the whole Babylonian Empire we must not imagine that all this great circuit of Countries shall be laid desolate The 19th Chapter is the last in which mention is made of the destruction of Antichrists Kingdom The ten first Verses of this Chapter must not be disjoyned from the fore-going Chapter for they are only the continuation of it The solemn rejoycings of the Elect after the ruin of Babylon and the consummation of the Christian Church here below upon Earth The eleven last Verses of the Chapter contain a wonderful vision wherein Jesus Christ appears sitting upon a white Horse having the titles of faithfull of true of the word of God of King of Kings of Lord of Lords He gathers his armies together to fight against the Beast and against the false Prophet An Angel stands in the Sun and calls to all the fowls of Heaven to come and eat the flesh of those men that must be slain in that great battel which was to be fought On the other side the Beast and the false Prophet gather their forces the battel is fought the Beast and Kings are overcome he is taken with his false Prophet both are cast into the lake of fire and brimstone together with all those who had worshipt the Image of the Beast And this is magnificent and the Figures are lofty But there is nothing new in this and in my judgement 't is nothing but a recapitulation of the fore-going visions concerning the ruin of Antichrists reign The vision of the eleventh Chapter is an Epitome of the visions that follow and this is properly an Epitome of the visions which went before therefore I do not judge it necessary to insist upon it Especially seeing nothing is found of that which we seek for namely the signs and marks by which it may be known when and at what time the reign of Antichrist must end 'T is in the 11 14 and above all in the 16th Chapter that we find the Characters of this end and of the time in which it must come to pass Therefore it was necessary only that we should insist upon those Chaters The slaughter and murthers in the 19th Chapter must nor be understood literally I will only make the observation upon this Chapter which I made upon the fore-going That we must not understand literally the expressions of war and destroying that are used here for example that Iesus Christ must tread the wine-press of the wrath of God that he must give to be eaten by the fowls the flesh of Kings of Captains of mighty men of Horses of free and bond c. These are Metaphors borrowed from war and must be understood surably to the nature of this spiritual war which Jesus Christ must make against Idolatry Superstition Heresies and Tyranny his quarrel is with these and not with men Besides the reasons alledged we have here a convincing one that the Instrument of so many victories and which must make such a slaughter Vers 15. is the sharp sword that comes out of the mouth of him who sitteth upon the white horse And the remnant was slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse and all the folws were filled with their flesh Now all know that this sharp sword that comes out of the mouth of Jesus Christ is the Word of God a spiritual sword which must act only spiritual slaughters and which does not destroy the lives of men but their manners and Idolatries So that I fear lest those are mistaken who hope to render to Babylon that which we have received form her and in the cup which she hath filled to fill to her double i. e. to give her blood for blood torment for torment This is not the spirit of the true Church I have now done with this subject and I think there remains but one thing to do that I may give a clear Idea of our prophecies and that is to Epitomize and rank according to the order of time the various events which relate to the ruin of Antichrists Kingdom which the Holy Ghost displaced and confounded to the end that the prophecies might not be clearer than God did intend they should be As for the seven plagues of the seven viols they are perfectly ranked according to their order and according to their times A commendious Methodizing of the events which must bring Antichrist's Kingdom to its ruin 1. The first plague of the first viol begins about the year of our Lord 900. it lasts almost 150. years and ends under the Popedom of Leo IX about the year 1050. 2. The second and third plagues which are the Croisades begin at the end of the eleventh age and end at the going out of the thirteenth in the year 1270. or 1292. For till then some of the Latins kept possession in Palestine so that they take up the space of about two hundred years 3. The fourth plague begins before the Croisades but if we please we may place its beginning where the foregoing ends This fourth plague is the encrease of the Papal yoke and this Period beginning at the year 1270 shall continue untill the year 1378 when the consequent of the fifth plague begins namely the weakning of the Papal reign by the schism Therefore this Period will contain 108 years 4 The fifth plague is the removing of the Popes to dwell at Avignon and the grand Schism of the West It begins in the year 1305 and lasts untill the year 1440. This Period being a little jointed within the former shall last 130 or 135. years 5. The sixth plague which is the passage of the Turks into Europe and the desolations which they made in the Popes Dominion and in the Latin Church beginning towards the end of the fourteenth Age about the year 1370. and lasting untill the siege of Vienna under Charles the fifth in 1529 this Period will be 150 years 6. The seventh plague beginning about the year 1520 and lasting untill the end of our Age and the beginning of the next must last about 190 years This last Period is longer then the rest because God intended to subdivide it into three other Periods 7. The first Period of this last viol is the harvest which lasted 30 or 40 years from the year 1520 until 1560 when all the Countreys which were to be Reformed had embraced the Reformation 8. The second period of this seventh viol is that season and state of rest and victory which the Papacy regain'd and this period lasts from 1560 or 1570 for since that time Popery hath received no considerable check but rather hath much prevailed it hath made war against the saints had hath overcome them 9. Towards the conclusion of this second period of the seventh viol a sore persecution must happen The Witnesses clothed in Sackcloth i.e. the faithful who are under the Cross shall be oppressed and remain dead in the street of the great City for three years and a half That is the profession
the H. Scripture uses such high words to describe the popish Idolatry and higher than those it makes use of to describe the Pagan Idolatry Pag. 183 Chap. XX. The deceiving Spirits which St. Paul speaks of are Evil Spirits The Doctrine of Daemons is that Doctrine that hath Daemons for its Objects and not that which hath Daemons for its Authors There is a perfect conformity between the Theology and the Religion of the Heathens about Daemons and that of the Papism about Saints and Angels mediatory Spirits Pag. 199 Chap. XXI What is the Character of those that were to establish Idolatry in the Christian Religion They are Priests and Monks Authors of the Laws of Celibacy and of Fasts How many fables and fictions have been invented by these men seared in their Consciences Pag. 215 Chap. XXII The Characters of Antichrist in the Papism confirm'd by the great type of Antichrist Antiochus Epiphanes That which is spoken literally of this Antiochus agrees mystically to the Pope and the Papism Pag. 228 Chap. XXIII A notable Prophecy of the Mahuzim that Antichrist was to worship The whole found admirably accomplisht in the Papism What is the literal sense of the Prophecy with respect to Antiochus An Explication of the beginning of the 12th Chap. of Daniel applied to Antiochus and the Papism Pag. 241 Chap. XXIV In which are gather'd together 35. Characters of Antichrist that perfectly agree to the Papism and cannot agree to any but it Pag. 255 Chap. XXV How Antichrist came to be mistaken being so well Characterised in the Prophecies A comparison of I. Christ and Antichrist in the accidental circumstances of their coming Pag. 263 The Table of Chapters of the Second Part. Chap. I. OF the duration of the Kingdom of Antichrist A refutation of that dream that it must last but three years and a half Ten Arguments which demonstrate that that supposition is false and impossible Pag. 3 Chap. II. The last Argument against the Chimaera of three years and half taken from the time during which the Temple was prophan'd by Antiochus Four quite different times set down for that in Daniels Prophecies An Explication and a reconciling of those four times An application of these four times to the Kingdom of Antichrist and the ruin of that Kingdom Pag. 17 Chap. III. What the last times are It doth not signify the end of the World. There are many times with reference to the Church and with reference to the World. If Antichrist must reign 1260 years he is come Mahometanism is not Antichristianism Pag. 29 Chap. IV. Some Principles to discover when the Antichristian Empire began and when it must end Three Characters of that Empire Idolatry Pride and corruption That these three Characters began to appear in the fourth Age and did infinitely encrease in the fifth Pag. 38 Chap. V. That we must look for the point of the birth of Antichristianism in the fifth Age. It must end about the year 1710 or 1715. Pag. 48 Chap. VI. The circumstances of the fall of Antichrist re-establisht in their order An Explication of the fifteenth Chapter Principles for the right understanding the sixteenth Chapter Divers interpretations given of it and their visible faults Pag. 62 Chap. VII An Explication of the three first VIOLS and the three first PLAGVES Pag. 78 Chap. VIII The fourth plague the encrease of the heat of the Sun denoting the encrease of the Papal Authority which had almost utterly ruin'd the World and the Church The fifth plague is the desolation of ROME when the Pope retreated to Avignon and the diminution of the Papal Authority by the grand Schism of the West Pag. 87 Chap. IX The sixth Plague are the Turks who pass over the Bosphorus and invade the Greek and Latin Empires The three unclean spirits which come out from the mouth of the false Prophet are the Papal Laws armed with Excommunications Pag. 97 Chap. X. The seventh Plague is the preaching of Luther and other Reformers by which the Latin Church was divided into three parts Papists Lutherans and Reformed Pag. 216 Chap. XI The Explication of the 14th Chapter The vision of the harvest and the vintage the harvest of the Reformation made in the age last past the vintage is the Reformation which shall be made this present age Pag. 224 Chap. XII The Explication of that part of the 11th Chapter where the last persecution made by Antichrist is fore-told which is the present persecution in France The death of the two witnesses who shall not be buried by means of the succour brought by the enemies of France Pag. 236 Chap. XIII The resurrection of the two Witnesses The Reformation shall within a few years rise again in FRANCE after that it shall be establisht by Royal Authority FRANCE shall renounce Popery and that Kingdom shall be converted Pag. 251 Chap. XIV Observations upon the 17 18 19. Chapt. of the Revelation concerning the fall of Antichrists Kingdom A brief Methodizing of the events which the H. Ghost had displaced in the Visions Pag. 270 Chap. XV. The Reason why in this work we speak of some things so positively The linking together of our Principles suffers us not to doubt that we now are at the end of the reign of the Papacy Pag. 277 Chap. XVI Of the thousand years reign That in all the past time there is not a time to be found wherein Satan hath been bound Four heads of arguments to prove this reign The first is the fifth Monarchy so plainly promised to the Saints Pag. 285 Chap. XVII The second spring of Arguments to prove the thousand years reign is the reign promised to the Iews The promises made to them have not been fulfilled but must be The conversion of St. Paul is a Type of that of the whole Nation Pag. 294 Chap. XVIII The third Head of Arguments for the future Kingdom of Christ and the Church So many Prophecies which concern the compleat Victories of I. Christ the Holiness of the Church and its perfect prosperity which have never yet been accomplisht Pag. 312 Chap. XIX The fourth Head of Arguments for the reign of a thousand years are the Types Four Types of this Period the Principal is the seventh day of the Creation which is not an immediate Type of Eternal Rest but of the Peace of the Church on Earth Pag. 321 Chap. XX. The Type of the Creation hath not been well explained We must make a System of it Principles to establish that System the division of the duration of the Church into seven Periods answering to the seven days of the Creation Pag. 326 Chap. XXI The Explication of the Mysteries signified by the Chaos by the Creation of Light by the separation of the Waters and by the Creation of the Plants The first days of the Creation and the three first Periods of the Church Pag. 334 Chap. XXII Explication of the Mysteries of the four last days of the Creation Pag. 345 Chap. XXIII A farther Confirmation
they are at a prodigious distance from it So the Prophet looking on these two resurrections the first and the last it is not strange that beholding them at so great distance he looked on them as joined together though they are a 1000 years distant from each other Moreover the H. Spirit from this first resurrection in which the Church must be deliver'd and which it may be is but a figurative resurrection would raise us up to the contemplation of the last and general resurrection because this first resurrection that must be before the 1000 years of the reign of Jesus Christ must be but an Embleme of the great deliverance of the Church when it shall be in one body translated from earth to heaven by the last resurrection 'T is usual with the Prophets to have holy sallies that from temporal things do transport them to spiritual and eternal ones Isaiah speaking of a sign that God would give to Ahaz and which he refused passes over many ages leaves there Ahaz and his sign Esai 7. and saith the Lord God shall give you a sign behold a Virgin shall bear a son The rest of the twelfth Chapter is not less profound but as it respects the duration of the persecution of Antiochus literally and mystically the time of the duration of the Kingdom of Antichrist we shall reserve it for that Chap. where we must speak of the duration of his Kingdom CHAP. XXIV In which are gather'd together 35. Characters of Antichrist that perfectly agree to the Papism and cannot agree to any but it A short portraiture of Antichrifi and his fearures AFter sounding all the fountains whence the pourtaiture of Antichrist is drawn I believe it will not be unuseful to gather together here all the strokes that we may see them all with one view and that we may discern the perfect conformity that is between that Antichrist and the Papism 1. It must be an Empire Rev. 13.1 for it is called a beast now in the Prophetick style a beast always signifies an Empire when Kings are treated of The Papism is an Empire in all the forms of worldly Empires ancient and modern We have proved it with the greatest evidence in our prejudices 2. It must also be a Religion 2 Thes 2. for it is called a mystery and it must be a false Religion for it is called a mystery of Iniquity and an apostacy There is only the Papism in which an Empire and a Religion are found both together 1 Tim. 4.1 8. 'T is true Mahomet made an Empire and a Religion at the same time But in Mahometanism the Religion is not the Empire nor the Empire the Religion and the Priests are not Soveraign Lords under the pretext of Religion Mahometanism is divided into many Aempires and yet there is but one Religion a proof that the Religion and the Empire are not the same thing The Papism is the only Religion that boasts of a Prophet always living Rev. 19.20 3. Antichrist must have a Prophet i. e. a man that saith he is infallible and that pretends to pronounce Oracles as well as the ancient Prophets For with the beast is joined the false Prophet The beast was taken and together with him the false Prophet that wrought signs before him There is no Religion in the World but the Papism that pretends to have an infallible head always pronouncing Oracles when it is necessary always speaking and always living This is a very peculiar Character and which should make us well discern him 4. The corruption of the Religion of Antichrist must principally consist in Idolatry 1 Tim. 4. 2 Thes 2. Rev. 17. for it is called apostacy a Doctrine of Daemons spiritual whoredom The Papism is a Religion in which Idols are re-establisht under new names We have also clearly proved it The Idolatry of Antichrist must be an idolatry of Christians Rev. 17. 5. This Antichristian Idolatry must be an idolatry of Christians which must be exercised in the Church and not without by the Spouse of Jesus Christ and not by a stranger For this idolatry is called adultery and conjugal unfaithfulness The Papism with its Idolatry retains the foundation of the Church and preserves Christianity 6. The chief City of this Empire and of this Religion must be a City seated on seven Mountaïns Rev. 17.9.18 and the great City which in the time of Saint John ruled over the Kingdoms of the Earth that is to say Rome The Papism hath for the capital of its Empire and Religion new Rome built where the ancient one was 7. This Empire was to form it self not by force but by craft by seduction and by the consent of the Kings of the West Rev. 13.13 that were to give their power to the beast The power of the Papism and the Bishop of Rome come by illusion rather than by the violence that both Kings and people have suffer'd 8. This Antichristian Empire must be a continuation of the fourth Monarchy which is that of the Romans Dan. 2.7 Rev. 13. as hath been shewn by the vision of Daniel's Statue by that of the four beasts and by the beast of the 13th of the Revel The Papism is a true continuation of the Roman Empire having the very same seat and very hear the same Provinces 9. This Empire must be only an Image of an Empire an Image of the Roman Empire Rev. 13.14 15. Yet this Image must speak and must be worshipped in all the Earth The Papism hath no arms nor citadels that really make an Empire it hath nothing but superstition and foolish fondness for all its arms however it speaks it threatens it promiseth it teacheth it seduceth and by this means it reigns 10. The Empire of Antichrist must have ten horns Rev. 13. end 17. that is to say ten Kings vassals and subjects props and upholders of its throne The Papism hath always had under it ten principal Kings that have worshipt and maintain'd its power 11. Antichrist must speak great things in his own behalf Rev. 13.5 but against God for they must be blasphemies The Papism saith of it self and its capital great and mighty things saying that Rome is eternal that she is infallible that the Pope is Superiour to all the Kings of the Earth the Spouse of the Church the Vicar of J. Christ God upon Earth his Holiness and most holy Lord. And these arrogant pretensions are true blasphemies against God against J. Christ and against the true Church the Spouse of J. Christ 12. Antichrist must raise wars and cruel persecutions on the account of Religion Rev. 13.7 For 't is given to him to make war against the Saints and to overcome them The Papism hath bathed it self in humane and Christian blood for six or seven hundred years 13. The Empire of Antichrist must be an Empire raised up again Rev. 13.3 an head mortally wounded but healed again The Empire of
times and half a time are the same poriod times and half a time The 42 months during which the Court must be left to the Gentiles according to what is said in the 11th Chap. The 1260 days during which the two witnesses are to prophecy clothed in sackcloth as 't is fore-told in the same 11th Chapter And lastly the 42. months given to the first beast of the 13th Chapter of the Revel to excercise his power All these different periods I say are one and the same period and signify the duration of the Antichristian Empire This can't be disputed The second principle is this that in that Prophecy the days the years and the months may be taken for natural days months and years or for prophetical ones a day for a year Sometimes the Prophets count the time as other men do This might signify natural days for sometimes the Prophets do so speak they reckon the time as other men do Jeremy reckon'd 70 years for the duration of the captivity and these years are natural ones 'T is certain also that in the period of the thousand years designed for the reign of the Church after the destruction of Antichrist the years are taken for natural years But it is not less certain The Papists cannot deny but that the 1260 days may signify 1260 years Chap. 9. Chap. 4. v. 4.6 that these days and these years may be taken mystically for prophetical days and years 'T is confest that the 70 weeks of Daniel signify 70 weeks of years God said to Ezekiel Thou shalt sleep on thy left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it according to the number of the days that thou shalt lye upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity I have appointed thee each day for a year Numb 14.34 God said to the Israelites according to the number of the days in which ye searched the Land even 40 days each day for a year shall you bear your iniquities even 40 years This could not be obscure to the Israelites who were accustom'd to this style and who knew there were weeks of years in their Calendar as well as weeks of days and that a week of years answered to that of days one year for one day The third principle is this that here the number of three years and a half 42 months and 1260 days cannot signify an indefinite time As it sometimes happens The number 1260 must be a definite number not an indefinite one that the Holy Spirit by a determinate number means an undetermin'd one A way that would be extreamly advantagious to the partisans of Rome For when one shall have demonstrated that 't is absolutely impossible that that which is predicted concerning the Antichristian Empire can be fulfilled in the compass of three years and a half it would be very useful for them if they could say we must not take this so strictly in the literal sense that it may signify three times ten three times twenty or more according as the Holy Spirit oftentimes means an indefinite number by a definite one But here that cannot be There are certain numbers by which the Prophets use to describe an indefinite time by reason of a certain priviledge those numbers have As that of three because 't is the first odd number the number of the persons of the Trinity that of seven because of the seven days of the creation that of twelve because of the twelve Patriarchs the twelve Tribes and the twelve Apostles that of 100 and that of 1000 because these are numbers that according to the custome of men are often designed to signify a great undetermin'd quantity But we shall not find any examples of broken numbers as that of three and a half of 42 and 1260 taken for indefinite numbers 'T is true the Revelation speaks of the 144 thousand sealed ones Now the number of 144 is not less a broken one than that of 42. But 't is because 144 is the product of that of 12 multiplied by it self The Holy Spirit takes twelve thousand sealed persons of every Tribe 12 times 12 make 144. Here a reason can't be given why God should choose 1260 days to mark out an indefinite time There is no middle way therefore they must be so many years It must be 1260 years or 1260 days and no more or so many simple days So that when we shall have proved that the course of this Empire is not three years and a half we shall have proved also that 't is 1260 years To prove that 't is not three years and a half we need but run through the History of this Empire according as we find it in the book of the Revelation The first Argument against the three years and half One half of the Revelation would be taken up in giving an account of the events of only three years and a half First of all we must know that according to the greatest part of Interpreters almost the whole Revelation is spent in fore-telling us and setting in order the events that must happen to the Church during this reign of Antichrist At least it is certain that 't is the subject of one half of this book the 11th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th and 19th Chapters contain the birth progress finishing ruin and fall of this Antichristian Kingdom Let any one judge if there be any likelyhood that this only prophetical book which the Apostles have left us for the time of the N. Testament moves but upon three years and a half and hath omitted the events of almost two thousand years So that the general Idea of this Prophecy can't bear this imagination but let us come to particulars Second Argument these three years and a half can't agree with what is said of the first beast in the 13th Chap. of the Revelation Second The 11th Chapt. begins to speak of this Antichristian Empire but because this is but as a general History and an abridgement 't is in this general account that the vision of the three years and a half is hid and 't is from hence it hath been taken Let us see if this can agree with the places where the Prophet enlargeth this short description We have in the 13th Chap. a representation of this Empire under the emblems of two beasts of which one had seven heads and ten horns and the other but one head and two horns We there see in the first place a beast with seven heads and ten horns It hath been confessed to us that this is Antichrist We have proved that the word beast signifies an Empire consisting of a founder and his successors Now see a fine succession and a very considerable time that same of three years and a half to be called an Empire and to be meant by a beast Certainly this beast with seven heads and ten horns is the Roman Empire in its whole extent from its founder Romulus even to Antichrist who
whose number 't is not easie to define and which the Holy Ghost denotes by the number seven which is the number of perfection to signify that the orders of Monks and Nuns shall perish for ever This is an Institution so degenerated from its first Original that 't is become the arm of Antichrist These orders cannot perish one without another If any will have it that these seven thousand slain signifie that there shall be bloodshed it shall not be great for the number seven put for an indifinite number never signifies a great one De Launay is very much mistaken when he sayes that the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal â— King. 19.18 signified a great multitude on the contrary the signified a very small number indeed the number was so small that Elijah did not know of them he sayd I am left alone The Kings of France at this day do lift their authority so high that nothing can resist it 'T is therefore probable The authority of the Kings of Francs shall prevail over the ruling Religion that every thing will bend under the yoke of their Will when they shall resolve to break with Rome and it seems as if the Providence of God was preparing the way unto this thing by the Clergies Declaration confirmed by that of the King viz. that Kings depend on none in any thing which concerns Temporals and that 't is never lawful to deny obedience to them upon a pretext of Religion For if this be once fixed when ever it shall please the Kings of France to forsake the Communion of Rome by this Principle of the present Bishops it cannot be allowed that the People should rebell against them I look on that which is happened in England as another preparation unto this Event A King of a Religion contrary to that of the State reigns peaceably the reason is that Providence will accustome the subjects to pay subjection to Princes who are enemies of the Ruling Religion And the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven This is the total conversion and reformation of the tenth part of the City i.e. of the Kingdom of France that shall quickly follow after the Kings of France shall have broken with the Bishop of Rome V. 14. The second Wo is past and behold she third Wo cometh quickly namely the second of the three Woes which had been denounced after the sound of the fourth Trumpet Chap. 8.13 And I heard an Angel flying through the midst of Heaven crying with a loud voyce Wo wo wo to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voyces of the Trumpet which are yet to sound The first of these three woes was the Grashoppers Saracens denoted by Grashoppers who came up out of the bottomless pit with their Head Apollyon and in Hebrew Ahaddon These Grashoppers are plainly the Saracens Chap. 14. Arabians with their Head Mahomet The second Wo is the domination of the Turks who passed from the other side of Euphrates at the sound of the sixth Trumpet And the third Wo is the fall of the Antichristan Empire These three great events deserve to be distinguisht from all others for they have changed or shall change the whole face of the world And the seventh Angel sounded c. this which follows concerns the Kingdom or reign of Iesus Christ and the Church and consequently must be reserved to another place CHAP. XIV Observations upon the 17 18 19. Chapters of the Revelation concerning the fall of Antichrist's Kingdom A brief Methodizing of the events which the Holy Ghost had displaced in the Visions THe seventeenth Chapter contains something that relates to the destruction of Antichrists Kingdom V. 16. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast these shall hate the whore and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire V. 17. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the beast untill the words of God shall be fulfilled There 's nothing in this passage that hath not been opened or is obscure 'T is clear that these Kings who through ignorance or weakness suffer'd their power to be usurped by the Empire of the papacy shall take it again they shall eat her flesh i.e. shall enrich themselves with her benefices revenues and burn her with fire i.e. shall abolish the the memory of this Romish Empire so that nothing but ashes shall remain of it The 18th Chapter is a long description of the ruin of the Antichristian and Babylonian Empire I have no need to enter into this Chap. because I find nothing in it of that which I principally seek which is those certain characters which can inform us of the time of this fall namely whether it be night at hand or afar off There is nothing there concerning it except that which is general As to this Chapter I will say only First We must remember the remarque which hath been often made by us that Babylon here does not signify strictly the City of Rome as most have imagined 'T is the whole Babylonian Empire as appears from these words Come out of Babylon my people I do not think that any great number of Gods people hath come out of the City of Rome hitherto we have not seen it My second remarque is we must not as is usually done over much press the mystical sense of divers merchandises which are reckon'd up and were sold it that City I do not believe VVe must not over much seelt mysteries in the particular merchandises of Babylon that there is any other mystery in this thing than that this Babylonian Empire being set forth under the Emblem of a great City it was necessary to represent it as a City of great commerce for that is inseperable from great Cities Not but that these merchandises and the many instruments of Luxury and pleasures which are said to have been in this City do not very fitly signify and according to the design of the Holy Ghost both the Simony and debaucheries of this corrupted Church in the general But I believe not that 't is necessary to enquire particularly what is meant for example by the silk the precious stones the fine linnen c. The burning of Babylon must not be understood literally My Third Observation upon this 18th Chapter is we must not interpret literally the Metaphors of burning fire blood and slaughter which the Holy Ghost set before us Certainly these are not the Methods which God makes use of to establish his Kingdom I think indeed as I have already said that God will suffer Rome to be sackt as he suffer'd Jerusalem to be I further believe that this great change in Religion will not be made without blood shed as it hapned in the last age But seeing the City in this Chapter and generally in the Revelation take in
not contemporary with 'em the seven seals carry the Prophecy almost as far as the fall of Paganism unto Constantine the first Christian Emperor The seven Trumpets divide the rest of the Time between Constantine and his Christian Successors to the end of the World. And the seventh Trumpet that sounds here is the beginning of the last Period which comprehends the fall of the Empires of the World and particularly that of the Antichristian Kingdom or the Papacy The seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices These are voices of Acclamation and joy That Thunders and Lightnings are joyned to those voices signifies the preaching of the Gospel And the four and twenty Elders who sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces and worshipped God saying we give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty c. 'T is the Song and subject matter of thanksgiving wherewith the Holy People should praise God during the reign of a thousand years when God shall have subdued all their Enemies Observe here that the four and twenty Elders appear alone and begin the Song whereas in the first Vision the living Creatures begun the Song and the Elders followed ' em 'T is not to exclude the living Creatures and the Ministry in the last Period of the Church but to signify that then the People shall be so filled with the Divine Spirit that they shall not need to wait the inspiration and assistance of the Holy Ministry to ingage them to praise God and perform holy duties The Nations were angry and thy wrath in come i. e. the Nations of the Antichristian People have executed their malice and fury and thou hast avenged it by destroying their Empire And the Time of the dead that they should be judged and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy Servants the Prophets and to the Saints and them that fear thy name small and great This doth not signify the last judgement or the last Resurrection 'T is the first Resurrection the Deliverance of the Church her coming to the expected Kingdom This is set forth after the same manner in the 20th Chapter of the Apocalyps as hath been already seen The Time of the Dead to be judged he saith not the Living and the Dead or all the Dead but speaks of the Church which lay as dead during the reign of Antichrist and shall rise again when that Kingdom is destroyed The Dead shall be judged And how 't is God will reward the faithfull and the Church by giving them Peace and a Kingdom 'T is a judgement of Grace and of Beneficence He speaks not of eternal Rewards as appears by what follows and to destroy those who destroyed the Earth Which is not a proper term to signify eternal punishments wherein nothing is destroyed men continue under them for ever so that the ruin of the Antichristian Empire must be here meant V. 19. Chap. 11. And the Temple of God was opened in Heaven and there was seen in his Temple the Ark of his Testament The Ark is the sign of God's Covenant with the Iews so this Prophecy of the Ark in the Temple of God signifies the recalling of the Iews The Temple of God was open The Church shall be open to all Nations all People shall resort to it and among others we shall see that People who derive their Glory from the Ark of the Covenant CHAP. XXIV The Characters of the Kingdom of the Church Eight are certain and five doubtfull What shall happen after this Kingdom What is meant by Gog and Magog There shall probably be a lesser kind of Antichrist a little before the end of the World. HAving confirmed the Truth of this Reign of Christ upon Earth we ought now to consider the Nature and Characters of it they may be divided into two Classes some that are doubtful and others certain It is fit that we begin with the certain We are not to reckon among the Characters of this Reign either the fall of the Babylonish Empire or the conversion of the Iews or the conversion of the remaining Gentiles For these three things are to go before it They can never be brought about but with confusion and Tumult The Popish Empire cannot fall but it must cost blood and make a mighty noise The conversion of the Iews must needs be attended with great Commotions among the People and it may be violent contradictions 'T is likewise impossible to conceive that the Conversion of the Gentiles can be brought about without the utmost endeavours of the Devil to hinder it he will raise all his forces every where to hinder the last establishment of this Kingdom of Christ as he did in the first Ages of the Christian Church So that we cannot doubt but he will cause great opposition not only by words but it may be blows Now this cannot belong to the Kingdom of Christ whereof the principal Character is Soveraign Peace Insomuch that we thus conceive of it 1. The Papal Empire shall fall 2. After that some years will be necessary to abolish Sects and Parties and compose the differences among Christians 3. That after this many Heathen Nations and the Iews shall be converted for it cannot be thought that they should be converted while Christians are so much at variance among themselves and seeking the destruction of one another 4. After the Conversion of the Iews the remainder of the most remote Nations shall also be converted Now for all this there must be time for should we think that God will act in a more miraculous manner in this than in the establishment of the first Christian Church Wherefore as the Christian Church was near an hundred years in its first setling no less will be necessary perfectly to resettle it and then shall that blessed Kingdom come which we expect not but that there is some probability that God may begin to compute the thousand years from the fall of Antichrist even before the Conversion of the Iews and Gentiles and so the fall of the Antichristian Kingdom and the Conversion of the Nations may in some sort be comprehended within the Reign of Christ for a thousand years But when we speak here of the Kingdom of Christ we speak of it as in its perfection which will not be till after these things are come to pass An extraordinary effusion of the Spirit the first certain Character Chap. 2.28 29. The first certain Character of this reign of Christ is the plentifull effusion of the Spirit of God upon men The Prophecy of Ioel to this purpose is one of those which is but in part accomplisht hitherto I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophecy your old Men shall dream dreams and your young Men see visions also on the servants and the hand-maid in those days will I pour out my Spirit That lesser effusion of the Spirit which the first Christians experienc't is not enough to fill up the
THE ACCOMPLISHMENT Of the SCRIPTURE PROPHECIES OR THE Approaching Deliverance of the CHURCH Proving that the Papacy is the Antichristian Kingdom and that that Kingdom is not far from its Ruin. That the present Persecution may end in Three years and half after which the Destruction of Antichrist shall begin which shall be Finisht in the beginning of the next Age and then the Kingdom of Christ shall come upon Earth Written in French by Mr. PETER JURIEU one of the present Ministers of the French Church at Rotterdam In two Parts Faithfully Englished from the New French Edition Corrected and Enlarged by almost a third part with the explication of the Visions of Daniel and the Revelation LONDON Printed in the Year 1687. TO THE NATION OF THE JEWS I Desire of that People that they would please to read this book attentively and without prejudice especially from the middle of the second Part to the end they will find nothing there that can irritate ' em I confess the hopes they conceive of a Kingdom of the Messiah which shall be chiefly for them is built upon express and unquestionable Prophecies that even their Ierusà lem should be rebuilt and that they shall be again gathered together in their own Land. And if any thing be capable to recover them from their obstinacy for the establishment of the Law of Moses and against the Law of Christ this is certainly the most likely method which we make use of because it grants them almost all the Advantages which they expect Advice to all Christians concerning the approaching End of the ANTICHRISTIAN Empire of the PAPACY and of the coming of the Kingdom of Christ THE Afflicted Church seeks for consolation where can she find it but in the Promises of God when the present prospect is sad and dolefull we must search for it in what is future The promises of God are either General or Perticular The general Promises are such as assure us in the general that God will not cast off his children that this Grace shall never forsake his Church that he will be with them to the end of the World that though the mountains be overthrown he will not depart from them But afflicted persons would be glad of something more perticular they would be willing to see in some particular Promises near about what Time they may expect the Period of their Calamities Now the Promises and this insight into the future is no where to be had but in the Prophecies They doubtless contain the promises which respect the Deliverance of the Church yea they set forth the very Time and the circumstances of it But as God hath caused the Prophecies to be written more for his own glory than for our sakes 't is almost impossible to dive into the meaning of them till their accomplishment The depth of the Prophecies And experience teacheth us that even after the Things are come to pass we do not well understand the Prophecies which foretold ' em Insomuch that it may be said that God hath rather concealed Things in the Prophecies than thereby revealed ' em He hath reserved to himself the knowledge of Futurity 'T is his Prerogative Nevertheless this is not to be taken in that strict and rigid sense as if we were to reckon all the Prophecies to be unintelligible to all men and in every age to be so As his providence hath presided in a peculiar manner in composing the Prophecies so 't is certain it doth perticularly direct and govern as to what concerns the interpretation of them God will not that they should be understood in every age But from age to age from year to year his Spirit discovers to Interpreters what he thinks fit and leaves the rest under a vail of Ignorance till the fixed time which his wisdom hath appointed shall come for the full and perfect revelation of it They are not Impenetrable We are not therefore to be discouraged by reason of the difficulty we are not to look upon the Prophecies as absolutely impenetrable We must seek that we may find we must ask that we may receive we must humbly and devoutly knock at the Gate of Heaven that it may be open'd to us We are obliged to those Interpreters who have gone before us for if they had discovered nothing it may be no entrance being made we should never have attained the knowledge of these mysterious truths But we are not to stop at their labours and acquiesce in what they have done as if they had succeeded well in every thing This is so far from being true that the contrary is much more so For one Truth which they have hit upon they have miss't several The misforture of other Interpreters hath not disheartn'd me hoping that I have discovered many things which to them were concealed But I may say that I did not out of choice apply my self to the study of the Prophecies I found my self forced to it by a kind of violence which I could not resist Two things led me to it 1. The cruel and horrible Persecution which at this day makes such terrible ravage and desolation in the Church Endeavouring some consolation under the deepest sorrow I ever felt by searching into the grounds we may have to hope for a speedy deliverance of the Church and not finding them other where I inquired after them in the Prophecies which foretell the destiny of the Church and the most remarkable changes through which she is to pass 2. The next thing that made me resolve to dive into these sacred Oracles was the concurrence of so many Prophecies obscure indeed of an uncertain and doubtfull original which fore-tell a speedy and perfect Deliverance of the Church For Example The concurrence of modern Prophecies concerning the fall of Antichrist the famous Prophecy of Vsher Arch-bishop of Armagh who fore-tells a most terrible Persecution at hand the most dreadfull of any which the Church hath suffer'd hitherto but withal the shortest after which shall come the fall of the Antichristian Empire The Prophecies of Cotterus Christina Poniatouski and those of Drabitius and several other more obscure ones which I have heard and considered without giving much credit to 'em I compared these Prophecies so universally spread and coming from so many several places to the general rumours about the time of the birth of Christ that were every where divulged throughout the Roman Empire of a Great King that should be born in the East to whom all the World should pay obeysance I did not find my self much disposed to give credit to those modern Prophecies Credulity being the ordinary source of much delusion I always stood upon my guard in that perticular as much as possible Nevertheless I could not but be toucht with a secret opinion that in all this there might be something more then humane something of an hand of Providence therein As the Holy Virgin I kept these sayings in my heart without passing a judgement
small number of True Believets remain'd victims exposed to the Rage of an Army of an hundred thousand men which were let loose upon the Kingdom This I say again is without Example in any Histsry S. Cyprian in his Treatise de Lapsis seems to say that some such thing happened in the persecution of Decius but he himself in his Epistles makes it evident that the Apostacy was not so general for he remits those who had fallen to be judged at the return of Peace in the Assemblics of the Faithful who persevered so that the number of those that persevered must have been considerable In our time it would be difficult out of every Flock to make up an Assembly of such as persevere to judge the rest 'T is therefore an Event wherein we must admire the depth of Divine Providence 'T is a speaking Prodigy which tells us we are now in those last days when Christ should come and not find true Piety or true Faith upon Earth This is a Touch-stone for all Protestants their Brethren of France were not more wicked than others Wherefore we may believe that the same thing would happen in any other place on supposition of the same Circumstances and consequently that Christian courage and true Faith are at this day very rare and few Instances to be found Lastly this Affair tells us that God would melt the Heart of that People and suffer them to sink and be swallowed up that he may shortly raise to himself another a new People These are the Characters of this persecution which makes me regard it as very singular and extraordinary in its kind and consequently as a presage that God will shortly finish the establishment of his Kingdom and the Ruin of that of Antichrist If we only consider how this Persecution hath been more effectual than any the Church ever suffer'd it were enough to make us judge that the Devil now imploys his utmost force and power as apprehending 't is the last Time and that the ruin of his Kingdom is at hand When Paganism was ready to fall under Constantine he then excited the sharpest persecution under the Emperor Dioclesian These are the different Reflexions that conspired to possess me that the coming of our Lord was near to destroy the wicked one by the Breath of his Mouth I had a strong inclination to be certain and assured of the truth of these Thoughts which could no otherwise be done but by finding in the Apocalypse the accomplishment of those Circumstances which were to precede and accompany the fall of the Babylonish Empire With this design I betook my self to read over the Apocalipse not the several Commentators on that Book but the Book it self only with the Exposition of Ioseph Mede whom I formerly look't upon as a man inspired for the Interpretation of the Prophecies His Key of the Apocalypse and annexed commentary did heretofore charm me I could find nothing like it in all the other Expositors I added that of his Chronicles and his Book called The Apostacy of the latter Times which is a large Commentary on 1 Tim. Chap. 4. v. 1 2 3 4. And the Spirit saith expresly that in the last times there shall be some who shall depart from the Faith. Besides several excellent and curious things a part whereof you will find in this Treatise I met with in that Author the thing which I so eagerly sought for viz. the true Epocha of the 1260 years during which Time the Antichristian Empire should last he makes them to begin about the year of our Lord 450. or 455. by dateing them from thence they must end about the year 1710 or 1715. which agrees very well with my conjecture But Ioseph Mede who set me right at first in the beginning of the true path forsook me in the middle of the way and when the circumstances and preliminaries of the fall of Babylon were to be adjusted according to this Calculation which are so exactly described in the Apocalypse I found no assistance at all from him on the contrary he led me out of the way wherin he himself had put me and to make me wander and go astray According to the Epocha which he himself had mark't for the beginning of the 1260 years for the reign of Antichrist I should see the end of it in 25 or 30 years but according to Mr. Mede there must be many Ages to accomplish all things which are to be fulfilled before the period of the Kingdom of Antichrist In the 11th 14th 16th Chapters we have an account of the Circumstances and degrees of the Fall of that Empire the Eleventh Chapter speaks of the death of the two Witnesses for three days and half of their Resurrection and of the fall of the tenth part of the City c. In the 14 Chap. where the Fall of Babylon is divided into two Acts one is called the Vintage the other the Harvest In the 16th Chap. where the seven Periods of the declension and Fall of the Antichristian Empire are set forth by seven viols and seven Plagues of all this Ioseph Mede understood nothing yea supposing as he doth that of those seven Plagues not above two or three were come to pass in his Time he remits us far enough off for the accomplishment of the five others The Periods described by every Viol are each of them more than one Age so that we should have four or five hundred years yet to come before the end of the Kingdom of Antichrist If every one of the four viols that remain to be poured out were but of fifty years we should have yet two hundred years longer to wait I confess that after having read those places of the Apocalypse and reviewed them twenty times I understood nothing more therin I was only more and more confirmed that no man had rightly understood them In the midst of these distractions I yet begun my work without knowing well where I went. But I can say that God so opened mine eyes in the way that gave me unexpressible consolation for after having consulted the Eternal Truth above an hundred times with a deep Humility and very great Attention at length I received an answer at least I believe so and think it very plain that all that must precede the last Fall of the Antichristian Empire is fully accomplisht I have no right to require the same assurance from others neither do I require it But that which I demand at least is a little of that attention which I imployed in the meditation of those divine Oracles and then I am perswaded that if you are not as fully convinc'd as I am you will yet see reason enough not to condemn me of rashness In the first part of this work you will find nothing new for the substance of it for 't is a long time that Rome hath been called Babylon and that the Characters of the Antichristian Empire have been confest to be found in the Papacy I
the Earth Besides all other inconveniencies this system hath this further viz. that besides these seven Periods an eighth must be added for the reign of the Church on the Earth This is a thing that was never heard of the times were never in any prophecy divided into eight The mystery of the seven Churches according to Dr. Hen. More Dr. Henry More is one of the last that hath spent his Labours on the Revelation He believes also that these seven Epistles are mystical prophetical see how he understands them The Church of Ephesus is the Period that ran out from J. Christ's time to the tenth year of Nero's Empire See here a Period short enough There is not usually so great an inequality between the Periods that divide the times in the Prophecies Moreover one may be assured that there is not so much as one word in this Epistle that may not as happily be applyed to the two following Ages as to the first so that this Application is purely Arbitrary and without any Ground The Church of Smyrna is the Period from the tenth year of Nero to the year 324. i. e. to the Reign of Constantine and the Council of Nice This falls in with Cocceius's Notion wherefore I cannot approve of it for the Reason above-mention'd Pergamus according to Dr. More signifies the Church from the year 324. to the year 1242. during which time the Empire of Antichrist was establisht taking in the time in which the Waldenses and Albigenses appear'd in the World and were extinguisht The Foundation of this Explication is the Seat of Satan I know where thou dwellest even where Satan's Seat is And the Martyr Antipas that signifies according to this Author Anti-Pope or contrary to the Pope This is a little glittering Light but I am much afraid 't is a Deceitful one For First Why should we comprehend in this Empire of Satan the Reigns of Constantine and Theodosius which were so happy for the Church 2dly Why should it be said to this Antichristian Period I know thy Good Works and that thou hast not Denyed my Name seeing there never were fewer that made profession of the Truth than in this Period If ever the Church may be accused of having renounced the Name of Jesus Christ 't is in the time of Antichristianism which is called an Apostacy so that this Article doth not hit well but that which follows doth much worse Thyatira according to this Author is the Church from the time that the Albigenses were destroyed to that time that entire Nations abandon'd the Communion of Rome 'T is it may be a time the most barren in Virtue and the most overwhelm'd with Superstition that ever was since Jesus Christ yet must this great Praise be attributed to it I know thy Works and thy Patience and thy Charity and that thy last Works are more than the first What is said to the Church of Ephesus which 't is pretended is the Apostolical Church is not so honourable nor so great Thou sufferest the Woman Iezabel that calls her self a Prophetess How can this be applied to those Ages that have run out since the Ruin of the Albigenses to the Reformation Jezabel that Roman Whore hath not only been suffer'd and tolerated she hath reigned with less Contradiction than in any Age. Sardis is the fifth Church which signifies the fifth Period according to Dr. More and this Period is that of the Reformation to the last Vial i.e. to the last Ruin of Antichrist 'T is to this Church that the Holy Spirit saith Thou hast a Name to live but behold thou art dead Can it be imagin'd that God should give such great Praises to the Church that was since the Ruin of the Albigenses till the Reformation and that the Holy Spirit should be made to speak with so much Disdain of the Reformed Church What comparison is there between the Church in its Reformation that corrupted Church wherein hardly any was to be found that preserv'd himself from the mighty Corruption of Error and Vice Philadelphia which is the sixth Church signifies a sixth Period wherein Antichrist shall be entirely ruin'd and the Infidel Nations be converted This is to divine and that which the Holy Spirit saith to the sixth Church doth not exactly import any such thing Lastly Laodicea of which the Holy Spirit speaks in such disadvantageous terms is the Church that must fall into decay after the Fall of Antichrist and the Conversion of the People And this Decay must bring the Church to the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ on the Earth See here a new Period and of which there is not the least foot-step in all the Prophecies 'T is a Period that must run out from the Ruin of Antichrist and the Conversion of the People All the Prophecies foretell that the Reign of Jesus Christ shall come immediately after the Fall of Babylon and the Fulness of the Gentiles Yet here behold a Period that separates these two Events which ought to be joyned together Lastly this System is subject to the same inconveniencies as that of Cocceius There must be supposed an eighth Period for the reign of the thousand years which Dr. More acknowledges Now it must be confessed that this eighth Period is altogether unknown to the Prophets for we do not any where find that the time hath been divided into Eight parts Those that will attentively reflect on what we have just now said will confess if I am not much mistaken either that these Epistles to the seven Churches are not prophetical or that the Mystery hath not yet been discovered For nothing that hath been said about them hath this certain Character of Truth which is obvious to every one The Prophecies must be like Aenigma's which till they have been well explained seem unintelligible but when one hath hit right upon them they appear so clear that they cannot otherwise be understood CHAP. II. An Explication of the Vision of the four living Creatures of the twenty four Elders contained in the fourth Chapter SEeing there 's nothing propheticall in the three first chapters of the Revelation we may go on to the fourth Chapter One may say that this is the opening of this great divine Theater on which these admirable prophetical Visions will immediatly appear The entrance is like that of the Prophet Ezekiel God appears in the Temple which is in heaven sitting on a magnificent Throne Round about the throne there is a Rainbow this is the Symbol of Peace Before the Throne there was a Sea of Glass like to Chrystal This may signify the Purity of the Doctrine of the Gospel by which we are washed justified It is of Glass of Chrystal because of its firmness For the Gospel is an eternal Covenant that shall not be done away by a new covenant But that which is most considerable here is the four living Creatures the twenty four Elders that are round about
pieces the whole Earth stamped the residue with the feet of it For it mortifyed all its neighbours whom it did not Subdue The 6th Ch. of the Revel belongs to this first part of the Prophecy of Daniel The 8th Ch. of the Revelation addeth to the Prophecy of Daniel for it shews the degrees wherby the Roman Empire was brought to its division into ten Kingdoms 8. It had ten horns I considered the horns behold there came up among them another little horn before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots behold in this horn were Eyes like the Eyes of a Man a mouth speaking great things 24. The Angel explaining this place saith The ten horns out of the Kingdom are ten Kings that shall arise another shall arise after them he shall be diverse from the first shall subdue three Kings 25. And he shall speak great words against the Most High shall wear out the saints of the Most High think to change Times laws they shall be given into his hand untill a time times the dividing of time See the division of the fourth Monarchy into ten others which was made after the year 450. We shall see afterwards which are these ten Kingdoms From the midst of these ten comes up a little horn a Monarch that appears as nothing a Priest that insensibly encreases his power over these ten Kings so far as to take away the third part of their Demains Jurisdiction Power This is what hath been exactly accomplisht in the Papacy which hath taken away from the Western Kings more than a third part of their Estate which is become Church Lands dependant on the Church more than a third of their jurisdiction by the Tribunals of Bishops Officials who drew almost all causes to them under the pretence that there was something mingled with them that respected the Church the Sacraments or the Conscience Lastly more than a third part of their Power by the Usurpations of the Popes who have made Kings their Vassals a hundred ways Besides this the Popes have particularly overthrown these three Kingdoms that of the Greeks in Italy that of the Lombards that of Germany which they have made dependant on the Roman Church This little horn speaks words of blasphemy against God exalts it self above all that is called God against the Kings of the Earth It destroys the saints of the most high That is to say it persecutes them even to blood It thinks to change the Times the Law it makes attempts against the divine laws it destroys Gods Commands dispenseth with them It commands the adoration of images Creatures which God forbids It permits crimes which God abominates against which he hath made severe laws This also is the true description of the Pope the Papacy To this horn is given a time times the dividing or the half of a time one year two years half a year three years half in all 360. prophetical days to a year that is to say 1260. years See the text on which the 11th 13th 17. Ch. of the Revel are a comment I beheld till the Thrones were cast down v. 9. the Ancient of days did sit whose garment was white as snow the hair of his head like the pure wool his throne was like the fiery flame his wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issued came forth from before him v. 10. thousand thousands ministred to him ten thousand times ten thousands stood before him the judgment was set the books were open'd I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake v. 11 I beheld even till the beast was slain his body destroyed given to the burning flame In the explication which the Angel gives Daniel we read But the judgment shall sit v. 26 they shall take away his dominion to consume to destroy it unto the end And the Kingdom do minion v. 27. the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom all dominions shall serve obey him The judgment here spoken of is not the last judgment God appears sitting on a magnificent throne not to judg the whole world but to judg the Empire of the Beast the fourth Monarchy in its Antichristian Period to deal forth the various punishments that befall this Monarchy for 7 or 8 hundred years to bring it to its end This Fire these Flames these Wheels burning like fire on which the throne moves represent the greatness of those punishments And behold the Text of the 9th Ch. in which St. John presents to our view the Saracens the Turks that make desolate the Roman Antichristan Empire of the 14th 15th 16th 18th 19th where God in divers visions represents the different steps of the ruin of the Roman Antichristian Empire As for what is said here of the Kingdom given to the Saints 't is the matter Text of the end of the 11th Ch. of the 20 21 22. throughout So it will appear in following the path which we are entred into that the whole Revelation is a commentary on ten or twelve verses of the 7th Ch. of Daniel CHAP. IV. The systems of the seven seals the seven Trumpets that denote the great events bring the world to its end IN the 4th Ch. the H. Spirit open'd the scene the 5th is a preludium for the vision of the seven seals which is contained in the 6. Ch. The first book is sealed with seven seals that is to say 't is very obscure Indeed it is so to that degree that never will any thing be said on this first part of the Revelation that goes beyond conjecture probability Wheras as for the second I hold that one may attain to the true sense of it certainly know that one hath found it See what in my judgment may best be said on the seven seals How far the seven seals teach The seven seals certainly reach to the end of the world but not in that manner as the greatest part of our Interpreters have imagin'd in dividing the duration of the World from J. Christ to its end into seven Periods almost equal The six First seals do not go beyond 300. years But the seventh seal is subdivided into seven Trumpets doth produce them Now these seven Trumpets bring the events even to the last judgment the first not beginning till after the 6th seal So that these seven seals are as six branches that shoot forth from the body of a Tree with a seventh great branch which it self becomes a great arm shoots forth seven other branches As for this it cannot be doubted by any that read the beginning of the 7th Ch. with any attention
't is necessary to observe in this place that during this Period several things fall out that are co-temporary For this Period is oftentimes repeated its characters are often affixed to diverss subjects to the Woman that dies hid in the Desâ—rt to the Gentiles that are to tread down the Court to the two Witnesses that are to Prophecy clothed in sack-cloth to the Dragon to the Beast to whom it is given to exercise his power for 42 months These are not different Periods that must be fastned one to the end of the other These are different Events or the very same events presented under different ideas which must be accomplisht in the same Period For the right understanding therfore of the Chronology of the Apocalypse it is necessary to know what events things are co-temporary As thus Many things in the Apocalypse co-temporary I. The Court which is to be trodden down by the Gentiles for the space of Forty Two Months Rev. 11.2 II. The Woman to whom are given two great Wings of an Eagle to save her self in the Wilderness where she is fed 1260 dayes a time and times and half a time i. e. one year two years and half a year which make three years and a half or forty two months This is what is said Rev. 12.6 14. III. The two Witnesses that must prophesie clothed in Sackcloth for 1260 days Rey. 11.13 1260 days make just forty two months or three years and a half IV. The Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns Rey. 13.1 0. to whom Power is given to fulfil forty two months But we must observe that these 42 months are affixed only to the seventh head of the Beast which is that of Antichrist the whole entire Roman Empire is signified by that Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns The last Head is that of Antichrist which alone must last as long as the other six The Roman Empire under Kings Consuls Decemvires Tribunes of the People perpetual Dictators and Emperors lasted about 1250 years a little more or less The seventh Head of the Roman Empâ—re is Antichrist and he is to continue 1260 days 'T is evident that we must assign the duration of forty two months to the seventh Head because 't is to that we must affix the ten Horns that signifie ten Kings and 't is to Antichrist that Daniel assigns for his duration a Time Times and Half a Time. All the World acknowledges that he means Antichrist by the little Horn that grows in the midst of the ten and that subdues three of them He shall speak great words against the Most High C. 7. v. 25. and shall wear out the Saints of the Most High and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time We have already observed that this signifies one year two years and half a year This is the duration of the Kingdom of Antichrist 't is also the duration of the seventh Head of the Roman Empire and this is what they ought to take particular notice of that make a scruple to grant that these forty two months express the duration of the whole Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns V. In like manner the second Beast of the 13th chap. of the Revel that hath but Two Horns like to those of a Lamb and that spake like the Dragon is also of the same duration i. e. it must be found in the space of 42 months VI. The Whore also of the 17th chap. sitting upon the scarlet-coloured Beast reigns in this Period of forty two months 1260 days or three years and a half She sits upon the Beast i. e. on the first Beast that had seven Heads and ten Horns and lasts as long as the 7th Head. VII Lastly The 144 Thousand sealed persons that appear in the 7th chapter and are mention'd frequently afterwards are also co-temporary with the Beast and the Court trodden down by the Nations for they are no other than the two Witnesses that prophesie clothed in Sackcloth for 1260 days whilst the outward Court is trodden under foot by the Gentiles they are no other than the Woman that remains in the Wilderness and is nourished there for a time and times and half a time while the red Dragon makes war with the saints The seventh seal contains under it the seven Trumpets For the understanding this Chronology of the Apocalypse it must also be known that the seventh Seal which is open'd in the beginning of the 8th Ch. contains under it the seven Trumpets that the seven Trumpets reach to the end of the second Period which is the Empire of Antichrist even to the reign of Christ inclusively That is to say to the very end of the World. For at the sounding of the last Trumpet C. 11.15 there were great voices in Heaven saying the Kingdomes of the World are become the Kingdomes of our Lord of his Christ he shall reign for ever and ever And the seven Trumpets begin about the time of the fall of the Roman Empire under the Christian Emperors C. 8.7 Upon the sounding of the First Trumpet there followed hail fire mingled with blood they were cast upon the Earth the third part of the Trees were burnt up These are plainly the numberless Northern Armies of the Vandals Goths Hunn's who in the reign of Honorius begun to make dreadfull havock throughout the whole extent of the Roman Empire which is here meant by the Third part because the Roman Empire in truth did contain very near a third part of the World. And so the duration of the six Trumpets even to the seventh exclusively is also very near co-temporary with the 42 Months of the reign of the Beast the Court trodden under foot by the Gentiles The seven Vialls are contained under the sixth Trumpet It must also be observed that the seven Vialls of the wrath of God are co-temporary with the sixth Trumpet do divide it even to the sounding of the seventh The duration of the Kingdom of Antichrist which is 1260 Years is divided into two other Periods The first is that of the birth growth progress of the Babylonish Empire to its perfection And this Period reacheth to the tenth Century i. e. it lasts between 5 and 600 Years The second Period is from the tenth Century to the end of Antichrist's reign Now the seven Vials of the 16th Chap. of the Revelation are the steps by which this Babylonish Empire passes to come to her ruin So these seven Vials are not co-temporary neither with the seven Seals nor with the seven Trumpets as some have imagin'd They are co-temporary only with the sixth the effect of which begins about the tenth Century The Chronology of the third general Period of the Church which is that of the 1000 Years hath no difficulty in it that needs a resolution We need only to observe that these
Christian We do agree that the Prophecies of the Eighth the eleventh of Daniel T is agreed that what is said of Antiochus agrees also to Antichrist that literally respect Antiochus Epiphanes the cruel persecution that he raised against the Church of the Jews belong also to Antichrist so that Antichrist is that King that shall do according to his will shall exalt himself magnify himself above every God Dan. 11.36 37 38. shall speak marvellous things against the God of Gods shall prosper till the indignation be accomplisht Neither shall he regard the God of his Fathers nor the desire of women nor regard any God for he shall magnify himself above all But in his Estate shaell he honour the God of forces a God whom his Fathers knew not shall he honour with gold with silver with precious stones pleasant things v. 41. He shall enter also into the glorious Land and many shall be overthrown c. We are agreed that it is he of whom St. Paul speaks in the 2d Chap. of his second Epistle to the Tessalonians consequently that he is that man of sin that was to be revealed when he that then did let i.e. the Roman Empire should cease to hinder that 't is he that is to sit in the Temple of God as if he were God whose Religion is to be a Mystery of iniquity who is to lift up himself above all that is called God. 'T is confest that the Antichristian Kingdom is to be a temporal Kingdom at the bottom whatever it may be as to outward appearance 'T is agreed that he shall establish this Empire two ways the first is by sword violence the second by cheating seducing 'T is acknowledg'd that he shall be a great Persecutor of the Church Lastly 't is confest all this must come to pass in that Period which the H. Scripture calls the later times 'T is acknowledged that the 11th Ch. of the Revelation contains an Epitome of the History of Antichrist that is is he that is to tread under foot prophane the Holy City for 42 Months afflict the two Witnesses that shall prophesy clothed in sack-cloth for 1260 Days that he is to kill the two Witnesses which are to remain dead on the places of the Great City three Days a half after which they shall rise again It appears by this account of the points wherin the Papists are agreed to that we are all of the same mind first as to all those places whence the main strokes of Antichrists picture are to be taken and secondly as to almost all the main strokes of which this Picture is to be composed It will appear afterwards that these truths wherin our enemies are agreed with us do quite overthrow those things wherin they differ from us CHAP. XII The Characters of Antichrist which we are not agreed about The false Antichrist of the Papists THe things in which we are not agreed are the false Characters of Antichrist which the Papists endeavour to establish with a design to hinder our sight of the true Characters of him and to obscure them The false Characters are these I. That Antichrist must be only one single Man and not a succession of Kings and Tyrants II. That the duration of his Kingdom is to be only three Natural years and a half and not three Prophetical years and half which make up 1260 years III. That he must style himself the Messiah and that the Jews must look upon him as such IV. That his Seat shall be Jerusalem that he shall rebuild the Temple there and that he shall re-establish the Mosaical Service V. According to Bellarmine Cotton the Jesuite he is not to be an Idolater For he is not to worship any Idol but shall worship the Devil in secret VI. He is to be of the Tribe of Dan of an obscure place and to raise himself by Arms. VII He is to deny the coming of Christ in the flesh VIII He shall do nothing in the name of Christ IX He shall abolish the sacrifice of the Mass X. He shall compel the Christians to renounce their Baptism XI He is to overcome three Kings the King of Lybia of Egypt and Ethiopia XII He shall cause sire to come down from Heaven and feign himself to be dead to counterfeit a resurrection XIII He is to hate Idols XIV He is to conquer the whole Worldy by Arms. XV. Enoch and Elias shall be the two witnesses of the eleventh of the Revelation that shall be sent against him XVI He is to kill the two witnesses Enoch and Elias XVII These two witnesses must rise again after they have lain dead three days and a half XVIII He is to possess all sorts of Treasures XIX He shall not only call himself God but the only God. XX. He is not to come till the Roman German Empire be destroyed XXI His coming is not to be till just at the end of the World he shall be defeated five and fourty days before the end of it XXII Before he comes the Gospel must have been generally preached in all parts of the World. XXIII He is to be a Magician Of these 23. Articles there are not above four or five of any importance It would be very tedious to confute all these false characters and it would be a work more unprofitable than long There is a very small parcell of them that are the principal ones which when they are destroyed all the rest fall to the ground of course naturally and necessarily For instance I. That he is to be only one single person II. That he is to reign only three natural years and a half III. That he is to come precisely at the end of the World. IV. That he is to be an open enemy of God and Christ styling himself Messiah and the King of the Jews V. That he is not to come before all that bears the name of the Roman Empire is destroyed These five points being proved to be false all the rest consequently will be so too These are the only things that are worth our taking notice of For as for the rest that Antichrist must be of the Tribe of Dan born in an obscure place that he shall cause fire to come down from Heaven that he shall feign himself dead that he may counterfeit a Resurrection that Enoch and Elias must come out of that earthly Paradise where they are kept in reserve to fight with him that he is to kill them that they must rise on the fourth day All this I say is so fabulous that it would be an injury to so understanding an Age as ours formally to confute such idle visions and so wholly destitute of any foundation All may be reduced to the single question-about the three years and a half of Antichrists duration This controversy may be reduced to one only point and it is that of the duration
duo certissima there are two things most certain of which this is one Have not the Jews already received a very great Number of false Messiah's Did they not follow their famous Barchocheva in the reign of Adrian by whose orders more than a million of Jews that revolted from all parts under the conduct of this false Messiah were Massacred Why must he of whom Iesus Christ speaks be Antichrist Antichrist is not to have his seat at Jerusalem IV. But Antichrist must have his seat at Ierusalem Therfore he must be accounted by the Iews for the Messiah Another Chimaera If the Messiah must have his seat at Ierusalem why do they make him to come forth from among the ten Horns i. e. from among the ten Kings that must divide the Roman Empire at this day viz. Germany For that only at this day doth subsist under the name of the Roman Empire What connection what coherence can a Iew sitting in Ierusalem have with the ten Horns and the ten Kingdoms of Germany Why did they acknowledg a little before that Antichrist must be the last King that shall possess the Roman Empire What is there in common between the Roman Empire and the Empire of a Iew that must reign at Ierusalem Is it perhaps because Antichrist shall reign in Germany By the same reason the Persian Empire must have been the same with the Assyrian because the Persians did extend their dominion in all places where the Assyrians once did reign This dream is founded on what St. Paul saith that Antichrist must sit in the Temple of God and on what the H. Ghost saith that the two Witnesses whom Antichrist should slay should lie dead on the place of the great City where J. Christ was crucified now he was crucified at Ierusalem As to the first we say that the Temple of God can by no means signify the Temple at Ierusalem which was no longer the Temple of God since God caused this voice to be heard there Let us depart hence since God hath entirely abollisht the Mosaical service since the Law was abrogated and the Gospel Establisht The Temple of God is the very Christian Church wherin the throne of Antichristianism is raised up And as for that city in the Revelation where Jesus Christ was crucified 't is the Roman Empire in which the Saviour of the World was crucified 't is also the Empire of Antichrist who hath crucified Jesus Christ in crucifying his subjects Jerusalem is never called the great City without the addition of the Holy City V. Antichrist must hate Idols and not be an Idolater Why then is Babylon called the mother of whoredoms Who doth not know Antichrist is not to be an hater of Idols Dan. 11.38 that in a spiritual sense Whoredom signifies Idolatry Why do they confess that we must understand that place in Daniel concerning him that he shall worship Mahuzims These Mahuzims whatever they be are they not Idols He must not deny the coming of Christ in the flesh VI. He must deny the coming of Christ in the flesh St. John doth not say so He saith indeed that he that denies that Iesus Christ is come into the World and who doth not acknowledg an incarnate God is Antichrist in the sense wherin the same Apostle saith there are many Antichrists and in that sense wherin they that overthrow the foundations of the Christian Religion are Antichrists He is not to abolish the Mass VII He shall abolish the sacrifice of the Mass and shall make men renounce their Baptism This is not said in any place It is true 't is said of Antiochus that he shall cause the daily sacrifice to cease which he also did It is true also that in so doing he was a Type of Antichrist who hath caused the true sacrifices to cease which are prayers to God to substitute in their place the worship of Mahuzims and Demi-Gods How Antichrist is to overthrow three Kings VIII He is to overcome three Kings viz. those of Lybia Ethiopia and Egypt It is true also that this is expresly spoken concerning Antiochus and that it agrees to Antichrist as to the person of whom Antiochus was the Type And it is very certain this hath been accomplisht in the Roman Antichristian Empire in what sense soever we understand it For the Court of Rome hath destroyed three Kingdoms in Italy that of the Lombards that of the Goths and before these that of the Greeks These are the three Kingdoms which the Pope hath ruin'd to usurp his Temporalities He hath overthrown the King of Naples him of Sicily and him of Germany to make them his vassals He hath overcome the third part of those Kingdomes that have submitted to him because he hath usurped more than a third part of their Riches their Lands and their Iurisdiction How Antichrist causeth fire to come down from Heaven XII He is to cause fire to come down from Heaven It is enough to make fire come down from heaven to hurl Anathema's and lightnings on the heads of men to damn them if it were possible for him to do it and effectually to kill them For these are the lightnings tho painted ones that have set the Christian World on fire He is not to conquer by arms XIII He must conquer all the World by arms How can this be true seeing the H. Spirit saith expresly that the ten Kings which you your selves confess are co-temporary with Antichrist his friends and subjects shall freely give their power to him There will be no need therfore to conquer them by arms Moreover the Pope hath not been wanting to make use of carnal weapons to strengthen and encrease his Soveraignty Enoch and Elias must not return nor be killed XIV Enoch and Elias must come again in the time of Antichrist he must kill them and they must rise again These are ridiculous visions Jewish fables or tales made in imitation of them who always expect their Elias as well as their Messiah As for us we keep close to what the Lord J. Christ hath told us that Elias hath already come and that that Elias was Iohn Baptist who had the power and Spirit of Elias As for Enoch and his return it is a vision that hath not the least foundation in History or in Prophecy 'T is true Enoch was translated into Heaven but there is not one word whence we can hope for his return These are fables upon fables That Enoch and that Elias those two witnesses that must appear again in the time of Antichrist are hidden as they say in a retired place in the Earthly Paradise that subsists to this very day and which is invisible to all men Antichrist is not to style himself the only God. XV. Antichrist is to style himself God and the only God. How absurd is this How doth this agree with what you say that Antichrist must be received by the Iews as their Messiah that he is
to re-establish the law of Moses that he must set on foot again the Levitical worship How would the Iews receive him for their Messiah if he were so wicked a person as not to believe there were a God To what purpose should he rebuild the Temple of Ierusalem and why should he offer sacrifices to God in it if he made himself to be worshipped as the only God Besides it is clear enough that the Pope causes himself to be adored like a God tho he doth not call himself either the only God or the great God. Germany is not the Roman Empire that must be divided among ten Kings under Antichrist XVI He is not to come till the Roman Empire be entirely destroyed We shall afterwards take an occasion to examin this In the mean time consider what absurdities these men run themselves into According to them the Roman Empire doth yet subsist viz. in the branch of Germany According to them at the end of the World the Roman Empire shall be divided among ten Kings that shall be the Friends the co-temporaries and the supporters of Antichrist That is to say the Empire of Germany shall be divided into ten Kingdoms Those will be notable Kingdoms those ten Kingdoms on the other side the Rheine and do well deserve a place even ten times over in the Prophecies of Daniel and St. Iohn If Antichrist must not come till the Roman Empire be destroyed why did they confess that the little Horn in the 7th Chapt. of Daniel is Antichrist This Horn doth it not play the part of the fourth Beast i.e. of the Roman Empire Why do these Gentlemen agree to this that Antichrist is the seventh Head of the first Beast in the 13th of the Revelation which they together with us acknowledg to be the Roman Empire Why did Bellarmine grant that Antichrist is to be the last Roman Emperour The Roman Empire therfore shall not be destroyed when Antichrist shall come because that Empire shall continue under him Antichrist must come before the end of the World. XVII He is not to come but just at the end of the World. He is not to come till the last times But we shall hereafter examin whether the last times signify the three last years before the day of judgment And when we shall have proved that the 1260 Days of Antichrists reign are so many Years this point will be cleared up The Gospel hath been preached almost throughout the VVorld XVIII Before he comes the Gospel must have been preached throughout all the World. Indeed before the Antichristian Empire did appear and was perceivable the Gospel had been preached in that which they called the whole World from the time of the Apostles in all the extent of the Roman Empire and beyond it in all the then known World in the countries which they knew were inhabited and where they could enter without being hindred by the barbarity of those that dwelt there But this universal preaching throughout all the Earth without Exception must be consequent upon the fall of Antichrist and not a sign of his coming Further this term of Vniversal preaching even then must not be taken in the strictest sense For it may be there will be some Exceptions It is not necessary that Antichrist should be a Magician XIX Lastly Antichrist must be a Magician And that because he must work great signs and miracles by the help of Magick 'T is sufficient for the fulfilling of these Oracles that he doth his signs by illusion and the enchantment of mens senses by cheating and deceit and also by the help of the Devil without his making any compact with the Devil either direct or indirect The false miracles of Popery also are wrought by the cheats of the Priests or purely by lies or by the Devil that makes himself sport with their miserable devotion Seeing all these Characters of the Antichristian Empire are all false we must for the future examin and seek out what are the true Characters of it CHAP. XIII What are the true Characters of the Antichristian Empire They are three Tyranny Idolatry and great corruption of manners That we must not look on Tyranny alone as the sole Character of Antichrist The Antichristian Empire hath three names that note its three Characters WE are seeking after the Characters of the Antichristian Empire I believe we may hope to find them in the names which the Holy Spirit gives it For assuredly names are given by God to signify the nature of things I find that the Holy Spirit gives three names to that Empire He calls it Egypt and Sodom and lastly Babylon Egypt and Sodom in the eleventh of the Revelation where speaking of the death of the two witnesses C. 11.8 he saith their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt Babylon in as many places of the same book as 't is said in she is fallen she is fallen Babylon the great Come out of Babylon my people These three names signify the three Characters of that Babylonish Empire The name of Egypt signifies the pride Tyranny and Cruelty of Antichrist Egypt is the embleme of Tyranny Pride and Cruelty Of Tyranny because there the Israelites did groan under hard bondage in the chains of Pharaoh who tyrannised over them Of Cruelty because that cruel Prince did vex them sorely with hard labour and the death of their children whom he caused to be drowned in the river Nile Of Pride because this proud Tyrant rebelled against God with an intolerable pride saying Who is the Lord that I should obey his voyce Sodom signifies the great corruption of manners in the Antichristian Empire Sodom signifies the mighty corruption of manners and the reason of it may be easily apprehended It was neither Tyranny nor Cruelty that destroyed Sodom We do not read that she did aspire after the dominion It was not Idolatry at least we have no reason to believe that she was more notorious for it than the other Canaavites round about It was therefore only dissoluteness luxury and debauchery ease and abundance of bread as the Prophets speak Therefore when they would set forth a mighty corruption of manners they borrow an expression from hence and use the names of Sodom nd Gomorrha â—s 1.10 Hear the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom give ear unto the Law of our God ye people of Gomorrha After which Isaiah falls not upon their Idolatry but upon their corrupt manners He reproaches them with nothing but their injustice and violence Babylon signifies the Idolatry of Antichristianism Lastly Babylon signifies Idolatry All do agree that Babylon was the fountain of all sorts of Idolatry From Chaldaea it spread it self over all the Earth That is the fountain and spring of men 't is also of false Gods. As she was the first fountain so she did continue the chief Seat of it
Savoy and lastly that of France which at this day is driven on to extremity and is the most terrible of all that ever the Church endured The Empire of the Papism is a Sodom for corruption of manners As to corruption of manners one may be convinced that it cannot go further than it hath already gone in the Papism by reading what we have written in the sixth and ninth Prejudice In the sixth we have proved the corruption of the heads of the Papism by a short History of the abominable immoralities of the Popes And in the ninth we have given an account of an infinite number of witnesses in all Ages who do depose that all the most horrible and filthy things that can be imagined are to be met with in the carriage and manners of the Monks Priests and Laity in the Papism To perfect the description of the corruption of the Papism the eighth Prejudice may be added in which the filthy sordid simoniacal and sacrilegious covetousness of Rome and all its Agents are discover'd The Empire of the Papism is a Babylon for idolatry To be assured that Idolatry one of the principal Characters of the Antichristian Empire agrees to the Papism you may read the 33. Chap. of the last part where you will find a short description of the extravagant and abominable worship which the Church of Rome gives to the Holy Virgin and all the Saints in which worship we have plainly discovered an evident Character of reprobation and Antichristianism Lastly for the proof of the Paganism of that Church you may read the 12th of our prejudices We have there made a very exact Parallel between Popery and Paganism enough to convince any one that they both had the same spring and Author because they have the same objects distinguisht into the very same classes and very near the very same ceremonies To which may be added the History of the fables of the Papism more filthy and more numerous than those of Paganism You will find it in the sixteenth Prejudice Besides all this we have taken our second Prejudice from the perfect conformity that is between the Prophecies concerning the reign of Antichrist and the things we see in the settlement and the nature of the Kingdom of the Papism We have alledged all the Prophecies wherein 't is agreed that Antichrist and his Empire are both fore-told and described and we have justified it that all the strokes of these descriptions do agree to the Pope to his Seat to his Religion and to his Empire The Roman Religion is that falling away and that Apostacy of which St. Paul speaks in the second Chap. of the second Epist to the Thessalonians 'T is the first Text we have produced against it The Papism is an Apostacy That Religion is an Apostacy because there is in it Idolatry prophaning of holy things an introduction of new Gods and the abomination of Images set up in the Sanctuary It s head is the man of sin and the son of perdition because his throne is the throne of pride of covetousness of ambition of Simony There we find the Politiques of the World and of the spirit of darkness cheating deceit violence blood fornication sodomy brutishness magick and all manner of imaginable wickedness This head of the Papism sits in the Temple of God i. e. in the Christian Church where Jesus Christ dwelt who is the foundation He sits there as a God for he makes his feet be kiss'd by men yea even by the highest powers of the Earth He is called God the Lievtenant of God the Vicar of Jesus Christ and a Vice-God In the quality of a God and as one clothed with his power he changes the times and the Law. He dispenses with things against the Law of God Dan. 7. against the Canons of the Church against the Apostle against the Old and New Testament He lifts up himself above all that is called God for he exalts himself above all the Kings of the Earth that are the Gods of this lower World. He exalts himself also above the true God in making such laws as make void the Laws of God for instance in commanding to worship Images which God hath forbidden us to worship He exalts himself above the Saints which are his Demy-Gods For in the quality of a Judge and consequently of a Superiour he Canonises them he places them in the Heavens he causes them to be honoured with Temples and Altars or he refuseth it to them The Papism is a Mystery of Iniquity His Religion is a mystery of iniquity for all that is in it is unrighteous unjust wicked 'T is usurpations violences and Idolatries It ravishes away from men their just rights and from God that worship that belongs to him alone to appropriate it to a Tyrant or give it to subjects that do not deserve it 'T is a Mystery for it hath all the appearance of a Mystical Religion It hath ceremonies in abundance a pompous worship a mighty out-side but 't is a Mystery of iniquity This mystery was establisht by the efficacy of Santan with all power signs and lying wonders For one can't reckon up either the Diabolical illusions or the Cheats of the Priests or the lying Miracles by which this false worship and this false Religion was establisht in the World. The explication and application of that place of St. Paul to the Empire of the Papism have been already made so exactly that we shall not do it over again except only that Article in which the Apostle saith 2 Thess 2.6 7. Ye know what with-holdeth that he might be revealed in his time c. He who now letteth will let till he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked one be revealed All the world did formerly believe and so it doth still that by him who Held and possessed or did let in St. Pauls time we must understand the Roman Empire And it hath been generally apprehended that the Apostle intended to say that the Antichristian Empire would not appear in the world before the Roman Empire was abolisht and destroyed Tho we should stick to this without any other explication our cause would be much better than that of the Church of Rome For to demonstrate that the Romish Antichrist is not yet come she is obliged to prove that the Roman Empire doth yet subsist Germany is not an Empire nor the Roman Empire doth yet subsist She finds it in the Empire of Germany But nothing is more vain than this nor more easy to be confuted The Government of Germany is neither an Empire nor a Roman Empire 'T is not an Empire There is nothing Despotical in it nor any thing that savours of an Emperour 'T is rather a Republique or an heap of many different Monarchical Aristocratical and Democratical States 'T is not the Roman Empire no more than the Kingdom of France or that of Spain For 't is one of the
that Empire to the judgement that God causes to fall on the Kingdom of Antichrist to the harvest and to the vintage i. e. to the total destruction of the Devils Kingdom The following Chapters carry on the matter also to the reign of Jesus Christ the description of which begins in the 20th Chap. of the book There is nothing comes between whereby it is clear there is no interval of time nor any Monarchy between the Roman Empire and the Monarchy of J. Christ and so that the Antichristian Empire that must immediatly procede the reign of Jesus Christ is the continuation of the Roman Empire The same thing is evident from the 17th Chap. which is an explication of the visions of the 13th The 13th Chap. speaks of two Beasts the one had seven heads and ten horns the other hath but one head and two horns The 17th Chapt. speaks no more of the second Beast It speaks only of a woman riding on a Beast of seven heads and ten horns 'T is because the second Beast at the bottom was no more than a continuation of the first i. e. it was no more than the continuation of the Roman Empire Therefore the Holy Spirit in explaining the adventures of the first Beast pretends to explain those of the second also For otherwise if the two Beasts had been different 't is plain the H. Spirit would not have been wanting to have spoken of the one as well as of the other in the 17th Chap. where he explains the visions of the Beasis Now this Beast with seven heads and ten horns i. e. the Roman Empire must reach to the end of the persecutions and to the reign of J. Christ This appears plainly in the 18th and the following Chapters where the ruin of Antichrist is represented and described at large If these proofs did not suffice to prove that the Empire of Antichrist must be a continuation of the Roman Empire one might bring others from the comparison of the two Beasts of the 13th Ch. For 't is clear that 't is one and the same Empire represented by two Beasts And the thing is so plain that the Popish Authors themselves do acknowledg it We have heard Bellarmin confess it and say that Antichrist must be a King possessing the Roman Empire but without the name of the Roman Emperour He that did possess in the time of St. Paul and was to be removed out of the way before Antichrist came is the sixth head of the Beast with ten Horns and seven heads If this be so what must we understand by those words of St. Paul only he that now letteth or possesseth will let or possess till he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked one be revealed It doth not import till the Roman Empire be abolisht as the Ancients did believe and as the Agents of Antichrist at this day would fain perswade us We must remember that in the Beast in the Revelation with seven Heads and ten Horns the seven Heads are seven forms of Governments under which the Roman Empire hath past 1. Kings 2. Consuls 3. Decemvires 4. The Tribunes of the People 5. Perpetual Dictators 6. Emperours 7. and lastly Popes Every one of these Heads and these Governments hath had its time one hath passed away and another hath come in its place In the time of St. Paul the Head of the Emperours was in possession And 't is of that we must understand those words of his Prophecy only he which now with-holdeth or possesseth i.e. the Head of the Emperors shall cease at Rome and then the Antichristian Kingdom shall be revealed and quickly form the seventh Head which shall be that of the Popes calling themselves the Vicars of J. Christ but being indeed the true Antichrists And thus you have what I thought necessary to be added for the explication of that Prophecy of St. Paul contained in the 2d. Ep. to the Thessalonians CHAP. XV. An explication of the Visions of the thirteenth Chapter of the Revelation and of the two Beasts that appear therin WE come now to the description of the Antichristian Empire according as we find it in the Revelation a book particularly designed to describe it to us 'T is found above all in the 13th Chapter Two Beasts are seen in this Chapter We shall immediately examin both the one and the other following the Text word for word V. 1. And I saw a Beast rise out of the sea having seven Heads and ten Horns and upon his Horns ten crowns and upon his Heads the name of Blasphemy 2. And the beast which I saw was like unto a Leopard and his feet were as the feet of a Bear and his mouth as the mouth of a Lion and the Dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority There is no need that I should observe here that in the style of the Prophets a Beast signifies an Empire A beast signifies a worldly Empire enemy of God. All the world knows it and confesses it It must only be noted that a Beast signifies an Empire that is worldly terrestrial and an enemy to God. The Kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ that must be given to the Saints after the fourth Monarchy is never represented under the image of a Beast The Beast that appears here is the fourth Monarchy which we have seen described in the text of the seventh Chapter of Daniel The Prophet had said that it was diverse from all the other Beasts And Saint John in the explication of it saith that it was composed of the shape of a Lion a Leopard and a Bear wheras the fore-going Beasts had but one simple shape The First was as a Lion with the wings of an Eagle The second was as a Bear and the third as a Leopard But this fourth Monarchy hath all the strength and all the advantages of the tree others together 'T is couragious and strong as a Lion. It had the swiftness of a Leopard in its conquests It hath the firmness of a Bear whose large feet make a firm basis for its whole body The Holy Spirit lays before the Prophets eyes this Roman Monarchy whole and entire Why the fourth Monarchy appears entire in the Revelation about a third part of it was already past because this Monarchy was to be the subject on which all the great events were to turn And to know and object well it must not be shewn by pieces but all entire So that 't is reasonable the Prophet should see this Beast or this Monarchy in its whole extent He riseth out of the Sea. This is not what was said in the eleventh Chapter he riseth out of the bottomless pit The bottomless pit and the sea are not the same thing The bottomless pit is Hell. Here the sea signifies a great number of people The Roma Monarchy rose from the midst of the people as a monster that should rise out of the sea 'T is because it
Let them inform us a little where are and who are the ten Kings that shall reign the same time with Rome Pagan who in Saint Iohns time had not begun to reign and who yet were to begin their reign at the same time with the Roman Emperours Is it not plain that these are ten Kings that must receive their birth from the ruin of the Roman Pagan Empire and compose an Antichristian Roman Empire under the rule of the prostitute and adulterous Woman i. e. the revolted Church and Spouse of Jesus Christ Sixthly v. 13. How can these words agree to Rome Pagan these i. e. these ten Kings have one mind and shall give their power and strength to the beast Did those Kings whose Kingdoms were conquer'd by the Roman Pagan Empire voluntarily give their power to the Beast Did not Rome Pagan by meer violence ravish away those great Estates of which she formed her Empire Can it be said that the Kings that were conquer'd and subdued had one mind Did they reign together with Rome Pagan were they not destroyed and their Kingdoms reduced into Roman Provinces This therefore can in no wise agree to the Pagan Period of Rome but doth very well to the Antichristian and Papal one For it is true that the ten Kings compose this Ecclesiastical Empire and submit themselves unto it It is true that they have one mind and that they have given their power unto the Beast For it was not by Force of Arms that Rome hath acquired this second Empire but by perswasion by illusion by the false religion by the communion of idolatry and by the Chimaera of an Empire of Jesus Christ on the Earth This is the only thing to be met with which the popish Interpreters have to oppose to prove that Antichrist must not sit at Rome and that Rome in this Chap. is Rome Pagan say they the ten Kings shall hate the Whore How the ten Kings shall destroy Antichristian Rome after they have built it C. 17. v. 8 16. De Rom. Pontif. l 3. cap. 13. sect 2. and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire 'T is the Argument of Bellarmin which all the rest have adopted St. Iohn saith he predicts that the ten Kings that shall divide the Roman Empire and under the reign of whom Antichrist shall come shall hate the whore clothed in purple i. e. Rome and shall make her desolate and burn her with fire How then shall she be the Seat of Antichrist if in that very time she must be overthrown and burnt A mighty riddle hard to be solved We need but read on Saint Iohn immediately adds v. 17. For God shall put it into their hearts to fulfill his Will and to agree and give their Kingdom to the beast untill the Word of God shall be fulfilled Who doth not see that these are two distinct times In one of them the ten Kings shall give their power to the Beast by the cheat of a false piety and in the other being better instructed and recover'd foolish fondness they shall spoil that Empire which they shall have formed by their complaisance Men must be hardly prest upon that have recourse to such vain evasions as these The foolish self-contradiction of the Papists But observe their foolish self-contradiction Here Bellarmin and his adherents say that the ten Kings which shall divide the Roman Empire shall come in Antichrists time and that these are the same that shall make the Whore desolate i. e. that shall destroy the City of Rome viz. Rome that is here spoken of and which Bellarmin himself defines by the Whore clothed in purple that is to say Rome Now how will the ten Kings that must not come till the end of the World according to them be able to make desolate and burn Rome Pagan which hath no longer been in being for above 1300. years The ten Kings associated with Antichrist only three years and a half before the end of the World will be able to make desolate no other Rome than what will then be in being Now Pagan Rome will be no more it will be Rome Christian whose Empire he supposes must subsist to the end of the World and to the reign of Antichrist Men must have lost their understanding and be given up to a reprobate sense so to contradict both themselves and the Truth with so much dishonesty Lastly it is clear by the following Chapter which is the 18th that the great City which reigneth over the kings of the earth cannot be Rome Pagan but Rome Antichristian In the 18th Chap. he calls her Babylon whom just before he called the great city and even the popish Interpreters agree also that that Babylon is Rome Now he describes the fall of that Babylon i. e. of Rome in such a manner as cannot agree to any other but Rome Antichristian First He saith v. 3. that all Nations have drank of the wine of the wrath of her fornication We have already seen that this signifies that Idolatry to which Babylon hath drawn the Nations by her Charms and Enchantments which doth not agree to Rome Pagan Secondly v. 4. He saith come out of Babylon my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues 'T is plain this cannot be understood of any thing but of an Idolatrous Church whence God would draw forth his Elect. God never commanded his faithful Servants to go out of Rome Pagan they always remained in it Thirdly and lastly the manner in which the ruin of this Babylon is described can by no means agree to Rome Pagan The Holy Spirit represents it as a City burnt and entirely reduced to ashes the Merchants whereof and they that gained by her behold her desolation and her burning afar off And to conclude he signifies that it must be such a fall from which she shall never rise again And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great Mill-stone and cast it into the sea saying Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down c. 18. v. 21. and shall be found no more at all Now this is not yet happened to Rome she hath been taken and retaken and pillaged several times but yet she subsists still so that this can't be understood but of the last ruin that must happen to Rome Antichristian And thus you have the proofs that shew that that Rome which all the popish Interpreters as well as we do find in the 17th and 18th Chap. of the Revelation cannot be Rome Pagan proofs which I call a demonstration for I maintain there is no man that can resist the force of them The confession of the modern Papists that Rome must be the seat of Antichrist Ribera Viega Cornelius à Lapide And the modern popish Interpreters have felt the force of them At this day they do confess that it is not Rome Pagan But
see what they say viz. that that Rome that now is towards the end of the World shall be corrupted become idolatrous debauched that she shall shake off the yoke of Jesus Christ and carry her disorders as far as Rome Pagan But yet however that it must not be the seat of Antichrist who must be accompanied with his ten Kings have his habitation at Jerusalem and come to Rome when it is turn'd Idolatrous and Pagan to destroy and ruin it as he will also do See the words of Viega on the eighteenth of the Revelation One may plainly gather from the infinite number of precious merchandises and of all sorts that are here noted that Rome in the last times after her Apostacy shall attain to soveraign power and great riches and that her Empire shall extend it self throughout the World upon the ten Kings so often named For that these mighty riches do not belong to Rome Pagan it is clear by these words Come forth of Babylon my people For this shews that 't is not ancient Rome that is here spoken of in which there were no faithfull ones but that Rome that shall flourish in the last times Then therefore the City of Rome shall greatly flourish and its Empire shall be very large She shall live in pleasures and have great abundance of all things And at the same time she shall be enslaved to Idolatry be full of Superstitions sacrifice to Doemons and false Deities And by reason of the vast quantity of the blood of the Saints that shall be shed by her under the Emperours of Rome by a terrible but a very righteous judgement of God she shall at last be made desolate and burnt by ten Kings See what the force and evidence of the truth hath drawn from the mouth of the worshippers of Rome What prodigious whimsies are these To what extremity must these men have been reduced The Scripture speaks of but one Antichristian Empire The Church never imagin'd there was more than one and lo here are men that make a couple The first shall be in Rome corrupted for according to them Rome in the last days must have a great Empire must subdue Kingdoms and draw them together with her self into a revolt from Jesus Christ Lo therefore there 's one Antichristian Empire at Rome what need have we of another Antichrist sitting at Jerusalem Moreover this Chimaera is founded on this principle that the Beast in the 13th Chapt. which according to them represents Antichrist is not the same with the Beast in the 17th Chap. with the great City that ruleth over the Kings of the Earth and with Babylon spoken of in the 14th and the 18th Chapt. Now we have confuted this ridiculous imagination and have demonstrated that Babylon the great City the Beast of the 13th and the 18th Chapter are the same thing This Chimaera is so ill to be defended that the more modern Papists have abandon'd it and at last have been forced to acknowledge that Rome must be the seat of Antichrist that the great City spoken of in the 11th Chapter where Jesus Christ was crucified is not Jerusalem but spiritual Babylon spoken of afterwards and Bernard de Montreuil that hath write since the rest though he retains that ancient dream that Antichrist must come out of Jerusalem yet he confesses however that the Babylonish Empire and the Antichristian are not two Empires that must succeed one another and the one destroy the other according to the supposition of those we were just now speaking of He confesseth that Rome shall be the chief City of Antichrist's party that Antichrist must defend it and that the ten Kings of the Beast are the subjects of its grandeure and that of Antichrist the head of the League the Monarch of the time He calls Antichrist the Prince of the Apocalyptical Babylon And he confesseth that this Babylon is Rome therefore he acknowledgeth that Rome must be Antichristian and the capital City of Antichrist Babylon saith he is the Mistress the Queen the Empress of the kingdom of Antichrist Not daring to call Rome Babylon On the 24. Chapt. he defines it however by Western Babylon who being perverted instead of obeying the Laws of the piety of the first age shall in her pride cause her self to be called the great and the independant and shall become much worse under the reign of Antichrist than ever Eastern Babylon was After these confessions there remains no other help for the popish Doctors to hinder their Rome from being acknowledged to be Rome Antichristian but the Chimaera of the three years and a half 's duration of Antichrists kingdom It is true say they that Rome must be possessed by Antichrist that he must establish Idolatry there that Rome must become worse than Rome Pagan was in the time of St. John and than Eastern Babylon in the time of the Prophets but this must last but three years and a half When therefore we have destroyed this ridiculous dream of three natural years and a half we shall have demonstrated that Rome at this day is the true Seat of Antichrist and then I shall make them this Argument Babylon in the Revelation is the seat of the Antichristian Empire the same thing with the prostitute Woman with the Beast with seven heads and ten horns All this is Rome become Antichristian and the seat of Antichrist Which is plain either by what hath been invincibly proved or what the Papists themselves have confessed Now this Antichristian Roman Empire must endure not 1260. natural days but 1260. prophetical days i. e. 1260. years Therefore it is evident that the Antichristian Empire which must be at Rome cannot be that chimerical Empire of Antichrist of three years and a half that must conclude 45. days before the end of the World and that 't is that of Rome which hath endured so long already The consequence is plain because all do acknowledge the World must not and cannot according to the decrees of God endure yet twelve or thirteen hundred years to make room for the reign of Antichrist and a thousand years more at the end of that to make room for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ the truth and certainty of which we shall prove So that if the reign of Antichrist must endure 1260. years it is necessary that it subsist at this present time and that it hath begun a long time since This is I say a demonstration which I have in readiness for these Gentlemen when I shall have proved the only thing in this argument that can be called in question viz. that the 1260. days of Antichrist cannot be understood of so many natural days I would prove this truth presently were it not that it regards the time of the duration of the Antichristian Empire of which we shall have occasion afterwards to speak Wherefore now we shall continue to give you the explication of the Prophecies that contain the Character of this Antichristian Empire CHAP. XVIII
payed Tribute And his being Hostage at Rome many years going to render Homage to this God even in his own seat makes the servitude and the homage principally fall on him and they may be justly attributed to him Thirdly Though the servitude began in the time of his father nevertheless the Prophecy particularly fixes it on the Son because of that pride which was peculiar to him As if the Holy Spirit would have said the Kingdom of Asia shall feel the force of the Romans for the mortification of this proud Antiochus who shall endeavour to exalt himself above all the Kings of the Earth This is an accident that to me seems marvellous that this prophecy found its accomplishment in Rome and in the Romans as well in the temporal as in the spiritual sense I said above that Antiochus was not a type of Antichrist but in the things he did against the Jewish Nation Because the strange Nations having no reference to the Church nothing that Tyrants do against the Nations is mystical Therefore we must not seek after a mystery in that which the Prophecy fore-tells that Antiochus should do against the Egyptians against Ptolomee and in reference to other people But 't is reasonable to except the Romans from this rule Though they then were a nation estranged from the Church yet however they had a reference to the Church For Rome was to be the head of the Antichristian Church And already in the Prophecies Rome Pagan that then was made but one beast i. e. one Empire with Rome Christian and Antichristian so that it was proper to the genius of the Prophecy that the type of the Roman Antichrist should be a type in what he did with respect to the Romans Besides it can't be thought strange that the same prophecy should have two prospects and consequently two accomplishments For so it is always in those Prophecies that turn on a typical subject That which may make some difficulty is that the temporal adventures of the type have usually their figurative respect to the spiritual adventures of the thing represented by the type Which doth not appear here for the homages which Antiochus rendred to the Romans do not appear to have any typical reference to the homages which the new Romans give to their Demi-gods They have however and it is certain that the homage which the new subjects of the Roman Empire do render at Rome to its head to its Saints and Idols have respect of a figure and the thing figured to the homage which the people of the world did render to ancient Rome whose Citizenship they did under-hand labour for and whose Eagles and other military Ensigns they worshipt Religio Romanorum tota castrensis Tertul Apolog. c. 1â— Signa veneratur signa jurat Signa omnibus Diis praeponit St. Peter and St. Paul and the H. Virgin at this day are in the banners of Rome just as the Eagles were heretofore and all the world gives homage to these banners and to that which is represented by them just as during the Empire of ancient Rome men did prostrate themselves before the Eagles I hold that the twelfth and last Chapter of Daniel The 12th Chapt. of Daniel respects also Antiochus Epiphanes doth also refer to Antiochus and Antichrist And at that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince that standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such as nevey was since there was a nation even unto that same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered every one that shall be found written in the book of life This Prophecy literally respects Antiochus's last persecution of the Jews that was terrible and cruel but ended by the victories of the Macchabees This Michael is the Son of God himself who always watched for the preservation of his Church Spiritually and mystically this agrees to Antichrist and respects the last persecution that he must cause the Church to suffer after which he himself is to be ruin'd and the people of the Saints deliver'd 'T is the same victory as is described to us in the 19th Chapter of the Revel The words that follow make it very plain that this Prophecy must be understood of that victory that J. Christ must obtain over Antichrist at the end of the Antichristian Empire Daniel brings in the resurrection here to shew that he speaks of the victories of J. Christ over Antichrist And many of them that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the stars for ever and ever What I pray should the resurrection do here in the middle of the Chap. in which the adventures only of Antiochus Epiphanes are spoken of 'T is plain that this is perfectly the same Prophecy as that of St. John in the 20th Chapt. of the Revel where the Apostle predicts the deliverance of the Church and the coming of the Kingdom of Christ by a resurrection They that were beheaded for the Name of Jesus must be raised up and reign with him a 1000. years This is what Daniel saith here that they that have turn'd many to Righteousness by their Doctrine and by their Martyrdom shall be as shining and ruling Stars in the Kingdom of J. Christ The Prophecy of Daniel joins together the two resurrections the first the second though they are distant each from the Other a 1000 years 'T is not the last resurrection nor the last coming of Jesus Christ that St. Iohn speaks of no more than Daniel 'T is of that coming that St. Paul speaks of when he saith that Jesus Christ shall destroy Antichrist by the brightness of his coming when he shall come to establish his Kingdom of a 1000 years on the Earth 'T is that resurrection which the Revelation calls the first resurrection And therefore Daniel doth not say And ALL those that sleep in the dust shall awake but he only saith MANY of those that sleep in the dust even as St. Iohn saith so expresly that then all the dead shall not arise 'T is true that Daniel also joins the resurrection of the wicked and some shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt But we must not conclude that this resurrection of the wicked must be at the same time one Prophecy must be explained by the other The resurrection of the wicked which Daniel joins here with the first resurrection is distant from it at least a 1000 years But he speaks of it as of two things joined together because he who speaks is God before whom a 1000 years are but as one day Besides this when our eyes look on things very far off always those things that are far from one another seem to be near The Stars seem to us to be near the Moon and yet
Elias are transformed into those two witnesses that were to prophecy clothed in sack-cloth for three years and a half which are the days of Antichrist There was no colour for making Enoch and Elias sojourn on the Earth 1260. years So that it was necessary to take the 1260 years of which the Revelation speaks for so many natural days which make three natural years and a half The name of Antichrist made them believe he would call himself Christ The Temple of God where St. Paul saith that the son of perdition must sit hath made them think of the Temple of Solomon and they have concluded that Jerusalem was to be the seat of this Empire Consequently that Antichrist must be a Jew and for the reasons we have observ'd above he must moreover be of the tribe of Dan and by consequence a single person Behold the visions which St. Irenaeus vends in his fifth book against Haeresies Why Antichrist was not known fooner The Fathers did copy one another without consideration visions for which we are apparently indebted to him that forged the false Oracles of the Sibyls in the second age They that came after him adopted these vain imaginations and added others to them The Ancients did copy one another almost without any judgement and always without consideration Those that were very fond of this vain phantome of a Chimerical Antichrist could not discern the Character of the true Antichrist The later ages have been much more enlightned The differences of the Popes with the Kings of Europe particularly with the Emperors open'd the eyes of many and made them see the Antichristian Empire in Rome Christian But being in part very fond of the old Idea of Antichrist in part being kept in by that respect they had for a See which they believed was once the Chair of Saint Peter in part through cowardice and want of zeal and above all because the time designed by providence was not yet come they stopt in the way and never reached to a perfect Idea of the Antichristian Empire And in this manner the prejudices the ignorance the passions the interest of the flesh and the subtilty of the Devil have detain'd the truth in profound darkness till in these later times God hath set them in a perfect light But one can't sufficiently wonder that in so great a light yet there have been two persons sufficiently prepossessed or ill enough disposed for the mistaking this Antichrist The learned Grotius and Dr. Hammond have unhappily and to the scandal of all Protestants used great endeavours to turn these prophecies of the Revelation another way The one through his being wedded to the papism which he defended with all his might against the late Andrew Rivet And the other apparently for the same reason as Grotius and it may be so through his jealousy for the Episcopal order imagining that if the Pope who caâ—â—â— himself the head of the Bishops should be made Antichrist some disgrace would redound thence to the whole Episcopal order But Joseph Mede the learned Vsher Arch-bishop of Armagh the learned Andrew Willet and so many other learned English men that appear so zealously for the government and order of Bishops have continued to find Antichrist and the Pope in the descriptions which the prophecies have left us of him And to speak freely I am so strongly perswaded of this as an Article of the faith of the true Christians that I can't hold them for good ones who deny this truth after the events and the labours of so many great men have made it so very evident I reckon the blindness of the papists and of their favourers in this point among those prodigies wherein we must acknowledge something super-natural The end of the First Part. THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROPHECIES OR THE Approaching Deliverance of the CHURCH A work wherein it is proved that the Papism is the Antichristian Empire that that Empire is not far from its ruin that the present persecution may end in three years and a half After which the destruction of Antichrist shall begin which shall be finished in the beginning of the next Age and lastly the Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall come on the Earth The second Edition Corrected and Enlarged by almost a third part and the explication of all the Visions of the Revelation and of many Chapters concerning mystical Theology Tome the second Written in French by Mr. PETER JURIEU the present Minister of the French Church at Rotterdam And from this second Edition faithfully Englished LONDON Printed in the Year 1687. THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROPHECIES OR THE Approaching Deliverance of the CHURCH THE SECOND PART Of the end of the Antichristian Empire when it must be destroyed the circumstances of its ruin and what shall be the Estate of the Church after the ruin of that Empire CHAP. I. Of the duration of the Kingdom of Antichrist A refutation of that dream that it must last but three years and a half Ten Arguments which demonstrate that that supposition is false and impossible IN the First Part of this Work we have found Antichrist and the Antichristian Empire in this we proceed to seek out the time and the circumstances of its end That we may succeed well in this enquiry we must do four things I. We must know how long the Antichristian Empire must last II. We must see where we ought to begin the 1260 days which the Holy Spirit assigns it III. After-wards we shall see where they must end IV. And lastly we shall seek for that which hath not yet been found in the Revelation that is the circumstances of the fall of that Antichristian Empire We shall begin with that question which we have above laid down as the chiefest one that is The time of the duration of that Antichristian Empire The importance of this question whether Antichrist must reign 1260 days or 1260 years The Roman Church supposeth that this duration cannot be above three years and a half i. e. 1260. natural days and we pretend this must be understood of 1260. prophetical days which are 1260. years 'T is so important a matter that on this all the rest depends If this supposition of the duration of Antichrist meerly and simply for three years and a half be false all that the Roman Church saith of Antichrist is false And if we have reason to say that the Antichristian Empire must endure 1260. years this Empire must of necessity have begun a long time since and having begun a long time ago it must of necessity also be the papism This is therefore a particular which we must carefully mind and in the beginning we must lay down these three indisputable principles I. That the duration of the 1260. days wherein the woman in the 12th Chapt. of the Revelation must be fed in the desart which is also called in the same place a time The 1260 days The 42 months The three years and half a time
must be according to Bellarmine the last Roman Enperour though without the name of a Roman Emperour And this Roman Empire is brought in anew expresly for the seventh head with ten horns which make Antichrist i. e. the ten Kings his vassals which give him their power In truth three years and a half would they well deserve that the Holy Spirit should represent them to us and lay before our eyes afresh all this great Empire of almost 3000 years duration For by the confession of our adversaries the Roman Empire doth yet last and shall continue even to Antichrist who shall be the last King of it Now there is about two thousand four or five hundred years since the first foundation of Rome Moreover Antichrist is the seventh head of the Roman Empire This is so evident that it can't be gain-sayed Now must there not be some proportion between the heads and their durations The head of the Kings lasted near 200 years that of the Emperors above 500 years what proportion is there between so long a duration and this of three years and a half As for us we pretend that the last head must endure as long as the other six Rome under Kings Consuls Decemvirs Tribunes of the people perpetual Dictators and Emperors hath lasted about 1250 years it must be as long under the Popes But at least the head of Antichrist should last at Rome some ages to have its duration proportionable to that of the other heads It signifies nothing to us what period is assigned to it provided it be not that of three natural years and a half For we have proved that if it can't be taken for three natural years and a half it must necessarily be taken for prophetical years Third Arg. in three years and a half Antichrist can't prevail over the Nations of the earth neither by violence nor by seducing them Thirdly In the same Chapter the same Antichristian Empire appears again under the form of a second beast that hath but one head and two horns Yet once more see a great mystery for a matter that is to endure but three years and a half in a period of 2000 years Of the first beast the Prophet saith that it was given to him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them and also to him was given power over every Tribe Tongue and Nation And of the second that he should deceive them that dwell on the Earth by reason of those miracles which he had power to do c. and that all both small and great free and bond should receive his mark in their hand and in their foreheads Afterwards 't is said of this Antichristian Empire under the emblem of a woman sitting on a beast with seven heads and ten horns that all the Kings of the Earth have committed whoredom with her that she made drunk all the Inhabitants of the Earth with the wine of her whoredoms and that all the Nations drank of the wine of her whoredom This signifies two things one that this Antichristian Empire must subdue all Nations the second that it must seduce them by its signs and false miracles Now can any one imagine that three years and a half suffice first to conquer an Empire and overcome all Nations secondly to seduce and pervert them and bring them to deny the Christian Religion If Antichrist were to use that method that is used in France and were to use no other but that it may be in three years and a half he could make many Kingdoms abjure Christianity as in six months he hath made the reformation be abjured by more than a million of persons But 't is plain the Antichrist of the Papists is not to use this way So that one may say the Clergy of France have outstript their Antichrist and that there never was a more hellish sort of persecution It is clear I say that Antichrist is to carry away men by seducing them for otherwise why should he work signs and miracles and though he were to pervert the Christians with Dragoons at least certainly he ought to have conquer'd them by arms before hand and have overturn'd every other Empire Can he conquer all the World in three years where are the examples of so swift a conquest Alexander the Great is represented in the vision of the four Beasts as a Leopard by reason of the speediness of his conquests Yet he spent more than three years and a half and had conquer'd but one part of Asia when he died Are three years and a half sufficient to reassemble the Jews from all the Countries of the World to make them masters of the whole Vniverse to re-establish the mosaical worship and rebuild the Temple of Solomon Only the building of the Temple the first time took up seven years The labour'd more than 40 years about that of Herod and this of Antichrist which will apparently be more magnificent shall be finisht in a few months If there were therefore nothing else but what were to be done by the violence of Antichrist according to the very supposition of the popish Doctors it would be impossible to be done in 30 years How much more impossible is it that he should attain his end in so short a time in what he is to do by the means of seducing His false Prophet must seduce all the inhabitants of the Earth i. e. all the Subjects of the Roman Empire according to the style of the Writers in those times who defined the Roman Empire by the habitable earth There must be much more time to seduce the Nations than to conquer them If Antichrist was to establish his Religion by violence only it might be said that in building up his Empire he would build up his Religion but it is clearer than the day that he must perswade and seduce 'T is for this purpose that he worketh Signs There 's no need of miracles to establish a Religion by arms The Prophecy saith expresly that he shall make drunk the Nations of the Earth with the wine of his whoredoms Which signifies great obstinacy drunkeness of mind perswasion Now behold a strange thing in less than three years and a half a seducer utterly destroys the whole Christian Religion and by the means of perswasion seduces all the Christians and perswades them to become Jews Fourth Argument the meer fall of the Antichristian Empire must take up more years according to the 14th Chap. of the Revel Fourthly We have in the 14th Chap. an abridgement of the History of the ruin of spiritual Babylon She is fallen she is fallen Babylon that great City We have proved before that Babylon and the Antichristian Empire are the same thing Now the Prophet in this Chapt. concerning the end of the Antichristian Empire makes two periods of his last ruin the first is called the harvest Then he that sate on the Cloud thrust in his sickle on the Earth c. 14.8 and the Earth was reaped
The 8th Argument spiritual Babel is represented as a City en riched by a long commerce Eighthly Moreover doth a City become rich in three years and a half What kind of commerce then must that of this Antichristian Empire be that shall make the fortunes of her merchants in so little a time The H. Spirit borrows these figures from what is done and seen inhumane life 'T is seen therein that Cities become rich and powerful by long commerce But never were any of them seen to attain to a surprizing greatness by two or three years commerce Lastly A City and an Empire that are raised and destroyed in three years and a half have not time to gather together voluptuous things The 9th Argument spiritual Babylon is represented as having enjoyed a long peace and to enjoy them It must always fight to conquer to grow greater or to defend it self If the Antichristian Empire lasts but three years and a half this is not too much to establish its greatness by sword and by fire and to repell that force that must destroy it Of necessity Antichrist and his adherents must always be in violent motion in trouble and in war. Whereas the description of spiritual Babylon imports the possession of a long peace during which she must heap together both all the riches and all the pleasures of the World. The 10th Argument the ruin of the Babylonish Empire according to its description in the 19th Ch. cannot be wrought in three years and a half The 19th Chapt. is the last where in the ruin of this Empire is described to us We there see him who is called the faithful and the true and the Word of God i. e. J. Christ that prepares himself for the combat that causes the armies of Heaven to follow him that calls all the birds of Heaven and all the beasts of the Earth to the slaughter that gives battels that obtains the victory that casts the beast and the false Prophet into the lake of fire and brimstone For this alone more is necessary than three years and a half For an Empire so vast so large and so strong as that of Antichrist must be is not destroyed in a few days CHAP. II. The last Argument against the Chimaera of three years and half taken from the time during which the Temple was prophan'd by Antiochus Four quite different times set down for that in Daniels Prophecies An explication and a reconciling of those four times An application of these four times to the Kingdom of Antichrist and the ruin of that Kingdom I Draw my last Argument against this chimerical duration of three years and a half from the most famous of all the types of Antichrist viz. Antiochus Epiphanes 'T is he that persecuted the Church that oppressed it that defiled the Temple that caused the daily sacrifice to cease for the space of three natural years and a half Wherein it is evident that God hath set him as a type of Antichrist who during the space of three prophetical years and a half was in like manner to seize on the Church to fill the Temple of God with Idols and make the pure service of God the continual sacrifices of praises and prayers which God hath reserved for himself alone to cease Now we must remember this maxime which we have already advanced in the fore-going Chapter viz. that types are oenigmatical and short pictures of great events great in their extent as well as in their qualities Types are short pictures in a little This maxime is evident it hath no need of proofs And according to this principle seeing the times must be short as well as the other strokes it is clear that contracted years cannot be better represented than by days not by months for a month is the revolution of the Moon and consequently it can't be proper to represent the revolution of the Sun which is a quite different Star. But the day and the year are the revolutions of the Sun the year is the great revolution the day the little one If one would represent in short the great revolution of the Sun one can't do it better than by the small revolution of the same Star. And thence I conclude that the oppression of the Church by Antiochus who was the type having lasted 1260 little revolutions of the Sun they must represent so many of the great revolutions of the same Star. I spend a Chapter on this last proof because in the duration of the oppression of the Jewish Church by Antiochus Epiphanes there are considerable difficulties which spring from the differences of the Prophecies of Daniel and the events such as the first book of the Macchabees represents them to us I hope that the clearing these difficulties about the duration of the persecution of Antiochus will give us such light into the duration of the Kingdom of Antichrist as will please the curious Four times noted by Daniel for the duration of Antiochus's persecution We must therefore observe that the Prophet Daniel describes the time of the duration of the persecution that was to befall his nation in four different manners First of all he saith in the eighth Chap. after having spoken of Antiochus Epiphanes under the embleme of the little horn C. 8. v. 13. Then I heard one Saint speaking and another Saint said unto that certain Saint that spake How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot And he said unto me unto 2300 days then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed v. 14. Daniel reassuming the affair of Antiochus in the eleventh Chapter and continuing it in the twelfth observes three time Cap. 12. v. 6 7. And one said to the man clothed in linnen which was upon the waters of the river How long shall it be to the end of these wonders And I heard the man clothed in linnen which was on the waters of the river when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven and swore by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time times and a half It is plain this signifies one year two years and half a year three years and a half So then you see the second time The third is observed in the same Chapt. C. 12. v. 11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be 1290 days Lastly The fourth time is found in the following verse Blessed is he that waiteth v. 12 and cometh to the 1335 days See then four different numbers Two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings 2300. A time times and half a time 1260. that make three years and a half and days One thousand two hundred fourscore and ten days 1290. And lastly 1335. one thousand three hundred and thirty
five days The mystery of the four numbers I do not know whether any Interpreters have understood the mystery but see how I explain it First we must know that the first number of 2300 mornings and evenings must not be taken for 2300 days as Interpreters take it which forces them to go back to the very beginning of the reign of Antiochus Two thousand three hundred mornings and evenings taken for so many days 2300 mornings and evenings make but 1150 days make six years four months twenty days The prophanation ended in the 148th year of the Aera of the Seleucidae as we shall see So that we must go back even to the 142 year to find there the beginning of these six years four months and twenty days And it were necessary that the prophanation of the Sanctuary and the cessation of the daily sacrifice should then begin For the Prophet speaks expresly of the cessation of the daily sacrifice How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice And he receives this Answer for 2300 evening and mornings Yet 't is certain by the History of the Macchabees and by the Prophecy of the twelfth Chapter of Daniel that the prophanation of the Sanctuary and the cessation of the daily sacrifice begin not till three years after viz. the 145 year of the Aera of the Seleucidae I am perswaded therefore that we must understand by it two thousand three hundred sacrifices of the evening and the morning And this will not be scrupled by him that shall consider First That it is not usual in the holy Tongue nor in any other to say two evenings and mornings or three evenings and mornings meaning two days three days c. Secondly That the cessation of this daily sacrifice that was offered morning and evening being here spoken of to this question How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice a more proper and intelligible answer than this cannot be given viz. It shall be for two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings That is to say There shall be an interruption of two thousand three hundred sacrifices So that this number makes one thousand one hundred and fifty days See then these four numbers 1. Eleven hundred and fifty days which make three years two months and ten days 2. A time times and half a time which are three years and six months 3. One thousand two hundred fourscore and ten days which make three years and seven months 4. One thousand three hundred thirty five days that make three years eight months and fifteen days In the whole taking thirty days for every month a round number which the Holy Spirit hath chosen to avoid broken numbers arising from the inequality of the months Which appears by this that in the Revelat. 42 months and 1260 days are taken for the same thing 'T is so if 30 days be assigned to every month These four numbers are different and the later always exceeds the former There is six months and five days difference between the least and the greatest How can we reconcile this with the History We find this history in the four first Chap. of the first book of Macchabees The first Book of Macchabees is a book that deserveth esteem Though this book be not Canonical it deserves however a very great esteem and I do not at all doubt but it was left to the Church by a singular Providence of God that by it we might see the truth of Daniel's Prophecy and at the same time to instruct us in the different periods of the duration and end of Antichrist's Kingdom shadowed forth by that of Antiochus See then how we must frame the Chronology of the four first Chapters of this Book to the end we may find an admirable agreement between the events and these four numbers in the Prophecy To understand what we are about to say it must in the first place be observed that two things usually are Confounded that must be very carefully distinguisht in the persecution of Antiochus We must observe four periods in the persecution of Antiochus the first is the prophanation of the Sanctuary the second is the cessation of the daily sacrifice 'T is supposed that they are the same thing or at least that these two things lasted one as long as the other Which is not so for the prophanation of the Sanctuary began some months before the cessation of the daily sacrifice also it ceased sooner For the daily sacrifice began not again till some months after the sanctuary had ceased from being prophan'd see then the four Periods that must be observ'd in the persecution of the Jewish Church by Antiochus The first from the ceasing of the daily Sacrifice till its first beginning again The second from the beginning of the prophanation of the Temple by the Gentiles to the purification of the Temple begun by Macchabaeus The third from the beginning of the prophanation of the Temple by the Gentiles to the finishing the purification of the Temple by Judas Macchabaeus The fourth from the beginning the first prophanation of the Temple by the Geniles to its dedication consecration which was the very same day that the first daily sacrifice began again The four numbers in the Prophecy answer to these four Periods 1. The first number of 2300. evenings and mornings answers to the cessation of the daily sacrifice as is clear and this signifies that from the ceasing of the last daily sacrifice to the first beginning again of the daily sacrifice there was to be an interruption of 2300. sacrifices i. e. 1150 days which make three years two months ten days 2. The number of a time times and half a time i. e. three years and six months answers to the period that ran out from the first prophanation of the Temple by the Gentiles to the beginning of the purification of it by Judas Macchabaeus And this signifies that from the first prophanation to the beginning of the purification there were exactly 3 Years and 6 Months 3. The third Number which is 1290. days answers to the period that ran out from the first prophanation of the Temple by the Gentiles to the finishing the purification by Macchabaeus and this signifies that from the first prophanation of the Temple to the finishing its purification there were 1290 days i. e. three Years and seven months 4. Lastly the fourth number which is 1335. days answers to the period that ran out from the first prophanation of the Temple to its dedication and consecration And this signifies that from this first prophanation to the feast of the dedication there were 1335 days i. e. three years eight months and fifteen days The three last periods begin at the same point viz. the prophanation of the Temple by the Gentiles but they end at three different points One at the beginning of the cleansing of the Temple the other at the end of this cleansing and the third at the
had been either taken away or prophaned To do this no less than 45 days were necessary and these are the 45 days added to 1290 that make the number 1335 days of which the Prophet saith Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the 1335 days And 't is at the end of these 1335 days reckoning from the prophanation in the beginning of the year 148 that the dedication was made in the year 148. on the 25th day of the ninth month Therefore 't is the Prophet cries out Blessed is he c. because it was a great feast and great rejoycing in Israel See I say both the History and the Chronology and the duration of the cessation of the prophanation of the Temple and the interruption of the daily sacrifice made to agree with the Prophecy At present from the type we must in a few words make our conjectures touching that which must come to pass in the duration of the Antichristian Empire The prophanation of the Mosaical Sanctuary by Antiochus lasted three years and a half to the time that Judas Macchabaeus drove the Heathen out of Ierusalem and Paganism out of the Temple the cleansing of which he began To the end the truth may answer to the figure the Antichristian Empire must endure three years and a half consisting of 1260 days which are 1260 years during which the Sanctuary shall be prophaned by the Heathens i. e. the service of God shall be polluted by revived Paganism and the Temple of God possessed by a Tyrant At the end of 1260 day Judas Macchabaeus began the purification of the Temple and spent 30 days about it The cleansing of the Church must be begun the Idol must be cast out the Tyrant expelled after the 1260 years But as Judas Macchabaeus spent 30 days about purifying the Temple after he had taken away the Idol thence and had rescued it out of the hands of the Tyrant 't is propable that after the fall of the Papism of its tyranny and idolatry 30 years more will be spent in purifying the Church from all schisms heresies divisions and etrours Lastly as Judas Macchabaeus spent 45 other days to prepare all things for the consecration of the Temple in like manner after the Church shall have been cleansed from idolatry haeresy superstition schism and errours God will employ yet 45 years more to prepare all things for the consummation of the Church At the end of which time will be the dedication the solemn feast And 't is in my opinion in this last space of 45 years that God is to call the Gentiles and all the Nations of the Earth to the knowledge of himself this is that which the Apostle Saint Paul calls The fullness of the Gentiles For see as I believe the degrees by which the Church must arrive at it perfection 1. Babylon shall fall the Kingdom of Antichrist shall cease 2. The Church shall be reunited in the same opinion schisms and divisions shall be at an end 3. The Idolatrous and Infidel Nations especially the Turks who are at this day scandalized at the divisions manners and the false Doctrines of the Christians shall submit themselves at least the greatest part of them being prevailed upon by the purity of Doctrine and holiness of manners 4. Lastly The Jews overcome by so unanimous a consent and it may be by some glorious apparition of our Lord shall be converted and strongly labour to convert the rest of the Nations far distant and separated from us Then shall be the Dedication the consummation of the Church And blessed is he that shall wait and come to the 1335 days i. e. to seventy five years after the fall of the Popish Empire For he shall see the reign of J. Christ in all its Glory CHAP. III. What the Last time are It doth not signify the end of the World. There are many times with reference to the Church and with reference to the World. If Antichrist must reign 1260 years he is come Mahometanism is not Antichristianism THus much is enough to destroy that Chimaera of the duration of the Kingdom of Antichrist for three natural years and a half 'T is necessary only to answer a difficulty that may be raised from hence that the reign of Antichrist is called the last times which seems to mean the end of the World. And without doubt this is that which gave occasion to the ancient Writers to suppose that the end of this Empire was not to be above forty five days before the day of judgement But to fall into this errour a man must be little used to the style of the Scripture One thousand two hundred and sixty years 't is said can't be called the last times the period is too long 'T is necessary the reign of Antichrist should be nearer the end of the World and the day of judgement than so But what will those Gentlemen say that make this objection St. John calls his time the last time 1 Ep. 2.18 what will they say of Saint John who speaking of Antichrist and precisely of that tradition according to which he was to come in the last times saith Little children it is the last time and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time 'T is above sixteen hundred years ago that Saint John said so and then from that time he counted the last times With much more reason may we reckon those ages that came not till four or five hundred years after for the last times The last day the last times are not the same thing John. 6.54 â— Neither must we imagine that the last times signify a short space We must well distinguish the last day from the last time When the Holy Spirit speaks of the last day he always means a short time He that eateth my flesh saith our Lord I will raise up again at the last day But the last time and especially the last times in the plural number always signifieth a long period See the proofs of both these things First that the last times signify not the end of the World. The last times doth not always signify the last day The last time in the singular number sometimes doth St. Peter saith that we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time 1. Pet. 1.5 But it doth not always so signify as appears by that passage of St. John which we quoted a little before 't is the last time As for that in the plural number the last time and the last days we find they always signify a time far enough off from the end of the World. Saint Paul in the second verse of the Epistle to the Hebrews saith 1 Ephes 1.20 that God hath spoken to us in these last days by his Son. The Apostle Saint Peter saith that Jesus Christ was fore-ordained before the foundation of
the World but was manifest in these last times for us 2 Pet. 3.3 4. The same Apostle tells us in the last days shall come scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming 'T was the very time in which Saint Peter spoke and wrote For 't is spoken as of persons that were in being already And it appears by the second Chapter of the Epistle to the Thessalonians that there was an opinion spread abroad that the end of the World was at hand which made prophane ones say where is the promise of his coming which they tell us is nigh The Prophet Ioel saith Acts 2. in the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh St. Peter applies this Oracle to that which happen'd on the day of Pentecost and in the ages of the Primitive Church 2. Tim. 3.1 St. Paul saith to Timothy Know this that in the last days perillous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves c. These last days began a little after St. Paul For the Church was not long before she corrupted her manners These very same Texts prove also the other thing we have laid down which is that the last times do not signify a short duration For the manifestation of Jesus Christ made in the last times and God speaking to us in the last days by his Son and the last days wherein the prophane shall bear sway all this I say signifieth the time that passeth from I. Christ to the end of the word The times divided into three parts in reference to the Church To understand why the Period that passeth from Jesus Christ to this present time is called the last time we must observe that in the Scripture the times are divided either with reference to the Church or with reference to the World. With reference to the Church there are three times A time when the Church was without the Law and without the Gospel this is the first time that passed from Adam to Moses A time wherein the Church had the Law of Moses that was the time from the departure out of Egypt to I. Christ that 's the second time Lastly A time wherein the Church enjoys the light of Iesus Christ that 's ours and that 's the third time The times in reference to the world are divided into four With reference to the World the time is divided into four great Monarchies that must precede the last reign of I. Christ The first was the Monarchy of the Assyrians which had its seat first at Niniveh and afterwards at Babylon The second is that of the Persians the third that of the Greeks and the fourth that of the Romans whose reign must be prolong'd till the Kingdom be given to J. Christ and his Saints Since Jesus Christ we are in the last times Now whether we refer it to the first division or the second 't is still true that we are in the last times that I. Christ came in the last times and that the Empire of Antichrist must be in the last times J. Christ came in the third and last time with reference to the times of the Church seeing he came since the Law of Moses ceased to be in its vigor And Antichrist also hath his reign in the third and last period of the Church Jesus Christ also came in the last times with respect to the World for he came in the time of the fourth Monarchy Antichrist with much more reason may be assigned to the last times of the fourth Monarchy because he himself is but a continuation of that fourth Monarchy But to be so much the more fully perswaded that 't is a very proper expression it must be observ'd that the fourth Monarchy figur'd by the fourth beast was to have two great periods one of six heads the other of a seventh head having ten horns The Period of the six first heads is the Roman Empire under Kings Consuls Decemvirs Tribunes of the people perpetual Dictators and Emperors And this first Period contains about 12 or 1300 years The period of the little horn or the seventh beast with ten horns is that of Antichrist and the ten Kings which must also be between 12 and 1300 years Antichrist therefore is come in the last time of the last time i. e. in the last period of the fourth and last worldly Monarchy And consequently the Holy Spirit might with very great reason call his reign the last times And thence it can by no means be concluded that this Kingdom must last but a few years before the end of the World. Having said all that I had to say to destroy this false imagination that the Empire of Antichrist must last but three years and a half I might justly reassume and urge all those Arguments I formerly mentioned to prove that the Idea of Antichrist which the Papists frame to themselves is false and that the popish Roman see is the true Antichrist But before that I must use them yet once more to confound the dishonesty of the Translators of the Port-Royal Rev. 17.10 The dishonesty of the translation of the Port-Royal about the duration of Antichrists reign who say of the ten Kings that they shall take power for one hour or for a little time with the beast instead of translating in in the same hour or at the same time with the beast They found this translation or rather this notorious falsification very proper to take away from the Reformed this Text that proves so clearly that the birth of Antichrist must be reckon'd from the division of the Roman Empire among ten Kings and into ten Kingdoms But afterwards we shall see that though we should let their translation pass our proof would not in the least be weakned by it But as they will not agree that 1260 years may be called a little time see here they are engaged to prove that all that we have said to prove that the 1260 days of Antichrists reign are so many years is illusion a Chimaera a dream and a sophism For if our proofs do subsist how will they maintain their version that the Kings shall take power for a little time with the beast Seeing all Interpreters do agree and 't is clear of it self without their consent that the power of the ten Kings must last as long as that of the beast And also these ten Kings must reach beyond the beast for after they have clothed him with their power they must strip him of it eat his flesh and burn it with fire If therefore they duration and continuance of the beast be 1260 years as we have demonstrated it 't is necessary that the reign of the ten Kings be 1260 years and consequently this reign will not be for one hour and for a little time 'T is here that these Gentlemen the Interpreters will have great need of the Arabique Rabbinical learning and Hebrew of Father
Simon the Grammarian that not long since hath set up for an Interpreter of the Revelations His new lights do well deserve a particular Chapter by themselves But for the present we must follow on our way and shew that if the 1260 days be 1260 years then all that the Papists say of Antichrist is false and all that we say of him is true It being proved that the 1260 days are 1260 years the Papists Antichrist is a Chimaera If it be false that this Empire must last but 1260 natural days it is true that it must last 1260 years for I have proved there is no middle way to be taken And if it be true that Antichrist must reign 1260 years he can no longer be only one single man nor a revolted Jew nor a salse Messiah nor a man of the Tribe of Dan nor a Tyrant that must re-establish the Mosaical worship and rebuild Jerusalem to cause the Iews to reign there For it would be absurd to suppose that one man should live 1260 years that the reign of the Law of Moses should return for 12 Ages and that Iudaism for so long a time should oppress the Christian Religion If the Empire of Antichrist must last 1260 years it must necessarily be already come If his duration be 1260 years Antichrist is come For 't is to go against the general opinion of all men to suppose that before the reign of Jesus Christ comes we must yet expect a tyrannical Monarchy of 1200 years If the Antichristian Empire be come it must be either Mahometanism or the Papism Antichristianism can't be found among the Arri-ans for they have been extinct a long time and their reign did not come to near 1260 years We can't find him among the Athigenses who never reign'd who appear'd but for a little time and who were always oppressed He cant ' be found neither among the Lutherans nor Calvinists for none of the Characters of Antichristianism do agree to them and the Papists would not acknowledge that our reign should be for 1200 years There 's nothing remains but Mahometanism on which one can cast ones yes Mahometanism hath not the Characters of Antichristianism to seek out Antichristianism 't is indeed an Antichristian Sect because 't is an enemy to Jesus Christ and hath already subsisted above a 1000 years But we can't find therein the Characters of Antichristianism so as 't is described in the Prophets First Antichristianism must be an Apostacy and a revolt of men that formerly were obedient to the faith The Saracens Arabians and Turks the founders and preservers of this Sect never were Christians and are not Apostates Mahomet and the Arabians were Heathens Secondly Antichristianism must be an Idolatry for it is called a Whoredom and must teach the Doctrine of Daemons and mediatory spirits Now the Mahometans are not idolaters on the contrary they abhor the adoration of Images and 't is this that greatly scandalizeth them against the Christian Religion Thirdly In the name of Antichrist we must find the number 666. In the name of Mahomet and Mahometan Arabians and Saracens in any language this number is not found Fourthly Anchristianism was to have its seat in the great City which in St. Iohns time ruled over the Kings of the Earth That is Rome as all Interpreters unanimously acknowledge Mahomet and his Partizans never did possess the City of Rome and do not possess it Fifthly The Empire of Antichrist must be the Roman Empire continued the Empire of the Arabians is so far from being the continuation of the Roman Empire that it hath been the destruction of it in the East Sixthly Antichrist must sit in the Temple of God i. e. in the Church Mahomet and his Successors are out of the Church and do not belong to Christendom Seventhly Ten Kings must voluntarily give their power to Antichrist But the Arabians and Saracens have conquer'd all Kingdoms by meer violence none did voluntarily submit to them Eighthly Antichrist must be the seventh head of the Beast in the Revelation i. e. Of the Roman Empire Mahomet hath nothing in common with the Roman Empire Ninethly The Empire of Antichrist must be properly nothing else but the image of an Empire which yet however must be worship and obedience be given to it The Empire of the Mahometans is not an image but rather the most despotical and arbitrary Empire that ever was in the World. Tenthly The Antichristian Empire must have under it ten horns i. e. ten Kings Ten horns every one having his crown and his Royal power So far is the Empire of the Mahometans from suffering any vassal Kings to subsist that it hath destroyed all the great Lords In India in Persia in Turky every one of these Mahometan Empires hath but one only Lord. Eleventhly The Empire of Antichrist must be but one it must not be divided For the Kings that are to submit to him shall acknowledge him for their only head But the Empire of Mahomet is divided into many Empires The Empire of the Tartars the Empire of the Turks the Empire of the Persians the Empire of the Mogulls and these four Empires are not only different but always opposite and almost always enemies Twelfthly Antichrist must have two horns i. e. two powers like to the Lamb. 'T is notorious the Mahometans have nothing in common with Iesus Christ with his Religion and with his power Thirteenth Antichrist must excommunicate persecute take away liberty of commerce from all those that will not take on them his name and his mark in their fore-heads i. e. that will not follow his Religion The Mahometans suffer all sorts of Religions Heathens and Christians Fourteenth The Antichristian Empire must be a head i. e. a Kingdom hurt with a deadly wound and revive again This can by no means agree to Mahometanism which is a Religion wholly new and which hath formed Empires wholly new It was necessary to make these observations against those that greatly desiring to take Antichrist from Rome would fain place him among the Mahometans CHAP. IV. Some Principles to discover when the Antichristian Empire began and when it must end Three Characters of that Empire Idolatry Pride and corruption That these three Characters began to appear in the fourth Age and did infinitely encrease in the fifth HItherto we have discoursed on what is past now we proceed to treat of what is future or at least of those things that are believed so to be For we shall see that many things that are looked upon as future are already past 'T is the ruin of Antichrist and his Empire that we are now about to speak of And the first question that is asked thereupon is this When shall that Empire be destroyed A great question and which hath hitherto been looked upon as a thing that none could penetrate into 'T is certainly very difficult to be penetrated into but yet however I do not think 't is impossible to find
hath hit upon the truth Principles for the understanding the 7. viols in the 16th Chap. of the Revel 1. Principle The 7 viols are 7 judgements of God upon the Kingdom of Antichrist The Principles are there 1. The pouring out of the viols and the several plagues which follow upon their effusion do certainly signify the judgements of God upon the Kingdom of Antichrist But we must not imagine that they are as so many steps which sensibly carry it to its ruin God does afflict Common-wealths by Pestilence Famines and Wars and yet they do not perish by these calamities They continue a long time under them and sometimes do regain their former lustre after them This principle must be carefully minded because all other Interpreters have been mistaken either through their not attending to it or their not due understanding of it This they have understood that we ought not to place the beginning of the pouring out of the viols untill after that we see the Empire of Popery sensibly to fall Hence some have not placed their beginning till after the preaching of Luther 2. Principle These 7 viols signify 7 periods of time 2. The second Principle That these seven viols do certainly signify seven periods of time which ought to be distinguisht one from another As the seven Seals and seven Trumpets in the preceding Chapters did signify seven periods which succeeded one to another the figurative expression of viols borrowed from hour-glasses which measured time signifies this thing more naturally then the Seals and Trumpets And this again is a Principle which other Interpreters have not at all regarded whence it is that they confound the viols and make either all or almost all of them to be poured out in the same Period 3. Principle The viol does differ from the plague 3. The third Principle That to every Period or viol a plague is annexed but we must distinguish between the viol and the plague The viol signifies the period of time the plague signifies the judgement of God which falls out during the period 'T is true that the plagues are not alwayes restrained unto the duration of the viol or of the Period marked by the viol but sometimes do reach both before and after it the reason of which we will give hereafter This again is a Principle which hath not at all been taken notice of the viols and plagues have been confounded by Interpreters as if they were one and the same thing and almost all of them have been placed in the same time 4. Principle Nothing but evil is denoted by the viols never any good 4. The fourth Principle That all that is denoted and signified by these viols is evil to be inflicted on the Antichristian Kingdom So that nothing but Judgements can be found in them But it must be considered that these Judgements do fall sometimes upon the head of the Antichristian Kingdom alone and sometimes upon the body alone and sometimes upon both together And we must not imagine that all those plagues do denote evil or mischief unto Antichrist i. e. the head of the Antichristian Kingdom This again is a Principle which hath not been minded for men have imagined that every one of these seven viols must be fatal to the power of the Beast 5 Principle The Antichristian Empire is represented under an Emblem of the systeme of the World. 5. The fifth Principle That the Antichristian Kingdom is here represented under a figure drawn from the Systeme of the World Hence it is that mention is made of the Earth of the Sea of Rivers of the Sun. The Earth is the entire Globe composed of Land and Water and this signifies the whole mass of the Antichristian World both the head and the members The Sea and the Rivers signify the people according to the constant style of the Prophets But the people distinguisht from their head and soveraign the Sun denotes the soveraign of this Kingdom as will be made out clearly in the sequel All these Principles in my judgement are clear and whoever will examine them well by the Text and the Commentaries annexed will not doubt of their truth Let us see how ill the modern Interpreters have followed them Seven Interpretations of the first plague The first Plague is a noysom and grievous sore upon the men that had the mark of the Beast 1. Forbes understands by this the filthiness of the Clergy their pride covetousness and other vices but he does not restrain this to any period affirming that this corruption is to be considered as taking in or reaching unto the whole duration of the Antichristian Empire 2. Cocceius understands this of the schisms and divisions and disputes which have been and still continue in the Popedom Instances disputes about Images about the single life of the Clergy about Investitures the several schisms of Popes the grand schisme of the West the disputes between the Scotists and Thomists the quarrels about the Authority of the Pope So that according to him this plague hath lasted near a thousand years i. e. ever since the contentions betwixt the Iconoclasts and the Iconolatres or Patrons of Image-worship untill our times It is not possible that a man should be more mistaken then this Author and I wonder that an Author who had so much studied Prophecies should not perceive that the viols signify here Periods and different times and consequently that we must not make run the same plague to all these times Besides there is no exactness in this conception nor any agreement between divisions and a noysome sore 3. Joseph Mede takes this noysome sore to be the fury and rage with which the papists were seised upon the preaching of the Waldenses 4. Dr. More follows him in this as almost in all other things 5. De Launay also will have it to be that vexation of Spirit which the subjects of Antichrist must feel when they shall see his compleat ruin 6. Testard is of the same opinion 7. James Durrham a Scotish Minister at Glascow asserts that the Earth in this first plague is the Authority of the Pope and that this noysome sore signifies the diminution which that Authority hath suffer'd by the Reformation Seven Interpretations of the second plague The second Plague is The sea turned into blood and the fishes dying in the sea One would think that Authors have with earnestness strove who should keep farthest from the very likeness of truth in this matter 1. According to Forbes this sea turned into blood is the universal reproach under which the worship of Popery is fallen together with its doctrines for instance its worship of Images its Purgatory its sacrifice of the Mass c. Behold what an agreement there is between this and a sea of blood 2. Cocceius asserts that this sea signifies the reduction of the Lombards Hungarians Poles Bohemians Vandals Goths Danes Saxons Franks c. in a word of all the Western
pass over the Archipel and the Bosphorus they went still forward untill the year 1526. when they ceased to gain ground upon the West Now 't was at this time that the body of the papal Laws styl'd the Canon Law was compleated the Clementines had been publisht by John XXII about the year 1320. he likewise publisht the Extravagants But the Common or the common Extravagants appeared not nor were compiled till the end of the fifteenth Century So that 't is properly in this sixth period of the viols that this work of darkness was wholly finisht Now 't is natural when something is to be brought upon a great Theatre that it may be shown to stay till it be finisht and therefore the Prophet ought not to speak sooner of these papal Laws Second reason The 15th Censury was an Age of Excommunications Besides there never had been any age or time wherein there were more Armageddons Anathema's and Excommunications then in this period The Popes at Rome and Avignon did excommunicate one another Within this period the Councils of Pisa Constance Basil Florence and the Lateran under Julius II. and Leo X. were held and it s was nothing but anathema's excommunications canons decisions censures either against Popes or pretended hereticks as the Wickliffites Bohemians Taborites and lastly against Luther c. Lastly these spirits are most fitly placed under the period of the sixth viol because then the Bulls Third Reason decisions decrees of the Church of Rome gathered the Kings of the Earth to battel against the Bohemians And Zisca having gain'd such signal victories that they might well be called the battels of the great day of God Almighty a Croisade was publisht against him and all those who stood for the Truth in Bohemia and the neighbouring Countries CHAP. X. The seventh plague is the preaching of Luther and other Reformers by which the Latin Church was divided into three parts Papists Lutherans and Reformed ANd thus behold we are come to the seventh and last viol V. 17. And the seventh Angel pour'd out his viol into the air and there came a great voyce out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne saying It is done It is done does not signify the final ruin of Antichrist This expression It is done hath deceived all the Interpreters who have confounded this moment or space of time with that of the seventh trumpet when it must be proclaim'd It is done the Kingdoms are brought under our Lord Jesus Christ The great Babylon is wholly destroyed c. They have believed that this expression It is done signified the total destruction of the Antichristian Kingdom at that very moment But certainly they are mistaken It is done is nothing else but It is done with the viols The viols comprehend and signify periods of some length this is the last this is the last period of the Antichristian Kingdom and which shall comprehend its total ruin We have remarkt already that every period contained in every viol took in a considerable space of time a hundred a hundred and forty a hundred and fifty years and more Therefore there is no reason not to allow some length of time to this seventh viol it ought to have as much as least as the others yea more because 't is the last and consequently it must have about two hundred years allowed to it And this is the period that comprehends the total ruin of Antichrist which ruin as we shall see anon is divided into two parts the harvest and the vintage the harvest hath been in the age last past the vintage must be at the end of this and the beginning of the next age This last viol begins exactly at the preaching of Luther and as an hour-glass must run untill the total destruction of popery And I hope none will doubt of this when we shall have made out how exactly all that follows in the Prophecy agrees with the times and things which have been seen since the Reformation This seventh viol is pour'd not upon the Earth or the Sea or the Sun or the Seat of the Beast as the others were but on the air which is the seat of the voyce of sounds and thunders and we shall presently give you the reasons V. 18. And there were voyces and thunders and lightnings and there was a great Earthquake such as was not since men were upon the Earth so mighty an Earthquake and so great These voyces The seventh viol raiseth Preachers and voyces for the ruin of Antichrist these lightnings and these thunders are the voyces of Preachers who labour'd in Reforming the Church we shall afterward see that there are three ways of Reforming the Church the way of Inspiration the way of Authority the way of Preaching this last is signified by voyces and thunders And 't was this way that God used to reform the Church in the last age These voyces glittered like lightnings and passed with a prodigious swiftness from one end of the Antichristian Kingdom to the other All men saw them and would see them men studied Religion The very Grandees of the World persons who despise knowledge were concerned in these affairs Henry VIII wrote a book against Luther Charles the fifth made Laws about Religion now on the account of these lightnings i.e. the voyces of Preachers this seventh viol is said to be poured on the air for the air is the seat and vehicle of the voyce There was a great Earthquake In the Prophetick style this signifies a change of the face of the World the Earth plainly signifies here the frame and face of the Antichristian Kingdom We have already seen and shall afterward have occasion to see that Earthquakes in the figurative style of the Prophets always signify a change of the face of the World because Earthquakes do overturn not only Cities but Mountains Forrests hilly Countries and Vallies they set Mountains where Vallies stood and Vallies where Mountains stood in so much that the face of a whole Country is changed Now all know what a change the reformation made in the face of popery It took away from it at one clap several Kingdoms and a great number of Soveraign States And this Earthquake i. e. this change of affairs was so great that there had not been such since men were upon the Earth This may be truly spoken without any exaggeration For we must observe that this last period comprehending the harvest and the vintage the first and last destruction of Antichrist 't is undoubted that the face of the World was never so changed as it shall be changed after the total ruin of Antichrist the time of the first establishing of Christianity not excepted For at that time there were great numbers of men converted up and down among the Nations But at the time we speak of all the Nations and whole Nations shall submit themselves to the Faith. And thus this period shall make greater changes in the World then
were ever seen Nay if we should interpret these changes which ought to happen onely by those which fell out in the last age surely we may say that never were greater and more surprizing alterations The Earthquake signifies the great change of the world by the Reformation In less then twenty or thirty years a great part of the Christian World was Reformed And at the same time there were dreadfull wars troubles and sheddings of blood in Germany in Flanders in Holland in England and in France as every body knows V. 19. And the great City was divided into three parts Behold something which does furnish us with a plain Character of this last period and of this last viol These words have not hitherto been understood but I perswade my self that it will be judged that they can be understood We have already said and shall hereafter prove it that the great City is not Rome strictly taken but Rome made up and joyn'd with its whole Empire In a word this City is the Antichristian Kingdom otherwise called the Latin Church A remarliable prediction of the division of the Latin Church into three principal parts Papists Lutherans and Reformed This City upon the pouring out of the seventh viol was to be divided into three parts This is exactly come to pass at the preaching of the Reformers the Antichristian Kingdom was divided into three one part remain'd with Antichrist one part did separate from him under the name of the Ausburg Confession A third part did separate under the Confession of those who are barely styled the Reformed Sweden Denmark and a great part of Germany make the second part England the Vnited Provinces the reformed part of France a part of Germany make the third part These are the three grand parts that divide the Western Church which is the great City Let this be attentively minded for I affirm that this passage does as it were speak with a tongue and is able alone to convince that our System of the seven plagues is a most undoubted truth This division of the great City into three parts so clearly points out the three Communions of the Latin Church that to deny it can proceed onely from unreasonable passion and opiniatrety And if we have hit upon the truth in this point we have done so in all for if this Character of the seventh plague is true and is already accomplisht all the other plagues are also accomplisht and if they are accomplisht I do boldly affirm they cannot be apply'd to any other events then those to which we have apply'd them And it must not be hoped that to obscure this evidence a fourth part may be made viz. the Church of England because of the controversies about Church government for the Church of England never refused to receive other Reformed ones into her Communion nor have these again ever refused to receive her into theirs We have alway professed the same Religion with the Church of England on the account of the perfect agreement of our Doctrine notwithstanding the difference of discipline and government When as the Lutherans have constantly refused to receive the Reformed into their Communion There is among the Lutherans themselves a difference in point of government Sweden hath Bishops Denmark hath none at least not such Bishops as those of Sweden and England and nevertheless this makes not a different Sect. There is also the same difference among the Reformed on this side the Sea for the Superintendants who are in many Reformed Churches of Germany are real Bishops and notwithstanding the Reformed are not divided one from another Thus in truth there are but three grand parts into which the Latin Church is divided i. e. Papists Lutherans and Reformed as they are called by one another or Catholiks Reformed Evangelici as they style themselves And the Cities of the Nations fell i. e. they fell with respect to Popery they departed out of the Antichristian Kingdom in the same sense that in the eleventh Chapter 't is said that the tenth part of the City fell And great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath These words let us see that the expression It is done did not signify the very point of the final ruin of the Antichristian Kingdom For behold after 't was said It is done Babylon comes in remembrance before God to give her the cup. Now these expressions signify both the future and the present time And indeed 't is within the duration of this period that God will remember Babylon to give her the last cup of his wrath And observe it that the great Babylon comes not in remembrance before God to give her the cup i. e. the last cup of her ruin till after her dividing into three parts This division is not her total ruin but after that she shall be thus divided into Papists Lutherans and Calvinists then God will prepare to give her the last cup of his wrath Which signifies that the division of the Latin Church into three parts must continue untill the compleat ruin of popery V. 20. And every Island fled away and the mountains were not found This is nothing but a Paraphrase and a description of the Earthquake which he had spoken of a little before for these are the effects of Earthquakes where mountains once stood they are not to be seen new Islands are produced and the old ones are often swallowed up But yet if any will interpret Islands to signify lesser States and Mountains great ones I do not contradict it for 't is really true that the Reformation hath already taken away from the Popedom and shall yet take away all States both small and great V. 21. And there fell upon men a great hail out of Heaven i. e. upon the Subjects of Antichrist this signifies the judgments of God which fall upon this Kingdom and these judgements are well known for it hath suffered of all kinds wars famines pestilences mortalities And men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail The Subjects of the Popedom have not hitherto been converted by all these chastisements but have always stuck firm to the Kingdom and Seat of the Beast whose head is cover'd with names of blasphemies The seven hour-glasses being run out the Kingdom of Autichrist must be at its end This is the seventh and last viol or hour-glass which thanks be to God will in a little time be run out now we have that which we seek namely an evidence that the Antichristian Kingdom is near its end We need not longer wait for the accomplishment either of all the seven plagues as some of our Interpreters say or of some of the seven plagues as others say It is done all is accomplisht we are in the last period of the seven yea we are at the end of the seventh period I am informed that since the first Edition of this work some
persons that they might be taken notice of will yet affirm that not so much as one of these seven plagues is hitherto come to pass This singularity is neither too edifying nor too comfortable I earnestly entreat them to lay aside the desire of contradicting and to consider without prejudice these two things First that in the whole explication of this 16th Chapter there is not the least forced application the Emblems which the Prophet makes use of do exactly resemble the events set down in History The second that in the application of these seven plagues unto the events every thing does hang together no part of this System contradicts another This being supposed I entreat them to consider if chance can do this and hath ever done it chance may hit right in some points but never does so in all I say again that we are at the end of the seventh period for it ought to be well observed that there is not one viol which distinct and seperated from others lasts 200 years the greatest part does not come near that number This hath already lasted 170 years it cannot last much longer 'T is true the papal authority whose beams so scorched men under the fourth viol lasted above 200 years but this was because it was inlayd or jointed in those that preceded and those that followed And its particular strict period must be reckon'd to be onely 108 years which begun at the year 1270 when the Croisades ended and continued untill the grand Schisme which happen'd in the year 1378. for then began the diminishing of the papal authority and the darkning of the Kingdom of the Beast The seventh viol hath already lasted longer then any of the rest and 't is probable that it must last about 200 years which none of the others hath done but we shall see the reason of this in the next Chapter where we shall shew that this seventh period is it self divided into three other periods the harvest the vintage and the time that is betwixt the harvest and the vintage The harvest is already past the time betwixt the harvest and the vintage is almost expired we are approaching to the vintage and at this day ought to say Come Lord Jesus come but within a little while we shall say He is come he is come CHAP. XI The explication of the 14th Chapter The vision of the harvest and the vintage the harvest of the Reformation made in the age last past the vintage is the Reformation which shall be made this present age THe fourteenth Chapter is the second of those wherein we find the circumstances of the fall of the Babylonian Kingdom In the beginning of the Chapter we find the 140 thousand marked ones who are the same with the two witnesses whom we shall discourse of hereafter the small number of faithful ones whom God preserved in spiritual Babylon and who did not partake of her Idolatries We find them I say who sing a song which none was able to learn but they i. e. they tast peculiar joyes and pleasures which the Antichristian Christians were notable to taste In the following verses an Angelappears flying in the midst of heaven Chap. 14.6 having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people This is the preparative unto that preaching of the Gospel which must be made to all Nations when the Antichristian Kingdom shall be ablosht This preaching is said to be of the everlasting Gospel because it shall last untill the end of the world All Nations shall be converted and their purity shall suffer no alteration as long as the world shall last And to signify that the Kingdom of Antichrist shall fall through the preaching of this everlasting Gospel immediately after another Angel cryes Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City Which proves that in the vision that follows the harvest and the vintage are the two parts of the fall of the Babylonian Kingdom The persecution of the Waldenses Albigenses foretold in the 14th Chap. vers 9.10 11. In the third place we have in this Chapter an Angle who denounces the terrible judgments of God that must fall on those who worship the Beast and his image and receive his mark in their foreheads or in their hands And at the same time by these words here is the patience of the Saints is signified a sore persecution that must go before the fall of Antichrist not that persecution which we suffer at this day and which must be the last but that which the Church endured in the Waldenses the Albigenses the Bohemians c. For this is the persecution which happen'd before the Reformation of the last age because the fall of Babylon which is spoken of in this Chapter begins by the Reformation made in the last age Therefore the persecution here spoken of must be that which went before our Reformation but there is no other besides that against the poor Waldenses which lasted a full 100 years before the preaching of Luther All these things are onely a preparative unto the last vision of this Chapter which contains a new prediction of the fall of Antichrist with new circumstances and 't is this V. 14. And I lookt and behold a white could and upon the cloud one sate like unto the son of man having on his head a golden crown and in his hand a sharp sickle V. 15. And another Angel came out of the Temple crying with a loud voyce to him that sate on the cloud Thrust in thy sickle and reap for the time is come for thee to reap for the harvest of the earth is ripe V. 16. And he that sate on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped V. 17. And another Angel came out of the Temple which is in Heaven he also having a sharp sickle V. 18. And another Angel came out from the Altar which had power over fire and cryed with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle saying Thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth for her grapes are fully ripe V. 19. And the Angel thrust in his sickle into the earth and gather'd the vine of the earth and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God. V. 20. And the wine-press was trodden without the city and blood came out of the wine-press even unto the horse bridles by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs A distinction of circumstances and substance in this vision In this vision there are circumstances and substance the circumstances are these the Angel who sits on a white cloud and his cloathing another Angel who bids him thrust in his sickle another Angel who appears likewise having asickle the ripeness of the corn and grapes the wine-press of the wrath of God the blood that flows out by the space of 1600 furlongs These I
whether the Antichristian Kingdom shall be destroy'd by sword fire and bloodshed I see nothing in the whole Revelation which obliges us to believe so for though in this and several other passages the ruin of popery is painted out in expressions borrowed from war slaughter and bloodshed yea in the most terrible and high expressions nevertheless this may very well be understood figuratively for the destruction of Paganisme is painted out in almost the same expressions by the Prophets though it was brought to pass without bloodshed As the Kingdom of the Beast was formed without war by the sottish complaisance of the Kings of the Earth who suffered their power to be snatcht from them or rather did voluntarily surrender it so this Antichristian Kingdom may perish without weapon by a word of two Letters The Princes of the Earth need onely say NO and the tyranny of Antichrist will fall to the ground And as for Idolatry which is the other part of Antichristianism the word and grace of God must destroy it Nevertheless I am willing to submit to the general consent of Interpreters of both Communions who unanimously hold that in the ruin of the Antichristian Kingdom there shall be a great effusion of blood and that Babylon the capital City of that Kingdom shall be laid in ashes I am willing therefore to believe that there shall be some bloodshed not for any passages in the Revelation but for these two Reasons Rome must be miserably destroyed 1. The first that 't is not probable that the Pope and his Partisans will yield without resistance they will stand out and in defending themselves will attaque in which attaque they shall perish 2. The second it seems agreeable to the Divine justice that the City of Rome that for two thousand years is the Mistress of the World the tyrant of the universe which hath shed so much blood and has bin delug'd with so many impurities should be overwhelmed and the World be avenged Ierusalem who was not guilty of such excess is ruined by a dreadful destiny 'T is not probable that God makes ready a less destruction for the City of Rome Here the last lacking of Rome is fore-told If this be so this passage without doubt is one of those that foretell this bloody Tragedy The City which is spoken of here without the City must be Rome But we have said before and shall hereafter prove that this word ought to be taken only for Rome in conjunction with her Empire Here 't is Rome alone and not her Empire 'T is true but the reason is that when she shall be laid waste in the manner that is mention'd here she shall have no more any Empire all her Provinces shall be revolted she shall be left alone of her whole party so that in this place she ought to appear all alone And the City cannot signify any more then the City of Rome because she shall have no more any dependent Provinces excepting that which is called the patrimony of St. Peter which Joseph Mede believes is meant by these thousand six hundred furlongs For he saith that the Countrey that reaches from the walls of Rome unto the river Po contains 200 Italian miles which make exactly 1600 furlongs If this conjecture be true as 't is probable this signifies that all the forces which the Pope shall be able to get together shall be wholly destroy'd without the City i. e. without Rome in that part of the Country which lyes betwixt Rome and the River Po. CHAP. XII The explication of that part of the eleventh Chapter where the last persecution made by Antichrist is fore-told which is the present persecution in France The death of the two witnesses who shall not be buried by means of the succour brought by the enemies of France THe first Chapter in the Revelation where the ruin of Antichristianism is fore-fold is the eleventh We passed over it for the reasons above mention'd We come again to it at present and place it the last that we may place it according to the order of events We have observed that there is found in it an Epitome or short draught of the whole History of the Church from the resurrection of Jesus Christ untill his coming into the World to erect his Kingdom there The pure Church of the three first ages is hid under these words measure the Temple and the Altar and those that worship therein And the corrupted Antichristian one under the Gentiles who must tread under foot the holy City forty and two months That is the outward Court but the Court that is without the Temple leave out and measure it not for it is given to the Gentiles This outward Court as Vsher hath divinely explain'd it in his Prophecy signifies Christians in appearance whose Religion consists in the performance of some external duties of Christianiâ—y without having the inward life or the true Faith which should unite them to Jesus Christ But those who worship in the Temple and before the Altar are those who sincerely worship God in spirit and truth whose souls are his Temples in which he is adored and honoured with the most inward thoughts of their hearts and who offer unto him a constant sacrifice not onely of their lusts but of their whole selves Thus this holy man speaks and I confess that I see in his words the Character of the spirit of God. These are the true worshippers whom God does measure and whom he makes account of and these are those who possessed the Church during the three or four first ages But afterward the Church became an outward Court was filled with feigned worshippers who made Christianity to consist in an appearance of piety and in external Ceremonies Then God pronounc'd concerning this Court let it be given to the Gentiles for forty and two moneths Then Paganism Idolatry the worship of subordinate Gods Mediators and a thousand heathenish Ceremonies were introduced into Christianity And this outward Court these formal outside worshippers were given up to a spirit of error and superstition to begin Antichristianism and make it continue twelve hundred and sixty years We have also in this Chapter the Church under the Cross persecuted and hid in Babylon in the two Witnesses who prophesied cloathed in sackcloth a thousand two hundred and sixty days We have in it the sound of the last Trumpet and the thousand years reign of Jesus Christ and the Church For at the sound of the seventh Trumpet the Kingdoms of the Earch become Gods and his Christs Lastly we have in it a remarkable event which must come to pass at the end of the reign of Antichristian popery and 't is expressed in these terms V. 7. And when they shall have finisht their testimony the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them V. 8. And their dead bodies shall lye in the street of the great City
which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified V. 9. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three dayes and a half and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put into graves V. 10. And they that dwell upon the Earth shall rejoyce over them and make merry and send gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the Earth V. 11. And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entred into them and they stood upon their feet and great fear fell upon them which saw them V. 12. And they heard a great voyce from heaven saying unto them Come up hither and they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them V. 13. And the same hour was there a great earthquake and the tenth part of the City fell and in the earth-quake were slain of men seven thousand and the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to God. The Witnesses who prophecy cloathed in sackcloth are the faithful who preach under the Cross As to what concerns these two witnesses i.e. what is signified by them I have not changed my opinion since I wrote the book intitled Lawfull prejudices against popery Though as to all the rest the studious attention which I have used in reading these Prophecies hath given me quite different apprehensions I do therefore still believe that these two Witnesses who must prophesy 1260 days cloathed in sackcloth are the small number of the faithfull who during the reign of Antichristianism must keep themselves from its corruption and condemn its idolatries and tyranny God calls them witnesses because these are they who bore witness to the Truth which but for them would have been forgotten They prophesy cloathed in sackcloth i. e. they preach under the Cross For we must well observe that these two Phrases one used in our language the other in that of the Holy Ghost to prophesy cloathed in sackcloth and to preach under the Cross are absolutely of the same signification He makes them onely two in number to express that those faithfull who shall preserve themselves from the corruption of Idolatry shall be but a very small number And indeed experience hath too much verified this prediction Nevertheless he makes them two in number to signify that however small the number of true Christians is it shall notwithstanding be great enough to support the Truth and keep it from falling for in the mouth of two witnesses every word shall be establisht How these witnesses have power to change water into blood and shut up heaven v. 6. God ascribes to these two witnesses power to shut Heaven that it rain not in the dayes of their prophesy and power over waters to turn them into blood and to smite the Earth with all plagues as often as they will. Joseph Mede gives a very ingenious reason of this which I believe is very solid viz. That the Holy Ghost borrows his Emblems from the histories of the Old Testament and alludes unto several Pairs of eminent witnesses which God raised up at several times as Aaron and Moses at the coming out of Egypt Joshua and Caleb at the conquering of the promised Land Elijah and Elisha at the time of the grand Schism of the ten tribes Zerubbabel and Jehoshua at the return from the captivity Among these witnesses Elijah and Elisha had power to shut Heaven to hinder rain for three years and to make fire come down from Heaven Moses and Aaron turn'd the waters of Egypt into blood Joshua and Caleb brought the people of Israel into the Land of Canaan and smote the ancient Inhabitants with a sore plague To this the Holy Ghost alludes But we must further add that God ascribes to these witnesses 1. The shutting of Heaven that rain no in the days of their prophecy to signify that during the 1260 years of their Prophecy and of the reign of Antichrist there should be a great drought of grace and a barreness of virtues and gifts in the Church 2. The turning of waters into blood and the smiting of the Earth with all plagues Because all the heavy judgements of God that during the course of these 1260 years came upon the Antichristian Church were sent on the account of these two witnesses and to punish oppression under which it held both the Truth and those who were willing to profess it Here is fore-told a last persecution that must happen before the end of Antichrists reign The seven verses which we even now have read concerning the persecution which these two witnesses must suffer and the consequent of that persecution contain a grand event which must come to pass before the last fall of the Antichristian Kingdom And 't is one of the principal circumstances of this fall First we must observe the circumstance of time and when they shall have finish their testimony Mark this testimony must last a thousand two hundred and sixty days My two witnesses shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days cloathed in sackcloth Now these thousand two hundred sixty days of the prophesying of the witnesses are the forty two moneths of the Antichristian reign for forty two moneths make exactly 1260 days All the World is agreed that these are the three years and a half of the reign of Antichrist and that Antichrist and these two witnesses are absolutely and exactly contempories 'T is therefore the very same as if the Holy Ghost had said And when the Beast or the man of sin shall have finisht his reign of 1260 years it shall make war against the two witnesses This is therefore a persecution of Antichrist against the faithfull and a persecution that must happen before the end of Antichrists reign These words when they shall have finisht must not be understood as if the Holy Ghost would say when the 1260 years shall be finisht For after the 1260 years are finisht there can be no persecution seeing the Beast shall have lost his power So that this persecution must begin and end within the 1260 years but yet at the end of them 't is the ordinary custome not only of Scripture but of all men to say that something comes to pass when this or that is finisht because it happens when that things is finishing and very near its end This is therefore the last persecution of Antichrist against the Church This persecution hath its Characters 1. It must continue a long time Characters of the last persecution for 't is compared to a war The Beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them 2. This war or persecution must end in a victory over the two witnesses and shall overcome them and kill them Mark that God does not reckon the death and martyrdom which the faithfull suffer for the Truth as a victory that the Devil gains over them on the
how can it enter into any mans head that dead men can prophesy And who sees not that their death does imply a cessation and interruption of their testimony But what need is there to reason about this thing when the Text saith expresly and in plain words that the death of the Witnesses must not happen untill after their prophesying and their witness-bearing 1260 days And I will give power to my two witnesses and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days cloathed in sackcloth And when they shall have finish'd their testimony the Beast c. shall kill them And their bodies shall lye dead three days and a half There needs no commentary to let us see that here is spoken of a persecution that must happen at the end of the 1260 years in which the faithful who dwell within the bounds of the Babylonian Kingdom must be brought to an extremity that may be called death We are in my opinion certainly in this persecution which must extinguish the true Religion for three years and a half if we will reckon these three years and a half from the abrogating of the Edict of Nantes in the moneth of October 1685. the deliverance of the Church will fall out in the year 1689 and this is absolutely the conjecture of Monsieur du Moulin in his Accomplishment of Prophecies he hopes that the persecution of the Church by the Antichristian party shall cease in the year 1689. A conjecture of M. du Moulin which may prove true tho built upon false foundations If this should happen it would be a purely casual event for the foundation on which he builds is altogether void of solidity he takes these three days and a half for six hundred and third years He supposeth that the whole duration of Antichrists reign which is 1260 years is considered as one week now a week is seven days the half of seven days is three days and a half and if this signifies the half of 1260 years it is 630 years He supposeth therefore that the Holy Ghost intended to say that the persecution made by Antichrist shall last the half of his reign After this he finds that the first persecution for the sake of Religion was that which was rais'd against Berenger in the eleventh Age on the account of his sentiment concerning the real presence in the year 1059. Add to 1059 the number 630 this makes 1689 in which year all persecution must cease so as never to begin again though in his opinion Antichrists Kingdom and the Papacy must continue still after this above 300 years for he makes them last untill the year 2015. 'T is plain his suppositions destroy themselves or are not strong First 't is not true that the first persecution on the account of Religion was that which the Popes rais'd against Berenger that which was rais'd by the Image-worshippers against those whom they call'd Iconoclasts or Image-breakers was more cruel and happened a long while before Again what probability that the Popedom can reign or subsist 326 years without persecuting the true Christians as this hypothesis supposeth Besides what is meant by that which is said that the Witnesses after three years and a half must ascend into heaven After the year 1689. the faithfull shall reign and be exalted and notwithstanding the Popedom shall last still 326 years these things are incompatible Lastly to take three years and a half for 630 years is a thing that hath no example in all the Prophecies The persecution may cease in the year 1689. Nevertheless after all this 't is not wholly improbable that the persecution may cease in the year 1689. but this depends upon reasons much differing from those now mentioned For God if he pleaseth may reckon the three years and a half of the death of the Witnesses from the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes made in the year 1685. in the moneth of October We know not from what time God will reckon the three years and a half but we have no certainty that God will do so Who knows whether God will not extinguish the Reformation in all the Countries where the Dominion of France does or shall reach Without doubt the Protestant Religion will be extinguisht in Strasburg which depends upon France and in other places But this not being as yet done the death of the Witnesses in the reckoning of God perhaps must not begin till the time in which this work shall be finished The Court of France desires also to extinguish the Protestant Religion in the Vallies of Piedmont which are under the Duke of Savoy and this is now a doing France making herself the executioner of those thundring Arrests which she had procured at the Court of the Duke which perhaps is the most singular example of the spirit of persecution which was ever seen All other persecutors have been content to persecute their own Subjects or Countrey-men But behold persons who after they have reduced the Subjects of their own King to the utmost extremities go and make themselves the Hangmen Murtherers of the Subjects of Forreign Princes If the three years and a half of the death of the Witnesses must be reckon'd from the destruction of these Waldenses here is one years delay of the deliverance of the French Churches Who knows whether there be not other Countries which we do not know or are not willing to name in which the Profession of the Truth must be extinguisht before we enter upon the three years of the death of the Witnesses Who knows if God will not reckon these three years and a half from the time in which there shall not be so much as one in France who stands firm and is not fallen We know not whether such a misery must come tho I hope it shall not There are as yet in France more then a hundred thousand persons who either have not signed or have repented after their signing If all these must fall off there is yet a long time to tarry Lastly who knows whether God will not begin to reckon the three years and a half untill other Princes have wholly extinguisht the Reformation in their Dominions 'T is therefore rashness to affirm that deliverance must exactly come in such a year But that which I am perswaded of and believe that others may be perswaded of without rashness is that we are now in the last persecution that this persecution shall be most effectual as it is the most terrible that was even see that the Witnesses of the truth that is to say all preaching of the purity of the Gospel under the Cross and under popish Princes will shortly be suppressed that from that time the three years and a half must be reckon'd at the end of which we shall see come to pass the most wonderful events of our days Many now alive shall without doubt see them for I believe the thing is very near at hand
elevation of Elijah and of Jesus Christ who were lift up above the clouds And their enemies beheld them Popery shall not as yet be destroy'd in France when this shall happen The Priests the Clergy and Monks shall be spectators of this great work But the end of popery in France shall come quickly after For the same hour-there was a great Earthquake mark the same hour he saith not and after as he had said to express a space of time between the resurrection of the witnesses and their ascending up even to the Throne But he saith the same hour to signisy that assoon as the Reformation shall be establisht by a solemn Edict of the Prince as by a great voyce from heaven the total destruction of popery shall happen as we are about to shew And the same hour there was a great Earthquake I will not spend time upon the signification of this representation an Earthquake For 't is known by all who are versed in the Prophets See Isa 170 13. and 24.19 20. Jer. 4.24 and 49 20. that in the Prophetick style an Earthquake signifies a great commotion of Nations that must change the face of the World because Earthquakes do overturn Cities Mountains and wholly change the face of a Countrey make Valleys where there were Mountains and Hills where there were Valleys and Lakes which were dry Land before and deserts of Countries which were inhabited so that 't is certain that according to this Prophesy in a very few years the face of the Antichristian Kingdom shall be changed but not every where It shall be only in the tenth part of the City which shall fall by this Earthquake The City signifies the Roman Antichristian Empire and not Rome alone And the tenth part of the City fell This is a passage where Interpreters have been short sighted not excepting our Joseph Mede who often hath so quick a sight To understand this we must first know what the City is Joseph Mede is mistaken together with all the rest when he understands this to mean precisely the City of Rome 'T is a truth which must be held as certain being one of the keys of the Revelation that the City the great City signifies in this book not Rome alone but Rome in conjunction with its Empire The name of this great City is Babylon Now 't is clear that Babylon is the whole Babylonian Kingdom Come out of Babylon my people 'T is not from the City of Rome that the Holy Ghost invites his Elect to come out 't is from the Church of Rome from the Babylonian Empire This passage alone together with that in this eleventh Chapter v. 8 And their dead bodies shall lye in the street of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was cruicified are enough to prove that the Babylonian City is not Rome alone Our Lord was not crucified in Rome and if we should here take crucifying in a figurative sense for the crucifying of the Religion of Jesus Christ this hath been sacrificed at Rome no more than in other places of the Latin Church In the 14th Chapter the Holy Ghost describes the fall of this City of Babylon Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City and in the same vision he fore-tells the ruin of the Antichristian Empire under the Metaphors of an harvest and a vintage which proves that this City is nothing else but the intire Kingdom of Babylon In the 18th Chapter the Prophet makes a long description of the desolations of this City under the Metaphors of a City of Merchandise which had a great traffick and was fill'd with pleasures and delightfull things Now 't is certain that the shamefull simony the wicked pleasures of the Papacy have not reigned less in the Provinces of the Babylonian Kingdom than in the Capital City from whence 't is again evident that the City signifies the whole Antichristian State. Lastly the constant opposition between the Holy City and the great City proves that the City includes the whole Antichristian Church even as the Holy City signifies the whole Christian Church De Launay hath confessed this in the eleventh Chapter of the Revelation and in the 16th but no exception is to be made every where the City and the great City Babylon signifies the intire Kingdom of the Papacy And the reason of this is evident old Rome made her whole Empire to be one only City by means of that right of citizenship which she bestowed on all who were of some considerable quality though they dwelt in the Provinces The citizens of Rome dwelt in all Countries now where the citizens of a City dwell there is the City this made Rutilius say Dumque offers victis proprij consortia juris Vrbem fecisti quod prius Orbis erat Thus it goes exactly in the Church of Rome which hath re-establisht the Roman Empire All those who are members of this Church are citizens of her capital City The Church of Rome is but one City Persons of all Nations are admitted into her Senate or Colledge of Cardinals The Tribunal which is called the Rota is constituted of Councellors taken out of all the Provinces which pay subjection to Rome Every Forreigner may come to be a Cardinal and every Cardinal may come to be Pope Therefore there are properly no Forreigners in that State no Papist is a Forreigner to the Church of Rome and that which they call the holy See. That which hath deceived Interpreters v. 9 1â— is the 17th Chapter where the City is called the Woman which sitteth on seven Mountains and that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth This say they is the City of Rome and the Papists themselves do grant it and without doubt 't is Rome and we have above proved it but 't is Rome conjointly with her Empire Babylon signifies the whole Antichristian Empire and this Antichristian Empire is said to sit upon seven Mountains and to rule over the Kings of the Earth Rome must always be considered together with her Empire because this is true of its Capital City Nothing is more ordinary not to add that 't is constantly used than to denote a whole Kingdom by the ruling City Thus men always spoke of Rome Rome hath conquered the Nations Rome hath enlarged her Empire to the end of the World this signifies that the Roman Empire hath subdued all Nations and extended its bounds even to the utmost parts of the Earth The tenth part of the City is one of the ten Kingdoms that make up the Empire of the Papacy Chap. 17.12 13. This being supposed and proved that the City is the whole Babylonian and Antichristian Empire it must be remembred that this Empire of Antichrist is made up of ten Kingdoms and ten Kings who must give their power to the beast The ten horns which thou sawest are ten Kings These have one mind and shall give their power unto the
of the Truth shall be wholly suppressed but the Truth it self shall not be buryed nor layd in the grave nor forgotten 10. At the end of the three years and a half shall begin the third period of the seventh viol which the Holy Ghost calls the vintage This is the total ruin of Antichrists Kingdom and this period shall last 20 or 25 years 't is probable that it will begin about the year 1690 or a little while after 11. the first thing which shall be done in the third period of the seventh vial is the Fall of the tenth part of the City i. e. of the Kingdom of France which shall break with the Kourt of Rome and wholly change the face of Religion in that Kingdom This is the first action of the vintage 12. The Beast and the false Prophet the Pope and his Agents shall rally all their forces but God shall muster all his together and give the last blow to Popery then the Beast and the false Prophet shall be thrown into the lake and plunged into the bottomless pit Babylon shall wholly fall and it shall be said she is fallen she is fallen CHAP. XV. The Reason why in this work we speak of some things so positively The linking together of our Principles suffers us not to doubt that we now are at the end of the reign of the papacy IN the first Edition of this work I did here finish what I had to say about those events past and future which concern the ruin of Antichrists Kingdom Second Editions have this advantage that they may be suted to the pallates of the Readers of whom a tryal hath been made And were it possible for me to do it I would gladly use this piece of prudence with respect to a Remarque which very many have made namely that in this discourse we speak over positively and which too much confidence concerning things which at the most ought to be propounded only as conjectures Perhaps some time or other men shall know the principal reason which made me speak in so confident a manner and with such tokens of assurance In the mean while I desire their attention to several things which I have to say There are some things that are propounded only as strong conjectures The first is That I do not speak so confidently as 't is believed concerning the most part of those things which are yet to come for example I say not down the exact time of the resurrection of the witnesses I do not say that it shall be exactly in such a year for I have declared and do still declare that I know not from what time God shall please to begin the reckoning of the three years and a half Not but that I strongly hope that God intends to begin it at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes but this doth not rise to a full assurance That which concerns the rising again of our Reformation by way of inspirations the approaching Reformation of France by way of Authority the fall of the tenth part of the City i. e. of France which shall forsake the papal Kingdom this I say seems to me to be more than a conjecture I confess it and if things should fall out otherwise I should be very much mistaken But however if the fall of popery should begin in some other place I would ingenously confess that I was deceived That the Countries Kingdoms and States which are not under the papacy ought not to be accounted the streets of the great City and that they must not feel an persecution seems to me more than probable and I believe it But notwithstanding I declare that I do not make it an Article of faith and if it should fall out that God should send his desolating scourge upon all the Reformed Churches in Europe without excepting the places where our Religion at this day bears sway I grant that men will have right to accuse me that I have guess'd wrong but not that I made rash conclusions And truly when I consider the horrible looseness which every where prevails I confess that I cannot but fear lest Good should throw all into the same furnace What is propounded as certain Behold therefore what I assert namely that this is the last persecution which Antichrist must raise against the Church and that we are near the end of the twelve hundred and sixty years which is the Period of his Empire and that in the beginning of the next age this Empire must see its end If I should be mistaken nine or ten years and that this Empire should instead of ending in the year 1710 or thereabouts run on untill the year 1720 I do not think that any could justly treat me as a false Prophet and accuse me of rashness Many will not forbear to judge me rash because I propound my conjectures about these things as certain conclusions To this I have a second thing to say That none hath reason to be offended that I am possessed with and perswaded of that which I think I evidently see and that I find the proofs of what I propound convincing to my self I should do ill to demand of others the same assurance and oblige them to entertain the same perswasion I declare the contrary in express terms I am well content as I have said that my Readers should account these assertions to be conjectures provided that I may have the liberty to believe what I see or what I believe I see in the writings of the Prophets Besides it seems that there is no great necessity of punishing me for this pretended rashness seeing if so be that I am mistaken Time is preparing for me a mortification sore enough Let us leave Providence to work it will discover who is guilty of rashness and fond credulity Our principles must be considered The last thing which I would say for my justification is that before any condemns me of rashness as to what I hold that we are at the end of the 1260 years of Antichrists reign my principles must be duely weighed and that not each apart as perhaps some have done but conjointly Behold the principles and their connexion 1. The first is that the papacy is the Antichristian Empire of which these Prophecies speak 2. That Idolatry is the principal Character of this Antichristian Empire 3. That this Empire of the Beast must begin when the Roman Empire was divided into ten Kingdoms and when that Heads the Emperors which was in the Apostle Pauls time was destroyed Here are three principles which I know not how any Protestant can doubt of We shall presently see whither they will lead us 4. My fourth principle is that I have hit the truth in the explication of the seven viols so that stinking ulcer in the first is the horrible corruption of the Church of Rome in the tenth Age. The Sea and rivers of blood in the two following plagues are the Butcheries acted
by the Croisades The encrease of the Sun's heat in the fourth plague is the encrease of the papal authority the Ecclipse and darkning of this Sun in the fifth plague is the grand Schism between Rome and Avignon the Kings of the East who pass over Euphrates in the sixth plague are the Turks who pass over the Bosphorus to invade the remainder of the Greek Empire and a part of that of the Latins and lastly the dividing of the great city into three parts in the seventh plague is the dividing of the Latin Church into three Communions Papists Lutherans and Reformed I lay down as a principle which I cannot doubt of that I have it the mark in the explication of these plagues But this 't is said seems rash to assert so confidently that which can only be a strong conjecture Men may object what they please against this exposition but I cannot recant it And I desire the World seriously to consider only these two things 1. That my explications very well agree with the words and Metaphors of the prophecy 2. That 't is impossible that chance should produce an explication so universally lucky It must be remembred what we said concerning the Epistles to the seven Churches on the question whether they are Prophetical We granted that there are some passages that agree well with the applications which are made but we observed that these applications are far from being universally true 't is therefore chance that produced those lucky agreements But if any one comes who shall make such a measured division of times and such a just application of these times and the events in them unto the Characters with which these seven Churches are marked so that nothing is defective then I shall remain perfectly satisfyed that this last Interpreter hath exactly hit the truth it will be no longer a conjecture Let me therefore be permitted to remain perswaded that I have hit the truth as to the seven plagues seeing they so perfectly agree with tho events which are past My fifth Principle is that I have not been less happy in hitting the true sense of the harvest and vintage in the fourteenth chapter A man must be blind if he sees not that these are the two parts of the fall of Babylon Babylon is fallen is fallen that great city and immediately after this fall is divided into harvest and vintage I cannot hinder my self from seeing that this signifies the first fall of Popery by a first Reformation which certainly is come to pass and the final fall of Popery by a second Reformation which must come to pass None can I think seriously consider the perfect agreement between the representations and the Original but be will be perswaded that 't is so 6. My sixth and last Principle is that we are in the last Persecution which the Church must suffer from the Kingdom of Antichrist And this last conclusion so naturally and necessarily flowers from the foregoing ones that none can acknowledge the preceding but he must likewise own the truth of this Let us now see whither these Principles do lead us All our Principles lead us unto the eighteenth Age to find the end of Antichrists reign If the Papacy be the Antichristian Kingdom then certainly the period of 1260 prophetick dayes or 1260 years which are assigned to the duration of the Kingdom of the Beast belong to it If the principal Character of this Kingdom is Idolatry 't is clear we must begin to reckon the duration of this Kingdom from that time in which Idolatry was set up in the Church Now 't is certain that the Idolatrous worship of Reliques and of Saints was fully establisht in the fifth Age Reckon 1260 years since the fifth Age this will bring you to the beginning of the eighteenth Age. If the Empire of the Papacy be the Empire of the Beast we must begin it at the time when the Roman Empire was divided into ten Kingdoms Fore the Holy Ghost speaks so in express and clear terms Reckon 1260 years since the division of the Roman Empire into ten Kingdoms which was done in the fifth Age and this will lead you to the eighteenth Age. If the Roman-papist See is that man of sin of whom St. Paul speaks in the 2d Chap. of the Epist to the Thessalonians we must reckon the 1260 years assigned to his Empire from the time that the Imperial dignity which held at Rome ceased to hold â— 6 7. or withhold which happened in the fifth Age. Reckon again your 1260 years since that time and you will see that you fall upon the eighteenth Age. If we have hit right in explaining the seven viols and the seven plagues the last viol hath been poured out since the time of Luther and its influence is running still according to the proportion of the preceding viols it cannot be running out above two hundred years Reckon again by this rule and you will fall into the eighteenth Age. If the harvest and the vintage in the fourteenth chapter are really the first and second part of the fall of the Antichristian Papacy which must be produced by as many Reformations then the Reformation in the last Age must have been the harvest lengthen as much as you please the space of time between the harvest and vintage you cannot make it longer than two hundred years Reckon and you will fall upon the eighteenth Age the find there the vintage and the final ruin of the Papacy Lastly if all that we have said is rational 't is impossible that this should not be the last persecution for the Reformation cannot be raised again so as to fall down a second time seeing we have proved that the Period of 1260 years is about to expire therefore reckon this persecution as the last and make it to be as long as you will provided you observe the measure which God hath set to the longest persecutions that the Church hath suffered and this however will bring you unto the eighteenth Age. Observe I pray you how many things do bring you to this eighteenth Age. Admire the meeting of so many paths which do all bring you to the same point And remember this undoubted Principle that 't is impossible that false conjectures should hit right in every thing I entreat above all the Roman-Catholicks to consider seriously this Principle How can they perswade themselves that system of lyes and false suppositions should hang well together That we should find in their Roman See exactly all the Characters which are given to the man of sin to the Beast in the Revelation to spiritual Babylon to the whore clothed in scarlet that â—ve should meet with the Characters of the Papacy in its birth exactly in the time that the Prophets have markt out for the birth of the Antichristian Kingdom that we should find so exact these seven great judgments of God denoted by seven plagues that God should exactly at this time permit that F.
the Revelation sets forth the Dragon as broken loose giving his power to the Beast and devouring the whole world Once again this is a blindness which I cannot conceive If there was no other argument against these two Hypotheses this alone would be enough to convince me of their falsity namely the terrible confusion into which these Authors do put the Visions of the Revelation To any one who hath studyed them it is evident that the Prophet hath observed the Order of History at least in the gross of events He had several visions concerning the same thing and in the order of these vision the order of all their circumstances does not alwayes in every thing agree with the order of events and this we have observed and cleared But I say it again the gross is alwayes according to the order of history this order is observed in the Revelation that the birth and progresses of Antichrists Kingdom are laid down before its fall Now the Authors we have spoken do make St Iohn guilty of a Parachronisme of two thousand years After he had finisht the narrative of the ruin of Antichrist and gone through a Period of 1260 years which if we add to them the space from the Incarnation of Christ unto the revelation of the son of perdition make almost two thousand years After this I say they make him on a sudden to go back as far as the beginning of the Christian Church Is there any other instance of such confusion in this book Let them shew it What mean those words After this so the French version which begin the 20 Chapter and denote always not only the succession of visions but of times This work is already large than I intended to make it but notwithstanding I cannot forbear to lay down a few of our arguments there are so many that one might crush the contrary opinion with number but I shall only urge the principal ones I shall open as it were four springs of arguments Four springs of arguments that demonstrate the trath of Christs reign upon earth which I shall leave every man liberty to sound and dive into contenting my self with producing them and drawing from them the principal evidences which clearly discover this future reign of our Lord Iesus Christ The firs spring is the fifth Monarchy promised to the Saints My first spring or source of arguments will be in the Prophecies that speak of a fifth Monarchy reserved for the Saints 'T is impossible to find a rational sense in them without supposing this thousand years reign There are two remarkable ones in the book of Daniel In the 2. Chapter Nebuchadnesar sees a statue whose head was of gold the shoulders of silver the belly of brass the leggs of iron the feet and toes partly of iron and partly of earth The Prophet interprets to him these four metals of the statue that they are four great Monarchies The iron leggs by consent of all signifie the fourth Monarchy which is the Roman The feet and the ten toes partly of iron and partly of earth signifie the ten kings or Kingdoms which were to divide the Roman Empire and weaken it at the same time And wheras thou sawest the feet and the toes Dan. 2. v. 41 42. part of potters clay and part of iron the kingdom shall be divided but there shall be in it of the strength of iron forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixt with miery clay And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken These ten toes are the ten Kings which were to make up the Kingdom of Antichrist and reign together with him in the last Period of the Roman Empire during the 1260 years marked in the Revelation Now hat happens at the end of the reign of these ten Kings and of the fourth Monarchy v. 44. And in the dayes of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Behold a fifth Monarchy different from the ten Kings The Monarchy promised to Christ cannot be placed in the Ages by past which must break them in pieces and must continue after them for ever i.e. untill the end of the world 'T is granted that this Kingdom that shall never be destroyed is that of Iesus Christ But is it not as clear as the day that this Kingdom must not appear untill after that the ten Kings and the ten Kingdoms shall have been broken ' in pieces by this fifth Monarchy I confess I have nothing to say to them who are incapable of beholding this evidence and I do not conceive how it can be said that we must go back beyond the ten Kings that we may place the Monarchy of Iesus Christ before them when the Prophet so plainly placeth it after the ten Kings Is it not expresly said that his fifth Monarchy must break in pieces and destroy these ten Kingdoms How therefore can it go before them or have its duration parallel to theirs In the seventh Chapter of the same Prophecy we have the same four Monarchies under the Images of four Beasts 'T is confessed that the fourth Beast that had ten horns is the Roman Empire all our writers grant that these ten horns that signifie ten Kings are the ten Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was divided after the time of Valentinian the third and that those ten horns reign together with the little horn which is Antichrist When the Prophet had seen both the fourth Beast and the three first wholly destroyed and their bodies burnt with fire he adds And I saw in the might-visions Chap. 7. v. 13. and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came unto the Ancient of dayes and they brought him near before him and there was given him dominion and a glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed And to the same purpose in the explication of the vision v. 24.25 And the tend horns out of this Kingdom are then Kings that shall arise and another shall arise after them and he shall be diverse from the first c. And he shall speak great words against the most high and shall wear out the saints of the most high and think to change times and lawes and they shall be given into his hand untill a time and times and the dividing of times c. All are agreed that Antichrist is here intended and all Protestants grant that this is the Papacy and that its reign is to last 1260 years Now what is to happen after this time and times and a dividing or half
a time v. 26. But the judgment shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end Behold the destruction of Antichrists Kingdom Immediately after the Prophet adds And the Kingdom and dominion v. 27. and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey him Behold the reign and Kingdom of the Saints and a reign which succeeds to that of Antichrist In truth we must give the lye to the Holy Spirit if we suppose that we must go back two thousand years before the end of Antichrists reign to place the beginning of this reign of the Saints and of Jesus Christ Here we have the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven after that the four Beasts i. e. the four Empires have been broken to pieces to receive the Kingdom from the hand of God his Father and reign for ever untill the end of the world We must speak without any judgment The fifth Monarchy cannot be understood of the Kingdom of glory after the day of judgment if we say that this everlasting Kingdom of Jesus Christ is to be understood of the heavenly reign after the end of the world and the last judgment For the Apostle St Paul saith in plain terms that Jesus Christ shall then reign no longer and that he shall deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father Besides Daniel speaks of a Kingdom that is to be under the Heavens and not of one that is above them Further 't is a meer triffling to mingle eternal things with temporal and bring down the Heavenly Kingdom of Paradise into the rank of earthly and temporal Monarchies by making it to be a fifth Monarchy Thus 't is plain that the Prophet treats here of a Kingdom that indeed is heavenly on the account of its purity but is earthly on the account of its Seat and because it must be upon earth I am willing to joyn unto these Prophecies only that in this 20th Chapter of the Revelation which is so clear that it needs not any commentary The Prophet saith expresly After this so the first verse is rendred in the French i.e. after the last victory over the Beast and his false Prophet the Devil shall be bound and the Saints shall live and reign with Christ a thousand years But 't will be objected that this passage is too plain and this very thing makes our sense of it suspicious The Prophets are not wont to express future things so clearly But if this reason holds the Iews are not to be blamed for rejecting our Oracles concerning Iesus Christ for example this A Virgin shall conceive a Son and this other And thou Bethelehem out of thee shall come a Ruler c. and the whole 53. Chapter of Isaiah and that Prophecy of Daniel that Messiah must be cut off but not for himself And that very clear Oracle he shall make his soul an offering for sin For 't is evident that these Oracles are not less plain in speaking of Christ and the circumstances of his birth his life and his death than those in Daniel and the Revelation which speak of the thousand years reign Others instead of confessing that this Text is too clear to be understood in the literal sense say that it is too obscure and must be explain'd by others that are more clear Truly I do not conceive how men can speak at this rat 'T is obscure because it saith the contrary to that which these Gentlemen imagin and because 't is inconstant with their Hyphotheses CHAP. XVII The second spring of Arguments to prove the thousand years reign is the reign promised to the Iews The promises made to them have not been fulfilled but must be The conversion of St. Paul is a Type of that of the whole Nation THe second spring of my Arguments shall be the Prophecies and Oracles which promise unto the Iews extraordinary blessings a reign upon Earth a prosperity that shall be visible to all Nations yea an elevation to a Kingdom unto which all Nations must pay homage These Oracles are without number we must only produce some of them Isal 2.2 3 4. Sacred Oracles that promise great prosperities to the nation of the Jews And it shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain of the Lords house shall be establisht in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all Nations shall flow unto it 3. And many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Iacob and he will teach us of is ways amp c. And he shall judge among the Nations and rebuke many people And in Chapter 25 v. 8. He will swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth for the Lord hath spoken it And in the beginning of the 32 Chapter Behold a King shall reign in righteousness and Princes shall rule in judgement And a man shall be a hiding place from the storm and a covert from the tempest And in the 41 Chapter v. 8. But thou Israel art my servant Jacob whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham my friend c. v. 10. Fear not for I am with thee be not dismay'd for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness v. 12 Thou shalt seek them and shalt not find them even the men that contended with thee c. v. 15. Behold I will make thee a new sharp threshing Instrument having teeth thou shalt thresh the mountains and shalt make the hills as chaff In the 43. Chapter vers 1 2 3 c. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and he that formed thee O Israel Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by name When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee For I am the Lord thy God the holy one of Israel thy Saviour Fear not for I am with thee I will bring thy seed from the East and gather thee from the West I will say to the North Give up and to the South keep not back bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the Earth And in the 44 Chap. v. 2 3. Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb who will help thee Fear not O Jacob my servant for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine Off-spring And in the 45 Chap. v.
first Subject They say 't is the Kingdom of the Father we pray for i. e. of the Heavenly Paradise the Eternal Kingdom But we need only read what follows in the Lords prayer to be assured that it must be understood of a Kingdom upon earth Thy Name be hallowed Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven That clause on Earth as in Heaven is common to all three Petitions Thy Kingdom come upon Earth as it is already come in Heaven 'T is reasonable to think that God hath reserv'd a time for the Kingdom of grace which hath not yet 12-ken place So great a difficulty have these Gentlemen the Antimillenaries to conceive a Kingdom of God upon earth and for my own part I find as great a one not to conceive it How can we reconcile it to the wisdom and goodness of God to have abandon'd and forsaken the World thorowout all the duration of it without preserving a certain time in that duration for himself and his own Kingdom Now when was it that God did reign in the world by his Kingdom of grace It was not in the first World before the Flood where wickedness prevailed to that degree that obliged him to destroy it by the Deluge It was not in the Time from Noah to Moses for in those Ages Idolatry sprung up increas't and multiplied Much less in those Ages from Moses to Iesus Christ for the Devil reigned every where oftentimes not excepting that little corner of the Earth which God had reserved to himself It is not from the Appearance of Christ to that of Antichrist for saving about one hundred years since the Emperors were Christians Paganism hath always been uppermost and the prevailing Religion It cannot be since the birth of Antichrist for the 1260 years of his reign are the Empire of the Beast and of the Dragon and this will lead us even to the end of the World according to these Gentlemen And the course of the World will be finisht and God and his Kingdom of Grace have found no place in it I confess that in all ages God hath saved some persons but that is not to Reign for Truth and Grace have never yet ruled and been uppermost They never had the Empire the number and the multitude of their side The number of wicked and worldly men hath always carried it How much more reasonable then is it to conceive that God after having abandon'd six periods to the World and the Dragon hath at least reserved one seventh to himself wherein Truth and Grace shall rule and prevail whereas in the other preceding they have been supprest The conversion of the nations and of the Iews shall form the Kingdom of Christ I find nothing more odd and singular than the Hypothesis of these Gentlemen They acknowledge that all the Nations hitherto under Infidelity shall be converted St. Paul hath expresly said it in the eleventh Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans according to them also the Iews are to be converted Behold the fairest Empire of Grace which can be imagined why should we make it fall assoon as it is raised and make the World it self to end soon after Is it not more reasonable to conceive that God will preserve the Church in that glorious state for several ages to injoy as it were the fruit of his Labours and see the Intelligible World compleated and brought to its perfection Since the Iews the fullness of the Gentiles are to be brought in to J. Christ as all the World grants is it not reasonable that in that period of the re-union of all People that they who have been an holy People to whom we owe the Patriarchs and the sacred Oracles for observe it there is no one book of the N. Testament any more then of the Old but was made by a Iew is it not just I say that that Nation should then have the Pre-eminence above all other Nations There is then in my opinion a Kingdom of God to be expected and this Kingdom is that of the Messiah the Kingdom of the Iews The Reign of the Messiah which is not yet come for to speak properly we cannot say that Christ hath hitherto reigned upon Earth His party as yet hath been in no place or part of the World the prevailing ruling Party the wheat hath been always buried in the Tares The Kingdom of the Iews promised by the Prophets so often and in so many different manners And these two Kingdoms that of the Messiah and that of the Iews are to take place at the same time 'T is true we may compute the beginning of Christ's Kingdom from the fall of the Kingdom of Antichrist and 't is manifest that from that point God will reckon the thousand years Nevertheless the Kingdom of Christ cannnot be well said to be come till all Nations shall be converted now the Iews are not to be converted till the last of all People J. Christ hath not yet reigned upon earth in a proper sense Ioseph Mede hath a reflection thereupon which I confess I am pleased with 'T is but a Conjecture but I find it to be very well framed 'T is this that the Conversion of St. Paul a zealous and bigotted Iew in the highest degree is the Type of the future conversion of the whole Nation 1. He was a great zealot for the Law and a furious Persecutor of Christianity The Iews are also very zealous for Moses and irreconcileable enemies to Iesus Christ 2. Paul was converted not as other men The conversion of S. Pauls a type of that of the Iewish nation by the bare preaching of the Gospel and the sight of Miracles but by the glorious appearing of Christ to him from Heaven 'T is likewise very probable that the Conversion of the Iews will not be in an ordinary way as by preaching for the Hearts of that People are under an invincible obduracy So that 't is likely that Christ will convert them by some glorious and surprizing apparition and will appear clothed with those Characters the Prophets have given him that they may no longer be able to disown and refuse him 3. Those who accompanied St. Paul saw indeed the Light but Christ did not appear to them the Gentiles and Christians who shall then be may have some part in that glorious Apparition but it may be shall not see it all 4. Paul was instructed by way of inspiration in all Mysteries assoon as Iesus Christ had appear'd to him The Iews shall have their minds inlightned and the vail which is now on their hearts shall be taken away and on a sudden shall see clearly into the Oracles of their Law and Prophets 5. St. Paul was the last of the Apostles who was converted the Iews will be called the last of all People 6. Paul after Conversion was the most zealous of any the Iews when converted shall be the most affectionate and zealous of all Christians 7. St. Paul
In the sixth Period near the end whereof we now are God will compleat his Church by the ruin of Antichrist and bring the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth to its perfection This should be well remembred that the Church in the Type of the Creation appears under four Emblems 1. As the Earth buried and covered under waters 2. As a dry Land above the waters and bearing fruit 3. As a Moon inlightened by the Sun. 4. And lastly as the Woman And our Lord Jesus appears there under three Emblems 1. As the Light of the first day without or before the Sun. 2. As the Sun. 3. Under the Emblem of the Man. The Church in her first state before the Law was as the Earth under water she was obscure and as it were buried among the Nations In her second state under the Law she was as a discovered Land distinguisht and known and bearing fruit but yet she was but Earth i. e. not very considerable In her third state under the Gospel she appears as a Moon a rival of the Sun imitating his Light and therein she is more glorious than the Earth This is the Apostolical Church so glorious and full of knowledge In the fourth state she appears as the woman taken out of the side of Adam closely united with him being one Body and one Flesh 'T is in the last Period that she shall be more united to Christ than before In the fourth Period she is as the Moon and notwithstanding the nearest approaches of the Sun there remain vast distances between them But towards the end of the sixth Period and throughout the seventh her union unto Christ shall be immediate and intimate as that of a Wife with her Husband therefore the Church in this seventh Period is represented as a Spouse which was to be brought to the Lamb. On the other hand Jesus Christ appears under three Emblems In the fourth Period as a Sun which scatters the darkness of Idolatry Paganism and Ignorance that covered the face of the Earth This Sun is plac't in the fourth point just in the middle of the seven to let us know that he is the Center of the Church the Sun which gives light before and behind to the preceding Ages and to those which follow him Towards the end of the sixth Period and throughout the seventh he is A man to whom God gives dominion over the Fowls of the Air the Fish of the Sea and creeping things and four-footed Beasts i. e. That Christ in this last Period shall be Lord and King who shall rule over the Birds tame the boldest and most aspiring spirits who mount even unto the Heavens he shall humble them and keep 'em within the bounds of their duty over the Fish of the Sea to deliver'em from their corruption over Creeping things to destroy the influence of their poison over wild Beasts to tame their fierceness and render them meek as Lambs In the first day Jesus Christ was figured but by a dim Light because in the first Period of the Church he vouchsaf't her but a very imperfect knowledge of himself This methinks is the Mystery of the six days which way well serve as a favourable omen in reference to the seventh day The mystery of the seventh day of the Creation because every thing therein seems to accord well what then is wanting to the World after the works of the six daye to render it perfect Holiness and Rest and these are the two Things which God added on the seventh day Holiness for he Sanctified the seventh day and thereby the rest of the World. Rest for till then God had been at work and the World in Motion Now God gave the World that Rest which it wanted in that he himself rested on the seventh day All this is an admirable Emblem of our seventh Period for the sake whereof all this explication of the Type of the Worlds Creation hath been given During the six days God made the Church to pass through several changes he will bring it to perfection at the end of the sixth by the ruin of the Antichristian Kingdom and by the Conversion of all Nations What then is wanting to it Rest and Holiness Rest for hitherto she hath always been in toyl and Travel Holiness for she hath alway been imperfect We must therefore look for a seventh Period which shall be a Kingdom of Rest and Holiness wherein the Church shall no more be persecuted either by Fire and Sword or by Heresy and Idolatry wherein also there shall be a plentiful effusion of the H. Spirit to produce a great degree of Holiness and Sanctification among men This mystery shall be accomplisht upon Earth We must not say that the accomplishment of this Type will be found in Heaven where is Rest and Holiness and that therein is the mystery of the seventh day I say again that cannot be meant because this seventh Period must be of the same kind and order with the other six We even now observed that the Sun was created on the fourth day there are three days before and three after exactly in the middle of the seven to signify that Christ the Son of Righteousness is the Center of the intelligible World. If he be the Center of the seven Periods he must certainly have an equal reference to all the points of that Circumference Now what relation can he have to the seventh day if Eternity be meant by it In that Eternal abode Christ shall have no more the relation of a Center a Sun and a King. For St. Paul tells us that then God shall be all in all and Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom again to his Father Moreover 't is certain there ought to be a proportion between the seventh Period and the six fore-going ones Now there is none between Eternity and the duration of the Church upon Earth And lastly I am bold to say that the ancient Types were not establisht by God immediately to figure Heavenly Things but only the Graces and Favors of God in this World under the Kingdom of the Messiah You cannot show me any one of the ancient Types which hath an immediate relation to the glories of the Heavenly Paradise The marriage of Adam and Eve was the immediate Type of the Vnion between Christ and his Church in the Kingdom of his Grace It did only mediately typify their Vnion in the Kingdom of Glory By consequence this seventh day which all acknowledge to be Typical must have its immediate relation not to the Sabbath of the Church in Heaven but to its State of Rest upon Earth CHAP. XXIII A farther Confirmation of the future prosperity of the Church upon Earth The 21 and 22. Chap. of the Apocalypse interpreted that in those Chapters the Church is described as victorious upon Earth and not as Triumphant in Heaven WE may not pass from the Apocalyps without saying somewhat concerning the last Chapters If we needed another Head of Arguments to
in the preceding Chapters where I have shown that Empire and a Kingdom Peace and Prosperity are promised to the Church of Christ in such a manner as hath never hitherto been fulfilled Object VVhen Christ shal come the Church shall be most corrupt 4. After this they tell us that when God describes those Times which shall immediately precede the end of the World instead of representing them as a golden Age they are painted out as an Age of Iron and darkness Iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold false Prophets and false Christs shall arise they shall work signs and wonders to deceive if possible the very Elect. Math. 24. v. 12.24.37 The coming of the Son of man shall be as the days of Noah When the Son of man shall come Luke 18. c. 8. he shall not find faith upon Earth And 2 Ep. Thessal 2. chap. 't is said the Lord shall destroy the man of sin by the brightness of his coming But all this is grounded on a false supposition viz. that there shall be no other coming of Christ but for the last final Judgement which is not true the coming of Christ here spoken of is that to settle the Peace and Glory and Kingdom of his Church and we may be certain that this is meant in almost all the Passages where the coming of Christ is spoken of It is true that when Christ shall come to destroy the Antichristian Kingdom he shall not find true Faith upon Earth that is very little of it Experience confirms this for we are now in that very time Farther when Christ shall come the third and last time for the last Judgment it may well be that there shall be a great scarcity of faith piety in the World at that time for Gog and Magog shall be increas't there shall be a great seduction upon Earth and a great affliction upon the Church So that these Prophecies shall have their accomplishment whenever Christ comes They were fulfilled at his first coming when he came in the flesh for the Church was then exceedingly corrupted and so at his second coming when he shall come to destroy the Antichristian Kingdom For in our days there is a very great corruption and shall be at his third coming for at the end of the world there shall be an Insurrection against the Church and against the Son of God. 5. Object The day of Judgement would not then be unknown 5. It will farther follow say these Gentlemen that the Hour and the day of Iudgement would not then be unknown as our Lord J. Christ hath said it is For if just after the fall of the Antichristian Empire the reign of Christ for a thousand years must take place we likewise know that at the end of that Reign of a thousand years shall be the day of Judgment First you must know that our Lord J. Christ saith not that the day of the last Judgment shall be alway concealed he only saith that no man then knew it concerning that day saith he knoweth no man. That depends on the fixing the time of the 1260 years for the reign of Antichrist Now no man knew for certain at that time when the 1260 years should begin God did not permit that it should be well known till this last Age which is as also the last of the reign of Antichrist for 1260 years Moreover after having well fixt the Epocha of the birth of Antichrist that we may discover his end yet can we not thereby come to the exact knowledge of the day of Iudgement 1. Because we know not whether the thousand years of the reign of the Church must begin just at the end of the 1260 years of the reign of Antichrist We may say the contrary without saying any thing that is improbable that the thousand years are not to be computed but from the compleat establishment of the Kingdom of Christ 2. We cannot tell whether the Period of a thousand years is to be exactly so much neither more or less for the H. Ghost is not so critical and precise and often makes use of a round and certain number to signify one that is uncertain unless when he makes use of a broken number as three and half for then we cannot doubt but we are to reckon exactly so much So that these two things being always doubtfull we can never know the precise time of the Judgement day 6. Object The world would then last a long while 6. After this they say that if the Church must reign a thousand years on Earth the World is yet to last for a long time which is not likely it should because the Apostles even in their days spoke of the end of the world as a thing approaching and near at hand We are in the last times saith St. Paul. The coming of I. Christ is at hand saith St. James My littie children It is the last time saith St. John. They ought to confess that these passages make against them instead of being for them The Apostles called their Days the last times and the last hour and yet almost two thousand years have passed since Those Texts therefore must not be taken in too rigid a sense We have spent one Chapter on purpose in this Book to explain those Passages 7. Object The Scripture speaks but of one Resurrection 7. Lastly they tell us that according to the Scriptures at the coming of our Lord J. Christ All the Dead must be raised at once the Righteous and the Wicked which agrees not with the supposition of the Millenaries who would make one part of the Dead to rise at the beginning of the reign of a thousand years and the rest at the end of it But how can any one say that the Scripture saith that when it speaks the quite contrary that one part of the Dead must rise first which is the first Resurrection and that the Rest of the Dead are not to rise till the thousand years are fullfilled There are some passages 't is true wherein the Resurrection of the Good and Bad is spoken of as that which shall be at the same time and so it shall accordingly be for this first Resurrection will be but of a very few viz. of the Ancient Martyrs The remainder of the Faithful shall not be raised till the end of the World. Many Dead were risen with Christ when he rose and are certainly with him body and soul in Heaven Notwithstanding this the Scripture speaks of the Resurrection of all the Dead as a thing deferr'd and adjourn'd to the last Day because one little Exception destroys not a general Rule 'T is strange that these Gentlemen find so much difficulty in this first Resurrection Methinks they should remember the many Saints who were raised with Christ Why may not Christ raise some of the New Testament Saints at the coming of his Kingdom as well as raise some of the Ancient Patriarchs when he rose from the Grave However notwithstanding all that I have said on this subject of that first Resurrection I once again declare that I am not sollicitons to decide it Therefore I have and do again place it among those things which are doubtful I am informed that the learned and famous Prof. Mr. Witsius of Vtrecht hath thought fit to declare his mind on this subject in some publick Lectures I am told that he agrees with me concerning a great change which is to be in the Church before the end of the World with respect to Manners Union in Doctrine and the spreading of the Christian Faith as well among the Iews as among the Nations which as yet are Pagan He is also willing De X Tribubus Israelis c. 9. §. 1. cap 11. § 17 that the Iews should hope to return to their own Land and rebuild Ierusalem I would ask no more and am more rejoy't to meet with the concurrence of so great a man in that which is Essential than I can be troubled that he differs from me concerning that first Resurrection for I must acknowledge that I meet with very great difficulties about it But when I look upon it on that side and in that manner as I have represented it I find it to be very probable Nevertheless I am far from being fully perswaded of the Truth of it as I am concerning those Arâ—â—cles wherein we two agree These I think are all the Objections wherewith these Gentlemen oppose us For I regard not what they say when they tell us That this Reign of a thousand years is a Iewish vision a Fancy derived from the impure Fountain of their Traditions This is to declaim and not to prove 'T is not impossible but there may remain something that is good among the Traditions of the Iews at least St. Paul and St. Iude believed so The first learnt from their Tradition the names of the Magicians of Aegypt who opposed Moses and likewise those words of Moses I exceedingly quake and fear which we no where read in the Old Testament And St. Iude learnt from thence the combat of Michael the Arch-angel with the Devil for the body of Moses also the Prophecy of Enoch They urge likewise against us a multitude of ancient and modern Authors But I had rather give credit to Iustin Martyr and Papias who might have seen St. Iohn than to all those who have wrote since God hath his particular reasons why he will not that the Prophecies should be understood in every Age. FINIS
dismembred pieces of the ancient Roman Empire as well as the other Kingdoms of Europe It retains the name of the Roman Empire its head is called the King of the Romans What of all this Is it necessary only to retain names and vain titles to be in possession to the thing and to exercise the rights belonging to it The Jews retain the name of the people of God of the chosen people of the Lords inheritance by way of exclusion of all the nations of the Earth but doth it follow that they are what they once were and what to this day they call themselves We therfore may justly say the Roman Empire is destroyed and was abolisht when the Goths the Vandals and the Huns rent it in pieces and divided it into so many parts took away the rule from the City of Rome and made it the chief City only of a part of that ancient Empire And indeed 't is then that the Antichristian Empire was born or at least began to be Revealed that is to say to become sensible and this was in the fifth Age. But this doth not agree with the other Prophecies for according to St. John and Daniel the fourth Monarchy which is that of the Romans must continue till the Kingdom be given to the Saints and all the Nations of the World be reduced to the obedience of Jesus Christ The Roman Empire according to the Prophecy of St. John and Daniel is not yet ended v. 17 18. This is in the seventh of Daniel There he makes four Beasts i. e. four Monarchies or four Empires These four Beasts are four Kings that shall arise out of the Earth But the Saints of the most high shall take the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom for ever even for ever and ever He places nothing at all between the end of the fourth Beast or the fourth Empire and the Kingdom given to the Saints Now if the fourth Monarchy did cease in the fifth Century then the fifth Monarchy which is the Kingdom of J. Christ being not begun there would be the space of 12. or 13. hundred Years between the fourth Monarchy and the reign of J. Christ upon the Earth One can't conceive why the H. Spirit should leave so wide a gap of time in the Prophecy This is yet more evident by what follows The Angell that explains the vision to Daniel saith to him v. 23. The fourth Beast shall be the fourth Kingdom upon Earth which shall be diverse from all Kingdoms and shall devour the whole Earth and shall tread it down v. 24. and break it in pieces And the ten horns out of this Kingdom are ten Kings that shall arise and another shall arise after them and he shall be diverse from the first and he shall subdue three Kings v. 25. And he shall speak great words against the most High and shall wear out the saints of the most High and think to change times and laws and they shall be given into his hand untill a time v. 26. and times and the dividing of time But the judgment shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end And the Kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High c. He had said before on occasion of the fourth Beast and his little Horn I behold them v. 11. because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake I beheld even till the beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame 'T is clear that the ten Horns or the ten Kingdoms together with the little Horn that subdues three Kings are a continuation of the fourth Beast and make but one Monarchy together with it which Monarchy must endure till the Kingdom be given to the people of God. The same thing plainly appears in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar Chap. 2. and the explication which Daniel gives of it Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream a great Statue whose head was of Gold his shoulders and his arms of Silver v. 32. his belly of Brass his legs of Iron v. 33. and his feet divided into ten Toes were partly of Earth and partly of Iron v. 34. A Stone cut out of the mountain without hands breaks this statue in pieces mingles the Gold the Silver the Iron and the Brass and reduces them all to dust Daniel explaining this dream declares that the head signifies the Monarchy of the Assyrians of which Babylon was then the capital city since the ruin of Nineveh and Nebuchadnezzar the head That the shoulders of Silver signify a second Monarchy and the belly of Brass a third v. 40. And the fourth Kingdom shall be like Iron for as much as Iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things All the World is agreed that this is the Roman Monarchy After which follows not the destruction but the division of that Empire among ten Kings And wheras thou sawest the feet and toes v. 41. part of potters clay and part of iron the Kingdom shall be divided viz. into ten other Kingdoms as the feet into ten toes For the ten toes of the statue and the ten horns of the Beast are the same thing which all Interpreters have acknowledged Among these ten Kings must he come that must subdue three i. e. Antichrist As therefore the ten Toes make a part of the Statue and the ten horns a part of the Beast 't is plain that the ten Kings that must arise from the division of the Roman Empire and the reign of Antichrist that must establish himself by the ruin of three of those Kings are the continuation of the Roman Empire and the Roman Empire it self Now immediately after and without any thing happening between comes the reign of Jesus Christ and of the Holy people signified by the little stone cut without hands out of the mountain And in the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom v. 44. which shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever The same thing is evident by the Revelations of Saint John. The first Beast in the 13th of the Revelation in certainly the same with the fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel 't is the Roman Empire We have seen before that 't is agreed that the second Beast in the same Chapt. which had but two horns is the same with the fore-going Beast that had ten Now the foregoing Beast is the Roman Empire the second Beast is the Empire of Antichrist Whence it is plain that the reign of Antichrist must be the continuation of the Roman Empire Saint Iohn after having described the Roman Empire continued under Antichrist in the 13th Chap. carries on this continuation in the 14th Chap. to the total ruin of
appearance will be the last And as Peter de Lune after he had been deposed by the Council of Constance went and held his Seat in the mountains of Arragon where he continued a Schism ten or twelve years so 't is probable that the Popes being driven out of the rest of Europe will shelter themselves among the Spaniards from whose hearts it will be a hard matter to pull popery away Lastly it must be observed that 't is true the harvest does spoil the Earth of a part of her fruits but it doth not of all it remains to be a fair and pleasant season the Autumn which follows hath its beauties its profits and advantages it is a second Spring the medows are crown'd with an after-growth the trees put forth new flowers But the vintage makes all waste A lively Emblem in harvest and vintage of what hath happen'd and shall happen in the ruin of popery it spoils the Earth of the very remainders of its fruits and beauty and immediately Winter comes that puts on the Earth the very complexion of death and destruction This is an Emblem of what fell out in the first destruction of popery and of what shall in the second The Reformation cut down several fair Countries in the last age but notwithstanding many were left to it nay it had great success massacred an infinite number of the faithful procured to it self the confirmation of a famous Council engaged those Kings who were its vassals to double their endeavours for the preservation of its Worship and Doctrines It hath gain'd ground in the East in China in the Indies in the West in America by the conquests of the Spaniard and Portuguese It hath sent Missions even to the end of the World hath made an infinite number of false Christians it hath regain'd on one side as much as it had lost on the other and hath made its worship and Idolatry to reign as much as ever For Spain and Italy were never more deeply plunged in Idolatry then since the Reformation It hath strengthned its tyranny for the Popes since the Council of Trent have domineer'd and acted as Soveraigns over Kings and as Superiors over Councils In the reforming of the Calender Gregory XIII did an act of an Vniversal Monarch which the Popes had never done in the ages of their greatest insolence They have deposed Kings of England and in France Henry III. and Henry IV. They have laid an Interdict upon the Common-wealth of Venice and the Kingdom of Portugal In a word Popery hath had great prosperities that have comforted it under its disgraces But as for the blow or stroke which God is ready presently to give it it will be a dispatching blow it will be a vintage that shall spoil it of all its fruits and utterly take away all its beauty the Winter shall come upon it and its desolation shall be irrecoverable This is the substance of the vision let us view the circumstances And I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one sate like unto the Son of man having on his head a golden crown and in his hand a sharp sickle J. Christ himself often appears in the visions of the Revelation This personage like unto a man is probably the Son of God found in fashion as a man on the account of his Incarnation the golden crown which he wears on his head does prove that 't is he though he executes his judgements by his Angels notwithstanding he often himself appears on the scene of the World in the book of the Revelation He is probably the Heroe in the sixth Chapter who appeared sitting on a white horse Chap. 6.2 and had a bow and a crown was given him and he went forth conquering and to conquer He is the same who appears again in the 19 Chapter sitting a second time upon a white horse and was called faithful and true and in righteousness doth he judge and make war. He always sits upon something that is white sometimes upon a white horse sometimes upon a white cloud White is the symbol of innocence and mercy A white cloud is a throne of mercy a red cloud is that of justice But mark it must be some grand work for which Jesus Christ himself comes for the Holy Ghost does not bring him upon the stage for some mean matter Now since the Apostles age no work had been done so great as that of the last age He had a sharp sickle in his hand He comes upon a white cloud intending favour to his children but with a sickle for his enemies 'T was a great mercy to his own when he took them out of Bahylon the last age But 't was a terrible stroke of a sickle to Antichrist And another Angel came out of the Temple crying with a loud voyce to him that sate on the cloud Thrust in thy sickle and reap for the time is come for thee to reap for the harvest of the Earth is ripe He who sits upon the cloud gives out orders to the Angels and receives none from them but he recieves from his Father and the Angels may be charged to carry these orders to the Son. Thus the Angel who here gives orders to Jesus Christ speaks not in his own name but in the name of him that sent him The time to reap is come Their iniquity is come to its height Their measure is full Another Angel came out of Heaven he also having a sharp sickle This is the destroying Angel who went through Egypt the executioner of the judgements of God this Angel comes onely as a second for he who sits upon the white cloud disappears not he is the Master and 't is under his direction that this second Angel gives the last blow to popery Another Angel came out from the Altar which had power over fire and cryed with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle c. Here mention is made of an Angel who hath power over fire and in the 16. Chapter we find the Angel of the waters Shall we conclude that every Element hath its Angel who presides over it and the events which fall out by its means so that one Angel presides over the Sea and shipwracks another over fire and burnings This seems very probable to me for the providence of God makes the winds his Angels and a flame of fire his Ministers The Angel of the fire comes out from the altar which popery had prophaned by its prophane sacrifices and false worship And 't is the Angel of the fire who is here employ'd to signify that now the fire shall consume the Antichristian Kingdom without any hopes of recovery 'T is not necessary that the Kingdom of Antichrist should be destroyed with great shedding of blood The wine-press was trodden without the City and blood came out of the wine-press even unto the horses bridles by the space of a thousand six hundred furlongs 'T is a great question