of the Beast Prop. 24. The Second Beast Revel 13. 11. is a church-Church-head owned for Supream over all the Roman Jurisdiction and distinct from the First Beast Prop. 25. The Beast in the Revelations is a Secular Sovereign Power of the Romans confederated with an Ecclesiastical Roman Head in an Antichristian Idolatrous League and distinct from him Coroll 1. The Second Beast Revel 13. 11. is a Succession of Ecclesiastical Persons having Supream Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs Coroll 2. The Beast and the False Prophet are those Two Secular and Ecclesiastical Governours which are at this present time acknowledged Supream by the City of Rome and distinct from one another Coroll 3. The Present Imperial and Papal Power of the Romans are the Beast and the False Prophet Concerning the First Appearance of the Beast Query 1. Whether at the time of Justinian's Conquest of the Italian Goths there had not been at least two such Changes of the Secular Government of Rome since the time of St. John as might he called two different Heads of the Beast Query 2. Whether the First Rise of the Beast was not upon the Conquest of the Goths by Justinian THE SEVERAL OPINIONS CONCERNING THE BEAST IN THE APOCALYPSE IT is generally agreed by all the considerable Interpreters of all Churches in this present Age That Babylon and The Beast in the Visions of the Apocalypse do signify some Idolatrous State of Roman Reign For they all agree that by Babylon must be meant some Domination of Rome But there are three main Differences amongst them in respect of the Age to which they fix their Interpretations Some do apply these Visions to the Affairs of Rome-Heathen and so maintain that the time of the concern of these Visions is already past Others apply them to the times of Antichrist near the end of the World who contend that the matter of them is not yet begun to be fulfilled And others again Interpret them of the present times in which we live and of many Ages past since the time of Rome-Heathen There are some other Opinions that are a mixture of these but these are the only considerable Differences of the Interpreters of our present Age. 1. Those that lay this Scene in Rome-Heathen they make The Beast considered as the common Subject of his Heads and Horns to be the Roman Empire or Nation And when that Term is used only for Him who is called the Eighth King it is then the Roman Nation under that particular King or He himself Ruling the Romans The Seven Heads are Seven Persecutions of Roman Emperors either of so many single Emperors or of so many kinds of persecuting Emperors Of this Opinion are the latest of the Roman Interpreters and Grotius and Dr. Hammond c. 2. Those that defer the Application of these things to some State of Rome near the end of the World are more uncertain They will have many of the things that are said of Babylon alone by it self to belong to Rome-Heathen but far the greatest part of the Account of it and all that concerns the History of the Beast they determine to the time of the appearance of Antichrist three years and an half before the end of the World according to the litteral Acceptation of that space of time mentioned five several times within the compass of three Chapters Therefore are they forced to make the Beast signify The World of wicked Men in general when taken for the common Subject of its Heads and Horns But the particular State of it when used to signify the Eighth King only they determine to be either some Roman Antichrist or which is much the same the Devil in Antichrist in the time of the Reign of Antichrist as the 7th King in the Roman Territories The Seven Heads they would have to be Seven Ages of the World with the several Tyrants against the Church of God in each of them the Sixth of which was that Age in which St. John lived because it is said Five are past One is which appears to be the ground of all this Opinion that they may make the Sixth Head continue from St. John's time to the time of Antichrist near the end of the World whom they make to be the Seventh Of this Opinion are almost all the Roman Interpreters and ground themselves for it upon the general Opinion of the Fathers concerning the three years and an half of the Reign of Antichrist near the end of the World And Alcasar says of them that they think it so certain that there is no doubt to be made of it Disput in Argument totius cap. 13. Apocal. But Alcasar himself is of another mind and after twenty years Labour in this Study says That it is plain from the Characters of the Beast in the Revelations and from its Allusion to the Ten horned Beast in Daniel That this whole Beast is nothing but the Roman Empire Disputat in Argument cap. 13. Apocal. And that to fly to the Kingdom of the whole World for the Beast and to make the Seven Heads to be Seven Ages in it is so forced and wrested an Interpretation that any one may observe it Disput 1a. in cap. 17. Apoc. And that Ribera's Opinion does offer a fair occasion to the Hereticks to calumniate the Roman Church as being at last to be an Apostate from the Faith On the other side Cornelius à Lapide does thus censure the first opinion that interprets all of Rome Heathen and which therefore is forced to interpret the first part of the Visions of the ruin of the Jewish Common-wealth or Synagogue as Salmeron and Alcasar in particular so also Grotius and Dr. Hammond He says of this opinion in Prolegomen in Apocal. That it is 1. an Innovation 2. Mystical not Historical 3. Of a Prophecy it makes the Apocalypse an History for the Jewish state was down before the writing these things 4. Because it was against the agreeing-sense of the Fathers He says further in the same place That tho it was not flattery yet it was only a Love to and Reverence for the Apostolick See and a zeal for the honour of it that put Alcasar upon this opinion as he himself does ingenuously confess But Ribera says positively That he is blind that does not see that
King who has the Gold Mines of America or the Port that rules over the East we should most assuredly conclude That no other King now or hereafter could be meant by it but the King of France or Spain nor any other Port in the World but the Ottoman Port or Constantinople And it would be altogether incredible to us That any learned Person some hundreds of years hence that was acquainted with the common use of those terms in this Age should be so extravagant as to think that this might be meant of any other Christian or Catholick King in the world besides or of some other great Eastern Port some hundred years hence The MOST SATISFACTORY instance of the wild imaginations of Learned Men on some occasions is the example that Bellarmin has given us of it in the very Case before us Whatsoever was the reason of it it is certain that he is in express terms repugnant to himself in two contradictory Assertions about this thing For in his second Book de Pontifice cap. 2. m Joannes in Apocalypsi Romam passim vocat Babylonem Et aperte colligitur ex cap. 17. Apocalyps Alioqui respondeat nobis Vellenus Quaenam est illa Babylon quae in Apocalypsi imperat Regibus terrae Bellarm. l. 2. de Pontifice Romano cap. 2. Ibid. Nec enim alia civitas est quae Joannes tempore Imperium habuerit super Reges terrae quam Roma notissimum est supra septem colles Romam aedificatam esse For neither was there any other City in St. John's time that reigned over the Kings of the Earth and it was every-where known that Rome was built upon seven Hills he affirms That it is plain from the 17th Chapter of the Revelations that Babylon is Rome and shews Vellenus his Adversary That it is not possible it should be any thing else And yet in the same Book lib. 3. cap. 13. when he comes to state what Babylon is in that place of the Revelations n Respondeo 1o. Dici posse cum Augustino Areta Haymone Beda Raperto c. non intelligi Romam per meretricem sed universam Diaboli civitatem quae in Scripturâ saepe vocatur Babylon Bellarm. lib. 3. de Pont. Romano cap. 13. This was before observed by Malvenda p. 226. de Antichristo Mirati impendio sumus c. I do extremely wonder to find a new Author i. e. Bellarmine to think that this Beast may be either the Roman Empire or Bellarm. l. 3. de Pont. c. 15. the Congregation of wicked men First says he it may be said with St. Augustine that it is not Rome If so eminent a person can print such an express Contradiction in plain words about an Opinion which he could think to be necessarily certain and clearly expressed in the Text at some times and that in a Book of Controversie in the face of his Adversaries and about so very remarkable a matter it cannot be at all strange to find Learned Men barely differing from one another in a matter which is apparently clear and certain And that remarkable Observation of the Jesuit Ribera is a great Confirmation of this namely o Hoc dicam Ambrosius qui prius negaverat tandem in cap. 17. veritate convictus Babylonem Romam significare confessus est Ribera in cap. 14. Apocalyps num 30. Idem in cap. 17. Apoc. v. 16. Hîc jam nonnulli scriptores qui aliter interpretati fuerint veritate ipsâ coguntur nobis favere Nam Ambrosius Romam dicit esse Fornicariam That such as had been of another mind in this Point yet at last were forced to change their Opinion by the irresistible evidence of the thing which is a sufficient instance that men of Learning may hold out awhile against the clearest Truth and that therefore their Authority is not to be weighed against any Conclusion that does otherwise appear undoubtedly clear to ones self and to the generality of the Judicious besides And now I may seem to have been unnecessarily tedious in these last Reflexions But since I have found by long experience that the general prejudice to me and to most of the World beside against the clearest things in these Visions was the strange different Apprehensions of very Judicious Men about them I thought my self obliged to stay long enough upon the consideration of the insignificancy of that Scruple to take off all the power of it for the future and this will it may be prove to be of greater use than it may at first be apprehended to be After this satisfaction about Babylon the Subject of the present Proposition I found at the first sight that what is attributed to Babylon in it must be acknowledged to be unquestionable CONSENT as it has also the general suffrage of the Interpreters 1. As namely first that it is there signified to be p Grotius in cap. 17. Apocal. Mulier est Roma sed notandum cum urbe simul notari Imperium urbis The Woman is Rome but it is to be observed That together with the City is to be understood the Empire of the City A manifest proof of this was the Custom observed by all the Governours of the Provinces of the Roman Empire when they returned from their several Governments to the City of Rome They used to lay down the Ensigns of their Authority at the Gate of the City of Rome before they entred the City Lib. ult de Officio Procons in Rule or to be the Seat of Empire For it has all the Ensigns of Majesty Chap. 17. v. 1. 3 4 5. arrayed in Purple and Scarlet colour and sitting upon a Beast with seven heads and ten horns interpreted to be so many Kings And called Babylon the Great the Great Whore 2. That it is an Idolatrous Rule is assured from the names of an Harlot and a Whore and of Fornication given it which amongst all the Prophets do commonly signify nothing else but Idolatry and Apostacy when spoken of a City in the same manner 3. That it is also an Antichristian Tyranny is plain from her being said to be seen drunken with the blood of the Martyrs v. 6. of Jesus CHAP. II. Rev. XVII The former Proposition made the Standard to judge what kind of Evidence is sufficient to make one sure of the Interpretation of any thing else in the Prophecy And Four Rules of Interpretation drawn from it The Plainness and Vsefulness of them I Was not so vain as to think I had got much by the undoubted Certainty of the former Proposition to give me any hopes of much better satisfaction about the rest of the Interpretation For in all my former perplexities about these things I never questioned the certainty of this And besides I saw this to be generally acknowledged by those who yet differ from one another in almost every thing else But however since this was the only certain truth that was then known about these things It
a BIshop Andrews p. 234. Respons ad Bellarm. Apolog. speaking of Saint John in the Revelations He borrows that way of speaking from Daniel of whom he is almost every-where an Imitator And immediately after Vix enim reperias apud Joannem c. You shall scarce find a Phrase in the Revelations of St. John that is not taken out of Daniel or some other Prophet Bellarmin l. 3. de Pontif. c. 5. Jum vero Daniel c. Now Daniel in the 7th Chapter of that Prophecy does very clearly describe the same Four Kingdoms by Four Beasts that is the same with those Four in his 2d Chapter and which are the same Four Beasts that are mentioned in the Description of The Beast of the Revelations Blas Viega in cap. 13. Apoc. v. 1 2. Sciendum est Danieli cap. 7 c. It is to be considered that there was a Vision like to this shown to Daniel in the 7th Chapter of that Prophecy where the business is about Antichrist upon the Explication of which this Vision of ours here does depend See Mr. Medes Discourse Regnum quartum Danielis est Regnum Romanorum Alcasar sect 3. cap. 13. Apoc. v. 1. Marina Bestia cap. 13. Apoc. Evidenter respicit quartam Bestiam Danielis cap. 7. c. The Beast that arose out of the Sea cap. 13. Revel does evidently relate to the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel Quae etiam quatuor Regna sive Imperia sc in 7o. cap. Dan. dubium non est in statuà illâ Danielis cap. 2. 31. praefigurata fuisse Bestiam Apocalypticam continere in se tres priores Monarchias quas dicitur apud Danielem devorasse Which Four Kingdoms or Empires viz. in the 7th Chapter of Daniel are unquestionably foretold in the Statue cap. 2. 31. And The Beast in the Revalations does contain in it or is there described to be made up of these three Monarchies which it is said in Daniel to have devoured Idem in cap. 12. Apoc. v. 3. de 10. Cornibus Non aliud fundamentum c. There needs no other foundation for the Interpretation but only to look out a conformable Explication of it with that of the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel by which it is evident that it signifies the Roman Empire See the References to the Third Chapter Lib. 2. Note a. especially Malvenda and Ribera consent of Interpreters of all Parties That the Terms of the Beast and his Heads and Horns and most of his Characters had a very unquestionable reference to the frequent use of them about the same kind of Subject in the Prophet Daniel But I was extremely surprized to find also That by the same Unanimous agreement of all the Considerable Interpreters of all Ages excepting only some few of this last Age it was granted That the Terms of Beasts and their Heads or Horns and indeed all other Figures and their parts signifying Dominion as it is here in these Visions had but one constant uniform Signification in general all over the Prophecy of Daniel and that also in great variety of Instances And withal That by the concurrent agreement of those few also that differed from the rest there needed nothing more to prove such a constant uniform Signification of these Figures but only this viz. That The Fourth Beast or Kingdom in the 7th Chapter of Daniel was the Roman Monarchy This gave me very confident hopes of fixing the same kind of mystical Terms in the Visions of the Apocalyps to setled Notions and certain Definitions and thereby of coming to some assurance about those things notwithstanding all the ambiguous and various acceptations of the Expressions in which they were conveyed which I accounted well worth all the closest application of my thoughts as a thing of the most useful importance to the World for the clear determination of the aim of this Prophecy as well as for mine own particular satisfaction and benefit I have therefore for this end endeavoured to demonstrate the constant uniform acceptation of the Schemes of A Beast and its parts all over Daniel And this requiring the certain knowledge of the Interpretation of the Fourth Beast or Kingdom in the Seventh Chapter of Daniel and the determinate application of that relying chiefly upon the determination of the undoubted signification of the Kingdom of the Son of Man that succeeds that Fourth Kingdom These make up the Demonstration of the design of the Second Book from the Intrinsick Arguments of the Prophecy of Daniel it self But the clearest proof of the signification of the Fourth Beast in Daniel is the exact agreement of it with The Beast in the Revelations And that also in some such peculiar Characters amongst the rest as are impossible to belong to more than one and the same Kingdom and to the same time of that Kingdom This therefore is added to the other Evidences that are drawn from the Prophecy of Daniel it self as a most undoubted confirmation That the Fourth Beast or Kingdom in Daniel is the Kingdom of the Romans Who indeed would not be ready to conclude with himself before ever he comes to examine the grounds that there is for it That so general an agreement of all the differing Parties of Interpreters for so many Ages as has been observed about Mystical Expressions where there is so great a scope for Fancy to expatiate in must certainly have very plain and express grounds for it in the Prophetical Writings and very obvious to common observation And this is another considerable thing to fortify the assurance that the strength of the Proof it self does offer But the Characters in which The Beast in the Revelations does so exactly agree with those of the Fourth Beast in Daniel and which are the surest Proof That that Beast in Daniel must be the Kingdom of the Romans are fetched from several distinct Shews of the Apocalyptick Beast in several Chapters And these several Shows are by some Learned Men judged to be the Shows of different Beasts whereas the proof of the exact agreement of The Beast in Daniel with that in the Revelations from the several Characters of those different Shows does suppose it to be but one and the same Beast in all those Chapters This made it necessary to settle the notion of The Beast in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations and to shew that all the mentions of that which is called The Beast in all the other Chapters are but so many Accounts of that one and the same particular state of The Beast that it is found in in the 17th Chapter And that therefore all the several Characters of The Beast in those several Chapters are but the Characters of one and the same thing And this it was requisite to prefix in the First Book before all other reasonings that are fetched from the nature of that Beast in the following Discourses After the determination of the constant and setled signification of a
of the most wary and cautious judgment withhold from concluding That it would be a very strange thing if two Descriptions agreeing together in such multitudes of most peculiar Characters never attributed to any Figures before should not really mean one and the same thing To hear of the Pictures of two Beasts described thus exactly like one another in such a strange make of all their Parts and Furniture with the same Qualities and Actions belonging to them the same manner of rise the same time of continuance and agreeing in the same peculiar way and circumstances of their Ruine and both these Figures interpreted to signify the same things in all their Characters that are interpreted And then to see the things wherein they seem to differ in words and expressions to be found to be in reality and substance the same sure this would make any man forth with resolve with himself that these two must be the Pictures of the very self-same Beast And since they both are said to signify Kingdoms that they must represent but one and the same Kingdom And if it should not be so he would conclude that they were on purpose contriv'd by the Relator of them to deceive men into wrong Apprehensions of them if he had given no plain intimation that they could not possibly be the same For to mention a Property or two in one which was not in the mention of the other would signify little to make him think them of different kinds where there were such strange Agreements unless the Relator had given such a property to the one as could not be in the other from the plain description of it which is not the present Case But after all this from the three last Characters of each of these Beasts it will appear to be absolutely impossible that they should be any thing but one and the same time of the same Kingdom They are both said to be destroyed just before the Universal and Eternal Kingdom of Christ that ruled over all the Earth and that for ever So that the description of that in those two places cannot possibly signify more than one determinate Kingdom over all the Earth and when they were destroyed are said at that time both of them to rule over the same place THE whole Earth and for the same continuance of time before their destruction But it is absolutely impossible that they should be two different Kingdoms over the same place at the same time both destroyed by a Third that succeeds in their place The beginning of the Universal Reign of Christ with his Saints when each of them were to be destroyed was the same time and their Rule over the whole Earth at that time was over the same place And besides they had continued the same length of time over the same place before their destruction and were both destroyed after the very same and that a most peculiar and unusual manner that is by fire Dan. 7. 11. Rev. 19. 20. It is therefore unquestionable that the Fourth Beast in Daniel is the same with the Beast in the Revelations and especially in the time of the Reign of the Little Horn From hence it appears That The Last Head of the Beast in the Revelations is b Malvenda de Antichristo p. 224. Fixum stabile omnium quoque Consensu firmatum c. It is sure and certain and confirmed also by the Consent of All that Daniel did understand by the Little Horn and as it were point at with his Finger nothing else but Antichrist that was to come Idem pag. 253. It is the agreeing Opinion of the Fathers and Interpreters that Antichrist is called the Little Horn. the same with Corollar 1 the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel And therefore That The Term of the Beast in the Revelations signifies the same particular Corollar 2 Roman Rule with the Beast in the 7th of Daniel in the time of the Little Horn. For the Term of the Beast in the Revelations signifies the Beast with the Last Head by Prop. 6. And the Last Head is the same with the Little Horn by Coroll praeced And the Rule of the Last Head is a Roman Rule Prop. 7. As also That The time of the Beast in the Revelations did not begin till after the Roman Corollar 3 Empire was divided into Ten Kingdoms For the Little Horn of the 4th Beast which is the same with that in the Revelations by Coroll praeced did not arise till after the Ten Kings were up and besides did subdue three of those Ten Dan. 7. 8 24. And from hence still is it further confirmed That the Kingdom of the Son of Man Dan. 7. and the Reign of Christ over Coroll Prop. 11. Prop. 14. the Kingdoms of this World Rev. 11. are the same time of Christ's Second coming in glory For they begin at the same time at the destruction of the same Beast and are universal from the beginning of them Thus does this last Proposition about the Fourth Kingdom and the former about the coming of the Son of Man much more strengthen the proof of one another and yet have evidence enough for them in themselves without any necessary dependance upon one another so that either of them might have been set alone by themselves but they are still more abundantly cleared and strengthned by the help of one another's Light It is therefore now manifest That The Reign of the Beast in the Revelations is not yet past Corollar 4 For the Reign of the Beast in the Revelations is the same with the Reign of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel Corollar 2. Prop. 15. and is therefore to continue till the Second Coming of Christ Prop. 14. and Corol. 1. Prop. 12. This is acknowledged by most of the Romish Interpreters who according to the general Opinion of the Fathers do expect the coming of Antichrist at the end of the World or just CONSENT before the Second Coming of Christ It must be acknowledged that both this Proposition and the former and their Consectaries are denied by Grotius and others but upon what small grounds for it and against how great an evidence to the contrary may be seen Cap. ult Lib. 1. and cap. 2 3 15. Lib. 2. And lest the Authority of great Names should have still too much weight in it to hinder ones full assent to these present Conclusions I would in the mean while have any one but reflect upon one of the Tenets of the Grotian way to which they are forced to maintain their Singularity in the present Case and that is their Opinion of the Kingdom of the Son of Man in the 7th Chapter of Daniel For that is sufficient to make one very much unconcerned at any thing that is built upon it The modern Jews are justly admired for denying that by the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel is meant the Messiah But it is much more monstrous in these men
destroying the fourth Beast And therefore seemed it very useful for them to make the fourth Beast to be not the Roman but a part of the Grecian Monarchy It is also against the whole current of all the Learned Christian Fathers at least till St. Jerom's time near a thousand years after the Prophecy was given and above four hundred years after Christ a HIeronyme in c. 7. Daniel Let us therefore say what All Ecclesiastical Writers have delivered That in the end of the World when the Kingdom of the Romans is to be destroyed there shall be Ten Kings who shall divide the Roman World among themselves and that there shall be an Eleventh littleKing that shall arise and overcome three of those Ten Kings c. Ergo dicamus says he quod omnes scriptores Ecclesiastici In cap. 7. Dan. tradiderunt Which is almost as much as to say That it was an Universal Tradition or a Tradition of all the considerable persons of the Catholick Church to his time That the fourth Beast was the Roman Monarchy and so that the third Beast must be the whole time of the Grecian Monarchy from its succession to the Persian which is by all granted to be the second Is not this sufficient to make any man confident That the Prophecy does of its own accord offer this Interpretation to the common sense of men when it thus appears to be the impartial Judgment of all the Learned World b Malvenda de Antichristo p. 222. For All both Jews and Christians look upon it as unquestionable That the Third and Fourth Beasts are plainly distinct from one another so that he must have lost his wits that can think otherwise Maldonal in c. 7. Dan. The fourth Kingdom is the Kingdom of the Romans and so all take it to be Calovius in c. 7. Dan. All agree That the Fourth Kingdom is the Kingdom of the Romans as well the Ancients and the Jewish Church both before and after Christ and the Christian-Church for the first Four hundred years as the Moderns both Jews and See References Christians before there was any particular Interests to be served by it It has also been and is still the Judgment of even c Pererius in c. 7. Dan. This Fourth Beast according as all interpret it to be and as the matter it self does shew it did represent the Figure of the Roman Empire Malvenda in c. 7. Dan. p. 222. That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire is certain and agreed upon by all that profess the name of Christ The Reader then is thus to be set in the Right Road and the King's High-way Ibid. S. Hierom and others do very clearly show that Porphyry's Opinion is a perfect madness Alcasar Sect. 5. in c. 13. Apoc. It cannot be denied but that there is a plain allusion in the Ten Horns of this Beast to the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which does very plainly appear to be the Figure of the Roman Empire Item Sect. 3. in v. 1. The Beast out of the Sea does evidently allude to the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel and 't is most clear and evident That that Fourth Beast of Daniel is the Figure of the Roman Empire in an Idolatrous State the most Eminent of the Church of Rome tho' it be more for their Interest than any others that the fourth Kingdom were any thing rather than the Roman which does sufficiently shew that they are forced to allow it For they can have no manner of advantage from that concession and therefore must it be the impartial sense of their minds but it would save them a great deal of trouble to deny it if they fairly could and that shews the evidence for it to be too clear And this gives as strong a presumption against the possibility of any other sense as can almost be given from Authority It is therefore well worth the enquiry What might be the grounds of so universal and impartial an Agreement amongst all the differing Parties of all sorts about this third and fourth Kingdom The first Reason that may be observed for it d Theodoret in c. 7. Daniel Some would have the Fourth Kingdom to be the Rule of Alexander's Successors But they should have remembred that the Golden-Head was the Babylonians and that the second Kingdom was the Persians the third then must be the Graecians and the fourth the Romans Ibid. But at present I cannot but admire that there should be some pious Men who should take the Fourth Beast to be the Macedonian Kingdom For they should have considered that the Third Beast has four Heads which does openly show the fourfold division of the Greek Empire after Alexander's Death And then that the Fourth Beast has Ten Horns And that they were but Four and not Ten that continued the Reign of the Greek Monarchy after Alexander Ibid. That ought to be observed that the Prophet saw the Third Beast with Four Heads upon him And the He-Goat Chap. 8. after the first Horn was broken to have had Four in the room of it to make it clear and unquestionable That the He-Goat and the Third Beast were but one and the same thing is the plain intimations in the Prophecy That the third Kingdom is the Dan. 7. whole time of the Greeks from the Persians to the Romans 1. As first in the Text it self the third Kingdom has the same name of A Kingdom that hinders all the rest from being possible to be understood of single Kings or of different Sovereignties in the same Empire pag. 106. There is the same ground then against the parting the Reign of Alexander and his Captains into a third and fourth Kingdom which in reality are but one and the same Kingdom of the Greeks 2. It is against all the significations of Kingdoms besides that are represented by any whole Figures in this Book of Daniel and the common usage of Prophetical Terms especially in the same Book is the best Rule to determine their signification by Rule 2. Now by the confession of these men themselves and the unanimous consent of all Interpreters every whole Figure that is said to signifie a Kingdom does signifie the whole time of a Ruling Nation or People In that one constant acceptation we find it in no less than Ten distinct Figures not counting in this third Kingdom There are eight mentioned besides the third in the 2d and 7th Chapters and two in the 8th for the Kingdom of the Stone and of the Son of Man are two of those Schemes So that there is at least Ten to nothing against it That the third Kingdom is the whole time of the Monarchy of the Greeks after the Persians And that which appears to be the constant use of expressions in so wise and judicious a Writer as the Prophet Daniel was may be very securely relied upon as an unquestionable ground to determine his meaning whenever the same expression is
or Kingdoms of one and the same Ruling People if they be described to be in Rule all at the same time And in both these kinds do the several Heads or Horns signify the continuance of that Government or divided Kingdom to their last End To this whole Discourse about the Sixteenth Proposition do the generality of the Roman Interpreters agree which all must CONSENT necessarily do who grant as they do that the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th of Daniel is the Roman Monarchy The only difference of some of them from the rest is that the Ten Kings and the 11th after them shall be after the whole Roman Monarchy is ruined and has lost the name a GRotius de jure B. P. L. 2. c. 9. Art 3. Populus est ex eo corporum genere quod ex distantibus constat c. The people are a Body of the kind of those which are made up of things distant from one another Item Art 8. It matters not which way they are Governed either by Monarchs or by many or by the multitude For it is the same Roman people under Kings Consuls and Emperors The Third BOOK THE Particular Signification OF THE BEAST And its Heads and Horns In the REVELATIONS CHAP. I. The Interpretation of The Beast in the Revelations and Rev. XVII of its Heads and Horns in the 17th Proposition Three Objections answered The inconsistency of the Roman Interpreters with themselves Bellarmin more Ingenuous but forced thereby to give up the Cause Grotius to mend the matter runs into greater Absurdities than any of them Conjectures about the first Five Heads AFTER the knowledge of the Constant Vniform Signification of a Beast and of the Heads or Horns of a Beast all over the Prophecy of Daniel any one would be ready to conclude with himself That it was no hard matter now to determine the signification of the Heads and Horns and of the Beast it self which is the Subject of all the latter part of the Revelations since it has been already found that all those peculiar Figures of Empire and Sovereignty and the particular Phrases and Style belonging to them in the Revelations are just the same with those of the like kind in Daniel and are not so distinctly to be found in any other of the Prophets besides But the undoubted confirmation of this is the assurance that we have of the 15th Proposition For by that it appears That the Beast in the Revelations is the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel and that it has the same and that a very great many most peculiar Characters and Expressions attributed to it by which that Beast in Daniel is described Wherefore according to all the Examples that are to be found in that Prophecy from whence it appears that these Figures in the Revelations and the most peculiar Expressions about them are taken it is unquestionable That The Beast in the Revelations in its general notion as the common Prop. 17. subject of its Heads and Horns does signify the Rule of the Romans in general The Seven Heads of it successive Changes of the Sovereign Power of that Nation The Ten Horns the division of that Empire into so many distinct Sovereignties There need no more be said for the proof of this than that the Seven Heads are said to succeed in this order Five one another c. to shew them to be successive Revel 17. and that the Ten Kings are described as acting all together with the Beast For according to the signification of a Beast and its Heads and Horns with these Characters in Daniel they must signify so many successive Sovereign Powers and so many divided distinct Kingdoms of one and the same Nation by Prop. 16. And the Prophecy of Daniel is the chief Example of the mystical use of Beasts and their Parts and to which all the Expressions about the Beast in the Revelations are found to refer Proposition 15. And the Beast in the Revelations is certainly some Roman Rule by Prop. 6. Therefore by Rule the 2 d The Beast its Heads and Horns do signify the Rule of the Romans under so many successive Changes of the Sovereign Power and divided into so many distinct Sovereignties as are represented by its Seven Heads and Ten Horns But it may possibly be pretended that there are clear grounds in the Revelations against the making the Prophecy of Daniel a Rule of Interpretation for the Figures in the Revelations For the Figures in the Revelations have a different use from those in Daniel For example 1. There are three several shows of one and the same Roman Monarchy and following immediately one after another from the 12th to the 18th Chapter of the Revelations which according to the use of such succession of Figures in Daniel must signify three several Ruling Nations Prop. 16. Besides that one of these three Beasts is expresly described in succession to the other Chap. 13. 2. But it must be remembred That it is according to the use of the Figures in Daniel to represent the same Kingdoms by different Figures in different Visions as in the 2d and 7th Chapters And in the 8th Chapter two of those same Kingdoms by two new Beasts and it is certain that the two Shows in the 13th and 17th Chapters are in two several Visions and that they are one and the same particular state of the Beast by Coroll 2. Prop. 10. And though the Beast in the 13th Chapter be described to be in succession to that in the 12th Chapter yet 1. it is described as a new Vision of a Beast with the same proper marks upon it which the other had before it viz. the Seven Heads and Ten Horns And next it must be considered That though they be two different Beasts yet it is plainly said That the one is Satan Chap. 12. 9. or the Devil and so does signify only a spiritual Rule of the Devil in the Roman Empire and no different Temporal Empire from the other and then it signifies no more to the making two different Monarchies than Nebuchadnezzar's Image to the constituting of a new Monarchy of the Babylonians distinct from that which was represented by the Head of the other Image Chap. 2. 2. It will be further urged that in the 13th Chapter There are Two Beasts represented as rising up after one another which according to Prop. 16. Part. 1. must signify in Daniel's way two different Ruling Nations This would signify very much by Rule the 2 d if the Text did not make it appear that they were not successive to one another But it is expresly said That the Second Beast did exercise all the power of the First Beast before him and that all Chap. 13. 12. for his Service as appears v. 12. The Text does therefore expresly affirm that the power of them both is but one and the same power or Ruling Nation And yet to show that the signification of a Beast in Daniel
does hold good in this use of it also it will be explained how this First Beast does also signify the a ALcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 6. By the Beast out of the Earth is signified a multitude of Persons as well as by the Beast that came out of the Sea Ibid. As well the one Beast as the other are taken not for single Persons but for a great Multitude as the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel Ibid. As the Beast out of the Sea does contain in it all the Nations of the Roman Empire so also does the Beast that came out of the Earth Rule of the Romans but in another manner of Kingdom than that Chap. 18. See References of the first Beast is so as that they are both in being at the same time For this second will be found to signify their Church-Rule as the first does the Rule of the State Prop. 24 25. 3. It may also be objected That the two Horns of the second v. 11. Beast Chap. 13. according to Daniel must signify distinct Sovereignties Prop. 16. Observat 2 4. But since these Horns have no mark of Rule or Dominion joined with them and are particularly said to signify the likeness of that Beast to a Lamb that does sufficiently shew a particular exception of them from the general Rule in Daniel And yet they may also signify the two distinct Kingdoms or Jurisdictions of that Beast over the Temporal and Spiritual Affairs of that Nation After this how manifestly does it appear to be but a Contrivance only to serve a turn in b Alcasar in Apoc. c. 12. de 10 Corn. It is most evident that the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel do signify the Roman Empire But those which are not Roman Commanders cannot be the Horns of that Beast Ibid. Ribera understands by the Beast the whole World which does easily fall to the ground of it self For it is evident that Daniel did prophesie of the Roman Empire only viz. in the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast chap. 7. Ibid. Another Opinion of his is that the Roman Empire shall be Idolatrous which Conjecture is very vain and empty For then it would be another Empire as the Empire that is now in Greece is quite different from that which is represented by the Third Beast in the 7th of Daniel Idem in cap. 17. v. 11. But any one may easily see how forced all that Interpretation is à Lapide Ribera and a number of other See References eminent Persons of the Church of Rome to make the general notion of the Beast in the Revelations to signify the World in general and the seven Heads to be seven Ages of it with the several Tyrannical Powers which persecuted the Church of God in each of them notwithstanding that they are agreed with all other Interpreters about the Constant Uniform Signification of a Beast and of its Heads and Horns all over the Prophecy of Daniel and that the fourth Beast there in the 7th Chapter of Daniel is the particular Monarchy of the Romans and that the Little Horn of that Beast is the same with the last Head of this Beast in the Revelations And yet c Alcasar in cap. 12. Apoc. de 10 Cornibus Quod autem Romanorum Imperium sit extinctum prorsus videtur certum It seems to be altogether certain that the Roman Empire is destroyed Again It is evident that the Roman Empire is destroyed although the Provinces of it be in the possession of other Kings and Emperours Ribera in cap. 12. Apoc. num 14. de 10 Cornibus That which the forementioned Writers apply to the Kingdom of the Romans because that is now altogether annihilated we understand of the whole World over which the Romans reigned do they not shew the least intimation from the Text to countenance this Contradiction to their own Judgments about the same Words and Phrases nor offer to give any Example from the Figures of the like kind to ground their fancy upon Bellarmin indeed is more ingenuous he owns the known Signification of Beasts in Daniel and that the fourth of the 7th Chapter is in particular the same with that in the Revelations and from the certainty of both does acknowledge that the Beast in the Revelations does signify in general the Roman Empire and that the Heads of the Beast must be all Heads of the Romans and that the time of that called the Beast is not yet past And what more convincing proof can there be for the irresistible Light that there is for these things than to see so able a Judge of the concern of his Church in this Affair to be forced thereby to yield to it without any the least shew of advantage from it to serve the Cause that he is so zealous for But especially when we see him thereby forced to desert all the other Defences of his Brethren and to reduce the whole merit of the Cause about the Charge laid against his Church to this only issue viz. Whether the Imperial Roman Government that was in Rule at the time of the Vision has been since that time cut off and succeeded by another form of Government which is to reduce the whole Dispute about the matter of so great importance in the consequence of it to a question about the truth of a matter of fact only in History and which is given against him d Tacitus just about the time that the Revelations were wrote reckons them up in this order in the beginning of his first Book of Annals Kings were at first the Governours of Rome L. Brutus brought in the Consulary Government and Liberty Dictators were set up upon occasion The Decemvirs continued not above two years The Consulary Power of the Tribunes of the Soldiers lasted not long The Domination of Cinna and Sylla was soon ended and Pompey and Crassus yielded to Caesar and Lepidus and Anthony to Augustus who took all into his hands under the name of a Prince or Emperour Livy before him had given much the same account for all those Governments which had been up in his time in his 6th Book I have says he in the five former Books given an account of all the Wars abroad and the Seditions at home which the Romans have had from the first building of the City to the taking of it under Kings Consuls Decemvirs Dictators and Consulary Tribunes So Onuphrius Panvicinus in his Preface to his Fasti Consulares For the City was first under Kings Then succeeded Consuls and sometimes under Decemvirs and sometimes under Tribunes of the Soldiers with Consulary Power and sometimes under Dictators Cassiodorus in his Chronicon gives the same account of the Change of the Roman Government from Kings to Consuls and from them to the Decemvirs and the Consulary Government again interrupted by the Military Tribunes and during all these spaces of time the intermixture of Dictators upon
rest That The Three last Kings of the Eight in the 17th Chapter are Three Proposit 18. Changes of Roman Government coming after one another in an immediate successive Order a CUspinian in Sextum Rufum pag. 6. Cuspinian p. 95. in Cassiodori Chronicon shews that Military Tribunes with Consulary Power differed only in name from Consuls Consuls were chosen by the People of Rome at first that after the expulsion of the Kings the Power of the Kings might remain with them ut penes illos Regia esset potestas Pancirollus in notit Imperii Oriental pag. 155. Appian says in his Syrian History that the Romans sent Praetors to the Army which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is six Axes because the Consuls did use to have twelve Axes and as many bundles of Rods carried before them after the manner of the Kings See in the Margent First That they are Three Changes of the Supream Government of the Romans appears from their being every one represented by an Head of the Beast which signifies a Rule of the Romans Prop. 17. and from their being said to Reign one after another v. 10 11. For Heads or Horns of a Beast said to come one after another do all over Daniel signify the successive Changes of the Supream Government of a Nation by Prop. 16. And Daniel is the only Example of the use of such Prophetical Schemes wherefore by Rule the 2 d they can signify nothing else here but three successive Changes of the Soveraign Power of the Romans b Thomas de Albiis Tabulae suffragiales p. 247. And under the name of King it self there are almost as many different sorts of Soveraign Power as there are Kingdoms in the World for there is not any Power of two different Kings that is altogether the same And next That they do reign in an immediate successive Order does appear from the Number of the Last which is said to be the Eighth Whereas if there had been any more than Two betwixt the Five that were then said to be past and this which is called the Eighth this Last would have been more than an Eighth according to the number of those that had come in betwixt the Five and the Last besides those Two that are mentioned This is further confirmed by the use of Numbers in Daniel which denote the Succession of Ruling Powers As in the four Kingdoms represented by the four Metals in the Statue Ch. 2. and signified to succeed one another every Kingdom does immediatly succeed that before it So also do the four Kingdoms in the 7th Chapter of Daniel follow one another in an immediate Chap. 15. lib. 2. order The Two Horns of the Ram in the 8th Chapter one of which is said to come up after the other are known to represent the immediate Succession of the Persian Government to that under the Median Kings The fourth King of Persia after Cyrus in the 11th Chapter v. 2. is known to be Xerxes in an immediate Succession from Cyrus The Succession of the first King and of the four after him signified by the Horns of the He-Goat in the 8th Chapter may indeed seem to be an exception to the rest because the quadripartite Division of the Graecian Monarchy did not immediately succeed the Reign of Alexander But then neither is there any number there used to denote an immediate Succession There is no mention of a first and a second King but only of a first and four Kings after him which does not exclude the intervening of others betwixt them as the name of a first or second would do And yet if it be well considered The Quadripartite Division of the Graecian Monarchy was so much the immediate next form of the Supream Rule of it to the Heirs of Alexander that there was no other setled Division of that Monarchy that came in between them and that one would esteem to be ground enough to call it the next immediate successive form of the Graecian Monarchy when there was no other setled form betwixt the Reign of Alexander's Heirs and the fourfold Division of the Empire Again The Beast is never without one of his Heads even in the time of his Ten Horns to his last ruine by Coroll 1. Prop. 6. Wherefore upon the falling of one of his Heads the next in order must immediately arise or else the Beast would be without an Head and so without any life in it For the Ten Horns from whence alone it could be supposed to have any life besides are all in the time of the Last Head by Coroll 2. Prop. 6. But still further it may easily be perceived That the three last Kings are set down in order by the Angel for no other end but to shew the time of the rise of the Eighth called the Beast and which is the only Subject-matter of all the Visions To confirm this it is plain That there is none of the whole number of these Kings but only the Eighth who have any thing more mentioned of them than barely the number that they are known by and the order in which they lie from that present time when these things were spoken to the time of the Reign of the Eighth The Sixth is therefore only said to be the King that was at that present time the Soveraign of the Romans that it might be thereby known how many Successions of the Ruling Power of that Monarchy there was to be from the time of the Vision to the Reign of the Beast Now if the order of these Successions had not been immediate to one another this number would really have signified nothing for that Design but would on the contrary have been a most certain means of deluding men into a mistake upon very clear and warrantable grounds for it especially since there is no intimation in the least to incline a man to understand it otherwise Wherefore by Rule the first it may be relied upon that the Succession of the three last Kings of the Eighth in the 17th Chapter was immediate And so plainly does this appear to be intimated from the CONSENT Text that it has the almost unanimous Consent of all the differing Parties of Interpreters Bellarmin indeed has a very singular fancy in this point he would have the Seven Heads or Kings to signify here all the Emperours because the Number Seven is generally so used in the Revelations Whereas nothing is more commonly known than that when Seven or Ten are divided into broken numbers as the number Seven is here into Five One another c. they are never used for a perfect number or to signify All. And the mention of the Eighth which was one of the Seven does plainly assure them to be just Seven and no more What more remarkable Instance can we have how extravagantly singular a man of good sense in other respects may be upon no manner of tolerable grounds for it If the three last Kings do
name of King is given to Moses and the Judges of the Israelites And further That this Sixth King cannot be any single Ruler or Emperour which is the chief thing pretended to by those who will not have it to be the Imperial Government is most evident from this following Consideration viz. That then the Eighth King which is the Beast would have been the next single Emperour but one after him For the three Last Kings do immediatly succeed one another by Prop. praeced And then all the Characters and Attendants of the Beast must have been found verified of the next Emperour but one after the time of the Vision For by Prop. the 6th Corol. 2. Prop. 10. The Beast in all the Chapters of the Revelations is one and the same particular state of it under one of its Heads There must then have been Ten Kings that had no Kingdom at the time of the Vision who were yet such Masters of so many Kingdoms in the time of the next Emperour but one to it as that they should give their Kingdoms to that Emperour Rev. 17. 12 13. Rome must also have been so burnt with fire that it must have been finally ruined and have had all Soveraignty taken from it in the time of that Emperour v. 16. But in History we meet with Prop. 3. nothing like to this much less is there any account from History of the overcoming of any Emperour of Rome by the Christians v. 14. of those days nor that any Ten Kings confederated with that Emperour were conquered by them nor of any such Emperour that was destroyed by the Armies of Christ So that upon his Rev. 19. 19 20. Rev. 20. 4. death there was any such glorious Reign of the Kingdom of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World as is described immeately to succeed it But History is very full of the accounts of the afflicted and persecuted state of the Christian Church in those times which is quite contrary to that glorious Description of the state of the Church immediatly after the times of the Beast in the Revelations Besides that it has been proved that that Beast was to continue till the Second coming of Christ Corol. 1. Prop. 12. This seems to have been well enough observed by those who would have the Beast in the 17th Chapter to signify a single Emperour And therefore to evade those Confequences they are Grotius forced to make two or three distinct states of the Beast in the Revelations at the several mentions of him in chap. 13. chap. 17. chap. 19. But how evident it is that all the mentions of that Beast all over the Revelations do signify but one and the same state of him under his last Head may be seen by the whole process of the Demonstration of the 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Propositions The Sixth King or Head must therefore necessarily be the Imperial Government of Rome It is then unquestionable That The Beast called the Eighth King is that change of Roman Government Prop. 20. which was next but one to the Imperial Government of Rome at the time of the Vision For the Beast is the Eighth in immediate succession to the Sixth which is the Imperial Government Prop. 19. And it is The Beast under one of its Heads which signifies Supream Government under the Successive Reigns of many single Persons in that Government Prop. 16. Therefore must the Beast be the next Roman Government but one to the Imperial that Ruled at the time of the Vision By the preceding Proposition it appears what Absurdities and Inconsistencies they must fall into who would have the time of the Beast passed over almost as soon as it began One would think that there must be some great necessity that did force to these streights But the chief thing that is alledged for it from this Prophecy is That at the beginning of it it is said That the things were shortly to come to pass That the time was at hand And again at the end of it also That they were things which must shortly be done And that the Book should not be sealed because the time was at hand But these things have already been sufficiently considered pag. 114. And there is nothing more familiar in Speech than to say of things that require a great deal of time for the finishing them that they d will shortly be instead of They See References will shortly begin to be As one might say at Easter All the Summers work will shortly be upon us This Play will be acted presently though it be five hours in acting So about the Birth of Christ All things foretold of the times of the Messiah will shortly come to pass All the pretended necessity then comes now to be none at all Grotius could not have reflected more upon the Judgment of the most Eminent of the Roman Interpreters than to think it to be so plain that the time of the Beast was long since past from such obvious grounds as these and yet that this should never be found out by the most Judicious of them For it would save them all that trouble that they have to make it out that their present Church is not concerned in the Affairs of the Beast in which there would be no difficulty if it were so plain that the time of the Beast is long since past And besides it would keep them from granting so much as they do to the disadvantage of their Cause whereas in a concern of this nature 't is very unsafe to yield to any thing but what is necessary to be granted especially since what they do yield to does force them to such contradictions to what they allow to be the known significations of a Beast and its Heads or Horns in other places as we see in Ribera c. or to matter of fact as shall be made to appear against Bellarmin Prop. 22. who has granted so far as he has laid the whole stress of the Controversie betwixt us upon the truth of History CHAP. III. Rev. XVII The 21st Proposition What an Head of the Beast is in distinction to an Horn. This determined by Eleven Arguments What demonstrates an Head to be at an end The Sixth Head at an end when another Government was owned at Rome in the place of it TO take away all dispute that may arise about the distinguishing Characters of an Head of the Beast in the time of the last Head when there is ten Kingdoms to appear in the Roman Empire at the same time signified by the ten Horns This following Proposition is to distinguish an Head from an Horn. An Head of the Beast is that setled Sovereign Power of the Romans Prop. 21. whose Authority is owned to be Supream by the Government of the City of Rome 1. That it must be a setled Sovereign Power is confirmed from all the Examples of Daniel where there are no Heads or Horns to signify the Ruling Power of a
Monarchy in the time of the unsetled Confusions of a Nation As particularly the time of the Magi in the Persian Monarchy has nothing to distinguish it from the rest of it nor the time of the Confused Scuffles of Alexander's Captains after his death As may be seen in the 8th Chapter Where there is no mention of any change of Horns after the first great one till the rising of those four which did signify the four setled Kingdoms of the Greek Empire And next 2. That an Head of a Beast must be that Roman Power whose Authority is owned to be Supream by the Chief Government of the City of Rome one would think were sufficiently evident by the Interpretation that the Angel himself has given of the signification of the seven Heads For the same seven Heads which he interprets 1. to be seven Kings of the Romans do also signify the seven Hills of Rome to which the City of Rome is inseparably tied which does very plainly signify that all the seven Kings are Kings of the seven Hills or of that City which those Hills do signify What could be more closely joined together in a Prophetical Scheme to shew them to be inseparable Companions than to make both Kings and City to be represented by the very same Figure And therefore does it seem to be so very extravagant Ribera c. an Opinion of some to make the first five of these Heads to be perfect Strangers to the Romans and their Affairs Neither Bellarmin nor Grotius himself could have the confidence to assert this though it would have served their purpose better than any of those other strange Suppositions that they have advanced to answer their Adversaries 2. The whole time of the Roman Monarchy is set out by the Beast and the seven Heads by Prop. 15 and 16. And then the seven Heads being interpreted to signify the City of Rome do plainly determine the City of Rome to be the Royal Seat of that Monarchy during the whole time of it The Reign therefore of every Head must necessarily go along with the Authority of that City 3. No other Empire whatsoever in all the Figures of Daniel is so set out by its chief City as this of the Romans is So that the addition of the seven Hills to this Beast does more inseparably tye the Sovereign Authority of the Empire to this particular City and seems to be added on purpose to express something about this Empire which had been omitted in all others viz. The constant conjunction of the Sovereign Power of this Empire with the Authority of this City of Rome 4. And it was necessary to do this more than in the Figure of any other Monarchy because there are two kinds of Sovereign Powers in this Monarchy at one and the same time that is Heads and Horns To distinguish which at least in the time of the last Head there is no other mark in the Text but only the Authority of the City of Rome for the Head 5. The Authority of the City of Rome can be no more separated from the Sovereign Power of that Empire than the Beast can be separated from all its seven Heads 6. The flourishing and decaying condition also of the Roman Monarchy is set out by the flourishing and decaying condition of the City of Rome all over the Book of the Revelations In the time of the sixth Head the whole Monarchy is described by the Chap. 17. 4 18. Reign of the City of Rome over the Kings of the Earth In the time of the last Ruling Head Rome is described in a Majestick Appearance to express the Power of the Roman Rule over Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues And the ruinous and desolate State of the City of Rome is afterwards made use of to Chap. 16. 19. Chap. 18. signify the fall of that Empire and the last end of all Roman Rule All which is sufficient evidence That the City of Rome goes constantly along with the chief Head of that State 7. The Fates of the chief City of any other Empire that is mentioned by the Prophets do generally signify the condition of the chief Head or of the Sovereign Power that goes along with that City And the end of any such Ruling Power or Empire is expressed to be at the loss of their Royal City Thus is the flourishing and ruinous State of the Israelites set out by the like Characters of Samaria that of Judah by Jerusalem the rise and fall of the Babylonians by the glory or ruine of Babylon c. And therefore by Rule the 2 d. The Authority of the City of Rome must go along with every Head of the Roman Power unless there were any thing clear against it which is not pretended 8. But most especially must this be true of an Head of the Beast at the time that Rome enjoyed the Ensigns and Badges of the chief Authority of the Empire For that chief Authority is the distinguishing mark of an Head of the Beast And therefore it is impossible that in the division of the Roman Empire either into Two Empires or into Ten Kingdoms that the Emperour of Constantinople should be an Head of the Beast or of the Roman Monarchy any longer than he was owned and allowed either together with or without another Partner by the Senate and People of Rome whilst they did retain their usual Authority For as long as they continued in that Authority let their State be never so much diminished in comparison with what they had been yet they had all the qualifications that the Prophecy requires to be represented by an Head of the Beast They were still the Ruling People of the 7 Hills and the same continued Body with those that reigned in the most flourishing State of the City of Rome a GRotius de jure B. P. L. 2. c. 9. Art 3. Isocrates and Julian after him have said that Cities are immortal that is They may be so because the People are of that kind of Bodies which are made up of distant Parts and fall under one name which has one Soul or Spirit in it And that Spirit in a People is a full and perfect Society of Civil Life the first product of which is Government the bond by which the Commonwealth holds together the Vital Spirit which so many thousands partake in Now these Artificial Bodies are just like Natural Bodies A Natural Body ceases not to be the same for the change of some of the Particles of it while the Species continues the same So a River is still the same notwithstanding the continual succession of Waters in it so an outward accession may possibly add to or take from the dignity of a People but not make it another People And the way that a People ceases to be is either by the ruine of the Body of it when the Body of the People are lost by Earthquakes c. or Wars or Pestilence or by the
of the Beast in distinction from an Horn all would then have understood That Authority which was owned for Supream by the Senate and People of Rome And it has been concluded that the Angel did so explain his Figures as all the World would understand the literal sense of them to be if there were nothing clearer against it Chap. 2. It does therefore necessarily follow from hence That every Head of the Beast is at the end of its Reign when the Authority Corollar 1 of the City of Rome does own another setled form of Government for Supream in the room of it For then there is a new Head of the Beast constituted by Prop. preced And this shews us the necessity of the following Consequence That The sixth Head was at an end when the City of Rome owned another Corollar 2 setled Authority in the room of that Imperial Government which had continued from the time of the Vision 1. For every Head of a Beast is at an end when another differing form of setled Government is owned for Supream by the City of Rome by Corol 1. praeced And therefore must the sixth Head end with the end of that form of Imperial Government which had continued from the time of the Vision For the sixth Head is that form of Imperial Government by Proposition 19. 2. Again The sixth Head and the Reign of the City of Rome are by the Angel declared to be the same Roman Rule that was in being at the time of the Vision For of both it is said Rev. 17. 9 10. 18. that they were then in Rule and joined with the seven Hills in their Reign And that Head was the Imperial Government at that time by Prop. 19. Wherefore whenever that Imperial Power should be so cut off from the City of Rome that another setled Form of Government should be owned in the stead of it by the Authority of that City who would not assure himself That the Imperial Rule which had continued the Head of that City from the time of the Vision and which was said by the Angel to be the same Ruling Power with which the City of Rome is described at that same time must necessarily have then been at an end It may therefore assuredly be concluded that that sixth Head was at an end at the time that another different Form of Government was owned in the stead of it at Rome This last Conclusion does invite ones curiosity to enquire from the Roman History whether the Imperial Government were ever changed or interrupted by any other setled Form of Government since the time of the Prophecy For since the next Form of Government to the Imperial or sixth King is said should continue but a short space and that then should arise that King Rev. 17. 10 11. or Government called the Beast which is the end of all our search one may easily see that the discovery of a Change in the Imperial Government will determine the time of the Rise of the Beast which is the next Form of Roman Government but one to the Imperial that was in Rule at the time of the Vision And the following Account have we from the Roman History of all the considerable Changes of the Form of the Chief Government from the time of the Revelations CHAP. IV. Rev. XVII An Account of the several changes of the form of the Government of Rome from the time of the Vision The two Emperours were joynt-partners in the Government of the whole Empire like the two Consuls The 22 d Proposition the sixth Head was at latest at an end upon the Fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus The Barbarous Kings of Italy The Absolute Masters of Rome Objections Answered THE Imperial Power continued the same from the time of the mention of it in this Prophecy under the name of the King that was then in Rule till about the year 160 after Christ When Marcus Aurelius made Aelius Verus a sharer with him in the Imperial Power under the name of Augustus whereas there had never been before seen two Emperors with the names of Augustus at the same time And this was taken notice of for so new a face of the Government that some dated their Fasti Spartian in Vero Eutrop. 8. Consulares from thence as a new Epocha of time This way of taking others into the Society of the Empire with them was followed by other Emperors afterwards as Severus with his Son Caracalla Caracalla and his Brother Geta the Gordiani And in their time was there another Government set up at Rome it self called the Twenty Men who were chosen by the Senate to Administer the Affairs of the whole Commonwealth and Ambassadors were sent to all the Provinces of the Empire to contain them under the obedience of the Senate But this continued but a short time and gave way to the exaltation of Balbinus and Papienus to the Imperial dignity by the choice of those Twenty Men themselves and with the Interruption of some single Emperors after them The same Social Form of Empire returned again in Valerian with his Son Gallien And there were afterwards sometimes three and sometimes four Augustus's together which seems to be much like the change of a Dictator into two Consuls And the Dictators and Consuls are accounted two of the five Heads or forms of Government which were said to be past at the time of the Vision Another change was there in the Imperial Government When the Emperors became Christians and when the Laws of the Empire were made to conform to the Christian Religion This seems to some to be a change of the Government much more remarkable than any Political change and to deserve to be one of the two forms of Government that we are in quest of And besides it seems to be plainly described in the 12th Chap. of the Revelations as a very considerable change of the Government of the Empire under the show of the Fall of the Dragon upon which the Beast ascends into the Throne presently after in the 13th Chapter The change of Religion again by Julian the Apostate does thereupon seem to put in for a title to another form And thô the time of his Reign was very short yet it was as long as that of the Decemvirs who are determined by most of the approved Interpreters to be one of the Five Heads that were past at the time of the Vision Besides That his Reign was just almost the very same length of time that the Beast is said to Reign That is Three years and an half The division of the Empire into the Western and Eastern seats especially when it came to be setled by Theodosius seems to have a very fair claim to the title of a new Head or Change of the Imperial Government And like to the succession of the Consuls to the Kingly Government of Rome which are made two of the five forms of Roman Government that were past at the
him which was the Supream Authority of that City The utmost that can be pretended from that is That that Greek Emperor had as much Roman Authority on his side after the fall of the Western Empire as he had before it but that being only one share of the Authority of Rome It is plain That those Kings who had the real Sovereignty of the City of Rome must at least be the other part of the supream Government of it And of the two they must unquestionably be the most r Bellarmin in his 9th Chapter De Translatione Imp. Rom. Lib. 1. does show that Odoacer was King of Rome and Italy against the Emperors will and so had no dependance upon him and that Theodoric after him was made King of Rome and Italy by the consent of Zeno as one Emperor did usually create another so that these Kings must unquestionably be qualified to be the Sovereigns of Rome both for their independance on any other and their possession of it by the same way that the Western Emperors used to have it properly the Sovereign Authority of Rome which is the qualification of an Head of the Beast Prop 21. This made Theodorick deal so harshly with Pope John for Crowning the Emperor Justin Roman Emperor at Constantinople Petav. l. 7. c. 3. Part 1. For that did show that it was then generally thought that the conferring that Honour by the chief Minister of Rome was the giving him a Title to the Command of the Authority of Rome In short one need but consider who was the Head of the Roman Empire before the fall of the Western Empire to determine whether that Head were changed or no by that fall It is certain that if it were but one of the Imperial Thrones that was then the Head of it it must be the Western who had the chief Imperial Seat in his power and then the Kings that succeeded him must be a new Head but if they were both together the Roman Head as is most likely then at the fall of the Western Power and the succession of a new Regal Government in the stead of it the whole Government of the State must be acknowledged to have been changed and a new Head set up in the room of it Wherefore instead of the whole Imperial Government in the Eastern and Western parts of the Empire by this new conquest of Rome There is a Succession of Kingly Government in the Western part to share with the Imperial in the East And of the Two the Authority of the Kings must be acknowledged to be the most considerable part of the Head of Rome But that the Imperial Government of Rome was then changed into another Form than what appeared before that conquest is no ways to be questioned There must therefore necessarily be thereupon the appearance of a New Head But whether it were the mixed form of Imperial and Kingly Government together that made that Head or the Kingly Government alone need not yet be determined It cannot be here Objected That the Gothish Kings could not be any part of a Roman Head upon the account of their being quite another Nation distinct from the Romans and therefore not possible to be any part of the same Beast by which the Roman Empire is represented and that there was then no other Head of the Romans at their Conquest but the Imperial Head at Constantinople which continued the same for all the time of the Reign of those Barbarous Kings of Italy and so was never put an end to by them For it is well known That those Barbarous Nations were taken into s Grot. in cap. 17. Apoc. v. 12. The Goths were the first that were made the Confederates of the Roman Empire as Procopius shows Gothic l. 4. And that before the time of Maximinus as we learn out of Jornandes To the same purpose Onuphrius Panuvinus Lib. Fastor pag. 307. The Romans a little before that is before the time of Augustulus had taken the Scythians Alans and Gothish people into Society with them The Dignity of the Roman Princes was so diminished about that time That they were even forced by these Strangers against their will under the decent Name of Associates and Confederates to let them share all the Italick parts of the Empire with them Grot. de jure Belli pacis Lib. 2. c. 9. Art 11. By the Decree of Antoninus All within the bounds of the Roman Empire were made Citizens N. B. of Rome Petavius shows out of Idatus That in the year 38. The whole Nation of the Goths were taken into Society with the Romans and had Lands assigned them Petav. Rationar Temp. Lib. 6. c. 8. the Society of the Romans and had Kingdoms and Territories assigned them within the bounds of the Empire long before this last Conquest of Italy at the subversion of the Western Empire By the Decree of Antoninus all that were within the bounds of the Roman Empire were made Citizens of Rome as Grotius observes c. 9. l. 2. de jure B. P. And all over Cassiodorus Variar t So also all over Cassiodorus's Variar The Gothish Kings stile themselves Roman Princes Cassiodor Variar Lib. 3. Ep. 16. 18. Lib. 11. Ep. 1 2. pag. 658 659 669. the Gothish Kings stile themselves Roman Princes and their Kingdoms Roman Empires And Theodoric who was the first of them had this Commission from the Roman Emperor Zeno and the Senate as may be seen in pag. 284 285. Jornandes affirms that the alliance betwixt the Romans and Petavius in Theodor. Goths began in the time of Maximinus but it is certain that in the time of Theodosius there was a very formal agreement betwixt them The whole Nation of the Goths delivered themselves up into the hands of the Romans and they had Lands of the Empire assigned them for their habitation and so were Members of the Roman State And such real Members were they of it in the time of Theodorick that he was u Jornandes de Reb. Geticis Sect. 86. Zeno Adopts Theodorit for his Son And he was made one of the Yearly Consuls which is the highest Office and the greatest Honour in the World Cassiodori Chronicon p. ult D. N. Eutharicus Cillica Justinus Aug. Caes made Consul of the Empire by Zeno and Eutharicus his Son in Law after him But that which gives the best satisfaction in this case is that the Goths of Italy must be either an Head or an Horn of the Roman Beast according to the interpretation of all Protestants who make the Ten Horns to be the division of the Roman Empire amongst the Barbarous Nations and then since the Kingdom of the Goths in Italy had the City of Rome for its share it was much better qualified to be an Head than an Horn by Propos 21. The continuance of the Imperial Roman Government at Constantinople could not hinder the change of that Head when there was a new face of Government
by which he is every-where owned for the Chief Head of all Christian Princes For this reason is it That m Bellarmin l. 1. c. 5. de Translat Imp. Rom. proves That the Western Emperours Title to that part of the Roman Empire was acknowledged by all Princes and particularly by the Emperour of Constantinople after the confirming that Title upon Charlemagne And chap. 12. shews the same to have been owned to the German Emperours by all Christian Princes ever since the year 800. And cap. 5. lib. 3. de Pontifice gives this proof of it That for this cause the German Emperour has the precedence of all other Kings tho far more considerable and powerful than himself And next That he has the Consent of the Representatives of the People of Rome for it Ludovic à Bebenburg de Jurib Reg. Imp. cap. 11. does first shew That the Imperial Coronation must certainly give the Emperours more than a Name and that therefore it does give them a Title of Superiority over all the Territories that were under the Jurisdiction of the Roman Empire tho they be not now de facto or actually under the Emperour's Power as that he can legitimate Bastards in them in order to Inheritance restore those that have been publickly disgraced to their Reputation again make Laws and such-like things which of right are only reserved to the Imperial Power to do And unless the King of the Romans got something which he had not before by being made Emperour he could not be said to be advanced to the Imperial Dignity which is the word in the Election Rex Romanorum in Caesarem promovendus Imperator futurus and then the Law would be for words only and not for things contrary to C. Communia de Leg. 2. extr de elect C. Commissa and the difference of the Names would intimate no difference betwixt the Things contrary to Jura 21. distinct C. Clerus c. de Codicel l. si idem he and his Ambassadors have the precedence given them in all publick Appearances And upon this account also is he in n See Ludovic à Bebenburg Not. praecedent Idem cap. 15. shews how the Emperour has the mediate Power in all Kingdoms under the Jurisdiction of the Roman Empire and the Kings the immediate Power To the same purpose is that p. 191 200. S. Rom. Imp. Jus Publicum The Emperour alone has the Power of Legitimating of Bastards of restoring the Disgraced and prescription beyond the Memory of Man against Imperial Rights is of no validity An Order of the Imperial Chamber is an Universal Jurisdiction over all the Subjects of the Roman Empire as well those that are its immediate as those that are it s more remote Subjects the exercise of some Right reserved to him over the Subjects of other Princes in case of the denial of Justice to them or of the neglect of it and in cases of Appeal though not with any power over the persons of Princes Whether this be fit and allowable I will not dispute It is certain that these Rights he has a long time been in actual possession of which usually confirms a Right and are acknowledged to be his due by the Authority of the City of Rome at this present and not allowed to any other Prince beside So that there is none else that has the least appearance of being the one Secular Head of Rome in the midst of Ten Horns or the division of the Roman Empire into Ten Kings If it should be further urged That those dreadful Acts of Antichristian Tyranny over the whole World which are attributed to the Beast do very little suit with the Power of the Imperial Government at present It must be considered That there is a plain description of two different States of the Power of the Beast in the Prophecy it self The first before the Rise of the Second Beast or False Prophet and there he is described as acting upon his own bottom and it is said that all the World did worship him and that he had power over all Tongues and Nations c. And that Rev. 13. 8. does very well answer any time of the Imperial enforcement of the Roman Religion by their Laws and their Execution of the Acts of Councils before the Popes had got the whole Superiority into their Hands For then the Imperial Power was the only Roman Power that was worshipped or whose Will and Law about Religion was set up for the Laws of God to the World But then there is another State of the Power of the Beast after the Rise of the Second Beast or False Prophet where all his v. 12. Power is exercised before his face by another and in that state the charge of Anti-christian Tyranny over the whole World does belong to the Beast as he is confederated with those who act all these things and it is attributed to the Beast only upon the account of his continuing still the Secular Head of that Confederacy As any Cruelty done by the Officers of any Army against the Enemy is said to be all done by the General But to shew us that all this mischief was chiefly chargeable upon his Confederates and Instruments only We see all that Tragical part acted by the Image of the Beast which was inspired by the False Prophet who is described as the principal Actor in all the Bloodshed and Murther of those who would not worship the Beast or his Image And that this Image is a thing quite distinct v. 15 16 17. from the Beast will be made afterwards to appear as also how both the Beast and his Image are the Objects of the false Worship enjoined But yet after all It cannot but be acknowledged that it is every way more certain and unquestionable that the present Papal Power must be the False Prophet how dubious soever his real distinction from that which is called the Beast may seem to be For the Character of the False Prophet cannot possibly fit any other church-Church-Head of Rome at this time in being but o See Note the first upon the fifth Chapter only that Power And the False Prophet must necessarily be now in being because the Beast his individual Companion whoever he is to the last end of them both is certainly now in being Rev. 19. Propos 23. CHAP. VII Rev. XIII The first Query Whether at Justinian 's Recovery of Italy from the Goths there had not been Two Changes of Roman Government since the time of the Vision THus far there seems to be a general agreement amongst almost all kind of considerable Interpreters who make The Beast to be a Roman Power in being at this present time and this seems sufficient for the main use that is to be made of this kind of knowledg But because Mens minds are usually very uneasy under such a general assurance of the main foundation without a more particular determination of the first rise of
then it must make a new Head because it is one of the first and clearest Propositions that has been advanced That every one of those Eight Kings are one of the Seven Heads of the Beast by Prop. the 5th q Idem l. 10. Ep. 15. CHAP. VIII Rev. XIII The Second Query Whether the Reign of the Beast did not begin with Justinian 's Conquests of the Italian Goths This endeavoured to be demonstrated Eighteen Objections answered AFTER what has been said for the making the Gothish Kings one of the Eight Kings it will easily be granted that Justinian's Conquest of the Goths in Italy must make another new Head because it had the same qualifications that the other before it had for being one of the Two Kings after the Imperial that ruled at the time of the Vision that is It was a very remarkable change of the name of the Civil Sovereign Power of Rome which is the only constant difference betwixt all the Changes in the same Empire that are to be found in Daniel or the Revelations And Examples are the Rules that are to be followed in Interpretations by Rule 2 and 3. Now if this be once granted it seems to be scarce worth the making it a question Whether the first Rise of the Beast were not upon the Conquest of the Query 2 Goths in Italy by Justinian For the Beast is in being at this present by Prop. 23. And he could not arise either before or after Justinian's Conquest 1. Not after it For at that time there had been at least two Changes of the Secular Government of Rome since the time of the Vision by Query 1. And the last of these two Changes is the Beast by Prop. 20. 2. The Beast could not arise before that time For then at Justinian's Conquest there would have been another Change of the Civil Government of Rome and so would the Beast have been put an end to but the time of the Beast is not yet past by Prop. 23. and Coroll 4. Prop. 15. Now if the first Rise of the Beast could be neither before nor after Justinian's Conquest it must necessarily be at the same time with it The whole strength of this proof does lie upon the general Notion of Heads and Horns in Daniel and the Revelations and the constant mark of their distinction from one another And the mark of their distinction from one another in all the known Examples of Figures in both these Prophecies is nothing but either a distinct jurisdiction or a different name of the Civil Government and not any differences from one another in point of Religion or any other accidental qualifications The differences of the Heads or Horns that are described to be in Rule in the same Kingdom all at one time are nothing but distinct civil Jurisdictions in that one Monarchy The differences betwixt Successive Heads or Horns in regard of the Successive Change of the state of the Beast are nothing Observ 4. Prop. 16. but new names of the Civil Sovereign Power of that Monarchy If the change be from one to many then it signifies the divided state of that Monarchy and the change of the Monarchical Form of it into many distinct Principalities ruling in it as may be seen in the Example of the Fourth Beast with the Ten Horns in the 7th Chapter of Daniel and in the He-Goat of the 8th Chapter with the first Horn and the other four after him If the Change be represented by single Heads or Horns coming after one another then every Head or Horn signifies a new name of the Ruling Power of that Monarchy without any divisions in it So as has been shown does the Second Horn of the Ram of the 8th Chapter of Daniel signify the Succession of the Sovereign Power over the same Nation of the Medes and Persians by the name of the King of Persia in the place of the King of Media And the six first Heads of the Beast in the Revelations that are described as succeeding in order do all signify the several changes of the name of the chief Ruling Power of the Romans By these Examples it appears That the only Constitutive or Essential difference of an Head of the Beast is a new different name of the Civil Power that rules in chief And therefore there seems to be no ground from the known Examples of the signification of Successive Heads or Horns to make the rise of the Christian Religion in the Imperial Head by Constantine to be a new King of the Seven whenas the same civil Form of Government continued under the same name of the Imperial Government or the Government of Emperors If the many instances of this kind in Daniel and the Revelations which counting the three shows of the Seven Heads and Ten Horns in the Revelations are more than seventy be of any force then the Imperial Government cannot be said to be changed by the Succession of a new King till there be another different Form of Civil Government set up at Rome in its place under another name And then the Imperial Form which is said to be in being at the time of the Vision will continue the same till the Western Empire was cut off by the Heruli and Goths of Italy which will shew it to be necessary for the return of the Imperial Rule again over Rome by Justinian to be the Eighth which was one of the Seven that is the sixth returned into being again The Rise of the Beast with Justinian may be thus further confirmed The Beast is the Eighth King and was of the Seven Rev. 17. 11. and therefore was one of the Seven Kings who had been in Rule before and was returned into it again by Coroll Prop. 4. But he could not have been the Seventh King that was in Rule before because then he would have been the Seventh still continued and not a new King with the name of an Eighth See Coroll Prop. 18. The Beast therefore must have been either the Sixth King that is the Imperial Government returned into Rule again or one of the other five before it But before the time of Justinian there was neither any restauration of the Imperial Government of Rome that was fallen from it before nor any new reviving of any of the other five Governments of Rome which were before the Imperial 1. It will be objected That this would make the Imperial Head Objections to continue unchanged from the time of the Vision to the fall of the Western Empire whereas the Sixth Head seems plainly to be represented to have its deadly wound upon the Dragon at Constantine's Rev. 12. Conversion of the Imperial Head to Christianity For immediately after that in the 13th Chapter is the Beast shown with his Head wounded to death and yet healed again after the Dragon had been said in the 12th Chapter to have been thrown down from Heaven All that can be made appear from the fall of the Dragon supposing Answer
Laws about the Election of the Roman Bishops and Clergy Lib. 8. Ep. 15. Ep. 24. l. 9. Ep. 15. The Church-Annals do also give an account of many Synods that were called by Theodoric for the good of the Roman Church for which Baronius gives him this Character That though he were a Barbarian Arrian Heretick and Stranger yet notwithstanding the importunity of the Schismaticks he shewed so very great a Reverence to the Church or See Apostolick Baron Ann. 501. Petavius his acknowledgment That Theodorick whose Reign was the best part of the whole time of the Reign of the Goths in Italy did defend the Rights and Liberties of the Roman Church with the greatest care and faithfulness And we find much the same account of those who succeeded him See References We are also informed that in the point c Sanders de Visâ—b Monarch p. 220. In the Honour of the Saints the Arrians do also agree with us Quaere of the Honour of the Saints the Arrian Goths were of the same Opinion with the Romans and they are also charged with the giving Christ divine worship though they judged him to be but a Creature which is apprehended to be an Idolatrous Worship Besides The names of Blasphemy are not said to be on all the Heads whereas to make it appear that there were Crowns upon every Horn of the Ten it had been said just before Ten Horns and upon his Horns Ten Crowns which seems to make a difference betwixt that and what is said of the Seven Heads and on his Heads the names of Blasphemy not on his Seven Heads And tho there should be but six of the Heads blasphemous that were enough to say of them that the names of Blasphemy were on them as indefinite ways of speech are often used in Scripture For Example The Ten Kings it is said should burn the Whore which no one would judge necessary to be done by every one of the Ten. So is it said that the Four Beasts Dan. 7. 17. said to be Four Kings shall arise out of the Earth though the Rev. 17. 16. First or Babylonian were then almost past Grotius Apoc. 12. 1. observes That the Disciples were often called the Twelve when there were not so many of them together as particularly St. John 20. 24. after the death of Judas He does also there furnish us with another Answer to this that the names of blasphemy are upon the Seven Heads in the 13th Chapter to signify the Idolatrous State of the Seven Hills or of the Roman Reign when the Crowns were upon the Horns or when the Empire was divided into so many Sovereigns But the Crowns were upon the Seven Heads in the 12th Chapter to shew that then there was no other Seat of Roman Reign but the Seven Hills In this way the names of blasphemy have no respect to the Seven Kings that are signified by the Seven Heads but only to the Seven Hills which they do also represent or the City of Rome in the time of the Ten Kings This indeed and no other way does give a very good reason why all the Heads should be crowned in the 12th Chapter and none in the 13th If it be still urged That the Beast it self of which every one of them are the Heads is said to be full of Blasphemy that is easily answered For by the Beast there is meant only that one peculiar Rev. 17. 3. state of it under its last Head Prop. 6. And for the other Examples of Beasts in Daniel we find no Characteristick Note of Blasphemy or Idolatry upon them All that they are set out for as any ways dreadful is only the fierceness of their power in their Horns or their Paws or in their Teeth or in their prevailing Conquests And those Beasts in particular of which this in the Revelations is described to be made up of viz A Lion a Bear and a Leopard are such as both in their own natures are given to destroy and ruine And are so set out and that in conjunction with one another in Scripture as the destroyers of God's People So do we find the Lion and the Leopard joined together Jerem. 5. 6. The Lion and the Bear Amos 5. 19. Prov. 28. 15. And in the 13th of Hosea 7 8. We have them all three together And very great Criticks in these things though Defenders of Dr. Moor B. Bestia the Idolatrous quality of all the Heads and Horns of the Beast yet acquaint us that the d Dr. Moor in his Alphabet of Prophetical Iconismes Vol. I. pag. 598. Literar B. Bestia Great Empires are called Beasts not only for their Idolatry but also for their bloody Tyranny as Grotius has observed upon Mat. 20. Where Christ declares the difference betwixt his Disciples and the Kings of the Gentiles This opposition says he shews why the Empires of the World are set out amongst the Prophets by the Figures of Beasts but the Kingdom of Christ by the Image of a Man the Son of Man Where by Beasts Grotius must understand Feras and then it will properly answer the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint in the same way viz. for wild Beasts and has almost the same likeness of sound and derivation with it otherwise the Kingdoms of the World might have been called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Four Beasts in the 4th Chapter of the Apocalypse and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proper signification of a Beast in Daniel according to the word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is only a great living Creature It is indeed rendered by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to express the terror of it But that according to the general use of it by the Septuagint signifies only a fierce Beast to denote the conquering power of it without the least intimation of Idolatry in it And Grotius himself who will have the notion of a Beast to be nothing else but an Idolatrous Empire yet on St. Matthew 20. 25. observes that therefore are the Empires of the World represented by Beasts upon the account of their Tyrannizing Power but the Reign of Christ by the Figure of a Man And e Malvenda de Antichristo pag. 257. John does therefore call Antichrist a Beast that he might signify that his Persecution will be the fiercest But that under that name is very properly signified terrible and dreadful Empires for their fierceness and cruelty St. Jerome c. all agree Malvenda says that St. Jerome and all besides did agree that formidable Empires were properly signified by that name for their fierceness and cruelty And to the same purpose does f Ribera in v. 7. c. 11. Apocalyps item in v. 1. cap. 13. Bestia Though amongst the Latines it be a general word yet here it does properly signify a fierce and hurtful Beast as the Latins themselves understand Bestiarâ—i that is those that fight with Beasts and that are
sent to the Beasts Which also the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does make appear which our Apostle always makes use of and is properly applied to those Animals that do mischief by poyson or by biting Upon this account is it that c. 11. number 19. we said out of Arethas c. And St. Jerome interprets Daniel's Four Beasts to be Four Kingdoms And says And this is to he noted that the Fierceness and Cruelty of Kingdoms is signified by the name of Beasts Arethas does also so interpret it and shows the holy Methodius and St. Hippolitus to be of the same mind Ribera quote St. Jerome and Arethas It is also worth the observing that in those very days when these Visions were wrote The Roman People and Empire were called by the name of Great Beast by their own Heathen Authors who meant no more by that Expression than the self-willed commanding nature of the Body of a People or Empire Thus does Suetonius represent Tiberius his Censure of his Friends for persuading him to take the Government upon him as Men that were ignorant what a Great Beast an Empire was Quanta Bellua esset Imperium In Tiberio Art 24. And Horace Ep. 1. Lib. 1. calls the Roman People Bellua multorum Capitum A great many-headed Beast As for the common use of the Heads and Horns of a Beast there are near 60 Instances against nothing that is plain to the contrary That they signify only differences of the Civil Form of the Government without any reference to Idolatrous Worship that is any where expresly mentioned Thus in the first Six Heads of the Dragon and Beast thrice in the Revelations in the Ten Horns of the Fourth Kingdom of the 7th of Daniel in the Four Heads of the Leopard there in the Horns of the two Beasts in the 8th Chapter 5. But it may be urged That there was a change of the Civil Form of the Imperial Government before the times of the Goths in Italy There was a division of the Empire into East and West by Constantine and two distinct Jurisdictions seated at Rome and Constantinople This division came to be perfectly setled at the death of the first Theodosius and continued in that estate for near 80 years And this also not as two divided Kingdoms which must have been represented by two Heads or two Horns according to all the Examples of divisions of Sovereignty in Daniel or the Revelations but as two halves of one and the same Roman Empire by a joint and common concern of both those parts for the Government and Administration of the whole Roman Empire as has been before observed much after the manner of the Two Consuls of the same Roman Commonwealth This then seems to be a new face of the Imperial Power as different from the first as the Consuls seemed to be from the Regal Power But the encrease of the number of the Ruling Persons that have the same name and title is known by several Instances not to be a change of that kind of Government The Consuls were sometimes g Cuspinian in Chronic. Cassiodori pag. 264. The Triumvirate gave the Consulship to as many of the Princes as they pleas'd more than two sometimes h In Cassiodorus Chronicon it may be observed that Pompey in the disturbances of the Commonwealth continued alone the only Consul and there was no other Choice at the usual time And so was Lepidus in the time of the Triumvirat Cuspinian in Chronic. Cassiodor pag. 250. pag. 262. but one The military Tribunes with the power of Consuls were sometimes more sometimes fewer i Fenestilla de Magistrat Romanis c. 16. There were therefore Three Military Tribunes created with the power of Consuls and were continued with great variety for their number sometimes they were Twenty sometimes more sometimes fewer Or as this is corrected by Cuspinian as wrongly printed in the Pandects F. de Orig. juris At first Six afterwards Eight or somewhat more As Livy writes in his Fifth Book Cuspinian in Cassiodori Chronicon p. 95. in a very great variety And the Imperial Power it self before this establishment of the Two Empires was in the hands of sometime two sometimes three and once of four and yet were not these changes in the same form of Government ever accounted any other than the same Consulary Tribunal and Imperial Government Nor were the two Czars of Muscovy of late accounted any thing more than the same Government by Emperors that it was before nor was the encreasing or diminishing the setled number of Senators at several times the making a new Senate and the having two different Seats of Supream Authority is not much more than the two Provinces of the two Consuls of Rome 6. If the distance betwixt the end of the Imperial Head and the rise of the Beast should seem to be too far asunder for the description of the rise of the Man of Sin 2 Thess 2. 7 8. Which seems to intimate that it should be immediatly after the end of the Imperial Power It may be answered That the Particle then in that expression And then shall be revealed is very often in Scripture used where there is a great distance of time betwixt that which went before and that which it introduceth Grotius does upon this verse acquaint us that the Partitle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or then does very ordinarily in Scripture connect very distant times together of which he there gives many Examples Besides by the Seventh King that is described to come betwixt Rev. 17. 10. the Imperial Government and the Beast must be meant another form of Government of some short continuance after the fall of the Imperial Head And the time that is assigned here for it is but seventy years which is but the Age of one single person Isa 23. 15. whereas those that do the most oppose this way do make the Seventh King to continue near twice as long But that which does the most clearly shew the little weight there is in the Particle then in this place to signify the immediate Succession of the Man of Sin upon the fall of the Western Empire is the Opinion of almost all Interpreters concerning the first rise and appearance of the Man of Sin For they generally agree that it was either a good while before the ruine of that Empire or some while after and any one that considers in what a state of humiliation the Bishops of Rome were under the Arrian Kings of the Heruli and Goths in Italy immediately upon the fall of the Western Empire must conclude that that was a very improper posture of the Roman Affairs to fix the revealing of the Man of Sin to But that which does the most fully answer this Objection is that the Man of Sin and the Beast in the Revelations may not be exactly the same thing the Man of Sin may be the False Prophet and then why may he not be thought to make some
of Competitors to the Kingdom and besides not owned as heads of Rome that there is no reason to account it any setled change of the Imperial Head Prop. 21. part 1. Hugo of Arles had indeed the Principality of Rome with Marozia but he was presently cast out of it again Besides that r Ibid. cap. 14. The German Writers account Conrad and Henry Auceps Emperors in succession to Ludovicus the immediate Emperor before them and then there will not be above 8 years of vacancy others reject these two because they were not anointed and crowned by the Pope But the Germans do much dispute the necessity of that the Kings of Germany with whom the Imperial Title of Rome had continued by right of Succession from Charlemaigne till that time did still retain the same right in appearance because they were neither formally disowned by the City of Rome nor had any other set up there in their place For the Kingdom of Italy was then accounted a particular Jurisdiction by it self distinct from the City of Rome And the Pope was by that time almost absolute in that City So that all that could be inferred from hence would be that the False Prophet acted for a little time without the Beast 9. And this last Observation may occasion a Scruple How the Emperors can be said to be an Head of the City of Rome when some hundreds of years they have had no more than the bare Title of it The easie Answer to this is That all that is required to make an Head of the Beast is to be Å¿ See Note the 6th on the 6th Chapter a setled Secular Authority owned for Supream at Rome And 't is no wonder that he should be called an Head of it and have so little power or influence over it For all his power was to be exercised before him by another Church-Head distinct from him It cannot be thought necessary Rev. 13. 12. for the Emperor to be particularly resident at Rome to be the Head of Rome For then the Roman Emperors ever after the making Ravenna the Imperial Seat by Honorius must have ceased to have been the Heads of Rome 10. It may then be replied That the Constantinopolitan Emperors in the time of the Gothish Kings of Italy had the Title of the Imperial Head of Rome and upon that account should seem not to have been changed from the time of the Vision But it must be remembred That it is not sufficient to have a Title only but that Title must be owned by the chief Authority of the City of Rome for the sole Secular Sovereign Power of it Whereas it has been made to appear that in the Reign of the Gothish Kings of Italy the Constantinopolitan Emperors were far from being owned for the only Sovereigns of Rome For they were no further owned to have any thing to do there than what the t All Historians give an account of the Imprisonment of Pope John the First for crowning the Emperor Justin in the East and of the absolute Sovereignty of the Gothish Kings over the City of Rome See Notes on the 4th Chapter Lib. 3. Kings of the Goths who were then in the real and actual possession of Rome did allow them as Partners with them in the Honour of the Title of that City 11. It may also be objected That the Emperors have been very often in Wars with the Popes which is contrary to the strict Confederacy that is every-where expressed to be betwixt the Beast and the False Prophet But since they have been notwithstanding at a constant agreement in the great design of their Confederacy which is persecution for false Worship their occasional differences about other things is not to be regarded at most not more than the Differences betwixt the Popes and the Ten Kings who yet give their Kingdom to the Beast 12. How also can the Ten Kings be said to have given their power to the Beast about the time of Justinian when they were many of them Arrians at the greatest distance from the Religion of Rome The Answer to this is That they were soon brought under the Authority and See of Rome France Spain and all Justinian's Conquests changed about the end of that Age. 13. If it be said That when the Roman Empire was divided into Ten Kingdoms distinct from one another there could be no one Secular Head that could deserve to be called the Beast It may be answered That the Beast is but such an Head of the Roman Empire as has a superior Right to the Authority of the chief City of the Empire while the whole body of it is divided Prop. 21. into ten Sovereignties and by that Right has a claim to a Jurisdiction paramount to them all And such is the claim of the present Emperors to u See Notes m and n on the 6th Chapter reserved Rights over all the divided Kingdoms of the Roman Empire And there is at present so great and publick an acknowledgment of the German Emperor's Superiority over over other Kings only as he is Roman Emperor That as has been observed he is suffered to have the precedence of Kings who have both a much larger Dominion than he and a much ancienter Title and who take place of him before he has the Imperial Title when he has nothing but his Hereditary Countries But that which is chiefly to be regarded for the qualifying him for this character of an Head amongst the Ten Horns is That he is properly said to be the Roman Civil Head of those Ten Kings in one common Design that they are all engaged in because he is so acknowledged to be by the False Prophet who manages them all for that end and gives Him the Title of their Head in it 14. It may be further enquired How it can be said That the Imperial Power has subdued three Kings as it is said of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel It is answered That whatsoever is said there of the Little Horn is to be understood of the Beast in the Revelations in his joint confederacy with the False Prophet as one Thing engaged in one Design And then whatsoever is done by the False Prophet in that Design will be said to be done by the Beast so that the subduing of the three Kings may thus be either x Hierom. Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 145. says That Justinian built that Magnificent Temple of Sancta Sophia in memory of his Persian Vandalic and Gothick Victories Cuspinian de Casaribus pag. 139. gives an account of Belisarius's Expedition against the Persians and that he entred in a Triumph into Constantinople for that Conquest And pag. 140. says That he had a most Pompous Triumph from the Spoils of the Vandals being then Consul in ordinary And pag. 141. says That when Justinian had recovered Italy and subdued Africa and Persia he put the Glory of his Victories into his Titles Justinian's Conquests or y
Mr. Mede supposes the rooting out of the Goths and Lombards and the Power of the Greek Emperors out of Italy may answer this Character the Pope's Excommunications and deprivations of some See References three remarkable Sovereign Powers 15. A great objection against this Opinion about the time of the Rise of the Beast is this following esteemed to be viz. That the Rise of the Beast was at the same time with that of the Ten Kings For Rev. 17. 12. it is said That those Ten Kings should receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast And that the term of one hour does signify in the Original at the same time Now it is known that the Roman Empire was divided into Ten setled Kingdoms at the fall of the Western Empire the Beast therefore must arise about the same time and this was almost a whole Age before the Conquest of Justinian 1. There is no clear grounds for any necessity of such a signification of the word in the Original that is rendred one hour On the contrary To render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the same time is at best but a very rare and unusual acceptation of it if it should be ever found to be used at all in that signification which is much to be questioned And therefore is it that we find not this Interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have been thought on till this present Age And even now the greatest number of Translations have nothing of this sense in them The proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Accusative Case is as it is rendered for one hours space which in a Prophetical Style signifies a short space of time And then it may be easily understood to signify that those Kings should Reign like Kings with the Beast for a little time but as it follows that they should give their Kingdoms to the Beast after it and so appear to be like the Slaves of the Beast for his use and service 2. Or if it should signify about the same time yet it might be understood only of the Reigns of these Kings together with the Beast at any the same time of both For to receive power as Kings at the same time with the Beast may be understood of any time of their Reign together in conjunction with the Beast and not necessarily of their beginning to reign at the same time with it On the contrary it is certain by the consent of all that most of these Ten Kings had begun to receive power as Kings long before others and so could not possibly be said to begin their power all together at the same time with the Beast If the Rise of the Beast should be counted from the first appearance of Ten Kingdoms in the Roman Empire the Reign of the Beast must be already past For it will be found that there were Ten Kingdoms erected there before the Year 420. As 1. The Almans who had been long a Roman Province had a King in Julian's time and after the conquest of him z Cuspinian de Casar pag. 102. mentions Julian's League with the Almains and p. 112. the Huns invading Epirus in Valens's Reign Julian See References made a League with that People aa Petav. Ration Temp. Part. I. lib 6. cap. 10. does particularly reckon up the chief Divisions of these Invasions of the Barbarians 2. The Ostro-Goths 3. The West Goths 4. The Hunns who were all three up about the Year 378. 5. The Suevi 6. The Allans 7. The Vandalls 8. The Burgundians 9. The Franks and besides these were the Vandals in Africa and Silingii another sort of Vandals in that part of Spain that is called Baetica besides other Divisions of Principalities amongst these People 3. Again In the signification of at the same time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might denote the Reign of these Ten Kings bb Alcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 3. For what I pray does one hour signify but that these Kings do Reign all together at one and the same time Theodoret. in cap. 7. Dan. de 10. Regibus It is therefore manifest that there shall Ten Kings arise up all together altogether at See References the same time with one another which the order of the words does make far more natural For whereas it had been just before said that they had not any of them any Kingdom as yet it here follows in this order in the Original but power as Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they receive with the Beast where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more naturally joined with the Kings than with the Beast And then it signifies That nevertheless these Kings should all reign together At the same time in the Reign of the Beast to denote the strange Division of the Roman Empire at that time And this was very proper and convenient to be signified because the Seven Kings just before had been described to succeed or to come after one another to distinguish which from these Ten Kings it might be on purpose made their Character that these did reign all together But this is only upon the supposition of this signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which after all there is no necessity 4. But however That it cannot signify the rise of these Ten Kings at the same time witb the first appearance of the Beast is determined by the description of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel which is said there should arise cc Blasius Viega in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 2. shews That it was the Opinion of all the Ancients according to St. Jerom that Antichrist the Little Horn should arise after the Division of the Roman Empire amongst Ten Kings Theodoret. in cap. 7. Dan. It is therefore says he manifest that the Prophet does here foretell that about the end Ten Kings shall arise up all together And that Antichrist should be the last after them So Irenaeus l. 5. contra Haer. c. 24. Aretas in c. 13. Apoc. Ausburtus in cap. 17. after the Ten Kings And v. 24. the Beast in the Revelations and the Little Horn are unquestionably the same particular Roman Rule Coroll 2. Prop. 15. and therefore has it been already concluded that the Beast cannot arise till after the Ten Kings Coroll 3. Prop. 15. 16. But it will be then demanded How Justinian's restauration of the Imperial Head can be the next Change but one of the Roman Sovereignty after the time of the Vision For the Division of the Empire into Ten Sovereignties before him would be accounted at least one Change of the Sovereign Power of that Empire as the four Horns of the He Goat in the 8th of Daniel was a new state of the Graecian Monarchy If so then the fall of the Western Empire must unquestionably be another Change of the Roman Rule and thus would there have been an 8th King from the Sixth that ruled in St. John's time before
Justinian To resolve this Scruple it must be considered That there are two different kinds of Sovereign Power represented in the Beast the one by his Heads and the other by his Horns And the next Change of Sovereignty but one to that which ruled in St. John's time which constitutes the 8th King or the Beast is a succession of an Head of the Beast by Prop. 20 21. And that Head is called the Beast as a thing distinct from the Ten Horns for the Ten Horns are said to give their Kingdom to the Beast who before had been said to be the Eighth King and is one of the Seven Heads by Prop. 5. Coroll It matters not therefore at what time the Ten Horns arose For they were but so many Sovereignties in the Roman Empire distinct from that Eighth King which is the Beast or an Head of the Beast and who were confederated with him And to know the time of that Confederacy it must be enquired first what was the next successive Head but one to the Imperial that was up at the time of the Vision For besides the Ten Kings there was to be an Head amongst them whom they should all join with And the Ten Kings were but so many different Horns which signify a division of the Empire and not a single successive Head of it superior to them all which is here enquired after according to the mark that has already been given to know an Head by 17. This would also be another difficulty against deferring the appearance of the Beast till the Reign of Justinian viz. That the Reign of the Beast and the time of the Woman in the Wilderness do begin and end together and the Woman is said to fly into the Wilderness presently after her delivery of the Man-child that is presently after the Conversion of the Imperial Throne 200 years before Justinian's time But it is by almost all agreed that that first mention of the Woman's flying into the Wilderness is an anticipation because after several great Actions intervening it is repeated again at the 14th verse and there represented but as a preparation to rest in the Wilderness and then the Dragon cast out a flood after her whilst she was flying so that she was not at rest then till after that flood was swallowed up by the Earth which was just before the rising of the Beast out of the Sea chap. 13. 18. In the last place it may be objected That from the fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus to the time of Justinian was no new Roman Government in the West because the Barbarous Kings and their People were not Romans and therefore must if any thing be a new Beast and not a new Head of the Roman Beast and then all the time of their Reign will be but an Interregnum of the Roman Government and Justinian's return there will be but the continuance of the Sixth Head But it is sufficient answer to this that the ten Barbarous Kings which are made to be the Ten Horns of the Beast are thereby represented as Members of the Roman Empire as has been just now observed And moreover it does appear that the Goths who succeeded in the room of the Western Emperors had been long before made the Confederates and Members of the Roman Empire See Note y on Chap. 4. CHAP. IX Rev. XIII A short Account of the several Opinions of Interpreters that differ from the Propositions before demonstrated Their inconsistency with the Analogy of Prophecy The Shifts that they are forced to flye to to maintain them BY the same Light which has cleared up mine own Applications of the Prophecy it may be seen upon what grounds I depart from the Apprehensions of others about it 1. It is much to be admired That there ever should have been any at all much more any of the Ancients that had been conversant Andreas Caesar Aretas Primatius Beda c. in this Study that should apprehend it possible for the whole business of Babylon and the Beast in the Revelations to be nothing but a Mystical and Spiritual state of the Christian Church in relation to the whole World of the Wicked in general and not to any particular Empire of the World more than other For the Angel in the 17th Chapter does so expresly signifie Prop. 1. his design there to be to unfold the Mystery of Babylon and the Beast that had been before mentioned and does thereupon determine the meaning of them to the Roman Empire by such generally known and peculiar marks that the Romanists themselves whose only interest and considerable concern it is to divert the scene of these Visions from the City of Rome do yet almost unanimously in this latter age acknowledg to their Adversaries That there is nothing more certain and unquestionable than That some particular state of the Domination of See Consent of Antiquity c. Rome must be meant by them The ground of this paradoxical Fancy of the Ancients will be afterwards enquired into 2. It is in the next place very near as extravagant to grant That some particular state of Roman Rule must be the great object of these Visions and yet to make the Figure of the Beast in general to signifie the World and the Heads of the Ribera c. Beast either so many successive Ages or so many distinct successive Empires in it For by all the Examples of Beasts and their Ruling parts all Prop. 16. over the Prophecy of Daniel which is generally agreed to be the original pattern of the Prophecy of the Revelations it is acknowledged by these very persons themselves That a Beast does constantly signifie the Rule or Empire of one particular Nation only and therefore must the Heads also signifie so many Supreme Powers in that Nation only But the most inexcusable thing in this opinion is That the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel is granted by these same persons to be nothing but the particular Nation of the Romans which yet is the exact picture Prop. 15. of this Beast in the Revelations But then to grant 3dly That the Beast and his Heads do signifie nothing but Roman Power and after that to make the Seven Heads not to be so many distinct Powers but to be taken Bellarm. c. collectively for All the Rulers of one kind or for All the Emperors is to out-face the plain expressions of the Text which divide the number Seven into Five One Another and an Eighth that is one of the Seven and it is well known that when the number Seven is so expresly divided into parts it is never used collectively or for an indefinite multitude 4. As contrary to the known use of those Mystical Expressions is it to make the Seven Heads of the Beast to be so many single persons only of Rulers Grotius c. For it is evident all over the Book of Daniel That Heads and Horns of Beasts do signify all
the single Persons that Rule in that Division or Form of Government that is signified by Prop. 16. each Head and each Horn. 5. And still more inconsistent is it to make the Beast and his Seven Heads to be Roman Powers and yet Antichrist signified by the Eighth King which was one of the Seven not to Most of the Romish Interpreters come till after the end of all Roman Rule or that the Fourth Beast in the Tenth of Daniel should be the Roman Empire and yet the little Horn of that Beast not to appear till after the destruction of the Roman Empire For this would make the little Horn of the Beast to be no Horn of it but to appear after the ruin of the Beast whose Horn it is which is a contradiction 6. Of much the same nature is that Absurdity That the Beast called the 8th King is Antichrist a little before the end of the World and yet that Babylon that is described to go all The same along with it and to be destroyed before it is Rome Heathen 7. Nor does it much help the matter to affirm That Babylon does signifie both Rome Heathen and Rome in the time of Antichrist about the end of the World For by by Prop. 2. and 3. it is evident That Babylon is in all Ribera c. the mentions of it in the Revelations one and the same state of Rome in the Reign of the Beast and in which it is destroyed 8. That Opinion which makes the Heads of the Beast to be single Persons and yet the Reign of the Beast to continue at Grot. Dr. Hammond Prop. 6. and Coroll least to the time of Justinian is inconsistent with the determination of the term of the Beast in the Prophecy to the last Head of the Beast For if the Beast be nothing but the Beast under its last Head and all the Seven Heads be but so many Successions of single Rulers only it is impossible that the time of the Beast should continue many years after the time of St. John for the Sixth Head was then in Rule Rev. 17. 10. 9. And upon the same grounds it is impossible That the Ten Horns of the Beast should be after the time of the last Grot. Dr. Hammond Corol. 1. Prop. 12. Head of the Beast or that the time of the last Head of the Beast should be yet past because the Beast continues to the Second Coming of Christ and is the same with the Reign of its last Head Prop. 6. and its Corollaries 10. Amongst those Opinions which make the Heads of the Beast to be so many Successions of Roman Power I could not entertain any of them about the constitutive difference of one Head from another but that which made it to consist only in the setled change of the name of the Civil Power because that was the only known difference of Successive Horns in Daniel ch 8. and of the five first Successive Heads in the Revelations and besides the only difference betwixt all kinds of Heads or Horns upon the same Beast whose signification is agreed on is nothing but the different name of the Civil Power either from its peculiar Terrritory in those that are represented to rule all at a time in a divided Monarchy or from the different appellation in those that succeed one another in an intire Empire So is it above sixty times in the agreed examples of Daniel and the Revelations See discourse on Query the 2d And therefore I could not but look upon Alcasar's determination of the Seven Heads to Seven Roman Persecutions of the Church as arbitrary and much more the opinion of those Protestants who agree that the only Constitutive Difference of the Six first Heads of the Beast is nothing but a different name of the Civil Power for they were all Six of the same Mr. Mede Dr. More Religion and yet will make the Two last Successions of the Eight which compleat the Seven Heads to be nothing but Two Changes of Religion under the same Civil Head with the Sixth For this is to make a new Rule for the difference of the Two last Successions without any ground for it from the Prophecy and contrary to all the known and acknowledged Examples either in the rest of the Heads of the same Beast or in the Heads and Horns of other Beasts and gives great advantage to the Papists to despise the Protestants Application The Pleas for it may be seen answered in Answer to Objection 1 2 3 against the 2 d Query 11. There is so plain a distinction in the Second Beast of the 13th Chapter from the first Beast there and the one so manifestly Most Protestants Prop. 24 c. set forth as an Ecclesiastical Power under the Character of the False Prophet in distinction to the other whose Image and Honour he is altogether employed to advance that I could never yield to make them but one and the same thing viz. The Papal Power only But yet because they make but one joint Confederacy for the interest of a false Religion against the true Church they are therefore sometimes promiscuously used to signifie the actions of one another in that common concern and the Image and Babylon are in the same manner used Thus is Babylon said to be fallen chap. 14. 8. to signifie the decay of the Power of the Image and the Beast in the 17th chapter is said to have the Power and Strength of the Ten Kings given him which belongs properly to the Image of the Beast 12. It seems to be a very unnatural force upon the Text to make the Seventh King none of the Seven Heads in chap. Dr. More c. 17. 10. For it is manifestly reckon'd up in order as one of those Seven Kings which in the beginning of that verse are said to be the Seven Heads and without making it one of the Seven Heads there will be but Six Heads upon the Beast in the 13th chapter Prop. 4 5. For it is agreed that it was the Sixth King and Sixth Head that was there wounded and it must be the same Head that was seen healed which also is agreed to be the Eighth King and last Ruling Head If therefore the Seventh King were no Head there would be no new Head after the Sixth but only the Sixth healed of a wound whereas there were Seven really distinct Heads seen upon the Beast That which is pleaded for the ground of this Opinion is answered in the Answer to the 1st 2d and 3d Objections against the Second Query It will much confirm the strength of the whole Process of the Propositions before laid down to observe to what strange shifts those Interpreters have been put that own any part of the Demonstration and yet will stand out against the Conclusion Those that own Babylon to be Rome but not the present Rome Christian are forced to make it to be Either Rome Pagan
Alcasar Grotius Dr. Hammond Two hundred Years after the Empire was turned Christian and was then burnt in the possession of a Christian King by a Christian Emperor Or To make it to be Rome a little before the end of the World grown prodigiously rich by Foreign Traffick Rev. 18 19. and having brought the Kings of the earth under her Subjection v. 3. in the space of Three Years and an Ribera c. half Or To make it to be both Rome Heathen and Rome at the end of the world which should cry I sit as a Queen and shall see no sorrow v. 7. and which should not have the Pagan Power of it abated or ended for above a Thousand Years after it began to be Rome Christian all which are such monstrous Inconsistencies as to make any conclude them to be impossible Those that own Babylon to be Rome and the last Ruling Head of the Beast to be Antichrist about the end of the World and that the whole Seven Heads are so many immediate Successions of Ruling Powers to make the Sixth Head continue from Ribera c. Most Papists Rev. 17 10. the time of St. John when it is by the Text signified to be in Rule to the time of the Seventh King that is in their opinion to a short space before the end of the World they are forced to make the Sixth King to be of a much longer Continuance than the Imperial Government at Rome that was the King in being at the time of the Vision For they own that the Imperial Government was long since at an end at Rome and therefore are they forced to make their Sixth King to be all those persecuting Powers of the World that reach from the time of the Vision to about the end of the World in consequence of which it is necessary for them to make the Beast in general to be the whole World and the rest of the Heads so many Successions of either persecuting Ages or Monarchies of it and this is so contrary to the known acceptation of a Beast and its Heads or Horns for one Ruling Nation only all over the Prophecy of Daniel as it is by these very persons acknowledged that nothing could make it appear to what a forced shift they were fain to flye to avoid the bringing in of Antichrist into the Roman Church many Ages ago if they should have granted the Sixth Head at the time of the Vision to have been the then Ruling Imperial Power of Rome only But a much more apparent shift is it in those who think themselves forced to own the Beast to be but one single Nation only or the Roman Empire and the last ruling Head to be Antichrist Bellarm. c. about the end of the World and the Head in Rule at the time of the Vision to be the Imperial Government but after all this for fear of bringing in Antichrist into the Roman Church too soon to make the Seven Heads to signifie collectively all the Roman Emperors either at Rome or Constantinople or at Vienna whereas the number Seven is apparently here divided into broken numbers which does as certainly determine the Heads to that definite number in an immediate Succession to one another And nothing could have made it appear how so well a versed understanding in the Critical use of words as Bellarmine's was resolved to outface his own Knowledg to avoid a dangerous Consequence for if he had allowed the Seven Heads to have been just so many Successive Changes of the Rule of the Romans he must certainly have made the Sixth Head end at the Succession of the Kingly Government of Rome upon the fall of the Western Empire tho the Imperial Government at Constantinople had been part of the Sixth Head For the change of the other part of it at Rome did make a new Change of the whole Government that is from Imperial to the mixt Form of Kingly and Imperial together as the Tribunes with the Consulary Power were a Change of the Consulary Head of the Government But of all the forced shifts that we meet with the most Paradoxical and absurd are those of the Grotian way they grant Grot. Dr. Hammond the Beast to be the Idolatrous Roman Empire and the Heads to be Successive Changes of Roman Rulers and the time of the Beast to continue at least to the Reign of Justinian and yet make the last Ruling Head of the Beast to be at an end with the Reign of Domitian which is Contrary to all the Representations of the Beast in the 17th chapter as ending with his last Head Prop. 6. Corol. ibid. they do also by this make the Ten Horns to be a long time after the last Head which are said expresly to give their Kingdom to the Eighth King or the Beast under the last Ruling Head They do also make the Seven Heads of the Beast to be but so many single Persons contrary to the known signification of the Heads and Horns of Beasts all over Daniel They do also make the different Shows of the same Beast in the 11th 13th and 17th Chapters to be really distinct Beasts from one another without any ground for it but the different Shows of them contrary to what the exact resemblance of their Characters to one another would make any judg them to be and contrary to the First Book plain demonstration of their being but one and the same thing from the Characters of them and contrary to the sense of almost all kind of Interpreters especially those of the Roman Party who cry out against the main foundations of this Opinion as nothing but the extravagancies of men without any Preface to my former Treatise The Judgments of God c. sense in them tho the whole business of all the pains that is taken by these Contrivances is to remove the charge of Idolatry from the Church of Rome Those that own the Fourth Beast in the Seventh of Daniel and the Beast in the Revelations to be the particular Nation of the Romans and yet will make the little Horn of the one and the last Head or Eighth King in the other to come after the destruction of the Beasts to which they belong Most of the Romanists show that they value not Contradictions to keep off Antichrist from appearing in the Roman Church And those that own the last time of the Beast to be about the end of the world and yet will make Babylon that accompanies the Beast to the last to be Rome Pagan must have much the same contempt The same of the plain intimations of the Prophecy and those also that can think That Babylon is not the same thing but several vastly distant States of Roman Rule in the several mentions of it or both Rome Pagan and Rome near the end of the World Prop. 2 3. Those of the Protestants that make the Change of Religion in the Imperial Head to be a new
Head seem to be so wholly intent upon the Charge of Antichristianism upon the Church Most Protestants of Rome that they neglect all known and acknowledged Examples of the difference of the Heads of Beasts to fix their Charge And to hold to it they are forced to wrest the natural and plain sense of the 10th verse of the 17th Chapter of the Revelations and to find out some far fetched Criticisms to make it good As the making of the 7th of those Seven Kings that are said to be the seven Heads to be none of those Heads And Dr. More 648. as the making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to denote the Seventh King to be quite different from the rest does appear to be See Prop. 4. They are also forced to make the wounded and the healed Mr. Mede Head to be two distinct Heads of the seven which is contrary to the plain Expressions of the Prophecy which mention it to be seen but as one and the same Head wounded and healed and is also contrary to the common acceptation of a Head wounded and healed which can be but one Head Others of them are forced to make the Seventh King and the Eighth to be the same thing and for that end to transpose the latter end of the 10th verse and to make it come after the Monsieur Jurieu Accomp des Prophecies pag. 190. 2d Edit Most Protestants beginning of the 11th contrary to the natural order of the Text. Those that would fix all the Charge of the Beast and the False Prophet upon the Papal Power only are forced to make nothing of the plain Characters by which they are distinguished from one another when named together nor of the Change of the name of the Civil Government of the Romans at the fall of the Western Empire though that was the only difference betwixt the first six Heads of the Beast according to their own Opinion For the first six Heads were all of the same Religion that is Pagans And upon this account is it that most of them are forced to make the first appearance of the Beast to be of a very uncertain date that is according to their fancy about the first great appearance of the Papal Power which cannot well be fixed Whereas the first Rise of the Beast must have been a very visible and remarkable Change of the Supream Power of Rome from that which was the 7th Ruling Power of it to the 8th called the Beast It is upon this account that some of those who incline to the former Opinion and yet do plainly see that the Beast must be a Change of the form of the Civil Power of the Empire do therefore make the Ten Kings with the Papal Power to be the Beast that is the Eighth King or last Ruling Head But what Prop. 6. an absurdity do they fly to in this when it is manifest that the Ten Kings were the Ten Horns and none of the Seven Heads Others of them indeed defer the Rise of this Papal Beast to that manifest Change of the Imperial Power at the fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus as the end of the true Christian Emperors who are their Seventh King but then they are forced to make nothing of the succeeding Sovereign Power of the Italian Kings of Rome who were as Absolute Sovereigns of it notwithstanding their Royal Seat at Ravenna as any of the Western Emperors had been from the time of Honorius who first made Ravenna the Imperial Seat They are also forced to pass over the Change of the Regal and Imperial Power of Rome to the pure Imperial Government at the recovery of Rome by Justinian as of no account for a new Head though they must own the Eastern Emperors to have been as much Sovereigns of Rome at this Re-conquest of it as the Western were before the loss of it and when they were the acknowledged Sixth Head This appears from the Power of the Eastern Emperors Exarchs after the recovery of the West The Fourth BOOK THE Application of the Characters OF THE BEAST In the REVELATIONS CHAP. I. The force of the Applications of the Characters of the Rev. XIII Beast to confirm the first date of his Reign A Caution to those who have taken up with a former Hypothesis The uncouth Composition of the Beast of the Parts of a Lyon of a Leopard and of a Bear applied to an absolute exactness The Rising of the Beast out of the Sea The Continuance of his Reign for 42 Months AFTER the more close and demonstrative way of proof that has been made use of to determine the particular nature and first Rise of the Beast It will much confirm the knowledge that is now had of him to see how easie and natural the Application of all the other Circumstances of his History will appear to be upon this foundation And this may serve for an additional proof à posteriori as the Demonstrations of the principles of natural things by their causes are much strengthned by their perfect agreement with all the effects that we can apply them to or with all that experience does teach us of them But yet it must always be remembred That though the Application of an Instance or two should seem to be something harsh or forced That no man ought for that to question the former Conclusions unless upon a new examination he can find them less necessary than they did at first appear No man ought to doubt of a plain and manifest truth because he sees it to be seemingly inconsistent with some other Conclusions that are deduced from it which are not so plain and necessary I know not of any such harshness in any of the Applications that I am now going to make but rather think them so well agreeing with the Characters of the Text that they are enough to surprize one into an admiration of the Congruity of them But I interpose this as a convenient Caution to those who may find a convincing evidence in the proof of the maint Point to which the Applications are fixed but by reason of some prejudices and long use of a former Hypothesis may not think some of the Applications so well fitted to the Prophecy as they will imagine their own to be For this will be apt to make them judge many things which to all others would appear very tolerable at least to be harsh and uncouth to them To begin then with the figure and composition of the Beast It is said to be in the several parts of it like a Lyon a Leopard Rev. 13. 2. and a Bear which do manifestly refer to its being the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel which is there represented immediately after the account of the Three Kingdoms shown by v. 7 23. those Three Beasts and is said to have devoured them And those Three Beasts are agreed to be the Babylonian Persian and Book the IId Graecian Monarchies The
Church in the same Seven Headed Ten Horned Empire or better satisfy us why there needed two different figures of Dragon and Beast to signify those two kind of Hostilities against the Church of Christ For by this it appears that the Beast and the False Prophet were to be in outward appearance the most directly contrary to the Dragon that could be and even to look like Christ himself and therefore that this False Prophet must really be such an one of that Kind as our Saviour calls d See Malvenda Not. praeced And the Fathers agree That Antichrist shall take away the Worship of false Gods See Irenaeus Not. Praeced Arethas in V. 11. c. 13. Apoc. Two Horns of the Lamb because he shall feign himself to be kind and benign that he may deceive Idem in v. 14. He doth Miracles That Antichrist might be thought to be Christ a False Christ or a false pretender to be his Deputy and Vicar upon Earth The Character of which kind of False Christs and False Prophets in being able to deceive the very elect by their great Wonders and Signs is just the same with the power of this eminent False Prophet for doing great wonders also for deceiving all those that dwell upon Rev. 13. 14. earth by the Miracles which he had power to do Wherefore the speaking like a Dragon in this False Prophet with the appearance of a Lamb must signify his speaking or commanding under the vizard of the Vicar of Christ the same kind of acts of Cruelty and Tyranny for an Idolatrous worship which the Red Dragon was active in against the Woman in the Chapter just before The profession of Christianity is now we see so far from excusing the Bishop of Rome from the Character of the False Prophet That it is necessary for him to be a more eminent Professor of that Religion than any other person in the Church to be capable of having it applied to him And the enforcing of false-worship by all the Arts of Cruelty under the pretence of the Authority of Christ does therefore fill up the whole Character that is given of his having the Horns of a Lamb and speaking like the Red Dragon for nothing does more resemble the nature of the Devil than Antichristian Tyranny under the Mask of Piety Well therefore may the Dragon be said to give his power to the Rev. 13. 2 3. Beast since the Devil may be safely enough supposed to inspire this design of carrying on this Adoration of the Roman Power and of that Church by force of Arms and sanguinary Laws like the Reign of the Red Dragon in the time of Heathen persecution described in the Chapter just before By this may be understood the true meaning of the casting V. 9. down of the Dragon with the Seven Heads and the Ten Horns out of Heaven in the 12th Chapter For as that Figure has the proper mark of the Roman Empire in the Seven Heads so must it be the Devil inspiring the Roman Empire to bloody Acts against the followers of the Lamb who are said to have overcome him by not V. 11. loving their lives unto the Death Wherefore the casting down of the Dragon out of Heaven can signify nothing else but the mortifying of the Pagan Power against the Christian Church after the conversion of the Imperial Head to the Christian Religion For since the Beast is found to arise with Justinian and the fall of the Roman Dragon is in the Text described to be before the time of the Beast and yet to be after the time of St. John the Dragon can be no other raging power of the Devil Reigning at Rome and Tyrannizing over the Christian Church but only the Devil raging in the Heathen Emperors before the Conversion of Constantine From the time of Constantine to the Reign of Justinian there was no such Roman Tyranny exercised against the Christians that had the least show of so dreadful an appearance and whatsoever any professed Christian Emperors might do in that kind must be under the appearance of the qualities of the Lamb and so be another Beast different from the Dragon It is certain that at this appearance of Christianity upon the Imperial Throne this Prophecy was apprehended to be so plainly fulfilled That Constantine's Effigies was set up in publick over his Palace-Gate trampling upon a wounded Dragon which says Eusebius was done to signifie his conquests of those Tyrants Lib. 3. c. 3. de Vita Constantini that oppressed and persecuted the Church at the instigation of the Devil in allusion to the Books of the Prophets where the Devil thus raging against the Church is called a Dragon And Constantine himself Socrat. l. 1. c. 6. in his Epistle to Eusebius for the repairing of the Churches calls his conquest of Licinius who was the last of the persecuting Heathen Emperors The foiling of the Dragon and the restoring of Christian Liberty to all Men. By the same reason whatsoever is expressed to follow the Dragons fall and to be before the rise of the Beast must be understood of the Roman Empire turned Christian before the time of Justinian and therefore the Dragons casting a flood of water out of his mouth to carry away the Woman with it must be understood Rev. 12. 15. of some great inundation of multitudes of Pagan people upon the Roman Empire that was able to have carried away and to have buried the true Church in it For waters are interpreted to signifie multitudes of people in the 17th Chapter A Flood therefore must denote e Victorinus in v. 15. cap. 12. Apoc. The Waters which he cast out do signify the Army that followed him Ribera on the same place Interpreters agree That by the Waters Persecution that is of multitudes is understood The Devil sent an Army to Persecute the Saints that fled into the Wilderness Sabo Tyconius He cast out Waters after her That is the Violence of Persecutors And afterwards It signifies an Army of Persecutors Andreas Primatius Haymo and Ausbertus say the same and quote that of Psalm 122. When Men rose up against me To which may be added many other places in the Psalms concerning the Floods and Water-floods some very extraordinary overflow of such multitudes And was there ever any thing more exactly answerable to this than that prodigious inundation of barbarous Nations over all the Western Empire presently after the full accomplishment of the Victory of Christianity over Heathenism about the times of Theodosius St. Jerome describes those times with the characters of the last dismal state of things which should be the forerunners of the end of the World The swallowing up of this flood by the Earth to help the Woman can V. 16. thereupon be nothing else but the Leagues that were made with these people with the several allotments of habitation to them within the bounds of the Roman Empire as one people with the Romans and their entrance
of the Vision of the Four Beasts in the 7th of Daniel That Vision of the Divine Daniel so generally known and talked of in all places does compare the Monarchies of the Assyrians the Medes and Macedonians to a Lion a Bear and a Leopard But the Fourth Beast sets forth the Roman Empire And Sulpicius Severus Sacr. Histor lib. 2. has the same Four Kingdoms specified as foretold by Daniel in the four Metals of the Statue in the 2d Chapter which have the same Characters with those in the 7th Jerom is so much of this Opinion himself in his Comment upon Daniel that almost all his design in it is to expose Porphyry the Philosopher for interpreting the Fourth Beast and the Little Horn of it to be the Greek Empire and Antiochus Epiphanes in it And to shew the Paradoxicalness of that Interpretation he says upon the latter-end of the 11th Chapter That all Ecclesiastical Writers did understand the Fourth Beast and the Ten Horns and Eleventh little One in it of the Roman Empire and the dividing it among Ten Kings and of Antichrist that should subdue Three of them And when he heard that Rome was taken by the Barbarous Nations he concluded that the Man of Sin was just at hand in relation to the Ten Kings and the Little Horn. Epist ad Gaudentium Theodoret after him is so clear in this all over his Comment upon Daniel that it must be transcribed to take all that he says about it He Wonders how any Men of Learning could make the Fourth Beast to be the Macedonian Kingdom when the Greek Empire was so expresly represented in the 8th Chapter by the He-Goat with the Four Horns and applied to it by the Angel and when the Third Beast in the 7th Chapter had four Heads to set out the same thing Comment in cap 7. Daniel But what can our Modern Interpreters answer to that of his against the Jews in his time who were much of the same Opinion in their Application of the Fourth Beast and the Little Horn to the Greek Empire and that of the Kingdom of the Son of Man to the return of the persecuted Jews Very properly says he may that be applied to these Jews that which the Prophet hath long since said of them And thou hast put on an Whores forhead and refusest to be ashamed Jeremiah 3. 3. Ibidem Cyril Hierosolymitanus and Ambrose upon the 2 Thessalon 2. 6 7. speaking of the time that the Man of Sin was to be revealed When the times of the Roman Empire shall be fulfilled says one and the other That he should appear after the falling of the Roman Empire into pieces Andreas Bishop of Caesarea some while at least after the time of St. Basil whom he quotes cap. 44. in Apocalyps at the mention of the Ten Horns of the Beast in the Revelations chap. 17. These Ten Horns or Kings says he Daniel also saw And then determines Babylon the City of the Beast and the Kings to be Rome according to the Opinion of the ANCIENT DOCTORS for many reasons but CHIEFLY because on the Fourth Beast in Daniel that is the Roman Empire were seen the Ten Horns And also because Antichrist when he comes is to appear as King of the Romans VNDER PRETENCE OF RESTORING THEIR EMPIRE Whence he makes it the Consent of the Ancient Doctors That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire an Argument to prove the Beast of the Revelatious that was like it to be so too and therefore Babylon to be Rome So also does Arethas Bishop of Cappadocia in his Comment upon the Revelat. chap. 13. refer the show of the Beast with the Ten Horns there to that of the Fourth Beast in Daniel and applies it to the Roman Empire But Pope Gregory the Great does more positively apply the N. B. Reign of the Little Horn to his own times which was certainly a time of Roman Rule In his 38 Epist ad Constant lib. 4. he applies all the Prophecy of Daniel concerning the Little Horn or Antichrist to those that would arrogate to themselves the Title of the Bishops of the whole Roman Empire as the Bishop of Constantinople did then pretend The King of Pride says he is near at hand And which ought hardly to be spoken he has also an Army of Priests prepared for him in allusion to the Little Horn as the same with The Beast in the Revelations who was accompanied and assisted by the False Prophet Because after this there is no different mention of any other Interpretation of the Fourth Beast in Daniel Ambrosius Ausbertus may be the general Representative of the Opinion of all those of latter date till the time of the Reformation He upon the 13th Chapter of the Revelations makes the Beast under the healed Head to be the same with the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast in Daniel And upon the 17th Chapter compares that Beast with the Fourth Beast in Daniel And there adds For what can be understood by the Fourth Beast but the Roman Empire in which those Ten Kings are mentioned after whom Antichrist is to arise It may therefore now be safely concluded as the least that can be inferred from these Testimonies of the Ancients That never was any Learned Man more mistaken about a matter of Fact of which he could hardly avoid the having a clear satisfaction about than Sir John Marsham has been in his Judgment about this part of the Visions of Daniel CHAP. III. What the Ancients do expresly agree in about the Schemes of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel Why they much differed from one another in some particular Characters of it The Vse that is to be made of their Vnanimous Agreement in some things The Necessary Consequences of what the Ancients do expresly agree in FRom the preceding Testimonies of the Fathers it appears That however different the Ancients might have been in particular Opinions about the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel yet they are found unanimously to agree in these General Conclusions 1. That the notion of the Fourth Beast in general as CONSENT of the Ancients the common subject of all its Horns is The Roman Monarchy 2. That the Ten Horns of it are a division of that Monarchy into so many several Kingdoms under Ten Kings 3. That the Little Horn of that Beast is Antichrist that should have a Kingdom within the bounds of the Roman Empire 4. That the Kingdom of Antichrist should continue till it should be destroyed by the Second Coming of Christ after the time that they wrote in Victorinus was indeed singular about the last of these For he judged Antichrist to have been a single Emperor of Rome about the time of the Vision But that was esteemed as very extravagant by others Some think says Augustine ad Marcellin Lib. 20. cap. 19. that Nero is meant by the Man of Sin 2 Thessal 2. 4. But I extremely admire at their presumption or their
in the 2d Chapter of Daniel the same with that of the Son of Man in the 7th Chapter must also judge the Fourth Kingdom before it in each to be the same And the Fourth Kingdom in the 2d Chapter is said to be the same Kingdom in substance when it was entire and when divided verse 40 41. Lactantius applies the whole account of the Fourth Beast to the Roman Empire Victorinus doth certainly seat Antichrist or the Little Horn amongst the Roman Rulers Those indeed that came after the time of Augustine did many of them think that Antichrist was to destroy all the Power of Rome The only ground that they alledge for it is That in the Second Epistle of the Thessalonians chap. 2. where it is said That that did withhold at the present time must be taken away and then should the Man of Sin be Revealed This that did with-hold they Interpreted to be the Roman Empire And yet since they afterwards Interpret Babylon in the Revelations to be Rome which is openly described to be the City of Antichrist the same with the little Horn whom they agreed to continue till about the end of the World they did thereby plainly shew that they meant nothing else by the taking away of the Roman Empire in the forecited place but only the change of the Monarchical Imperial form of it not the last end of all Roman Rule According as Tertullian says that they prayed for the Lives of the Emperors to put off the coming of Antichrist in the end of the World As for those amongst them that did not understand Rome by Babylon See the References to the 1st Chap. Book 1. we see that the Jesuits themselves look upon them as extravagant in it Wherefore the Ten Horns and the Little one after them may now be counted by the express Consent of the Fathers as conformable to the General Rule for all the rest of their kind 6. It does also now appear from this Agreement of the Fathers concerning Beasts and their parts signifying Dominion That they had no other mark for their difference betwixt either Successive or Contemporary Horns but only the different Changes of the Supream Civil Power of Monarchies 7. Nor any other constitutive difference betwixt Successive Heads or Horns but a different name or title of the Supream Power The second Horn of the Ram was distinguished from the first only by the name of the King of Persia instead of that of Media over the same Nation Dan. 8. 3 20. 8. And by their Agreement that the four Heads of the Leopard in the 7th Chapter was the same time of Graecian Empire with the four Horns of the He-goat in the 8th Chapter it appeared That they made Heads and Horns to be promiscuously used for the same thing in different Schemes of the same Monarchy CHAP. IV. The Agreements of the Ancients about the Beast in the Revelations Eight Queries about the Necessary Consequences of the Ancients Consent concerning the Fourth Beast in Daniel and the Beast in tbe Revelations for the more particular determination of the Characters of the Beast in the Revelations The Reason of the Contrariety of some of the Opinions of the Fathers to their general Agreements about the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel and the Beast in the Revelations The Application of the Beast to the Roman Church in all Ages THE Consent of the Ancients about the nature of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel and the necessary Consequences of what they expresly consent in do discover what they must agree in concerning the Beast in the Revelations For 1. The Fathers are well enough known to make that which from the 13th to the end of the 19th Chapter of the Revelations is peculiarly called The Beast as one particular state of it only in the latter time of it to be that to which they give the name of Antichrist See Andreas Caesariensis 2. They do upon this account make that particular Reign of the Beast in the Revelations to be the same with the Reign of the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast in Daniel the same with the Man of Sin in the 2d Chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians the same also with the Bustling King in Daniel 11. 36. For as they called all these by the name of Antichrist so Bellarmin assures us lib. 3. de Pontif. cap. 1. That by the common consent of all Christians by Antichrist is understood but one certain Eminent False Christ In the Testimony also of Andreas Caesariensis may be seen the Agreement of the Ancient Doctors That The Beast in the Revelations and the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel were the same thing because they accounted them both to be Antichrist 3. The Fathers do also own with the Text the seven Heads of Rev. 17. 10 11. the Beast to be successive Ruling Powers five of which were past at the time of the Vision one of them at that time in being and two Kings more which were to come to make up the whole Seven the latter of which Two was to be such an Eighth as should be one of the Seven 4. They did also agree that Babylon that went along with the Beast in the Revelations was the City of Rome This appears from Andreas Caesariensis's Testimony and Bellarmin's Quotations of the Fathers for this Exposition Lib. 2. de Pontif. cap. 2. where he concludes it to be the Opinion of the Fathers That John in the Apocalypse did every-where call Rome Babylon Now from the forementioned Particulars in which the Ancients are found generally to agree about the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel and the Beast in the Revelations and from the immediate and necessary Consequences before deduced from them I would propound it to the Impartial Consideration of all the World whether to make the Ancients constant to themselves they ought not to be judged to agree also in those unavoidable Consequences of the Conclusions in which they are so unanimous That the general Notion of the Beast in the Revelations as it Query 1 is the common subject of its Heads and Horns must signify the Particular Monarchy of the Romans till the last ruine of it This does necessarily follow 1st From the fourth Consequence of Chap. 3. their Agreements about the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel For by that the general Notion of every Beast is to be some Particular Monarchy to the last end of it And 2dly From their See 4th Agreement in this Chap. Unanimous Agreement about Babylon in the Apocalypse before-mentioned which does necessarily determine it to be the Roman Monarchy Wherefore if some of the Fathers have interpreted the Beast in the Revelations to signify a great Multitude of Kingdoms tyrannizing over the Church of God They do plainly contradict that which before they had agreed to be the natural and obvious signification of A Beast in Prophecy by the almost Unanimous Consent of
all Interpreters that is a particular Kingdom only Whereas in this way they make one Beast signify as many as a multitude of Beasts every-where else and for which also they do not alledge any the least warrant from the Text. Whether the Ancients must not according to their other general Query 2 Agreements make the Heads and Horns of the Beast in the Revelations to be so many Sovereign Powers amongst the Romans and the Heads to be so many several kinds of Supream Magistracy over the same Jurisdiction of the Romans For they are described to succeed one another Revelat. 17. 10 11. And the Ten Horns of the Beast to be the Division of the Roman Monarchy into Ten really distinct Kingdoms For they are represented to be in power all at a time Revel 17. 12 13. According to the fifth Consequence of their Agreement about the Figure of CHAP. 3. Daniel Those therefore of the Fathers who make the seven Heads to be either so many Ages of the World or so many distinct Monarchies do contradict their Agreement with the rest about the like Figures in Daniel And when others make the Ten Horns to be the dissolution of the Roman Empire though they were the Ten Horns of that Beast that signifies the Roman Empire to the last end of it they forget how inconsistent they are with themselves Whether by the common Consent of the Fathers in their other Query 3 Agreements the Beast in the Revelations as it is the particular state of the Beast under its last Ruling Head can be any thing but a Roman Sovereign For it is an Head of the Roman Beast By Conseq 4. Chap. 3. and therefore by the former Consequence must be a Sovereign of the Romans It is also the same with the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast in Daniel which by Consequence the second Chapter the 3d is a Roman Sovereign Whether the Agreements of the Fathers do not necessarily Query 4 make the 6th Head of the Beast to be the whole Imperial Government of Rome They agree that the 6th Head 3d Agreement in this Chap. was according to the Text in power at the time of the Vision And it must then be either the Roman Emperor or the Imperial Government but it could not possibly be the single person of any Roman Emperor For then the next single Emperor but one must have been the 8th King called the Beast Whereas the Fathers are found to agree that Antichrist the 4th Agreement Chap. 3. same with the Beast or 8th King was not come into power in their time which was never the succession of many single Emperors from the time of the Vision Besides By the 5th Consequence of their Agreements about the Figures of Daniel Chap. 3. They make every Head and Horn of Beast to contain in it all the single Rulers of the same kind Whether according to the agreeing Judgment of the Ancients Query 5 the Sixth Head of the Beast must not be the Imperial Government of Rome till at least the taking away of that Form of Government in that Jurisdiction For by the 5th Consequence of their Agreements Chap. 3. An Head or Horn of Beast signifies a kind of Supream Power in a Nation to the last end of that kind of Magistracy or Kingdom And therefore those of the Fathers that made the Sixth Head to be at an end at the Change of the Imperial Power from Paganism to Christianity did contradict the Unanimous Consent of all the rest with themselves about the nature of every Head and Horn in Daniel which they made to be one kind of Supream Civil Power to the last end of it without any regard to the different behaviour of some of the single Persons of that kind towards the Church of God in comparison with others The Favour and Protection of the Jews from some of the Babylonian Persian Graecian Kings did not in the Fathers Opinion make different Heads or Horns of the Beasts to which they did belong Whether according to the Opinions of the Ancients in Query 6 which they unanimously agreed The Seventh King or Head must not be that which changed the Imperial Power of Rome at the end of the Western Emperors For the Imperial Government Query 4 of the Romans was certainly the Sixth Head and that must then necessarily be either that Imperial Government only which was particularly owned by the Senate and People and Clergy of Rome or the whole Imperial Government of the Roman Empire over Rome Constantinople Britain c. Now at the Fall of the Western Emperors in Augustulus there was a Change of the Imperial Form of Roman Government whichsoever of these kinds was the Sixth Head For the Barbarous Kings that succeeded were owned as the sole Sovereigns of Rome by the Pope Senate People and Clergy And if it were the whole Imperial Government at Rome and Constantinople which was the Sixth Head then the Change of it into the mixt form of Imperial and Kingly Government of Rome or of the Romans by the owning the Gothish Kings as the Sovereigns of the Western Part must be the Seventh King For they were as much a part of the Supream Power of the Romans as the Western Emperors which they succeeded And it has been found by the 6th and 7th Necessary Chap. 3. Consequences of the Agreeing Opinions of the Fathers That a new Name of the Civil Sovereign Power of a Nation does constitute a new Successive Head or Horn of a Beast So is it in the last Horn of the Ram Chap. 8. which is agreed by the Fathers to be the Change of the name of the King of Media to that of the King of Persia though the King of Persia was also King of Media who was the first Horn. And so was it in the four Horns of the He-goat ibidem Though one of these four be the same with the first Horn. And the Change of the whole pure Imperial Goverment into that of either Kingly alone at Rome or into that of the mixt form of Kingly and Imperial over the whole remaining Empire was as real a new appearance of the Sovereign Power of the Romans as either of those two Instances After this it is not to be questioned but that according to Query 7 the Fathers The Eighth King called the Beast and Antichrist must be that Sovereign Civil Power of the Romans which succeeded Agreements the Barbarous Kings at Rome For that must be the King that was next to the Seventh And this exactly agrees with the Text For the Eighth King called The Beast is said to be of the Seven As the Imperial Government restored by Justinian who subdued the Italian Kings was the Eighth Change of the Sovereign Power of Rome but really nothing but the Sixth Head restored again It does also as necessarily follow from the Agreements of the Query 8 Fathers about the constitutive difference of Heads and Horns from one another That that which is
the judging the Dead v. 18. cap. 11. Apoc. which Grotius and those of Alcasar's way interpret of the time of Rome-Heathen cannot be fulfilled before the time of the last Judgment Comment in cap. 10. Apocal. Numer 20. The Censures of both the Two former Opinions by the most eminent of the Romish Interpreters may very reasonably plead an excuse for a Third advanced in their stead by the Protestants and that is this That the Beast in general is the Roman Empire but when taken for the Eighth King is The Present Ruling Power of the Roman Church That the Seven Heads of the Beast are Seven successive Changes of Roman Government That the Sixth of them said to be in being at the time of the Vision is the Imperial Government The change of that into another form the Rev. 17. 10. Seventh King And the next to that The Antichristian Soveraignty of the Roman Church is the Eighth which is of the Seven And therefore the Three Years v. 11. and an half so often mentioned by Months and Days must be so many Prophetical Years as there are days in that Period according to the Examples that there are in Scripture to take a Day for a Year in a Prophetical Sense For this they seem to have all the Premises which are the main foundation of their Conclusion from the opinions of the Roman Interpreters themselves The General Notion of the Beast for the Roman Empire they have from Alcasar Bellarmine c. to whom agree Grotius and Dr. Hammond As also their acceptation of the Seven Heads for Roman Governours from the same Their making the Seven Heads to be so many successive Lines of Roman Sovereigns each of which contains under it a long Succession of single persons of the same sort is according to Alcasar's Notion of the Heads And Ribera tho he makes them not Roman Heads yet contends much for In cap. 13. Apoc. sect 2. their being Seven general sorts of Sovereign Power each of which contains under it a succession of many In cap. 17. Apoc. num 15. single Rulers of that kind according to all the known Examples of Daniel and other places of Scripture And then since the Prophecy says of one of these Kings viz. the Sixth That he was in being at the time of the Vision that could be no other sort of Sovereign Power that contained a Succession of many single Persons under it but the Imperial Government of the Romans And the determining of this does thereupon make it necessary that the rest of the Heads or Kings should be other Titles of the Government of Rome And what then can be pitched upon for this end with more reason than those other Changes of the Government of Rome which are frequently recorded by the Roman Authors Kings Consuls c. Whatever were the Five first Kings yet it is less dubious that that which is called the Beast must be the next Change of Roman Government but one to the Imperial that was in Rule at the time of the Vision And the Roman History does assure us That there has been at least Two such Changes since that time and that therefore The Beast must be somewhere in being at this present in the Ruling Power of the City of Rome because he is described to continue with Babylon and the Seven Hills to the Universal Kingdom of Christ Therefore do they conclude That it must be the present Ruling Power of the Church of Rome because it is described to be a Roman-Church-Power and it cannot possibly be any where else than there THE HEADS OF THE BOOKS BOOK I. THE Uniform Notion of The Beast all over the Revelation BOOK II. The Constant Signification of A Beast and its Parts all over Daniel BOOK III. The Particular Signification of The Beast and its Parts in the Revelations BOOK IV. The Application of the Characters of The Beast ERRATA These necessary to be Corrected before the reading of the Book PAge 23. l. 27. for it the reade it The. p. 105. l. 17. r. pag. 102. So also p. 107. l. 5. item l. 22. r. the same p. 108. l. 30. r. pag. 107. And l. 35. no full point p. 130. l pen. r. Prop. 7. p. 141. l. 12. for and with the Seventh King r. revived p. 180. l. 11. r. Corol. 2. Prop. 8. p. 192. l. ult r. pag. 157 158. In the Marg. r. chap. 4. lib. 3. p. 206. l. ult and p. 207. l. 10. for 140. r. above 40. p. 211. l. 27. dele twice p. 245. l. 28. r. Prop. 25. l. 30. r. Prop. 26. So also p. 247. l. 3. p. 270. l. 12. r. 261. Appendix p. 19. l. 9. a full stop l. 10. to be continued with l. 11. p. 26. l. ult for never r. after Notes of References necessary to be Corrected before reading P. 138. l. 20. strike outa. p. 139. l. 1. strike outb. p. 142. l. 36. r. a Consuls p. 143. l. 2. for c r.b. l. 4. for d r.c. p. 158. l. 16. The Note e to be set the line before the Notes following e are anticipated in the References as far asl. And p. 165. l. 14. r. e Panciroll and l. 23. for e r. f c. p. 190. l. 17. r. this Chapter p. 219. l. 12. r. Note s. p. 242. in the Marg. r. Note 5 6 on Chap. 7. Lib. 3. p. 259. The Notes are right but p. 266. the Notes answering them are postponed for g r. h for h r. i c. to the end p. 278. l. 8 9. r. Notes on the 4th Chapter p. 286. l. 23. r. m Paullus bb sup p. 311. l. 6 7. Notes bb cc transposed in the References p. 315. P. 313. l. 2. r. Note b on the 5th Chapter p. 315. l. 35. r. Note c on the 5th Chapter p. 316. l. 8. r. Note m. l. 17. r. Note l on the 5th Chapter Lib. 4. p. 317. l. 10. r. Ch. 5. l. 22. Notes b c d e on Chap. 4. and Note a Chap. 5. Lib. 4. l. 23. r. Chap. 4. l. 24. r. Notes i l on Chap. 4. and i on Chap. 5. Lib. 4. Other Faults less Considerable P. 81. l. 36. for by some r. by Him p. 116. l. 23. strike out possible to be p. 132. r. in the Marg. Chap. 6. Lib. 3. ibid. l. 23. to Nation add or his Western and Eastern Empire p. 143. l. 6. dele part last p. 149. r. Chap. 2. Lib. 1. p. 172. r. Epagomenae and elsewhere p. 180. l. 6. to Prop. 6. add Prop. 7. p. 238. l. 11. r. five days and a quarter l. 14. r. Roman years p. 251. l. 16. no full point p. 288. l. 14. r. Romijith Latinos Proper Names and Latin Quotations sometimes mistaken THE Introduction Concerning the Authority of the Apocalypse which is shewn to be unquestionable THE Book of the Revelations is acknowledged by all contending Parties to be the only distinct Prophecy that we have of the successive fortunes of the Christian Church from its first
the intricate Mazes of these Visions For Babylon and the Beast are represented as inseparable Companions in the 17th Chapter The Beast seems to be confined to that City by his Heads which are said to be the seven Hills upon which the City is seated And since it is already known what City Babylon is it cannot then be doubted but that the Beast who is said to be a King must be the King of that City So that if the Reign of Babylon has been clearly proved to be after the time of Rome-Pagan the Reign of the Beast must also be allowed to be as long after that time Now if any part of the Reign of the Beast was in being so long after the time of the Vision this does plainly determine what kind of Kings the Heads of the Beast must be whose Successions seem to be given on purpose to measure out the time betwixt the date of the Vision and the appearance of the last of them in Rule called The Beast for the Beast is determined by the Prophecy to be the third King in order after Him who reigned at the time of the Vision He is said to be an Eighth to Rev. 17. 11. him that was a Sixth at the time of the Vision From hence would any conclude That since the eighth of these Kings or the Beast is found to be in Rule after the time of Rome-Pagan that is some hundreds of years after the time of the Vision that His Reign and the other two Reigns before him from the time of the Vision in St. John's days could not possibly be the Reign of three single persons only for there were near three hundred years betwixt the time of the Vision and the full end of Rome Pagan before which the Reign of Babylon and The Beast have been proved impossible to be And within that space of time there were above thirty Successions of single Persons in the Roman Throne It would therefore next be necessary to enquire from the Roman History what else the first of these three Kings who is said to Reign at the time of the Vision could possibly be It will appear from thence that there was no other King of Rome at that time but a single Emperour Wherefore since it has been found impossible that it should be the single person of that Emperour who is meant by the King then Reigning there is nothing else that can be meant by it but that form of the Supreme Government which the Emperour's Title gave name to or the Imperial Government then in power And consequently by the same reason must all the three Kings of which The Beast is said to be the 8th or last be so many successive Changes of Roman Government from the time of the Vision Since therefore the first of these three Kings is known to be the Imperial Government in the days of St. John all that seems needful to be done to determine the time and the particular form of Roman Government that is called the Beast is to enquire from History what successive Changes there have been in the Roman Government since the time of the Vision For the next Change but one to the Imperial Government in those days must certainly be the Beast And Bellarmin is so far of the same mind in this That according to him the true state of the difference betwixt them and us in this Affair is whether the Imperial Government at the time of the Vision has ever since that time been cut off which makes him take such pains to prove That the same Imperial Roman Government continues unchanged to this day And thus all the difficulty that remains seems according to him to be no more than to enquire after and rightly judge of the matter of Fact from History For he grants that nothing can be meant by The Beast his Heads and Horns but Roman Power Tho' he takes no notice of the distinction and order of Succession amongst them THE SEEMING evidence of the Conclusions before mentioned even in the judgment of the most Zealous and the most able Defender of the Roman Interest is a very satisfactory proof that the Angel that offered that Explication of the Mystery to the Apostle did really intend to be understood according as one would expect from the promise of an Explication of a Mystery from so Divine a Person And this is a great encouragement to any that is willing to take the pains for it to search after the true means to determine the right sense of this Explication The Angel first promises to unfold a Mystery begins it in very known Expressions goes on in other Characters that seem to be clear Who would not then positively conclude with himself that the main strokes and Mystical Characters in which it is expressed must certainly be intelligible enough by some means in our power especially when we find so many Excitations in this Prophecy to understand it But I saw so many miscarriages in attempts in this way and could find so little clear satisfaction in the most cautious Interpretations that I was afraid of nothing more than of being satisfied about these things too soon There are such fair Appearances and grounds for strong Presumptions That the greatest danger lies in being too ready to close with a seemingly obvious Sense of the Angel's Explication My aim was at assurance in these matters and the best way for that I concluded to be To search for difficulties to counterpoise the too much proneness of my Inclination to hasten to a determination There seemed to be a great variety of shows of the Beast which Grotius makes a great advantage of to the baffling of all the force of the best Demonstrations drawn from the Synchronisms of the several descriptions of it in the several Chapters There seems also to be a great ambiguity in the notion of The Beast There are no distinguishing Characters of the Heads from The Beast himself nor of their Nature in general nor of their Constitutive differences from one another and it seemed but a presumption to make all the rest of the Heads to take their determinate form from what was discovered to be the nature of the sixth Head upon which nevertheless does depend all the hopes of coming to a particular knowledge of the time of the Reign of The Beast and without the knowledge of the particular time of that Reign it is in vain to think of any thing of this nature These Considerations made me conclude That the Angel's Explication did suppose and direct to some other known Key to come to a full understanding of his mind It was obvious thereupon to apprehend that The Beast and his Heads and Horns being very mystical kind of Expressions it was necessary for the clearer knowledge of them to consult the common acceptation of them amongst the Ancient Prophets in like matters to these here before us according to Rule 2. I was soon satisfied in this I found by the unanimous
Beast that was past and revived again by Corol. Prop. 5. and was the eighth after the seven and therefore must be that Head of the Beast that was last in Rule Wherefore since the eighth King is called the Beast and yet is found really to be but one Head of the Beast That term of the Beast can signify nothing but the Beast with that particular Head only And so the Head is said to be the Beast as the actions of Kings are said to be the Actions of that People or Nation where they Reign This Interpretation is confirmed by the agreement of almost all Interpreters of all differing Parties excepting one or two without any Reason for their dissent but only the upholding of a particular Opinion and amongst those is that Opinion of Bellarmin who would have the number Seven in this place to signifie collectively All the Emperours because that Seven is very usually taken in Scripture for a perfect number Lib. 3. de Pontif. c. 5. and then signifies All indefinitely but more frequently in the Revelations than any where else And yet all that know any thing of the difference betwixt the use of Seven when it is a perfect number and when it is a broken number cannot but see that Seven here must necessarily be taken for a definite determinate number by the plain distribution of it into Five One Another and an Eighth which was one of the Seven And this is so common and known a thing that there could not have been a plainer instance of the extravagancy of a Learned Man's imaginations about the most clear and known things And yet after all Bellarmin is so far of Opinion with the rest as to affirm That Antichrist or The Beast is the last King of those who shall rule the Roman Empire Lib. 3. de Pontif. c. 15. Which is an agreement with the rest in the preceding Conclusion From the former Corollary it does very immediately follow That the Beast all over the 17th Chapter of the Revelations Prop. 6. does signifie the Beast with his last Ruling Head For the Beast all over the 17th Chapter is that state of the Beast in which he was seen in the 3d verse as does thus appear After that show of him he is called all over that Chapter by the name of THE Beast in reference to his having been seen before which in common use of Speech determines him to be the same that had been there shewn and therefore by Rule 1. he must be all over the Chapter the Beast that was seen in the 3d verse Now of the Beast which was there seen the Angel says v. 8. That He was and is not And the Beast which was and is not he says at the 11th verse was the eighth King who is known to be the Beast with the last Ruling Head Coroll 2. Prop. 5. The Beast therefore does signifie nothing else all over the 17th Chap. Revel but the state of it under its last Ruling Head And tho' there were Seven Heads seen upon the Beast yet it is expresly said That all the other Heads would be past before the Reign of the Beast or eighth King v. 10. So that the sight of him with the Seven Heads was in effect the seeing him with Six dead Heads and One of the Seven only revived again which is the same with the sight of the Beast under its one last Ruling Head only See then the sum of this Proof in short The Beast all over the 17th Chapter is the Beast that was seen v. 3. The Beast that was there seen had the peculiar Character of Was and is not and the Beast that was and is not is said to be the eighth King and the eighth King has been found to signifie nothing but the Corol. 2. Prop. 5. Beast with its last Ruling Head Wherefore to tye the first part of this Chain to the last The Beast all over the 17th Chapter is the Beast with the last only of his Ruling Heads Besides since the mystical meaning of the term of the Beast is said in one place to be the eighth King that is The Beast under the last Ruling Head by Coroll 2. Prop. 5. it must have the same signification all over the Chapter by Rule 3. Babylon might as well signifie two several Cities in two different places of that Chapter as the Beast several Kings For a Testimony of the great evidence of this Proposition CONSENT we have the Unanimous Agreement of all Interpreters almost of all Ages as well as of all Parties excepting one or two of late against the Judgment of all those whose greatest Interest it seems to be to admit of their new Contrivance who yet will not venture upon it meerly for their reputation One would expect to find some very great necessity alleged for another sense against such a seeming evidence of the Text and the confirmation of it by so considerable a weight of Authority and yet we do not find from Grotius the least offer of a reason against this In cap. 17. Apoc. sense or for any other to make us think that the Beast may continue after his last Head in this Chapter as he does make it to do in the time of its Ten Horns The Light of this Proposition does offer these following Consequences The Beast in the 17th Chapter continues no longer than its last Corollar 1 Head For he lives by that Head all over that Chapter by Coroll 2. Prop. 5. and the Beast goes into perdition with that Head ver 11. The Ten Horns belong to the Beast no longer than his last Head Corollary 2 For as they give their Kingdom to the Beast v. 13. so the Beast it self continues no longer than his last Head Coroll 1. Prop. 6. The knowledge of the Woman does acquaint us with the Countrey or Kingdom of the Beast her constant Confederate and from thence it is manifest That The Beast all over the 17th Chapter is some particular Sovereign Prop. 7. Power of Rome in the time of its Idolatrous Antichristian Reign For the Beast all over the 17th Chapter is in the time of its last Ruling Head and called the eighth King Prop. 6. and therefore a particular Sovereign Power And the Woman or Babylon is represented riding upon it at that time in great Majesty and known to signifie Rome in its Idolatrous Antichristian Reign Prop. 1. And besides is described in confederacy with the Beast in that Chapter v. 16 17. The Beast is also said to be the eighth King or the last Ruling Head of the Seven which signifie the seven Hills of Rome v. 9. This does infallibly shew the Beast to be a Sovereign Power of the seven Hills The Beast then is tied to this City by his seven Heads which are the seven Hills upon which it is built and so they cannot possibly be separated without Either cutting off the Heads from the Beast and by consequence that Head by which he lives
Prop. 6. Or removing the City from the seven Hills upon which it is built and therefore is it plainly impossible for the Beast not to be the Sovereign Power of Rome all over the 17th Chapter 2. And that also shews That the Beast exercises this Power over Rome in its Idolatrous Antichristian state because Babylon is but in that one state all over that Chapter Prop. 1. and Rule 3. And the first shew of the Beast to which all the mentions of the Feast afterward do relate by a Note of reference to that has a Woman riding upon him in all that Antichristian state which is her Character every-where else This is so plainly signified that it is as unanimously consented to b Alcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 5. Auctores omnes qui Romam Ethnicam c. All Authors who judge Rome-Heathen to be meant by the name of Babylon make the Beast every-where to be the Roman Empire And even those who interpret the Beast to signifie the whole multitude of wicked Men understand it of the wicked Romans not of those in America or out of the bounds of the Roman Empire by all sorts of Interpreters as to almost any thing that is said of these things CONSENT a ALL the Maintainers of the second Opinion which are the generality of the Church of Rome with the Fathers do all make the Beast to be the times of Antichrist as the last Head Alcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 5. Ii qui Bestiam Antichristum esse volunt eum constituunt ultimum esse Romanorum Imperatorum Those who make the Beast to be Antichrist affirm him to be the last of the Roman Emperours CHAP. VI. Rev. XVII Manifest Grounds for a strong presumption That the Term of The Beast does signifie the same particular state of the Beast all over the Revelations The mentions of it in the 13th and 17th Chapters every way parallel FOR a more full and determinate knowledge of the Nature and Characters of the Beast so often mentioned in these Visions it is very necessary to examine Whether every shew of it be one and the same state of the Beast For without some assurance of that all our knowledge of this kind will be confined to the bounds of the 17th Chapter 'T is true that by Rule 3. the Term of the Beast being the same peculiar mystical expression there is great reason to judge That it signifies every-where the same thing But there seems to be plain grounds given us to suspect the contrary for there are several different shews of it as if it were purposely designed to warn us thereby that they were so many new states of the Beast according to the variety of the successions of his Heads Wherefore in search of a more large and comprehensive knowledge of the Beast in the 17th Chapter one would be extremely desirous to find that every mention of the same Term in all the other Chapters did really signifie the same thing for thereby we should have a great many more Properties and Circumstances to judge of him and to determine his particular signification The more Marks that one has of a Beast the more easie will it be to find him and to distinguish him from all others that may resemble him The places where it would be judged to be the most likely to find the Term of the Beast to signifie the same thing with the Beast in the 17th Chapter are the Chapters just before and after the 17th and to them are we therefore directed for our first beginning in this search And first The mention of the Beast after the 17th Chapter would be concluded could be nothing else but the continuation of the History of the same Beast that is mentioned in the 17th Chapter for we find no mention made of any other Beast or of any new shew of a Beast betwixt the 17th Chapter and the 19th where we see the Beast brought upon the Stage again And who would not thereupon conclude That the Beast in the 19th Chapter with that Note of reference before it did certainly signifie the Beast that had been last discoursed of in the 17th Chapter before it And therefore is this unanimously agreed on amongst all Interpreters That it is the same Beast in both places as to the general Notion of the Beast And in that sense also is it granted to be the same Beast in the Chapters before the 17th For it does indeed necessarily follow from the former because the Beast before the 17th must be the same with that after it for they have both the same peculiar Attendants the false Prophet with the Image of the Beast and the Mark of it And therefore does Grotius with one or two more give general and comprehensive Notions of the Beast and false Prophet c. which are the same in all kind of states of the Beast and the one he calls Idolatry and the other Magick but withal applies these general Notions to very different things in particular in those several mentions of the Beast before and after the 17th Chapter So that in effect he still makes the Beast and false Prophet in one place quite different things in particular than they are in the other and the Beast in the 17th Chapter to be as different a thing from either of them He would have these several mentions of the Beast to be so many several states of it sometimes under Ten Kings and Seven Emperours signified by so many Heads and Horns sometimes to be but One Emperour and then to be the Beast with One Head only and sometimes to be the Beast with Ten Horns only without any of its Seven Heads But since there is little reason given for the proof of this but only the divers shews of the Beast it must be very hard for any that is the least impartial to shut his eyes against so many instances of an exact likeness and uniformity in very particular Characters in each of the several mentions of these Beasts that would strongly persuade a man that it was impossible but that they should signifie one and the same particular state of one and the same Beast Especially when he considers That the Angel did very manifestly intend that these Visions should be understood and after such a manner as the generality of the World would conclude from the expressions in them where there is any plain ground for it For example It has been already agreed Rev. XIII XVII That the term of the Beast must signify the same thing at least in general before in and after the 17th Chapter And in every of those Places he is certainly in a particular state by the Pag. praeced particular Actions and Characters that are given him Now would any one question whether the Beast were in one particular state of his Heads and Horns in these several places when there are these particular Circumstances and Characters that follow which are the same in
each particular description 1. As they are in the 13th and 17th Chapters both described with seven Heads and ten Horns so are they also characterized more peculiarly by one Head only of the seven The one by his Chap. 13. 3. Chap. 17. 11. healed Head and the Mouth of it The other by the 8th King or Head which was one of the seven Heads 2. The peculiar Head that the one is described by is an Head Ibid. wounded to death and healed again and under which The Beast with the same False Prophet that he is found with in the 13th Chapter does in all appearance come to his end and that Head therefore must be is Last Head and yet it cannot be distinct from the other Seven because it is but one of them healed and it comes after them all as the last of all and so must necessarily be an Eighth which was one of the Seven Now the Head of the other is expresly said to be an Eighth which was one of the Seven 3. It is said of the one that the World wondred at the Head Chap. 13. 3. deadly wounded and healed And of the other that the World Chap 17. 8. should wonder at The Beast which was and is not and yet is who is said to be the Eighth King or Head Which seems to be the same 4. The one is said to arise out of the Sea with the former Character of its Head wounded and healed again Chap. 13. 1. Chap. 17. 8. And the other to ascend out of the Bottomless Pit with the latter Character of Was and Is not and yet is which signifies the same And the word in the Greek for the bottomless Pit The Abyss is the common term in the Septuagint to signify the Sea and the Septuagint was the Copy that our Saviour and his Apostles referred to in all their Discourses and Writings 5. The one had Ten Kings in power with it signified by its Chap. 17. 12. Ten Horns who gave their power to it which they had not at the time of the Vision the other arose up with Ten Horns upon it all crowned which had no Crowns upon the Dragon in the Chapter before 6. The one is described by one particular mouth speaking Blasphemies Chap. 13. 1. Chap. 13. 5. v. 3. The other with one Head who is that Beast all over the 17th Chapter who is said to be full of Blasphemies Prop. 6. 7. The City of the one and the other was the same Babylon in one particular state of Idolatrous and Antichristian Tyranny Prop. 2. and which is said to be fallen in both which one would judge should signify one and the same particular time of Chap. 14. 8. Chap. 18. 2. that City Other the same Characters in both I omit here to mention because they may be accounted not such particular Characters As that they have the same Enemies the same kind of Friends and make the same kind of Wars and have the same variety of Success and Loss in Battel To make them then signify two different states of The Beast or of Roman Rule as the Beast is here agreed to signify there must at least these unlikelihoods be digested viz. That all these Characters together which are the same in both must be twice verified of the Roman Government viz. That it had twice a Supreme Government over it which came after Seven before it and yet was one of the Seven and Ten Kings twice confederated with such a Power at two several Changes of Roman Power in two several states of the same kind of Idolatry and Antichristian Tyranny of Rome and that Rome must have two eminent Ruines in the midst of all these same Circumstances twice repeated For these and many other very peculiar Characters must have been all at a time in conjunction or have belonged altogether at the same time to each of these same repeated States of the Beast Which would have been much like a Story of the throwing so many Dice out of a Box at two several times into just the same Order and Chances without any contrivance For all the credit of this way of Interpretation lies wholly upon the affirmation of the Interpreters themselves Would not this be to lay the plainest ground for an almost unavoidable delusion about the sense of a Prophecy For who would ever take such a representation of Two Beasts with so exact a likeness to one another in so many peculiar Characters with the same peculiar way of rise marks actions make and circumstances for two different States of that Beast and only because they are Two several Shows of it Can any one believe Rev. XIII XVII this of a Vision that men are exhorted to understand and which an Angel of God comes on purpose so to explain as to make an Apostle of Christ apprehend it was to tell him the mystery of these things for the edification of the Christian Church And the Rules for interpreting of which according to the common Apprehensions of Men in other Cases he himself See CHAP. 2. gave an earnest of in his own Explication Certainly unless it can be proved to be impossible for two Shows of a Beast to signify but one and the same state of it one would be very apt from hence to be confident That they are in these Chapters but Two Shows only of one and the same state of the Beast After all this particular Examination If we would be content with ordinary proof and such as makes men sure of almost all other places of Scripture that is what the Context does as it were of its own accord force one to be confident of The Consideration of the Histories of these Two Beasts and of their order and dependance upon one another would appear to be a sufficient ground for a full conviction of the certainty of this Truth For it is very obvious to observe That the 17th Chapter comes in about the conclusion of the History of The Beast of the 13th Chapter for nothing but to tell the Prophet as the Interpreting Angel himself does seem to intimate what was meant by the Beast and his Seven Heads and Ten Horns and by Great Babylon which had been the Subject of all the four Chapters before it To secure us in this Persuasion we see that the business of the 17th Chapter is brought in immediately after the 16th by one of those Seven Angels with the Seven Vials who had been just before employed about the Seven last Plagues that were poured out upon the other Beast in the former Chapter And the Introduction to all that this Angel had to communicate in the 17th Chapter is an offer from him to shew the Apostle the Judgment of that Great Whore called Babylon the Great which had been just mentioned before by that very name of Babylon the Great in the History of the other Beast at the end of the 16th Chapter And then again after the
be understood The Image Mark Name and number of the Name of the First Beast And after that it seems as necessarily to follow That By the Beast with the False Prophet or Second Beast and the Image Corollar 2 Mark Name and number of the Name of the Beast in all the other Chapters must be understood The First Beast of the 13th Chapter with the same Attendance of that Beast mentioned in that Chapter The necessity of this does appear from their being the same very peculiar Expressions in those Chapters that they are in the 13th Chapter and therefore by Rule the 3 d. must signify the same First Beast and his Adjuncts unless there were something more clear against it But the grounds upon which a very worthy Person thinks Mr. Mede p. 524. p. 708. otherwise are far from being more clear As 1. That the Second Beast ought to be some-where mentioned in these Chapters by the name of The Beast For is it not enough Object 1 that he is sometimes signified by the name of the False Prophet Nor 2dly is it any thing so clear That the Image of the Object 2 Beast is the same with the First Beast and that therefore in the mentions of the Beast and the Image of the Beast both together by The Beast must be understood the Second Beast or else there must be a tautology as he would have it For there is no appearance that the Image and the First Beast are the same thing On the contrary The Image of the Beast in the very expression of it does signify another thing different from the Beast it self or some other thing that is only like the First Beast Now what small Reasons are these to alledge against the so frequent and constant use of the Term of the Beast to signify the First Beast in the Chapter where these peculiar Characters of it are found with it and where also it is granted by the same Person that the Image of the Beast does really signify the Image of the First Beast The known and frequent use of any peculiar Expressions is the Rule that all Judicious Persons recommend for the interpreting any other places of Scripture and the Angel's Example in his Interpretation of part of these Visions does still further confirm it to be the Right Rule for these things Wherefore for the future to avoid all unnecessary multiplication of words I will make use of only the term of The Beast in or of the 13th Chapter to signify any mention of the First Beast from that Chapter either before or after the 17th Chapter because in those Chapters The Beast is every-where joined with the forementioned Attendants It will not be now very difficult from the former Corollaries to find that The Beast from the 13th Chapter to the end of the mention of that Term in these Visions as well in the 17th Chapter as in the rest is one and the same particular state of its Last Ruling Head In order to which it must be first advanced That The Beast in the 13th Chapter signifies a particular state of the Proposit 9. Beast under one of its either Ruling Heads or Horns in all the time of its continuance The certainty of this is the most necessary to be in the first place secured because the way that others take to confound all the Significations of the Beast in the several mentions of that Term and to keep them from any particular determinate notion by which they might be concluded to be the same particular thing is To understand the Term of the Beast every-where in a general notion which may be allowed to be every-where the same and yet the things with which it is joined may shew it to be meant of quite different states of the Beast But that this Beast in the 13th Chapter is in a particular state of one of its Heads or Horns does thus appear The Beast in the 13th Chapter has a set time of continuance allotted to it viz. the space of 42 months as the Original is v. 5. agreed to signify And it is described as continuing for that time with a very v. 6. haughty commanding Mouth The Mouth is joined with the time of his continuance and is mentioned again in the next words after it and he is described with that Mouth at his first rise also as his peculiar Character and in all those three places it is set out as an over-ruling uncontrolable Mouth And such a Mouth must signify some particular Ruling Power v. 2. when joined with a Beast that is said to have so Universal a Dominion and for this particular Rule of some such particular Power for all the time of the continuance of the 42 Months of the Beast we have the general consent of all those of the Interpreters that are the most concerned against this Proposition Now the Mouth that is said to be the Mouth of a Beast with Heads and Horns as it is here and that so very remarkable a Mouth must belong either to one of the Heads or to one of the Horns as there is much the same description of the Mouth of the little Horn in Daniel Chap. 7. And an Head or Horn of a Beast that represents Dominion as it does here does every-where in Prophecy signify a Ruling Head or Horn and therefore with such a commanding Mouth added to it must certainly signify a very particular commanding Head or Horn by Rule 2. unless it could be made more clear that it is the Mouth of such a Head as signifies one of the Seven Hills which is not pretended by any and seems to be almost absurd but to mention The Beast therefore with that Mouth for all the time of his continuance must be in the particular state of that Head or Horn. And if the Beast be in the particular state of any Ruling Head or Horn then by the Term of the Beast for all the time of his continuance must be understood at every mention of it The Beast with that particular Head or Horn. For so is the Term of the Beast generally used to signify in Prophecy when it is in any particular state of Heads or Horns So all over the 17th Chapter of the Revelations several times Prop. 6. so also Dan. 7. 11. and Dan. 8. 5 6 7 8. and so therefore by Rule the 2 d must it be here for all the time of its continuance in that state Besides that this Beast in the 13th Chapter is described all over the Chapter by one of its Heads wounded to death and healed And A Beast with one or more of its Heads at a time does every-where in Prophecy signify that Beast with that or those particular Ruling Powers at that time even by the consent of those who are most difficult in these things and the particular time is the 42 Months of his continuance And therefore to whatsoever the Mouth of the Beast belongs the Beast there must be in a
particular state of one of its Heads by Rule 2. And to shew the use of the term of The Beast with or without the mention of his Head to signify the same particular state of it under that Head That which is called The Beast with v. 3. the Head wounded to death and healed in one place is in the other place of this Chapter called The Beast whose deadly wound was v. 12. healed and The Beast who had a wound by a Sword and did live without any mention of his Head to which nevertheless that v. 14. Circumstance does unquestionably refer so that by the bare term of The Beast wounded and healed is signified The Beast with that particular Head If any one would pretend after this that the healed Head might signify one of the seven Hills said to be the Heads Chap. 17. 9. He must bring greater evidence for it by Rule the 2 d than the Prophetical use of an Head of a Beast for the Ruling Power of it is which is not pretended by any All that appears for it is that the seven Heads which were crowned in the Dragon chap. 12. have no Crowns upon the Beast in the 13th Chapter immediately after which may seem to shew that the Heads in the 13th Chapter without Crowns are Hills But that would be a reason for making the seven Heads no Kings in the 17th Chapter also where they are shown without Chap. 17. 10. Crowns and yet are certainly so many Kings But from the 17th Chapter it is plain that the time of their Crowns would be past before The Beast would come to be in that state which he appears in in the 17th Chapter and the 13th For even according to Grotius himself the seven Reigns would be past before the time of those two Shows in each Chapter And then was it not proper to represent those seven Heads without Crowns that is as Kings seven of whose Reigns were past for that in being was an 8th that was after the 7th Besides Since the 17th Chapter which is the only ground for making those seven Heads in the 13th Chapter to signify the seven Hills does also make them to be seven Kings The only way to know whether of these two any Character of an Head does mean is to consider the nature of the Character and whether it be the propriety of an Hill or of a King Now of which of these two is it most proper to say whether of an Hill or of a King that it was deadly wounded and healed again And with which of them by reason of that wound might the Beast himself who is described with a very Royal Dominion be most properly said to be wounded and to have his deadly wound healed or to have a wound by a sword and yet to live The very terms of the question does shew that this is properly said of a King who is the life of all the power of the Beast but most improper to be said of the Hill of a City to which a Beast may belong But whatsoever becomes of this wounded and healed Head we are assured by the mouth of the Beast that The Beast in the 13th Chapter for the whole time of its continuance does signify The Beast in a particular state of one of its Heads or Horns And from thence it is plain That the Affairs of the Second Beast the Image Mark Name and Corollar 1 Number of the Name of the Beast do every-where in the 13th Chapter belong to that particular state of the First Beast For the term of the Beast signifies all over that Chapter the First Beast only by Proposit 8. And that Beast does there signify The Beast in one particular state of an Head or Horn for the whole time of his continuance by Proposit 9. Wherefore every thing that is there joined with the term of the Beast the Image Mark c. and the Second Beast acting with him do all belong to that particular state of the Beast And that does also further assure us That the Beast with the False Prophet or Second Beast and Image Corollar 2 and Mark and Name c. in all the other Chapters do signify the same particular state of the Beast with those Attendants in which it is in the 13th Chapter For by Coroll 2. Prop. 8. The Beast with all those same Attendants is the same with that in the 13th Chapter And by Coroll 1. Prop. 9. The Beast with those Attendants in the 13th Chapter is in a particular state of its Heads or Horns Therefore must they all signify the Beast in the same particular state every where else CHAP. VIII Rev. XIII XVII The Tenth Proposition and its Corollaries conclude The Beast of the 13th and 17th Chapters to be one and the same particular state of the Beast WE have now sufficient grounds to conclude That The seven Heads and ten Horns of the Beast in the 13th and Proposit 10. 17th Chapters must signify the same things For since they are in both Chapters the same very peculiar and proper mystical Expressions and since they are explained in the 17th Chapter by Rule the third they must signify the same things But still further to confirm the force of that Rule in the present Case and to make the thing unquestionable it is to be considered That The Beast of the 13th Chapter is one and the same particular state of it both before and after the 17th Chapter by Coroll 1 and 2. Prop. 9. and so the 17th Chapter does stand in the body of the History of that Beast of the 13th Chapter We may also very plainly see that the 17th Chapter is interpreted in that place only to explain the mystical Significations of the same number of Heads and Horns upon a Beast to all appearance every way the same with this and of that Babylon that is the common sharer in the Fortunes of the Beast of the 13th Chapter throughout all the account of him For at the very v. 1. entrance into that Explication it is said by the Angel that he would shew the Apostle the judgment of that Great Whore called Babylon which was but just before it threatened with the Wrath of God in the Story of the other Beast at the conclusion of the 16th Chapter And then the Explication of this same kind and number of things of just so many Heads and Horns as had been mentioned of the other Beast is made by one of those Angels with the seven Vials who had been just before employed about the judgments of the former Beasts all over the Chapter immediatly preceding this Explication Who would not upon this consideration conclude with himself That the Angel's Explication of the same number of Heads and Horns in a new show of a Beast to all appearance the same with this other whose History is on purpose there interrupted to make room for that new show did most certainly refer to the same number of
Heads and Horns of the Beast which had all the way before been discoursed of Especially when he sees that the Person that brings in all this new Scene does expresly say that it was to tell the Apostle what that particular judgment of Babylon was which had but just before been mentioned in the History of the former Beast and every-where made its companion as also that the Interpreter Chap. 16. v. 19. himself had but just before been very busie in the concerns of that Beast which did but just conclude where this new show began and which also this Angel seems concerned to interrupt only to give this Explication of what had been already shewn Wherefore unless it were very plainly inconsistent with something else more clearly known which is not by any pretended the seven Heads and ten Horns of the Beasts in the 13th and 17th Chapters must by this new enforcement of Rule the third most certainly signify the same things Alcasar does very well observe to this purpose upon the 1st Verse of the 13th Chapter of the Revelations The seven Heads and ten Horns of this Beast are the same with those of the Beast in the 17th Chapter which is so unquestionably clear that they themselves who would have these two Beasts to be different from one another do yet agree that the seven Heads and ten Horns have the same signification in both of these Beasts In consequence of which it must be inferred That the Beasts in the 13th and 17th Chapters in every successive state Corollar 1 of the same Heads or Horns are one and the same particular Beast For the general signification of the Term of The Beast as the common Subject of each Head or Horn is the same in both And the Head or Horn is supposed to be the same in both at the time of every such Succession Wherefore the whole Beast in each Chapter can be but one and the same Beast at any such time And from thence it does at last easily follow That Rev. XVII The Beast of the 13th Chapter is every way the same particular state of Corollar 2 the Beast with that of the Beast in the 17th Chapter for the whole time of its continuance For the Beast in the 13th Chapter under every the same successive Head or Horn is the same particular Beast with that in the 17th Chapter in that same state by Coroll praeced And the Beast in the 17th Chapter in the state of its last Ruling Head is destroy'd by Coroll 1. Prop. 6. Wherefore it must also be in the state of its last Ruling Head that the Beast in the 13th Chapter must be destroyed Now the Beast of the 13th Chapter is destroy'd Chap. 19. 18. where it is the same particular state of it that it is in the 13th Chapter by Coroll 2. Prop. 9. That particular state then that the Beast in the 13th Chapter is in is the state of it under its last Head that is the same with that of the Beast in the 17th Chapter by Prop. 6. And that the Beast in the 13th Chapter is in this same state with that in the 17th Chapter for the whole time of its continuance is confirmed by Prop. 9. For it is for its whole time in that one and the same particular state Besides the time of the Beast under any one of his Heads is the whole time of that Head the Beast and his Head make but one whole thing all that time and this cannot be any time apart from one another without ceasing to be that Head in Rule or that Beast Wherefore the two Beasts in the 13th and 17th Chapters being found to be one and the same Beast under its last Ruling Head they must be the same for their whole time And if we consult the Characters of both of them in their several Chapters they will be found to begin both in the same particular circumstances of the last Head as well as to end with it For the One begins at his rising out of the Sea Chap. 13. 1. The Other at his ascent out of the bottomless Pit Chap. 17. 8. which is signified in the Original by the same name of the Abyss which is known to be the usual word for the Sea The One rises up with an Head wounded and healed and yet the last Head ch 13. 1. ch 19. 20. The Other as an eighth King which was one of the seven before Rev. XIII XVII him which is the same thing because the seven Heads signifie seven Kings Coroll 1. Prop. 5. The One rises up with Ten Kings crowned upon him ch 13. 1. The Other with the same Ten Kings receiving Power with him ch 17. 12. Wherefore the Beasts in the 13th and 17th Chapters do begin together and end together in the same state of their last Ruling Head of the Seven and therefore are the same particular state of the Beast in both Chapters for the whole time of their continuance We have then now both a close and a demonstrative proof from the Proprieties of these two Beasts That they must necessarily be one and the same thing and a copious variety also of very peculiar Circumstances exactly the same in both as has been formerly more fully shewn to secure and confirm it It has been also observed That the very Order and Dependance of the Accounts of these two Beasts upon one another as they seem to break into the continued relation of one anothers fortunes would at the first sight satisfie any impartial person of the same thing without any farther scrupulous Examination And withal it is confirmed by the almost unanimous Consent of all kind of CONSENT Interpreters at least for their being one and the same Interest at the same time See References in the 7th Chapter And those two or three only that have of late differed from the general current of the rest in all Ages do not pretend to give any other reason for it than that the Beasts in those two Chapters are two several shows and therefore must be two different states of the Beast And how small a ground is that against so great a variety of convincing Evidences and so universal an Authority There are indeed such a variety of Circumstances to make this Conclusion to appear unquestionable at the first cursory view of the Text that it will appear to most persons to have been too tedious and unnecessary a trouble which has been here taken to secure it But the great use of the Certainty of this Proposition will justifie the care that has been taken to assure it for without it the whole Prophecy will be found to be but a Rope of Sand as it has also been made to be by those who have been of another Opinion in this Point but by the Certainty of it the whole Prophecy is found to be all of one piece and about the same state of things tho' delivered in several Visions and thereby are we furnished
It has the mouth of a Lyon the feet of a Bear and the body of a Leopard Chap. 13. v. 2. which is enough to distinguish him from all the Beasts in the World It would much surprise any one at the first to meet with so uncouth an appearance of a thing that has three such strange and unusual Characters which cannot be supposed to be mentioned by chance and yet have no kind of Interpretation given them as many of the Characters of that Beast have in the 17th Chapter But it thereby appears that this Beast is plainly drawn from another Original Copy viz. That Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel And there it appears that that Beast had devoured three other Dan. 7. 7 19. Beasts which where like to a Lyon a Bear and a Leopard So that this Fourth Beast in Daniel with the other three before it in the 7th Chapter being interpreted afterwards to signify so many Kingdoms His devouring them there can be nothing but v. 17 23. the conquering them and upon that conquest the having them added to himself And so the Kingdom signified by him comes to be made up of those three together with that which was properly his own Dominion before All the difference then betwixt them is that the one is said to have devoured those three and the other is shown with them digested into his own Body 2. The parts in which the Beast in the 13th Chapter of the Revelations are said to be like those three Beasts are just like the same parts of the Fourth Beast in Daniel For the mouth which is said to be like that of a Lyon in the 13th of the Revelations and to be a mouth speaking great things and that was opened in Blasphemy v. 5. against God is just like the mouth belonging to the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which spake great words against v. 8. the Most High The Feet which in that 13th Chapter of the Revelations are v. 2. said to be the feet of a Bear whose strength we know lies in his Paws were just like the Feet of the other in Daniel the Nails of v. 19. which were of brass and brake all in pieces and stampt upon the residue with his Feet The whole Body of that in the Revelations that was like a Leopard or like the Third Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel which being the same thing with the Third Kingdom in the 2d Chapter did bear rule over all the Earth v. 39. is just the same with that of the Fourth Beast in Daniel which devoured the whole Earth ch 7. 23. and so had a Body of the same likeness with the Leopard 3. The Beast in the Revelations had Ten Horns upon it just as that Fourth in Daniel had and the Ten Horns of both of them are said to signify Ten Kings Rev. 17. 12. Dan. 7. 24. But here indeed is the difference betwixt them that the one had Seven Heads and Ten Horns and the other nothing but the Ten Horns and the Little Horn. But 4. Since all the Heads of the Beast in the Revelations were past and gone excepting the last Prop. 6. and so that Beast is nothing but the Beast under the Last Head all the difference then betwixt that in the Revelations and that in the 7th of Daniel is but this That the one besides the Ten Horns had an Head and the other an Eleventh Horn and if this be all the difference betwixt them the fashion of their Figures signifies nothing we are only to regard what they are both interpreted to represent Since therefore the Little Horn is said to represent a remarkable bustling King and the last Head of the Beast signifies nothing but the last King of Seven very formidable and turbulent we have no reason at all to fear any difference betwixt them 5. Consider then what this Eleventh Horn was and the Characters Dan. 7. 8. 21. of it It had Eyes like the Eyes of a Man and a Mouth speaking great things and a Look that was stouter than that of its Fellows Surely an Horn that has a Look or Face and Eyes and a Mouth can be nothing in the World but an Head in the fashion of a Horn an ill-shap'd Head For it had also Brains and a Soul in it by what it was able to speak and to act and by ruling and commanding the whole Body So that the whole Beast was slain and burnt for the Crimes of that Horn v. 11. This Horn then was in reality an Head for it had all the Properties and Offices that an Head is known by And therefore see next how the Characters of it agree with those in the last Head of the other Beast 6. The Mouth of the one and the other we have found to Dan. 7. 7. Rev. 13. 3 5. be the same by their speech and both of these Beasts wondred at for their dreadfulness 7. The one had power given him to make war with the Saints Rev. 13. 7. and to overcome them The other was to wear out the Saints of the Most High Dan. 7. 25. 8. The one had power given him over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations and the other was the King of a Kingdom that had devoured Rev. 13. 7. the whole Earth and trod it down Dan. 7. 23. 9. Both the one and the other had Ten Kings at the same time with them in the same Kingdom 10. The one ariseth out of a Kingdom divided amongst Ten Rev. 13. 1. Kings the other ariseth up out of the Sea and Waters signify Multitudes and Tongues and Nations Rev. 17. It ariseth Dan. 7. 24. also with Ten Kings ready Crowned which we cannot think could be all at the same moment that it arose and so it must arise in a Kingdom divided amongst those Ten Revel 13. 1. 11. They both end with the Beast to whom they belong and Dan. 7. 11. Coroll 2. Prop. 6. Coroll 1. Prop. 12. Dan. 7. 25. are both destroyed at the beginning of Christ's Second coming in glory at the beginning of his Universal Reign over all the World which concludes with the judging of the Dead 12. The time of the continuance of both is exactly the same The one a Time Times and half a Time which by many Examples in Daniel and one Instance in the Revelations is known to Rev. 13. 5. be three years and an half and the other continues forty two Months 13. They both rule over the same place over the whole Earth Rev. 13. 7. Dan. 7. 23. over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations 14. And The Beast it self in both is said to rise out of the Rev. 13. 1. Dan. 7. 3. Sea From all these put together Though it could not be prov'd to be absolutely impossible from their Characters for the two Kingdoms represented by these two Beasts to be otherwise than one and the same Kingdom yet how could a man
names of Beasts and Horns are often mentioned amonst the other Prophets for that purpose But that which takes away all the fear of the unintelligibleness of these Figures is the explication that is given by name of the Beasts and their Horns in the 8th Chapter which is by all acknowledged to be very manifestly determined and is a clear instance of the general signification of those mystical Terms in all other parts of the Prophecy besides From hence it was that there has been so unanimous an agreement amongst the Interpreters of all former Ages concerning the particular Kingdoms that are signified by Daniel's Figures which in all reason ought therefore to determine all Interpreters to the search of the constant signification of Beast and their parts in all those places to fix the notion of the Beast and its Heads and Horns in the Revelations For the Book of Daniel is without any controversie owned by all to be the place to which those uncouth Figures in the Revelations do refer and from whence most of the peculiar Phrases for such things are transcribed And from an attentive consideration of all the Figures of Beasts and their parts in Daniel one may observe the constant uniform signification of them to be according to this following Proposition In all the Figures of Beasts in the Prophecy of Daniel Prop. 16. 1. By the Beast in general as the common subject of its Heads or Horns is signified a Ruling Nation or People 2. By the Horns and Heads of a Beast the several kinds of Supream Government in that Nation 3. And if they be described to come after one another they signify so many successive kinds of setled Government over the same Kingdom 4. But if they be described to be in Rule all at the same time they signify so many distinct Sovereignties or Kingdoms of one and the same Ruling People 5. And in both these kinds do the several Heads or Horns signify the setled continuance of that Successive Government or divided Kingdom to their last end To make the proof of this the more full and to shew how Dan. VIII uniform and constant to it self this Prophecy is in all its Figures and that it may appear that there is one constant and determinate signification in the use of them I will prove by an induction of all the particular Instances That this is a property in common to all the Prophetical Figures of this Book which signify Kingdoms as The Beasts every-where do That by every such Figure in general as the common subject of its parts is to be understood the Rule of some particular Nation or People and by the parts and divisions of the same kind in it that are said to denote Dominion is meant the Supreme Government of that Kingdom And if they be said to come after one another they do denote the Successions of them in the same state But if they be said to be all in Rule at the same time they signify so many divided Kingdoms in that Nation or People This general proof from the uniform signification of all Figures and their parts will give us the more assurance of the common use of all these Prophetical Schemes and so does make the Conclusions about any of the particular Instances contained under it so much the stronger and the more undoubted Now there are Ten whole Figures in Daniel which are interpreted to signify Kingdoms there and they all confirm that general Observation As may be seen by the particular Instances The Two Figures in the 8th Chapter concerning the Ram Daniel VIII and the He Goat are of the most known signification of any because of the particular Interpretation that is there given of them and therefore it will be the most convenient to begin with them The Ram with its two Horns is said to be the Kings of Media v. 20. and Persia which does very plainly determine it to signify a multitude in the notion of it The Kings of Media and Persia cannot possibly signify one single person only or only the person of Darius conquered by Alexander though that Conquest seems to be the main thing there described The Ram therefore said with his two Horns to be the Kings of Media and Persia must signify a succession of Ruling Powers in that Dominion since there was but one King of that Dominion at one time And then the two Horns being joined with the single mention of the Ram and there being mentioned but just two sorts of Kings viz. of Media and Persia that are said to be signified by the Ram with his two Horns what can be plainer than that the Ram under each of these two Horns does signify each of those two sorts of Kings For an Horn does very commonly signify in Scripture the Ruling or Commanding Power of the thing with which it is joined And the Ram being the same common subject of both the Horns since the two Horns are found to be the two kinds of Kings the Ram of which they are the Horns must be the Kingdom of Media and Persia of which they are the Kings or which is the same the Ram must be the common Ruling Nation of the Medes and Persians of which the Horns are the Kings For since the Ram with them is said in the whole to be the Kings of Media and Persia and since his Horns are now found to be the Kings in that expression the remaining signification for the Ram as the common subject of both of them must be that which remains of what the whole is said to signify and that is Media and Persia or the Ruling Nation of the Medes and Persians And though there were two different Lines of Kings in that Dominion first the Median Line and then the Persian as they are represented by two different Horns yet was the Dominion always counted one and the same common Kingdom and both the Nations were always joined together as one united People Thus in the time of the Median Rule the Laws of that common Kingdom are called the Laws of the Medes and Persians thrice in one Chapter Dan. 6. And again in the time of the Persian Rule all over the Book of Esther is that one Kingdom called Persia and Media But then to shew the Successions of the two different sorts of Ruling Powers in this one Kingdom the two Horns of the Ram are mentioned with this Remark That which came up last was v. 3. the highest which shews that they succeeded after one another And the last of the two Horns being the last of the two Kings that they are both said to be must be that which is last mentioned in the Interpretation or the King of the Persian Line which might well be represented by an higher Horn than the Median Line just before it because of the encrease of the Conquests of the Persian Monarchy from the time of Cyrus so as to have the Title of the Great King all over the
being any part of the Graecian Monarchy that it is most certainly the Roman For as nothing can be understood by a Fourth Kingdom from Nebuchadnezzar's Kingdom agreed by all to be the Babylonian Monarchy but the Reign of some Ruling Nation which was a Fourth from the Babylonian which is known there to be the First so hath it the individual Characters of the Beast in the Revelations which has been already shown to be a Roman Dominion as may be seen Prop. 15. CHAP. IX Dan. VII The Recapitulation of the Demonstration of the Sixteenth Proposition And from thence shown that Heads and Horns are indifferently used for the same thing And that the distinction of one Successive Head or Horn from that before it is A new name of the Governing Power after a setled continuance of it FRom the Conclusion in the foregoing Chapter that the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th of Danel is certainly the Roman Monarchy and not any part of the Graecian It does now appear what is the undoubted and known signification of all the Figures of Rule and Dominion in Daniel which is the proof of the Proposition at first laid down For it now appears That the four first whole Figures in the 2d and 7th of Daniel are the Babylonian Persian Graecian and Roman Monarchies And that the last Kingdom in each signified by the Stone and the Figure of the Appearance of the Son of Man is the Rule of God's Church or of the People of God and then the two Figures in the 8th Chapter are known to be the Persian and Graecian Monarchies And thus we find the first part of the Proposition abundantly assured That not only the Figure of a Beast but any other Observ 1 whole Figure all over the Prophecy of Daniel does signify a Ruling Nation or Monarchy That for the rest of the Proposition about the parts of the Figures Observ 2 we find that the two Horns of the Ram and the first and four Horns of the He Goat do signify so many Supream Powers in those Ruling Nations And in the first of them or the Persian those Supream Powers appear to be successive Governments of the Medes and Persians because 't is said of the two Horns of the Ram that the highest of them came up last where the difference betwixt the Successive Horns is the Title of Media or Persia And in the Graecian Monarchy it appears also that the divers Supream Powers in it signified by the Horns are in a Succession over the same Nation of the Greeks in respect of the first Horn and the other four For it is said that the first was Dan. 8. broken and in the place of â—â— came up four others that is they came up after him But the four Horns in respect of one another signify only the division of that Monarchy into four Kingdoms because they are said to come up all together in the room of the first Horn. Which is exactly according to the Rule for their signification in this Proposition And then a single particular King in one of the Divisions of this Monarchy is set out by v. 9. a little Horn coming out of one of those Horns as a part only of the time of the whole Horn. The four Wings also and the four Heads of the Leopard in the 7th Chapter shew us the fourfold Kingdom of the Greeks in that Monarchy The ten Horns of the Fourth Beast do represent the division of the Roman Monarchy into Ten Kingdoms for they are represented as being all up at the same time with the Little Horn. The ten Toes of the Image do also represent the same thing It appears also from the four Heads of the Leopard and the Observ 3 four Horns of the He Goat which signify the same thing that an Head and an Horn have the same general signification of the Supream Power of a Nation and are indifferently used to signify the same particular Supream Power in the same Nation It may also be observed that the distinguishing Character of a Observ 4 new Succession of the Ruling Power in the same Kingdom that is set out by a new Head or Horn coming after another is a new name of the Ruling Power publickly owned For though the Persian Rule was in the same Nation of the Medes and Persians with that of the King of Media yet because he had the name of the King of Persia instead of the King of Media he is represented by a new Horn of the same Beast Many other differences were there in the Persian Line as different Families different behaviour to the Church of God c. but all these made no change of that Horn for any other and the same may be observed by the Horns of the He Goat in the Graecian Monarchy where though there were many other accidental Differences amongst the single Persons comprehended under the same Horn yet they continue notwithstanding but one and the same Horn. It is also apparent from the Figure of the Greek Monarchy that it is the continuing Settlement of a Form of Government which Observ 5 makes it an Head or Horn or a change of the Government of the body of a Nation Thus we see it was in the four Horns of the Leopard and He Goat which did signify the Greek Monarchy when it came to a setled appearance of four Kingdoms whereas there was nothing to represent the continued Scuffles of Alexander's Captains before that setled Form of the Monarchy And further That these parts of Figures do also represent those Observ 6 several Supream Governments for the whole time of their duration Ribera in cap. 17. Apoc. numer 15 16. under all the single Persons that are in the possession of them after one another is certain from the continuance of the several Horns and the Little Horn on the Fourth Beast till the time of the last coming of the Son of Man And also from the time of the Little Horn in the 8th Chapter which is said to be in the latter time of the Kingdom of the four Horns For before the time of that v. 25. Little Horn there had been many Successions of single Persons in each of the four Kingdoms that is in the Ruling time of each of the Horns Wherefore we may now most certainly conclude That the Prophecy of Daniel is every-where constant to it self in the signification of every one of its Figures and that there is but one uniform signification of the Prophetical Figures of the same kind throughout the whole Book and therefore may one thereupon conclude with still more assurance That By a Beast as the common Subject of its Heads or Horns is signified a Ruling Nation or People By the Horns and Heads of a Beast the several kinds of Supream setled Government in it And that either in succession to one another over the same place if those Heads and Horns be described to come after one another Or so many distinct Sovereignties
the creation of whom all other Magistracies were at an end all which ended at last in the Imperial Government The Jesuit Pererius confirms this upon the Fourth Beast of the 7th of Daniel Why that Beast is without a name and all the other three named Because says he in the other three Kingdoms there was but one kind or form of Government But the kinds of Government amongst the Romans were of several sorts First Regal then Consulary after that partly Tribunitical partly Consulary sometimes by Dictators sometimes by Emperours Where he leaves out only the Decemvirs who yet are sufficiently known to have been a peculiar Government distinct from the rest If it should be objected That the Triumviri Rep. Constituendae were as different a Government from all these it is to be considered that that was only the Rule of three single Men for one turn only And single Persons are no-where made an Head of a Beast That of the first Horn in the 8th of Daniel is the King of Macedon or Alexander and his Heirs Fenestella does also reject this as no Magistracy cap. 21. And these two forms of these Governments which are the most questioned viz. the Decemvirs and the Dictators have a very sufficient warrant for them from the best approved Writers of the Roman Affairs Livy says of the Decemvirs Book the IIId in the 300th and first year after the building of Rome The Government of the City was changed from Consuls to Decemvirs as it had been before from Kings to Consuls And Fenestella of the Dictators chap. 8. of the Roman Magistracy that they were so much the Supream Power of the Commonwealth that there was no Appeal from them and that they had the power of the Lives of the Roman Citizens and the entire Jurisdiction of the whole Commonwealth And that He was called the Master of the People for his Absolute Power by Alcasar and by Ribera in express words who says that the Roman Empire is now at an end Therefore is it that Grotius is so higly applauded for that Masterpiece of his in confounding the acceptation of a Beast and its Horns in Daniel by denying the fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter to be a Rule of the Romans which is the only true way to strike at the root of any setled Interpretation of the Beast or its Heads in the Revelations But then we see it was necessary for him to run into a greater absurdity than any of these to maintain it as his Opinion about the coming of the Son of Man has been already made to appear And there need no other proof of the falseness of his Interpretation of the Heads of the Beast than to be satisfied that the coming of the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel is the Kingdom of Christ For that establishes such an uniform acceptation of the signification of the Heads and Horns of a Beast all over Daniel as makes his new contrivance about the seven Heads of the Beast in the Revelations to be against all the constant Prophetical use of them From hence then it does sufficiently appear That the seven Heads of the Beast are so many Sovereign Powers of the Roman Monarchy and because they are distinguished into five past at the time of the Vision one then in being and others to come it is certain also that they are successive and therefore by Proposition the 16th are they as many Changes of the Sovereign Power of that Empire as there are Successions amongst them By almost all Protestant Interpreters are these seven Heads determined to be at least seven Successions of the Sovereign Power of Rome But because there is no absolutely certain assurance of more than three successive Changes from the Text of which the sixth is the first Succession there signified by five are past one is All that can therefore be positively affirmed about the number of the successive Ruling Powers is That the three last are certainly successive Changes of the Ruling Power of the whole Roman Monarchy I dispute not here the successive Rule of the first five Heads but rather judge it to be highly probable that they are the five different Changes of the Roman Government that are ordinarily accounted upon e Bellarmin lib. 1. de Pontifice cap. 2. But neither was the Commonwealth governed always by the same Heads For in the beginning they had Consuls and Tribunes after he had before supposed Kings And when they were taken away Decemvirs Consuls and Tribunes were then recalled and sometimes had they Dictators and sometimes Military Tribunes with a Consulary Power But if any will further contend to have the Senate and the Interreges and the Triumviri Reipublic Constituendae to come in for a share of the Supream Government then the five Governments before the Imperial may be accounted to be those which had been in Rule from the first Succession of the Beast to the third Beast in Daniel ch 7. that is ever since the Roman Conquests of the Greek Monarchy and may be reckoned this way to be the Consuls Dictators Senate Interreges Triumviri Reip. Constituendae It is indeed usual to account all the Characters that are given to every Beast in Daniel from the time that it conquered the Beast that was before it And according to that the seven Heads may by some be thought necessary to be accounted for from the end of the Greek Monarchy The Roman Historians do reckon up the Changes of their Government in that order Bellarmin himself lib. 1. c. 2. de Pontifice does reckon up the same number of the Governments of Rome But yet it seems not to be plainly assured to us that the five first Heads may not have been all five in Rule at the same time before the sixth or at least not certain but that they might have succeeded by more than one single Head at a time As in the He-Goat in the 8th Chapter of Daniel it might be said that there was one Horn first and four more after it where there is a succession of five Horns and yet but one successive Change of the Ruling Power of the Greeks that is The division of that Monarchy into four after the time of the single Reign of one King over it CHAP. II. Rev. XVII The Eighteenth Proposition The Three last Kings of the Eight Rev. 17. 10 11. are Three immediately successessive Changes of Roman Government This demonstrated Bellarmin 's peculiar fancy of the signification of the number Seven The Eighth King one of the Six first returned into power The Nineteenth Proposition The Sixth King the Imperial Government at the time of the Vision Grotius examined in that point The Twentieth Proposition The Beast is the next Government of Rome but one to the Imperial at the time of the Vision Dr. Hammond 's Objection from the time being at hand answered WIthout any farther concern about the particular nature of the first five Heads or Kings it may be observed of the
immediatly succeed one another then it is certain that The Eighth King is one of the first Six returned into Rule again Corollary For the Eighth King is one of the Seven that were past before returned into Rule again Coroll Prop. 4. And it cannot be the Seventh because the three last Kings and therefore the Seventh and Eighth do immediatly succeed one another Prop. 18. so that if the Eighth were the Seventh and with the Seventh King it would be but the Seventh continued in being and therefore not an Eighth The Eighth King must therefore be one of the Six that were past before it It cannot therefore now be doubted but that The Sixth King of the Eight in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations Proposit 19. was the Imperial Government of Rome at the time of the Vision For the Sixth King is the Sixth Head of the Beast Prop. 5. And an Head or Horn of a Beast does in Prophecy signify a form of Supream Power in a Nation And the continuance of that Form under all the single Persons that reign in it till it be changed by another Prop. 16. Now there was no other Government over Rome when the Sixth King is said to be in Rule there but only that of the Roman Emperours The Sixth King then must be the Government of the Roman Emperours till that was cut off by a Form of Government of another name Observ 4. Prop. 16. If it should be objected That by the Sixth Head or King may be meant but one part of the Imperial Government or those only that were of the same Line or Family or of the same Countrey or of the same Religion or the like It may be replied that there is no warrant for any other signification of a new Successive Head or Horn in the same Jurisdiction than that of a new name of the Governing Power There were many other differences in the Successions of the several Kings of the Persian and Graecian Monarchies viz. several Lines and Families several different Countries but yet they were all comprehended under one and the same Horn. The only plain Example that we have of the change of a single Horn in the same Beast which is the same with the change of an Head Observ 3. Prop. 16. is that of the Two Horns of the Ram Dan. 8. where all the difference betwixt the latter Horn and the first is that the Last was known by the name of the King of Persia whereas the other was called the King of Media in the same one Kingdom of the Medes and Persians There is therefore no warrant for making the Sixth King any thing else but the whole time of the Imperial Government till it was changed for a Roman Government of another name There is no kind of scruple to be made against this upon the account of the name of King which is common to all the Eight Kings For that is known to be very dubiously used in Scripture but especially in Prophecy to signify either a Kingdom or a Government in a Nation of another kind than the Kingly Government The most certain Example of it is this present use of the word King where it must at least signify an Emperour which is a Government of another denomination and so different from that of Kings that the Romans which permitted the one are said to have †Hieron Balbus de Coronatione c. 13. Julius Caesar c. Julius Caesar who when he had engrossed the Dictatorian and Regal Power to himself because he knew that the name of King was hated by the Romans and even execrable to them to decline the envy of it instead of King chose rather to be called Emperour When Mark Anthony the Consul offered him the Diadem he cried out aloud that he was Caesar and not a King and threw away the Diadem an hatred for the other Grotius's Answer to this is That an Emperour had really the same power that a King had But if that be sufficient to qualify a Supream Power for the Name or Title of King Then all the several different Rulers of the Roman State might as well have See References that name and so be comprehended under the Five first Kings here mentioned For the Consuls are said to have succeeded into all the Power and the Authority of the Kings that were before them And all the other kinds of Government had the same Authority And though there should be some small difference in the degree of their Authority yet that is no more than is to be found betwixt c Ribera in cap. 17. Apoc. v. 10. numer 15. But if any one should think it hard and forced that many Kings should be signified by the name of one King and should think that these seven are but seven single Kings let him know in the first place that all Expositors have understood that in every one of these seven are comprehended a great many and that never did any take them to be seven single persons only but Victorinus whose Opinion all do deservedly cry out against And then next let him understand that it is not unusual in Scripture by one King to signify many of the like sort and as it were of one and the same Body which is especially to be observed So in Daniel 8. The Ram with the two Horns does signify all the Kings of Persia succeeding one another in order and making as it were but one body who are therefore accounted but as one King So that in Jeremiah chap. 25. And they shall serve the King of Babylon 70 years which it is impossible to understand of one single King different sorts of Kings As for the Plea that the Name of a King denotes a single Person almost d Ribera in cap. 1. Apocal. v. 3. numer 5. citat We may say that which is begun is now done or doing Wherefore since those things were shortly to begin he might well say the things which shall shortly be done although they were not shortly to be ended This is the common use of speech and the use of Scripture all the Examples in Daniel of that name do show See References that it does signify a Succession of many single Persons in a Kingdom Prop. 16. Part the Last This Grotius takes no notice of but thinks it argument sufficient against it to call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and quis unquam ita loquitur To which Ribera does best answer on cap. 17. Apoc. pag. 528. That all Expositors have said so and never any but Victorinus said otherwise But in the 7th of Daniel it is evident That by the Four Beasts called Four Kings is meant four Kingdoms and by the Fourth of these Kings the Roman Commonwealth For it is described in that state in which it conquered the Graecian Monarchy which was in the state of its Commonwealth And Deut. 33. 5. and Judges 9. 16 18. chap. 17. 6. ch 18. 1. ch 19. 1. ch 21. 25. the
destruction of the Species or Soul of it that is of the Society of that People either by Slavery or by Subjection only to a new Authority Artic. 4 5 6. Ibid. Artic. 8. As Grotius determines concerning the continuance of the same body of People in the See References 9th Chapter of his Second Book de jure Belli Pacis And therefore were they still the commanding Authority of the Roman Empire 9. This is very learnedly confirmed by b Thus were the People of Rome the same under Kings Consuls and Emperours And Artic. 11. are the same at this day because they still retain that Society in Civil Government which they had formerly and therefore the Imperial Power did always reside in them as in the Body in which it lived For whatever the People of Rome could have formerly done of right before the time of the Emperours the same had they power to do upon the death of any Emperour before there was another chosen The Election of the Emperours did also belong to the People of the City of Rome and was oftentimes performed by the People either alone or by the Senate for them And those Elections which were made by first one and then another Legion of the Army were not valid by the right of those Legions for in a flitting Body there could be no certain right but from the approbation of the People It is no Objection against this that by the Decree of Antoninus all the Subjects of the Roman Empire were made Citizens of Rome For the rest of the Roman Subjects got nothing more by that Decree than what the Colonies and free Cities of the Empire and the Roman Provinces used to have which was to be partakers of the Roman Honours and to have the privileges of Quirites not that the Seat and Fountain of Government should be in other parts of the Empire as it was at Rome For that was not in the power of the Emperour to give who could not change the Fundamental Laws for the exercise of the Governing Power Nor was it any diminution of the Right of the People of Rome that the Emperours chose rather to live at Constantinople afterwards than at Rome For then also did the whole People of Rome confirm and make valid the Election which was made by a part of them at Constantinople who for that are called the Byzantine Quirites by Claudian And those of Rome did still preserve the Prerogative of their City and the honour of the precedence of their Consul which was no small Monument of their Original Right Wherefore all the Right which those of Constantinople had to chuse the Roman Emperour did depend upon the Will of the People of Rome To this purpose is that of Hieron Balbus de Conventione c. 13. But sometimes the Emperour was chosen by the Army who was then accounted rightly chosen if the Authority of the Senate and People of Rome did confirm it Ludovic â Rebeuberg a Caesarian Writer cap. 3. de juribus Reg. Imp. Romanor Charlemaign never called himself Emperour before he was anointed and crowned by Pope Leo The Romans with one Consent did give the Imperial Acclamations to Charlemaign And when he was crowned by Pope Leo they called him Caesar and Augustus M. Fribeius in the Comment In which way of Acclamation says he the popular Election both at Rome and Constantinople did at that time consist As Paulus Diaconus in Histor Miscella Anastas Bibliothecarius do testify Grotius himself in that same Chapter and the Comment on it where he shews as a Lawyer That it was always acknowledged to be the right of the Senate and People of Rome to determine the next Succession to the Government of the Roman Empire in the time of every vacancy That therefore all Elections of Princes and Laws were to be confirmed by them So that the Constantinopolitan Emperours were generally so confirmed and their Laws ratified by the Authority of the City of Rome And to give authority to their Government they had one of the Consuls and a part of the Senate of Rome generally residing with them as delegated from that City to give authority to their Orders as long as there was a good correspondence betwixt the Eastern and Western Empires And to show which of the Seats of the Empire was the chief Fountain of the Roman Power the Consul of the City of Rome always had the precedence So that as long as the Power of the Roman Senate and Consuls did continue at Rome which was till the Conquest of Rome by Justinian the Sovereign Power of that City must come in for a share at least in the then Ruling Head of the Beast which is all that is necessary to be here established 10. And the way to make any man a Roman in distinction to others that were Subjects of that Empire was to make him a Citizen of Rome which did manifestly shew that no Power could be properly said to be the Head of the Roman Empire that was without any Authority from the City of Rome 11. The City of Rome had also a very peculiar acknowledgment from the whole Government of the Empire that it was the Head and Fountain of all the Power of the Roman Empire and in a more eminent way than we read of any other City besides For all the Governors of the Provinces at their return from their Office used to lay down the Ensigns of their Authority at the Gates of the City of Rome before they entred the Town in acknowledgment of the first Fountain of their Magistracy which they did therefore thus signify to be resigned up into her hands when they returned home again L. ult de Officio Procons 12. Besides That during the whole time of the division of the Empire to the Reign of c Cod. Justinian Praefat. Consuetudo Romanae Urbis sequenda ab omnibus quia Roma est Caput Orbis Terrarum To this purpose do the Eastern Emperours before give the precedence to the City of Rome So all over Cassiodorus's Varior p. 41 112 207 302 311 319 341 348 359 361 390 396. Rome has the name of the Head of the World with such Characters as these in that City where Honour does always reside in the most sacred City none can be greater than he to whose care Rome is committed not only Rome tho in it are contained all things whatsoever is done in that City is almost in the eyes of the whole World If the Head of the World rejoyces all the rest must do the same not in the Provinces but in the Head of all things And this was just before the Reign of Justinian Justinian at least the City of Rome though no longer the Seat of the Empire was called and accounted the Metropolis of it and therefore was it for all that time called The Head of the World the Head of all things Wherefore by the Head of the Roman Empire that is by any Head
time of the Vision If it be said that these Emperors were rather two Heads than one like the representation of two of the four Kingdoms in the Graecian Monarchy by two distinct Horns succeeding to Dan. 8. the first It may be answered That according to the account of all Historians Thô they seemed to have a divided Empire yet they acted in almost all the publick affairs as but a BEllarmin de Translat Imperii Occident l. 1. c. 4. Erat tamen c. But so common to them both was the whole Administration of the Empire that is to both the Western and Eastern Emperour that the Laws were made for the whole Empire by the Authority and in the name of both the Emperours And if one of them died without Children the Government of the whole Empire fell to the other One Government of the whole Empire They had both their Authority confirmed at Rome they owned the same Laws and joyned together in the making of them The Laws bear the names of both the Emperors And no Laws could be made but by the consent of both the Princes And if either of them died without Children the other succeeded him in that part of the Empire The supream Authority of Rome was divided betwixt them part of the Roman Senate did always sit at Constantinople one of the Consuls did ordinarily belong to that City There was indeed a promiscuous use of this right of chusing the Consuls betwixt the Two Imperial Seats as Onuphrius Panurinus does show Lib. Fastor pag. 290. sometimes both the Consuls were made at Rome sometimes both at Constantinople sometimes none at all sometimes one in the East another in the West So that as b Panciroll notit Imp. Occident p. 1. But yet both the Princes of See Onuph Panvi Fastor p. 61. and p. 290. where he gives a Chronicle of the Eastern and Western Consuls the East and West did always administer the Affairs of the Empire by a joint consent They made the Laws together they governed the Army by consent and chose the Consuls one of which resided at Rome and the other at Constantinople so that they seemed to be two halves of the Empire joined together Pancirollus does very properly express it They seemed to be Two half Empires joyned together And accordingly in the Notitia Imperii which was the Imperial standard of all the Dignities and Offices of the Empire both Civil and Military and was in use in the time of this division of the Empire The Military Ensigns and the Arms of the chief Dignities are there described as representing the perfect Vnity of the Two Emperors in their design of Governing the whole World All the greater Civil-Magistrates as the Praefects Pancirol Not it Imp. Orient pag. 40. Consuls Proconsuls Vicarii c. had always the Two Emperors Heads raised upon gilded Pedestals and carried before them as the Ensigns of their Authority Pancirollus admires That of the Correctors of Apulia and Calabria as the most expressive of the intent of all the rest Notit dignitat Occident p. 87. And that of the President of Dalmatia was much the same pag. 91. ibid. It was Two Princes upon the top of a gilded Pillar with their backs to one another but so close joyned together that they ended in one common Body And of all the publick Ensigns of Authority he says pag. 46. Notit Orient That the Heads or Faces of the Princes was the chiefest 3. The Military Dignities had the same Figure of the Princes Heads conjoyned Engraven on a Gilded Plate on the back-side of a Book And c Panciroll Notit Imp. Orient p. 56. de M. militum praesentali The Badges of the Authority of this Dignity was a Book upon a Chest covered with white Tapistry In the middle of it is a golden Plate with the two gilt Faces of the Princes engraven in it every Legion had the same drawn together with the Eagle in their Banners besides the distinguishing Figure of the Legion The distinguishing Ensigns d Panciroll notit Imper. Orient p. 59. de Legionibus Every Legion consisted of ten Companies the first of which was called Milliaria This had the charge of the Eagle which was the chief Ensign in the Army and the Faces of the two Princes And pag. 46. Every Legion had the Princes Heads with the Eagle and they adored them upon the top of the Colours The first Company pay their veneration to the Images of the Emperours that is to a Divine Representation of Authority and present at hand And Vegetius de re Militari In the second Rank after the Eagle and the Images stands the 6th Troop And adds The Imaginiferi are those that carry the Emperours Images Panciroll Notit Imper. Orient à cap. 50. usque ad cap. 60. Idem Notit Imper. Occident à cap. 20. ad cap. 28. Panciroll Notit Imper. Oriental cap. 39. pag. 70. Defensores The Old Coin that has two Serpents joined by the Tails is a Type of the one common Power of the two Consuls in both their Authorities The Inscription is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The twofold Rule of the two Consuls Prattica dalle Medaglie di Carlo Patino pag. 150. The Romans used to comprehend their History in two or three words as may be seen in these following Examples of Medals Amor mutuus Augustorum c. and p. 161. among the Abbreviations of the Inscriptions of Medals this is one Augg. which is interpreted to be Augusti duo of every particular Legion had also generally the same signification and that was shown most commonly by two circles of different colours Pancirol Notit dignitat l. 1. 252. c. 2. p. 35. Rounding a Ball which Augustus first ordered to signify the Rule of the World by the Romans sometimes by Two half Circles conjoyned and yet distinguished sometimes by a Circle or Ball girt about with two different wreaths sometimes by two half Snakes rising from a Basis and meeting with their Heads in a Circle Or by two half Horses or Hawks or Horns enclosing a Ball or some round figure sometimes by Half-moons c. And the Sagittarii had this plainly expressed in theirs by a Cirlce about a Globe and Two Eagles on each side of it and the Two Emperors above it The Mattiaci also by a White Globe encircled with two Rounds Red and White and above it the Faces of the Two Emperors And much the same have the Tertia Dioclesiana Thebaeorum Others that are more uncertain I will not mention And these seemed all to be done in imitation of the impress of the old Coynes made to signify the Two Consuls Governing the one Roman State which was represented by Two Serpents joyn'd by their Tails with this Inscription e Baronius Anno 472. Odoacer made a Law which he proclaimed by his Praefect Basilius in a full Assembly of the Bishops in the Vatican That after the decease of Simplicius then Bishop of Rome
by Pope Leo. as Kings and Emperors of the Romans and they are owned for such by all Christian Princes in their Treaties with them The Pope also who confers this Right and Title of Roman Emperour is by Custom and Prescription the g Clementin de sententia re judicata That Law was made by Pope Clement V. against Henry VII That in the time of the Interregnum or Vacancy after every Emperour's death the Pope should have all the Power over the Imperial Countreys and Towns The Administrator of the Empire in time of a Vacancy and is the Representative of the Senate and People of Rome in whom the power of chusing or approving the Head of the Roman Empire did always reside how various soever the way of chusing him was as Grotius informs us in his Notes upon the 9th Chapter of his 2d Book de jure Belli Pacis Bellarm. de Translat Imp. Rom. Note 1 2. on Chap. 3. These Rights of the present Roman Emperor are also confirmed by that Civil Law which was always in former times the General Law of all Nations and is so now for the greatest part of it and his Title has been acknowledged by the Constantinopolitan Emperors themselves His Power in disposing of the Fees of the Roman Empire in h Blondus Trithemius Sabellicus Cuspinian c. and almost all Historians do blame the Emperour Rodolph of Hasburg for selling the Fees of the Imperial Towns and Principalities in Italy But the Popes were well pleased with it because it kept the Emperours at greater distance from them Italy he is continually in the exercise of and has publick homage done him for the Dutchies of Milan Mantua Modena Montferret c and for other Rights in these Parts i Grot. Respons de Antichristo in Not. 6. of this Chapter His being of the German Nation signifies no more against him than it did against others that they were of Thrace or Dalmatia or Hungary Besides there is a plain distinction in his Titles betwixt that of Caesar or the Emperor of the Romans and his being King of Germany Hungary Bohemia It can be no objection against this That the Imperial Power has no exercise of Authority over the City of Rome or over all the Jurisdiction of the Roman Empire For 1. His Absence from Rome and from the particular Government See References of it is no greater Argument against his being the Head of that City as it is a part of the Empire than it was against those Roman Emperors who first left the City of Rome to its own disposal and seated themselves at Ravenna And tho the Authority of the present Emperor be now less at Rome than it was in the days of those Emperors yet as long as he is still owned there as Lord paramount of the whole Empire of that City a particular privilege of exemption from the execution of his Orders among the inhabitants of Rome is no more than the asserting it to be a privileged place within the extent of his Jurisdiction Besides that it is by k The Popes themselves pretend no other Right to the City of Rome than the Donations of their Emperours and these were upon occasion recalled The most famous instance of which was no later than the year 963. when Pope Leo VIII made a most solemn Renunciation of all the Imperial Donations that had been given to his Predecessors and this for Himself and his Successors to the Emperour Otho I. and his Successors and to this subscribed the Archbishops Cardinals and all the Clergy there and the Consuls Senators c. and all the Civil Governours of the City of Rome and the Papacy as is recorded by Theodoric à Nyem There was indeed continual Differences betwixt the Popes and Emperours about these Donations and the Popes were not wholly in the free possession of the Government of it till it was given away by the Emperour Charles IV. who in lieu of it had the Golden Bull to chuse the Emperour of the Romans in Germany Blondus in his 2d Decad. lib. 10. gives that account of Pope Innocent VI. That he would not give him the Imperial Crown but upon this Condition That he should not keep his publick Meetings there nor make any Order about the Romans without the advice of the Pope and that he should not keep any constant Court at Rome or in Italy Thus was the Emperour Sigismund brought afterwards to do much the same thing by Pope Eugenius about the time of the Council of Constance and that under the name of Confirming the Donations of Constantine and of the other Princes the consent of the Emperors themselves that they exercise no temporal Superiority there And that Power which they have lost there is only upon the account of their power there exercised before them by a Church-Head according to the Letter of the Prophecy Rev. 13. 12. 2. As for the inconsiderableness of his Power or Authority over the Jurisdiction of the Roman Empire it is no more than what is foretold of him in the Figure of the Beast For it is expresly signified in the Figure that he should be but the Head Rev. 13. 1 chap. 17. 12. of the Roman Empire when it was divided into l Aventinus in Annal. Boior lib. 7. Eberhard Archbishop of Saltzbourg about the year 1240. describes the Usurpations of the Papal Authority over the Imperial with application to the Beast in the Apocalypse The Emperour says he is now no more than a Name the Ten Kings who have parted the World amongst them do Destroy it rather than Govern it Under them is grown up that little Horn which has Eyes and a Mouth speaking proud things What can be clearer than this Prophecy Turn over the Annals all the strange things which our Master forewarn'd us of are already come to pass Ludovic à Bebenburg de Jurib Reg. Imp. Rom. cap. 9 shews That the Imperial Authority stands upon the same Title that Charlemagne left to his Sons by Inheritance the way by Election succeeded into the same Right and so the Imperial Power has still the same Title over the Lands and Kingdoms that were subject to the Roman Empire tho he is not in the actual possession of them Eleven distinct Sovereignties represented by the Ten Horns with Crowns upon them and the last Ruling Head amongst them And therefore must the Head be really but a titular Head of that whole Empire and not in the actual possession of all the Jurisdiction of it And since the Beast is a Roman Secular Power in being at this present by Coroll preced And there is no other Secular Power of the Empire who is acknowledged to be superiour to all the rest by the Authority of the City of Rome but he alone The smalness of his Dominions cannot hinder him from being a Secular Head of Rome Besides He is in the actual possession and exercise of many priviledges
the time of the continuance and the last period of so formidable a power as that of the Beast and the False Prophet is described to be I will now proceed to propound my apprehensions about those particular circumstances which is so much the more necessary because almost all the applications of the many Characters and Properties of the Beast do seem to depend upon such a particular determination And because I know it will be difficult to prevail with any who have framed to themselves an Hypothesis of their own about these things to see any convincing proof for the way that I make choice of To be civil to the Understandings and Assurances of others I will now propound my own particular Application under the name of Queries instead of Propositions thô to my self they may appear to be of much the same strength I would therefore first have it considered Whether at the time of Justinian 's Conquest of the Italian Query 1 Goths there had not been at least Two such Changes of the Secular Soveraign Power of Rome since the time of the Visions about the Beast as might be called Two different Heads of the Beast For the Secular Soveraign Power of Rome at the time of the Vision was the Imperial Government and Sixth Head by Prop. 19. and 5. And the Imperial Government as the Sixth Head was changed at latest upon the ruin of the Western Empire by the Heruli and Goths by Prop. the 22. There remains then nothing more to be done for the determining of this question than to show That the Succession of the Heruli and Goths to the Government of Rome and Italy did make a new Head of the Beast For then it will not be questioned but that the Conquest of the Goths by Justinian did also make the other Head that was to be revived That the Succession of those Barbarous Kings at Rome did make a new Head of the Beast appears from the definition of an Head of the Beast Prop. the 21st For upon the ruin of the Western Empire by these Kings and their Reign over Rome and Italy The Supream Secular Power of Rome was changed and another owned there in the place of it Thô the one part of the Imperial Head remained still sound at Constantinople yet by the change of the other part of it which did more immediately preside over the City of Rome the Soveraign power of the Romans came to be divided betwixt a King and an Emperor And so that which was a form of Government purely Imperial before came to be a mixture of Kingly and Imperial Government For that the new Kings of Italy and the Eastern Emperours made still but one Supream form of Roman Government thô divided in the Seats of their Empire appears from the state of the Imperial Government before the ruin of the Western Empire by these Barbarous Kings The Eastern and Western Emperor were then but one and the same Imperial Head Thô they had Two different Kingdoms they had both of them their Authority Chap. xvii pag. 157 158. from the a SEe Note the second on Chap. 3. Grotius de Jure Bell. Pac. lib. 2. c. 9. Art 11. and in the Annotat. Onuphrius Panvinius lib. Fastor does frequently make mention of the Constantinopolitan and Roman Consuls and shews them to have been indifferently chosen from either of those Cities See Pancirollus in Note 2. Chap. 4. same people and Senate of Rome and therefore were there half the Senate and one of the Consuls ordinarily residing at Constantinople The Laws also of the Empire were joyntly subscribed by both and do now in the Code bear the names of both the Emperors and it is the Subject of a great part of Pancirollus's Explication of the Notitia Imperii to show that the Military Ensigns and the Arms of the chief Dignities of the Empire were almost every one of them Figures on purpose contrived by the Emperors and given by their Authority to represent the Vnity of the Roman Empire all over the World under the divided shares of the Two Imperial Heads of it as has Ch. 17. been before observed page 148. And thus were the Two Empires but like the Two Provinces of the Two Consuls of Rome which nevertheless were but one Vnited Supream Government of the Romans Now all the change of this Imperial Partnership in the Government by the change of the Western Empire was the introducing the Kingly power into that share of the Empire For in every thing else The new Kings observed b Sigonius de Occident Imper. lib. 15. Odoacer did humble the Authority of the Senate and Consuls but in every thing else he retained the Old Constitutions of the Commonwealth and the Rights and Names of the Magistrates gave the Bishops and Churches their due respect And speaking of Theodorick after him lib. 16. He retained the Roman Magistrates and because he reigned by the Emperour's Favour and the Consent of the Senate he laid aside his own Country Habit and wore the Purple and the Royal Robes He set up a Kingdom every way like the ancient Western Empire Joan. Fersius Silesius de Praefectura Praetor Theodoric retained still the Roman Laws and Customs and the very same Magistrates so that the Citizens of Rome were ashamed to create them themselves Cassiodor lib. 3. Variar Ep. 43. Theodoric says We delight in governing according to the Laws of the Romans whom we desire to maintain by our Arms. And all over that Book nothing is more frequent than the mention of the Roman Commonwealth for the Kingdom of the Goths in Italy And the whole business of it is The Kings or Governours Letters for the administration of the Civil Government after the same manner and by the same kinds of Magistrates that the Western Empire had been govern'd by before Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 867. speaking of the Gothish Government in Italy But altho they changed not any Roman Constitutions as the Senate the Praefects the Comites the Curators and the like yet they did ordinarily model them after their own fashion but yet all in imitation of the Roman Laws and Dignities And pag. 128. Then began Italy to breathe and flourish again and Theodoric when he saw the Romans whom he had an affection for very much bent upon their ancient Liberties he commanded all things should be administred by Roman Magistrates He committed the whole Government of the City to the Senate and People of Rome but so as that he himself chose the Praefect of the City the old form See References of Government which they found in use at their coming to the Crown as appears from all the History of their Government They changed no Roman Custom says Rubeus And it may H. Rubeus Histor Raven p. 128 167. more particularly be seen in Cassiodorus's Variarum That they retained all the same Magistrates by which the Government of the Western Empire was administred Besides the fall of
the Application of it to the fall of Paganism by Constanstine's Conversion is That the Reign of Diabolical Rage in the Imperial Head against the Christan Church was then at an end and that Christianity was mounted on the Throne instead of it But there is no manner of hint about the end of the Imperial Head it self or of the change of it for a new Head It is only the change of the Reign of the Devil in that Head and therefore is it said to be Satan only cast down And though one would judge this to be a great change of Affairs yet there was no reason from hence to make the loss of the Dragon's Power the end of an Head because his Power never was the beginning of one The Imperial Head had not its denomination or distinctive Character from the other Heads upon the account of the power of the Dragon in it and therefore it cannot cease to be an Head only for having that power cast out of it That it was not the power of the Dragon that was the distinguishing Character of the Imperial Head from those that were before it is certain For the Red Dragon with the Seven Heads and Ten Horns must necessarily be some Roman Power persecuting the Church of God And then it must 1. Either begin at Pompey's Conquest of Judaea which was in the time of the Consulary Government and continued in the Dictatorship of Julius Caesar and so the Red Dagon would be in one or two Heads more besides the Imperial and therefore could not be the mark of distinction betwixt them and the Imperial If so then the continuance of the Imperial Government without the Dragon in it has all reason to be accounted the same Head still since the Dragon was no part of the essential difference of the Imperial Head from the two others that went before it and therefore does the casting out of the Dragon out of the Imperial Head make no change of that Property which made it an Head Or 2dly The Dragon must be the Roman persecution of the Christians And then the Imperial Head would have been begun a long time before the time of the Dragon in it which would plainly show that as the Imperial Government was an Head of the Beast before it was possessed by the Dragon so must it continue the same Head of the Beast after it was dispossessed of the Dragon 2. And whereas this Opinion seems to be countenanced from the immediate consequence of it in the 13th Chapter which is v. 3. the appearance of an Head wounded to death and healed again It is to be considered that the maintainers of this Opinion themselves do allow at least 140 years space betwixt the Fall of the Dragon and the Rise of that other Beast And then there is no Argument at all from the nearness of the two Visions to one another either to interpret that Fall of the wounding of any of the Seven Heads or to make so little a distance of space betwixt the Fall and the Rise of the Beast There is a plain mention of a flood cast out of the Dragon's Rev. 12. 15. mouth which in Prophetick Language signifying an inundation of vast multitudes of People does give opportunity and time enough for the wounding of the Head and the healing it again and this distance betwixt them is by our Adversaries said to be 140 years Indeed this very 13th Chapter does shew the power of the Dragon to be wholly spiritual considered by himself For he is represented here as active as he was before he was cast down which shews that he was only an Evil Spirit in one of the Heads and not the Head it self For then his casting down would have been the Dragon's deadly wound as the Head of the Beast that was before past is represented to be so wounded whereas the Dragon is as much in action after his fall as he was before He was then the same spiritual Power when he was in the Head and when he was cast out of it and therefore distinct from it 3. It will be further urged that this would make the Imperial Head continue an Head of the Beast after it was turned Christian whereas the Heads of the Beast are said to have the names of blasphemy upon them But it is known that things are called by the name of that which is most predominant amongst them And since the time of the Christian Emperors in that Head was inconsiderable in comparison of the time of Heathenism the Objection has no weight in it 4. But then it seems harder to answer that Character upon the Seventh Head or Gothish Kings It will not be so very difficult if it be considered That the Seventh Head is the mixed form of Imperial and Regal Government For it is not hard to find the beginning of that degeneracy of Christianity which is called Blasphemy in the established Roman Religion a WE find in St. Augustine contra Faustum lib. 20. c. 2. which was near an 100 years before this time that the Manachees would have the Orthodox to be like the Pagans And Faustus thence says Ye have turned the Idols of the Pagans into Martyrs whom you worship with the same kind of Invocations And the Edicts of Valens and Theodosius against the Adorations of the Image of Christ confirms it Hospinian pag. 49. The Worship of the Saints by Invocation c. seems to be very near akin to the Worship of the Lesser Gods amongst the Heathens and then it must needs be Blasphemy H. Salmeron praelud 7. in Apocalyps gives this very reason why by Babylon the Harlot must be understood Rome Heathen viz. because it did worship the Images of all the Gods in the Pantheon as the Saints of the Eastern Empire at that time And however different the Goths might be from the Romans in Opinion yet we have b Petavius Ration Temp. part 1. l. 6. c. 2. de Theodorico And tho according to the Religion of his Country he was of the Arrian Sect yet he defended the Rights and Liberties of the Roman Church with all faithfulness And Sigonius says of Odoacer before him That he gave the Bishops and the Churches their due respects lib. 15. de Imp. Occident And Baron Anno 476. that he gave the Catholick Church no trouble in Church-matters But sufficient Instances of the preservation of the Rights of the Roman Church by the Gothish Kings may be found in Cassiodorus's Book of Variar As Lib. 2. Ep. 28. There is first Theodoric's Profession that he ought not to force Religion upon any not upon Jews Lib. 3. Ep. 45. He mentions the Defenders of the Rights of the Roman Church Commissioners setled by himself and upon their complaint of an Injury enjoins his Deputy by all means to right them according to the former grants to the Roman Church Lib. 4. Ep. 20. orders the Restitution of Gifts taken away from the Church Athalaricus after him makes
10. Restauration of the Imperial Rule after the Reign of the Goths in Italy For their whole time was not above seventy years which Isa 23. 15. is but the Age of one Man and is by the Prophet Isaiah called the days of one King and is a very short space of time in comparison with those Kings betwixt whom it stands and to whose time of Reign the reference is made For those seventy years were as nothing in comparison of either the Imperial Rule before it which had continued for above five hundred years or of that after it which has already continued above a thousand years And besides it is a shorter space of time than is attributed to the Seventh King by almost all others who do not make him to be a single Emperor The changing of Times and Laws attributed to the Little Horn in Daniel may signify no more than appearing like a new Lawgiver in the Church But if it be desired to see this more particularly verified of the Reign of Justinian Is it not sufficient for that purpose that His Code was then made the standing Law of the Roman Empire and has ever since continued to be so And that the Epocha that Dionysius Exiguus did then bring in of the Year of our Lord against the old Epocha ab urbe conditâ has ever since been observed But I rather stick to his Settlement of the Laws of the Roman Church There is no manner of difficulty about the Ten Kings which Rev. 17. 12. are said to Reign with the Beast either one hour or at the same time For the number Ten is usually taken in Scripture for an uncertain multitude of those things of which it is said to be the number and in such a long succession and change of Kingdoms as it is here joined with and where there is no other circumstance to shew it to be a definite number it ought in all reason to be taken in that sense that is for an uncertain multitude of Kingdoms that were to be set up with the Beast in the bounds of the Roman Empire according as they are represented by Horns of that Beast which is agreed to be the particular Roman Monarchy Prop. 16. For it is unimaginable That ever that definite number of Ten Kingdoms should be found to have been constant under all those Changes of Masters that the Divisions of the Roman Empire have have been successively ruled by I am sure in the time of the Saxon Heptarchy in England it could not be so And many other Instances of the like nature might be produced against it But however it is not questioned by those who maintain the definite number but that these Ten Kings were up in Rule at the same time with Justinian That they should have their first Rise with him at one and the same time is not at all necessary from the Text though the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be granted to be at the same time See pag. 216. But indeed the common and unforced signification of that Expression is one hour that is a small time as has been observed And then all that could be made of it would be That those Ten Kings which are said to have received no Kingdom in St. John's time yet should receive power as Kings or as free Independent Sovereigns for a small time with the Beast and that only till as it is said they should give their power and strength and Kingdoms to the Beast that is Till they should submit themselves and their Kingdoms to that Roman Usurpation which the Imperial Authority should set up and be the Secular Head of which will be better understood when it is explained what the worship of the Beast and of his Image is For that end it will be now requisite to enquire what the Image of the Beast can be determined to be It seems at first to Chap. 13 14. be a figurative Expression and so capable of variety of Interpretations but there will be peculiar marks enough found of it in the Text to determine it to one certain thing But before we enter upon that it is to be premised That the mention of the Beast and his Image is a very manifest allusion to the b Panciroll de Notitia Imp. Orient pag. 46. gives the examples of raising the Emperour's Image and carrying it about to denote his Exaltation to the Empire And pag. 47. gives the examples of breaking the Emperour's Images or the throwing them down to signifie the end of his Reign or his being Deposed common custome of the Romans at that time to raise the Emperors Image in all publick places at his election to that Dignity and to continue the adoration of it during the time of his Reign and to pull down and break those Images at the end of every respective Reign The Emperor's Image and the worship given to it was the publick signification of his being in power And that they might have the fairer Title to Adoration c Panciroll pag. 47. Notit Imp. Orient shews the way of consecrating the Images of the Emperours and the unlawfulness of selling them after it no less than Crimen laesae Majestatis or High-Treason they were consecrated with a form of words as the Idols that were dedicated to the honour of the Gods And so sacred were they after that accounted to be that it was High-treason for any to sell them after Consecration The Beast then and his Image are here joined together with a reference to the worship of the Emperors and their Images The False Prophet who is the contriver of this Image has been already found to be a church-Church-Head with Supream Authority over the Roman Empire and that he is really distinguished from the Beast who is the Secular Head of it Prop. 24. And this False Prophet is determined to be in particular the Papal Authority Coroll 3. Prop. 25. The Characters of this Image in the Text are to be next considered It is said to be the Image of the first Beast which had the deadly Chap. 13. wound and was healed again It was then the Image of the Imperial Roman Rule restored again by Justinian Coroll 1. Prop. 5. Query 2. Now an Image of any thing is something made after the likeness of the thing of which it is the Image And particularly in this Case it must have as great a likeness to its Original as the Images of the Emperors used to have to the Emperors themselves But then this Image is different from all Carved Images of the Emperors For it is said to have life put into it and therefore must it be a living likeness to its Original That which it represents is the Imperial Roman State which is said to have power over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations This Image then must also be a living Supream Power over all tbe same Jurisdiction for otherwise it cannot be a living likeness of the
would be but the taking of the word Latinos after the Ancient way of the Latins The False Prophet's punishment of those who had not the mark or name of the Beast is just the same with z The effect of the Papal Excommunications for this purpose does appear from the Bull of Pope Martin the 5th in confirmation of the Council of Constance and to be found at the end of it Which commands all Emperours Princes Lords and all Civil Magistrates as well as Ecclesiastical to expell all Hereticks out of their Territories not to suffer them to make Contracts or to exercise any kind of Merchandize amongst them the Papal-Excommunications For the hindering them from the Market or from buying and selling was one of the effects of the Excommunications of the Jews CHAP. VI. Rev. XIII Vnder the name of the Beast is comprehended all his under-Agents in the same design How the ten Kings give their Kingdoms to the Beast How the Character of speaking like the Dragon can agree with a Christian Bishop It cannot be any thing else THE particular instances explained in the former Chapter do clearly show that the exercise of the Power of the false Prophet does in all the parts of it regard the Beast as the principal concern of his design The Worship that he promotes is the Worship of the Beast The Image that he causes to be made is an Image made in honour of the Beast it self And the Worship that is given to it is because of its being the Image of that Beast that was deadly wounded and was healed again And the mark name and number of the name is the name of the Beast by which all Men were to own themselves the peculiar slaves of the Beast And this is no more than what the Character of that Power which the false Prophet did exercise in all these ways does plainly intimate to us for it is said to be the Power of the Beast it self exercised hefore him And therefore must the exercise of it be only upon his account and those that were employed in it were therefore but his Ministers and Instruments in it All which does signifie to us That the Supremacy of the Pope the Infallibility of the Church of Rome the blind Submission and Veneration that is paid to it the taking the name of a Roman Catholick the confining of all the publick Offices of Religion and Devotion to God and of the lively Oracles of God to the old Roman Language That all these things are done in honour of the Universal Imperial Power of the Romans or of the Empire of the City of Rome and that in the time of the Imperial Authority over Rome restored by Justinian And therefore are all these things signified to be the Worship of the Beast under the last Ruling Head because it is not a Civil honour that is given to this Empire and the Head of it But the giving them the Prerogative of Almighty God the Power of setting up a Spiritual Authority which shall give Law to the Consciences of Men according to their own will and pleasure and shall have the Spirit of God confined to their Arbitrary proceedings and the Curses of God to dispose of at their will against all that dissent from them The Beast therefore is the final Object of all the Worship N. B. and Honour that is given and therefore does generally comprehend in it all the under-Actors and Instruments in this Design where he is mentioned alone Thus ln the 17th Chapter of the Revelations there is no mention of the false Prophet or of the Image but only of the Beast and of the magnificent appearance of his Empire under the name of Babylon And therefore by the Beast must there be understood all his Ministers and Instruments joyned with him according to the nature of the several Characters that he is joyned with As in the time of the Mayres of the Palace in France by the name of the King must many times be understood the will of those Mayres to the prejudice of the Royal Authority because it was the King's Power that was exercised by them And all the Honour and Obedience that they had was upon the account of their being authorized by him So also do the Actions and Honour of the false Prophet and the Image go under the name of the Beast in that Chapter tho in reality they have been much to the diminution of the Imperial Authority It is enough to qualifie them to be comprehended under the name of the Beast that they concur with the Beast in his great design of making all the World to submit to an Ecclesiastical Authority of his own Creating as the acknowledgment of the Honour of his Empire For all the Worship that is hereby promoted is The Honour shown to the Imperial Power of the Romans which is submitted to as the only ground for any hopes of Salvation And that not upon the account of its being the Catholick Church of Christ but for that which is at present a contradiction to it viz. for being the Roman-Catholick Church Wherefore when the ten Kings are said to give their Power Rev. 17. 13. and Strength and Kingdoms to the Beast it is to be understood of their concurrence to advance the Roman Religion as the Imperial Religion of the Romans which was first set up and promoted by the Imperial Authority and so still continues to be defended and protected by it and therein does the Worship of the Beast more eminently appear because of the submission of crowned Heads to it who have no Superior upon Earth but God alone For it is very difficult to understand how ten Kings can be supposed to be of one mind and to agree to give their Kingdoms to the Worship of any Power upon Earth but only in this way of an Uniformity in a common Religion which is set up by the Will and to the Honour of another And here it is to be observed how exactly the Prophecy and the Event do agree with one another in respect of the Order which is observed in the Text. The Beast is described as beginning the Scene first and setting the design on foot And the false prophet and the Image come in afterwards to perfect and accomplish it which was very punctually verified by the beginning of the Universal Monarchy of the Church of Rome under the Imperial Authority and the advancement of it into a perfect Tyranny by the Roman Hierarchy So that after a while the False-prophet seems to take the power of the Beast out of his hands and to exercise it before his face and then the Beast had little to do himself in the management of it and seemed only to give Authority to what was done by others which is also now manifest from the common course of the Roman Church in their proceedings against Hereticks They judge condemn and pronounce sentence against them and then deliver them over to the Secular
power who are the executioners of the Sentence All that the Civil power does in it is but to follow the commands of the Church and to strike the last stroke only which is all that can make them be said to have an hand in it And thô it must be confessed that the Secular part in it is that which does the most effectually persuade to the worship of the Beast yet it is plain That the Church is the principal Agent in that also because they overawe the Civil Power into compliances with them which does very naturally answer the power of the Image in the Prophecy to cause all those who would not worship it to be killed The False-prophet is the Head of this Image and so is the chief manager of this Church-Tyranny and therefore is it accordingly said of him That he spake like a Dragon or like that Red Dragon in the 12th Chapter just before and found to be the Devil raging against the followers of the Lamb. If any one should question a COrnelius à Lapide in c. 13. Apoc. v. 11. The Two Horns according to Josephus Acosta l. 2. De temporibus Noviss c. 17. are the Ensigns of the Episcopal Dignity viz. the Mitre or the Episcopal Crown It should seem therefore by this That this false Prophet should be some Apostate Bishop a great pretender to Religion It is not therefore the Mitre but some Mitred Apostate that is here set out who shall treacherously abuse these Horns of Christ the Lamb to propagate the Party of Antichrist And before when he had reckon'd up the several opinions about the 2 d Beast In the fourth place says he the best opinion is that of Irenaeus Tertullian Ribera Viega and others who by this Beast understand some Eminent Pastor of the Church the forerunner and Preacher up of Antichrist Viegas in c. 13. Apoc. v. 11. after the mention of the opinion of others But Andreas Caesariensis and Irenaeus to me seem to have been much more in the right who understand by the 2d Beast some Eminent Preacher the â—â—â—erunner of Antichrist The Armour-bearer of Antichrist as Irenaeus whether so dreadful a character of a Beast speaking like a Dragon or like the Devil can belong to a Christian Bishop of so great eminency in the Church of Christ as the Bishop of Rome is he may easily be satisfied if he considers that by his description he ought to be nothing less than such a person For that he must be the Head of a Roman Church extended over all the World has been shown from his Character of being a church-Church-Head over the same extent of dominion that the Beast did Rule in For he exercised all the power of the Beast And then that he must have the show of the chief Head of the Christian Church appears from his having Two Horns like a Lamb. For the signification of a Lamb all over the Book of the Revelations is nothing but the person of Christ It would indeed have a more plain reference to the other mentions of that word if it were said like THE Lamb. But we have Grotius's Authority for it upon this place which in Criticisme is of the best account when Impartial That nothing is more ordinary in Scripture then to b Ribera upon this place of the Apocalypse after he had pleaded for the indefinite signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the absence of the Article concludes But yet this which I have said of Articles is not always observed by the Greeks Alcasar upon the same The Article is wanting and yet it is an allusion to the Lamb Cap. 5. omit the Article of reference before a word which should denote its relation to the former mentions of it where yet the sense does shew it to be necessary to be understood It appears then from the description of him that he must be as it were c Malvenda de Antichristo pag. 348. quotes Irenaeus for making Antichrist a pretender to be Christ upon Earth And Lactantius affirming that he should falsly pretend himself to be Christ And pag. 349. says That it is the consent of the Fathers That Antichrist shall take away Idols And shall set himself up in the Temple of God as Antiochus Epiphanes had his own Image put into the Temple at Jerusalem who yet Worshipped his own Country Gods and obtruded them upon the Jews He contends indeed That the Temple of God in which Antichrist must sit is the Temple of Jerusalem But Pererius the Jesuit upon the 7th of Daniel quotes Theodoret Damascene and others of the Fathers Interpreting it of the Christian Church For that says he is the only true Temple of God And then Antichrist must be like Christ the Head of the Church And pag. 351. Malvenda shows how Antichrist shall pretend himself to be true God according to the agreeing sense of the Fathers viz. As Nebuchadnezzar Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar the latter of which did certainly do no more than order himself a like worship with the gods And Antiochus Epiphanes who is made the Type of Antichrist did set up the Statue of Jupiter Olympius in the Temple as well as his own And is said by Malvenda to have Consecrated the Temple of Jerusalem to Jupiter Olympius and the Temple on Mount Gerizim to Jupiter Hospitalis It is not therefore necessary according to Malvenda that Antichrist should set himself up as the one supreme God or Christ Irenaeus pag. 483. Edit Erasmi de Antichristo Of whom the Apostle in the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians He shall sit in the Temple enendeavouring to show himself to be Christ Bellarmin also says Lib. 1. de Pontif. cap. 1. That by the common agreement of all Christians Antichrist is understood to be some Eminent False Christ a Vice-Christ or pretend to be the Vicar of Christ which is the same as both of them are also the same with an Antichrist Besides this Beast thus described in one place with Two Horns like a Lamb in the other Chapters is called the False Prophet To acquaint us that the Horns of the Lamb were but the outward show of the Christian Spirit So that if we put these two Characters of him together and then add the other of his speaking like a Dragon and consider that the name of a Dragon is very ordinary in this Book and that it every where else relates to the representation of the Devil in the 12th Chapter just before this as a raging Red Bloody Dragon What can more manifestly denote him to be A False Prophet in Sheeps cloathing but inwardly a Ravenous wolf How could this have been more clearly expressed in a Prophecy where the Lamb and the Dragon are in a very peculiar manner and very commonly restrained to signifie Christ and the Devil And what could more openly show us the difference betwixt the Dragon in the 12th Chapter and the Beast in the 13th thô both enemies to the Christian
the things at first mentioned these seem to be necessary Consequences that they must be supposed to own 1. That by the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel must be Consequences understood a Kingdom of the Romans to the last end of the Beast with all its Horns For by the same reason that they took that Beast to be the Roman Monarchy in any part of its time they must also own it to be the same in all the mentions of it or in any time of its Horns As the Third Beast is the Kingdom of the Greeks in in all the time of its four Heads or its four Horns cap. 7. cap. 8. They were all said in the 8th Chapter to be the King of Grecia that is One Ruling Nation at first united and afterwards divided And therefore the Little Horn and the Ten of the Fourth Beast must be as much Roman Sovereigns as the Little Horn and the five other in the He-Goat Chap. 8. were Graecian Rulers And this shews how contradictory it was to the notion of the Fourth Beast in which all the Fathers agreed to make the Ten Kings in it to be Destroyers and Ruiners of the Roman Kingdom as some of the Fathers did imagine And therefore by the Ruine of the Roman Empire they must be understood to mean nothing but the ruining the entire form of it as the breaking a thing in pieces is called the ruine and destruction of it but no more the end of the Roman Kingdom than the four Horns of the Goat were the end of the Kingdom of the Greeks 2. From hence also does it follow That the Ten Horns and the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast are a time of Roman Rule 3. That the Kingdom of Antichrist or the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast is to begin among the Romans after the division of that Monarchy into Ten Kingdoms and is to continue from its first Rise to the Second Coming of Christ in Glory For the Little Horn continues with the Fourth Beast till it is destroyed by the Kingdom of the Son of Man 4. That the notion of a Beast all over Daniel is the Monarchy of one Conquering Nation only from the time of its Conquest to the last end of it For there is a general Agreement that the other Three Beasts in the 7th of Daniel do signify the Babylonian Persian and Graecian Monarchies till they came to be subdued And the Two Beasts in the 8th Chapter are said expresly to be of the same kind The Ram is called the Kings of Media and Persia V. 20. V. 3. and the Two Horns are represented as rising up the one after the other to denote the succession of the Persian to the Median Line till he is there subdued by the He-goat The He-goat also tho he be called the King of Greece in the single Person yet is said to have four Kings succeeding after one great one set forth by a V. 21 22. first great Horn and four rising up after it and is described to continue to the latter time of that Kingdom whose Character is V. 23. owned to be the fourfold Kingdom 5. That the signification of Heads and Horns of Beast all over Daniel is The several Supreme Powers in that Nation which is represented in general by the Beast If these Heads or Horns be said to come one after another they denote a succession of so many different Supreme Magistracies in the same place But if represented as rising up altogether they signify the division of that Nation into so many distinct Sovereignties or Kingdoms And also the continuance of each Succession of the Successive Heads or Horns and the continuance of each division of the Contemporary Heads or Horns till the change of either of them This all agree in about the four Heads of the Leopard in the 7th Chapter which signify so many distinct Kingdoms in the Greek Monarchy and about the successive Horns of the Ram in the 8th Chapter which signify the Succession of the Persian to the Median Government in the same Nation of the Medes and Persians according as that Kingdom is called both under the V. 8 12 15. Median and under the Persian Kings as thrice in Daniel 6. under the Medes and all over the Book of Esther in the time of the Persians The Horns of the He-goat also in the 8th Chapter are agreed to represent first the united Monarchical Government of the Greeks under one King and then the Succession of the fourfold Kingdom of the Greeks after it 'T is true the Little Horn coming out of one of the four in the 8th Chapter agreed to be but one single King makes no change in that fourfold Kingdom though he be described as coming after the four But then it is plainly intimated that he is not an Horn distinct from the other four but only a part of that out of which he is said to come and not to come after it Wherefore here are eleven acknowledged Instances of the proof of the beforementioed Rule about the signification of Heads and Horns And then for the remaining Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast and Little One after them in the 7th Chapter there wants nothing to assure their conformity to it but to prove that they belong to the same Nation that is represented by the Fourth Beast there And that is assured from the preceding Consequence For these Horns are but parts of that Beast which in the whole time of it signifies but one Nation only The Fathers indeed do seem generally to agree That the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast and consequently the Ten before him can be nothing but Roman Powers whatsoever is pretended to the contrary Andreas Caesariensis in his Testimony before-cited expresly says That the Ancient Doctors made Babylon in the Revelations to be Rome because they looked upon the Beast there whose City Babylon is to be the same with the Little Horn upon the Fourth Beast or the Roman Empire And Bellarmin does as good as say the same Lib. 3. de Pontif. c. 16. The Fathers say that Antichrist was to come as a Monarch of that Empire the Seat of which had been at Rome Thus for instance When Justin Martyr tells Trypho that Antichrist signified by the Little Horn was just at hand when the Roman Empire was then flourishing who could understand that of any thing but the Roman Empire When Irenaeus guesses his name to be Latinos because that he says was the name of his Kingdom he does plainly fix him upon the Romans When Tertullian makes the Ten Kings of the Roman Empire to bring on Antichrist and says That his time is at hand that is in the height of the Roman Empire he intimates the same thing Hippolytus makes him to arise amongst the Ten Kings whom he calls the Kings of the Roman Empire Cyprian and all the Fathers that make the Kingdom of the Stone or of the God of V. 44. Heaven
Body though that be the same with what is said of the Fourth Beast alone that is that he had devoured the other three But this Apprehension might easily induce them first to fancy the Beast to be at least all those Four Monarchies that are mentioned in Daniel And 2. when that was done they might as easily thereupon be brought to extend the notion of it to contain the whole World in it from the representation of the Seven Heads upon it the number seven being then generally accounted in the Learning of the Jews and Christians to be a signification of the whole sum of the kind of things with which it was joined And then it was obvious to fancy the Seven Heads to be some seven parts of time that should measure out that blasphemous or ungodly time of the World from the first beginning of it to the last end of it And yet all the ground for this was nothing but that mention of the parts of the Four Beasts in the 7th of Daniel in the make of the Body of the Beast in the 13th Chapter of the Revelations which the Fourth Beast in Daniel is said to have devoured The Fathers that came after the time of Constantine and that saw the Roman Empire turned Christian could not it seems ever bring it into their minds to think That God would ever suffer the Roman Empire to relapse again into Infidelity or to appear in the dreadful Characters of the Tyranny of the Beast against the Church And yet they must stand to that if they allowed Babylon to be Rome or the future times of the Beast to belong to the Roman Empire They therefore interpret Babylon to be the General City of all Wicked Men all the World over and the Beast to be the World of Wicked Men and the Seven Heads to be either all the Tyrannical Powers of the World that had or should persecute the Church of God or all the Wicked Emperors only of that Time Heathen or Arrian That which might the more easily dispose them to this was the Clamours of the Arrians and Donatists against the then Orthodox Party that they were the People of that Babylon that is so dreadfully set out in the Revelations For it was very obvious for any that had zeal enough to make the Change of Religion to be the Change of one of the Heads of the Beast and so to account the Sixth Head to be the Heathen Emperors only the Seventh King to be the short continuance of Imperial and professed Arrianism under Constantius Valens c. as the time of the Seventh King is described And the Eighth King called The Beast to be the return of that which these called Idolatry and Blasphemy but others Orthodoxy under the rest of the Emperors that succeeded and that were in the time of this Charge in power If we consider That by some of the best Learned and Cautious Mr. Mede Dr. More Interpreters of this present Age the change of Religion in the Imperial Head is made to be the end of the Reign of that Head it will appear very reasonable to judge That these Clamours of their Adversaries might be thought to have some ground for them if they should allow The Beast and Heads to be Roman Powers only And this Consideration might very well make them conclude that Babylon could not be Rome nor the Heads of the Beast to be so many Successions of Roman Government at least if they thought it to be undoubted That the then called Orthodox Party could not possibly be concerned in the Characters of the Beast For That the Orthodox were then charged by their Adversaries with the Application of Babylon and the Beast to them is evident That which is the clearest Instance of this nature is that which Bede in his Preface to his Comment upon the Revelations says of Tyconius an Eminent Donatist and whom he commends for his Interpretation He there says That Tyconius who had suffered in the Cause of the Donatists with the rest of his Brethren That he did apply all the Persecutions in the Revelations to the Actions of the then present Church of Rome against those of his Party And Primasius another of his Followers does also in his Comment upon this Book affirm much the same of him in his Preface So also does the Imperfect Work upon St. Matthew wrongly attributed to Chrysostome charge the Governing party of the Roman Church about the same time with much the same accusations in several places of it and Bellarmin informs us Lib. 3. de Pontif. c. 11. That the Orthodox Africans were called Romanists by the Arrians as a name of reproach Whatever was the true Reason of this new Interpretation of the name of Babylon it is certain that it was against the opinion of all the Fathers before as the most Learned of the Roman Interpreters do often acquaint us and as may be seen from Irenaeus in particular Lib. 5. Contra Haeres And from Tertullian in Apolog. Victorinus c. And there could be no greater Reason to move them to it than the clamours of that discontented Party But after the inundation of the Barbarous Nations all over the Roman Empire and the settlement of their several Kingdoms within the Bounds of it Andreas Caesariensis and Arethas as if they had now plainly seen the division of that Empire amongst the Ten Kings represented by the Ten Horns of the Beast seem to be not so well satisfied about the Mystical way of Interpretation which they had received from those before them But yet for fear of fixing the Characters of Babylon upon the then present times of the Roman Church they are very cautious of determining any way They show how many meanings Babylon may have in it it may either be the whole World of the Wicked in general or Babylon in Persia or Old Rome or New Rome and the Seven Heads of the Beast may be either all the wicked Emperours or Seven Ages of the World c. And yet when they come to bethink themselves again Babylon must sometimes be Rome with them according to the Ancient Fathers and yet that it cannot be Old Rome because that had lost all Majesty of Empire And then what Rome can it be else And that Antichrist when he comes must be a Monarch of Rome See Andreas Caesariensis on the 13th and 17th Chapters of the Revelations All which shows That the only thing that can be depended upon as the Authoritative sense of the Ancients is their Geneneral Agreement about the nature of the 4th Beast in Daniel and about the relation of the Beast in the Revelations to it And the immediate consequences of that unanimous consent If now it should be thought to be a great prejudice against the clearness and easiness of the Protestant Applications of the Apocalypse to the Church of Rome That that Interpretation was never heard of for many Ages together after the time that the beginning of the Apostacy
found to signify the City of Rome in its Antichristian Domination by Prop. 1. 3. And the desolation of Babylon in the Prophets for which the same Expressions with these here are used does signify the last end of that Monarchy or Ruling Power 4. And besides It is the general usage of the Prophetical Writings to set out the last Ruine of a Ruling People by the desolation of the chief City of that Nation at the same time Thus is the Ruine of the Kingdom of Israel Judah Egypt and of the Babylonians represented by the Desolations of Samaria Jerusalem Noph and Babylon 5. But more particularly is it set forth in this Prophecy that the desolation of Babylon is not after the end of that Monarchy which it here represents For The Beast whose Heads do represent this City and is himself called the King of it is not dethroned till after the desolation of Babylon in the 18th Chapter as appears Chapters 19 20. And Chap. 16. 14 19. The Judgment upon Babylon is betwixt the meeting of the Strength of that Monarchy in Harmageddon and the last end of it in the 19th Chapter From hence it appears That Babylon in none of the mentions of it in the Revelations can be Rome Corollar Pagan This may safely be concluded from the name of The Whore here given to Babylon For when a Nation or City is said in Scripture to commit Fornication or to be an Harlot It signifies that Nation or City to have apostatized from the True Religion to Idolatry see the three first Chapters of Hosea And therefore must Babylon here signify Rome Christian turned Idolatrous which was not till after the time of Rome Pagan The name of Harlot is indeed given to Nineveh Nahum 3. 4. But that Prophecy was after that of Jonah in whose time the people of Niniveh are said to have believed in God and to have repented Jonah 3. 5 10. And so the Idolatry of Nineveh after that time was her Apostacy from the true Faith But it is much more confirmed from the preceding Propositions For Babylon is in all the mentions of it the same Antichristian state of the Reign of Rome by Prop. 2. And in that state of it it is desolated by Fire by Propos praeced But this was never known to have been done in the time of the Reign of Rome-Heathen There was nothing that had the least appearance of the desolation of Rome or of the dissolution of the Roman Government at Constantine's Triumphs over Paganism much less was there any thing like the least part of the description of the desolation of Babylon by fire as it is here most remarkably signified But Grotius and Dr. Hammond to uphold their applications of these things to Rome-Heathen will have Rome to be Babylon two hundred years after it was come under the Christian Emperors because there were a part of the Senate and now and then a Consul that were Pagans for that space of time after Constantine's Triumph over Paganism and therefore that the last desolation of Babylon by fire was at the burning of Rome by Totila An. 546. where the storm of the Enemies fury lay almost wholly upon the Pagan Party and the Christians were most saved by flying to the Churches In the first place it may here by the way be observed what becomes of the ground of Dr. Hammond's confidence That the things in the Revelations were all to be fulfilled in the Times next to the Age in which they were seen from what is said Chap. 1. 1. Things that must shortly come to pass For here are near five hundred years time allowed by the Doctor for the fulfilling them And then he makes the Turks also to be foretold in them besides by Gog and Magog which requires some hundreds Chap. 20. 8. of years more and yet the Doctor speaks with a great confidence and assurance of the fulfilling of all soon after the time that the Prophecy was given But without further concern about that let us now observe the strange absurdities of this Explication 1. According to this Rome must be Babylon or Rome for 200 years after that the Baylonish Throne in it had been pulled down and when its conquering Enemy the Christian Church had been for all that time triumphing in its room in the Imperial Throne in the publick Laws in all parts of the Government and in the publick places of Divine Worship 2. And then Rome Christian whilst it was the possession of a Rev. 18. 20. Christian Prince must be supposed to be burnt to bear the vengeance of Rome Heathen for shedding the Blood of Christian Saints and Martyrs so many years after that Heathenism had been there publickly triumph'd over 3. The Christians also who did then defend their City against Rev. 18. 4. another Christian Prince must be supposed to be called upon from Heaven to come out of it and so to give up their Masters Right to the Enemy lest they should be made to partake of the punishment of Rome for its Heathenism 200 years before to which they were the greatest Enemies for none was more zealous against Paganism than Justinian who was at that time Lord of Rome as appears by the severity of his Laws against it 4. Of the same extravagant nature must it be to make the Rev. 18. 20. Heavens the Apostles and Prophets and all the faithful Christians in the City at that time to triumph with joy at the burning of the Houses and Goods of most Christians and a few Pagans together and at the taking of a City by the Christian Goths from the Christian Romans 5. And the burning not a third part of Rome as Grotius confesses of this Exploit of Totila's and the slaughter of a few Pagans in it must be made to be the giving Rome-Pagan double revenge for the Blood of the Prophets and Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth by the Pagan Power of Rome Rev. 8. 6. all over the Empire It must be the giving Rome-Pagan the Cup of the Wine of the fierceness of the Wrath of God Chap. 16. 19 6. The Pagan Kings also of the Roman Empire which had committed Fornication with Rome-Pagan some hundreds of years before that is had complied with the Roman Idolatry must in this way be supposed to be alive to lament the sad condition Rev. 18. 9. of a Christian City at the taking it by a Christian Prince or at best the Heathen Kings then in the World no body knows when within many hundred miles of that City must grievously lament for the slaughter of some Pagan Romans with whom they had been used to comply in the Pagan Way Nothing indeed does make Grotius more to be suspected of intending only to play with this Prophecy or only to vex some hot Apocalyptical Men amongst his Adversaries than the seemingly-wilful Application of the Kings of the Earth that had committed Fornication with Babylon in the 18th Chapter
in any thing here by the Authority of his Judgment only And the most a Cornel. Ã Lapide in cap. 17. Apocalyps v. 2. Ex dictis patet non esse probabile c. From what has been said it appears That it is not probable what a Learned Man has imagined viz. That those things which we meet with in this and the following Chapter may be understood of the Sacking of Rome by Alaricus Gensericus Odoacer and Totila for those Exploits were not done by Ten Kings as it is in the Text but by single Kings Nor were they so considerable as that shall be which is described in the following Chapter that is the last and never-before-parallell'd Ruine of Rome So also Malvenda pag. 186. in cap. 19. v. 9. Apocalyp It is manifest That this denotes the burning of Babylon that is of Rome in the end of the World Idem pag. 187. Equidem si cuncta c. For if what the H. Evangelist has delivered from the 11th verse Chap. 18. Apocal. be observed one may see very plainly from thence That John did undoubtedly prophesie of that state in which Rome should be about the end of the World Bellarmin lib. 4. de Pontif. cap. 4. Nor is it any Objection against this That Rome is to be laid waste and burnt according to Rev. 17. 16. For this will not be till about the end of the World Ribera in cap. 18. Apoc. v. 21. But the Greatness of the Stone signifies something more viz. That Babylon is to be utterly destroyed so that there shall be no footsteps of it to be seen And v. 22. After this manner do the Prophets usually speak of Cities that are ruined Jerem. 25. Malvenda de Antichristo pag. 185. The first Opinion viz. That Rome will be an Idolatrous Harlot in the time of Antichrist is probable because Rome which is to be destroy'd about the end of the World must be destroy'd for some Crime against the Church of Christ Ribera pag. 455. in cap. 14. Apoc. num 44. For that Rome shall be utterly burnt not only for its former sins but also for those which it shall commit in the last times is so manifestly to be known from these words of the Apocalypse that the silliest man in the world cannot deny it Eminent of the Roman Interpreters do also agree in this Opinion and shew it to be the mind of the b Alcasar Notat 13. Prooemial The Ancient Fathers did agree That the Roman Empire shall continue till the City of Rome shall be burnt with corporeal Fire and that also by Ten Kings Ancient Fathers It is a great confirmation of the evidence of these inconveniences against the making Babylon Rome-Heathen That they have forc'd the most judicious and ingenuous of the Roman Interpreters rather to venture upon applying all to the City of Rome in an Apostacy from the Roman Church about the end of the World for three years and an half acording to the time of forty two months or twelve hundred and sixty days assigned for the Reign of the Beast tho' they have thereby manifestly endangered the Two Chief Notes of their Church that is Vniversality and Infallibility For Babylon must then seduce All Nations and All the Kings of the Earth which must at least signifie all the Nations within the bounds of the Roman Empire which must be vastly greater than the rest of the Roman Church and then it would have the Authority of Rome it self at that time and of all its Empire to make it a fallible and deluding Roman Church greater than any remaining part of that Church But the certain Obstacles against this are first That Rome must thus be supposed to get the Conquest of all Nations Rev. 17. 18. and of all the Kings of the Earth within three years time for that is made to be the time of her Reign and not only to get such a miraculous Conquest in that time but also to make all Nations own her Idolatry in that space of time which must be a far greater Miracle than ever God Rev. 17. 2. yet suffered the Devil to work in the World and that also against all the Light and Resolution of mens Consciences to the contrary which is a more difficult matter to bend against the Natural Course of it than the subject-matter of any other Miracle Rome must also by this be supposed to advance all Merchants to an incredible Stock of Wealth and Riches within Rev. 18. 15. the space of three years and an half by Foreign Traffique with her For these Merchants are to be all that trade by Sea and the Great Men or Princes of the Earth And how monstrous a thing is this to think of Foreign Merchants v. 17. within so short a time when the business of but one ordinary Voyage does take up the best part of one of those years This the chief Author of this Opinion Ribera does ingenuously confess to be a very hard thing to imagine the manner of and that He himself does account it a wonderful and miraculous thing and thereby does seem to allow us the liberty of taking it for a kind of incredible thing as Miracles before they are done are generally accounted to be And then this makes it at least very highly probable That the time of forty two months or of one thousand two hundred and sixty days of the Reign of Babylon with the Beast who carries her and to whose Seven Heads she is always fixed must be understood in such a mystical sense as will give time enough for the things that are described to be done in that Reign and according to the use of such parts of time in a mystical sense amongst the Prophets by Rule 3. which will make the time of Babylon to begin many Ages before the end of the World From hence then it appears That we have this encouragement already for our hopes of a clear Determination of the Application of this Prophecy viz. That there are but three ways yet pitched upon for the Application of it that is to Rome-Pagan to Rome-Christian and to Rome about the end of the World The first of which has been found to be very Absurd and the last Incredible And this is an inviting fore-tast of the satisfaction that may be expected from the more orderly and cautious Examination of the Grounds of all clear Determinations concerning these Visions CHAP. IV. Rev. XVII Inferences drawn from the former Chapter to discover the Nature of the Three last Heads of the Beast and the time of the Reign of the last called The Beast An Account of the Author's Method THE determination of the Reign of Babylon to the times after the end of Rome-Pagan which seems now to be unquestionable does offer a very fair light for some general discoveries about the Mystery of the Beast and his Heads which seem by the order of them to be designed to be the Clue to direct us in
Beast and of the parts of it signifying Dominion from the frequent use of those Schemes in Daniel The business of the Third Book is to apply these general Notions to The Beast in the Revelations and to the parts of it And from the known signification of that Head of The Beast which in the Prophecy is said to reign at the time of the Vision and from the immediate Succession of the other two Reigns after it to determine the time of that particular state of The Beast which is by way of eminency called The Beast alone by it self and the Eighth King and which is the Great Subject of these Visions And then the Explication of all the Uncouth Characters of The Beast is the last Finishing-work of this Design in the Fourth Book And this may give the Reader a distinct and comprehensive view of my whole Design at once and of the Order of my Method towards it CHAP. V. Rev. XVII The distinct Notion of The Beast enquired into The Fourth Proposition Every one of the Eight Kings is one of those called the Seven in general Rev. 17. 10 11. The Eighth King one of Seven that were past revived The Fifth Proposition Every one of the Eight Kings is one of the Seven Heads The Beast is The Beast under the Last Head The Sixth Proposition with its Corollaries The Seventh Proposition The Beast is a Sovereign Power of Rome in its Idolatrous Antichristian State THE foundation of all satisfaction about the certain time of that Idolatrous Reign of Rome that is signified by Babylon does seem to depend wholly upon the means that are offered from the Angel's Explication to determine the time of the Reign of The Beast which appears all over the Prophecy with that City as its inseparable Companion There seems to be no other means left to fix that particular time but the Succession of the Heads of The Beast the three last Reigns of which seem to be on purpose singled out from the general sum of the other five and to be distinctly mentioned one after another for no other end but to direct us from the knowledge of the first of the three said then to be in Rule when these words were spoken and so might easily be known to determine the particular time of The Beast who is made to be the next Reign but one after that Ruling-Power which was then in present possession But before any thing can be well setled upon this bottom the use of the Term of The Beast must be first sufficiently cleared For it seems to have an ambiguous Signification in it which may defeat all our hopes of fixing it to any determinate meaning Sometimes it seems to signify a thing common to all the Seven Heads when it is represented as the common Subject of them all in their several successive Reigns and sometimes it seems to signify nothing but one of its Heads in distinction to all the rest Wherefore it seems to be the first thing that is to be enquired after Whether there can be any determinate and fixed signification setled upon the use of this Expression And the fear of mistaking in so fundamental a Point made me think it necessary to be very cautious of every step I made in it and to have a distinct comprehension of it before I setled my self upon it For this purpose I found it requisite to begin with this Proposition as the ground of all that was to follow Every one of the Eight Kings reckon'd up in order Rev. 17. Proposit 4. 10 11. is one of those called the Seven Kings in general v. 10. Nothing can well be more plainly signified than this in the Text after this manner They are Seven Kings Five are fallen one Rev. 17. 10 11. is and the other is not yet come and when he cometh must continue a short space and the Eighth is of the Seven What can more plainly signify the parting the whole sum of the Seven Kings mentioned just before into five and one and the other and an Eighth which is one of those Seven For who would ever understand those words otherwise than in this plain sense They are Seven Kings Five of which Seven are fallen One of them is the other of the Seven is not yet come c. And there is an Eighth who yet is one of those Seven before mentioned So that every one of the Eight is one of the Seven and therefore can there be but Seven Kings in all This indeed seems to be so very plain and necessary that it may be wondered why it should not be rather suppos'd than endeavoured to be proved since there seems to be no manner of ground for a doubt about it but only upon the account of the Eighth King who yet to make all clear is said expresly to be an Eighth which was one of the Seven and is so granted to be without dispute But yet it was thought needful to secure this by these Reflexions upon it because there is a considerable Authority against it in defence of a particular Hypothesis That which is alledged from the Text to make it capable of another sense is * Dr. More Vol. 1. p. 647. Brightman in V. 10. c. 17. Apoc. That the 7th King in the Order is called the other and not the 7th and that therefore he may be a King of a different nature from those Seven Kings which are said to be the Seven Heads because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek signifies sometimes a thing of another nature And that to make up the number of those Seven Kings that are the Seven Heads the 8th is said to be one of those Seven But it is plain enough that the other in that place denotes no new quality in the 7th King but only refers to the signification of the number of the King just before him who is called one And that King is called one by a very proper and familiar way of Speech without any ground for the least mystery in it such as this following would now be accounted The Seven Heads are Seven Kings five are past one is at this present after which would very naturally follow and the other is not yet come That is the other of the seven which is an usual and ordinary way of speaking if not more proper than to say five are past the sixth is at present and the seventh is not yet come And certainly the 7th would in the latter Example appear to be nothing but one of the seven Kings who had at first been called the seven Heads When with this we consider there is mention here made of an 8th Can any thing be more manifest than that the other just before it is as certainly the 7th as if it had been expresly so called and that the one before that is the same with the 6th And then of what can they possibly be the Sixth or the Seventh but of those Seven Kings which were just
before said to be the seven Heads and which immediately after the mention of them were divided into five one and this other There is certainly no manner of ground to think the one in this division to be one of the Seven more than the other As for the Criticism of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is known that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is ordinarily used to signify another thing or person individually distinct from one mentioned before without any other new quality in the One distinct from the Other which had been before spoken of Matt. 4. 21. and 5. 39. and 12. 13. and 13. 8. Where the Seed was the same before it was Sown and yet called other Seed And to the same purpose every where in the New Testament But that which does the most plainly express the same quality in the thing which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of that which hath been mentioned before it is that known By-word of Aristotle in his Ethicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Friend is another self And howsoever Philosophers may distinguish betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in common speech they are promiscuously used for one another I have insisted the longer upon the perfect clearing of this because it is the foundation of all the Historical Application that can be made of the 8th King called the Beast which is the great business of all our search and I hope there needs no more now to make it unquestionable that the Seventh King is one of the whole seven mentioned before in general in the first words of the 10th Verse and so that every one of the Eighth Kings is also one of those same Seven since the Eighth is expresly said to be one of the Seven To this the Romish Interpreters do generally agree They CONSENT make the first seven Kings to be the seven Heads and the Eighth to be the Devil common to them all and so no new Head or new King distinct from those seven that are mentioned before him To recompence the length of the former Discourse here are these following fruits of it The Eighth King is one of the seven that had been in Rule before it and Corollar was returned into Power again For the Eighth King is one of the same whole Seven mentioned in general that the rest are comprehended in by Prop. 4. And therefore the whole Eight are really but Seven distinct Kings and the Eighth comes after Seven of them distinctly reckoned up before him The Eighth must therefore be one of those former Seven returned into Power again according as it is intimated of him That he is one of the Seven The Romanists do apply that term And is of the seven to the Devil as being in all the other Seven Kings But then they make the being of the seven the same with the being in the seven whereas the word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does properly signify the being one of that number of Seven just before mentioned especially when he appears here to be an Eighth in a successive order of Kings For that shows him to be a King alone by himself after the time of the former Seven Reigns but yet one of them And so must be one of them returned again It may next be observed That Every one of the Eight Kings Rev. 17. 10 11. is represented by Prop. 5. one of the seven Heads of the Beast For every one of those Eight Kings is one of those called the Seven Kings in General by Prop. 4. And those called the Seven Kings in General v. 10. are said to be the Seven Heads as well as the Seven Hills are The Text in the Original is The seven Heads are seven Mountains and are seven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings v. 9 10. The Hills and Kings have the very same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or are to affirm them equally to be the seven Heads as it is also almost unanimously agreed upon by all Interpreters And the eighth King is called The Beast and is one of those seven Kings which denotes the relation of the seven Kings to the seven Heads of the Beast Wherefore every one of those eight Kings must be one of the seven Heads that are said to be the seven Kings because every one of the eight Kings by Prop. 4. is one of those same seven Kings who are said to be the seven Heads The fear of this Consequence viz. That then the seventh King must be the seventh Head is the chief ground of that Opinion before mentioned that would have the Seventh King in the Order to be none of those seven Kings which are just before called the seven Kings in General tho immediately after the mention of the whole seven in General follows the account of them in order and in that order the seventh King has its proper place But they will have the eighth King to be the seventh Head of the Beast which will appear from the following Corollary to be inconsistent with the plain expressions of the Text. The Eighth King is one of the Seven Heads of the Beast that was Corollar 1 past and revived again For the Eighth King was one of the Seven Kings that was past and was returned into Power again by Coroll Prop. 4. And all those seven Kings reckoned up as past before him have been found to be so many Heads of the Beast by Prop. 5. Wherefore the eighth King must be one of those past seven Heads that was revived again since the eighth King was one of those seven Heads by Prop. 5. And yet came after the time of them all And therefore must be one of them revived again This is so far agreed to by those who make the eighth King the seventh Head That they apprehend it to be the sixth Head healed of a deadly wound But it is manifest That by this they make but six Heads upon the Beast instead of seven For the Head of the Beast that was seen wounded to death and healed again in the 13th Chap. v. 3. could be but one and the same Head It is absurd to make an Head wounded and healed again to be more than one Head And therefore does the Prophet describe it but as one and the same Head Wherefore since the maintainers of this Opinion do account the sixth King of the seven to be the sixth Head and the seventh King to be no Head the eighth King which is but the healing of the sixth Head cannot encrease the number and so they come at last to make but six Heads in all For their seventh Head is but the sixth healed again whereas there were seven really distinct Heads seen in the Vision By the preceding Corollary it appears That The Eighth King called The Beast Rev. 17. 11. signifies The Beast Corollar 2 with that Head only which was last in Rule For the eighth King is one of the seven Heads of the
interposing of the Interpretation of Babylon and The Beast in the 17th Chapter comes in the continuation of the History of the same Babylon and Beast that had been broken off at the end of the 16th Chapter and is carried on to the last end of them both in the 18th and 19th Chapters This does very plainly shew That the 17th Chapter comes in only to interpret those Mystical Expressions in the Chapter before it by a new Representation of the same Beast and of the same Babylon that had been the great Subject just before discoursed of Now it is already assured That The Beast in the 17th Chapter signifies but one particular state of it under its last Ruling Head Prop. 6. And therefore if it be the same with that mentioned in the other Chapter that Beast also must be the same particular state of it under its last Head To secure us also still further in the assurance of this there is CONSENT a Certum namque est Maris Bestiam de quâ in hoc cap. sc cap. 13. Et Bestiam illam cui Babylon insidet cap. 17. unam eandemque esse ut disere Hieronymus For it is certain That the Beast that is said to arise out of the Sea in this Chapter that is the 13th Chapter and that Beast upon which Babylon sitteth in the 17th Chapter are but one and the same Beast the general Consent of all those whose greatest interest it may be to confound all the Significations of The Beast but who can have no manner of interest to affirm it Almost unanimously agreeing That The Beast is all over these Visions but one and the same particular time of the Reign of the 8th King b Those of the second Opinion who take the Beast in the 13th Chapter for Antichrist and that in the 17th for the Devil yet they interpret it to be the Devil inspiring Antichrist which is much the same thing though they join the 7th with him which is a very considerable Testimony of the Evidence that there is for it in the Text. ALcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 5. postea in cap. 17. CHAP. VII Rev. XIII XVII Further attempted to be demonstrated That the Beast in the 13th and 17th Chapters are the same particular thing The 8th and 9th Propositions together with their Corollaries The strength of this Demonstration The Beast his Image Mark Number Name in the 13th Chapter and every-where else defined and distinguished from the Second Beast in the 13th Chapter THE Evidence that has been insisted upon in the former Chapter is of the nature of that accumulative proof which in Courts of Judicature does determine the best and wisest men about the nearest Interests of men in this World But notwithstanding so strange a concurrence of such peculiar Circumstances in the Beast of the 13th and 17 Chapters yet Grotius does make them to be very distinct states of the Roman Monarchy and therefore it will be requisite to search for a more cogent and convincing proof That they must both necessarily be the same particular state of one only of the Heads of the Beast The Consequence of mistaking in this search being no less than the falling into confusions about the first grounds of all clear knowledge of these things which would multiply into infinite Errors in the reasoning upon them It is therefore necessary to use the greatest circumspection in it and to advance in it but by such short steps as we may clearly see that we tread firm and sure in all the way towards it And in this Design that which is first to be cleared is That The Term of The Beast all over the 13th Chapter does signify Proposit 8. only the First Beast shown v. 1. This seems to be sufficiently evident For there is no mention of any other Beast besides in that Chapter but of the Second Beast and that it cannot signify the Second Beast either before or after the first mention of that Beast there may thus be shewn in order 1. That it signifies nothing else before the mention of that Beast is agreed by all because there is no other Beast before that Second that it can signify And four times is it so called by the name of The Beast without any other addition and twice is it said that all the World or the Earth did worship him before the mention of the Second Beast 2. And that the Term of The Beast does signify the First Beast also after the mention of the Second is certain enough For though thrice after the rise of the Second Beast the First has a note of distinction added to the Term of The Beast As The First Beast and The Beast that was deadly wounded c. yet when that Term has no note of distinction added to it it does also signify the First Beast as distinguished from the Second So v. 14. where it is said of the Second Beast that he had power to do Miracles in the sight of The Beast it is unquestionable that by The Beast is meant the First Beast In the same manner is the Second Beast brought in after as employed about the Affairs of the First Beast to the end of the Chapter Where it is distinguished from the several mentions of The Beast by the name of He as the Agent about something that has the term of The Beast joined with it For example He gave life to the Image of the Beast which in the Verse before v. 15. was said to be the Image made to the First Beast He made all men receive the Mark and Name and Number of the name of the v. 16. Beast Which Beast all the World would understand in common construction of speech to signify a Beast different from him who did all these things about the Affairs of the Beast but more especially when it is found that this term of The Beast had four times Chap. 13. v. 2 3 4. before the mention of the Second Beast in the same Chapter been used to signify the First Beast and once at least after the appearance of the Second Beast without any dispute about it and had v. 14. been often mentioned after the Second Beast with some other addition to it And yet the Second Beast had never been clearly intimated by the name of The Beast after the first mention of its rise but in every Verse after that is signified in the Original only by a Verb in the Third Person as acting in the Affairs of that which is called The Beast which must therefore certainly be some other Beast that is referred to by that Article of reference as distinct from him and as before known and mentioned Wherefore by Rule 1 and 3. The Beast must all over the 13th Chapter signify the First Beast And therefore By the terms of the Image of the Beast the Mark Name and number Corollar 1 of the name of the Beast in the 13th Chapter must
with a greater variety of Circumstances to determine the nature of that which is the great Affair in them all From hence then it does now appear That the wounded and healed Head in the 13th Chapter is so far from being one of the seven Hills of Rome that The wounded and healed Head of the Beast in the 13th Chapter Coroll 3 is the same last Ruling Head of the Beast with that in the 17th Chapter For the Beast in the 13th Chapter is under the same last Ruling Head with that in the 17th Chapter Coroll praeced Prop. 9. And the last Ruling Head of the Beast in the 17th Chapter called The eighth King was an Head that had been one of those seven that were past and gone before it and was now revived again by Coroll 1. Prop. 5. Which is the same with A last Ruling Head of Seven which was wounded to death and healed again The Beast therefore in the 13th Chapter is certainly in the state of an Head wounded to death and healed again After the certainty of which it will be a very extravagant thing to question Whether the wounded and healed Head which the Beast in the 13th Chapter is under be that wounded and healed Head which it is said in the Text to have CHAP. IX Rev. XI The 11th Proposition That the Judgment of the Dead Revel 11. 18. is the Judgment of the Dead at Christ's second Coming The Three Creeds confirm it The extravagance of the Grotian Interpretation of this Judging the Dead The Reign of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World His second Coming in Glory The twelfth Proposition The Beast in the 11th Chapter the same with The Beast in the other Chapters THere is now only the mention of the Beast in the 11th Chapter remaining to be found to be the same state of it with those in the other Chapters After which it will be very easie to look through the whole process of these Visions and to be thereby satisfied of the consistency of all the parts of them and their mutual dependance upon and relation to one another notwithstanding the seeming interfering order of them For this purpose it is to be observed first That the Judgment of the Dead Revel 11. 18. is the Judgment of the Dead at Christ's second Coming Prop. 11. For the phrase of Judging the Dead is always used for the Day of Judgment all over the New Testament And it is a fundamental Article of the Christian Faith expressed by those peculiar words in the Apostles Writings and put into the Apostles Creed in the same words and so was that peculiar expression always used by the first Fathers and for nothing else and in all the Three Creeds is it joined with Christ's second Coming as it is also for the most part found together with it in the New Testament And this shews the constant use of this expression by the whole Church in all times Wherefore to make the phrase of Judging the Dead to signifie here as some do only the Revenging the Cause of the Dead is to change the signification of a very peculiar and generally-known expression into a very uncommon acceptation of it and to do that without some great necessity for it for which there is here no apparent evidence pretended is the way to license men to allegorize all the Articles of our Belief away And besides this acceptation of Judging the Dead for the avenging them is beyond all example Judging and Judgment in general are indeed ambiguously used in Scripture but Judging the Dead is never any where made use of but to signifie the Judgment at Christ's second Coming and so was it always taken by the Christian Church in all Ages and so conveyed down by them in the same words in all the Ancient Creeds for several Ages and joined with the mention of Christ's second Coming So that of all the shifts that Grotius is put to for upholding his Interpretation there seems none to be more monstrous or that does more shew his resolution to cut all the Knots that he cannot unty than this miserable shift of making the Judging of the Dead here to signifie the Revenging of the Dead To assure one still further of this it appears to be the same phrase by which it is granted that the real Judging of the Dead is signified in these very Visions as Rev. 20. 12. See Grot. in 20 Apoc. v. 12. It is also added in this 11th Chapter v. 18. to make it more unquestionable That thou shouldst give the reward to thy servants the Prophets and to the Saints and to them that fear thy Name small and great Which shews that it is a change of the state of the Dead themselves by the reward that is given to their faithfulness and this can be nothing but their reward at the second Coming of Christ to Judgment For betwixt Death and That there is no other reward for the Prophets and Saints small and great at one time as is here expressed The time of the Dead is come that they should be judged and that thou shouldst give the reward c. From hence it cannot but be concluded That the Reign of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World Rev. 11. Corollary 15. is Christ's second Coming in Glory For first it is joined with judging of the Dead at the 18th verse The time is come that the Dead should be judged that is The time is now come now that thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned as just before it is expressed That glorious Reign and the Judging of the Dead are very expresly joined together in the same Doxology of the four and twenty Elders and so ty'd to the same time that if they be not contemporary yet there is nothing comes in betwixt them and therefore must that Reign of Christ be at least at the same time with his Coming in Glory And what can such a glorious Kingdom of Christ be at that time but his glorious Coming or Appearance For since there is but one second Coming of Christ to be expected his glorious Reign and his second Coming fixed as here to one time must certainly be the same thing And that which secures them to be the same without farther ground of scruple is That this Reign of Christ is said to be Universal over all the Kingdoms of this World and also Eternal with his Father for ever and ever v. 15. Which can be nothing but his Kingdom of Glory If it be objected That Christ's Coming in Glory is the beginning only of a Spiritual and Heavenly Kingdom whereas it is here said The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of Christ It is to be considered That the first shew of his Kingdom is agreed by all to be upon Earth at his Coming and for the remaining part of it it is here expressed to be for ever and ever and so also a Kingdom in Heaven with his Father It may
here be suggested That this would make the Coming of Christ in Glory and his Kingdom of Glory here upon Earth to be but a momentary thing only during the time of the Day of Judgment whereas he is represented in several places as reigning here in Glory with his Saints for a considerable time after the end of Antichrist But Mr. Mede has given this Answer to that That according to the Notion of the Day of Judgment among the Jews from whom the New Testament did borrow it it was taken for a continuance of time for 1000 years together But all that need be regarded for the present purpose in hand is That it is agreed by All Parties That the beginning of the Judgment of the Dead properly so called is not till the second Coming of Christ in Glory By this are we assured now at last That The Beast which killed the two Witnesses Rev. 11. 7. is the same time of Roman Rule with the Beast in the other Chapters Prop. 12. For first This Beast in the 11th Chapter hath one of the most peculiar distinguishing Characters of that Beast viz. The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit which is the very same Character with that of the Beast in the 17th Chapter v. 8. in just the same peculiar phrase And the same Character has that Beast in the 13th Chapter in another different expression indeed but of the same signification viz. That it did rise out of the Sea for the Sea is very ordinarily called in the Septuagint which the Greek of the New Testament does generally conform to by the same name of the Abyss which is here rendred the bottomless pit When therefore we see in the Chapters after this 11th Chapter the mention of a Beast that is to ascend out of the bottomless pit which is made his peculiar Character to distinguish him from other states of him under the succession of his Heads and that here there is the same peculiar description of such a Beast with the name of THE Beast that ascendeth c. which plainly refers us to the same Character of a Beast somewhere else mentioned It must certainly be the same with that Beast or else there is no ground to believe a thing to be the same at two several mentions of it tho' it has the same peculiar Character in both places and a Note of reference in one of them to confine it to the same thing that had been before mentioned which in this case would be a violation of all the first Three Rules which have been judged to be the surest ground for any Interrpetation 2. Besides they both end at the expiration of the same space of time of 42 months or the 1260 days of the Witnesses in Sackcloth which is the same state in both because it is the last state of them both The Beast in the 11th Chapter is also described to end just before a glorious Reign of Christ in the 7th Trumpet which is accompanied with a Judgment of the Dead So also does the Beast in the 19th Chapter come to an end just before a Reign of Christ which is accompanied with the Judgment of the Dead chap. 20. And is not this a very good ground to be confident that they are both the same Beast when they are said to end at the expiration of the same peculiar space of time and at the beginning of just the same kind of peculiar Reign of Christ over all the world and for ever and ever and that is accompanied with the Judgment of the Dead For since they are thus found from these Circumstances to be contemporary how can a Beast with so peculiar Characters that are the same in the other and at the same time be supposed to be quite another thing In both the mentions of the Beasts we also find them warring against the same Martyrs or Witnesses of God and Christ and in both overcoming them and being overcome by them c. From hence may very safely be determined That The Beast is to continue till the beginning of an Vniversal and Eternal Corollary Reign of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World These four last Conclusions have also the Consent of many of the most eminent Interpreters a RIbera about the 15th verse of the 11th Chapter in his Discourse upon Chap. 10. num 20. Caecus est qui non videt c. He is blind that does not see that these things cannot be but after the ruin of Antichrist and at the time of the Judgment Malvenda de Antichristo pag. 226. No man of sense can doubt but that the Beast in the 11th and 13th Chapters is the same Beast of the Church of Rome Thus then do we find at last That the term of the Beast does signifie one and the same particular state of his Reign in all the several Chapters where it is mentioned And from the last proof of this in the 11th Chapter it appears That the Account of the last end of the Beast there is before the Account of his first rise in the 13th Chapter and so mentioned in the 11th Chapter as a thing that was afterwards to appear Which does sufficiently assure us THAT the Order of the things in this Prophecy is many times transposed The Second BOOK THE Constant Uniform Signification OF A BEAST And its PARTS All over DANIEL CHAP. I. The Prophecy of Daniel the clearest Rule for the signification of A Beast and its Ruling Parts Porphyry's Objection against the Authority of it The greatest Confirmation of the plainness of the Predictions in it The Authority of the Book Daniel proved The 13th Proposition The Kingdom of the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel a Kingdom of Christ Jesus The singularity of Grotius 's Notion of the Son of Man in that place judged to be Blasphemy by the Sanhedrim WE have now our prospect very much enlarged Dan. VII by a multitude of known Marks of the Beast which is found to be the same particular state of one of its Heads from the first mention of him in Chap. 11. to the last end of his History in Chapter 20. by which he is described to us in all his lineaments with his Rise his Mark his Actions and his End and with a great many of his Assistants and Dependants And I think I could make unquestionable to any that were impartial and considerate enough that one may come to a very satisfactory determination from hence about the particular knowledge of him But because I would continue firm to my first design of carrying on the proof all along in so full and convincing a manner as should be able to satisfie the most sceptical scruples it will be much more useful to consult the Prophecy of Daniel for the constant signification of the mystical Phrases that are made use of all over these Visions in the Revelations for there is a great deal more evidence of the determinate signification of a Beast
in general and of the Heads and Horns and Actions of a Beast in that Prophecy There are a multitude of Instances there of the constant use of these figures in one and the same determinate Notion and it is generally agreed That St. John by the like expressions in the Revelations does every-where allude to them as the Original Copy of his Figures and as a Nomenclator to explain the meaning of them See References in the 5th Chapter There is also this further advantage in the Prophetical Usages of the mystical Expressions in Daniel That there is the concurrence of almost all Interpreters in the particular signification of them who yet differ from one another about the signification of the same Expressions in the Revelations And as I found this to be of very great effect for the silencing of mine own Scruples so is it the most certainly satisfactory method for the generality of the World The Prophecies of Daniel have indeed that advantage above CONSENT any other Mystical Writings of that nature that the things foretold in them are so plainly described That all who have considered them have in all Ages till this latter generally agreed about their Interpretation One or two Instances to the contrary in the space of so many Ages will be no material exception against it by Rule the 4th Porphyrie the Philosopher who is the first that is said to be of a different mind from the rest yet gives such a reason for his confining the date and matter of these Prophesies to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes as does unquestionably confirm the clearness S. Hierom. Prooem in Dan. of his Expressions in all his Visions St. Jerom acquaints us that his reason for it was Because it seemed plain to him That the Author must have lived about the times of Epiphanes from the distinct Account he gives us in the 11th Chapter of the Successions and Actions of the Syrian and Egyptian Kings under the names of the King of the North and of the King of the South till the time of Epiphanes And so he will have it to be an History of what is past and not a Prophecy of things to come Could there be a greater Testimony of the clearness of Prophetical Expressions than to see a profest Enemy to it acknowledge it to be so very plain that he could not believe it to be Cathol Expos Eccles in Apoc. Tanta enim dictorum fides fuit c. For the things were so plainly fulfilled that to Unbelievers he seemed not to have foretold things to come but to have related things before past and done any thing but an History of things past As for his suspicion of the Authority of it that is as satisfactorily answered as need be 1. By our Saviour's owning the Prophecy Matth. 24. 15. Which to Christians is an undeniable proof though it could not be so to an Infidel 2. Josephus who lived about the time of Christ not two hundred years after Antiochus Epiphanes does own the Prophecy of Daniel for the most considerable of any that they had and relates of it That it was shown to Alexander the Great by Jaddus the High-Priest upon the account of the 8th Chapter which did plainly foretel his Conquest of the Persian And that this was owned by Alexander and rewarded with many great Privileges to the Jews particularly that of being Tax-free every seventh year which no question remained to Josephus's Age as the publick Memorial of that Action What an unaccountable Forgery would that be which should be able to impose so strangely upon one of the most Learned Antiquaries in that Age and make him take a Writing concerning his own Nation not Two hundred years old for an Ancient Writing of Five hundred years standing 3. Especially when we consider that it had been long received into the Jewish Canon of Scripture in Josephus's days and had been constantly used in Greek Translations in their Synagogues as appears by our Saviour's Quotations which is impossible for a forged Book not much above One hundred years old to have been After this assurance Porphyry's suspicion that it was an History of things seen by the Writer of it is as great a confirmation as can be desired of the clearness of Daniel's meaning in his Prophetical Descriptions in some parts of his Visions And the general concurrence of almost all Interpreters about the determinate sense of the rest is proof enough of the plainness of his Expressions in all For what can give one a plainer ground to presume that it is easie to arrive at a perfect knowledge of the signification of the Mystical Schemes of a Prophecy than first to see it accused by an Enemy of having been wrote after the things were done only upon the account of the clearness of the terms that are used to express them And next to see all Interpreters of the most different Parties and Interests unanimously agreed upon the particular Application of them This is an encouragement sufficient to make one hope for the fullest satisfaction from the Visions of Daniel concerning the constant signification of the same Mystical Terms in both Prophecies In order to which The first thing that it is the most necessary to be resolved about as the general Basis of all that is to follow is this Proposition That the Kingdom of the Son of Man in Daniel the 7th v. 13 Proposit 13. 14. is some Kingdom of Christ Jesus upon Earth 1. That it is some Kingdom upon Earth is manifest from v. 27. where it is said that it is the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven 2. That it is the Kingdom of our Jesus is as certain as it is that our Jesus was the true Messias For there is no name of the Messias any-where so peculiarly owned by Christ as this name of the Son of Man is all over the Gospel And as by the note of reference joined with it it must refer to some use of that name in some places of the Old Testament where it is before mentioned so do we find St. Matthew 24. 30. what place of the Old Testament that is For our Saviour does there join that name of his with the very same Circumstances that it is mentioned with here in Daniel In that place of St. Matthew and in all the other Gospels beside in his Prophecy of his coming he calls it the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory which is just the same with that in the 7th of Daniel about the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of Heaven and his waving an Vniversal Kingdom given him at the time of that Judgment when there were infinite multitudes of Angels attending It is most certain from our Saviour's Examination before the High-Priest That it was the commonly received Opinion of all men in those days That the name of the Son of Man in those circumstances of his appearance that
used in any other place in which it is not so clearly known Rule 2 3. 3. It is against all the other known representations of the different kinds of Supreme Powers in the same Nation all over Daniel or the Revelations that they should have two distinct Figures to represent two different kinds of them even according to the Interpretation of these men themselves For all the differences of Supreme Powers in the same Nation every-where else are granted to be set out by the parts or appurtenances of whole Figures As in the 8th Chapter that which represents the Succession of the Persian after the Median Kings in the same Nation of the Medes and Persians is the Two Horns of the Ram not two different Beasts And the four divisions of the Grecian Monarchy with the Rule of the first King are set out by four Horns after one great Horn which belonged all to the one He-Goat The Ten Kings arising out of the fourth Kingdom and the One after them are represented by eleven Horns of one and the same Beast in Chap. 7. 24. And the same Ten Kings in the fourth Kingdom of the Image in the 2 d Chapter are shewn by the Ten Toes of the Feet The Seven successive Kings also of the Kingdom in the Revelations and the Ten Kings who are all at a time in that Roman Rule are represented by the Seven Heads and Ten Horns of that One Beast All which if counted up together will be found to be the odds of above Forty to Nothing against the dividing of the single Reign of Alexander from those who succeeded him in the same Nation and against the representing him by one whole Figure 4. The Third Kingdom is certainly that which succeeded the Second and the Second by all is agreed to signifie the Persian Kingdom and what a kind of Kingdom it was that succeeded the Persian the Prophet himself informs us in the 8th Chapter v. 21 22. where the King of Greece who overthrew the Persian Monarchy does signifie the whole time of the Grecian Monarchy with a first Conquering King in it and a four-fold Kingdom after him And therefore here also must this Third Kingdom that succeeded the Persian and is represented in this 7th Chapter by One Beast as that was in the Eighth be the same time of the Greek Monarchy from its Conquest of Persia to the end of it 5. The proper Character of the Kingdom of the Greeks which Alexander's Reign was but a part of is a Kingdom first under one King then divided into four and joyned together in one Figure as appears in the 8th and 11th Chapters where v. 8. v. 4. the Kingdom of the first King is said to be divided towards the four winds of Heaven in both those Chapters Wherefore since the Third Kingdom in the 7th Chapter is shown by a Leopard v. 6. with four Heads and four Wings to make sure of the number Four If that be Alexander's Kingdom it must be his Kingdom divided into four and then it is the same with the whole Graecian Monarchy setled in the four lasting Kingdoms of it mentioned as the one Kingdom in the 8th and 11th Chapters 6. Besides that the Leopard with the four Heads and four Wings must signify such a divided Kingdom appears from all the significations of Heads and Horns and all the parts of Figures signifying Dominion in any place else of this Book and of that of the Revelations As in the 8th Chapter twice in the 2d Chapter in the feet and toes the same with the fourth Beast and his Ten Horns in the 7th Chapter pag. 104 c. which also are Ten Kings in one Kingdom and the Ten Horns of the Beast in the Revelations are of the same signification Prop. 15. So that the Leopard being granted by all to be a Graecian Kingdom there is at least Five to nothing clear to the contrary that the four-headed Leopard is Alexander's Kingdom divided into four which we know to be the fourfold Monarchy of the Greeks 7. If Alexander's single Reign were the Third Kingdom shown by the Third Beast in the 7th Chapter and his Ten Captains immediately after him were a fourth Kingdom shown by the Fourth Beast with Ten Horns then that Kingdom which was represented but as One and the same in the 8th and 11th Chapters of the same Prophet would be represented as One and Three For there would be one Kingdom under Alexander alone shewn by the Third Beast chap. 7. Another under his Ten Captains shown by the Fourth Beast and a Third by the fourfold Kingdom of the four Horns of the He-Goat in the 8th Chapter And thus one Kingdom shown by one Beast only in the 8th Chapter should be two Kingdoms shown by two Beasts in the 7th Chapter and a Third Kingdom besides shown by a part only of that one Beast in the 8th Chapter which represented the whole time of them all which would suppose that the Prophet had no consistency at all with himself in his Figures but that he did set them down at all adventures in contradiction to one another And this also must be supposed of him without the least plain ground from any thing that he had said to countenance it which is a sufficient warrant to make us determine that all this is more than these Men have any ground to affirm of him and contrary to what he is every where represented viz. As a very profound wise Man and even contrary to all the experience that we have of it in all the Figures which are granted to be known wherein he is acknowledged by All to observe a constant and determinate usage of them in one only signification 8. Again when we see the Graecian Monarchy after Alexander represented as a fourfold Kingdom in known and plain terms in the 8th and 11th Chapters to make the next Kingdom after him to be a tenfold Kingdom of his Captains in the 7th Chapter is to shut ones eyes against what the Prophet had plainly said in those two Chapters And which he seems openly to refer to by the four Heads of the Leopard And what a strange contempt of a Prophesy is it to reject a Figure of a Kingdom that has just the same marks that it is set out with in two open known places which expresly name it and to take up with another in the stead of it that has such marks as that Kingdom was never before set out with by the Prophet That is to pass by the Leopard with the four Heads which yet is granted to be a part of the Kingdom of the Greeks that is mentioned in the 8th and 11th Chapters by their own confession and instead of it to chuse a Beast with Ten Horns representing ten Kingdoms for the rest of the Graecian Monarchy which had before been twice called a fourfold Kingdom but never a Kingdom with Ten Kings in it 9. The Prophecies of Daniel we see were wrote by
to avoid all disturbance in the City and prejudice to the Church none should be chosen without his knowledg See also Petavius Rationar Temp. part 1. lib. 7. cap. 3. The doubled strength of the Two Consuls The Coyns also of the Empire in the time of this division had both the Emperors Heads with this Inscription The mutual love of the two Augusti And whatever was there more like to the Consuls of Rome which are said to be one of the five Heads that were past at the date of the Prophecy than these two Emperors After this came the Western Empire to be cut off by the Barbarous Nations Odoacer who cut off the last Emperor Augustulus Reigned with his Heruli Sixteen years in his stead and how much he deserved to be accounted a new Head of Rome may appear by the power he had there to have a Law made f Petavius Rationar Temp. l. 7. c. 3. To prevent which that is the Commotions in the City about the Election of Laurentius and Symmachus upon the death of Pope Anastasius the whole Controversy was remitted to the determination of King Theodoric according to the Law made in that Case by Odoacer And he pronounced Symmachus Pope And many Synods were about that Affair in the year 501 and some years after That no Election of the Bishop of Rome should be valid except it were confirmed by the King And also That in a Controversial Choice The King should determine which of the Elected should stand This Law continued also under g Hieron Rubens Histor Raven p. 131 132. The year after was there another Council called by the Command of King Theodorick from Ravenna The French Bishops mention their being called to Rome by his Command And Pope Symmachus gives the King thanks that he called the Council to meet at Rome See Tom. 2. Concil de Synodis Romae sub Symmacho Theodoric does there shew the Letters of Symmachus himself to request him to call the Fourth Synod Theodorick who succeeded Odoacer together with his Goths and Theodorick was in the exercise of it till the year 502. h Pompon Laetus of Odoacer The Romans at his first entrance into the City salute him King of Rome and Italy and lead him to the Capitol with all the highest Honours To the same purpose Blondus Decad. l. 3. pag. 31. In decretal distinct 69. Odoacer is called by Pope Symmachus the Most Excellent King of the Romans And by his Authority were there frequent Synods of the Orthodox called at Rome till some years after the year 501 thô he himself was an Arrian which shows how absolute he was amongst them And of the i De Translat Romani Imper. in Germanos Tit. Quâ ratione facta est Imperii translatio The Roman Power was transferred upon Odoacer first by the Army or by the submission of the Roman Legions to him 2. By the Nobility and Senate of Rome 3. By the Right of Conquest 4. By the Renunciation of Augustulus 5. By the Consent of all Rome and Italy declared in the Capitol as they used to acknowledg their Lawful Emperours Blondus Decad. l. 3. p. 37. He there shews How Theodoric was received at Rome by the agreeing Consent and Applauses and Acclamations of the Pope the Senate and People of Rome And that he left Rome to its own Government by the Senate but yet so as that his Praefect did preside over them Bellarm. l. 1. de Translat Imper. Rom. in Germanos cap 9. says that Theodoric enjoyed the Empire of all Italy The style of Theodoric's Letters-Pattents represent him every-where as the Absolute Sovereign of the Romans as much as ever the Emperours had been before him In his Letter to the Senate of Rome upon his Coronation Oath Lib 10. Variar Cassiodori Our Goodness must be a very commanding thing when we are overcome by our own Will who are not bound to answer to any one else because we owe thâ—se things to God only and not to Man Epistola 17. So also in the next Letter to the People of Rome consider How much kindness is intended you when he swears to you who cannot be compelled And speaking of the Office of Praefect of the City of Rome Epist 4. lib. 6. says of himself in comparison with those Praefects Hâc sold ratione c. In this only are we different from them that we cannot be subject to any one else who have none to judge us or to call us to account Sigonias says of him lib. 16. de Occident Imper. That Theodoric set up a Kingdom in the West every way most like the old Empire there splendid receptions of both Odoacer and Theodorick at Rome by the Pope the Senate and the People of Rome and of the applauses and submissions that were shown them in acknowledgment of their Sovereignty There are sufficiene Testimonies from the best approved Historians of those times And the time of the Reign of these Barbarous Kings over Rome was near 70 years The Lieutenants of Justinian Bellisarius and Nurses subdued those Kings of Italy And thereby Justinian who was but the Emperour of Constantinople and which had been divided from the Authority of Rome for so many years comes to be restored to the Royal Seat of the Empire at Rome which was another Change of the chief Government of that place And thus it continued under the Command of the Exarchs of the Greek Emperors for near Two hundred years The Lombards and the Franks and the Pope together seem to make another Change of the Sovereign Power of Rome by the ruine of the Greek Emperors interests in Italy But thô the Lombards seemed to be the next Masters of that Jurisdiction yet they never could succeed in their attempts to make themselves Masters of Rome For they were checked in it by the Power of the Franks under Pepin and Charlemain But then upon a Confederacy betwixt the Pope and those Kings of the Franks Rome was left wholly free to it self and Charlemaine was made Emperor of the Romans and from him the Title continued to this day in the French and German Line with some small intervals of vacancies Who would make any question whether here be not variety of Changes enough to make one conclude That the Imperial Government which was the Ruling Head in St. John's time must have been long since at an end One would indeed be more apt to judge from hence That there hath been not only a Change of the Sixth Head since that time but also four or five Heads besides in succession to one another But since we are already assured That the next Change but one to the Imperial Sixth Head was to be the Beast Prop. 20. And that the Beast was to continue from his first rise under that Head to the last coming of Christ in Glory by Prop. 6. and Corol. 1. Prop. 12. It is manifest that there can be but Two of these several Changes of Government that can
be Heads of the Beast the latter of which must continue to the second coming of Christ Wherefore to be able to know from the account of these Changes of the Roman Government whether we are now in the times of the Beast which is our chief concern It is now to be enquired Whether it can be assured from thence that the Sixth Imperial Head has been at an end since the time of the Vision Now leaving all the rest of the Changes to the particular defenders of them one may upon most undoubted grounds for it resolve himself That At the ruine of the Western Empire by Odoacer and the Gothish Proposit 22. Kings of Italy The Sixth Head was at latest at an End For the Sixth Head was to be at an end when another setled Government should be owned at Rome instead of the Imperial Government by Coroll 2. Prop. 22. And at the ruine of the Western Empire by those Kings their Authority was k Cassiodor Variar Lib. 5. Epist 3. de Praefecturâ Praetorianâ No Dignity is equal in power to it And although other Dignities have their set bounds yet under that jurisdiction does almost every thing come that is done in our whole Empire And in the Comment there by Brossius Ammianus Marcellimus lib. 21. affirms That the Praefectura Praetoriana is much above all other Dignities as Valentinian Valens and Gratian have decreed l. 1. c. de Officio Vicarii And that with good reason For the Praetorian Praefecture was a kind of Sovereignty of Command but without the Purple and that was the distinction betwixt the Sovereign and the Praefectus Praetorio that he had not the sacred Purple nor the Imperial Badge of Authority owned for supream at Rome as has been already made appear from the publick reception of those Conquerors at Rome by the whole Authority of that City the Pope the Senate and People of Rome and their acclamations to them under the name of the King of Rome And what other Authority does Bellarmin himself make necessary for such an end Bellarm. de Translat Imp. Occid but that of the Pope And the Exercise of this Power is manifest from the whole Book of Cassiodorus Variarum who was the Chancellor and chief Minister of State to two or three of the Gothish Kings For that whole Book is nothing but the several forms of the Letters Patents as one may say of the Gothish Kings for all the great Offices of the Roman Government such as those of Consul Praefectus Praetorio c. Prefect of the City c. And the Office of the l Cassiodor Variar l. 1. Epist 4. l. 11. Ep. 1. 8 10. l. 12. Ep. 3. 56. Praefectus praetorio was immediately depending upon the supream Imperial Power and Commanding all under him with an Imperial Authority But the most assured evidence of it is the Commands that we find from the Gothish Kings to the Senate by the same name m Cuspinian in Sextum Rufum p. 8. De Imperatoribus Appian writes in the Proem of his History That Emperor was the name of the Generals of Armies of old From whence he that Governed the Commonwealth at his own pleasure like a King was called an Emperor And they took that name upon them because the name of Emperor was more acceptable at Rome than any other Title which had a show of Absolute Government And Julius Caesar as Dion says did take the name of Emperor upon him as omnium Rerum Dominus from whom the Emperors after him took the name Thus were the Gothish Kings really Emperors of Rome under the name of Kings They had the same Power and differed only in Name of Rerum Dominus n Cassiodor Variar Lib. 1. Epist 29 31 32 33 44. Lib. 4. Ep. 45 c. that the Emperors had in distinction from all other Sovereigns and in such terms as these By these o Cassiodor Variar Lib. 8. Ep. 2 3 4. Lib. 10. Ep. 18. Lib. 11. Ep. 1. pag. 658. Cassiodor Lib. 8. Epist 24. Clero Ecclesiae Romanae Athalaricus Rex We decree by our Authority at this present That if any one has an Action against any belonging to the Roman Clergy That he Cite him to the Court of the Most Blessed Pope And if the Plaintiff has not right done him there then he may go to the Secular Courts presents we do ordain By our Proclamation we do enjoyn And know ye lest any one incur the severity of our displeasure Give ye your Suffrages according to our Command And know ye that we have given our special Order But Especially n when we see them minding the Senate and People of Rome that not only by the general consent of all Goths and Romans THEY were chosen their Kings and Governors but that also they had taken an Oath of Allegiance to them And if there should be any scruple of a Superiour Authority in the Pope at that time We find an Ordinance of the Kings That o Clergy-men should indeed go first to the Bishops-Court But if they apprehended themselves not righted there they should from thence appeal to the Civil Courts of Judicature which shows which of the Courts was then accounted the Superiour Jurisdiction even amongst the Clergy themselves And this will not be much wondred at as any strange thing when it appeaas That those Kings made Edicts to Regulate the Ordinations p Cassiodor Variar Lib 8. Epist 15. King Athalaricus to the Senate of Rome concerning their Agreement in the choice of that Pope which his Father had named to them after the Imprisonment of Pope John by him He calls it their Obeying his Command in it Idem Lib. 9. Epist 15. To Pope John of the Popes themselves and directed them to the Popes in such terms as these to publish May your Holiness know that we have at present decreed which we will have to extend to all Patriarchs and Metropolitans And in the substance of the Edict We allow no voice to any Clergy-man that shall be found to have been bribed for it And then commands that a former decree of the Senate about it be observed And with the desire of the Bishops Prayers bids him take care to observe his Edicts and commands him to intimate this to the Senate and People by the Praefect of the City and to make it known himself to all the Bishops under him And to intimate a thing was the Law-term to signify the making a publick Act of it Panciroll notit Imp. Orient p. 33. q Anastasius Bibliothecarius records this of Pope John the first in the time of Theordoric and of Pope Agapetus in the time of Theodahat It was also an ordinary thing for the Gothish Kings to send the Popes in Ambassy to the Greek Emperors If now it be replied That the Imperial Government was still in being in the Constantinopolitan Emperor because he had a part of the Senate of Rome and one of the Consuls with
at Rome For besides that it has been demonstrated that the essential Character of an Head of the Beast is the Government owned at Rome by Prop. 21. It appears also by almost all the known examples besides of the changes of Government in a Monarchy either in Daniel or the Revelations That the continuance of the former Government together with a new face of the Soveraign Power is made to be a New Succession of the Sovereign Power of that Nation The most plain instance of it is in the Figure of the Graecian Monarchy in the 8th Chapter of Daniel where after the end of the first form of Government under the first King there succeeds a fourfold Kingdom notwithstanding that the Macedonian Sovereignty which was the first King continued still in being for it was one of those four Kingdoms So also in the figure of the Persian Monarchy just before it the successive changes of the Sovereignty are represented by the Two Horns coming after one another thô the first of them That is The King of Media was still in being when the latter was in Rule because the King of Persia was also King of Media and his Realm at that time called the Kingdom of the Medes and Persians This also is confirmed from the Succession of this very same Imperial Head which was a new head notwithstanding that the x Onuphr Panuvinus lib. Fastor p. 61. But the Consulary Dignity continued at Rome to the time of Justinian Joh. Fersius Silesius protonotarius de p. Praet Justinian Novell 105. calls the Consulship a Dignity that goes alway with the Imperial Power so that the Consulary Power seems to be so interwoven with the Sovereignty that it follows it of its own accord and is tacitly included in it as soon as the Scepter of the Empire is taken L. 6. Cod. Theodos The Emperors Decree That all other Dignities shall give place to that of Consul Prattica dell Medagglie de Carlo Pattin Pag. 67. The greatest part of the Money which the Emperors Julius Caesar and Augustus caused to be stamped was called Consular Money for the respect that they bore to that Supream Dignity Consulary Government continued with it thô in subordination to the Imperial much more must this Government be a new Head when that which was only Imperial is turned into a Regal form at Rome There is therefore no longer any question to be made whether the Imperial Government which was the Sixth Head at the time of the Vision be yet at an end CHAP. V. Rev. XVII The 23 d Proposition The Beast some Present Sovereign of Rome The 24th The 42 Months of the Beast at least 1260 years The 1260 Days of the Witnesses the same particular time The Two Witnesses the Representatives of the whole Church enslav'd by the Beast SInce it has been made unquestionable from the preceding Proposition That the Sixth King or Head has been past for some hundreds of years From thence it may as assuredly be concluded That The Beast called the Eighth King is a Sovereign Roman Proposit 23. Power that is owned for Supream by the Authority of the City of Rome at this present For the Sixth King in being at the time of the Vision was certainly at an end after the ruine of the Western Empire by the Heruli and Goths Prop. 22. And the Seventh King does immediately succeed the Sixth by Prop. the 18th And the Seventh King was to continue but a short space chap. 17. 10. Whereas the number of years from the Ruine of the Western Empire to this present is three times longer than the whole time of the sixth Head from the date of the Vision and as long as the whole time of the other six Heads before Wherefore the Seventh King must needs have been long since past and the Eighth King called the Beast have entred upon his Reign For the Eighth King did immediately succeed the Seventh by Prop. 18. And the Eighth King or the Beast is to continue till the Second coming of Christ by Corollar 1. Prop. 12. And therefore must the time of the Beast be both begun already and not yet past that is must be at present in being Upon the same grounds it appears That The forty two Months of the Reign of the Beast Revel 13. 5. are at least 1260 Years Prop. 24. For the Beast is in being at this present by Prop. 23. And he began his Reign soon after the fall of the sixth Head because the Seventh King was to continue but a short space Rev. 17. 10. And the sixth Head was at latest ended at the fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus by Prop. 22. which was above 1200 Years since It is therefore impossible that the forty two Months of the Reign of the Beast should have a literal signification in this place They must then of necessity be understood in a Mystical Signification by Rule 2. and in such a Mystical Signification also as must make them contain in them above 1200 Years Now there is no Example in Prophecy of any such Mystical Signification of Time as will make these forty two Months reach to 1200 Years and make them less exceed that number of Years than the Mystical use of Weeks and Days in some of the Prophecies Weeks are by almost the Vnanimous Consent of all Interpreters taken for so many Years as they have days in them in that famous Prophecy about the first coming of the Messias into the World in the 9th Chapter of Daniel v. 24. under the name of the seventy Weeks This is an unexceptionable Instance of the mystical use of days for years So also is the Year of Jubilee after 49 years called the end of seven Sabbaths or weeks of years Levit. 25. 8. Days also are made use of to signify Years in Ezekiel twice in one Chapter Ezek. 4. 4 6. and in the same manner in the Book of Numbers 14. 34. Against these two last Examples it is pretended That Days do not absolutely signify Years but are only made the Types of Years But this is no material Objection against this usage of Days For though in those two places they be used but as Types yet it is easie to observe that Types of things are ordinarily used in the New Testament for the things themselves after the Type is fulfilled in them and in that use of them they signify the things absolutely and not Typically for a typical signification of any thing is the signification of it before it is come to pass which cannot be when the Type is used for the real thing it self then in being And therefore in such a use of the typical word it must signify the thing absolutely only Thus do we find the names of Temple Altar the Holiest of Holies the Vail the Passeover-Lamb used to signify the Christian Church the Communion Heaven this Earthly state Christ Jesus after these Types were accomplished and so after their typical time was past
People into Civil and Ecclesiastical Persons the King and the High-Priest especially where the Church of God is which is the present Case As this does go along with all well-ordered Societies so it is exemplified in two of the Instances here referred to out of the Old Testament Or 2. The Church may here be represented by Two upon the account of the known peculiar Character of the Christian Church in distinction to that of the Jews all over the New Testament where it is every-where represented as one Church made up of Jews and Gentiles one Common Society with those two great constituent Parts in it upon the account of which it was originally called the Catholick Church Thus do we find †St. Paul almost continually insisting upon this Two-fold distinction in the Church and the chief ground of Rom. 3. 30. 4. 16. 9. 24. 10. 12. 11. 17. 15. 8 9. 1 Cor. 1. 24. 7. 18 19. Gal. 27. 8. 4. 22 24. 6. 15 16. Ephes 3. 6 9. all his earnest Motives to Unity and Mutual Communion for the making the Christian Church but one thing is that all the World both Jews and Gentiles are but one Church of Christ As Ephes 2. 14 15 16 17 18. and Chap. 3. 6. and Chap. 4. 1 2 3 4 5 6. And this is every-where represented by him as the great Mystery of God in the bringing the Gentiles to be one Church with the Jews Ephes 1. 9. 3. 3 9. Colos 1. 26 27. This Book of the Apocalypse does also generally run upon that distinction As Chap. 5. 5. The number of the Jewish Elders gathered out of all Nations And Chap. 7. 4 9. The 144000 out of the Jewish Tribes but figuratively taken and the Great Multitude of all Nations So also Chap. 14. 1 6. The 144000 and all Nations and Kindreds and Tongues and People And Chap. 19. 4 6. The 24 Elders represent the Jewish part and the Voice of the Great Multitude the Gentiles though both figuratively And the Church is every-where set forth as the Jewish Temple or Synagogue set open to all people This also we find every-where foretold in the Old Testament as the peculiar distinction of the Church of the Messiah from that of the Jews That it should be the Church of both Jews and Gentiles And this does our Saviour also make the distinguishing Badge of his Church For this reason did he make choice of Baptism to be the Initial Rite of all Nations into his Church which by the Jews had always before been made the distinguishing Rite Matth. 8. 11. 21. 43. 22. 9. 24. 14. John 11. 52. betwixt themselves and the Gentile Proselites He also upon the same account ordered the Memorial of his own Death to be the Communion-Feast or the common Union of Jews and Gentiles in his Church or the Communion of Saints of all kinds instead of the Paschal Lamb which was the distinguishing Ceremony of the Religion of the Jews from all the rest of the World besides And thus also does he himself signify his Church to be One Fold made up of two sorts of Sheep John 10. 16. But this does most eminently appear in the History of the Actions of the Apostles after Jesus had committed the sole management of his Church to them The chief Subject of the Book of their Acts is to set forth this new appearance of the Christian Church with these Two different kinds of Members in it Indeed this twofold distinction of the Members of the Christian Church had its foundation in the known division of the whole World into those two general Parts of it Jews and Gentiles both always before and at the time of the writing this Prophecy And this distinction was always preserved in memory by the frame of the Jewish Temple and its distinction of the two Courts of the Jews and Gentiles and so seems to be the most likely to be here referred to because the most obvious and commonly known division of the Church of God into Two But what strength soever this Account of their being called Two may seem to have yet the demonstration of their real nature in general before given does not at all depend upon it This is intended only for a probable illustration of that Character And since by the discovery of their Nature they must represent the whole Christian Church for many Ages there must be some reference in this Character of it to some twofold division of the Christian Church which must distinguish it from the Jewish and none was better known for such than that which has been here pitched upon not that of the Old and New Testament nor that of the Churches of the Waldenses and Albigenses which some would have that number to refer to a THUS does Ribera interpret the three days and an half in Chap. 11. v. 9. that they signify that the Tyranny of Anti-christ shall not be continued above three years and an half according to that of Ezek. 4. I have given thee a day for a year Though afterwards upon the 20th Chapter of the Apocalypse he does in express terms contradict this very Interpretation When ever says he did Lyranus see a day taken for a year And though in Ezekiel God said I have given thee a day for a year yet what ground is this to take a day for a year in Scripture Alcasar also upon the 2 d verse Chap. 11. Apocalypse does determine That the 42 months and the 1260 days must necessarily be taken in a mystical and not in a literal sense Notatione quarta in vers 2. And they both agree with Bellarmin l. 3. de Pont. c. 8. that the 42 months and three years and an half must be understood according to the Caldaick Account CHAP. VI. Rev. XIII The 25th Proposition The Second Beast Rev. 13. an Vniversal church-Church-Head distinct from the First The 26th Proposition The Beast A Secular Head confederated with an Vniversal Church-Head but distinct from Him The Second Beast a succession of many single Persons The Beast and the False Prophet are the present Secular and Ecclesiastical Roman Heads or the Imperial and Papal Power Objections answered THere have been sufficient grounds of Assurance given that the Beast is really in being at this present time It is in the next place necessary to enquire after those Characters of him that do distinguish him from all other Sovereign Powers upon Earth The greatest difficulty in this Affair arises from the great resemblance that there seems to be betwixt the First and the Second v. 1 11. Beast in the 13th Chapter of the Revelations For they are described as two distinct Sovereign Powers in one and the same Roman Dominion The Second Beast is said to exercise all the power v. 12. of the First Beast before him And therefore do we find these two Beasts confounded together by many of the best esteemed Interpreters It may then be
Life and Death to himself which he gave to the Image and therefore be Supream From hence it would be inferred That The Second Beast is a Pontifex Maximus of the Romans after the time of the Heathen Emperors For by Propos preced the Second Beast must be a Supream church-Church-Head of the Romans which is a Pontifex Maximus And by the same Prop. he must be distinct from the First Beast who is another Supream Head of the Romans by Propos 20. And till the time of the Emperor Gratian the Pontifex Maximus was not a really distinct Head of the Romans from the Emperors the Emperors till then were both the Pontifex Maximus and the Supream Civil Head And now it may be safely determined That By the Beast in the Revelations is meant a Secular Sovereign Proposit 26. See References Power of the Romans c Mede in c. 13. Apoc. v. 1. These Two Beasts are tied to one another by the nearest relation to one another and both of them do together Reign over the same part of the World The First or Ten Horn'd Beast we may call The Secular Power the Two Horned Beast The Ecclesiastical Power And on v. 11. The first Beast is a Secular Power this an Ecclesiastical which does exercise the chief Ministerial power of the first Beast and his Blasphemies Aventin Histor Boior Lib. 7. The Bull of Pope John against the Emperor Lewis does there recount That from the time of Charlemaigne the Empire was a Fiefe of the Papal power and so must be conferred by the Pope to be in union with him for the assisting the Church in its Acts. The Emperor in Answer to it Challenges it to be his right to elect the Pope so that both agree that they are to be immediately united to one another confederated in an Idolatrous Antichristian Rule with an Ecclesiastical Supream Head of that Nation which is distinct from it For the principal Agent is the False Prophet The design and business of all the Power that is exercised Idolatrous Worship the Instrument that executes all the Orders about it the Image which was made by the False Prophet and the Beast joins in all as the chief Supporter of it And the Tyranny exercised in it against the Followers of the Lamb does sufficiently shew how Antichristian a Design it is that they are engaged in and the real distinction betwixt the Beast and the church-Church-Head his Confederate is assured from Prop. 25. This Confederacy does shew the Second Beast to be no single Person For the False Prophet continues to the end with the First Beast and the First Beast is the Succession of many single Prop. 15 20. Persons in the same Form of Government as an Head of a Beast is known here to signify And therefore The Second Beast is a d Alcasar in c. 13. Apoc. Sect. 6. By the Beast of the Earth or second Beast is signified a multitude of persons as well as by the Beast of the Sea or the First Beast as well the one as the other of these Beasts is the Scheme of a numerous multitude and not of a single person as in the 7th of Daniel Succession of Ecclesiastical Persons having the Corollar 1 Supream Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs See References Wherefore without any further scrupulous search for the moment at which the Beast began his Reign let the particular Change of the Government of the Romans which made the Beast at first to appear be what it will and never so difficult to know yet now it may be safely concluded That The Beast and the False Prophet are those two Forms of Secular and Ecclesiastical Government really distinct from one another Corollar 2 which are at this present time acknowledged for Supream by the Authority of the City of Rome For the Beast is the last Ruling Head of the Romans by Corol. 2. Prop. 6. And therefore is that which is owned for Supream at Rome by Prop. 21. And he is owned there for Supream at this present time by Prop. 23. And he is a Saecular Sovereign Power of Rome distinct from an Ecclesiastical Head there owned and confederate with him by Prop. 25. And that Ecclesiastical Chief Head of Rome is the False Prophet by Coroll 1. Prop. 25. Wherefore the Beast and the False Prophet must be those Secular and Ecclesiastical Heads of Rome distinct from one another whose Authority in those several kinds are at this present there owned If so Then how can one avoid from being assured That The present Imperial and Papal Power or Authority of Rome are Corollar 3 the Beast and the False Prophet For there are no other Secular or Ecclesiastical Sovereign Powers of Rome whose Authority in those several kinds are there acknowledged for Supream and as really distinct from one another Note 6. Corn. à Lapide but only the Papal and Imperial Power and we are sure that they must be both of them in being at this present time by Coroll 2. Prop. 26. And besides The present Imperial Power has all its title from the City of Rome and was generally used to have a e The German Writers who defend the Imperial power from any dependancy upon the Papal and therefore look upon the Coronation of the Emperor at Rome as unnecessary yet grant it to be the usual and common form of confirming the Roman Empire upon him by the people of Rome Hieron Balbus de Coronatione Cap. 21. says That the place assigned for the Coronation of the Emperor with the Imperial Crown is at Rome For which he quotes Clem. Roman de jurcjurand D. c. venerabilem and says in his plea against the necessity of the Crowning of the Emperor at Rome That it is only positive Law that ordains it whereas the Emperor is above all such kind of Law Which shows however That that was the Law That the Coronation should be at Rome And makes this another Argument for his side That thô the Pope be ordained to be Inaugurated at Rome yet that he dispenses with it and so therefore might the Emperor Which intimates That Rome is as properly the place from whence the Imperial Crown comes as it is for the Papal Mitre And then concludes the Chapter That it is not material where the Coronation be provided it be done by the Pope or his Legate Which confirms the Authority of it to be from Rome and therefore adds That before the Translation of the Empire from the Greeks to the Germans the Coronation used to be performed by the Praefect of the City And that does manifest that the Pope in that Solemnity does stand only as the Head of the People of Rome instead of the Praefect of the City of Rome Albericus in Indice verbo Coronâ says That the Emperor receives three Crowns The first of Silver in Germany An Iron one in the Dutchy of Millan and a Golden one for the Roman Empire particular Crown from thence and the
both parts of the Roman Commonwealth by it and the Examples of all former Princes and sollicites the s Idem l. 10. Ep. 33. Magistro officior Vitiges R. For tho I may be thought to have deserved less of you yet have some regard to the Roman Liberties which by the Tumults of War are every-where violated concurrence of the great Men of that Court with him in that motion upon the account of the common Liberty of the Roman Nation The Senate also of Rome it self uses the same motive to Justinian for Peace t Cassiod Var. l. 11. Ep. 13. Justiniano Aug. Senatus Urbis Romanae It is a very just and necessary thing to petition for the security of the Roman Commonwealth of one that is a pious Prince of it because it is reasonable for you to desire all that may contribute to our Advantage or Liberty c. because Rome ought to be his care and therefore not to be suffered to be ruined upon his account And that it was his Agreement only with the Goths that made that City find favour with them because of his concern in the common Interest of the Romans And well worth the perusing for this purpose is u Ibidem Be not thou the cause of my Ruine who hast always contributed to the Joy of my Life Do not ruine by Discord whom thou oughtest to defend by War Joyn Councels with the King and unite your Forces that whatsoever may be to my Advantage may redound to your Glory That Prosopopaeia which the Senate represents to Justinian in the name of the City of Rome as his peculiar City that ought to be his care and concern and that he ought to maintain Peace and Unity with the Goths for her sake It is also a remarkable observation of Joh. Fersius Silesius to this purpose in his Book de Praefect Praetor That Justinian demanded of the Gothish King as the condition of the Peace That he should never set up his Statue without Justinian's in an higher eminency than his own and at the Right hand as the more Honourable place which confirms the former Custom of setting up both the Princes Statues to signify one Empire in common to them both thô the Emperour would have the precedence Again both the Eastern Emperours and Gothish Kings had the name of Rerum Domini or Lords of the World from the same City of Rome which was then called The Head of all things Of the Emperours it is unquestionable and x Idem l. 11. Ep. 1 8 10. l. 12. Ep. 3 5 6 11 18. of the Gothish Kings it is no less certain from Lib. 11. and 12. Cassiod Variarum in above Twenty several instances of that Title And both Emperour and King were represented together in Italy at least as the one conjoyned Soveraign Authority of the Roman Empire as appears from the before cited form of the Kings Letters to Pag. 186. the new elected Consulary Magistrate where the Heads of both the Princes are said to be carried before them And accordingly we find the Dates of the Pontificates in those times to have the King of the Goths as well as the Eastern Emperour signified in whose time the Popes lived The Wars betwixt the Goths and Justinian are no greater objection against their being One Head of the Romans than the Civil Wars betwixt the Two Consuls Sulla and Cinna c. Or the Wars betwixt the Two Emperours of the East and West who yet for a while at least are acknowledged by the chief Adversaries of my opinion to have been one of the Heads of the Beast From hence then it may be certainly concluded That so considerable a change of the Form of the Sovereign power of Rome is sufficient to give it the name of one of those two last Kings of the Eight Rev. 17. 10 11. which should come immediately after that Imperial Sixth Head which Ruled at the time of the Vision for it has all the qualifications of one of those Kings That is it is a change of the Supreme Government of Rome And to know what kind of change of that Government is sufficient for the Title of one of these Kings one must consult the Examples of those which were past before it It is certain That the five first changes called the five Kings past and one in being could be nothing but the change of the name of the Civil Sovereign power let them be what they will in particular For there was one and the same Religion in them all There are then five plain instances in the same Figure to justify the making of this change of the name of the Civil Roman Government at the ruin of the Western Empire to be one of those Two Kings of the Eight which were to come after the Imperial Sixth Head that was the King at the time of the Vision Besides There is also the example of the Ten Horns or Ten Kings represented by them to show the difference betwixt the Supreme powers which they signified to be nothing but outward civil differences For those Ten Kings are said to be of one and the same Religion to be of one mind and to agree together in false Worship Rev. 17. 13 17. Here are then Sixteen instances in the same Figure to show that the change of the Civil Form of Roman Government by the Gothish Kings was sufficient to make them to be accounted one of those Two Kings that were to come after the Sixth King that Ruled in St. John's time If further we consult the usages of the Figures in Daniel that signify Kings we shall find there that the only note of distinction to know different Kings by is some outward civil difference either upon the account of a different Dominion or for being another name of the Civil Government in the same Dominion and the number of the instances of that kind in that Prophecy are about Thirty So that there seems to be no manner of reason why this change of the name of the Sovereign Power of Rome by the Goths succeeding the Imperial should not be one of those Two Kings that were to come after the Imperial since All the Eight Kings are agreed to be so many changes of the Roman Government And thô it should be said That the change of the Religion of the Empire by Constantine was one of those Kings yet since the different kind of the Civil Government under the same Religion have been found to be the difference betwixt all the Kings besides that are figuratively mentioned in Daniel or the Revelations This constant usage of Prophetical expressions in above Sixty Instances is surely warrant enough to make that remarkable change of the Civil Form of the Sovereign Power at the fall of the Western Empire to be another King thô the Religion might continue the same Now if this change of the name of the Civil Government by the Goths were either the Seventh or Eighth King after the Imperial
shew of himself before the full rise of the Beast though his full-grown appearance was not till after the Reign of the Beast 7. If it be further objected That the Imperial Line that was begun in Justinian was cut off from the Rule of Rome at the deprivation of Leo Isaurus and the Eastern Emperors by the Pope and therefore that the Emperors from Justinian could not be the Beast since the Beast was to continue in being till the second coming of Christ It is to be considered That the conferring of the Title of Roman Emperor upon Charlemaigne not long after did continue the Succession of the Imperial Head to this day And if there had been a perfect Inter-Reign from the end of Leo Isaurus to Charlemaigne that would not have discontinued the Imperial Head For since there was no other Secular Head of Rome owned for Supream there in the room of the Imperial during that space of time the Imperial Head still continued without the interposition of any other For the Lombard Kings who were the only appearing Power of Italy besides were so far from being owned for Supream at Rome in the room of the Eastern Emperors that the Pope k Petavius Rationar Temp. Part. I. Lib. 8. cap. 7. speaking of Aistulphus King of the Lombards And then he delivered to the Pope by the Abbot Fulrade the Exarchat of Ravenna and the Five Cities that is Ancona and the four Towns of the Picene Territory and other adjacent had all their most considerable Territories given him by Pepin the Father of Charlemaigne And l Ludovic à Bebenberg quotes the Historiae Francorum for what follows Pope Stephen the Successor of Zacharias about the Year 753. anointed Pepin and his two Sons viz. Charles afterwards Charlemaignc and Carolomannus for Kings of the Franks and obliged the Princes of the Franks to chuse none of any Family than these whom he had made choice of by the Providence of God to defend the Apostolick See And so Pepin enters that year into Italy for that very purpose Upon this account it is very probable that the Chronicle of St. Martin and others of the same Opinion have said that Pope Stephen translated the Empire from the Greeks to the Germans For since the business of the Emperor is to defend the Roman Church and to exalt the Head of it the Pope as appears Dist 6. Tibi Domino and to protect the Clergy 96 Distinct c. ult and the Holy Churches as other Kings and Princes are 23. q. 5. c. Principes c. Administratores And since Constantine and his Son Leo required to do this by Pope Stephen against the Lombards as appears Ext. de Elect. venerabilem in ult glossâ did refuse to do it therefore did Pope Stephen chuse Pepin and Charles c. and their Successors c. And for the contrariety of Chronicles we ought to stand to the Chronicle of the Franks abovementioned which seems to have been wrote by a Frank who therefore was well acquainted with the Transaction of this Translation For this History of the Franks in this matter concerning Charlemaigne is taken out of the Writings of the Abbot Rhegius of the Diocese of Triers who has reason to be thought to be well acquainted with the History of the Princes of his own Countrey The sum of the Canon-Law printed at Venice with the Privileges of almost all Monarchs and Popes by the Title of the Speculum of Popes Emperors and Kings does affirm the Translation of the Empire from the Greeks to the Franks to have been done by Pope Stephen about the Year 753. Ludovicus a Bebenburg attributes to Pepin Ann. Dom. 753. and A. Rosellus to the Year 755. and Marinus to the same Year De Translat Imp. Rom. in Germanos sect Quod Translatio Imp. non facta erat per Papam And Bellarmin L. 1. de Translatione Imp. Romani in Germanos cap. 12. grants that Charlemaigne conquered Italy 20 years before he was Crowned by the Pope Charlemaigne himself See References was within some years after Leo Isaurus owned by the Pope for the Royal Defender of the Liberties of Rome and of the Church though he had not the Title of Emperor till many years after If any should dispute the Right of Charlemaigne because the Constantinopolitan Emperor was m Bellarmin in his First Book de Translat Imp. Rom. in Germanos c. 12. does give an account of the Succession of the Constantinopolitan Emperors to Charlemaigne and of the owning the Title of the Western Emperors And cap. 5. To the same purpose Ludovic à Bebenberg in note 6. on the 6th Chapter M. Frehems his Commentator unjustly deposed They may as well question the Right of Succession in most of the Emperors before Possession and not Right was that which did always confirm the Imperial Title And it will be hard to find any constant way of Succession or Election in the Imperial Line before Charlemaigne to found a right upon Sometimes the Emperor was elected by the Army sometimes by the People sometimes adopted by another Emperor All that can be found constant about it is that generally they used to have n See Grot. de Jure B. P. l. 2. c. 9. note 1. chap. 3. Hieron Balbus de Coronatione cap. 13. in the same note and the Comment there on Ludovic à Bebenburg See also Lipsius of these Acclamations 2. Elect. cap. 10. the Acclamations of the People of Rome and the Approbation of the Senate which were freely given o Of Charlemaign's Acclamations all Historians speak to Charlemaigne From whom there has been continued a Succession of the Imperial Line to this time It is certain that before Julius Caesar the Majesty of the Roman Kingdom was in the See References p Paulus Merula de Legibus Romanis pag. 58. The Jurisdictions were bounded The Senate had more Authority than the Magistrate The Common People had the greatest Authority In all the People together was the Majesty of the Commonwealth Cuspinian in Sextum Rufum pag. 6. The Consuls Rods were hung down when they came into a full Assembly of the People because the Majesty of the People of Rome was greater than that of the Consuls People of Rome And to commit Treason was in Majestatem Populi Romani peccare And it was a generally continued custome by the Emperors to receive the confirmation of their Title from the Acclamations of the People 8. But it may be here urged That the Imperial Head was manifestly discontinued in the time of the Tumults of Italy under the q See Petavii Rationar Temp. Part. I. L. 8. c. 13. Berengarii when there were such frequent changes of the Kings of Italy This can be of no more force than the former excepting the Ceremony of anointing Berengarius King at Rome by Pope John the Xth. But his Reign was so very short after it and the Successions of those after him so like a mere scuffle
Beast here is represented as consisting of these Kingdoms as the parts of his Body which if it has any reference to the Roman State at the particular Rise of the Beast with Justinian must signify That it should be that particular Roman Power which was in possession of Greece Babylon and Persia or that part of Asia which belonged to the Babylonians and Persians And then it does very clearly signify That the Rise of the Beast should be at the advancement of the Eastern Empire to the Government of Rome And does not that suit well enough with Justinian's Conquest of Italy This would tempt one to be very confident That this was designed as a very plain Character to know the Rise of the Beast by since there is no such mention of any of the Parts of these Beasts in the Dragon in the Chapter just before which yet is the same kind of Figure with this and is known to signify the Roman Chap. 12. State a long time after that it had been in possession of Greece and Asia And one would be very apt to judge That what is represented as particular to the Beast in the 13th Chapter and was omitted in the Dragon which yet is known to be the Roman Empire must be added as a mark of distinction of the one from the other But if others will have this mark of the Three Beasts to belong to the general nature of the Beast as it signifies the Roman Conquest at its first appearance after the destruction of the Greek Monarchy it will not prejudice my Opinion It is enough to show That as this Beast does signify the particular state of it under its last Ruling Head So this character of the Parts of it does most exactly agree with that which I make to be the last Ruling Head at its first Rise in distinction to all other states of the Beast The rising of the Beast out of the Sea is known to signify that it Rev. 13. 1. should arise out of great Commotions and by great Wars and Tumults For so are many Waters interpreted by the Angel himself to signify in this Prophecy chap. 17. 15. Multitudes and Peoples Isa 8. 7. 17. 12. Jer. 46. 8. and Tongues and Nations which being added to the nature of those Waters in the Sea do determine it to signify great commotions of those Multitudes and Nations And certainly this does very well suit with that strange bustle which Justinian made in the World by his Wars with the Goths and Vandals and Persians and with his Conquests of those People at his taking possession of the Western Empire The ascending of the Beast out of the Bottomless Pit Rev. 17. 8. is the same thing as the Sea is usually called by the name of the Abyss in Scripture which is the word here used for the Bottomless Pit I could never meet with any satisfactory Account from any other Hypothesis concerning the date of the first appearance of the Beast why the whole time of its continuance both in Daniel Dan. 7. 25. Rev. 13. 5. Chap. 12. 14. and the Revelations should be expressed by a Time Times and half a time or 4â— Months which is the same Coroll 2. Prop. 24. For one would be apt to conclude that a ALcasar Notat 4. ad v. 2. cap. 11. All the Persecutions of the Church are set out by three years and an half Three days and an half refer to a Week And on chap. 12. We have seen that by 1260 days are signified three years and an half according to the Graecian and Jewish Account We have also there seen that the space of three years and an half is to be taken mystically and that by it is signified in the middle of a week of seven years the three and an half in that expression must have a reference to some seven as the whole number of it Three years and an half is in it self so precise and unusual a determination of the whole time of a thing and the whole number seven so commonly used in the Old and New Testament to signify the whole of things of the same kind that it must be thought to be very likely to be here referred to especially when it is also considered That the number seven is very frequently in use all over the Book of the Apocalypse Alcasar has observed that it is made use of there no less than forty times Epist Dedicat. Comment in Apocalyp The three years and an half of the preaching of Christ to which these three years and an half are said to allude are also in the 9th Chapter of Daniel last verse made to be a reference to half a week of years With this it is also to be observed That the other two famous Prophecies concerning the Captivities of the Jewish Church which is every-where made the scheme of the Christian Church The first about the 70 years Captivity by Jeremiah and the other of the 70 weeks Captivity till the time of the Messias which is mentioned with the former in the 9th Chapter of Daniel They both have the number seven for their denominator and common measure And from Jacob's seven years service for Gen. 29. Chap. 21. 2. Leah and Rachel and from the Liberty of an Hebrew Servant at the end of seven years It appears that the space of seven years was the known space of time for servitude amongst the Jews where the Prophecies were delivered And the seven years that we are now enquiring after to fix the half of them to must be some seven years of the Bondage of the Church though with some lightsome intervals As this does make it very likely That the Time Times and an half of the Tyranny of the Little Horn or Beast over the Church of God does certainly refer to some whole number of seven Times so is it now worth the enquiring to what particular seven Prophetical Times they are referred This difficulty in the way that I have found my self determined to by the Prophecy is easily resolved For if the first appearance of the Beast be at Justinian's Conquest of Italy the Time Times and half of the Beast in the Revelations and Little Horn of the Beast in Daniel are just as long a space of time as it was from the first beginning of the Captivity of the Jews under the Assyrians who were much the same Kingdom with the Babylonians in the 9th year of the Reign of Hosea to the time of Justinian For that Captivity of the Ten Tribes by Salmanasar was in Petav. Rat. Temp. part 1. l. 2. cap. 2. in Ezechia Part. 2. l. 1. c. 4. in fine the 3993d year of the Julian Period and 720 years before Christ If to this be added the Year of our Lord when Belisarius carried Vitiges the King of the Italian Goths in triumph with him to Justinian which was Anno Dom. 540 there will be just the same number of 1260 years to the
beginning of the Reign of the Beast at Rome for the first half of the seven Prophetical years of years without their Epagomena or the five days at the end of them as is determined in the Revelations And tho the Goths did after that Triumph of Belisarius get head again in Italy yet the example that we have of the computation of Petav. Rat. Temp. part 2. l. 3. c. 12. the 70 years Captivity from the first carrying away of Jehoiakim long before the final Desolation is a very plain Rule given for the fixing of the date of the Conquest of a Nation in Prophecy For Belisarius's Conquest of the Goths at the taking of Vitiges their King was exactly the same kind of Conquest of them as Nebuchadnezzar's Conquest of Judaea at the carrying away their King Jehoiakim in Fetters though the Line of their Kings continued to the end of Zedekiah By this it appears That from the first times of the Bondage of God's Church at the beginning of the great Captivity of the Jews to the last end of it at the ruine of the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th of Daniel succeeded there by the Kingdom of the Son of Man there is just the space of seven Prophetical years or in the phrase of Daniel seven Times of which the one half begins with the Captivity of the Ten Tribes and ends at the first appearance of the Reign of the Beast and the other half is the times of that Reign At the end of which the great Prophetical Week of Times is accomplished or the times of the Servitude and Bondage of the People of God For as seven years was the allotted time in the Law for the slavery of a Servant so did that time seem to be made the Type of this great state of Bondage To confirm this We see the end of the Time Times and half declared to be the end of the Jewish Captivity Daniel 12. 7. Which does clearly show that those Times were only a part of that whole Captivity and where they appear to be the just half and to be called three and an half who would not assure himself that they must refer to the whole number of seven Times or years of years which was the whole time of that Captivity And thus comes the whole time of that long Captivity of the Jews to be measured out to our admiration by these two halves of it from the first time of the Captivity of the Kingdom of Israel as the 70 years from the first Captivity of Jehoiakim to the Rise of the Beast or Little Horn and from the beginning of that Reign to the end of it But if the 1260 years in both the halves should be also accounted without the five days or the Epagomena at the end of each year in them just as three times or three years and an half are here but 1260 days then they would be 18 years short of that number of years and then the first half of the whole seven would end just about Justinian's entrance upon the Throne in the East or at Justin's being crowned by Pope John four years before in acknowledgment of his Right over the Roman Empire And this might be so much a more remarkable date of the Rise of the Beast because this is said by Petavius Ration Temp. Part. I. L. 7. cap. 3. to have been the first Instance of the Crowning of an Emperor by the Pope And this was near 18 years before the other date from Belisarius's Triumph over the Gothish Kings and made remarkable by the change of the common Aera ab V. C. for that of the year of our Lord presently after by Dionysius Exiguus and by the beginning of a new Digest and Code of Laws by Justinian which have continued ever since to be the acknowledged standard of Civil Law to all Nations though properly nothing but the Laws of the Roman Empire The other half also of the Time or the 1260 years of the Beast must thereupon be concluded to end 18 years sooner or soon after the Year 1760. It has indeed been already determined that the first appearance of the Beast was at Justinian's Conquest of the Goths But though his first publick formal appearance might be not till then yet the time of his Reign might very well be accounted from the time of his first Inauguration or Coronation for that Design by the False Prophet since it seemed to be but one continued Design for the Elevation of the Eastern Emperor into the Western Throne And so was that Action of Pope John interpreted by the Goths in Italy as a translation of the Western Empire upon him and upon that account was the Pope so closely imprisoned at his return by the King of the Goths as it cost him his life The first date then of the 42 months of the Beast's Reign may very well begin at his first Coronation by the Pope as the Eighth King of Rome or the seven Hills But after all it is to be observed That there is an apparent ground from the Prophecy for the apprehending the two halves of the seven times of years not to be altogether of an equal length The mention of a Time Times and an half is indeed ground enough to make one conclude that they refer to an whole week of times of which they are three and an half But then to shew that this latter half was of a different length from the other three and an half before them these latter are industriously explained in the Revelations to be no more than three years and an half without the five days which were usually added to the twelve Babylonian Months in every year Which seems to be a plain exception there put in to distinguish them from all other Accounts of Babylonian years that had not that limitation added to them and therefore more particularly to shew their difference from the first three and an half in the seven times According to this The first three times and an half ought to be accounted according to the full number of days in the Babylonian year or with the addition of the five days or Epagomena after the other Twelve Months which would make every one of these first half of the seven Times to contain five days more in it than is accounted in every one of the latter half And then the first Three Prophetical Times and an half before the Reign of the Beast would be 17 years more than 1260 full years which would make them reach from the first Assyrian Captivity of the Jews to the year 558 after Christ Petav. Rat. Temp. l. 7 c. 5. in fine when Belisarius made an end of the last remainder of all the opposers of Justinian's Conquest of the Western Empire viz. the Nation of the Huns the Times of the Reign of the Beast the latter half would by this account not begin till about the year 558 and if they were full 1260 Babylonian years they would then reach to
about the year 1820 for their Last End But by the same reason that they are made to be but 1260 years or 17 years short of the full account of the three Times and an half N. B. every of those 1260 years as has been observed may be judged to want five days in them and then they would reach but to just the year 1800. And this I account to be the true way of determining the number of the years in both the halves of the Week of Times here referred to For the industrious care that the Prophecy seems to take in three Chapters of the Revelations to limit the number of years contained in the latter half of that great week is sufficient ground to conclude that the former half of it before the Times of the Beast which has no such limitation in it is to be accounted according to the received Custom of the Babylonian Nation for their number of days in a year to which all this peculiar calculation of the Times does refer For the Exception expresly put in to the one half is a confirmation of the common way of account in the other half where there is none Thus may we observe That this great Tribulation of the domination of the Beast does in that resemble the time of the greatest Tribulation that ever befel the Jews as it is characterized by our Saviour The days that this should have in it in proportion to the other half of the seven before it are shortned for the Elects sake And all the grounds that there are for the shortning of the length of 1260 years by the Chaldaick and Greek Account without the additional five days expresly referred to in the Prophecy do also prove that the Rise of the Beast whose time is measured out by these years could not be about the Year 450. for then his time would now have been almost just run out For 1260 Chaldaick years would be but 1242 which added to 450 would make but 1692 for the end of the Beast And yet that is the time to which the first Rise of the Beast is fixed by the most Judicious of the Protestants that take other ways for the succession of the Eighth King called The Beast But in the shortest account of these years they appear however to be so prodigious a length of time for the Reign of One Tyrannical Kingdom over the Church of God in comparison with any other of the Four Monarchies by which the whole N. B. time of the Captivity of the Church of God is measured out in the 7th of Daniel That that is a very sufficient Reason for the particular mention of them as the half of some week of years For by that this Antichristian Tyranny is set out by that which is the most remarkable Circumstance in it viz. The continuance of it in the last Monarchy of the Four as long as all the rest of the time of the slavery of the Church under all the other Three Monarchies and that also in but the one part of the Fourth Monarchy CHAP. II. Rev. XIII The Character of an Eighth which was one of the Seven explained of was and is not yet is Of coming after a Seventh which should continue but a short space Of the changing of Times and Laws Of the Ten Kings reigning one hour with the Beast Of the Image of the Beast TO go on with the rest of the Characters of the Beast in the Revelations The Imperial Head cut off by the Goths and restored by Justinian does very naturally agree with the Character of its being an Eighth King which was one of the Seven Because Rev. 17. 11. it was the Sixth of those Seven Kings at the time of the Prophecy and an Eighth in the time of its Restauration by Justinian And it is a strange thing to see how others are forced to make either their Eighth King to be the same with their Seventh or their Seventh King to be none of the seven Heads to uphold their Interpretation And that also shows How the Imperial Head restored by Justinian was the Head wounded to death and healed again ch 13. 3. And the Beast that was and is not and yet is ch 17. 8. which do but signify the same thing with its being the Eighth which was one of the Seven that had been once past before For all those Expressions signify no more than that the Imperial Head was before it was deadly wounded by the Goths then ceased to be while the Gothish Kings were the Kings of Rome and Italy and afterwards was healed again by the return of the Imperial Rule over Rome in Justinian Where by the way may be observed how justly the continuance of the Roman Imperial Power in the East after the ruine of the Western Empire does answer the Character of and yet is at the time when it had but a small share in the Authority of the City of Rome together with the Gothish Kings See the Account of their Note 20 21. on Chap. 18. Union in the choice of their Consuls c. But whereas the first of these Expressions seems to belong only to an Head of the Beast and the other is said of the Beast indefinitely It is to be considered that the notion of the Beast is the Beast in the particular state of its last Head Prop. 6. which is the healed Head Coroll 3. Prop. 10. As for the Riddle of was and is not and yet is The Learned Vol. 1. p. 642. Dr. More has shown that that is to be understood of the Beast as it was subject to those several changes of one and the same state of it and not to be tied to any one set particular time when those inconsistent Characters were really verified of it altogether as several compounded Names of things are found to be in the Old Testament For to understand it literally of the substance of the Beast is an open contradiction or to understand those Characters about the same qualification of it in the same respect at the same time And yet it cannot but be seen that in the time of the Gothish Kings it was very near being verified to the greatest nicety about the Imperial Government It was Supream at Rome before them it was not so in their time and yet it was owned for its share with them in the Authority of it But to make out this difficulty by applying these Expressions only to a quality of the Beast that was and was not and yet was as Dr. More does to the Idolatry of the Romans is contrary to that which has been proved to be the constant acceptation of the Beast Prop. 6 that is The particular state of it under the Eighth King which therefore must be the thing of which was is not and yet is must be verified The Character of his being an Eighth after a Seventh King which should continue but a short space agrees very well with the Ch. 17.
former A Carved Image is indeed but the dead likeness of some single Person But an Image of a Publick State that is alive as this is must be some Ruling Power in the same State that has a very lively resemblance to it for it is in being at the same time with it the Beast and his Image are ordinarily described to be together And the Image is made in honour of the Beast and so must like the Images of the Emperors be within the bounds of the Authority of the Beast And besides is made by a False Prophet in the exercise of the Power of the Beast This living Image then must necessarily be an Universal Rule of the World like to that of the Imperial Roman State And accordingly we find it speaking and commanding all the World to worship it chap. 13. 15. forcing all men to receive the mark of it and to take the name of it v. 16. which shows the extent of its Power to be as large as that of the Imperial Power its Original It had also power of life and death in it v. 15. which is the peculiar Prerogative of Supream Power Now this was all for nothing else but the enforcing of False Worship which it was inspired with life by a false Prophet to effect And one of the Punishments was Excommunication v. 14. v. 17. That men might not buy or sell which was an usual punishment d Selden de Synod l. 1. cap. 7. De effectibus Excommunicationis He that was excommunicated with either greater or lesser Excommunication was said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the effects of them were Separation from Converse from the Synagogue from the publick Assemblies from all the People and Commonwealth of the Jews And he that was accursed with Cherem was not to have any Commerce with any but just so much as to get Victuals of the Elders of the Synagogues amongst the Jews All which denotes it to be an Ecclesiastical Power equal to the Secular Power for the universality of its Jurisdiction Indeed what kind of Power within the same Bounds and Territories can it possibly be but Ecclesiastical that can be a living Image of the Secular Exercising Supream Authority at the same time with it and in the same places as this is described This Image therefore must be a Church-Rule equal to that of the State And since the Jurisdiction of it is Universal or Catholick and also Roman can it be any thing else but the Roman-Catholick-Church And since all the life that it has is inspired into it by the False Prophet who is already known to be the Papal Power Corol. 3. Prop. 25. what plainer description could we have had of the Roman-Catholick-Church under the Pope Or what can there be that is a e Leo Sermo 1. de Natali Apos Rome has a larger Jurisdiction in its Spiritual Reign than it had formerly in its Worldly Empire Bellarm. l. 5. de Pontif. c. 6. From whence it appears That the Pope is greater than the Emperour c. Stenelius Eugubinus lib. 1. de Donat. Constant By the Exaltation of the Papacy Rome has recovered a Greatness very little different from that of the Ancient Empires since all Nations from the East to the West reverence the Pope of Rome in the same manner as they formerly did the Emperours See the expressions of Pope Gregory VII of his own Authority Greg. 7. Epist 37. The Roman Ceremonial l. 1. c. 2. shews this to be the manner of investing the Pope with his Authority I invest Thee with the Authority of Pope that Thou maist Rule over the City and the World Urbi Orbi more exact living Image of the Roman State under the Imperial Power For the Head of it has a Jurisdiction equal to the Head of the State Both Pope and Emperor have long since had the Title of The Lords of the World They have both a Triple Crown tho for different Jurisdictions They are both called King of Kings The body of the Image is just the same with that of the Beast The Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions are parted out exactly according to the divisions of the Civil Government of the Empire The Patriarchs Archbishops and Bishops had their Ranks and Places every-where according to the Divisions of the Provinces of the State and the name of the Ecclesiastical Diocesses did arise from the distinction of the several Civil Diocesses of the Empire by Constantine And it is established by the Canons of f Concil 6º in Trullo Can. 37. The Canon which was made by the Fathers we do also observe which says thus If any City be or shall be new raised by the Royal Power the Ecclesiastical Dignity shall follow the Publick and Civil state of it two Synods That if any City were newly raised by the Emperor the Ecclesiastical Dignities there should be conformed to it So that the Church and State did run parallel to one another through the whole Body of the Roman Empire just like the Arteries and Veins in the Body of Man and observed the same proportion every-where to one another a MAlvenda de Antichristo pag. 234. de 10 Cornibus The number Ten is very often in Scripture used indefinitely for a great many CHAP. III. Rev. XIII Wherein the Worship of the Beast and of his Image doth consist BY the process of the former Chapter we have all the Confederates in the design of the Beast discovered to us There is the Imperial Roman State for the Beast with his last Head The Image and false Prophet for the Roman Catholick Church and the Pope The ten Kings giving their Kingdoms to the Beast for those Roman Catholick Kings who force their Subjects to submit to the Roman Religion enjoyned by the Papal Power or Imperial Authority And now it is to be examined what is meant by Worshiping the Beast and his Image It is certain in the first place That the words here used to express the Worship of the Beast and his Image are the same with those which were in use at the time of the Vision to signifie the Adoration given to the Emperors and their Images publickly set up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and adorare were the terms in common use amongst the Greeks and Latines of those times to express that profound Reverence which was paid to the Emperor and his Image And then there seems to be nothing more required to make Application of this Phrase but only to show what obedience was given to the Secular and Ecclesiastical Authority of Rome by all the World from the time of Justinian But because we find that the a GRotius in Decal Nor did the first Christians think it contrary to their Religion to fall down before the Emperours Images But when they afterwards joined the Images of false Gods with their own they chose to endure any thing rather than to worship them first Christians did pay that Reverence before-mentioned to the
necessary to the Emperors for upholding their Power in the midst of the Invasions of the Barbarous Nations the Emperors were willing to enlarge their Authority to make use of it for the management of their own Affairs And after that the Divisions of the Roman Empire were setled in so many Sovereign Princes that Church-Authority which they themselves had now lost in those several Kingdoms they were not unwilling to bestow upon the Chief Bishop of their City and so by small advances he came at last to get the Title of Occumenical Bishop and Vniversal Head of the Church of Christ upon Earth But yet still did the Emperors retain their Power of the setting up of every new Bishop of Rome The Emperors m This is thus well expressed by John Wex de Antichristo p. 119. And so the Ten Kings delivered to the Beast their Kingdoms which they had got at the dissolution of the Western Empire according to Apoc. 17. 12. For after that the Western Empire was broken in pieces all the Kingdoms of the West did join again together in one body that by the bonds and tye of the Babylonish Superstition of the Bishop of Rome they might fight against the Lamb. Consent was still held necessary for the confirmation of the Election as the Chief Power upon Earth that gave him his Authority And upon this account he was set up as the Emperor's Deputy and Creature to be the Universal Head of the Roman Church in all the divided Kingdoms of the Roman Empire which now would own no other Secular Head of the Churches in them but those Sovereigns which ruled them And thus came the divided Roman Empire to be n one entire thing again and the several Kings in it to own one Roman Head again set up by the Imperial Authority Things continued not long in this mere spiritual and Ecclesiastical State The new Ecclesiastical Head used all ways to make himself universally acknowledged for such And to that end as Head of the Church he assumes a power of executing the Canons of Councils upon Sovereign Princes to the depriving them of their Kingdoms if they refused to execute the Orders of the Church upon all those that were disobedient to it and that even to the punishment of death From hence then we have a perfect Idea of the worship of the Beast and of his Image from the first Rise of the last Ruling Head or of the Imperial Power restored by Justinian The Imperial Authority was at first the sole Head of the Roman Catholick Church Afterwards the Submission of the divided States of the Empire to one Ecclesiastical Sovereign who was set up by the Emperor made this new Empire the exact Image of the first in respect of the Church-Government of it And the Manager and Contriver of this new Model is in History the Bishop of Rome and is in the Prophecy called the False Prophet CHAP. V. Rev. XIII Four Grounds for the applying of the Worship of the Beast to the Imperial Power How the False Prophet does Exercise all the Power of the First Beast causes all the World to Worship him makes them make an Image to him Gives Life to that Image and makes All receive its Mark c. BY the Observations in the preceding Discourse it is easie to see How justly the Worship of the Beast may be applied to the Imperial Authority after the degeneracy of the Christian Religion 1. For the Imperial Authority as has been observed p. 221. was 〈…〉 a long while the only commanding Head of the Roman Religion and the a SOcrates Proam in l. 5. We have therefore in the whole course of out History given an account of the Emperor's interest in it because that since they began to embrace the Christian Religion Ecclesiastical Affairs did seem very much to depend upon them so that the most eminent Councils were in times past and are at this day summoned by their consent and procurement See Notes on the third Chapter b c d e f g i k The Emperours had always the Right of Investing Church-Governours in their several jurisdictions till the Council of Worms in the year 1122. And then the Emperour Henry the 3d. wearied with the vexations occasioned him by the Popes gave up his Right of the Staff and the Ring the Ceremonies of the investiture to Pope Calixtus the 2d Aventin Histor Boior l. 6. The Abbot of Ursperg in his Chronicle gives the form of this Concordat betwixt the Emperour and the Pope And the Pope in return agrees for the future That the Elections of the Bishops and Abbots c. should be performed in his presence c. And that He that was Elected should receive the Regalia of the Emperour by the Scepter And this was called the Uniting of the Royal Power with the Priesthood and long endeavoured after under that Name Cardinal Cusan Concordia Catholic c. 6 7 8 9. Affirms That every Emperour and Prince in their several Jurisdictions are of God alone and that it belongs to the Emperours to summon General Councils and to regulate the Procedures in them and to every Prince to do the same in his respective Territory for National and Provincial Councils And that if the Pope be negligent in these things the Emperour ought to make use of his Authority in all such Cases That the Emperour always presided in the Councils assisted with fifteen or twenty of the Nobles of his Court whom he made to take place before all And He and his Legats propounded the matters that were to be considered Pererius in Apoc. Disp 5. de Constantino Then came the Imperial Majesty first into the Church which was then Armed with both the Swords c. For though from the first The Church had that Sword viz. the Secular Sword yet then first began the facility and conveniency of exercising it against whomsoever it pleased only Soveraign Authority upon Earth that was acknowledged in all Ecclesiastical Affairs so that all obedience given to the erroneous Acts of those Councels was really an obedience to the Emperors will only For those things had no obliging power in them to overrule the Conscience upon the account of the Councels Authority And therefore since it had been long before that time received as a maxime by those who owned that Councel That all was there done by the b Socrates l. 1. c. 6. Ep. 4. Constantine unto the Churches He there tells them That whatsoever is decreed in the Holy Councils of Bishops is to be attributed to the Will of God And of the Sentence of the Council of Nice in particular Ibid. Ep. 2. to the Church of Alexandria For that which has been agreed upon by the 300 Bishops is to be taken for nothing but the determination of God himself The Holy Ghost residing in the minds of such worthy persons and inspiring them with the Divine Will of God himself Concil Constantinop Universal 6. Action 17. sub finem The
thereupon into the Church And thus comes the Roman Empire to appear with Ten Kingdoms in it shown by the Ten Horns and this was the helping of the Woman because the Church by this got her freedom and peace and gained these Barbarians to her But the Dragon is said to be still in great fury against the Woman and therefore went to make War with the remnant of her seed which Rev. 12. 17. keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ where we may observe a plain distinction made betwixt the Seed of the Woman The Warr that the Dragon makes is with that part of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony or are the Witnesses or Martyrs of Jesus Christ which intimates that the Rest of her Seed should depart from the Commandments of God and from the truth of the Gospel of Christ By this we have a new scene opened about the enmity of the Dragon against the Church The Time of it is after the Settlement of the Divisions of the Empire in those Kings of the Barbarians signified by the swallowing up of the great flood by the earth That is after the rise of the Ten Kings in the Roman Empire and the party against whom this War is carried on are the Godly Seed of the Woman not against all her Seed but against those only who keep God's Commandments and are the Witnesses or the Martyrs of Jesus or as they are elsewhere called The Witnesses in Sackcloth How this was brought to pass That which does immediately follow this design of the Dragon does inform us For immediately upon it appears a Beast with all the same Emblems of the Roman Empire that the Dragon had and to him the Dragon Rev. 13. 1. is said to give his Power and his Seat and great Authority v. 2. And thus does the Dragon fulfill the intention that he had just before to War with the chosen Remnant of the Womans Seed He does not appear himself in it but inspires another set up in his place to do it By which it is evidently signified That this new war with the dutiful part of the Womans Seed is not managed by any Roman Power which is openly known to be the professed Enemy of God and of the Christian Religion as that Government of the Empire was which had the open appearance of the Devil's management in it And if it were not such a Power that should appear like an open professed Enemy of the Christian Religion it must be such as must profess that Religion and out of a pretended zeal to it exercise all the Tyranny of the Devil or Dragon against the true professors of it For all the great business of the Beast is Religious worship and if that Religion be not professed enmity to the Christian because that would make it the open show of the Dragon as it was before his fall It must then be a zealous outward profession of the Christian Religion to persecute and to destroy the true maintainers of it This does determine the time of the first settlement of the Woman in the Wilderness for the space of a Time Times and an half For thô it be said Chap. 12. 6. That She fled into the Wilderness yet it is not there said that she was setled there but only that she had a place prepared for her there to be fed for One Thousand two Hundred and Sixty days And besides after many great Actions intervening she is said at the 14th Verse to be but then in a condition to fly into the Wilderness and after she was flying thither the Dragon cast out a flood after her and hindred her settlement there till that was swallowed up and therefore did her Time Times and Half-time begin but just at the same time with the Dragon 's persecuting the remnant of her Seed which was just at the first rise of the Beast and so confirms the Synchronism of the Woman and the Beast for their whole time We are therefore now to enquire from the History of the Christian Church how it can be said that from the time of Justinian all the true Professors of the Christian Faith were forced by Tyrannical usage to worship the Will of the Christian Roman Emperors about matters of Religion thereby to fit the Characters here given to the Beast to the Imperial Head restored in the West And thus we find that at the Time that the Christian Church The Woman was secured in the Two Imperial Seats of the East and West the two Wings of a great Eagle from all the inundations of Pagan people or from the face of the Serpent The Devil did then set up persecution in the Roman Throne against the true and faithful Members of the Christian Church The Remnant of the Seed of the Woman which keep the Commandments of God while she her self was in the Wilderness or in a place of security CHAP. VII Rev. XIII The particular point of the first date of the Rise of the Beast enquired after in order The first conception and progress of the chief Malignity of the Beast It entred with Theodosius and was setled by Justinian And appears to have been the enforcing of Vniversal Conformity by Penalties able to make the generality of the World to comply against their Consciences Justinian 's peculiar Talent in the setling this Method for Conformity FRom the former Account of the over-ruling Authority of the Christian Emperors in all Church-Affairs and of the great veneration which they had for the Councils assembled under them it is obvious for any one to conclude That they lay very open to the danger of requiring Divine Honours to be given them For this must needs make them very apt to command many things which God has left free and undetermined to be received for Points of Faith necessary to Salvation as inspired by the Holy Ghost in Council And it is evident that in such a case the will of him that enjoins such things is taken for the Will of God and so he may very well be said to require the Honour of God to be given to his own will One cannot but think it very probable upon this account that such a kind of Worship as is called the Worship of the Beast was sometimes enjoined before the Rise of the Beast since there were many Erroneous Councils before that time And it may be many things in Orthodox Councils made to be Inspirations of the Holy Ghost and pressed upon the Consciences of men as Divine Oracles necessarily to be obeyed which were but the mere Arbitrary Injunctions of men But yet though the same kind of Worship might have been commanded before his appearance yet it could not be the worship of the Beast till it was the owning of the Roman Authority for the Will of God in those particular Circumstances of Antichristian Idolatry and Tyranny in which it is described to be all over the
represented by the False Prophet cannot be the same thing with that which is called the Beast viz. Because the Beast is really nothing but an Head of the Beast which by consequence the 6th Chap. 3. does denote Prop. 6. a Civil Power of the Romans whereas the False Prophet is described as an Ecclesiastical Power employed in the service of that Civil Power See Revelat. 13 12 14. But yet they might very well agree That the Beast and the False Prophet might be used promiscuously to signify the really distinct Actions of one another because they were joined together in one Confederacy And the names of any Confederates or Partners in any thing are commonly used to express the Actions of one another in the common Design So Primasius upon the 13th of the Revelations concerning them both Both of them says he are every-where to be understood in conjunction And presently after It is manifest that both the Beasts are one and the same body of men and exercise the same wicked Worship so that the First is said to fight for the false Shows of the Second Thus I have drawn down the Consequences of the General Consent of the Ancients to mine own particular Opinion concerning the first date of the Rise of the Beast and the particular Roman Power that is now signified by that Term. But that which is to be observed for the General Confirmation of the Conclusion in which almost all Protestants agree in is That if it be sure as may appear from the 4th Query That the Sixth Head of the Beast is the Imperial Government at the time of the Vision then there need nothing be granted to prove the Beast and the False Prophet to be the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power of Rome at this present but only to demonstrate from History That there has certainly been two Changes of the Sovereign Power of the Romans since the time of St. John For they did agree That Antichrist from his first appearance must continue 4th Agreement Chap. 3. 3d Agreement this Chap. till the Second Coming of Christ and that the next Change of the Sovereignty of the Romans but one after the time of the Vision must be the Eighth King or the Beast and Antichrist And therefore at the beginning of the last of those two Changes of the Government of the Romans since the time of St. John must the Kingdom of Antichrist have begun whensoever that does appear from History to have happened And whatsoever the Fathers have delivered contrary to this concerning the Time Times and half a Time of the Beast as but three years and an half must have been acknowledged by them to contradict their General Agreements in other things more plain and from Experience which they often mention as the only means to determine the meaning of some Mystical Expressions that regarded future Times they would have learnt that those Times were necessarily to be understood in a Mystical Sense and not as they ordinarily signify according to the frequent Examples in Scripture of such a Mystical Signification of parts of See Corol. 1. Prop. 23. Rule 2. time and the true Rule of Interpretation in such like Cases For a clearer satisfaction about the contrariety and inconsistency of some of the particular Opinions of the Fathers with the Conclusions in which they agree with the Unanimous Judgment of the rest it may be convenient to inquire into the grounds or reasons of their Paradoxical Fancies about the Beast in the Revelations which contradicted the General Agreement about the signification of A Beast and its Ruling Parts in the Prophecy of Daniel For this purpose it is in the first place to be considered That it is a true Observation of the Learned Grotius That the Reason why the Apocalypse was not added at first to the rest of the Books In Praefat. ad Apocal. of the New Testament which did afterwards give ground for questioning the Canonical Authority of it was That it did so openly point at the Roman Government as the great Enemy of God that it lay concealed in a few hands amongst the Christians of the first times for fear of exasperating the Romans against them This does St. Chrysostome and Augustine make to be the ground why St. Paul spoke so mysteriously about the Roman Empire in In 2. Ep. Thess his Prophecy about Antichrist 2 Thess 2. 6. when he says And now ye know what doth withhold the Reason they give for it is That if the Apostle had openly named the Romans they would have accounted him and all the Faithful very pestilent Members of their Government This fear of the then Ruling Power together with the Professions of their ignorance of the application of the Characters of Antichrist because they look'd upon their times as not at all concerned in those things may be very reasonably judged to be the cause of the little care that the Fathers took to be wary in the Interpretations that they gave of this Book For they esteemed it to be both a dangerous study and also relating to things that they could not well judge of and also to future times in which they should not share And might therefore as Chrysostome and Augustine do expresly say bring themselves unnecessarily into great danger And Jerom in his Answer to 11. q. ad Algasiam and Primasius upon 2 Thess 2. 6. to the same purpose This Account may the more easily be allowed from the general neglect of the Book of the Apocalypse even in this Age to which the chief things in Mr. Mede Bp. Usher c. it are by the severest Examiners of the Sense of Scripture judged to belong so as to be even laid aside out of the Calendar for * Homilies of the Church of England p. 69 and p. 316. the daily readings of Scripture by Protestants themselves †who nevertheless do give the present Church of Rome the name of Babylon It is then no great wonder That Irenaeus and Hippolytus and some other of the Fathers whilst the Roman Government continued Pagan should be so willing to make the Beast in general to be the World and the Seven Heads of it to be seven Wicked Ages of the World as the sum or Recapitulation as Irenaeus calls it of all the Apostate times For in that way the Sixth Head said in the Prophecy to be then in being was not more applied to the Romans than to all the other Wicked Nations in the World at that time and the last Head called the Beast would not concern the then Roman Empire because it was not to come till after the end of that present Reigning Age. And their willingness to take this safe way might make them easie to be satisfied with such small grounds as these for it viz. 1. That the Beast in the Revelations is signified Chap. 13. 2. to 1. Dan. 2. 40. and 7. 7 23. contain all the Four Beasts of the 7th of Daniel in his own
of the Roman Church is dated from by Protestants Baronius's Testimony concerning it is a sufficient Answer to that who as * Divers Discourses p. 119. Dr. Barnard observes does acknowledg That there was not an Age in which some Learned Man or other did not appear in this charge of Antichristianism upon the Church of Rome And we have already seen the Charge of the Donatists and Arrians and if that should be esteemed to be nothing but the unreasonable clamours of Hereticks Pope Gregory's Lib. 4. Epist 38. complaint of the same nature against that Antichristian Supremacy of the Bishop of Constantinople which came afterwards to be the Title of the Bishop of Rome is unexceptionable Lib. 6. Ep. 28. But presently after that Age when Baronius himself says An. 900. Art 1 2 3. That the Abomination of Desolation seemed to have been brought into the Church Arnulphus Bishop of Orleans in his Speech to the Synod of Rheims appeals to the whole Synod whether Synod Rheim Cap. 25 26 27 28. A. D. 991. Mornay Myster Iniquity p. 213. the behaviour of the Bishops of Rome did not in their opinion fully answer the Character of Antichrist sitting in the Temple of God And thereupon applies the 2 Thess 2. 4 6 7. to the Falling in pieces of the Roman Empire and the Elevation of the Papacy upon the ruines of it But after that Pope Gregory the 7th called Hildebrand had a while shown himself there were frequent clamours of this nature Aventinus an Historian of that Church says That the Lib. 5. Greatest part of Good Ingenuous Faithful and Clear-spirited Writers did hold That THEN begun the Empire of Antichrist And accordingly do we find the whole Clergy of the Diocess of Liege in their Answer to Pope Paschal's Letter who had been Hildebrand's Scholar applying the Rage of the Devil in 2. Vol. Concil p. 809. Edit Colon. the Apocalypse against the true Church to the Popes Actions And the Emperour Henry who was with them in his Letters to the Christian Princes does also in express words apply the Characters of Antichrist in the Thess 1 Ep. 2. to Paschal The Bishop of Florence also at the same time did publickly Preach that Antichrist was then born which made Pope Paschal go in person Platina in Paschal 2. to Florence and call a Council there to admonish him to desist Their own St. Bernard tells us first That he had heard Norbart About the Year 1125. Epist 56. of great repute for Holiness affirm with a protestation That he did most certainly know that Antichrist should be revealed in that Generation And Bernard himself does also call In Cantic Serm. 33. Epist 125. the Pope Antichrist and says That the Beast of the Apocalypse to whom was given a Mouth speaking Blasphemies and to make War against the Saints does sit in the Chair of St. Peter But Everhard Bishop of Saltzburg in the time of Gregory the About A. D. 1230. 9th at the Assembly at Ratisbonne doth the most particularly prove the Time of the Beast as the 8th King of the Romans to have been come ever since the time of Hildebrand at least from the end of the Imperial Power that was the Sixth Head and the division of the Empire amongst the Ten Kings Aventin Lib. 7. 545. This was the judgment of such as were of the Roman Communion But ever since the first great appearance of the Albigenses which was before the year 1170. there has been a continuation of this Accusation against the Roman Church by whole Bodies of Churches divided from that Communion Those that have the curiosity to see a more particular account of the Tradition of the Charge of Antichrist upon the Roman Church from the best Learned of its own Members may consult Du Plessis Mornay in his Mystery of Iniquity and Dr. Bernard in his Fourth Discourse from page 119. where there is an account more particularly of the Learned Men of this Opinion in the Church of England both in the times of its Papal state and since the Reformation FINIS Books Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey THE Works of the Late Reverend Divine Mr. Stephen Charnock B. D. sometimes Fellow of New Colledge in Oxon. Folio 2 Vol. Speculum Theologiae in Christo or A View of some Divine Truths which are either practically exemplified in Jesus Christ set forth in the Gospel or may easily be deduced from them By Edward Polhill of Burwash in Sussex Esq 4o. Precious Faith considered in its Nature Working and Growth By Edward Polhill Esq in 4o. Geography Rectified or A Description of the World in all its Kingdoms Provinces Cities Towns Seas Rivers Bays Capes Forts their Ancient and present names Inhabitants Scituation Histories Customs Governments c and also their Commodities Coins Weights and Measures with those of London illustrated with about 80 new Maps the whole Work perform'd according to the Accurate Discoveries of Modern Authors In 4o. 2 d Edition Christus in Corde or The Mystical Union between Christ and Believers consider'd in its Resemblances Bonds Seals Priviledges and Marks By Edward Polhill Esq in 8o. A Practical Grammar or The Easiest and shortest way to initiate young Children in the Latin Tongue by the help whereof a Child of Seven years old may learn more of the grounds of that Language in Three months than is ordinarily learnt in a years space by those of a greater age in a Common Grammar School Published for the use of those that love not to be tedious To which are added Tables of Mr. Walker's Particles by the assistance whereof young Scholars may be better enabled to peruse that Excellent and most useful Treatise By F Philamath Master of a Free-School In 8o. A Dialogue between a Romish Priest and an English Protestant wherein the Principal Points and Arguments of both Religions are truly prepared and fully examined by Matth. Pool Author of the Synopsis Criticorum In 12o. Familiaria Colloquia Opera Christopheri Helvici D. Professoris Gressensis olim ex Erasmo Roterodamo Ludovico Vive Schortenio Halio selecta Editio Decima Quarta ad pristina exemplaria denuo recognita 12o. School of Manners or Rules for Childrens Behaviour By the Author of the English Exercise for School-boys 12o. Gradus ad Parnassum five Novus Synonymorum Epithetorum Phrasium Poeticarum Thesaurus Elegantiae Flavissas Poeticas Parnassum Poeticum Thesaurum Virgilii Smetium Januam Musarum aliosque id genus Libros ad Poesin necessarias complectens Some Sermons upon Regeneration Faith and Repentance preach'd at the Merchants Lecture in Broadstreet By Thomas Cole Marriage Promoted In a Discourse of its Ancient and Modern Practice both under Heathen and Christian Commonwealths and how far it may be practicable and commodious to the preservation of these Kingdoms By a Person of Quality
Prophecy And this it came not to be till it was the worship of the last Ruling Head in the midst of the several divided Kingdoms of the Roman Empire according to the description of it in the show of the Figure Chap. 13. 17. And besides there is one peculiar circumstance in the worship of the Beast which was never fulfilled till the time of his Reign and that is an actual conformity of all the whole world to it How peremptory soever the command for that Worship might be before yet it will appear that it could not long obtain amongst all those that were of a contrary judgment before the setled establishment of it at the new return of the Imperial Government in the West The reason that I give for this is because the Laws and Commands of the Emperors for Uniformity either had not before that time any penalties in them sufficient to make all the world to comply with them or were hindred from any setled continued execution of them The Penalties annexed to their Laws for Conformity were generally either nothing but Anathema's which Dissenters would not value or deprivations of Clergy-men and Military men And the pulling down and confiscating the publick Meeting-place or prohibitions to all men against coming into the Imperial City And there was no force in these Penalties for an Universal Conformity And the Commotions in the Western Empire would not allow the other severe and more general Penalties to have any constant effect We see Honorius soon after alledging this reason for his renewing his Commands for the terrifying of Hereticks viz. because he was then delivered from the fear of Attalus the Tyrant and Alaricus the Gothish King Now says he that the Oracle is taken away by whom they were encouraged to the exercise of their Heretical Superstition Let all the Enemies of the Holy Law know that they shall be punished with Banishment and also to blood if they will dare to meet still in publick Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat lib. 2. pag. 78. Wherefore it can never be thought that there was any thing of this General Conformity in the 4th or 5th Centuries either in the Reign of the Orthodox or Arrian Emperors Constantine seems to have gone as high in his Commands as most that came after him till the time of Theodosius We have a SEE Note the 8th on the 2d Chapter Socrates l. 1. c. 6. in his Edicts and Epistles all the great apprehensions that the World had of General Councils as immediately inspired by the Holy Ghost as the only Warrants for Unity and Uniformity and as vested with a power of denouncing the Curses of God upon Dissenters We find there the suppression of all their b Euseb de Vita Constantini l. 3. c. 63. To the Hereticks We Enact and Command by this Law That none of you shall dare hereafter to meet at Conventicles and that all those places where you were wont to keep close meetings be demolished provided also that you shall not keep any meetings either in publick or in private Houses or in remote places c. 64. And threatned their maintainers with punishments Conventicles the deposing of dissenting Bishops and which seems more terrible than any thing that we find in his Successors the c Socrates l. 1. c. 6. Constantine to the Bishops and People For as soon as he be taken our pleasure is That his Head be stricken off his Shoulders Sozom. l. 1. c. 21. penalty of death threatned to those that should conceal any of Arrius's Books and not deliver them up to be publickly burned but there was nothing in all this that did oblige the generality of the Arrians to Church Communion The Laws of Theodosius were indeed something more severe and of more force for a general conformity d Cod. Justinian lib. 1. de Summa Trinitat Theodos Edict ad pop Constantinop We will have all the people of our Empire be of that Religion which St. Peter the Apostle delivered to the Romans and which it is manifest that Pope Damasus does now follow and Peter Bishop of Alexandria And we command those that follow this Law to take the Name of Catholick Christian upon them and the rest only the name of Hereticks we decree shall be chastised by a Divine Vengeance first by Excommunication and afterwards also by the Revenge of the motions of our own mind as Heaven shall incline us And all over the Theodosian Code Tit. de Haereticis there are nothing but Laws either for pulling down the Meeting-houses of Hereticks or for punishing them and that even to Banishment So Cod. Theodos l. 15. Tit. 5. de Haereticis l. 16. Tit. 4. de his qui supra Religionem contendunt Lex secunda item lex tertia c. 67. de Haereticis l. 21. item l. 26. And Inquisitors appointed l. 9 13 15 31 32 35 52. Cod. de Haereticis Socrates l. 3. c. 4. The Emperour Basilicus's Edict there does mention and enforce Theodosius's Laws viz. That Laicks be punished with Banishment and Confiscation of Goods and Bishops with Deprivation to the Roman Church But whatsoever force these Laws might have yet we may be sure that the inundation of the Barbarous Nations who Baron Anno 585. were generally Arrians all over the whole Empire a few years after must necessarily put an end to that General Uniformity Socrates who lived in those times does indeed tell us That Socrat. l. 5. c. 2. 4. 20. as Gratian before him had granted a general Toleration so Theodosius constrained none of the Sects to be of his Communion but gave them the free exercise of their Religion in publick without the Walls of the City But Sozomen lib. 7. cap. 4 and 5. and Theodor. 5. 15. asserts the quite contrary of Theodosius that he made Decrees for punishing the Arrians with the greatest Severities To the same purpose Philostorgius l. 9. c. 19. If indeed we come narrowly to search into the Laws of Theodosius Arcadius and * Honorius ad Heraclian Comit Africâ An. 411. Sciant omnes Sanctae legis inimici plectendos se poenâ proscriptionis sanguinis si ultra convenire in publicum tentaverint Honorius one may very reasonably question Socrates's fidelity in this account of those times However the Confusions of the Empire by the Inundations of the Barbarians till the fall of the Western Empire may with all reason be judged to have given a continual interruption to the execution of the severest Laws of this kind at least to that general Conformity which is made the Character of the Power of the Beast And then the momentary appearance of this Power of the Beast for so inconsiderable a time can be taken for nothing but his endeavour to appear and which upon its first rise was immediately crushed It is certain that e Concil Ephesin Canon 8. Upon the complaint of the Cyprian Bishops against the Bishop of Antioch's usurped jurisdiction over them They