disorder in Time as here no Gap in the Succession For thus only could the Succession of these Kings exactly Lead the Course of the Cities Time So that the Spaces of it might be measur'd thereby But if Those Seven Kings only that were Heads had been nam'd while there was Another between that was no Head and he had not been Nam'd There must have been a Leap of Time from the sixth to the seventh Head and no Account of the Seventh King making the seventh Head the eighth King to have swell'd up that space of the seventh King's Time into Appearance and Notice From whence it is Evident that the Seventh King no Head of the Beast that Carries the Woman and yet A King of the City is cast in to keep the Course and Current of the Prophetic Time strait and tight For if the very exact Pourtraicture of the Beast had been only design'd It had been more Just and Even without any mention of the Seventh King that pertain'd not to the Beast nor to the Woman as carried by the Beast But It was absolutely necessary that King also should be mention'd that the Time of the Prophecy with Relation to the Beast and the City might be under just Computation which it could not have been except the Seventh King being King of the City as before said and Coming between the sixth King and Head and the Eighth King but seventh Head had been plac'd in his Regular Succession however it seem to interrupt the state of the Beast who for that time as we shall see lay wounded and so was to suffer that Disorder in this his prophetical Representation The King that was no Head can have no room in the Order Proposit 3 of Succession but just in that Seventh Place For the Seven Heads are seven Kings viz. Seven that are also Heads Seeing then there are Eight Kings although but seven Heads There must be one of these Kings who is no Head Else there must be eight Heads which contradicts the Prophecy Which Place then the King No Head holds must be enquir'd It cannot be any of the Five Fallen For they are in Construction of Speech necessarily Heads For those seven Heads are Seven Kings Five of which Kings who were Heads are Fallen So the very Frame of the Words requires But besides the Five are put together and so must be of a Kind and therefore All alike Heads or All alike no Heads if All no Heads where then can be the Seven therefore of necessity All Heads And There is nothing more in the Mind and Design of the Prophecy than to assure us the Eighth King is a Head For whereas He is the Eighth in Number of Kings He is Transpos'd backward and made the Seventh viz. Head. For so he must be when of the Seven Seven Take them either as Kings or Heads both which as together and in one are Sevens and no other are Sevens but they who are both Kings and Heads For the seven Heads are seven Kings And it is plain He is last of the seven and so must be the seventh viz. Head and King. The Dispute then can only lye betwixt the seventh and the sixth Kings which of those Two shall be the King who yet is no Head. Now the very Contexture of the Words necessarily determines us upon the sixth as Head as well as King or at least strongly enclines us For Five Kings that are Heads are Fallen And One is One what but of the Heads who are Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another is not yet Come Another what but King Yet not Head For He is Another For when such a Point of difference is to be decided there is great Reason to give the word Another a greater weight of Sense then only a casual Word of Order but it seems the Spirit of Prophecy chose that word One that the word Another might fall emphatically and yet concealedly as possible to be casually where He would have it just Fall. Further when He Comes He must continue but a short space which is said only of the seventh King and no Head For the Five are put together The Sixth is The Eighth goes indeed into Perdition but after how long Time is here but Intimated Only the seventh is of short space who being no Head of the Beast that Carries the City ought to be of short space only For neither the Beast nor such a City could have survived long if the King no Head had been of long duration But they were to survive long Lastly the Eighth is expresly said to be of the Seven immediately after the Seventh had made an Interruption between the Heads being no Head Himself but if the seventh King had been a Head and the sixth none we might have expected what Falls so on the seventh King would have been fix'd on the sixth King to distinguish it from being a Head and what is set on the Eighth King to assure Him to be a Head would have been in the same measure Communicated to the seventh King to assure Him to be a Head as well as King if the sixth King had made a Chasm or Breach betwixt the Heads whereas All falls fit on the seventh King on all sides to be no Head. But though All This be enough yet we shall have much more to Assure us when we come to know who these Heads are that of all most indisputably the sixth must be a Head and the seventh could be no Head seeing the heads are Full of the Names of Blasphemy These seven Kings are not seven particular Kings or single Proposit 4 Monarchic Persons but seven Governments having each a Number or Succession of such single Kings under them For Kings in Prophetic Scripture signifie Kingdoms and not only single Kings So Dan. 7. 17. what are call'd Four Kings no one doubts Mean Four Kingdoms Accordingly v. 23. the Fourth King is Interpreted to be the Fourth Kingdom In this Prophecy proportionably the Beast with Seven Heads is the whole Roman Empire or Kingdom according to the old Prophetic Emblem of Heathenish Monarchies from its first Foundation and Beginning to its last Overthrow in which Rome the Imperial City hath been always by the Seven Headed Beast Exalted and borne on High. The Heads are the several Governments and Forms of Empire that have each in their several Seasons exercised Supremacy and Sovereign Authority in that Monarchy State or Kingdom Five of which the Prophecy as before nam'd binds up together as uninteressed in their Duration or Succession The Last of these Heads which is the Seventh and Eighth King is eminently styl'd the Beast because His Supremacy is chiefly treated of by this Prophecy and in which the whole City and All goes into Perdition with Him. Now to demonstrate that these Heads and Kings must be Forms of Government let us consider one and the same City the City Rome is Carried upon the Beast of these Seven Heads together with the cast-in-Cast-in-King its whole
a Head full of the Names of Blasphemy or Rome the Famous Church of the World be Babylon the Mother of Harlots Whatever may be the Profession of the True God yet when that Profession is Adulterated with Idolatry and stain'd with the Answer Blood of Saints God accounts of those Powers and People according to what His Word declares Zedechiah was a Profane Wicked Prince and that latter Succession of wicked Princes after Josiah Lyons Idolatrous Israelites are said from the very Beginning to blaspheme God Samaria and Jerusalem are those Infamous Prostitutes or Harlots call'd Aholah and Aholibah This Prophecy Ezek. 20. 29. c. 23. hath therefore determin'd that Doubt what Esteem God hath and All his People are to have of both of the Pope and his Church And there is no Fence against the Divine Oracle The Man of Sin sits in the Temple of God and Exalts Himself as God and shews Himself that He is God which is both Blasphemy and Idolatry and He bears the Name of it in being called Holiness and our Holy Lord. According to the very Explanation of Prophecy given There Object 2 is not a close Succession of Heads though there should be of Kings For between the sixth and the seventh Head was the Christian Emperour who though He was a King was no Head and the seventh Head did not Succeed till the Christian Empire Expir'd The Prophecy expresly tells us the Beast was deadly Wounded in Answer one of his Heads which was during the Time of the Christian Emperour who as we have seen was to come betwixt the sixth and the seventh Heads and had not the eighth Head been to Succeed and had He not actually Succeeded after no long space in the style of Prophecy The Beast had indeed Dyed That is the Roman Empire as Idolatrous and Bloody in its Persecutions had expir'd But because the whole of that Time Heathenish Idolatry and Persecution was Fashioning into Antichristian the Beast liv'd though deadly Wounded and the Dragon gave his Power and Seat as by Will to the Beast The Pope was long er'e he arose to such Supremacy as would Object 3 Answer the Prophetic Types And so Prophecy Represents it The Gentiles or Antichristianizing Answer Layty the Inhabitants of the Earth under the other Beast or Antichristianizing Hierarchy of Bishops their Dignified and Inferior Clergy Horn'd like a Lamb among which the Pope of Rome was Principal and ever aspiring were a Protecterian Supremacy during the Wound of the First Beast or Roman Empire as Idolatrous which under the Christian Emperours was Wounded deadly in One of viz. the sixth of its Heads or the Pagan Emperours and Powers subdu'd by the Christian Emperours During that Time therefore of the Wound and also during the Infancy of the Kingship of the Seventh Head and Eighth King That Hierarchy hath the High though Infamous Title of the Other Beast conferr'd upon it and accordingly Forty two Months were assign'd to the Gentiles as a Signification of such a Bestial Power under the Aristocracy of the Other Beast and to note its time And thus Things continu'd till the Grand * Call'd Beast tho' but a Head in Imitation of the little horn among the Ten another Emblem of this Beast call'd the Beast and deliver'd to the Flames Dan. 7. 11. Beast had an Image made to Him to be Worshipped and All Sware Fealty to him by Receiving his Mark which was the perfect Healing the Wound and the Infant Kingship of the Seventh Head Then He came to his Number 666 which was not till An. Dom. 725 or 6 during the Christian Emperours many Years after his Succession which the Infancy of a King does not Prejudice Then the Other Beast though undivided from the Grand Beast submitted to be his False Prophet and the Months of the Gentiles naturally merg'd into those of the Beast having till then supply'd what was wanting in the time of the Night although the Beast's Infant Succession as Eighth King and his Fourty Two Months commenc'd against the Twelve hundred sixty Days as the Moon 's Nights against the Sun's Days Thus it is no Objection against Prophecy but according to Prophecy that the Beast was so long Rising to his Exercise of Supremacy as seventh Head and eighth King. For He is the Beast that was in its Six Heads but deadly Wounded in the sixth of them by the seventh King no Head and so was as Not in any Appearance till the seventh Head and eighth King was grown up to his Number and the Wound healed by an Image made to Him And Great and Small Rich and Poor Bond and Free received His Mark. 2. But this Objection will be more fully answer'd by a further settlement of the very Beginning and Epoch of these Forty Two Months of the Beast For whenever the Beast Rose those Months Rose also Now the Beast's Rising is fix'd to an Hour For the Ten Kings receive Power or Authority at One Hour viz. the very same Hour with the Beast And they receive Authority as Kings that same Hour For here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be Interpreted at one Hour as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Ninth Hour Acts 10. 30. And they receive at that One Hour Authority as Kings They had no Kingdom in the Apostles Time although then they were as Ten Horns to the Roman Empire but uncrowned Horns For the Beast or Idolatrous Roman Empire consisting of its Seven Heads and Ten Horns and of the Body of the People were always alike pourtray'd in Prophecy yet with some regard to the variety of Times that pass'd over it The Heads are therefore in the Roman Dragon or Heathen Imperial State first represented Crowned for they always imported Supreme Power and then in the Beast the Heads having been already Crowned the Horns are presented Crown'd shewing at the one and the same Hour the Seventh Head of the Beast came to the Exercise of Sovereignty The Ten Horns also received Power as Kings And in this Vision c. 17. Neither the Heads nor the Horns are presented as Crown'd having been both Crown'd in the former Vision and explain'd in this But let us Examine when could these Ten Kings receive Authority as Kings and be justly own'd as such for the Prophecy says they had received no Kingdom as yet And it was at One and the same Hour with the Beast viz. when He succeeded the Seventh King or when the Roman Christian Empire ceased For when their Vniversal Monarch their Lawful Prince renounced Empire as Augustulus did Then had the Beast Authority to begin His Months and then these Ten Kings received Authority as Kings which could not according to the Law of Kingdoms to which Law the Prophecy yields Deference be while the Lawful Sovereign was in Being But he ceasing to be a King their Obligation ceas'd and then they Rise up as Kings whatever they had had done before towards being Kings was till then but Usurpation and not Authority Which
Consideration absolutely fixes the Succession and the Time of it And they are call'd Ten not to raise a Scruple about their exact Number Ten neither more nor less but being several into which the One Empire sprouted against its will as All History well knows that at that Time the Empire was so Torn into Pieces But they are called Ten to preserve Regard to that First Image in which this Roman Empire came down to the Feet and was divided into the Ten Toes And this being the State of that Empire under its Seventh Head the Horns or Kings seated in it are called Ten with respect to that First Statue given of the Four Empires and of the last Form of the Last Empire And they are call'd Horns because notwithstanding They were Absolute Independent Kings Yet as Horns give offensive and defensive force to the Head and that hath Supreme Mannagement of them so these Horns gave their Power to the Seventh Head. So making Him an Universal Monarch or eighth King till the Words of God are fulfill'd Now I know not how a firmer Settlement of the Beginning of these Months just at the Cessation of the Christian Imperialism can be made than is now made by this last Addition But because it may be said the Name of Pope is no Kingly or Object 1 Imperial Name It seems to overthrow the whole Frame laid It is Admirable the Care Prophecy hath taken to tell us The Answer Beast of the Roman Idolatrous Empire is continu'd in Life and is healed of his deadly Wound by making an Image to Him who is the Seventh Head and Eighth King. The Papacy is not a real Martial Civil Sovereignty but it is the Image only of One It is yet nevertheless Haughty for it is Ador'd and Worshipped It Assumes Power over Princes and disposes Kingdoms It is nevertheless Cruel and Enforcive for it Kills All who will not Worship that Image It Causes All to receive its Mark or proscribes them how great or small soever It Arrogates not only a Crown but a Tripple Crown This Beast in an Image is therefore the Beast that is not yet is viz. is not the same yet the same the same in Real Power yet in an Image too viz. Spirituality of Power is an Image of Power but enforcing that Power by its Horns it is a Real Power and so Is not yet Is c. 17. 8. But It may be said it was long er'e these Kings gave their Object 2 Power thus to the Beast It is most true it was so even as It was er'e He came to his Answer Number For therefore Prophecy sets this Beast in View Rising with his Ten Crowned Horns first out of the Sea those Troublesome Commotions in the World when Rome Fell as a Burning Mountain into the Sea. But at the Rising of this Beast out of the Bottomless Pit whither He went down when He became a Fallen Star * When Phocas gave Him the Title of Vniversal An. 606. with the Key of it to Open it and Ascended Rev. 9. 1 2. Then did He Receive the Kingdom and Power of these Horns till He goes into Perdition For the once noting Him to Rise out of the Sea and Twice to Ascend from the Bottomless Pit shews He had a double Rising One by way of meer Providence as out of the tumultuous Sea of worldly Affairs that necessitated the Emperour to abdicate Empire and to leave Him the only Name of Supreme Eminency in Rome but then He was not till after as an Antichristian False Spiritual Power or Vicar of Christ He assum'd a Kingdom an Universal Kingdom as having the Keys of Eternal Damnation in his Hand viz. of the Bottomless Pit. If the Pope be an Eighth King a Roman Supreme Power and the Head to whom the Ten Kings give their Power Why is it Object 3 not then Lawful to acknowledge Him as the Roman Caesar was to be acknowledg'd by Christ's own Command and as the Crowned Horns or Ten Kings are to be acknowledg'd who give Him their Kingdom and Power No Kings or Powers may be acknowledg'd in their Idolatrous Answ 1 or Superstitious Commands No Caesars no Kings and much more no Popes can be so Obey'd 2. But upon this very Account He ought not at all to be acknowledg'd because He is a King only in an Image and in reality a Fallen Star a Corrupted Antichristian False Spiritual Power Undermining and Usurping the Kingdom of Christ and so to be abhorr'd and detested and his Adulterous Idolatrous Church or City to be separated from and to be Come out of And thus I have I Trust evinc'd the Settlement of the Epoch or Beginning of these Fourty Two Months both by the Prophecy and by the Event and come now to fix the latter Branch or what Prophecy hath determin'd concerning the End or Period of these Months although that cannot be declar'd in the Particulars or manner of the Event but must be waited for till He shall shew them who hath Reserved them in his own power till their appointed Season But in the mean time He hath given us the Bulk of the Events which at the end of these Months shall be in their Motion and continual Progress till all be Accomplished and no Iota of the Prophecy Fall to the Ground Now to make this Point as plain as Prophecy hath made it It is to be consider'd in the two Grand Oracles that are given of it and Relate to the very End of the Twelve hundred sixty Days and so consequently to the End of the Months or to the End of the Months themselves implying the End of the 1260 Days As to the End then of the Twelve hundred sixty Days since the Witnesses are to be in Sackcloth during them whenever the Witnesses come into a splendid State It is certain They can be no longer in Sackcloth For such a State and such a Sackcloth can by no possible means Agree And then it will as certainly follow the Twelve hundred sixty Days are at an End when they change their Sackcloth for Garments of Praise For all those Twelve hundred sixty Days they are to be in Sackcloth Although therefore the Prophecy does not positively say the Twelve hundred sixty Days are at an End yet in that It says they were Called up to Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies beheld Them It must needs be that the Sackcloth must be dropp'd when they are Chariotted in a Cloud and Ascend and so then It does by necessary Implication say that the Twelve hundred sixty Days are at an End For else the Witnesses could not part with their Sackcloth being determin'd to it for so long And so long the Womans the Churches Twelve hundred sixty Days last For as their Times are equal so their States Reciprocate When therefore the Twelve hundred sixty Days are by Consequence absolutely necessary ended the Fourty Two Months are wheeled along with them to their Period And that affects the City the Great Spiritually
THE Voice from Heaven Come out of BABYLON my People DEMONSTRATED To mean the coming out of the present Papal ROME AND IT 'S COMMUNION AND Herewith a Solemn Proof is given that the Papacy can survive but Eight Years in the Principality it yet Retains Enforced by a PREFACE ADJUSTED To the present Illustrious Appearances of God in the WORLD And particularly in this NATION By T. BEVERLEY Printed and Sold by John Salusbury in Cornhill 1688 / 9. A PREFACE TO THE READER Upon the following DISCOURSE suited to the present Juncture of Affairs in the World and to the particular Signs of the Times now Emerging THat which bore up the great Princes and Leaders among the Servants of God in Elder times to such a Transcendency of Action was immediate Revelation from God The Word of God came to them as Christ speaks and ennobled them as Gods upon Earth Immediate Revelation in the same manner bore up so High the Spirits of the Prophets that they feared none of the Powers upon Earth how great and formidable soever in delivering the Divine Messages even when they threatned them with that Ruine which they knew would most enrage them to Hear of The very same immediate Revelation stirred up the Spirits of the Vniversality of the Servants of God in Prayer and suitable Action so that they offered themselves willingly to the Services of their Generation even in the Loughtiest Atchievements when they knew themselves Arm'd with the Assurances of the Purposes of God to be fulfilled in those Seasons wherein they were summoned to such Action That which next to such immediate Revelation would now Inspire the Servants of God in each Station to the highest Elevation in Divine Manifestations to the World in Prayer and Action must be a Discovery of the Signs of the present Time according to sacred Prophesie and especially that great Prophesie of the New Testament which is peculiarly entitled The Revelation Because it is and ought to be in the place of immediate Revelation to All who Read and Hear it and all the Servants of Christ ought to Read and Hear it For it is the Revelation that God gave to Jesus Christ to shew to his Servants things that are shortly to come to pass And that shewing is plainly declar'd to be by their Reading and Hearing For it immediately follows Christs shewing and signification of it by the Testimony and Writing of his Servant John. For he is commanded to write-for after Ages And to encourage in such Reading and Hearing There is a Promise of Blessedness adjoyn'd to the Reading and Hearing I do not at all doubt there is a mystical Reading and Hearing by the Spirit and Power of Christ instructing and actuating his Servants according to the Principles and Services of this very Prophesie And that what is now doing and operating in the World and in our Nation is according to it without explicite understanding or attending to the Explanation of it But yet undoubtedly a more open and bold Explanation is due especially to this Age of the Churches of Christ and approach of his Kingdom We ought now to be more skill'd in the Signs of the Times than by a meer kind of Implicite Faith. And that must be by the Calculation of them according to this Prophesie for the Signs of the Times are compounded especially of the Definition of times by Prophesy and the events determin'd to come to pass in those Times and our discerning the Signs of the Times is to be by a compare of Prophesie and the product of Times agreeable to the Prophesie together even as the Time of Messiahs coming was design'd by the sure Word of Daniels Prophesy and Jesus Christ mighty in Word and Deed came at the same Time. Now our Lord condemns the Ignorance of the Scribes and Pharisees and People who did not discern the Signs of that Time not as simple Ignorance or Nescience but as gross Hipocrisie that they would not know what they might have known and proportionably in all times but especially in these Times wherein mighty Works are to shew forth themselves and begin to shew forth themselves in the downfal of the Turkish Tyranny with which the Papal is to meet in such degrees of Ruine as are determin'd to be parallel in each and in parallel Times I most humbly and earnestly therefore Beseech the Angels of the Reformed Churches That they would search this so great Prophesie of the New Testament as commensurate as hath been said to Immediate Revelation and that they would Minister out of it to the Princes and Powers of the Ten Kingdoms that have so long given their Power and Kingdom to the Beast especially to those which are already of the Reformation For the Words of God are near to be fulfill'd for God had said The Beast shall have Power to continue Forty two Months and to receive great Power and Authority from those Kings giving their Power and their Kingdom to Him. And the Word of God was fulfill'd so that their Kingdoms were entirely so given till the Reformation when the Morning of the last half Day or half Time of the forty two Months gave Liberty to some of those Ten Kings to reverse and recal the giving of their Kingdom As Christ arose early in the Morning of his last third Day and appeared to some of the Apostles and Disciples But it was Evening e're he met them in a Body and those who saw him since were Instrumental to prepare those who did not see him till the Evening so those Princes already of the Reformation shall be Instrumental to oblige the rest who have not yet renunciated to the Beast and the false Church to do the same now near the End of the last of the forty two Months Let them therefore have those grand excitements and encouragements of Prophesie undoubtedly Cyrus though a Gentile Prince was highly animated by the Prophesies of Isaiah and Jeremiah for the Destruction of Literal Babylon which Prophesies we may be assured were expounded to Him by Daniel so great a Prophet in his own Times how much more will Christian and Protestant Princes exalted in their Spirits summon their Prowesse and puissance for the service of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ to be within these Eight next Years proclaim'd by loud Voices from Heaven For when the Words of God are to be fulfill'd that the Ten Kings and their Nations do give their Power no longer to the Beast Then the Kingdom of Christ is proclaim'd although his Inauguration as we speak shall not be till seventy five Years after If any should say the Prophesie is dark and not to be understood and Men very disenclin'd to believe the Explications given of it let them consider it is very dangerous to say of any Book of Scripture with the unlearned we cannot read it because we are not learned and with the learned we cannot read it because it is sealed If there were by the pouring out of the Spirit
Blood. I am sensible what Spirit Christianity is of to its greatest Enemies Christ came not to destroy mens lives but to save them I expect a Battel of Christ that shall not be as of the Warriors with confused noise and Garments rolled in Blood but with fewel of Fire pure and clean Holiness a pure Ether of Justice and Righteousness for in Righteousness he Judges and makes War and that in the mean time there shall be no more use of Instruments to destroy than the most Righteous and just Constitutions and Governments of Nations allow For the Angels of the Vials upon the Anti-Christian State are cloathed with Linnen pure and white and their Breasts girded with golden Girdles their Vials full with no other wrath than of God Almighty Rev. 15. Yet not offering to be particularly definitive I Avow in the general Yet Eight years and the Kingdoms of this World shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and Papacy und Mahometanism shall sink down before Him his Monarchy shall then begin its Succession although his glorious Investiture shall not be till seventy five years after In which time The everlasting Gospel shall be preached by a new Mission equal in speed and effect to that of the Apostles and more universal symboll'd therefore by an Angel flying through the midst of Heaven bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles and effectual to the Conversion of the Jews upon which Saviours shall come upon Mount Sion and destroy the whole race of Pagan Mahometan Anti-Christian Edomites and the Kingdom shall be the Lords ADVERTISEMENT IF any please to assist in the Publication of the whole Designation they shall receive Proportionably It consists of the Scripture Line of the Kingdom drawn from the first Sabbath to the thousand Years Sabbatism The Song of the Kingdom or Solomons Prophetick Song adjusted to it The Doctrine of the Kingdom or Demonstrative proof by Scripture the Kingdom of the thousand Years is the Resurrection or Day of Judgment The Prayer of the Kingdom or the Lords Prayer prov'd principally to look at that Kingdom The Sacrament of the Kingdom or the Supream aim of the Lords Supper argued to be at that Kingdom T. Beverley To the Reader THe People of this Nation professing the Protestant Religion are in danger to be surrounded with all Methods of Insinuation and Seduction to entertain the Popish Leaven which how little soever it appears in Bulk and how small a Proportion soever in number of Persons compared with Protestants it is rated at it yet undoubtedly hopes to Leaven the whole Lump of the Nation claiming to it self the Privilege of the truly Catholic Christianity to which it can no more than pretend The Romanists do not only seem to themselves to be but likewise glory as being on the higher ground tho' infinitely as it may be in general Expression said inferiour to the Protestants in Arguments of Scripture Reason and Antiquity Yet while they offer Argument for Argument Objection for Objection Answer for Answer All Men and at all times are not so wise to see know and be firmly perswaded for Truth against Errors especially when Deceptions are flank'd with hopes of advantage on one side and fears of disadvantage on the other which the Supreme Prince hath in His hand to distribute on each side At the best the Controversie seems to depend and to be like to depend while the World stands as thus menag'd but if indeed the Word of God having plainly foreseen the state of things and the Roman Obstinacy and Impenitence to the last hath given the Pourtracture of Romanism in its full Proportion so that it may be known and understood of all who will apply their Minds to the Consideration This cuts off all further Dispute and all its specious Pretences and seeming Arguments and the Vails thrown over its Superstition Idolatry and Blood are thin Lawns under which may be seen plainly the City and the Beast described in the Revelation Now no Arguments against it can be like this nor sooner make an end of the Controversie nor more secure Persons from being tempted to revert to that Vomit the Nation hath cast out nor more effectually perswade out of that Congregation and Assembly those who are now in the midst of it altho' it seems to Fare much with the Generality of them as with those of whom Solomon speaks who falling into a deep Ditch as abhorred of God They seldom return again and take hold of the ways of Life for such Guests are in the Depths of Hell. And because it concerns them who are the Votaries of that Religion to wipe off this great Blot that Prophecy I make no doubt to say I have demonstrated hath laid upon them And because too many Protestants are not willing to think so severely of them as this Prophecy Imports nor to judge the way of Prophecy proper to deal with them and because particularly One of a publick Ecclesiastic Character seems to take upon bimself as an Umpire between Protestancy and Popery and like the Days-man in Job lays his hand on both I therefore desire any of those persons laying aside Passion in which soever of these Classes to make void what I call Demonstration and to render my Speech nothing worth For I would only surprize in the first place this one Objection viz. That the Greek Churches and the whole Train of Churches that follow them are either omitted by Prophecy or must be condemned as under the Apostasie with the Romanists although they have denyed and do deny the Roman Supremacy Infallibility and come not up at least to their Transubstantiation and its Idolatry But it is most Evident Prophecy hath not omitted them nor does yet charge them so deep in the Apostasie as the Roman Church though it does severely Censure them of too sad a Part in it It does not omit them For the Two Wings of the Great Eagle that bear the Church into the Wilderness the very Expression of the Apostasie though Including the mysterious Providence of God in things also do so plainly Import the Eastern and Western Empire that they define For all these things see the Line of Time. the Time of the Apostacy beginning within the space after Theodosius the Great and Augustulus For at no other time had that Empire its Two Wings so distinct as from his Death to the Cessation of the Western Empire It also Represents the Eastern and Western Apostatizing Hierarchies by the Two Horns of the Other Beast that spake like a Dragon though Horn'd as a Lamb that joyn'd in making the Image to the Grand Roman Beast and to Cause it to Speak and to Cause c. Revel 13. All which was notably fulfilled in the Grecian Affectation of Universality by John the Patriarch of Constantinople laying the Foundation of that Tyrannous Title which Phocas the Grecian Emperour soon after decreed to Rome and its Bishop and the Grecian Counsel of Nice together with
hence Let us then consider the Importance of this Voice and it is plainly the Separation of the People of God and so of every Person among us if we are of his People from any Communion with that City or Community concerning which we shall by the Light of this Prophecy duly weigh'd and consider'd be convinc'd that It is the City symboliz'd or set out by this Mystical Woman And our Separation must be proportionable to the danger of being tainted or struck with the Contagion of its Sins or Apprehended and Reach'd by the Thunder-shaft of its Plagues For so is the Charge Come out of her my People And so is the Enforcement Lest ye be partaker of her Sins and lest ye Receive of her Plagues Now that we may do this It is highly Expedient at least to use the utmost Enquiry into this Prophecy that we may know by the Characters of it What and what manner of City the Spirit of God in it doth signifie and what or what manner of Time also It hath denoted or else we cannot so well judge what is 1 Pet. 1. 11. our Duty or what our Danger For though I would allow with as much Largeness of mind as can be desir'd that by the General Rules of Universal Scripture we may without the particular Understanding of this Prophecy be secur'd from both the Impurities and from the Judgments of this City by Adhering to the Truth and Purity and Mercy of the Christian Religion in Doctrine Discipline Worship and Practise according to the just measures of the Word of God yet we cannot do it with those particular Evidences of that Divine Reason nor with those vigorous Emotions of Zeal against such an unclean Communion as this Prophecy rightly apprehended would arm us with For certainly The Pen of this Divine Scribe was not made in vain I will therefore use the highest Diligence of Research and close Enquiry into the Prophecy concerning the City and the Times appointed to it and then concerning the Comming out of it and enforce the Charge here given to come out of it and all this as peculiarly deriv'd from this Holy Oracle in comparison of which all the Streams deriv'd from Antiquity are Low and Flat in shewing the Great Abominations of that City But Blessed is he that Readeth and They who Hear the Words of this Prophecy for now the Time is more at hand as to what we are now to Treat of than when the Oracle was first given although each part of this Prophecy was in its own Time and Order at Hand according to the Line wherein each Thing was to come to pass and which Line began in the Things that were first to come to pass and did come to pass from the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ which are but one Time in the Account of Prophecy as we say in Law The whole of each Term is but one Day and from thence the Revelation is dated as from its Epoch or Beginning-Point First therefore concerning the City there are such Characters as undeniably assure us This City can be no other than the City Rome that is here thus describ'd The City resembled by a Woman a not only Imperious but Charact. 1 Imperial whorish Woman is plainly Expounded by the Angel to be a City And it is usual in Prophecy to Figure Cities by that Embleme of a Woman and not only Cities but Churches as Revel c. 17. c. 18. Zion by a Woman grieved in Spirit the True Church in this Prophecy is often Typ'd by a Woman the New Jerusalem by the Bride the Lambs Wife And Adulterous Churches by Adulterous Women as Aholiab and Aholibah are the Pictures of Samaria Ezek. 23. and Jerusalem both as Adulterous Cities and Churches But this Woman this Imperial and Imperious whorish Woman is affirm'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all the Emphasis and Force of Expression that can be The City The Great That hath now saith the Apostle John that I am in writing it at this very present Time the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth Now a City that had then the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth undeniably imported a Capital City the Seat of an Vniversal Monarchy at that Time. For as a Monarch hath in the very nature of a Monarch all subordinate Magistrates under him and accountable to Him so an Universal Monarchy hath States and Kingdoms under it that however in their particular Kingdoms They may be over and above all others yet still their Power is Limitable and accountable to and may be Appealed from to the Universal Monarchy and Power When therefore This City is said to be The City The Great Having at that Time a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth It is to say the City spoken of was at the Time when the Revelation was given the Seat of an Vniversal Monarchy and that some Supreme Power had its Imperial Residence there took its Title from that City exercis'd its Power under that Title and as the then present Head of that City bore up the City by such Title so that it is said to have a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth because such a Power so related to it had a Kingdom over all other Kingdoms far and near or had sueh an Universal Monarchy or Kingdom Now what City that was that had then a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth in the sense now declared besides the Notices of Universal History in that matter it is most evident from Scripture that it must be even that very City Rome for Augustus at that time the Emperour of Rome when our Lord was Born made a Decree that All the World viz. the World of the Roman Empire which Aspir'd as it were to equal the very Habitable Earth in Extent should come under a particular Census Luc. 2. 1. or be describ'd that so an Account of the large Bounds of the Dominion the Numerousness Strength and Riches of the Subjects might be render'd to Him. We read in the History of the Acts of the Apostles how great the Honour was for any City to be accounted a Member of that City that its Natives might be the Free-Born of that City It made such a City no mean City The Immunity of being so Free-born was so great that many purchas'd it at an exceeding Rate who had it not by Birth We find the Apostle Paul though he was a Jew and immediately subject to the Jewish Law yet as it were directed by an Impulse of Providence Appeals to Caesar's Tribunal as the Highest upon Earth These and Acts 22 28 many other Expressions assure us what City it was that at that Time Reigned over the Kings of the Earth And it was very necessary the Scripture that loves most in all weighty matters to be serv'd by its own Records should take this great Notice of the Roman Empire Because as the Fourth Monarchy it was of the Four the most Remarkable For
That which General Argum. 1 gives us the distinguishing States and Times of this City according to this Prophecy and according to the General Reason of Things must be the distinguishing of the Times and States of its Seven Heads and Eight Kings Even as in all States Kingdoms and Cities their Times are given by the Reigns of the Princes and by the Governments over them If then by the computing the Times of these it shall appear the present Rome is this Woman or City the Demonstration will be secure Now Thus is the whole Prophetick Frame This City sits on a Beast of Seven Heads for those Seven Mountain-Heads are by the By and only to give the presumptive Knowledge of this City so fam'd for its Seven Mountains the certain and more accomplish'd assurance even to Plerophory of which is its having at that Time a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth yet this of the Mountains joyn'd with it establishes it in the Evidence of Two most undoubted Testimonies of it Yet still it is to be consider'd the Woman sits on the Mountains only as a City is describ'd by its Scituation and this City by its Scituation on Seven Mountains which is a very Grand Character of it But the Woman sits on the Beast of Seven Heads as a Man or Woman are carried aloft on the Beast that bears them or on which they Ride so this Woman sits as a City fast seated on Seven Mountains and as an Imperial Woman Riding in State on the Beast that bears as the Prophecy expresly styles it or carries her and offering her Golden cup of Fornications to the Kings of the Earth intoxicated with the Grandeur and Riches as also with the Sensuality of her Lusts and Adulteries Encircled therefore with these Seven and Seven of Heads for Assuring the City and for the greater flourish of the Type The Woman sits on high and the Two Sevens of Heads are expounded by the Angel to be Seven Hills or Mountains unmoveable Heads And They viz. the Heads not There as the English Translation too Low are Seven Kings who are the moving living Heads of the Beast on which she sits and by the Flitting or Remove of the Principality from one Head to another the Times of the Woman or of the City as we shall see are to be dated for though the Heads are always united to the Beast as all one Animal or Bestial living Creature however monstrous it may seem yet the Kingship of the Heads was in a Succession till it came to the last King under which it now is and hath been so long Now among these Seven Heads that were Kings there was a Seventh King cast in that was of another kind as being no Head which is of very great consideration in this prophetical Portraicture as we shall find and He comming in makes the Seventh Head the Eighth King. That we may be therefore guided by this whole Type to the certain knowledge of the present State of this City I will lay down these four Propositions with the proof of each These Seven Heads and Eight Kings are not together Kings or Propos 1 in the Exercise of Sovereignty at one and the same Time but are in a Succession or after one another This is most undeniable for Five had been before the Prophecy given to the Apostle and were Fallen viz. from their Principality or Exercise of Sovereignty else they were not Fallen for they are still represented on the Beast and never part from it as in the Prophetick Image but pertain to the Integrity of the Beast or Roman Imperialism from first to last which always consists of all its Parts They were Fallen then in regard of Principality or Exercise of Sovereignty which they had in their proper Time or Season Their union therefore to the Beast preserves them still their place as Heads in the prophetick Sculpture but not as Kings still in Being Now these Five Fallen Heads are given as in One or as in a Knot and Clamp together the Prophecy being little concern'd in their exact Distinction or Succession it being enough to it that there were before the Prophecy Five Supreme Roman Governments which as we shall see It calls Kings Whether they were just in an order or whether traversing one another it is all one as to the Prophecies Concern in them The Caution therefore in the Prophecy in this matter is very observable knowing what objection might be made concerning the Succession of the Kingly Consular Dictatorian Tribunitial and Decemviral Power the so well known several Governments of the Roman States It gives them in a Heap of Five together Signifying It intended no more than to mark by them the Beasts Heads before the Prophecy as past or Fallen and only Remarks the Succession of the One that then was and that It was not while the Five were and that they had been and were Fallen before the Prophecy was given which sufficiently demonstrates the Suceession betwixt the Five and the One then in Being which is all the Prophecy aims at and troubles not it self with the order of the Five among themselves any farther than that Five such were and that they drew along the Times of the City to the Succession of the One then in Being The Seventh was plainly to be a King but was not yet come but was to come and to continue but a short space when He came which farther assures the Succession For seeing He was not come He could not be together with the Sixth King who then was nor could He be at the same Time with the succeeding Eighth in whom the City was to be destroy'd for He was to continue but a short space And then after Him the Eighth King follows the Eighth viz. in strict Order because the short-liv'd Seventh came between Him and the Sixth But the Eighth was of the Seven viz. of the Seven Kings who were also the Seven Heads there must be therefore a Succession between the Seventh short-liv'd and the Eighth because the Seventh and Eighth imply so much the Seventh is to continue a short space The Eighth therefore necessarily is suppos'd not to be so curtailed in Time Both Kings and so not together and the Other Seventh no Head for the Eighth was of the Seven Kings that were Heads From all which it is most impossible but that a Succession must appear most manifestly There is no Appearance of the least of an Hiatus or Gap Propos 2 there is no Interreign no vacuum or empty space in the Succession betwixt the Sixth King then in Being the Seventh and the Eighth in which onely the Prophetick Time is concern'd but all the Caution against it that can be for why was this Seventh King who was no Head put in but that he might stand as an Embolimean or double Seventh King like our Embolimean or double Twenty fourth of February in every Embolimean or Intercalar or as we usually speak Leap-year that there might be no
Time even to its final Desolation For its whole Ichnography or Representation is charg'd upon these Seven Heads in the last of which It is utterly Desolated The Heads therefore cannot be several Monarchies and Kingdoms For They are All the Heads of One Beast or Monarchy and so not several Monarchies or Empires They All bear up the One City Rome and so must be one Roman Supremacy Nor can they be single Kings or Monarchic Persons seeing neither would Seven Lives support the Grandeur of Eternal Rome as It was Call'd nor in Fact have any Seven so supported it from the Apostle John's Time much less Two One of which was then in Being although we cast in the Embolimean seventh King but not Head For since the Writing of the Apostle is above sixteen hundred Years and yet the Judgment Written in this Prophecy is not as yet Executed From the Time then that This City was said to have such an Ascendency as to have the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth to this time of the Desolation here Foretold the City Rome was to be kept up in Dignity by its sixth King then in Being by its seventh King no Head for a short space by its Eighth King and seventh Head under which it is to sink as a Mill-stone How impossible is it therefore these Kings should be other then Governments or Successions of several Persons or numbers of Persons in each Government Let us now lay together these Four Propositions and consider their Amount to that which we are upon That which we are upon is That the Present and not a Future Rome or Antichrist Falls under the Thunder-stroke of this Prophecy and that the People of God are call'd out of the present Roman City or Church The general way of proving this must be by finding that the Present Rome is upon the Eighth King and seventh Head Together with which It is to be destroy'd For that is the Rome out of which the People of God are call'd even that Rome that is to be hus destroy'd To find this we must consider the Eight Kings and Seven Heads under which Rome passes its whole Time and be able to judge of their Times To which end I have debated these Four Propositions 1. That these are Kings in Succession 2. That the Successions are immediate and without any void Time between 3. That the King that was no Head can have no Room but in the seventh place 4. That the seven and eight Kings are not single-Kings but several and a number of Kings under each King. Now let us consider the Amount of these four Propositions and it must needs be that these Things will follow That whatever King or sort of Government carried the City Consequ 1 Rome aloft in the Apostle Johns Time of writing the Revelation must be the sixth King for Five then were fallen with whom the Prophecy had no further to do then to give them as a mark of the City and of the Beasts carrying it One was then in Being which following the Five must needs be the Sixth We know both by History and by Scripture mentioning Augustus Consequ 2 Tiberius Claudius Caesar Emperours of Rome That the Head bearing up Rome in the Apostles Times was the Heathen Imperial Head And seeing there was no Time that Rome was more drunk with the Blood of Saints in universal Acknowledgment nor the Roman Empire more confessedly carryed the Names of Blasphemy then at that Time We know by the same universal Consent that of all others the sixth King must needs be a Head which decides so far the doubt betwixt the sixth and the seventh Kings which should be of them Two the Head seeing both could not and it assures us the sixth must be the Head. And indeed were not the Prophecy so puissantly against it It looked fair to be the Rome and Beast of that Time here meant but for great Reasons that can't be We know by undoubted History the Heathen Imperialism fell by Constantine in whom the Empire became Christian And seeing Consequ 3 there was no Inter-reign or breach in the succession of Kings after the sixth the seventh must immediately succeed And therefore It must be the Christian Empire because that immediately followed that Heathen from whence it appears how admirably agreeable the Prophecy and the Event are For as we have made evident by the words of the Prophecy the seventh King could be no Head carrying the Names of Blasphemy So the Christian Empire acknowledging the One God and the One Mediator the True God in whom is Eternal Life was free from this Brand and by wonderful Wisdom of Providence It was ordered that Constantine and other the Christian Emperours withdrew themselves much from Rome so that they did not as the Heads of the Beast bear Rome so high but It was in an Eclipse Constantine building the City Constantinople as a New Rome to shade the Old And which is wonderful assuring as Prophecy presents the Beast wounded in One of his Heads with a deadly wound so we know by History the Beast as an Idolatrous Empire was wounded in the Christian Victories over the Idolatrous Emperours and Chiefs Thus every way the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Another falls so duly upon the Christian Emperour that It is even to ravishment at the Wisdom of the very prophetical Grammar that so plac'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or One that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Another might follow big with Sense and yet veil'd with secresie and lastly This Empire continued but a short space viz. about an hundred and fifty years which was short compared with the five fallen before the Prophecy bundled together shorter by half than the sixth King then in Being but beyond comparison shorter then the eighth King who is plainly aim'd at and for whose sake the seventh King was cut so short in Time that he might have his full Time viz. of forty two prophetick Months as we shall see above twelve hundred years in ordinary account The only Objection I can possibly divine thus far is that because the form of Government was Imperial both under the Heathen and Christian Emperours The Heathen and Christian Emperour cannot be understood to be two forms of Government and so the sixth and the seventh Kings seem confounded into One and thereby this account is overthrown To this I answer first seeing we are sure the Heathen Empire Answ 1 must be the sixth King that then was It will very little alter the case as to the present Rome For It is certain that sixth King must be fallen we are also certain the seventh being to continue but a short space must be fallen also because the space from the sixth King hath been so very long From whence it will follow the Eighth and last King must be and must have been long in play and whoever is and hath been long so must be the eighth King and Rome must be this Rome
called Sodom for the Filthiness of its Fornications and dreadful Burnings that it is devoted to And Aegypt first for its Oppression of the Saints with whose Blood it is Drunk Then for the Plagues that will come upon it and lastly for its Pharaoh-like Principality first in the Pagan Dragon and then its Draconick Pope to whom the Dragon consign'd His Power And to follow all the Emblems of the City as on purpose to bring it Home to Rome It it both Resembled to the City where our Lord was Crucified signifying its Whoredom to be like the Whoredom of that Infamous Aholibah or Jerusalem the False Whorish Church and under the Jurisdiction of Rome so much at that Time that not without the most Notorious Sentence of the Roman Judge Pontius Pilate Our Lord was Crucified which was for the very Service of this Prophecy so particularly we may Believe Recorded that in that Sense the very City Rome was the City in which Our Lord was Crucified All this Affects this City so that its Tenth Falls Now this City sits on the Beast For to shew it is the same City that sits on the Beast when the Beast the very same Beast that Ascends out of the Bottomless Pit c. 11. c. 17. Kills the Witnesses Their Dead Bodies lye in the Street of that Great City which plainly joyns the Beast and the City together the City as the Imperial Residence the Beast as the King of it as the Vision of the c. 17. does For He as King having Power of Life and Death those whom He Kills lye in the Street of his Great Emperial City So then the City and the Beast are here first so nearly conjoyn'd and so again c. 17. How then comes the Tenth of this Great City to Fall whatever we understand by it for I will not now dispute that How comes it to Fall I say when It sits on the Beast It could not be if the Beast Himself did not Sink and how could He Sink if His Fourty two Months were not out For so long was given Him by Prophecy which in another Character is call'd Time Times and Half a Time and as apply'd to the Witnesses Three Days and a Half in Imitation of our Lord 's three Days in the Grave Till the Morning then of the Half Time and Day there could be no such Alteration in his Kingdom as the Reformation made and till that Time of the Forty two Months fully exhausted when the Twelve hundred sixty Days End also in the Rising and Glory of the Witnesses There cannot be a Fall of the Tenth of the City which He bears up the Grandeur of And to shew farther that this Beast that Slays the Witnesses is the same with the Beast c. 17. It is made known by that certain Mark of it the Ascending out of the Bottomless Pit and that we may know they are both the same with the Beast who hath the Fourty two Months c. 13. He makes War with the Saints who are the Seed of the Woman and Hold the Testimony of Jesus C. 12. Vlt. or are the Witnesses being thereunto Deputed by the Dragon who gave him his Throne and Great Authority and He that Beast is Taken c. 19. as is foretold also c. 13. He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity And the Ten Kings who give him their Power who make War with the Lamb and He overcomes them are Kill'd with the Sword of his Mouth c. 19. as was foretold c. 13. He that killeth with the Sword shall be killed with the Sword. All which farther Assure together with what hath been said before That It is one and the same Beast throughout the Prophecy of the Revelation viz. the Seventh Head of the Roman Empire and its Eighth King to whom the Ten Kings as Horns give their Power The second Oracle given us concerning the Period of the Forty two Months is c. 17. God hath put into the Heart of the Ten Kings to Do his Will or execute his Determination and to execute and perform One Determination untill the Words of God shall be fulfilled Now this Counsel Determination and Will of God is that which is explain'd what it is It is even that they should Give their Kingdom and Power to the Beast And how long Vntill the words of God shall be fulfill'd And Those words were declar'd c. 13. Authority was given to Him as a Beast of Ten Horns to continue Forty two Months The great Event therefore at the End of the Forty two Months is That then the Ten Kings shall Hate the Whore and make her Desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with Fire From whence it is evident how close the Union is between the City call'd the Whore and the Beast For while the Kings give their Power to the Beast they bear up the Beast who bears up the City while they fulfill the Decree of God for the Beasts Forty two Months They are One in giving Him their Kingdom and Power and so long They are drunk with the Wine of the Whores Fornication But when those Words are fulfill'd and those Forty Two Months then They hate the Whore and then this Tenth of the Great City Falls viz. the whole Circle of the Power given by these Ten Horns or Ten Kings who now Recall their Power from the Beast and that Tenthness of Power Falls also For however the Grammar of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not bear such an Exposition of it as should signifie the Ten King'd Power yet the Prophecy of Daniel in the Ten Toes of the Image the Ten Horns of the Beast and The whole Frame of the Prophecy of the Revelation concerning the Beast his Ten Horns or Ten Kings does forcibly over-sway the nicety of Grammar and carries the Prophecy to this Sense and much the rather because as hath been argued The Twelve hundred sixty Days will be then ended and the Words of God fulfilled concerning the Bestian Power which lay so much in its Horns or Ten Kings persecuting the Witnesses Let us now recollect the Summ of this Argument in the Proof it gives The Argument runs thus The Roman City or Church sits on the Beast or Eighth Kimg who hath been in Possession of the Time allotted him by Prophecy so long as from the Seventh other King of a short space after the sixth King that was in the Apost John's Time till now within nine or ten Years of the Expiration of that Time as a Time allowable to remain for the fulfilling of All Events This is the Beast or eighth King bearing up that Rome whether City or Church out of which Gods People are Called But the present City or Church of Rome sitting upon the Pope is and hath been in that Possession so long That Time so allotted is expresly said to be Fourty two Months those Months must be Prophetical Months or Days for Years Those Months must be Time of the Moon and not of the