another consider'd together that Papal Rome with its Papacy are here Represented to be Judged The Characters are these Following Charact. 1. It is undeniable The Papacy lays claim to a Supremacy as the Vicar of Christ Vniversal Bishop Pope of Rome as Universal as Emperor of Rome heretofore over the Princes of Europe and a Pastor above Princes and the Supreme Powers here upon Earth So the Church of Rome Vniversal Catholic Church The Mistress of Churches or Lady as Babylon of Old or as Rome when Mistress Lady of the World All this is undenyable Matter of Fact in general knowledg of the World at this day and much more so before the Reformation And what more plain in Prophecy In Daniel in this Prophecy of the Revelation Beast is Interpreted into King or Kingdom as a Succession of Kings Having Times and Laws given into his Hand to Change Horns are Kings and so must the Little Horn be and as more Dan. c. 7. Stout then his Fellows an Imperial King In this Vision of the Revelation the Beast is the Eighth King and of the Seven Heads Supremes over Rome To shew his Imperialness Ten Kings are as Horns upon his Head in Subordination to him Power was given to him over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations An Vniversal Monarch C. 13. 7. â— 17. 9. As for the City it is Babylon The Great the Great City who saith I sit a Queen As she had sate upon Formor Kings so she is Carried on high by the Beast The Kings of the Earth Live Deliciously with her her Merchants are the Great Men the Grandees of the Earth made Rich by her Costlyness And the Greatness and Variety of her Merchandise speaks her Greatness Now seeing it hath been Proved by the Letter of the Prophecy Rome is the Seven Headed City that was Imperial at the Time of the Prophecy given I appeal to all Persons who know the State of Things now in Europe and what it was in Ancient Time whether there be in the Roman Empire that then was any Supreme like the now Pope for Universality For not only the Kings excepting those who Renounced him in the Reformation but even he is who called Emperor is no Emperor in Compariâ—â—â— of the Papal Supreme whom he himself owns and payes Subjection to or any City that can pretend to be a Queen as Rome pretends to be as it calls it self the Catholick Church There can be no pretence of the Otoman Supreme or of Constantinople like it Though that be so fixed as it is as a Spightful Rival of it by the hand of Vengeance as might be further shewn if Seasonable now And therefore this Character I look upon even Demonstratively Distinctive of Papal Rome and the Papal Supremacy But if this can be thought not sufficient what follows will more assure it Charact. 2. The Papal Supremacy However Prevalent it hath been and is is yet in the Ballance of Worldly Powers a weak Precarious Impuissant Supremacy and hath no Martial Strength to support or Defend it self by as is well known in all History and Daily Experience So that Great Statesmen Puffendors Introduction to the Histor of Europ Cap 12. and Politicians have been much Amused How so Unarm'd a Supremacy should have so long continued it self We in this Nation are Witnesses how Uncontroulably the King of this Nation Henry the 8th at his own Pleasure Revuls'd himself and it from him and Queen Elizabeth after the Resumbmision of Queen Mary Abdicated the Papacy anew as other Princes about the same Time did In the same manner let us Judg of the City Rome now and we know it is not the Residence of the Ancient Martial Spirit and Prowess that Inhabited it But as its Supreme is Unarm'd so is the City upheld by the Kindness of the Ten Kings that shall Hate and Famish and Burn it hereafter and by the Fraud and Cunning of the Pope the Cardinals and other the Preisthood of it an Imperial City in a Mystery that is a False Catholick Church held up by Art Let us observe now How Prophecy speaks of this Character both as to the City and as to its Supreme and we shall find in Daniel The Feet and Toes of the Image Dan. 2. Which make the last State of the Fourth Roman Monarchy or Kingdom were Part of Iron and Part of Clay Partly Strong as Iron and Part Broken Fragile v. 42. Weak and Frail as Clay And what could the whole Ingeny of Man have found out more Curiously and yet Significantly to Express the Feeble Supremacy of the Papacy Like Feet of Clay upheld by the Iron of the Ten Kings and in the other Vision the Ten Horns Surround and Cover the Little Horn that else could not defend it self his Power shall be Mighty but not in his own Power C. 8. 24. In the Revelation the Beasts Supremacy is continually Represented with an Image Conioyn'd with a Spiritual Power an Ecclesiastical Supremacy which is a Supremacy in an Image And it is by Gift under a Divine Decree The Ten Kings Agree and with One Consent give their Kingdom and Power and Strength to the Beast It is by Gift and by Agreement and as by Ballance on One Another's Power as Event hath prov'd Let us now behold the Character drawn by Prophecy in relation to the City She sits indeed a Queen But it is by the Sorcery of a False Religion upon Princes and People by making them drunk with the Wine of her Fornication and Adulteries an Impure Senseless sort of Devotion and the False Hopes of Salvation by it a Drunken Dream fit to Enchant and Enslave those who are bereaved of All Judicious Understanding in Christianity and pleas'd with a Faith Worship of God and Conversation suited only to a Carnal Sensuality All this shews us wherein the Strength of this City or False Church lies And how Exactly do these Things Answer One Another What we Every Day see with our Eyes and hear with our Ears and have all manner of Assurance of in Papal Rome and these Delineations of Prophecy carrying us out of all manner of Doubt that the City here described to be Judg'd is Papal Rome Char. 3. In the Papacy of Rome and its City or False Church we find the Collection of All the Superstitions and Idolatries that ever have been almost if not altogether in the World under One Pretence Colour and Coverture or other Running like Filthy Drains into this Foul Great Sewer enough to fill Volumes with their incredible Multitude and Variety Such as if duly consider'd cannot but be thought most Strange and Horrid in so Divine Spiritual and so Intellectual a Worship of God as Christianity teaches And how hath Prophecy Represented this In Daniel by the Infamous Name of Beast common to Him with other Idolatrous Pagan Supremes So by His thinking to change Times and Laws given into his Hand for such a Term plainly signifying Sovereign Power Engaging it self in the Devising
very well expect its Downfall to be near and that it must needs be sitting on its last Supremacy But when we calculate according to the sure Word of Prophecy as we have utmost Assurance that Papal Rome is the Babylon that is to be judged So we have no Room for Doubt that it is the last Supremacy For as the City is adjudged to final Destruction so the Beast is thrice said to go into Perdition Chap. 18. 21 22. compared with Chap. 17. ver 8 11. If therefore the City sitting on the Beast is cast as a Milstone into the Sea That cannot survive the Beast to sit on any other And if the Beast go into Perdition as he is also call'd by the Apostle the Son of Perdition as the Judas of Christianity going into his own Place while the Woman sits upon him there is a perfect End of his Supremacy also he is therefore said by the Apostle 2 Thess 2. to be first taken away by the Breath of the Lord's Mouth and then brought utterly to nothing with the Brightness of his Illustrious Appearance 2 Thess 2. 8. And he is taken and cast alive into the Lake And even this gives certain Proof This is the last Supremacy For there can be none after the Eighth King upon which the City sitting is destroyed It could not therefore be the Seventh King which by being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another a very Forreigner of another Kindred to the other Kings No Head of Babylon though a King of Rome is therefore certainly known to be the Christian Emperor and came after the Pagan Emperor call'd the Dragon who then was in his Regnancy when the Apostle writ Let us then argue thus which ever of the Kings is the Beast must be the Supreme sitting on which Babylon prov'd to be Rome must be destroy'd It cannot be the Sixth King who then was when the Prophecy was given and who might be supposed to have lasted til I now For who can suppose in any Sense whatever Rome is upon the same King it was then nor can it be upon the Seventh King but no Head on that Account for he could continue but a short Space as hath been elsewhere made out it must be therefore some Supreme that hath continued a long Space in Opposition to the short Space This therefore must be the Papacy which hath lasted longer than any Government over Rome without Variation in any Essential Point and than so far as I know any other in the World Beside it is expresly said the Dragon by which I apprehend all Interpreters understand the Pagan Imperial persecuting Power at the Time of the Revelation given is expresly said to receive a deadly Wound from the Christian Emperor on which he as it were secretly conveyed over his Power Seat and great Authority to the Beast gliding it as unobservedly by the Christian Emperor unto the Idolatrous Antichristian Papacy by whom his Deadly Wound was healed which is therefore the Eighth King but Seventh Head Seventh from the Sixth Head or Pagan Emperor of whom when the Apostle writ it is said he now is Then follows the Seventh King no Head then the Beast the Seventh Head who hath continued even above 1200 Years So that the Time from the Cessation of the Western Christian Roman Empire when the Beast received Power and the Ten Kings with him at 476 of the vulgar Account exceeds the Time from the first Building of Rome to that Supremacy of the Bishop or Pope of Rome so that no Title of Principality in Rome hath by a kind of Providential Fatality been assumed by any Secular Power precisely over the City Rome but Bishop or Pope of Rome This argues beyond Possibility of Denial from this so long Continuance of the Papacy in Opposition to the short Continuance of the Seventh King no Head or Christian Emperor that the Pope is indeed that Seventh Head and Eighth King and so the Last even the Beast that goes into Perdition Posit 3. It is one of the Glories and Lustres of the Judgment of God on Babylon That the first coming of it into Execution shall be with great Suddenness and Surprizal It is expressed in one Day and one Hour and in the same Hour I know Day and Hour may signifie any determinate Season But in such very constant and pregnant Expressions of Suddenness exceeding Suddenness is intended The same Expressions are used concerning Literal Babylon * Esay 47. Jer. 51. In one Day and in a Moment one Post shall run to meet another with the Tydings so sudden and unthought of Tydings when Belshazzar thought of no such Thing the †Dan. 6. Hand-writing appeared upon the Wall And the same Night Belshazzar was slain and the King of the Medes took the Kingdom the Babylonian Monarchy then utterly ceasing This was Prophetically Typical of Mystical Babylon It is therefore no Argument this Judgment cannot be executed a long Time yet because there are no present Appearances Herein shall appear the Glory of this Judgment as one great Point of it the Suddenness of it In many of the most high and lofty Works of God Suddenness hath been the peculiar Lustre of them In the Creation of the World He spake and it was done He Psal 33. 9. Esay commanded and it stood fast He called to the whole Creation and it stood up together In the Giving the Spirit suddenly there was the Noise of a mighty rushing Acts 2. 2. Wind. In the Day of Judgment sudden Destruction shall come when they shall cry Peace Peace 1 Thes 5. 1. upon all the Enemies of the Kingdom of Christ The third Woe cometh quickly in the hasty and sudden Effects Rev. 11. 14. of it Now by this Suddenness it is not intended That the whole Execution of the Judgment should be in so short Time though it is and shall be in short Time For the whole Progress of the Third Woe is quick and speedy as it passes through the Tubuli or Pipes till it comes down into the Ocean of Everlasting Yet it shall not be in one Day Hour or Moment But the first Invasion or Assault shall be so Then it moves by seven Voices and by seven Vials of the last Plagues wherein is filled up the Wrath of Almighty God To the Ancient Literal Babylon it is said Esay 47. 7. c. Thou sayst I shall be a Lady for ever so that thou didst not lay these things to thy Heart neither didst thon remember the latter end of it therefore hear now this thou that art given to Pleasures that dwellest carelesly thou that sayest in thy Heart I am and none else besides me I shall not sit as a Widow neither shall I know the loss of Children but these two things shal come upon thee in a Moment in one Day the Loss of Children and Widowhood they shall come upon thee in their Perfection for the multitude of thy Sorceries and for the great abundance
Judg'd For as the City and the Beast have been shewn to be Inseparable If the one be Roman So must the other be also so are they also as to the Time of their being Judg'd Herein they are Inseparable when the one is Judg'd So must the other also be Observ 5. That the Time of the Judgment of the City and of the Beast that carried her must needs be very near as will appear by that Account of Time I shall now present upon such Prophetical Grounds as I hope I cannot be mistaken in Observ 6. These Numbers all consider'd and Adiusted one to another Reach down to Sixteen Hundred Ninety Seven of Vulgar account and so as I have in another Discourse even to Demonstration made out That from Solomons Death to the very Glory of the Kingdom of Christ There lie in a due Series and Connexion of these Numbers 2730 Years and in a most Exact Succession of an 182 Indictions or Fifteens of Years of which Eighty Four make the Just Time Times and Half Time ending at 97 This with many other Assurances especially of the coming to pass of Events according to the Prophetic Figures and the Times setled for them so exactly agreeing shew that Year as the Year fixed for the Commencing from it of the happy Revolution of the Kingdom of Christ I have in many Discourses affirm'd this and find no Reason to Retract it That which will I know with all Severity be objected against it is That things have not come to pass according to Prediction and Expectation at that Year And from thence will be inforced That It is Presumption to enquire into Prophetic Time or to make any Determination upon it I will therefore endeavour to shew It is not Presumption but a Duty to Enquire what or what manner of Time The Spirit of Christ in his Prophecys hath signified Notwithstanding whatever can be Agravated against mistake And that it is better to search notwithstanding mistake then by Neglecting to search to think to be secure from mistake And then in the Second Place I shall apply my self to shew how the mistake is from Prophecy to be explained and set Right and yet Ninety Seven to be Vindicated as the Great Prophetic Year For the first That it is not a Presumption nor Daring to C. 49. 19. Jerem. C. 50 44. Appoint God a Time or to stand as a Shepherd or Governour of Time before him But Duty to search Scripture throughout even to the Prophetical Numbers given us therein It is not for us indeed to know the Times and Seasons God hath set in his own Power Yet to use all means even by Books to understand what ever God hath been pleased to give so far out of the Peculiar of his own Prerogative as to Reveal though in Mystic Numbers when he hath been pleased to Reveal Things They then belong to us And Hee that hath a Mind and Wisdom hath an Obligation by Command to Count and our Lord charges it as Sinful Rev. 13. 18. Hipocrisy not to search Discern those either Prophetic or Moral Signs of the Times And I cannot find what can be said against the Commendation the Apostle gives to them who give heed to the sure word of Prophecy as to a Light that Shines in a Dark Place Nor can I see Why it should be look'd on as an Offence that is placed as a Character of Honour on the Sons of Issachar 1 Chron. 12. 32. that they had understanding in the Times which they attain'd undoubtedly by enquiry into and Meditation upon any Oracles God had been pleas'd in those Times to vouchsafe Daniel thought it no Presumption to enquire further of the End of Wonders when he understood not what was first Reveal'd The C. 12. account of the 1290 and of the 1335 Days to the very Blessed State was then given to him not so much for himself who was to go his way to Rest until that End but for us the People of God in every Age. What can then be objected against Searching into the Mysteriousness of those Numbers and what may be from the difficulty of Interpretation Argued The very same may be objected against searching into any of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Scripture as the Apostle Peter calls them or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as The Apostle Paul Styles them Things hard to be understood Interpreted and so we should be Confined only to the most plain Scriptures and of most Indisputable Interpretation whereas the Apostle Resolv'd to Leave the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ as well secur'd And to go on to Perfection in search after the more Retyred Truths of the word of God as concerning Melchisedeec the Type of Christ though hard to be Interpreted Heb. 5. 11. 2 Pet. 3. 16. To the Objections Arising from the Danger and mischeif of mistakes It may be very well Answered by the due Consideration That in very many things without Error in the main Points we Darken Counsel by words without Knowledg And if the mistakes in Job 38. 2. the most Eminent and Learned Servants of Christ in Interpretation of Scripture and Explication of Extra-Fundamental Points most Inoffensively to Substantiali Principles were as Visible as mistakes in Computation of Prophetic Time we might if mistake were a Valuable Reason be Discourag'd from Researches either into Scripture Exposition or the Truths of it any further then in those most undoubted Points wherein all Holy Good Men agree It is True Prophetic mistakes are as I may say surviving and still in the Eyes of Men whereas the mistakes of the other sort are as they say of the Errors of Physitians under Ground and out of Sight Yet in themselves no more or Less Culpable being useful for the shewing the Weakness and Fallibility of Humane Understanding wherein it is not under the most certain Conducts of Truth And as in other Cases Variety of Sentiments and Enquiries shew the undoubted Excellency of Divine Truth And Search into the word of God speaks it the Greatest Business and Exercise of Understanding And is like the Running to and fro whereby knowledg is Increased whereas on the other hand a Kind Dan. 12. 4. of Resolved sullen Neglect in General brings forth Ignorance and Stupidity and either a Superstitious Dread of Intermeddling with Divine Things if some what Removed from Common Catechism or an Irreligious Carelessness And in particular In Prophetic Points of Time this kind of Reserving our selves from all the search we can make is as if God had given such parts of his word to be only a Sealed Book or the Cruces the Torment of all search and enquiry into them or that we were Prophanely Careless How Things are to be according to Prophecy with the Church of God and with the Kingdom of Christ or how the many and Great Predictions of Scripture and of the Spirit of God by the Prophets are to be Fullfill'd But much Light Knowledg
or Violation or as in our Translation My i. e. Gods Breach of promise Numb 14. 34. The same word signifies Abruption or breaking off the even Contexture of Events begun All which have been mentioned already I will now according to these Rules discourse this Head But that I may do it with Greater Clearness I find it most advantageous to shew that in the Two Last Rules the various Instances of Reserved Times in Scripture are Deposited viz. Reserves of Time in a way of Goodness and Mercy and in a way of Displeasure and Breach of Promise Of these Two Reservings of Time being the only Kinds viz. Mercy or Displeasure I will first give an Instance of God's Dispensations in a way of Goodness Grace and Mercy in such a Reserve of Time The Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ was that very Fullness of Time that very To Day of his being Gal. 4. 4. made Known the only Begotten Son and for our Lords Entring into his Glory All Power in Heaven and Earth Psal 3. was Given to Him for his Spiritual Kingdom which He then Receiv'd and for the pouring out of his Spirit Then he Received the Sealed Book of all disposes over the Kingdoms of this World Rev. 5. And yet there were Fourty Days Surplusage of Time from the Resurrection of Christ to his Ascension And Fifty Days from his Death to the giving the Spirit Now the Death of Christ was plainly Foretold in the Middle of the Last Week And then he could not be Holden of Death but must Rise again the Third Day according to the Scriptures But that he should continue with his Disciples so long and that from his Death Fifty Days should be made up to the Giving of the Spirit was not so plainly Revealed Indeed if we could have laid our thoughts before or now closely consider the Distance of Time between the two Feasts of the Passover and Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks and that the Antitype must Answer the Type we might find some Ombrage of it But it was so obscure as hardly to be Traced till Reveal'd in the History of the Event though so prefigur'd at such a Dâ—stance Now this was in Mercy That our Lord Christ might give those many and Infallible Proofs of his Resurrection and speak to his Apostles whom he had chosen of the Things pertaining to the Kingdom of God But the Effect of Vision was herein much Lower then in his sitting down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on high in the Heavens and his making Intercession for us So the most Glorious Effects were not till such a Time after yet still the Principal Time was not Remov'd from its Dignity For the Death and Resurrection in that most Eminent Period of Time the Half Week Remains the very Base of the Forty Days and to all After-Time the very Hinge on which it turns till it shall come to the Fullness of All Times the Kingdom of Christ Ephes 1. 10. And as this was but such a short Time so it did but summ up and Recollect the Glorious Ministry of our Lord Jesus and could not be exceeded In the way of Judgment I give a Second Instance The very self same Night of the 430 Years Inclusive of the 400 Years assign'd to Abraham Gen 15. had indeed the Great Event of the Going out of Egypt yet that Glorious Constellation of Events Bringing into the Land of Promise and Casting out the Nations was not perform'd till Forty Years after This was indeed no way that we Know now to have been found but by God's so Immediate Revelation of Forty Days Prophetically given a Day for a Year It was but a short Time compar'd with the 430 Years And it could not be Transcended The Certainty of the Highest Complement of the Great Promise Fullfill'd was there to Begin And the Forty Days of Years was but a Surplusage of Time and a Recollection and Summing up of the Sojourning State of the 430 Years But that which I have especially to Remark upon it is That it was in the way of Infraction of Promise and Abruption of that Contexture or God's Breaking off from what he had begun to do in the Deliverance out of Egypt signified by that Hebrew Word so Emphatic hereof Numb 14. 34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But yet this very End of the 430 Years Remain'd the Foundation of the Time following after and was not mov'd from its Dignity For the passing through the Red Sea and Pharoah's Overthrow in it the Victory over Amalâ—k the Nomothesia or the Giving of the Law the Rearing of the Tabernacle Rested All on this Time and its Great Event and the Forty Years are dated from it which were else but Thirty Eight Years from the Ill Report of the Spies to the Entry upon Canan and the Ending of the Following Course of Time to Solomon's so Resplendent Reign and the Building of the Temple is Dated from it 480 Years 1 Kings 6. 1. Even from the Going out of Egypt And this Instance is the more Remarkable Because although this Time was Known to and Resolved of God as before as all his Works from the Foundation of the World Yet it comes in by way of Infraction of Promise and it broke off the Contexture of Great Deliverances It is Given so in Prophetic Language therefore a Day for a Year as in our present Prophecy we are upon and was upon the Account of Provocation and unsuitable Frame to Deliverances and the End of this Surplusage of Time touches the Entring into the Land of Promise the Type of the Glorious Kingdom of Christ Another Instance of this Kind may be The Seventy Years of the Babylonish Captivity had their most Known and Celebrated Period in the First Year of Cyrus as the Vniversal Monarch in the Second of the Four Kingdoms the Persian Kingdom we find therefore his Proclamation Twice Recorded in Scripture viz. in the End of the Second Book of Chronicles and in the Beginning of the Book of Ezra But here was not the Complement of Effects The Spirit of God Gives Account of several stops and stays till the very Seventh Year of Artaxerxes There the word of Restoring Judah and Jerusalem had its full going forth It was all yet as one United Time of the Words going forth to Restore and to Build Jerusalem It began in the Decree First of Cyrus then of Darius then of Artaxerxes King of Persia Ezr. 6. 14. which so full decree of Artaxerxes we have C. 7. 12. c. This he makes as Successor to Cyrus in that Monarchy and of which Nebuchadnezzar was the Golden Head viz. of the Four Vniversal Kingdoms and so styles himself King of Kings Now here Great Abruption had been from what God begun in Cyrus So that the work was stayed to the Second Year of Darius Ezr. 6th 24. Then another Seventy Years had slid in Recorded by Zachariah C. 1. 12. Which had their Epoch or