endeavour to gain the good will of this new Usurper though his hands be yet reeking with bloud that they may thereby obtain of him this glorious and beneficial Title of Universal Bishop nor upon the obtaining thereof forbear any cruelties to such Bishops as will detrect this new imposed yoke 8. Which prize they having once gotten we suppose they will not stick here but will still by craft encroach upon the Secular Power For this Universal Bishop will plausibly require an Oath of Obedience from all other Bishops in what Kingdoms soever which is no less wickedness then to ensnare them in a way to treachery and perfidiousness to their own Sovereigns and to make them indeed betrayers of their own liberty For they being thus loosened and alienated from their proper Princes are made indeed the more firm to this great Patriarch Oecumenical but withall his surer Vassals to be dealt with in Impositions and Fees and what-ever other Injunctions as he pleases For we suppose they will also wring out of the Secular Princes hand upon pretence of their being the highest Sovereignty in Ecclesiastick Affairs the Right of Investitures thereby to make all Bishops less dependent on the Temporal Sovereignty and more endeared to the Apostolick See but still more enslaved thereto as I noted before and without remedy if oppressed thereby whether by removing all considerable Appeals out of the Bishop's Court respective into that Apostolick Judicature or by what other aggrievances soever But the Aggrievance of Appeals alone is so great as if all Christendome were set on the rack or if you will torturously drawn together with the Cramp to fit the transaction of Affairs to the forced Universality and Interest of this Vicar-General of Christ. And yet it will be so according to this Hypothesis to maintain the Pomp and Ambition of one Universal Domineering Prelate They will also get the whole body of the Clergy exempt from all Secular Judicatures they being indeed by these successfull devices made properly the Subjects of this Ecclesiastick Monarch But by this feat they do most grossly defraud all Secular Potentates of as many Subjects as there are men of Religious Orders in Christendom they being ipso facto made the Subjects of this King of Pride as Gregory in a Divinatory rapture called him and not to be tried at any Secular Tribunal no not for Murther Robbery House-breaking or what other crime soever Which Immunity as it cannot but make them proud and insolent to the Laiety as they call them so must it as I noted before more throughly enslave the Clergie to this Ecclesiastick Tyrant For they can rationally expect no succour from those Princes whose Sovereignty they have slipt from under and consequently from under their Protection by these Religious Frauds and therefore lie wholly at the mercy of him whom the greatness of his Title and Pontifical Pomp exceeding so infinitely his just Revenues must make a severe exacter of Tribute from them that are most appropriately under his power and thereby put them to unworthy shifts and sharkings upon the people by pious or rather impious Sleights and Frauds he sending out and dispersing these Birds of his in numerous flocks to be his hungry Pick-peny's throughout the whole Pastorage of the Empire 9. Thus great a Pride proportionably fed with the injury of others and especially of the Bishops and other Clergie whom this Tyrannical high-Priest would pill and poll as he pleases is discoverable already in the Draught we are a-making of this Member of Antichristianism But it would be still heightened if we should imagine further extravagancies As suppose if this Universal Priest should not be content to be Supreme Bishop but put in to out-top the Emperour himself and should most wretchedly and treacherously watch a safe occasion as suppose while the Imperial forces are generously and faithfully employ'd to beat the Common Enemy out of Christendom whether Turks or Saracens to raise war against the Emperour and his adherents in those parts nearest his own See to beat him thence to make room for an opportunity of nimming away some share of the Empire to himself Certainly it were an high strain of Ambition that could move any to such Devillish practices What then were it for this Cunning Prelate to send this or that Prince on holy Expeditions on purpose to cheat them of their Dominions or fleece them of their Revenues What to absolve great Ministers of State and all the Subjects of a Prince from their Oaths of Fidelity and that merely for his own Interest To take upon him to depose the true Sovereign and set up another the liege Subject of the deposed and who had no right at all to the Crown for hope of a recompence proportionable to the greatness of his extravagant presumption and for to enrich himself by the ruines of the injured To be adored as an Omnipotent Plenipotentiary that may doe any thing and to have his Clients fall down and kiss his feet and his servants to carry him on their shoulders in procession like the ancient Idols of Babylon 10. Nay what shall we say to this Holy man's utterly ruining of the Eastern Empire to enrich himself with the rubbish what to the forging Deeds of Gift or Donations to cover over the odiousness of his Rapine what to the leaving in a manner no Empire at all but what is Sacerdotal raising it above all Kings Emperours and Christian Princes whatsoever and this atchieved by such persons as were the most wicked of any that bore the name of Sovereign Holiness whereby we may be the better assured of the Antichristianism of the Constitution it being brought about and established by impure Sorcerers Murtherers and Poisoners of Princes That power therefore which one single Luciferian Prelate shall thus procure by frauds and rapines by robbing Kings of their Rights by subverting States and Kingdoms by the inveagling the Sons of Emperours into Treason Rebellion and Parricide by absolving Subjects from their Oaths of Fealty by involving Christendom in war and bloudshed by that insolent presumption of Excommunicating Emperours and Potentates they not offending yea firmly adhering to the Law of Christ and by disposing of their Dominions as he pleases if this I say be not a right Idea of that signal Antichristian Power perfectly opposite to that Equity Sweetness Meekness and Lowliness of spirit which was so conspicuous in Christ Jesus even in his highest Triumph on Earth I cannot nor I think any one else imagine what is We omit here all that rack of mind and torture of Conscience that the unmeasurable Sublimity of this Prince of Pride might put all Christendom upon by his vexatious and superstitious Opinions and Ceremonies invented onely for the procuring fewel to feed and maintain the Grandeur and Pomp of so stately a Magnifico All mens minds must be ground with Sollicitude and their Purses emptied to fill up and swell out the fastuous tumour of this Prince-riding Patriarch Of
but Fire from Heaven To which destruction whoever do take upon them to adjudge men may very well be said to bring down fire from Heaven upon them which that Thunder-bolt of Excommunication does threaten 15. Flesh. By Flesh is understood in Scripture whatsoever is opposite to the Spirit and I mean in a Moral or Mystical way and that is all to be consumed by the Spirit and by Fire But more particularly Flesh signifies sometimes that which they vulgarly call Carnal Ordinances in some such sense as that is meant by S. Paul Are ye so foolish having begun in the Gal. 3. 3. spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh Where he speaks of the Law of Moses And the Author to the Hebrews more expresly who speaking Chap. 7. v. 16. of Christ and comparing of him with the Mosaick Aaron Who is made saith he not after the Law of a carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life And still nearer to our purpose chap. 9. ver 10. where he speaks of a service which stood onely in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal Ordinances imposed on them untill the time of Reformation By Flesh therefore may be understood all the external Ordinances and Institutes that men have rashly heaped upon Christianity whether merely useless or else Superstitious and Idolatrous for these are to the spirit of Christianity as the over-load of a fulsome and over-grown and unwholesome Flesh to the spirit of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 16. But there is another sense of Flesh taken much notice of in the Onirocriticks Artemidor lib. 3. c. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good for a rich man to dream he eats his own flesh for it signifies the utter wasting of his riches or substance Achmetes c. 283. according to the Indian Persian and Aegyptian Interpreters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Like that of the Israelites eating the flesh or the Leviathan in the Wilderness for the Leviathan or Dragon is the King of Aegypt And again c. 285. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And lastly according to the Indians c. 87. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And compendiously and at once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flesh is universally referred to gold and riches in the interpretation of Visions or Dreams 17. Floud See Water Fornication See Whoredom Frogs A Frog is an Hieroglyphick of Imperfection saies * Hieroglyph lib. 29. Pierius according to the sense of the Aegyptian Priests and he makes as if the occasion thereof was the observation of the half-finished generation of this Animal out of the slime of Nilus which he casts up in his overflowing after which this Creature is seen half-formed part Frog part Mud as * Lib. 1. Hieroglyph 25. Horus Apollo also expresly affirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in that it is thus gendred of filth and mire I should look upon it as a fit Emblem of that Wisedom which is not from above but is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earthly Animal or Sensual and Devillish and is accompanied with bitter zeal and strife in the heart as the Apostle intimates just before and contrary to that Wisedom which is from above which is first pure not bemired with worldly lusts then peaceable not breeding contention nor full of words and brawlings like the importunate narsh and disharmonious Coaxations of Frogs so called in the Greek from that very ungratefull noise as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the shrilness and asperity of the noise they make much less forward to war and bloudshed or to the instigating of Princes and men in Power thereunto which the hoarse and harsh Coaxation of these Creatures may be a fit Symbol of and the rather if these Trumpeters to war be conceived to be such men as are as soft and unwarlike as these naked and slimy Animals no more fit to fight then they but be onely Trumpeters to war and confusion and that for their own Interest the zealous declamations and vociferations they make being in behalf of themselves as all the noise the Frog makes is with its tongue turned inwards towards its one gullet Whence that Creature seems a very lively Emblem of such Wretches as these Artemidor lib. 2. c. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ranae homines impostores scurras significant which has no small affinity with our larger description of them 18. Gemms and precious Stones See Crown God In the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Magistrates as well as God as appears from several places of Scripture And Artemidorus has taken notice of the Analogie even from the highest Antiquity lib. 2. c. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quicquid dominatur vim habet Dei And again lib. 3. c. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any rich man dream he is made a God it prognosticates a very great Principality For Princes are in a power of doing good and hurt in a manner equal to the very Gods CHAP. VII 1. Hail the signification thereof according to Scripture 2. And the ancient Onirocriticks 3. Harvest the evil and auspicious sense thereof 4. Head how clearly significative of Sovereign Power whether in Many or One. 5. Heaven and Earth 6. Horn. 7. Horse Islands 8. King and Kingdom 9. That Kinds or Sorts of things are sometimes expressed as if Individualls of the same Kind 10. Leopard Locusts 11. Male-childe Mark Measure Mill Month Moon 12. Mountain the several significations thereof 1. HAil Whenas Winds and Storms signify Political Commotions and Warres as is acknowledged by Grotius and all other Interpreters that they doe as in Daniel 7. 2. where the Four winds of Heaven are said to strive upon the great Sea well may a storm of Hail signify War and Incursion of the enemie and especially if they come from the North the congeledness of this Meteor bearing upon it the character of that Quarter Two eminent Examples of this Prophetick Figure we have in Esay The first Ch. 28. Behold the Lord hath a mighty and strong One which as a Tempest of Hail and destroying storm as a floud of mighty waters overflowing shall cast down to the Earth violently The crown of Pride the Drunkards of Ephraim shall be troden under feet Haec significant saith Forerius hostium adventum qui universum regnum Israel devastaturi erant But it is so plain it wanted no interpretation The other example is Esay ch 30. And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard and shall shew the lighting down of his arme with the indignation of his anger and with a flame of devouring fire with scattering and tempests and hail-stones For with the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down c. that is to say The forces of the Lord will come against Assur like Thunder and Lightening and Hail So plain is it that an Hail-storm is significative of the incursion and assault of an enemie according to the style of Scripture 2.
the Horse also signifies impediments in the affairs of the Rider and his contumacy and intractableness if he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hard-mouthed the Rider's both fault and affliction And several other things in the Horse are in like manner referred to him that rides him c. 152. And again c. 233. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And presently after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of all which it is plainly manifest that these Horses are the Symbols of the Conditions of their Riders or of the People over which they are set who are the Beast they ride upon Which will facilitate the understanding of the Visions of the Four Horses in the Apocalyps whose Riders are easily conceived to be Commanders who are properly Emperours and what is signified in the Horses to respect either the Empire or the Emperours themselves Hour See Time Islands That Islands may signifie persons of greater Dignity their eminency or bearing themselves above the Planicies of the Sea does intimate to us But that they may sometimes signifie Temples or places consecrate their being disterminated from other Land as these Edifices are from all other Houses may well allure a mans imagination to believe See Mr. Mede upon the Sixth Seal 8. King and Kingdom If King be look'd upon as one distinct kind of Sovereignty when it is put for Supreme Governour it may either be an Icasmus for every Supreme Governour is to his Body Politick as a King to his or else a Diorismus which is a kind of Prophetick Synecdoche as I have said setting down the Species for the Genus But if it be so as Mr. Mede seems abundantly to have proved in his Regnum Romanum est quartum Regnum Danielis that King and Kingdom in the Hebrew is as large in use of signification as Supreme Power and that Body that is subject thereto be it Kingdom or Commonwealth then to use King promiscuously of any Supreme Power calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Apoc. 17. it is onely an Hellenism and the calling the Seven Heads there Seven Kings needs neither the solution into a Diorismus nor Icasmus but onely an Henopoeia for those Heads amongst them which are conceived to be such a Sovereignty as resides in many 9. And that they are said to be Seven Kings and not seven sorts of Kings that is no unusual manner of speech for we say Four Moral Vertues Five Senses Three Physical Principles Four Passions and the like for three kinds and four kinds of Principals and Passions and so of the rest So the Four Beasts in Daniel that are said to rise out of the Sea are four kinds of Beasts not Individuals of the same kind And the Two Witnesses in the Apocalyps are Two several kinds of Witnesses as Grotius himself acknowledges But were it not that use has made it thus familiar to call seven sorts of Kings seven Kings were a Diorismus the speech being more restrained and determinate For an Individual is more determinate then the Species and the Species then the Genus So little difficulty is there in calling seven sorts of Supreme Governours Seven Kings as the Text of the Apocalyps does chap. 17. 10. 10. Leopard Achmetes c. 272. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Leopard signifies an unreconcilable Enemy And in the same Paragraph he saith If a Commander dreams that he fights with this Animal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cum hoste potente fraudulento formidoloso bellum geret Locusts That Locusts signifie numerous Armies of men pillaging and destroying a Country is plain from Joel 1. 6. For a Nation is come up upon my land strong and without number whose teeth are the teeth of a Lion and be hath the cheek-teeth of a great Lion He hath laid my Vine waste and hath barked my Fig-tree he hath made it clean bare and cast it away the branches thereof are made white By Nation the Jews and Vatablus with others understand a multitude of Locusts but that is but the Type The Persians and Babylonians as also other Nations that were to lay waste Judaea are signified thereby according to Munster and Clarius Grotius also interprets it of the Armies of Phul and Salmanasser Also in the next Chapter vers 2. the gloominess and darkness of that day is imputed to the cloud of Locusts that flie in the aire and their sudden lighting on the place compared to the morning spread upon the mountains And v. 3. The land is as the garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness namely by reason of their devouring all the green herbs where-ever they come That is the Interpretation of several Hebrew Expositors as also of Vatablus Castalio Drusius Liveleius But Munster and Grotius expound it of the numerous Armies of the Babylonians and Assyrians that were to waste and destroy Judaea Achmetes c. 300. according to the mind of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The latter part of which Aphorism is to be referred to the Indian Onirocriticks and does assuredly allude to that of Joel And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any King or Potentate see Locusts come upon a place let him expect a powerful multitude of Enemies there and look what hurt the Locusts doe the enemy will doe mischief proportionably 11. Male-child As the Woman that brings forth is not a single woman but the Apostolick Church so the Child must not be a single person but a company Apoc. 12. to which Grotius also subscribes And Andreas upon the place Filius masculus est Ecclesiae populus the Mystical Christ. Totus enim Christus Caput Corpus est as * Cassandr Consult Art 7. Cassander has noted out of S. Austin If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore may be understood of a Multitude under one Head why may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thess. 2. 3 Measure See Balance Mark See Character Mill. Achmetes out of the Onirocriticks of the Indians c. 194. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If any one dream he has a Mill grinding he shall prosper in his employment and live in affluence proportionably to theâ—… thickness and fairness of the Mill-stones c. And cap. 195. out of the Persian and Aegyptian Interpretations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Month. See Time Moon See Sun Moon and Stars 12. Mountain Mountain may have several significations As first it may signifie the Temples or Holy places of Idolaters of which there is frequent mention in Scripture under the title of High places Jer. 3. 23. according to the vulgar Latin Verè mendaces erant colles multitudo montium verè in Domino Deo nostro salus Israel Upon which Grotius Colles illi in quibus Idola colebantur nos deceperunt Secondly Mountains signifie Cities Esa. ch 13. 2. concerning Babylon Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain Forerius out
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of all which is in brief that in the interpretation of Visions or Dreams the Sun immutably represents the King the Moon the next in power to him the Planet Venus the Queen and the rest of the bigger Stars the Princes or Nobles of the Kingdom 13. Which is not so superstitiously to be understood but that if there were no Queen any third in dignity might be represented thereby For this Venus is also Lucifer which the Hebrews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under which the mighty King of Babylon is represented Esay 14. 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the Morning how art thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken the Nations Which seems to be against the analogie of the Onirocriticks which say the Sun signifies the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But they do not say a Star may not signifie him especially when he is not compared with his own Nobles and Princes but with other Kings For a plurality of Suns is unnatural Wherefore in that case the Parable is to be made from the Stars onely and the chiefest King is the greatest and most glorious Star Whence when the Roman Empire had two Caesars unsubordinate to one another they could not well be called Suns but Stars though glorious ones Which agrees well with Mr. Mede's interpreting of that great Star that fell at the sound of the third Trumpet of the expiring of the Western Caesareate 14. But that there is a more Mystical sense of Stars also may appear in that Promise of Christ * Revel 2. 28. I will give him the Morning-star But where Christ saith * Chap. 22. 16. I am the root of David and the bright Morning-star I know not but that may be understood in a Political sense for all Kingdoms had not then nor have yet submitted unto him But where Stars signifie Angels that is more Cabbalistical Apocal. 1. 20. The seven Stars are the seven Angels of the seven Churches According as they signifie also in Job 38. 7. When the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy As many of which as kept not their station but fell into this terrestrial pollution may well be called Fallen Stars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stars fallen from Heaven to the Earth According to which that Apocal. 9. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing but a Periphrasis of some one fallen Angel or Devil who afterwards is called the Angel of the Abyss a great Officer in the Kingdom of darkness That this is the sense is plain in that it is said not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the preterperfect Tense It may not be impertinent also to adde what * Lib. 2. Hieroglyph 1. Horus Apollo says of this Hieroglyphick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. IX 1. Tail Temple 2. Throes Throne of God 3. Thunder an Iconism of Divine assistence for the discomfiting of the Enemies 4. Other more mystical meanings thereof 5. Time Hours Days That Day signifying a Year is an Icasmus 6. The appropriation of Months and Days to the story of the Wicked and Righteous with an inference from the latter of a latitude of compute in the 1260 days in the Apocalyps 7. Trees Vintage Water 8. White-clothing Wilderness Winds 9. Whore and Whoredom 10. The exquisite Analogie Idolatry bears thereunto 11. Wine-press 12. That it signifies also spiritual Destruction and slaughter 13. Woman and Women 14. Worship World 15. That the Prophetick style is so determinately intelligible that the endeavour of understanding Prophecies is most unjustly reproached for any insuperable difficulties therein 16. Certain Rules to try Interpretations of Prophecies by which are more warrantable and genuine which less 1. TAil The Tail of a Beast is that part that follows or comes behind to which therefore the Train of a great Prince or Potentate will correspond in Analogie But me-thinks the Analogie is most exact in Serpents of a great length who therefore have a long train following them But it is significant enough in other Animals also as the Onirocriticks have taken notice Achmet c. 152. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one dream he rides on a generous Steed such as the Persians called Pharas having a large Tail thick of hair and long he shall have a Retinue or Train of Men or Officers answerable to the fulness and length of the Tail This Analogie will hold good from Nobles to Princes and Emperours or any Sovereign Power over a State or Kingdom In which case their Forces and People are their Train or Tail Temple To omit those more Mystical or Moral meanings of Temple it signifies sometimes in the Prophetick style a People consecrated to God by an outward profession of him and so set apart from other Nations as consecrated Places are from other buildings or plats of ground 1 Tim. 3. 15. That thou maiest know how to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church And Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God which both Grotius and Dr. Hammond interpret of the Church Visible Grotius of the Sardian Dr. Hammond of the Church Catholick 2. Throes of Child-birth The Throes of Child-birth are a Figure or Image of great endeavours to bring something to pass not without much difficulty pain and danger And the compassing their end is a delivery of what they were big with and a deliverance from the pain and danger they laboured under There are several examples of this Iconism in the Prophets Jer. 30. 6 7. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail and all faces are turned into paleness Alas for that day is great so that none is like it it is even the day of Jacob's trouble but he shall be saved out of it Also Esa. 66. 7. Before she travailed she brought forth before her pain came she was delivered of a man-child which Interpreters usually understand of the sudden Birth of the Church I mean of the sudden Conversion of the Gentiles to it Grotius of the deliverance of Judaea by Maccabaeus Throne of God The Throne of God signifies a great Throne a magnificent Throne according to that usual Hebraism where Nouns joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acquire a sense of excellency vehemency or greatness So the Trees of God the Cedars of God the Mountains of God are great and high Trees Cedars and Mountains the Fire of God a vehement Fire and the like According to which the Throne of God is an high and exalted Throne a Royal or Imperial Seat from whence the Political World is ruled as God from Heaven rules the whole Universe 3. Thunder Thunder and Lightning signifies the disjection and dissipation of the forces of War Esa. 29. 6. Thou shalt be visited of
fifty years See Mr. Mede's Diagram of the ten Kings Ver. XIII These have one mind and shall give their strength and power Par. 2. Agr. 13. to the Beast And therefore in the Thirteenth Chapter he is also adorned with this gift where he is described The Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns and upon his Horns ten Crowns which shews that even when they were actually Kings they were voluntarily the strength of this Beast For what strength in the Empire could have constrained them they being the very strength thereof Whence appears the thirteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism But the sense of this verse is briefly this These ten Kings shall be of one mind that is of one mind in matters of Religion shall be of the Religion of the Empire that is to say of the Pagano-Christian Religion whereby the Empire had again become a Beast and shall give their power and strength unto this Beast that is to say shall be ready even by force of Arms if need be or by what other power or authority they have to maintain this Beast in its beastly that is in its Idolatrous condition and Pagan-like Superstitions or else understanding all along a Synecdoche shall give the Pagano-Christian Emperour which is the Head of this Beast the aid or afford him the assistence of their Armies or forces if need should so require against all Opposers of this Pagano-christianism For the Emperour is look'd upon as the chief Champion and Generalissimo of all the Pagano-Christian Forces And though those Kings be distinct and absolute in their own Dominions yet looking upon them as held together in one upon the account of the Religion of the Empire of which the Emperour is by place the chief Champion these ten Kings may be considered as coming into a kind of subordination unto him and be conceived to be the Horns of this Head I mean of this Generalissimo or Emperour of that Army which makes War with the Lamb. But that Power which influences all is the Whore that rides the Beast 2. And truly when the Head of this Whore is once found to be so big as to out-top the Secular Head of the Empire the Emperours themselves and both pretends to and makes use of that boasted Jus utriusque gladii that is to say So soon as the Pope is found to act the Caesar as well as the Universal Patriarch there is no incongruity to allow him represented in two places as well as he sustains two parts and conceive him to be typifi'd as well in the last Head of the Beast as in the costly adorned Head of the Whore But my way is more distinct and more compliable with Grotius his opinion who stands so stoutly for the permanency of the Imperial Majesty to this day And it seems also reasonable to me to interpret Prophecie according to the sense and phrase of History Prophecie being nothing else but an Anticipative History And therefore the Series of Roman Emperours and Title of the Empire and the Body of the Empire continuing still though much contracted and being so look'd upon in History I should think it is the most natural way to interpret according to the common acknowledged phrase and sense of Historians But as I said if the Pope be conceived to supply the room of the Emperours as soon or as oft as he appears to out-top them even in Secular power and to prove the real Head of the Empire acting the Caesar as well as the Patriarch that Interpretation also is very approvable and unexceptionable For the Supreme Power of the Beast that was and is not is by the Angel look'd upon as one and the same Head provided it be but all along the Head of that Beast that is Pagano-Christian For the spirit of Prophecie takes no notice of any useless distinctions and discriminations Wherefore that Supreme Power that shall be found Pagano-Christian is still one Head in the style of this Prophecie as I have above noted And that which is under it though it were invested with the Title of Emperour will fall under the number of the Ten Horns after the division of the Empire into many Kingdoms Ten suppose at least or thereabout For I look upon the number to signifie Symbolically rather then purely Arithmetically Ver. XIV These shall make war with the Lamb. What is said of these Par. 2. Agr. 14. Ten Kings is said of the Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter That he should make war with the Saints which is the same as to war with the Lamb. Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And these Ten Kings being the Horns of the Beast what is done by them is done by the Beast So that the Beasts in both Chapters make war with the Saints according to the fourteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism As for the 16 and 17 verses of the Thirteenth Chapter the sense of them is this That no man of what degree soever that was not of the Pagano-Christian Profession for that is meant by receiving a mark in the hand or in the fore-head should have any traffick or commerce in the Empire or Territories of any of these Ten Kings which is a kind of besieging them with famine and therefore not unfitly reckoned under the Hostilities of War Which interdiction of all commerce and traffick is an effect of Excommunication by the Two-horned Beast Examples of which Warfare are obvious every-where in History Concerning the Name of the Beast and the Number of his name mentioned in those 16 and 17 verses I shall speak upon the last verse of this present Chapter 2. And the Lamb shall overcome them According to that in the Thirteenth Par. 2. Agr. 15. Chapter v. 10. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity This fifteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism is very manifest 3. And they that are with him are Called and Chosen and Faithful Par. 2. Agr. 16. Sutably to that in the Thirteenth Chapter v. 10. Here is the Patience and Faith of the Saints The great stress lies upon Chosen and Faithful Patience and Faith For many are called but few are chosen But those choice ones that are said to be with him are stout Souldiers that will follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes never leave him for any persecution whatsoever but be Firm and Faithful unto him be their Patience never so much exercised by sufferings In which is comprised the sixteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism CHAP. XV. Ver. XV. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. XVI The folly of those Interpreters that understand the Burning of the Whore of the burning of the Houses of Rome by fire Ver. XVII The Ten Kings giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast according to the will and purpose of God how stupendious an Arcanum 2. In what sense God may be said to put it into their hearts 3. That it is rather Fate then Policy that has carried on the affairs of the Whore
eventus rerum ostendit omnes res simul divinas humanásque commiscens Wherefore things being thus understood such a transient Scamble as this can be no legitimate Form of Government but the present Confusion of the Roman State let these Usurpers call themselves what they will or what-ever others out of fear or Courtship might call them 9. But if we take this Affair by the other ear and will look upon Octavius Augustus as he was Heir to Julius Caesar in whom was the Supreme Power of the Empire and also as upon one to whom the Senate had given a Precedency before the Consuls themselves and a Power unbounded by Law insomuch that he might rationally be deemed the Prince of the Commonwealth and that onely upon design he invited and permitted Antony and Lepidus to partake of his Principate for the better suppressing of Brutus and Cassius and then of his Partners one by the other these Triumviri will be found really three Emperours as there have been two and three and four at a time in other occurrences of affairs of the Empire as is well known to any one that knows any thing in History and not any Species of Government distinct from the Sixth kind which is that of the Emperours For they being three Generals of the Imperial Forces Antony of the Eastern Octavius of the Western and Lepidus of the African and of power unaccountable or unsubordinate to any other Magistracy what were they indeed but Three Emperours at once in that Notion that the Roman Monarchs were after called Emperours And accordingly in History Augustus is reckoned to have reigned as Emperour from the decease of his Father Julius To which sense Suetonius speaks Atque ab eo tempore exercitibus comparatis primùm cum Marco Antonio Marcóque Lepido dein tantùm cum Antonio per duodecim ferè annos novissime per quatuor quadraginta solus Rempublicam tenuit Upon which Nauclerus thus comments Regnavit annis quinquaginta sex duodecim cum Antonio Lepido solus verò quadraginta quatuor And Chronologers as well of the Pontifician as Protestant Party fix the beginning of his Reign ab U. C. Anno 710. 10. Wherefore these Triumviri Reipublicae constituendae being either no Magistracy at all of the Roman State or coincident with that of their Emperours and being also declined in the enumeration of the Forms of Government by the Roman Historians or else acknowledged of the Line of the Sixth Head that is to say of the Order of Emperors it is plain that there was sufficient if not a necessary ground of not reckoning this Triumvirate amongst the Heads that had passed in S. John's time and that therefore the truth of History agrees exactly with the Vision that saith Five are fallen not Six nor Seven For no Historians reckon otherwise and what can be more satisfactory then that Prophecie speaks in the very language of History Or what Harshness or Indecorum is it to conceive the Vision to number onely so many distinct Heads as are plainly and confessedly both Heads and distinct and are taken notice of up and down in History for the remarkable Governments of the Roman State whenas those that are omitted in the Vision are also pretermitted in Historical Narrations as either not agreed upon for distinct Heads or disclaimed to be so 11. And truly if there had been any other Forms of Government that might have seemed to disturb this solemn Number of Seven provided they had had a very near affinity with some or other of the chief Seven they might have been reckoned as one with such as they had so near agreement to and so the Beast be still Seven-headed as Nilus Seven mouthed those distinct Rivolets that flow near the main Streams of this Septemfluous River being reckoned as one with those principal ones and Nilus never the less celebrated by the Epithets of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up and down in Authentick Writers Which liberty had been very tolerable nay indeed unexceptionable in those Five Heads that already had passed the account for the future on which all the weight lies being so certainly fixed in the Sixth whose course was in the Apostle's time that it could breed no disorder nor confusion 12. And yet we find a greater exactness then so Whence it is manifest that we have the greatest assurance we can desire of the true sense of this Vision as to this point forasmuch as we have above demonstrated that the Seven Heads of the Beast must be so understood as may reach through the whole Succession of Heads from the beginning to the end and therefore must be the several Successions of so many Sorts of Supreme Governours not Seven single Persons and then find also de facto that Five of these Successions do so exquisitely fit the number of those Five Forms of Government which according to History were past in S. John's time and that the Sixth Government in succession which is that of the Pagan Emperours was that very Head then in Being Which things fall out so accurately that a man would think that Scepticism it self could scarce refrain giving assent to so plain a Truth 13. We have therefore made good that there are just Six sorts of Supreme Powers from the beginning of the Roman Kingdom to the Apostle's time namely Regal Consular Tribunitial Decemviral Dictatorial and Imperatorial For that of the Interreges was a Regal Power if considerable at all and therefore does naturally fall under the Type of one single Head as that also of the Triumviri of constituting the Common-wealth if it was not a state of war and confusion was also an Imperatorial Power though disguised under that other name and therefore falls under the Sixth Head as must needs seem very easie and natural to him that considers how Collective and Henopoetical as I may so speak the Prophetick Types are The consideration of the Collectiveness and Unitiveness of which Types on the one side and of the express and explicit enumeration in History of Five distinct sorts of Government before the Emperours on the other side must necessarily cast a man into an unshaken security that the Spirit of Prophecy would reckon neither more nor fewer kinds of Governours before the Emperours then Five Which point being cleared I pass to the second which is the more fully declaring how fitly and rightly that degenerate estate of the Empire which is prefigured by the Beast that was and is not and yet is is also styled the Image of the Beast CHAP. XVII 1. That a Relapse of the Empire into Idolatry in general were sufficient to make it the Image of the old Pagan Empire and yet that the Resemblance is more exquisite and particular 2. That there was an intended imitation of the Pagan Rites in the Church degenerating 3. The Pope compared with the Pagan Caesars and his Cardinals with the Roman Senate 4. The Tutelar Saints compared with their Tutelar Deities
is all one Kingdom But that of Alexander's is the Third according to Grotius his own Concession Now that that of his Successours of which Line are the Lagidae and Seleucidae is one Kingdom with that of Alexander's is evident out of Daniel Ch. 8. 21. The rough Goat is the King of Graecia and the great Horn that is betwixt his eyes is the first King Now that being broken whereas Four stood up for it Four Kingdoms shall stand up out of the Nation but not in his power This is one plain proof that the Kingdom of Alexander and his Successours is all one Kingdom For he calls Alexander the first King which necessarily implies that his Successours are the second and that therefore they all belong to one and the same Kingdom Nay he says plainly that these four Horns stand up for that great one that is in his stead What is this but to succeed in place of him as the Heads of one and the same Empire For no new Beast is said to succeed this Beast but the Horns the Horn. And then the comparing of them and saying but not in his power farther intimates a cognation and succession of one Line and that he does not speak of the Heads of two different Kingdoms Which appears farther from vers 8. Therefore the Goat waxed very great and when he was strong the great Horn was broken and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of Heaven But where should these come up but on that Head that had lost this great Horn which is compensated with four lesser ones though in their kinde notable For it is very incongruous and extravagant to phansy them to come up in any other And surely if they had belonged to any other Beast that Beast would not fail to have been named Wherefore they must either grow out of this Goat's Head or no where unless out of the ground which is ridiculous And therefore it is plain that Alexander's Kingdome and that of his Successours is but one Kingdome For that Goat is but one and the same Goat under the Succession of this variety of Horns 11. And yet there is still greater evidence of this truth from Ch. 7. 6. After which I beheld and lo another like a Leopard which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl the Beast had also four Heads and Dominion was given unto it That the four Heads of this Beast are the four Successours of Alexander namely Perdicca Seleucus Ptolemaens Meleager Grotius himself does frankly confess The Wings therefore denote the four Kingdomes Alexander's Empire was divided into after his decease which is still look'd upon as one Beast notwithstanding as the Roman is with its division into Ten Kingdomes noted by ten Horns or into Oriental and Occidental figured by the two Wings of an Eagle Here Grotius if he would speak out would make Alexander the Beast as he has Domitian and others in the Apocalyps against all the Laws of Prophetick Interpretation nay indeed against all rhyme and reason For he glosses thus Pardus varium Animal sic Alexander moribus variis But how grosly incongruous it is let any one consider For then would Alexander be inferiour to his four chief Officers and they would be the Head of him which is a Political Absurdity nay the Head of him when he ceased to be which is an Absurdity Metaphysical Wherefore Alexander is the first Head or great Horn of this Beast not the Body of it that he may be superiour to his four grand Officers and not be the Beast to bear these four Horns or Heads when he has quite ceased to be on this stage of things For these were not Heads nor Horns before he was dead Alexander therefore is the first of the Succession of the Heads or Horns of this Beast not the Beast it self But to come up closer to our business I say it is very manifest from these four Heads and four Wings that this Leopard is said to have that the Third Kingdome takes into it the four first Successours of Alexander Nothing can be more plain then this from the very Text. For the Leopard is described in the third place and immediately after him the Fourth Beast is mentioned and called the Fourth v. 7. Wherefore this four-headed Leopard is plainly the Third Beast But now that the succession of these four Heads even to Antiochus Epiphanes is the succession of one and the same Kingdome is plain from Ch. 8. 22. Now that being broken namely the great Horn where as Four stood up for it Four Kingdomes shall stand up out of the Nation but not in his power And in the latter time of their Kingdome the Original has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the very same with our English and there is no doubt of the Translation a King of fierce countenance shall stand up Which Grotius and every one acknowledges to be Antiochus Epiphanes Whence it is evident that the whole Succession of Alexander's Captains from the first four inclusively even to Antiochus his time is one Succession and one Kingdome For he calls the times of Antiochus the last times of their Kingdome Wherefore it is plain seeing that the Kingdome of Alexander is one and the same with the Kingdome of the four Captains for that is the Third Kingdome and the Kingdome of the four Captains the same with their Succession even to Antiochus his time that the whole Succession from Alexander to Antiochus is one Succession and one Kingdome If this be not demonstratively true there is no demonstration in Mathematicks But if this be true the Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae are not the Fourth Kingdome but the Kingdome of the Romans according as all sober men have hitherto held 12. Which we being so firmly assured of we shall easily know where to seek for this little Horn that is said to change times and laws For where can we finde it but amongst those many Horns in the Roman Kingdome or Empire not in the Greek to which Antiochus Epiphanes appertains And we have already plainly shewn that the Apocalyptick Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns is this Roman Kingdome and that this Beast once healed or in such a condition that it may be said of him that he is the Beast that was and is not and yet is which is when he is become Pagano-Christian is this Empire actually divided into Ten Kingdomes and that together with this Division the Empire began to relapse gradually into Idolatry by the Agency and Guidance of the Two-horned Beast or the Whore whom I have also shewed to be Synchronal to the healed Beast or the Beast that was and is not and yet is 13. But the Beast restored or healed his duration is 42 months which is 1260 daies or a Time and Times and half a Time For the abode of the Woman in the Wilderness is indifferently expressed by
man upon earth may dispense with one tittle thereof But for authorizing Interpretations Opinions and the Rites and Ceremonies of Religious Worship either this is in a Christian Prince's power and not in the Priest's or else his Kingdome and safe administration thereof is not in his power For all these things according to the Eternal Law of Nature and of Reason are to be in the hand of him that is Supreme Governour and it is a contradiction to his Supremacy if it be not so For he that holds the rains of the Souls of men rules their whole Persons and the strongest rains are those of Religion And therefore if any Power distinct from the Kingly pretend to the right of ordering the affairs of Religion farther then his allowance and liking that Power is really the King and the King himself a precarious Power to be blown about and blown out of his Throne by the false breath of these pretenders to the Headship of the Church as often and as violently as they please Wherefore as the plain and confessed Law of Christ is immutable so what is doubtful and merely Ritual is to have its interpretation change or continuance at the judgement and discretion of every Christian Prince who has most justly and necessarily the power of accommodating such things to the peace composure and prosperity of his Kingdome Nor have the Ecclesiastick Powers any right in an immutable and essential manner to affix to the Christian Religion any thing that is not expresly and declaredly comprised therein according to the Divine Authority of the Scriptures For it is an high wrong to that Religion which is to be Everlasting and Universal to be bound and fettered with either Rites or Opinions that are but Temporary or Topical or that the Errours and Mistakes of dark Antiquity should become as a Law of the Medes and Persians to more serious and clear-sighted Posterity or what was fetched up upon some transitory emergency that all the importunities and necessities of after-Affairs of the Church or any parts thereof should not be able to conjure it down again for the making the Gospel more freely to run and be glorified 7. And therefore most apertly and judiciously has our Church declared in her Homily of Fasting That God's Church ought not neither may it be tied to any order now made or hereafter to be made and devised by the authority of Man but that it may lawfully for just causes alter change or mitigate those Ecclesiastical Decrees and Orders yea recede wholly from them and break them when they tend either to Superstition or to Impiety when they draw the people from God rather then work any edification in them And in the Book of Articles she again plainly asserts That it is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places Article 34. one or utterly alike for at all times they have been diverse and may be changed according to the diversity of Countries Times and mens manners so that nothing be ordain'd against God's Word And lastly in the close of that Article Every Particular or National Church hath authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Which Affairs of so dispensable and changeable a nature if they could be ordered by a power distinct from and independent of the Supreme Power of any Christian Nation and affecting and relishing a private Interest of their own what wilde commotions and confusions might they cause in a Christian State while they gore and spurre up the Ass to goe that way where he sees the Angel of the Lord with a drawn sword to drive him back Wherefore it is most safe and just that in all preter-Essentials to Christian Religion the Supreme Magistrate in every Christian Nation have the allowing or disapproving of them and that no Rites nor Opinions pass into Decrees but by his Authority that the Priesthood may not be able as they ought to be so faithful to their Prince as not to be willing to teach or decree any thing against his Interest whose Subjects they are or against the Safety Peace and Prosperity of the whole State of which they are but part and therefore ought to have no power to doe any thing independently of the Prince who is the Common Father of his whole Countrey and whose Interest is the good and welfare of all Who therefore must needs be the Head of the Church over all Causes and Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil as our Church does plainly acknowledge that vital Influence may indifferently flow from him into all the members of his Dominions But this is a point that might have been more seasonably deferr'd till we came to the Antichristian Opposition to the first branch of the Divine Life which is Humility and which the superlative Pride of the Papal Supremacy does so apparently affront But that there is not the least smutt of Antichristianism in Episcopacy itself I have already abundantly evinced 8. Now concerning those Oppositions that be made against Faith the Root of the Divine Life our Church is so plainly free from them as any one may perceive that pleases but to recount them that it is enough merely to intimate so much Onely I cannot let go this seasonable opportunity of triumphing in her behalf in that she is so throughly reformed from that notorious though subtle and slim piece of Antichristianism I mean that Self-ended Policy in those Doctrines and Practices which are so many in the Church of Rome and so profitable and yet Our Heavendirected Reformation has perfectly refined us and cleansed us from them all The consideration whereof must needs make our Mother the Church of England look very lovely and amiable to every ingenuous and discerning eye who cannot but bless God for that due judgment and faithfulness which he put into our Royal and Reverend Reformers and must be a great satisfaction to every honest Priest or Minister of our Church that he neither feeds himself nor the people with Lies after the manner of the Roman Priesthood nor puts one morsell of bread into his mouth filched from the Laiety by fraud and imposture and that as he labours in the Gospel so he lives by the Gospel and not by Figments and cunningly-devised Fables 9. Those Oppositions also against that Divine Grace of Humility which are specified in the ninth tenth and eleventh Chapters that our Church is cleared from them it is more apparent to any one that considers them then that I need give my self the trouble of particularly making it out The Pope's Supremacy is not onely declared against but sworn against as is very just and right And though there be peculiar Habits for Clergy-men yet as I have noted above our Church does professedly declare there is no Holiness in any such things but that they are for decency and distinction And distinction betwixt Laiety and Clergy is as
confirmation of the truth of our Idea of Antichristianism therefrom 4. A summary Representation of this Idea in the Oppositions and Defeatments of the Privative Ends of the Gospel as also of those noted Offices of Christ. 5. Of his Divinity and other holy Titles 6. Of the Divine Life in Root and Branches 7. A Parable to set out the salvage Injustice and Cruelty of this Antichristian Synagogue 8. The Apodosis of the Parable 9. That we have set out the Idea of the most real and essential Antichristianism that can be with an Answer to what may be objected to the contrary 10. That it is that very Antichristianism that is foretold in the Prophets the clearing whereof necessitates us to an inspection into them before we make any punctual Application of our Idea to the Apostasy of the Church 173 The CONTENTS of the Second Part OR SYNOPSIS PROPHETICA BOOK I. CHAP. I. 1. THat the Antichristianism we have so punctually described in our Idea and is for the general so notoriously known to have everrun the Church is in truth a kind of Pagano-Christianism 2. That it is incredible that there should be no Divine Predictions of so considerable a Change 3. The ill-spent pains of those Interpreters who endeavour to obscure such Predictions by distorting them to other useless meanings 4. Whether this Great Antichrist be prophesied of in the Epistle of S. John under that very Name 5. That Barchocab if applicable at all to the Text may be a Type of this famous Antichrist 6. That the mention of those many Antichrists in S. John was occasioned from the fame of that Great Antichrist predicted in Daniel 7. That there is much-what the same reason of the slowness of Christians in discovering the true Antichrist as of the Jews in discovering the true Christ. 8. That a fraudulent and Hypocritical Opposer of Christ may be as real and considerable an Antichrist as an open Enemie as also S. John's description as easily applicable to him 9. The inept Niceness of declining the Name of Antichrist and that the Title was put upon this great Enemy of the Church by the ancient Fathers occasionally from this Epistle of S. John 10. Certain Considerations proposed touching the Obscurity of the Prophetick style 205 CHAP. II. 1. Why Prophecies are wrapt up in some considerable Obscurity 2. An indispensable necessity of these kinds of involutions in regard of mans Free will 3. As also in regard of the Enemies of the Church both Men and Devils 4. A recital of such Schemes and Figures wherein this Obscurity does most-what consist 5. What Diorismus is with several examples of Numeral Diorisms 6. That it seems most safe to expound the Rev. 9. 5 10. five months of the Locusts according to this Figure 7. The reason of the use of Numeral Diorisms 8. From whence also some light is offered toward the understanding the reason of the uncertain designation of Vers. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. Examples of Proportional Diorisms 10. As also of Specifical 211 CHAP. III. 1. Hylasmus what it is with the kinds thereof 2. Eximious Examples of each kind 3. What the first and chiefest kind of Henopoeia 4. That one single Beast signifies a Body Politick demonstrated out of Daniel 5. That a Succession of Individuals is represented by one Individual 6. That one individual Beast represents a Kingdom or Body Politick from its rise to its fall 7. That one single Man or Woman does also represent a Body Politick in the Prophetick style 8. The second kind of Henopoeia what it is 9. What Zoopoeia with Examples thereof 10. A second kind of Zoopoeia proved and illustrated from Examples 217 CHAP. IV. 1. Israelismus what it is 2. That the reason of the frequent use thereof is the Sacramentalness of the Jewish Church in reference to the Christian as appears in their Tabernacle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. In the brasen Serpent Manna strucken Rock and fiery Law 4. In the High-priest's Robes in his entring alone once a year into the most Holy and in the Jews worshipping towards the Mercy-seat 5. In their bondage in Aegypt and in their escape through the Red Sea 6. What is properly a Prophetick Ellipsis 7. What the meaning of the Apocalyptick Book being written within and without 8. The difference of a Prophetick Ellipsis illustrated by example 9. Homonymia what it is and in what it differs from an Henopoeia of the second kind 10. What Metalepsis with the proof and examples thereof 11. Antichronismus what it is together with the rise thereof 12. That the three days and an half of the unburied Witnesses put for three times and an half is apparently resolvible into this Figure 13. What Icasmus is and that the frequency of the Figure does not so obscure Prophecies but that they are as intelligible as ordinary Heraldry 221 CHAP. V. 1. The great Usefulness of an Alphabet of Prophetick Iconisms 2. What the best way of attaining to the right sense of them 3. What weight the Onirocriticks of the Ancients may cast in toward the determining their meaning 4. That there is the same reason of the Signification and Interpretation of Dreams as there is of Visions provided they be merely Typical and not Complexional 5. Angels Their Ministery in all affairs of Providence a noted Supposition in the ancient Cabbala and in the Apocalyps 6. Ascension into Heaven 7. Air the special Region of Devils 8. Balances 9. Beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idolatrous Kingdoms 10. The reason of the Lamb 's signifying one single Person and of wild Beasts noting Idolatry as well as Cruelty 11. Blasphemy That it signifies Idolatry made out both upon the account of Reason use of Scripture and Authority of Interpreters 12. Bloud 13. Bow and Arrows Buildings Burial 226 CHAP. VI. 1. Candle 2. Character 3. Clouds of Heaven 4. Crown of precious Stones 5. Darkness Day Death 6. Desart 7. Dragon a figure of the Devil according to the ancient Cabbala and then of the chief Polities that oppose the Church 8. Drunkenness 9. Eagle Earth-quake 10. Eclipses 11. Eye an Hieroglyphick of Counsel and Prudence 12. Fishing Fish dead in the Sea 13. Fire the different significations thereof 14. Fire from Heaven its exact significancy of Excommunication 15 16. Flesh two notable significations thereof 17. Floud Fornication Frogs 18. Gemms and precious Stones God 232 CHAP. VII 1. Hail the signification thereof according to Scripture 2. And the ancient Onirocriticks 3. Harvest the evil and auspicious sense thereof 4. Head how clearly significative of Sovereign Power whether in Many or One. 5. Heaven and Earth 6. Horn. 7. Horse Islands 8. King and Kingdom 9. That Kinds or Sorts of things are sometimes expressed as if Individualls of the same Kind 10. Leopard Locusts 11. Male-childe Mark Measure Mill Month Moon 12. Mountain the several significations thereof 240 CHAP. VIII 1. Nakedness Paradise 2. Philtre That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Virus amatorium 3.
prolixity of the Title hinders not but that it may be called the Name of the Beast 4. The meaning of the Name 5. That the Angel having considered the whole Successions of the Roman Kingdom or Empire fixed his mind on that time the Empire was purely Christian and why And that it thence appears what succession of the Beast's time is understood 6. As likewise from his name a little varied into Was is not and yet is Whence the fifth Agreement of the second Parallelism is also evinced 7 8. How the Angel came to give the Beast these Names And that there is an Ellipsis in the Angel's saying The Beast which thou sawest was and is not c. 9. That the Name Was and is not and shall ascend c. signifies the successive Order in being not the actual being or not being of the Beast with a confirmation thereof out of Alcazar 10. A plain Eviction from the Name Was is not and yet is that Was and is and is not do not signifie actual Existence or Non-existence but order of Existence and Similitude 11. That Is not and yet is would neither be good sense nor any elegancy unless the Laws of a right Contradiction were closely touched on in this mysterious Assertion 12. And yet that an absolute Sameness in either Essence or Qualification could not be under this affirmation and negation without falsity Whence Similitude is necessarily intimated thereby 13. That the certainty of the meaning of this Title Was is not and yet is confirms the sense of the former and demonstrates a latitant Ellipsis in the Application of these Names of the Beast which is farther argued from other considerations 14. Why he interprets the Re-existence or Image of the Beast of the Empire 's becoming Idolatrous again rather then of the Revival of its ancient Polity in the Pontifical Power 15. The third Agreement of the second Parallelism 16. The sixth Agreement 17. The seventh 18. The eighth Agreement 19. The third Agreement again noted with a Confirmation therefrom of the above-mentioned Ellipsis 20. That near Resemblance stands for Identity in common elegancy of speech Whence The Beast that was is not and yet is and the Image of the Beast is again evinced to be all one and the fifth Agreement of our second Parallelism thereby farther confirmed 286 CHAP. XIV Ver. IX What is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Siracides seems to allude to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his description thereof 2. That Constantinople is also allowed to have Seven Hills and that it makes for the proof of the eighth Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. X. That the making the seven Heads seven sorts of Governours is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a natural and necessary truth 2. How naturally the different successions of the Supreme Powers of the Roman Empire fall into eight parts 3. The onely true reason why there are numbred Eight Kings though but Seven Heads of the Beast 4. That the dividing of the Emperours into Pagan Christian and Pagano-Christian is aimed at or supposed in the enumeration of the Eight Kings is an unexceptionable Truth 5. That it is most credible that after the Sixth King no other account of distinction of the Supreme Power of the Empire was look'd upon by the Angel but what respected Religion 6. A demonstrative Inference from One is that there is an Ellipsis in The Beast that thou sawest was and is not c. 7. Why Apocal. 17. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence the last subdivision is confirmed and the tenth Agreement of the second Parallelism made good 8. The fourth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XI That the description of the Beast is his Name and part thereof used for the whole as in the Name of God which farther confirms the above-mentioned Ellipsis 2. The easie and genuine meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. That the meaning of Verse 11. The Beast that was and is not he is the eighth is that his Head is the eighth 4. That the Eighth King by an Henopoeia may admit of more Caesars then one reigning at a time and why 5. The ninth Agreement of the second Parallelism 6. The seventh Agreement Ver. XII The eleventh Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The twelfth Agreement 3. The meaning of Verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. XIII The thirteenth Agreement together with the meaning of Verse 13. being of one minde and of giving their strength and power to the Beast 2. That the Pope once emerged above the Emperour even in Secular Power may continue the succession of the seventh Head there being nothing else intended thereby but the secular Pagano-christian Sovereignty of the Empire Ver. XIV The fourteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The fifteenth Agreement 3. The sixteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism 296 CHAP. XV. Ver. XV. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. XVI The folly of those Interpreters that understand the Burning of the Whore of the burning of the Houses of Rome by fire Ver. XVII The Ten Kings giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast according to the will and purpose of God how stupendious an Arcanum 2. In what sense God may be said to put it into their hearts 3. That it is rather Fate then Policy that has carried on the affairs of the Whore so prosperously hitherto with an Admonition thereupon 4. The meaning of Until the words of God be fulfilled with a farther Admonition to the Apostatized Church 5. The eviction of the truth of the seventeenth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XVIII Why the Seat of the Whore is so determinately affixed at last to Old Rome in this Prophecie 2 3. A clear and confessed evidence that Old Rome is here pointed at as the Seat of the Whore with a short Paraphrase upon the sense of the Verse 4. That the Seat of the Two-horned Beast is also fixed to Old Rome and of the Cabbalisticalness of the Apocalyps 5. That the Numeral Name of the Beast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that it is so to be written and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proved from the ancient Orthography of both the Greek and Latin Tongue 6. That the ancient Latines who usually sounded long i as a Diphthong pronounced their Vowels nearest to the Greeks 7. How exquisitely this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to Events 8. That the finding the number 666 in other names does not at all weaken the determinate applicability of this 9. In what sense 666 is called the number of the Beast 10. The application of the Root thereof illustrated from the Cabbalistical application of the Root of the Tetractys 11. The last Agreement of the first Parallelism 12. The last Agreement of the second 13. That the Vision of the Whore is more appropriate and peculiar to the Church of Rome 14. Of the Inscription Mysterium on
they bear the world in hand in the mean time that they are doing the work of God and promoting the Interest of the Kingdom of his Son Jesus This I say in general is the very Nature and Essence of Antichristianism And where this poison is imbibed into publick Authority that either one Person or Body politick or jointly both of them together if they be the first beginners or continuers of this Mystery of Iniquity in a due latitude thereof are assuredly that Antichrist there is such a noise of in the Christian world And for others that have it not in such a measure yet so far forth as they are Teachers Abetters or Obtruders of such Practices or Principles upon pretence of Religion as naturally frustrate the End of the coming of Christ they are so far also Antichristian 4. Wherefore he that has duly considered and satisfied himself what is the great Scope of the Gospel of Christ and finds but out which he cannot easily miss what things are contrary thereto if he but colour them over with plausible pretences of promoting the Interest of Christ he has ipso facto drawn the true Image or Idea of Antichrist whereby he may surely know him whereever he is Now that great Scope and those main concernments that the Gospel of Christ aims at are plainly these namely The extirpation of Idolatry out of the world as also A releasement of God's people from the improfitable burthen of Judaical Ceremonies which we may call the Privative End of the Gospel and The exaltation of the Divine life whose Root is Faith in God and of a world to come and the Branches Humility Charity and Purity as I have more at large discoursed in my Explanation of the Mystery of Godliness And in this is comprized the Positive End of Christ's coming into this world CHAP. II. 1. The rooting out of Idolatry by the Messias prophesied of by Jeremy That all the Gods that made not Heaven and Earth should perish 2. An explication of that Prophecy and an assertion of our Saviour's right of being worshipped for ever as the Eternal Logos who made Heaven and Earth 3. Proofs out of the Psalms that the Messias was to root out Idolatry 4. Several places in the New Testament witnessing against Idolatry and Image-worship 5. That the Spirituality of Christian Religion indigitated by our Saviour does abundantly evidence the unlawfulness of Image-worship or of what Idolatry else soever 1. THat God intended the rooting out of Idolatry by sending Christ into the World appears as well by those Prophecies of the Old Testament that foretel that all Idolatry shall be rooted out for by whom should it be done but by the Messias in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed as by several passages in the New Of the first sort is that in Jeremie chap. 10. where the Prophet puts this prophecy in the mouths of the Jews that were carried captive into Babylon Thus shall ye say unto them saith he The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth they shall perish from the Earth and from under the Heavens But the preceding context is so lively and magnificent and so close to our purpose that it ought not to have been omitted At the seventh verse therefore Who would not fear thee O King of Nations for to thee doth it appertain Forasmuch as among all the wise men of the Nations and in all their Kingdoms there is none like unto thee But they are altogether brutish and foolish the stock is a Doctrine of vanities Silver spred into plates is brought from Tarshish and Gold from Uphas the work of the workman and of the hands of the Founder Blue and purple is their cloathing they are all the work of cunning men But the Lord is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King At his wrath the earth shall tremble and the Nations shall not be able to abide his indignation And then follows this Prophetick denunciation against every undue object of Divine worship Thus shall ye say unto them The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens 2. Things are exceeding clear in this Prophecy saving in that comparison of the King of Nations with the wise men of the Nations betwixt whom there is that infinite disparity that the collation seems hugely improper if the pure Deity be here conceived to be compared with any wise men whatsoever Grotius therefore ingeniously hinteth that it is meant of some of the wise men of the Nations that had been translated into the number of their Gods as Taautes for example which a little helps out one terme of the comparison these wise men being supposed to have been advanced to Divine honours after their death and to have been reckoned amongst the Gods But I must confess even that in the 86 Psalm Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord there is none that can doe as thou doest has often puzzel'd me that the Prophet should vouchsafe to compare the Gods of the Nations which were but Deified Mortals or at best but particular Angels or Daemons in that higher sense with the pure infinite and omnipotent Deity which has made me often suspect that such passages as these are to be understood of the Messias who was also to be incarnated and to become the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thereupon after his sufferings to be declared King of Nations and the Worship of the whole Earth according as it follows in that Psalm All Nations whom thou hast made shall come Rev. 25. 3 4. and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name And you know he was the Logos or Word which was in the beginning without which nothing was made that was made As the Authour to the Hebrews also witnesseth Thou Lord in the beginning layedst the Foundations of Psalm 102. 25. the Earth and the Heavens are the work of thy hands Which is spoke of the Messias his time being there so plainly decyphered as appears in the 22 verse When the people are gathered together and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord. Whence that is also plain that Christ shall be ever the same and that his years shall have no end and that this Prophetick denunciation The Gods that made not Heaven and Earth shall perish from Vers. 27. the Earth and from under these Heavens cannot reach him But the worship of any thing else that is not the pure Deity is to be cast away according to the meaning of that Prophecy 3. That also in the 97 Psalm plainly shews that Idolatry is to goe down at the coming of Christ. Confounded be all they that serve graven Images that boast themselves of Idols worship him all ye Gods which the Author to the Hebrews does expresly interpret of Christ whereby he proves his Divinity and doth therewith disapprove of giving any Religious worship to
Sacerdotum praeparatur exercitus Which is a sign that in Gregory's judgment Antichrist was not to be born of the Tribe of Dan but of the Tribe of Levi whom we will further suppose to lay about him for the obtaining of this Levitical Sovereignty and for the advancement of his Episcopal Chair successively in some such manner as follows 3. First he will pretend that it is unfit that the visible Catholick Church being One should not be united under One visible Head Which reasoning yet though it make a pretty show at first sight being closely lookt into will vanish into smoke For this is but a quaint concinnity urged in the behalf of an impossibility For the erecting such an Office for one man which no one man in the world is able to perform implies that to be possible which is indeed impossible Whence it is plain that the Head will be too little for the Body which therefore will be a piece of mischievous Asymmetry or Inconcinnity also No one Mortal can be a competent Head for that Church which has a right to be Catholick and to over-spread the face of the whole Earth There can be no such Head but Christ who is not mere Man but God invested in Humane nature and therefore is present with every part of his Church and every member thereof at what distances soever But to set some one Bishop over the whole Church were to suppose that great Bishop of our Souls absent from it who has promised he will be with her to the end of the World and you may be sure not an idle Spectatour but a carefull Feeder and Governour of their Souls who do really believe in him and unfeignedly obey him 4. Nor does the Church Catholick on Earth lose her Unity hereby for she is under One common Head of the whole Church as well Triumphant as Militant which to come nearer to the Objection is a Visible Head of his Church to those that can approach his Court in that glorious Metropolis in Heaven where undoubtedly he is to be seen sitting on his Sapphire Throne in great Majesty and Glory and where his true Subjects in a small space of time may either see him themselves or at least converse with them that have frequent recourse unto him and wait in his presence And no man I think will say that any large Empire has an Invisible Head because the Emperour himself has placed his Palace in the chiefest Province of his Empire and never comes within the view of some parts of his Dominion and multitudes of men never see him as never having the opportunity of visiting those parts where the Emperour's Court is Whereas Jesus Christ the Head of his Church was seen here on Earth for a good space as also visibly to travel hence into the higher Regions of his Kingdom and in due time will visibly return hither again to take account of the Administratours of his Affairs in these lower Provinces Wherefore Christ is a more visible Head in his large Empire then any Emperour in his So evident is it that there wants no One Visible Head of the Church besides Christ himself 5. But yet notwithstanding all this this ambitious Patriarch I describe will bear the world in hand that it is very fit there should be One visible Head of the Church Universal which should succeed Christ or rather some one whom he would pretend to be Prince of the Apostles and that his Seat is that Apostolical Seat and that there is a necessity for Unity in the Church and for slaking all controversies there should be some one such though the Plea to any indifferent man cannot but seem very weak and frivolous For â—…as I have already intimated the Church will be sufficiently One by being under that One Head Christ Jesus and under One Law which is the Word of God which has been already proved sufficiently plain in all things necessary to Life and Salvation But for other things whether Ceremonies or Conceits they do not at all break the Unity of Christ's Kingdom but it will be truly and conspicuously his so long as it professes the Faith of his Apostles let them otherwise use what difference of Rites they will or differ as much as they can in unnecessary Opinions provided always that none of these Rites or Opinions be really and plainly against the Apostolical Doctrines which are the universal and irreversible Law of Christ's Empire upon Earth For thus the Church-Catholick being in this sort variegated in Externals will yet be visibly the Spouse of Christ though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though cloathed with a Vestment of various flower-work and colours 6. But for this high-flown Patriarch to pretend that his Seat is this Infallible and All-decisive Apostolical Seat is a Plea that can have nothing solid at the bottom For if there had been any such Prelation of some one of the Apostles over the rest it were of that great Moment if ending of Controversies in all succeeding Ages be of that Moment that it would have been recorded in the Scripture and would have ended or prevented all disceptations amongst the Apostles themselves or any others concerning them But quite contrary S. Paul declares that he is in nothing inferiour to the chiefest Apostles which plainly implies an Equality 2 Cor. 12. amongst them all Besides if it were so that some one Apostle had an Authority or Headship over the rest and had once his Residence in such a particular See it does not follow that he that succeeds him in that See should succeed him in that Headship or at all in his Apostleship but onely in his Bishoprick Nor is it credible that if this Prime and Oecumenical Apostle had designed his immediate Successour to the same latitude of Jurisdiction that the claim should not be made and acknowledged by the Universal Church in those more innocent and morigerous times Of so little weight are such pretences as these 7. But if such pretty Sophisms will not serve the turn since Ambition has inflamed the Patriarch's spirits he will leave no stone unmoved to accomplish his desire and what Sophistry cannot doe must be effected though by the coursest methods of either Worldly or Infernal policy That they may therefore obtain this absolute Ecclesiastick Sovereignty the Successours in this pretended prime Apostolical See we will suppose to stick at nothing But that they will forge or counterfeit Canons of Authentick Councils and make them speak for the Supremacy of their Patriarchate that they will countenance abet or allow Treasons and Murthers though upon Emperours and Emperesses Kings and Queens and their whole Posterity by some intrusted Instrument of State whose ambition instigated him thus bloudily to assassinate his Liege Sovereign that he might succeed him in his Kingdom or Empire Whereupon notwithstanding by parasitical fawning conniving or allowing nay by congratulating the success of so beastly an enterprize these eager Candidates for the Ecclesiastick Empire will not stick to
due to ride upon the necks of Princes And therefore every gainful sin and serviceable to this purpose shall be made a Law though never so point-blank against the Laws of God and Christ and all those sacred purposes of Christ's coming into the World shall be trode upon for a foot-stool to lift this pack of Impostours into the Throne that they may the better trample upon all the people of the Earth That is to say Whereas Christ by his Gospel came to silence idolatry throughout the world these Deceivers for their own advantage and profit will set up openly in their Churches as gross Image-worship as ever was amongst the Heathen Whereas Christ came to free the people of God from the yoke and burthen of Mosaical Ordinances these Oppressors of Mankind will load their bodies and Consciences with more numerous and tedious Superstitions and Ceremonies then eveâ—… Moses commanded and put them to a drudgery and slavery worse then the Aegyptian Task-masters did the children of Israel in their soarest bondage Whereas Christ was given to the world by his Father to be an absolute King from whose Decrees there can be no appeal nor any annulment of dispensation with his Laws a perfect High-priest who by the Sacrifice of himself once made and self-effectual Intercession is an all-sufficient Reconciler of us to God a Prophet and Teacher whose Instructions and Predictions are all infallible Oracles this King of Babylon for so I will call this Tyrannical Seducer with his Hypocritical Assistants shall pretend that Christ has given up his Kingdom to them and that they have the very same Power that Christ himself can dispense with or abrogate those Laws he has made or appoint Laws quite contrary to them oâ—… have authority to put what sense upon them they please which is the 〈◊〉 nulling of Christ's authority as he is Law-giver and King and the greatest Treason and the most contemptuous that can be committed against his Heavenly Majesty This false High-priest with his several Orders of levite as if that one offering of the Body of Christ which he himself made once were not sufficient for the atonement of the World nor yet his sole Intercession in virtue of his Infinite Merits and Passion available for our reconciliation with God pretend to the high dishonour and vilification of Christ's own offering himself up once to offer him up in their own hands really and bodily every day in a manner and as if the Intercession of Christ and his own inestimable Merits were of themselves maimed and defectuous clap to them to piece them out the Merits and Intercession of mere Mortals such as could merit for none but for themselves nor indeed have got to Heaven but upon the sole merits of their loving Saviour whom they are made thus to confront in his incommunicable Office And lastly This false Prophet with the rest of his devoted Impostours to the end that their own lies and misleadings of the people may not be discovered but withall to the unsufferable reproach of that great and true Prophet the Lord Jesus and the unspeakable injury of his cordial Followers withhold those lively Oracles delivered by him and his Apostles from the knowledge of men not without gross revilements and disparagements cast upon those Holy Writings then which nothing can be more outrageous against the Prophetick Office of Christ. 5. Again Whereas the Divinity of Christ is plainly and punctually and of set purpose asserted in Scripture to assure us of the allowableness of that Religious Worship we doe to him it being his peculiar Royalty or Prerogative as being not mere Man but God nay his Godhead being ascertain'd to us by that argument of Adoration due to him Worship him all ye gods yet this perfidious Antichristian Hierarchy will not stick to undermine this Prerogative and as much as in them lies to proclaim to the world that he is no more then mere Man for as if they had found an allowed instance of Men-worship in him they will give Religious worship to hundreds of Saints as well as to himself Whereas Christ is described in the Prophets as the Prince of Peace these falsely-pretended Successors of his or rather the Seed of Satan who was a man-hater and murtherer from the beginning will prove themselves Fomenters of dissentions and commotions and causers of embroilments of Nations and Kingdoms in War upon their politick and pragmatical Machinations for the unjust Interest of their own holy Crew Whereas Christ was the Light of the World these will study to keep the world in Ignorance that they may the better tyrannize over them and inslave them And whereas Christ professed himself to be the Truth these will make it their business to fill the world with Falsities and Lies so they be but so contrived as is most fit for the holding up their Interest Pomp and Power in the world 6. And thirdly and lastly Whereas the chief and most indispensable End of Christ's coming here upon Earth was to enliven the world with that Life which is truly Holy and Divine wherein are comprised those four Heavenly Graces of Faith Humility Purity and Charity as for the first This Pseudo-christian Church by reason of the multitude of their lying Miracles and gross Legends and falsified Reliques their incredible Stories of Purgatory and shameless Impossibility of Transsubstantiation all which tend to the Profit and Interest of these Seducers bring things to such a pass that if all the counsels of Hell were laid together they could not invent any thing more destructive of Christian Belief and more mischievously insinuating that Religion is onely a Fiction found out to inrich the Priest and make him powerful and honourable And then for Humility Their Supreme Patriarch being so very high and wrought to that high pitch by such frauds and forgeries by abetting and countenancing such Treasons Murthers and Villainies by raising such Seditions and Confusions in Christendom and this Sacerdotal Monarchy exercised with that haughtiness and unparallel'd pride this Supreme Levite so grossly and rudely treading upon the necks of Princes and making the greatest Emperours his foot-stool in his displeasure and his Sedan-men or Chair-carriers when he is at peace with them and the whole constitution of their Hierarchy in the several pomps and degrees thereof being rather a fiery rack of inflaming Ambition to set all mens spirits on the tenter-hooks in their reaching after the bewitching prizes which are ever flaring in their eyes then an allowable frame of a modest order of Government to keep up wholesome Discipline in the Church can we imagine any complexion of things more contrary to the Spirit of Humility then this And then again for Purity For this lofty High-priest to stoop so low as to set his Seal to the allowableness of Fornication by receiving an annual Tribute from the Whores of his Metropolis and to enjoyâ—… coelibate to his Priests as if he meant to drive them into the nets that these Nuns
are such as these Apoc. 8. The third part of the Trees was burnt up The third part of the Ships was destroyed The third part of the Sea became bloud and ch 12. The third part of the Sun was smitten and the third part of the Moon c. where Third does not signify the proportion of that which was smitten to that which did escape but the Empire at large which was smitten is indigitated by this Number Which has a smack of the Cabbalistick Genius who use Numbers for the Symbols of things as I have already noted So the Tenth part of the City is not the Tenth of the City that then was but of a City whose extent bore but the proportion of a Tenth part to what it had been as Mr. Mede has carefully computed To this head you may also refer that Apoc. 18. Double unto her double according to her works and Fill unto her double Which is so definitively spoken as if she should be repay'd with as much more as she had injured others but the sense is onely that she should be pay'd home for all her injurious dealings 10. Examples of Specifical Diorisms are such as usual Synecdoches are that put the Species for the Genus which being a more determinate Object strikes the Phancy stronglier and with fuller gratification Thus is the Imagination more loudly alarm'd by being informed that such a Thing or Person shall be burnt or consumed with fire then if it were only said they should perish or be consumed and not specify the manner So to make warre is more determinate and specifick then to oppose and to be beheaded then simply to die or be killed and to be slain more specifick then to be destroyed and lastly King is a more specifick term and more fully strikes upon the phancy then Supreme Magistrate or whatever other appellation that is more general and consequently more dilute Which Examples of this third kind of Diorismus occurre up and down in the Apocalyps and indeed every where in the Prophets CHAP. III. 1. Hylasmus what it is with the kinds thereof 2. Eximious Examples of each kind 3. What the first and chiefest kind of Henopoeia 4. That one single Beast signifies a Body Politick demonstrated out of Daniel 5. That a Succession of Individuals is represented by one Individual 6. That one individual Beast represents a Kingdom or Body Politick from its rise to its fall 7. That one single Man or Woman does also represent a Body Politick in the Prophetick style 8. The second kind of Henopoeia what it is 9. What Zoopoeia with examples thereof 10. A second kind of Zoopoeia proved and illustrated from Examples 1. HYlasmus is a Prophetick Scheme bearing strongly upon the Phancy by exhibiting crass and palpable Objects such as in Logick would bear the Notion of Subject or Matter The first kind is coincident with Metonymia Subjecti as when a City is put for the Inhabitants or a Temple for them that worship therein Examples of this kind are frequent every where To the second kind I would refer such Representations as are from Buildings Pavements and the like which are compact of crass and palpable Materials but are Mystical or Spiritual Symbols of quite another thing Examples of this kind are the Inward and Outward Court of the Temple the one Symmetral the other Asymmetral which signifies the Christian Church one while in her Purity another while in her Apostasie to Idols So the Holy City troden down by the Gentiles signifies the Christian Church over-run with Gentilism So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this case is an Emblem of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Body Politick as Temple may be of the living Church of Christ. 2. An eximious Example of this kind of Hylasmus is the Description of Jerusalem Apoc. 21. with its high wall and twelve gates and by a Prophetick Diorism the measure of the City is concluded twelve thousand furlongs and the wall an hundred fourty four cubits and the Materials are Gold and Pearls and precious Stone And yet this City so Hylastically set out has a most Spiritual meaning and signifies nothing else but the Church of Christ reduced again to Apostolical Purity But the most notable Instance of a Prophetick Hylasmus is the Description of the Temple by Ezekiel to which I cannot say but this of S. John alludes in several passages And that it is an Hylasmus and not a literal Description I think any one will easily grant that does but peruse the 47 Chapter Lastly The destruction of the City Babylon in the Apocalyps is also a remarkable Example of this Scheme but though in the general it appertain to this second kind of Hylasmus yet things are there set out very much by the former kind which is a Metonymia Subjecti not continentis as before but occupantis the Objects of their Spiritual Negotiations being so crassly discovered and described 3. The next Prophetick Scheme is Henopoeia and the most graceful but withall as much obscuring as any And the first and chiefest kind thereof is this The collection of a multitude of Individuals into the show of one Individual as also of a Succession of Individuals or Multitudes into the show of one standing Individual This is an ancient method of delivering Mysteries as any one will discern if he throughly perpend the nature and truth of the ancient Cabbala Which that both Daniel and S. John I may adde S. Paul too have imitated in their Prophecies I think is easily to be evinced 4. Touching the collection of a Multitude into the show or representation of one Individual it is plain in Daniel for one individual Lion there denotes the whole Kingdom of the Babylonians one Bear the Kingdom Dan. 7. of the Medo-Persians one Leopard the Kingdom of the Greeks and the fourth Beast the Roman Kingdom It is true it is said The four Beasts are four Kings but the vulgar Latin has it four Kingdoms as also Theodotion and the Text says expresly that the fourth Beast is the fourth Kingdom upon earth So the Ram and the Goat in the eighth Chapter according to Grotius his own Interpretation out of the Hebrew Idiom though they be said to be Kings are Kingdoms And whereas it is written And the rough Goat is the King of Graecia and the great Horn that is betwixt his eyes is the first King unless this Goat either signifie a Succession of Kings or a Kingdom it is not sense yea though Succession yet it will be very harsh sense to make the great Horn the first King and the Body the rest Wherefore unless we would distort things beyond all measure the Body of the Goat must signifie the Kingdom of Graecia as the Horns the Supreme Power consonantly to what Grotius has written and I doubt not but his Interpretation is true And I think that scarce any one can be so weak but upon the reading of Daniel he will be assured that in Prophetick
Figurations one individual Beast signifies a Multitude of men ordered together into the Body of a Kingdom 5. But as the great Horn of the He-goat is said to be the first King so the four Horns undoubtedly signified four succeeding Kings in this divided Kingdom in their several series so that four Successions of Individuals so far as they would last were represented under the show of four single Individuals namely those four Horns And truly when it is apparent that one Individual Beast represents the succession of a Multitude for many Ages together who are mortal as well as single men coagmentated into the body of one Kingdom it were a very nice and humorsome thing to stick at the succession of single Persons being represented under the show of one Head or Horn. 6. And that one and the same Beast stands for a Kingdom or Empire from its rise to its fall is plain both in Daniel and the Apocalyps For the Four Beasts are said to rise out of the great Sea Dan. 7. and the destruction of the Fourth is set down in the same Chapter who is supposed to tread down the Third as the Third is after declared to vanquish the Second in the following Chapters And in the Apocalyps the Rise of the Beasts there is set down as also their destruction in the Lake of fire and brimstone Whence it is evident that one Individual Beast represents not onely a Multitude of men under one Government but the Succession of this multitude for many Ages even till it cease to be such a Multitude and consequently the successive Sovereignty of this multitude must be thus far represented be it in one or many by the Head or Horns of such Beasts unless we can phansy a Polity without an Head which would not be a Polity but Anarchy 7. Nor are Irrational Creatures onely made Henopoetick Types of a Multitude collected into one Government but also Rational As it is evident in the Woman in the Wilderness which it were ridiculous to understand of some one single Woman and not of the Body of the Church whose true and living Head is Christ Jesus The Woman also in Esdras signifies Sion or the people of God and it may be the Man there coming out of the Sea has some such sense For why may not one Man signifie a People or Multitude as well as one Woman And it is plain that the people of Israel is called the Son of God Israel my son my first-born And therefore the * 2 Thess. 〈◊〉 Son of perdition and that Man of sin need not signifie one single man or a succession of single men but a Body Politick under one Head of mischievous contrivances By the like Henopoeia also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the false Prophet signifies not one single Person or the succession of such single persons but a Collection or Body of Deceivers combining together under one Government These things are so easie and so obvious that I am afraid I shall seem to have insisted over-long upon them 8. I will onely note a second kind of Henopoeia which is also of useful consideration and that is when things of different natures are comprised under one Type We have a very warrantable Instance of this way of interpreting Prophecie Apoc. 17. where the Angel does declare that not onely Seven Kings but Seven Hills are couched under the Symbol of the Seven Heads of the Beast According to this Analogie it may not be unsafe to interpret Babylon both of the City of Rome and of the Hierarchy the Two Witnesses of the Old and New Testament of them under the Legal and Evangelical dispensation and of Magistracy and Ministery the Horns of the two-horned Beast of the two Imperial Patriarchates of the two Horns of the Bishop's Mitre and of the two-fold power of Binding and Loosing Which second kind of Henopoeia need not seem new nor strange the ancient Pythagoreans and Cabbalists concealing and crowding together under the Symbol of one single Number many and multifarious Notions 9. Zoopoeia is the typifying out some inanimate thing by what has life be it Person or any other living Creature or part of that Creature In which sense the Seven Hills being signifi'd by the Seven Heads of the Beast is a Zoopoeia As also it would be if we understood * Rev. 11. the Two Witnesses of the Two Books of the Old and New Testament and the * Rev. 19. Word of God riding the white Horse of the whole Bible But I shall in its due place intimate that these are but collateral senses and reducible to one more primary one by an Henopoeia The making of * Rev. 6. 〈◊〉 Hell to lacquay by him that rides the pale Horse seems a more absolute Zoopoeia as also that Gen. 4. The voice of thy Brother's Bloud crieth unto me from the ground where the actions of life are given to the bloud of a dead man 10. But we will here take notice also of a second kind of Zoopoeia which may seem less harsh and most elegant and that is when free Actions are attributed to free Agents of which notwithstanding they may be no more the causes then if they were inanimate Beings or not in being at all According to this Figure is that of Virgil in the mouth of Aenea slaying Turnus Pallas te hoc vulnere Pallas Immolat poenas scelerato ex sanguine sumit Pallas being dead is said to slay Turnus though he did nothing here towards the slaying of him but what he suffered onely gave occasion to Aeneas to take revenge According to which Figure of speech a more large Allusion or Parable might be raised As if Aeneas instead of slaying one single man had sacked a City put man woman and child to the sword burnt their houses and left them as an heap of stones in revenge of the death of Pallas he might say of his friend now dead that it was he that inflamed the courage of the Souldiers to scale the Walls that it was he that gave out that just though severe Edict of slaying man woman and child that it was he that burnt down their houses and laid their City level with the ground and lastly that it was he whom they deservedly found a more mischievous enemy to them after his death then while he was living Certainly this Figure of speech would be very intelligible and withall bear along with it an extraordinary height of Rhetorick and Elegancy According to this Scheme is that example in Scripture of * Revel 6. 9. the Souls crying under the Altar O Lord how long c. Which is nothing but a Parable signifying that their death required Vengeance from the Justice of God Eae animae saith Grotius corpore solutae multò magis quà m sanguis mortem toleratam testantur For he had said before Sanguis Abelis vindictam poscit sic animae martyrum Wherefore there is acknowledged a Zoopoeia in both cases
But not for their Idolatry onely but also for their bloudy Tyranny as the same Grotius has noted excellently well upon Matth. 20. where Christ declaring that he that would be greatest and first in his Kingdom must be the minister and servant of the rest and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not lord it or swagger it over his inferiours as the Rulers of the Gentiles doe Haec oppositio saith he ostendit cur apud Prophetas Imperia mundi Bestiarum Regnum Christi Hominis imagine depingantur Where by Bestiae we are to understand wild Beasts as the word usually signifies and in that sense will exactly answer to the Seventy's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence the Latine word Ferae which always signifies wild Beasts is derived by turning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Aeolick Dialect Otherwise the Kingdoms of the world might be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the four Beasts in the Apocalyps which allude to the Camp of Israel distributed into four quarters as Mr. Mede has rightly observed are called and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that being a very unfit Title for any Polity where Humanity and Equity bears sway 10. But much less fit would it be for the true Body of Christ but least of all for the Lamb himself nor the Lamb a fit Prophetick Representative of one single person but that Christ had got that Title before being called by John The Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World as being indeed that Paschal Lamb whose Bloud is the Salvation of his people Wherefore unless there be some such bar as this which is an Instantia Monodica it is most assuredly true That an Animal or Beast in the Prophetick style signifies not one single Man but a Company Polity or Kingdom For how can they be said to have Horns and Heads and those Horns and Heads be expressly by an Angel from Heaven interpreted of Kings if the whole Beasts did not signifie not single persons but Kingdoms But why these wild Beasts should imply Idolatry as well as Cruelty in their Type the reason lies a little deeper but yet is not fathomless which I conceive is this Because Idolatrous worship is lodged within the Verges of the mere Bestial or Animal nature as may appear from what I have wrote in my Mystery of Godliness to which for brevitie sake I refer the Book 2. chap. 10. Reader 11. Blasphemy Blasphemy for Idolatry is also an Icasmus and the Analogie is discernible enough For what reproachful words are concerning God to the Ears the same is the worshipping of Images or any Creature with religious worship to the Eyes For by either way is declared that which is a contumely and vilification of God And therefore it is no wonder that the Prophetick style affecting an artificial concealment substitutes one kind of Blasphemy for another that Blasphemy which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom distinguishes of Divine Predictions But it is observable that the Scripture also in several places terms Idolatry Blasphemy As in Esay I will recompense into their bosoms your iniquities Chap. 65. 7. and the iniquities of your fathers together saith the Lord which have burnt incense upon the mountains and blasphemed me upon the hills which certainly was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by their acts of Idolatry Qui colunt Idola quasi Deos exprobrant Deo arrogantiam Divinitatis saith A lapide The like express passage is in Ezekiel Thus saith the Lord God Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me in that Chap. 20. 27 28. they have committed a trespass against me namely when I brought them into the Land for the which I lifted up my hand to give it to them then they saw every high hill and all the thick trees and they offered there their sacrifices and thereby presented the provocation of their offering c. which the same Interpreter again expounds of their Idolatries as also Gaspar Sanctius Again Deuter. 31. When they shall have eaten and filled themselves Vers. 20. and waxen fat then will they turn to other Gods and serve them and provoke me so our Translation but the Hebrew has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is properly they will blaspheme me as it is translated by the Seventy in Esay 52. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Ezek. 35. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word in the Original Lastly it is observable also that in Psalm 69. 9. where the Prophet David says The reproaches of them that reproached thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same as if it had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are fallen upon me the Chaldee Paraphrast interprets it of that reproach which God receives by communicating his Worship unto Idols whenas yet it is expressed by Blasphemie or contumely of words for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Wherefore seeing the children of Israel are said in their prevaricating in the Worship of God and turning to Idols to blaspheme it is very easie to conceive by the rule of Conjugates that this Idolatry of theirs may well be called Blasphemy Accordingly therefore Alcazar interprets the Names of Blasphemy in the Apocalyps on the seven Heads of the Beast of the Temples of Idols and Grotius paraphrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plena diis qui ità dicebantur in veri Dei injuriam So easily is it acknowledged on all hands that Blasphemy may be put for Idolatry And it is the most happy and significant Icasmus that can be nothing expressing the detestable nature of Idolatry so well as it For Idolatry is as absolute a subsannation and vilification of God as malice could invent and as ill as if they should call him by the names of all that base liveless matter that they make their Images of and proclaim him no better then it For they giving Divine worship to it make it equal to him And this Blasphemy is proportionable in other more worthy Objects that are not God for they are infinitely worthless in comparison of him and therefore it is an infinite reproach and horrid blasphemy against God to worship any thing besides him 12. Bloud That Bloud is an Hieroglyphick of Slaughter Providence it self seems to take for granted in praemitting that Prodigie of raining Bloud before the eruptions of war and bloudshed as History reports and all men naturally interpret And where the Apostle says Ye have not resisted unto bloud the meaning is unto death be it mystically or naturally meant But even there where Death is meant mystically there is mention of Bloud as when the Prophet is charged to denounce to him that sins Ezek. 33. 8. against the Law of God with an high hand that he shall surely die speaking of eternal death yet upon the
The like significancy is also acknowledged in the Onirocriticks Artemidor lib. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The like he saith also c. 41. which have some similitude with that in Daniel But to come nearer to the point concerning Hail Achmetes out of the Indian Persian and Aegyptian Onirocritical Solutions c. 191. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But yet more particularly of Hail and more to our present purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream that Hail falls on a place he may expect a through and sudden incursion of the enemie And further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if he dream that the Hail hurt the stemms or stalks of the Corn accordingly as they are broken in the same proportion will the slaughter of men be upon the place 3. Harvest That cutting down Corn is significative of the death of men appears by that Apparition of twelve men seeming to mow the Corn-fields with sithes in Merchia upon which a pestilence followed But that mortality that is by war is still more fitly expressed thereby Achmetes out of the Indian Onirocriticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a King dream he sees harvest reaped in his own Countrey he will suddenly hear of the slaughter of his people This similitude is also used in Scripture Jer. 15. 33. The daughter of Babylon is like a thrashing-floor it is time to thrash her yet a little while and the time of her Harvest shall come But Harvest sometimes has a more auspicious sense as in that of our Saviour John 4. 35. Behold I say unto you Lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to Harvest And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit to life eternal that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together 4. Head That the Head of a Beast in these Prophetick Figures signifies that Person or those Persons in whom the Supreme Power resides is as infallibly to be concluded as the fourth Proportional in Arithmetick three Numbers being given For we have three terms of the Analogie here also viz. a Kingdom and the Sovereignty thereof and a Beast which is the Prophetick figure of a Kingdom Wherefore we cannot miss to say As a Kingdom is to the Sovereign Power thereof so is this Prophetick or figurative Beast to the Head thereof and alternately As the Kingdom to the Beast so the Sovereign Power of the Kingdom to the Head of the Beast Whence we see plainly that the Head of a Beast answers to the Supreme Power and that whether the Supreme Power be in one single Person or in many For as the Power abstractedly is not considered so neither the Persons abstracted from their Power but both in concreto make up this Head Politick And therefore if the Supreme be not but in many those many are the Head and not the less one Head for consisting of many persons no more then the Body is less one Body for consisting of many persons Nay if a man should follow the Symmetry of his Phancy rather then his Reason a Head of many persons to a Body of a vast multitude of persons would look more elegantly and proportionably then one single person As if a Beast were made of little wax bullets sticking together a head of one bullet put to it would not look so conformably as an head of many bullets such as the whole body consisted of 5. Heaven and Earth By Heaven and Earth is understood the Universe as Grotius has rightly noted upon Genesis and abundantly proved upon 2 Pet. 3. 13. But that by Heaven and Earth the Prophets sometime understand a Political Universe that is a Kingdom or Polity there needs no further proof thereof then what is found in Esay ch 51. 15. I am the Lord thy God that divided the Sea whose waves roared the Lord of Hoasts is my Name And I have put my words in thy mouth and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand that I might plant the Heavens and lay the foundations of the Earth and say unto Sion Thou art my people that is to say to make them that were but scattered persons and slaves in Aegypt before a Kingdom or Polity to be governed by their own Laws and Magistrates Again chap. 65. 17. For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy Upon which Text Forerius Decrevi enim novum Orbem condere by which he means the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth that is his Church According to which sense also he interprets For as the new Heavens and the new Earth which I shall make shall remain before me so shall your Esay 66. 22. seed and your name remain Quam diu duraret novus Orbis i. e. Regnum Dei Ecclesiae c. And Grotius also though he look a-scue and is very shie himself best knows the reason at these places that have been mentioned yet he cannot abstain from interpreting the new Heaven and the new Earth Apocal. 21. of the state of the Church upon Earth And Dr. Hammond upon 2 Pet. 3. doth expresly acknowledge the new Heaven and the new Earth there mentioned to have a Political sense Which notion was worth the clearing because this general Analogie will make us the better understand what the parts of the Universe figuratively signify as to be called up into Heaven or cast down to the Earth and the like 6. Horn. Horn also signifies the Supreme Power of a Body Politick which is resembled to a Beast it being the highest part of the Beast and the Defender of his body It is the interpretation of the Angel in Daniel The great Horn is the first King And the ten Horns are interpreted ten Kings by the Angel in the Apocalyps For they were the height and summity of their respective Kingdoms though in some sort subordinate to the seventh Head of the Beast 7. Horse There is no express interpretation of that Animal in Scripture But a generous Horse with his Rider does naturally emblematize Rule and Command Which may seem also hinted to us from that of Psalm 45. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Prosper and ride which the Seventy turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prosper and reign But an Horse signifies also any success or fortune of him that rides on him So Achmetes out of the Indian Interpretations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If one dreams that he rides on Pharas which is a generous Steed which goes orderly and obediently he shall obtain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honour and renown proportionable to the Beast he rides on And so after he descants on the largeness thickness and length of the tail declaring that his power and train shall be answerable but if bob-tailed or thin of hair it signifies defect of power The halting of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apocal. 12. that great red Dragon with seven Heads is so called from his Sanguinolency But that his Seventh head 's growing out of this red body signifies that this Beast will be cruel also under the Seventh Head and that this Cruelty it self is part of the Image of the Beast this every one has not noted 5. Resurrection That the Resurrection of the dead has a Political sense as well as a Theological or Physical may appear plainly from Ezekiel 37. 9. Then said he unto me Prophesy unto the wind prophesy son of man and say to the wind Thus saith the Lord God Come from the four winds O breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding great army That this is to be understood in a Political sense concerning the restoring of the people of Israel to their own Land out of thraldome and captivity is plain from the very mouth of God himself in the following verses Then he said unto me Son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel Behold they say Our bones are dried and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Therefore prophesy and say unto them Thus saith the Lord God Behold O my people I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel Whence it is plain that to be cut off to be slain and to rise from the dead has as I said a Political sense as well as a Natural or Theological and that Resurrection is a Recuperation of such rights and liberties as have been taken away and a deliverance from persecution affliction and bondage Achmetes cap. 5. according to the Indian doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And cap. 6. according to the doctrine of the Persian Onirocriticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And lastly according to the Aegyptians c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of all which put together is That the dreaming of men rising from the dead signifies the execution of Justice and deliverance from war bondage and affliction 6. Rivers A River has a double consideration The first in respect of its Original and its recourse thither which is hinted Ecclesiast 1. 7. All the Rivers run into the Sea yet the Sea is not full unto the place from whence the Rivers come thither they return again According to which consideration supposing the Sea a Type of the Extent of the Jurisdiction or Empire of any Potentate as it indeed is Rivers will signifie any Emissary Powers from thence whether Armies or Provincial Magistrates or what Agents abroad soever that are under this chief Power and so act in reference to it These may according to exact Analogie be called Rivers because both themselves and their affairs have recourse to the main Sea the amplitude of that Jurisdiction to which they belong Achmetes c. 178. according to the mind of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of which is That any great King is resembled by the Sea I suppose he means his Kingdom and as all Rivers run into the Sea so the wealth of the world to him And again to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That new Rivers running into the Sea signify new Revenues accruing to the King or Kingdom from people afar off suppose made Provinces by his power 7. The other consideration of Rivers is their limpidness and irrigation but in this respect they have either a Spiritual sense or more Mundane The former appears from what our Saviour hath said John 7. 38. He that believes in me out of his belly shall flow Rivers of water This he spake of the Spirit which they that believed in him should receive The fruit of which Spirit as it is communicable to the generality of the Church is Righteousness Peace and Joy according to that Onirocritical solution of Astrampsychus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of this Water our Saviour Christ John 4. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life Like that in Esay 58. And thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not But Waters are also meant of worldly affluency Jerem. 31. 12. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Sion and shall flow together for the goodness of the Lord for wheat and for wine and for oil and for the young of the flock and of the herd and their soul shall be as a watered garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all Achmetes c. 176. according to the Aegyptian Solutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rivers that water the soil are interpreted of mans livelihood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one sees a River that uses to water the country dried up it portends death sorrow and affliction 8. Saints The first style of Saintship belongs to the Israelites who were a separate people set apart from other Nations and made holy to the Lord by adhering to that Law he gave them not contaminating themselves with the Idolatrous Institutes of the Gentiles Deuteron 33. 2. The Lord came from Sinai and rose from Seir unto them he shined from mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of Saints that is to say saith Vatablus cum populo Israel quorum fuerunt quidem multa millia licèt nâ—…n singuli Sancti tamen sancta fuerunt millia quòd Deus illos sanctificâsset in populum suum illos sibi segregâsset And further in the following verse Yea he loved the people all his Saints are in thy hand Which is plainly spoke of the Israelites according to that sense in Exodus ch 19. v. 5 6. where they are called a peculiar treasure above all people and also a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation And this they are said to be if they obey his voice and keep his Covenant Whence it is easy to conceive that those Christians succeed into this Title that are purely Evangelical and do not contaminate themselves by any Idolatrous Practices against the Command and Covenant of God they are Saints in this peculiar and separate sense in that they do not mingle with the Rites of the Gentiles but keep themselves to the Commands of that one Master Christ. If they doe this sincerely and constantly and truly there is little doubt of their sincerity that did not stick to lay down their lives for the truth though they be not so wise and plausible according to the mode of the world nor devoid of all blemishes of humane infirmity yet undoubtedly they are those Saints of which there is so frequent mention in the Apocalyps and are the true Israel of God under whatsoever hardship or low condition of fortune they
may be found to disguise the worthiness of their persons For the Witnesses were to be clothed in sackcloth a thousand two hundred sixty days Scorpion See Serpent Scorched by the Sun Achmetes Onirocrit c. 167. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream that the Sun has scorched him much he will be punished by the King proportionably to that scorching according to the doctrine of the Aegyptians Indians and Persians 9. Sea Waters signifying people as the Angel tells S. John the gathering together of people into one Body Politick Kingdom or Jurisdiction may fitly be called a Sea in the Political world as the gathering together of the Waters is so termed in the Natural Gen. 1. And the whole University of Kingdoms or a great part of them may according to this analogie be called either the great Sea or Ocean as is figured out also in the Vision of Daniel Ch. 7. I saw in my Vision by night and behold the four winds of Heaven strove upon the great Sea Where by Winds undoubtedly is meant War as well as by the great Sea a comprehension of several Kingdoms in which this bluster and tempest of War is made one Kingdom fighting against another to enlarge their dominions This analogie of the Sea is also acknowledged in the Interpretations of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians Achmetes c. 178. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any dream he is Master of the Sea he will be entire successour in the whole Kingdom And so likewise of the Winds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a King see the Sea troubled by a wind from a known quarter â—…e will be molested by some Nation from that quarter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if he see the Sea calm he will enjoy his Kingdom in peace This interpretation therefore of the Sea will farther confirm that of the Rivers Serpent That notorious Serpentine shape which deceived Adam and Eve and lapsed them into rebellion against God cannot but assure any one that in Scripture all the Serpentine kind that are described in Prophecy do in all likelihood refer to the Kingdom of the Devil Ship That a Ship as well as a Mill may be an Hieroglyphick of Profit any one may easily conceive if he think but of Merchandizing Achmetes according to the mind of the Aegyptians and Persians c. 180. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream he builds Ships he shall grow rich proportionably to the number of the Ships he builds But out of the foregoing Chapter according to the doctrine of the Indian Interpreters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is an interpretation as far fetched as from the Indies indeed Nor is it easy to conjecture why a Ship should intimate the congregating of men for the celebrating religious Mysteries unless we conceive a Ship to represent a Temple Which why we should I know not unless because they are disterminated and solitary buildings as Temples are not joyned to one another no more then a Temple to other Houses But in that it is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Navis mercatoria it may be the profit of the Priest from sacrifices or offerings to Idols may be alluded to And whether any darker recesses in the Ship may represent the Adyta in Temples I know not Such particularities I leave to every mans phancy to pursue at leisure Slain See Resurrection Slaughter See Death 10. Sun Moon and Stars The Sun and Moon have either a Spiritual signification or a Secular Of the Spiritual signification of the Sun there is an example where Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness as he is by the Prophet Malachi Also the Apostle to the Ephesians Awake thâ—… that sleepest that Christ may give thee light The Moon also may have a Spiritual signification supposing it to typifie the Mosaical dispensation Which it may very well doe both because it is a light and a far dimmer light then that of the Gospel as also in allusion to their New Moons and other Festivals of the Jews the order of which depended on that Planet See Mr. Mede on Apocal. 12. To which you may adde That as the Law of Moses is compared to the Moon so may the Light of the Gospel of Christ be compared to the Sun For that the Word of God is compared to Light is plain from that of David Thy word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path And Psalm 119. 105. that great Lamp of the Universe the Sun is the clearest Light men can walk by Whence that vulgar expression of the Sun-shine of the Gospel was framed by very warrantable analogie and does further assure unto us that the Light of the Gospel may also be one Spiritual signification of the Sun 11. The Secular signification of Sun and Moon is when they signifie the Power and Glory of this world And that either generally and at large as Jerem. 15. 9. Her Sun is gone down while it was yet day Which the Targum renders Their glory passed from them in their life-time The like to which is in Amos 8. 9. I will cause the Sun to goe down at noon and I will darken the Earth in the clear day Vatabl. Cùm eritis in supremo felicitat is gradu tunc indè vos dejiciam infelicissimos reddam Again Esay 60. 20. Thy Sun shall no more goe down neither shall thy Moon withdraw herself that is to say Thou shalt have uninterrupted glory and prosperity as it follows presently after The days of thy mourning shall be ended In such places as these Sun and Moon have not a sense determined to any particular Dignity in a Kingdom but signifie onely at large the Glory and Prosperity thereof 12. But in other places there may be a more particular meaning of these Lights For as there is a Political Universe as well as a Natural as I have already shewn which has its Heaven also as well as Earth so there must be something answering in the Political Heaven to those chief conspicuous parts of the Natural the Sun Moon and Stars Whence it will follow that he that is chief in a Political world must be the Sun thereof as may appear though in an inferiour instance touching a Body Oeconomical Gen. 37. 9. viz. the Dream of Joseph that the Sun and the Moon and the eleven Stars made obeisance to him Which Jacob unriddling What is this dream saith he to his son that thou hast dreamed Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to how down our selves to thee to the Earth Wherefore if these Symbols signifie so distinctly in a Family which is but a Body Oeconomical much more is it to be expected that it may signifie so in a Body Politick Achmetes according to the mind of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians cap. 167. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the next chapter he calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second or lesser King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he calls in the following chapter 〈◊〉
with great admiration Chap. 13. 15. And he had power to give life to the Image of the Beast that the Image of the Beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast should be a Par. 1. Agr. 6. killed Chap. 17. 7. And the Angel said unto me Wherefore didst thou marvell I will tell thee the Mystery of the Woman and of the Beast that a carrieth her which hath the b seven heads and ten horns Chap. 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming up out of the Earth and he had a Par. 〈◊〉 Agr. 7. two horns 1. And I saw a Beast having b Par. 2 Agr. 1. seven heads and ten horns Chap. 17. 8. The Beast which thou sawest a was and is not and shall ascend out of the b bottomless pit and goe into c perdition and they that dwell on the Earth shall d wonder whose names were not written in the Book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the Beast that e was and is not and yet is Chap. 13. 2. And the a Par. 2. Agr. 3. Dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority 4. And they worshipped the a Dragon that gave power to the Beast c. See also verse 3. 1. And I stood upon the sand of the Sea and I saw a Beast b Par. 2. Agr. 6. rise up out of the Sea 10. He that leadeth into c Par. 2. Agr. 7. captivity must go into captivity he that killeth with the sword must be c killed with the sword 3. And all the world d Par. 2. Agr. 8. wondred after the Beast 8. And all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him whose names are not d written in the Book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to a Par. 2. Agr. 3. death and his deadly wound was a healed 14. Saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make an c Par. 2. Agr. 5. Image to the Beast which had the wound by the sword and the Beast revived 15. And he had power to give life to the c Image of the Beast insomuch that the Image of the Beast should speak Chap. 17. 9. And here is the mind that hath wisedom The seven Heads are the a seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth Chap. 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming up out of the Earth and he had a Par. 1. Agr. 8. two horns like a Lamb but spake as a Dragon Chap. 17. 10. And they are seven Kings five are fallen and one is and the a Par. 2. Agr. 10. other is not yet come and when he cometh he must continue a b Par. 2. Agr. 4. short space Chap. 13. 1. Having a seven heads and upon his heads the name of a blasphemy 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was b healed Chap. 17. 11. And the Beast that was and is not even he is the eighth and is of the a Par. 2. Agr. 9. seven and goeth into b Par. 2. Agr. 7. perdition Chap. 13. 1. Having seven heads and upon his heads the name of a blasphemy 10. He that killeth with the sword must be b killed with the sword Chap. 17. 12. And the ten Horns which thou sawest are ten Kings which have received a no kingdom as yet but receive power as kings a one hour with the Beast Chap. 13. 1. Having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten a Par. 2. Agr. 11 12. crowns Chap. 17. 13. These have one mind and shall a give their strength and power to the Beast Chap. 13. 1. I saw a Beast rising out of the Sea a Par. 2. Agr. 13. having ten horns Chap. 17. 14. These shall make a war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall b overcome them for he is Lord of lords and King of kings and they that are with him are c called and chosen and faithfull Chap. 13. 4. Who is like to the Beast who is able to make a Par. 2. Agr. 14. war with him 7. And it was given him to make a War with the Saints and to overcome them 16. And he causeth all both small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or on their foreheads 17. And that no man may a buy or sell save he that has the mark or the name of the Beast or the number of his name 10. He that leadeth into captivity shall b Par. 2. Agr. 15. go into captivity he that killeth with the sword shall be b killed with the sword Here is the patience and c Par. 2. Agr. 16. faith of the Saints Chap. 17. 15. And he saith unto me The waters which thou sawest where the Whore sitteth are a peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues Chap. 13. 7. And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations 12. And I beheld another Beast come out of the Earth and he had a Par. 1. Agr. 7. two horns like a Lamb and he exercizeth a all the power of the first Beast before him Chap. 17. 16. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the Beast these shall hate the Whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire Chap. 13. There is nothing in this Thirteenth Chapter answering to the 16. verse of the other but that verse answers punctually to the main Title of the Vision which is The judgment of the great Whore But that this defect is no prejudice to the certainty of our Parallelism I have already noted Chap. 17. 17. For God has put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast untill the a words of God shall be fulfilled Chap. 13. 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was given unto him to continue a Par. 2. Agr. 17. forty and two months Chap. 17. 18. And the Woman which thou sawest is that great City which a Par. 1. Agr. 9. reigneth over the Kings of the Earth Chap. 13. 18. Here is Wisedom let him that hath understanding count the Number of the Beast for it is the number of a man and his number is a six hundred threescore and six 7. Thus you see the Two Visions of the Thirteenth Chapter wholy imbibed into the Vision of the Seventeenth excepting the Original of the Two-horned Beast of which I have given an account already And that it is naturally drunk in not dash'd in by force will appear from that joint-Exposition which I shall make of these two Chapters together interpreting those verses or parts of verses of the Thirteenth which I have subnected to each verse of the
Seventeeth together with the verses they are in order subnected to But before I set upon this task I will first prepare the way by making good a certain Position that is of main concern and of common influence for the clearing and ascertaining of the true meaning of the Visions in both Chapters Which I shall doe as accurately and yet as briefly as I can CHAP. XI 1. The great importance of proving the Seven Heads of the Beast to be Seven Sorts of Governours 2. That the proving of the Seven-headed Beast to signify the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire quatenus Idolatrous will go far toward the proof of the former Position 3. That the Seven-headed Beast is a Kingdom or Empire 4. And particularly the Roman 5. That it is the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire 6. That it is this Idolatrous Empire or Kingdom through all those Ages it is Idolatrous 7. That it represents the Roman Kingdom or Empire in those Ages onely in which it is Idolatrous Whence the true meaning of the slaying of the Beast and a further confirmation of the foregoing Assertion is to be understood 8. That this adequate Representation of the Idolatrous duration of the Empire implies that no Seven single Persons can be the Seven Heads thereof 9. The same conclusion inferred from the Stigmatizing these Seven Heads with the note of Idolatry whenas more then Seven nay all of the Pagan Emperours were Idolaters 10. Also from the ordinary form of speech in distinguishing Animals by the number of their parts 11. And finally from the certainty of the Seventh Head's being not one single Person but a Succession 12. That what-ever Interpretation supposes these Seven Heads Seven single persons is not onely false but impossible 13. That it follows from what has been evinced That the Beast in the 17 chap. of the Apocalyps is the Roman Empire degenerated again into a kind of Paganism 14. As also that the Whore of Babylon is not Rome Pagan but Pagano-christian 15. And that the coming of Antichrist at the very last end of the World is a Chimericall Fiction 16. The true Subject of the Visions of the 17 and 13 Chapters of the Revelation 1. THE Position which I mentioned and which is of so great importance is this That the Seven Heads of the Beast are not any seven single Persons whether Emperours or any other Supreme Governours but Seven sorts of Governours succeeding one another Which being cleared we shall then be infallibly assured what is the Subject and the genuine sense of the Visions of these two Chapters we have in hand 2. And truly we shall strike very far into the proof of this so important a Thesis if we can but make good this preparatory Conclusion thereto namely That the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns signifies the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire quatenus Idolatrous that is to say when and so long as Idolatrous and no farther The truth of which Proposition I shall endeavour to demonstrate gradually and by parts 3. First therefore That by Beast is understood a Kingdom or Empire it is needless here to repeat having proved that in my Prophetick Alphabet Chap. 5. Sect. 9. as also advertised in my first Rule of comparing Interpretations of Prophecy how absonous and ridiculous it is not to interpret Prophetick Figures according to the approved meaning and observable use of the Prophetick style To which lastly you may adde that the Seven Heads of the Beast being interpreted Seven Kings in succession and the Ten Horns Ten Kings at once appertaining to it it must of necessity be a Kingdom or Empire 4. Secondly That this Seven-headed Beast with Ten Horns is the Roman Kingdom or Empire besides that those Ten Horns answerable to the Beast with ten Horns in Daniel which the Church has constantly interpreted of the Roman State seem to defix and determinate the Prophecy to that sense the Whore of Babylon which is said to sit on this Beast with seven Heads which is universally understood of Rome Alcazar cites at least twenty Interpreters must of necessity infer the same And lastly the Interpretation of the Angel who makes the Seven Heads of the Beast to signify as well Seven Hills as Seven Kings does plainly demonstrate that the Beast is Roman the Hills being the Hills of Rome For how can the Seven Hills of Rome be said to be the Beast's Seven Heads if the Beast were not the Roman Empire But that the Seven Hills do denote Rome Ribera himself dares not deny and Grotius expresly upon the Text Noti satis Montes ex Poetis Historiis nec ulla poterat ad describendam Romam adferri nota illustrior And it is universally the sense of all Interpreters And Bishop Mountague who would extend it to the Turkish Empire which has gotten the possession of Constantinople which History has also in some measure noted for her seven Hills yet he does not exclude Old Rome from the Angel's Interpretation But that the Seven-headed Beast cannot be the Turkish Empire we may conclude with Mathematick certitude Because it is an Empire that had continued the Succession of Five Heads in S. John's time whenas the Turkish Empire was not so much as in being by many hundred years Nor was there any Empire whose Metropolis was famous for Seven Hills but the Roman Whence we have all desirable assurance that the Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns is the Roman Empire 5. Thirdly That this Seven-headed Beast is the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire may appear from several indications As first in that this very Figure of a Beast in that sense that the Greek word sounds which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fera does of it self signifie an Idolatrous Kingdom or Empire as I have already made good in my Prophetick Alphabet which Chap. 5. Sect. 9. alone were sufficient to evince this third part of our Assertion But besides this it is observable that in every Vision wherein this Seven-headed Beast is represented there is that which plainly speaks him Idolatrous As Apocalyps 12. he is a Dragon or Serpent Which therefore must needs be a Pagan Power or Idolatrous Empire his shape being the very Effigies of the Devil his War against the Church of Christ and his downfall the Exaltation of Christ's Kingdom And Grotius himself will acknowledge that this * Rev. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this great red Dragon is Mars the President-Daemon of the Roman Polity which was as notoriously Idolatrous as Cruel Now as it is certain that the red Dragon is the Idolatrous Roman Empire so that the Seven-headed Beast in the 13 Chapter is the same Idolatrous Empire is as certainly imply'd in that it is the Beast healed of that deadly wound it had in its conflict with the Host of Michael and in that the Dragon is said to have delivered his power to this Beast and this Beast is termed the Image of the Dragon that was so mortally wounded
coherence or ligation with the time of the Prophet but onely with one another For so far forth as is expressed in this verse the signification is onely of succeeding Order in Existence and Non-existence and Re-existence which changes upon that consideration are indeed tied to one another but free as yet from being fixed to the Prophet's time or any ones time else Which thing though I have been so carefull to make good yet is an apprehension so easy to admit that Alcazar in his Exposition supposes it without asking leave or giving any account For he understanding the revived or re-existent Beast of the persecuting Empire under Julian the Apostate whom he makes the eighth King and acknowledging the Visions exhibited to John in Domitian's time when the Roman Empire was actually persecutive does evidently implie that The Beast which thou sawest was and is not is not to be understood of Existence or Non-existence joyned with the time of the Vision for it had been false to say the Beast is not in Domitian's time but onely of permutations and successions of the Condition of the Empire Cùm igitur saith he persecutiones interrumpendae forent hâc ipsâ interruptione significatur quod Angelus ter repetit capite decimo septimo dum ait de Bestia Fuit non est Erat non est Quod idem est ac si diceret Modò est modò non est Which phrase signifies no set time of Existence or Non-existence but onely the vicissitude of them This upon the Thirteenth Chapter and to the same purpose he speaks upon the Seventeenth where he asserts that by the Beast that was and is not the Angel onely intimates that there would be an Intermission of Persecution I might adde also that our Protestant Expositours go generally upon the same supposition as Paraeus has noted But this point I hope is abundantly cleared 10. And what has been said of this first Description of the Beast Was is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition is to be understood of the second Was is not and yet is namely that it is the Name Nature or Character of the Beast not any Assertion concerning his present Existing or Not-existing For of that Idolatrous Empire which is here indigitated it could not be properly said when S. John wrote that it was but is not for it did then continue still in an uninterrupted being Nor could it be said of it Is not and yet is for it was not the Image of the Pagan Idolatrous Empireâ—… but that very Empire it self And it is remarkable that this Beast is described as to come hereafter out of the bottomless pit and that the world shall wonder at him when he ascends again upon the Stage beholding the Beast that was and is not and yet is Where therefore neither Was nor Is not have any connexion or ligation with that present Age of S. John seeing it is so evident that Is has not the prediction being not of a present Beast but of one to come And indeed to me it seems very improbable that the Title or Name of the Beast would have been so presently in the same verse repeated again with this little variation had it not been done on purpose to be a Key to the meaning of the former Title and to cast the considerate Reader upon such a sense as I have pitched upon But to reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to make the Prophecy guilty of a sapless and useless Tautologie and to deface in it a special Note and Mark of direction to the true meaning thereof But we proceed 11. Nor can Is not and yet is be understood of any Object but with a close touch on the known laws of a right Contradiction Which is the Mysterious dress which is here affected to excite amusement and without which it will not sound like either sense or an Elegancy The same thing therefore in some sense or other must be affirmed and denied of the same Subject Wherefore as by that part of the Title Was and is not it is naturally understood he is not what he was and as Is not is to be understood in the same extent that Was as if Was intimate his whole Existence Is not must take away his whole Existence and if Was intimate onely the Condition or Qualification of Existence Is not must take away just so much and no more So Is not and yet is must be understood in the same extent and the Object of their Affirmation and Negation must be equal that is to say either the whole Existence of the thing must be affirmed and denied or the same Condition or Qualification 12. The former in this case cannot be pretended to it being so real a Contradiction that it is a down-right Falsity And in the latter if there were a perfect Sameness it would be as rank and as unreconcilable a Contradiction As suppose a man were a King and should be deposed for a time but then afterwards be restored to his Kingdom in as full power as ever it were a real contradiction and gross falshood to say He is not King as well as He is King Whence the fondness of Hugo Grotius his interpretation is detected who makes Domitian the Beast that is not and yet is For it could never be said of him while he was Emperour that he was not Emperour or while he was not Emperour that he was Emperour because to be Emperour was utterly the same Condition at both times he was so if he was so twice For which he has no evasion but by reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But when this sameness is in some respect defective and verges rather towards similitude then exact Identity then indeed this Riddle is proper and though the Aenigma seems to amuse a man with a contradiction yet it declares a truth As is apparent in our Interpretation of the Beast that Paral. 2 Agr. 5. is not and yet is which is this That the ancient Idolatrous Empire is not and yet is where both parts are true For as to the manner of Idolatry it is the same Beast but in respect of the persons whom they would worship it is not the same and therefore as I have already noted is also called the Image of the Beast 13. Wherefore this second Title of the Beast Was and is not and yet is being thus plainly discovered not to signify existence but condition and order of succession it is a farther assurance that our Interpretation of the former Title of the Beast is true also and that the omitting of the Intersertion or subjunction of This is his Name or Property or the like is a mere Prophetick Ellipsis and Artifice of concealment warrantable upon a double ground either as spoken rapturously and ecstatically and therefore thus Elliptically or else because there are Examples of such an Ellipsis in other places of Scripture and in the very
Caesarem where he saith this City is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Nicetas Urbs Septicollis by Paulus Diaconus and that it is so acknowledged by Janus Dousa and by Mr. Richard Knolls in his Turkish History To which I will adde what I finde in Theatrum Urbium That Scholarius Patriarch of Constantinople in his Enarratio Vaticinii de Turcici Reg ni interitu styles the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dilichius also in his description of the City not onely mentions the seven Hills but tells also what magnificent structures stand upon them And lastly Ludovicus Gotofredus Muri ejus saith he speaking of this City sunt incredibilis altitudinis complectentes ambitu suo septem Colles So that though there be not so ancient and early mention of the Seven Hills of Byzantium or Constantinople as of those of Rome and that it may be probably conceived that upon the Emperour's pleasure of having the City called New Rome they would also finde seven Hills in it in emulation of the old Imperial City whether there were just Seven or no I mean though there might be more then seven or if fewer take occasion to phansy one and the same Hill for some little unevennesses in it to be more then one yet I cannot well distrust but that there is a tolerable ground for this Title and being that it has obtained in the Writers of her History I will not gainsay but that she may also goe for Urbs Septicollis Which will be no inconvenience to our Interpretation but a further confirmation of our Exposition of the Two Horns of the Beast which I conceive to be the two Imperial Patriarchates the Roman and Constantinopolitan which shews the extent of that Pseudo-prophetick Beast that it reached over the whole Empire as well Oriental as Occidental And here we finde the Seat of the Whore as broad these Seven Hills not confining her as is usually conceived to Old Rome but permitting her to reside also at New Rome or Constantinople there being Seven Hills Paral. 1. Agr. 〈◊〉 there as well as at the other Seat but not so famous as those other as the fame of her whoredomes is not so great from the one as from the other According to which sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would be rendred Septem capita septeni sunt montes The seven Heads signifie the two Septenaries of Mountains the one at Rome the other at Constantinople From whence the eighth Agreement of our first Parallelism is cleared Ver. X. And they are seven Kings that is They signifie seven sorts of Supreme Governours which are called Kings here by a Diorismus or an Hebraism who understand by King and Kingdom any Body Politick with the supreme Power thereof be it in one or in many And these Seven Sorts are not seven Individuals of different sorts but the whole Succession of each sort by an usual Henopoeia And that seven different Sorts of Governours may be called Seven Heads as well as seven Individual Persons I think is demonstrable by Reason because there is a greater difference betwixt Kind and kind then betwixt Individuals of the same kind Whence I wonder that Grotius should call seven forms of Government taken concretely as every one does take them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whenas if there be such a sevenfold difference in the supreme Powers in the succession of an Empire the Empire once considered as a Beast it will be ipso facto Seven-headed whether we will or no. So farre is it from being a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is a natural and inevitable truth 2. Now the Division of the succession of the Supreme Powers of the Empire is made naturally thus This Power was either in many or in one In many as in the Consuls the Tribuni Militum the Decemviri In one as in the Kings Dictatours and Emperours Which Emperours I will again divide into Pagan Christian and Pagano-Christian So that the whole line of succession of these Supreme Powers is divided first into two equal parts and then each of those two subdivided into three and then one part of the second subdivision into three again So that the whole line does naturally fall into eight parts agreeably to the History of things and declaration of the Prophecy For there are plainly numbered Eight Kings though but Seven Heads of the Beast For under the Christian Emperours the Empire was no Beast and therefore there could be no Head thereof 3. Nor know I any tolerable solution of this Riddle of Eight Kings and yet but Seven Heads but this For the shortness of the stay of the Christian Succession cannot put them out of the number of the Heads since the stay of the Decemviri was above fourty times shorter Wherefore it is not this but because the Empire during their succession was not a Beast nor they either fit or actual Heads of one but were onely Heads or Kings of the undegenerated and not-yet-again-Paganizing Empire Which therefore was the time of the Death of the Beast when he was not and therefore was to have no Head nor could have any 4. Nor is there the least ground of any Cavil against our last Subdivision which is of Emperours into Pagan purely Christian and Pagano-Christian as if there were not a cause fundamental enough of this last Distribution Whenas on the contrary there is such a strong Opposition betwixt the two first members thereof that one outs the other the seventh King being the wounder and killer of the sixth Head And forasmuch as when a Religion is made the Religion of a Kingdom or Empire it is in a sort the Law of that Empire it may be rationally conceived that there is even a Political difference betwixt a Christian and a Pagan Emperour And lastly be that how it will it is plain to all men that there is a very eminent and notorious difference betwixt a Christian and a Pagan Emperour and of more concernment to the Church of God then any Political Distinction of Government And that which most concerns his Church we may be assured God takes most notice of and therefore would be as likely to distinguish the succession of Supreme Governours by this difference as by any 5. Nay I think I may safely adde that it is likely that when once the Angel had come to the division of the Heads or rather Kings into Christian and Pagano-Christian he did wholly neglect the confideration of the Political differences of forms of Government in the Empire that notion being now impertinent to his design and contented himself with the distinction of them from the account of Religion onely But till this he numbered according to the distinction of Political form they all of them till now agreeing in pure Paganism So that the sense of The Beast that was and is not his Head is the eighth King seems to be this That supreme Power be the Political frame or Title of it what it will which is
noted and so necessary an Expression to set off the quite different nature of him from all that went before he not being properly of that kind of Line For what communion or affinity had the pure Christian Caesars with the purely Pagan But now when he comes to this last Head which I cannot avoid for significancy to term Pagano-Christian the whole Empire from head to foot being supposed such this King he thinks good to call the Eighth because he being derived from a double Line takes in all Predecessors before him as well Christian as Pagan and therefore reckoning here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Succession from whom also he is derived he is rightly called the Eighth King and yet considering that he is a Paganizing or Idolatrizing Head as well as Christian he is said to be one of the Seven namely of those seven Kings that are noted by the seven blasphemous Heads of the Beast which were seven and no more This in my apprehension is the most easie and the most assured sense that â—…ny can desire of any place of Scripture 3. Nor need we distrust it for the seeming harshness of that Synecdoche by which the whole Beast is put for part namely the Head the speech being to be salved not onely by this Figure but confirmed by Example As Dan. 2. 38. Thou art this Head of Gold and yet this Head of Gold was a Type of the whole Kingdom of Babylon Wherefore it is plain that the whole Head of Gold is put for some chief part thereof Also Dan. 4. 20 22. The Tree which thou sawest which grew and was strong c. It is thou O King that art grown and become strong c. Where notwithstanding that Tree was an Emblem of his whole Kingdom and of the large extent of the Dominion thereof So that the King is here again called the Tree whenas indeed he was but part thereof the Root as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the stumping of the Tree to the ground was a Figure to represent the cutting him off from his Kingdom for a time Besides all which it is not sense without this Synecdoche for how can any Head be truly and properly the whole Beast 4. Wherefore the Eighth King is the Succession of the Christian Caesars for that time wherein the Empire Paganizes that is Idolatrizes in Christianity Which though their Succession be long and their Persons more then one at a time in some Ages yet by an Henopoeia they are expressed under the show of one single King For the Division into Seven was not by Individuals but by difference of Kind as I have above declared And therefore the Eastern and Western Emperours reigning at once in the Empire breaks no squares in this Prophetick way of Computation which reckons not by Individuals but by Sorts and Successions contrived into one Individual shape or show Which is the reason there is no mention of succession of Persons no more then enumeration of Years in this Book of the Apocalyps though it treat of things that fill the Period of almost two thousand years and that of this side of the Millennium 5. And is of the Seven This also intimates that the Seven Heads of Par. 2. Agr. 9. the Beast are Idolatrous Heads accordingly as they are declared Chap. 13. v. 1. Which is the evidence of the ninth Agreement of our second Parallelism 6. And goeth into perdition that is into final destruction as is intimated Par. 2. Agr. 7. also in the Thirteenth Chapter v. 5 and 10. where his time is set 1260 days but then death allotted him It is the seventh Agreement of our second Parallelism as I have noted already Ver. XII And the Ten Horns which thou sawest are Ten Kings which Par. 2. Agr. 11. have received no Kingdom as yet that is to say in S. John's time who liv'd in the reign of the Sixth Head under which the Beast fought and was slain by Michael in which Battel he is also represented with Seven Heads and Ten Horns but no Crowns upon these Horns their actual Coronation being not till the Seventh Head And therefore Which have received no Kingdom as yet answers to that Type of the Horns without Crowns upon them Which is the eleventh Agreement of our second Parallelism 2. But receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast that is to say Par. 2. Agr. 12. with the Beast whose name is Was and is not and yet is which is the Beast considered under the succession of the Seventh or last Head the healed or revived Head from the mortal blow it lay under the Kings receive power and are actually crowned Kings at the time of this Beast's getting again into Being And therefore this healed Beast his ten Horns are represented with ten Crowns on them Chap. 13. 1. which answers exactly to this present Text They receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast and is a manifest proof of the twelfth Agreement of our second Parallelism 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meaning is I conceive But they are receiving power about the same hour with the Beast For the present Tense may intimate a productedness of the Action as being in fieri nor does imply but that they may be receiving though not in such a passive way as it does not involve with it some stout effort of their own towards the getting of this power for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have an higher sense and more active then so that they may be receiving I say this Roial power for some time together though some speed sooner then other some but none long without their booty For so I would understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Diorismus that it does not signifie an Hour properly so called but any short space of time the measure of which Circumstances will make us the best to understand Wherefore I would render it But they receive power as Kings about the same time with the Beast so as it is understood Exod. 9. 18. Behold to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very great hail The Greek has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plain from Exod. 36. 9. and several other places of Scripture The sense therefore is this That about what time the Beast should revive and be worshipped that is obey'd or in plainer English About what time the Empire should relapse again into Idolatry and be a-resuming the ancient Pagan Rites though placing them upon Christian Objects about that very time should the Empire be rending into Ten Kingdoms or these Ten Kings be catching at and receiving power as Kings all of them appearing and succeeding in their Enterprises within a little time from the first Degeneracy of the Empire into Pagan Idolatries and Superstitions which may be within the space of fourty or
so prosperously hitherto with an Admonition thereupon 4. The meaning of Until the words of God be fulfilled with a further Admonition to the Apostatized Church 5. The eviction of the truth of the seventeenth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XVIII Why the Seat of the Whore is so determinately affixed at last to Old Rome in this Prophecie 2 3. A clear and confessed evidence that Old Rome is here pointed at as the Seat of the Whore with a short Paraphrase upon the sense of the Verse 4. That the Seat of the Two-horned Beast is also fixed to Old Rome and of the Cabbalisticalness of the Apocalyps 5. That the Numeral Name of the Beast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that it is so to be written and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proved from the ancient Orthography of both the Greek and Latin Tongue 6. That the ancient Latines who usually sounded long i as a Diphthong pronounced their Vowels nearest to the Greeks 7. How exquisitely this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to Events 8. That the finding the number 666 in other names does not at all weaken the determinate applicability of this 9. In what sense 666 is called the number of the Beast 10. The application of the Root thereof illustrated from the Cabbalistical application of the Root of the Tetractys 11. The last Agreement of the first Parallelism 12. The last Agreement of the second 13. That the Vision of the Whore is more appropriate and peculiar to the Church of Rome 14. Of the Inscription Mysterium on the Pope's Crown and of a Woman-Pope Ver. XV. THe Waters which thou sawest where the Whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues This Interpretation of Waters in reference to the describing of the Extent of the Whore's Jurisdiction does imply that it was very large and if we compare it with what is in the Thirteenth Chapter v. 7. it seems to indicate no less compass then that of the whole Empire For the Beast there is certainly the whole Empire and it is but said of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here is not indeed in this present verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. for the Angel here delivers a precept of the Art of interpreting of Prophecies and therefore could not so well say that Waters signifie All peoples and multitudes but his heaping up so many words more then in the fore-cited Verse of the other Chapter and that in the plural number seems to drive at as large extent as the other Which the consideration of his calling these Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the beginning of this Prophecie which seems to point at the whole Empire as I have intimated above does farther ratifie To which you may adde that both Grotius and Alcazar understand the meaning of the place of the universal extent of the Roman Empire And à Lapide also who glosses upon the Text Aquae quas vidisti saith he significant omnes gentes populos quibus Roma imperabit But that the Two Horns of the Second Beast import the same thing Par. 1. Agr. 7. I have already named and whether this exercising all the power of the first Beast before him may not as well respect extent of place as the kinds of power I leave to further disquisition Enough already has been produced for the making good of the seventh Agreement of our first Parallelism Ver. XVI And the Ten Horns which thou sawest upon the Beast these shall hate the Whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire To burn with fire is a Diorismus and signifies onely to consume and destroy and to make to cease to be what it was What execution also the making of her desolate and naked and eating of her flesh does imply I shall defer to declare till the last part of our Discourse In the mean time having so plainly discovered that this Whore is not a City built with Wood and Stone but an Hierarchical Polity degenerated into a kind of Idolatrous Paganism the very same with the Two-horned Beast or Pseudo-prophetick Body I must confess I see no necessity of any such War as should aim at the burning of the ancient City of Rome but that this Prophecy may be fulfilled without any such martial noise or ruines or garments rowled in bloud Which is a thing seriously to be considered for the peace and welfare of Christendom For the hatred of these Ten Horns against the Whore and their persecution of her implies no such raising of Forces or marching in Battalia against Bulwarks and Walls and Houses and taking so long an Expedition as to Rome For this City is larger then to be comprised within the whole confines of Italy For it is a Pseudo-prophetick Polity that has spred through the whole Territories of the Empire a Water-Nymph whose skirts are so large that she has sat floting upon the whole Imperial Ocean for these many Ages and therefore is such as neither the Punishment of burning nor drowning is competible to in that crass and literal sense as vulgarly is understood But of these things in their more proper place Ver. XVII For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast This seems to be but the very same with the thirteenth verse These have one mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and shall give their power and strength to the Beast But that which is the most stupendious Arcanum and not to be thought upon but with the greatest humility and veneration is That God is here entitled to this counsel and joint-purpose of these Kings he is said to put this in their hearts and it is called the fulfilling of his purpose or counsel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give their Kingdom to the Beast Of which the easie sense is to contribute their Kingdoms to make up this Ten-horned Beast as the children of Israel might be said to contribute to the golden Calf 2. This seems a wonderful passage of Providence which that of S. Paul Act. 17. will hardly come up to where speaking of the gross Idolatries of the Pagans which reigned in the world so many Ages And the times saith he of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every Vers. 30. where to repent But God is said here not to wink at the thing but to put it into the hearts of these Kings c. Wherefore it seems most like to that of hardening Pharaoh's heart that he might not let Israel go or of the Jews crucifying our Saviour Christ whom Peter saith they took and by wicked hands crucifi'd and slew him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being exposed Act. 2. 23. and given up to them as it were by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God Wherefore it should seem that such
invincible circumstances and inviting opportunities which God by his permissive or more positive Providence brings into the world to try or rather discover what is in the hearts of the wicked and which he is well assured will naturally take effect in those that are lapsed into this lower Fate are look'd upon as Suggestions or Transmissions and Motions upon the hearts of men from God himself and that by such a providential frame of affairs of his allowing at least if not contriving the minds of men are determinated to act thus or thus And no other way then this need we understand touching Pharaoh's heart being hardened by God the grand cause whereof was his permitting the Magicians to emulate if not equalize the Miracles of Moses for the most part for so the Text runs And the Magicians did so with their Inchantments and Pharaoh's heart was hardened And it is as easie to conceive that it might be permitted to the Pseudo-prophetick Beast by the officious Assistence of the Powers of Darkness to doe such Miracles and use such ways of imposing upon the Ten Kings as would certainly enough determine them to the Idolatrous Religion of the Empire But that they were thus certain to be deceived is the fault of their own lapse and of the after-Consequences of it not any Injustice in God 3. But it is here seasonable to consider lest that School of false Prophets sacrifice too much to their own Nets and too lavishly applaud the marvellous pitch of their own policy and the policy of their predecessours how the Romish Politicians have hitherto rowed in a manner with the stream and how God has winked at the times of this Ignorance But let them be assured that the Night is far spent and the Day is at hand wherein God will no longer wink nor men be so universally asleep and in so deep a sopor but that they will be easily awaken'd by that voice of S. Paul commanding all men every where to repent or if you will of John the Baptist Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand For there is no other prevention of that dreadfull and peremptory judgement against the Great Whore who being lulled in security by long and fatal successes saith in her heart I sit as Queen and am no widow and Apoc. 18. 7. shall see no sorrow then by casting away her Idols and by serving the living God Otherwise the stream of Fate and Providence will turn and that Doom shall be fulfilled upon her in the most unwelcome sense Therefore shall her plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine For strong is the Lord God that judgeth her For her time of prosperity is set as is plain by what follows in this present verse of this Seventeenth Chapter 4. Untill the words of God be fulfilled That is These Ten Kingdoms which were contributed to the making up the Ten-horned Beast which was to be rid by the Whore and be at her devotion will be in this subjection but such a time as is decreed by God and predicted by his Prophets So long indeed they will be her servants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till the words of God be fulfilled spoken by the mouth of the Prophet Daniel but no longer For in Daniel 7. it is plainly said of the little Horn that there takes upon him to change Times and Laws that is that makes what Festivals and Solemnities he pleases and for his own advantage appoints Laws and Institutes not onely new but grosly clashing with the known Laws of God that they shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time But then it presently follows But the Judgement shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it to the end This 17 th verse therefore gives a reason of the unexpected hatred and hostility of the Ten Horns against the Whore in the foregoing verse namely That their giving their Kingdoms to the Beast which is their professing of that Idolatrous Religion they were intoxicated with by the Whore that rides the Beast was to be but for a determinate time foretold by the Oracles of God but that Period expiring the Scene of things would fatally change and the doom of the little Horn or of the great Whore would be executed upon them And there is no kicking against Acts 9. the pricks as our Saviour told Saul out of Heaven And I wish those whom it most concerns would believe the voice and so become of Persecuters the true followers of Christ and living members of his body the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church and would cease to be the Body of an Harlot 5. But we may observe from the joint consideration of these two verses together That these Ten Kings their giving their Kingdoms to the Beast and their being in league with the Whore is all one For their being guided by this Whore makes the Empire Beast by making it Idolatrous And for these Ten Kingdoms though their Kings be called the Horns of the Beast as the four Successours of Alexander are called the four Horns of the Greek Empire divided into four shares yet these Kingdoms themselves may be look'd upon as the greatest share of the Body of the Beast while they are at the devotion of the Whore and profess her Idolatrous Religion Whence their flying upon the Harlot to consume her is ipso facto the dissolving or destroying the Beast that is the making the Empire to cease to be Idolatrous Wherefore it is plain that the continuance of this Ten-horned Beast is Par. 2. Agr. 17. said to be determined by God in this Chapter as well as in the Thirteenth where it is said that it is given unto him to continue fourty two months which is plainly three years and an half the same that a Time and Times and half a Time Whence the truth of the seventeenth Agreement of our second Parallelism is cleared Ver. XVIII And the Woman which thou sawest is that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth The adjection of this last part of the Interpretation is of special consequence and very answerable to the event of things For this Idolatrous Hierarchy having at first as magnificent a Seat in the Oriental part of the Empire as the Occidental and both these Imperial Patriarchates being in a manner alike engaged and alike active or at least alike authoritative in the debauching of the Empire with Idolatrous doctrines and practices the Seat of the Great Whore is not restrain'd necessarily to one place more then another at first But because afterwards this Occidental Patriarchate did so much emerge above the other and exceed the other not onely in his peremptoriness and activity in keeping up and propagating Idolatry and is so foully besmeared or rather has been so swinishly drunk with the bloud of the Witnesses of Jesus but also besides all this did acquire to himself the Right and Title of
Inhabitants of the Earth with the cup of her Fornication This Inscription on the Pope's Crown and the chusing of a Woman-Pope who besides other feats betrai'd herself to be a Whore by falling into labour in the streets of Rome at a solemn Procession and did therein by a palpable Hieroglyphick insinuate to the world that Rome was indeed the Seat of that great Apocalyptick Strumpet are two notorious Specimens of that Jocantry and Festivity as I may so speak that is sometimes observable in Divine Providence answerable to that Ludibundness in Nature in her Gamaieu's and such like sportful and ludicrous Productions And verily this Accident of a Woman-Pope is as assured a truth as that of the Inscription if the Testimonies of above threescore Authors and that of the Romish Party may be thought sufficient to assure it All which are produced by Gabriel Powel in his Theological Disputations De Antichristo Lib. 1. cap. 28. Thes 7. But these things I was not hasty to interweave in my Exposition of these Chapters the contexture of things being abundantly clear and full and firm without them CHAP. XVI 1. What remains for the making up the fullest assurance that can be desired of the truth of our Joint-Exposition 2. That the Roman State from the beginning to the end is to be look'd upon as One Kingdom or Empire appears out of Florus 3. That there had been Five sorts of Supreme Magistrates in S. John's time in the Roman State Reges Consules Tribuni Consulares Decemviri Dictatores and that the Tribuni Plebis were no Supreme Power 4. Nor the Tribuni Militum simply so styled 5. But that the Decemviri and Tribuni Consulares were 6. As also the Dictators 7. That there had been no more then Five sorts of Supreme Governours in S. John's time and that the Interreges were not nor were at all reckoned by Historians a Supreme Government distinct from that of Kings 8. That the Triumviri Reipublicae constituendae was either a Scuffle and Confusion in the Roman State 9. Or else a formal Caesareate exercised by Augustus Lepidus and Antonius 10. That there is full and sufficient ground from Reason and History not to reckon the Triumvirate of constituting the Commonwealth a Sixth Form of Government distinct from Emperours and the Five fore-going Forms 11. That though there had been some other Forms truly distinct but yet of a near affinity with some of the other it had not been so harsh to have accounted them one with those they had that nearness with 12. But that there is a greater Exactness then this in the Application of this Vision and such as Scepticism it self can hardly doubt of 13. The Conclusion of the whole drift of the Chapter with a fuller enforcement of the truth thereof 1. I Have now finished my Joint-Exposition of these 17 th and 13 th Chapters of the Apocalyps saving that I am more fully to confirm that part concerning the Seven Heads being Seven sorts of Supreme Governours succeeding one another in the Empire as also more particularly to indigitate How exact an Image of the Beast that was slain the Revived Beast became in points of Superstition and Idolatry To which if I adde a solid confutation of Ribera's Interpretation of the Seven-headed Beast as also of Grotius his I think there will be nothing wanting to the greatest assurance of the truth of our Interpretation that any one can desire 2. In the first the Controversie is onely concerning the Six first Heads Whether from the Kings to the Pagan Emperours speaking inclusively there were Six Forms of Government and no more or if you will Whether there were just Five before the Roman Caesars That the Roman Kingdom or Empire is to be reckoned from their first Kings downwards I think no man will scruple nor that it is all along the same Beast as well as Florus considers it as one Man and distinguishes his Ages allotting the first 250 years from Romulus to the Infancy of the Roman People or Empire and then 200 years more to its Youth and then 250 years more which reached to Augustus his time to the Manly Age of the Empire but the next 200 years he calls Senectutem Imperii Which shews plainly that he looks upon the whole Succession as one and the same Empire though under several growths which yet was longer-lived a great deal then to be accounted old in Trajan's time Wherefore History it self looking upon the whole Succession of the Roman People as one Body Politick there can be no harshness at all in describing this Body by such a number of Heads as reached from the first beginning of this Succession to the last Period of the Empire 3. Five whereof had passed away in S. John's time and no more nor no fewer then Five as I come now to make good namely Kings Consuls Tribunes Decemviri and Dictators For the People of Rome had never any other Supreme Powers over them but these before their Caesars viz. Reges Consules Tribuni Consulares Decemviri Dictatores Of Kings and Consuls there is no controversy at all Now for these Tribuni Consulares they are so called to distinguish them from the Tribuni Plebis and the Tribuni Militum ordinarily so styled neither of which were the Supreme Powers of the Roman State or Empire For the Tribuni Plebis were rather Plebis then Populi Romani Magistratus And for those few years wherein they hindered the chusing of other Magistrates the City was look'd upon to have no Magistracy at all Quatuor annis sine Magistratibus Roma fuit saith Sextus Rufus of that time Which condition of the City Diodorus Siculus also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that likewise of Marcus Varro in Gellius plainly shews that they could be no Supreme A. Gell. Noct. Attic. lib. 13. cap. 12. Power In Magistratu habent alii Vocationem alii Prensionem alii neutrum Vocationem ut Consules alii qui habent Imperium Prensionem ut Tribuni Plebis alii qui habent Viatorem Neque Vocationem neque Prensionem ut Quaestores caeteri qui neque Lictorem habent neque Viatorem Where it is plain that the Tribuni Plebis are reckoned amongst them qui non habent imperium and therefore are no Supreme Powers 4. No more are the Tribuni Militum simply so styled as appears out of that of Livy Disciplinâ enim militari miles Centurionis Centurio Liv. lib. 8. Tribuni Tribunus Legati Legatus Consulis paret imperio But the Tribuni Militum Consulari potestate are those Tribuni Consulares which I have already named Of which Fenestella Penes quem sanè Magistratum De Magistr Roman c. 16. ut ipsum nomen indicat eadem quae apud Consules potestas erat collata est nominibus tantùm immutatis ac Plebis ratione haberi â—…oeptâ 5. That the Decemviri was a Supreme Power is plain out of Livy Anno trecentesimo altero quà m condita
he has yet at any time ceased to be a regnant Beast For till Christ came he reigned over all the World excepting the Jews After Christ came he tyrannized over the Christians for about three hundred years And after the Empire in a manner wholly turned Christian yet the Kingdom of the Devil was no less then all the Habitable world besides in comparison whereof the other is but a small spot of ground and yet what great slices have been pared off therefrom Besides his Rule in Christendom it self by superinducing so universal a spirit of Antichristianism into it consisting of gross Idolatries and bloudy Persecutions of the dear Servants of God Now let any one consider and say whether the Devil be Bestia non regnans or regnans in the world from Christ's time to this day and how groundless an Interpretation this of Ribera's is that understands the Beast that was and is not of the Devil at large and not of the Roman Empire in such a sense as we have expounded it For that it is the Fourth Empire which is the Roman the ten Horns do plainly indicate which are the Ensigns of the Fourth Beast in Daniel which I think no man has been yet so grosly extravagant as to interpret of the Devil 9. Besides this Beast is not onely styled The Beast that was and is not but there is also added to his Title and yet is Which whole Title cannot be true of the Devil regnant in Antichrist's time according to Ribera's sense For he being then regnant he is the very same Devil in every respect and a man cannot say he is not regnant though it be then true that he is So that part of the Title onely will agree to him namely that he was and is Which is another plain detection of the falsness of Ribera's Exposition Nor is there any Evasion in the various readings For Copies generally have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which seems such a contradiction that it has made some leave out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and others turn it into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither reaching the meaning of the Apostle But seeing this reading we follow so generally obtains notwithstanding its seeming harshness and contradictiousness it is an unexceptionable argument that it is the true and genuine reading indeed and that merely the undubitable authentickness of Copies has made it bear down the other two readings which the over-much boldness and unskilfulness of some had ventured to cast into the place of the true one 10. Again concerning his Exposition of the Seven Heads many things are to be objected As first That his dividing the whole duration of the World into Seven Ages is a thing groundless and merely arbitrarious there being nothing either in Tradition or Scripture to countenance it There is indeed an ancient Tradition of Elias that divides the duration of the World into four parts Two thousand years Vacuity Two thousand the Law and Two thousand the Messias and then the great Sabbatism But of such a division as Ribera has made here there is no News nor Example in Antiquity And in the steps he takes he has very unmannerly troden over the head of Moses as if he was not a man great enough to be taken notice of amongst the Joints of this Division whenas certainly he is one of the most eminent Epocha's of time as appears by that Tradition of Elias and therefore ought to have been mentioned before he came to David As also Enoch so famous for his Assumption into Heaven his Birth ought to have been noted before he came to Noe. Besides other as justifiable Divisions which were easy to observe But these short intimations may suffice to shew how lubricous and fictitious a Comment Ribera's Exposition is in this regard 11. But secondly How can the Kings in each one of these Ages having no subordination to one another but being absolute and absolutely disjoin'd in their respective Kingdoms or rather having no political Co-ordination or Correspondence as Heads of one Body Politick how can they make up but one Head for an Age There is no warrant nor example of any such thing in the Prophetick style But if you will say they are one Head because they belong to one Body the Devil all the whole Succession of wicked and persecutive Kings throughout all these Ages will be but one Head upon this account and so the Beast will have but One Head not Seven For distance of time and Succession makes no difference of Heads nor Beasts in the Prophetick style but some distinction of nature in them 12. Thirdly It is very harsh and incongruous to make these wicked Kings the Heads of the Devil whenas the Devil is their Prince and Head he being above them both in his preeminency of Nature as being an Angel though but a wicked one and they but wicked Men as also by right of Jurisdiction all those that are Rebells to the Kingdom of God making an Accession to the Kingdom of the Devil So that the Exposition in this respect is as harsh and preposterous as the painting of an Horse with his Head on his Coccyx and his Tail hanging down before his Breast Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici 13. Fourthly If the Seven Kings be the wicked Kings of the Seven Ages of the world even to the very day of Judgment what is that Eighth King and what Age of the world will he be in For there seems neither room nor time left for him Why truly Ribera has pitched upon a very subtil Merchant who will insinuate into all times and places if it be possible for his own advantage This Eighth King saith he is the Devil But the Devil say I is the Beast according to his own Hypothesis and this Eighth is said to be one of the Seven Heads But how can one and the same be both the whole Beast and yet but one of the Heads thereof Wherefore it is plain that his Exposition in this regard is against common sense and the very first Notions of humane Understanding 14. Fifthly The Seventh Age of the world which is the measure of the Reign of Antichrist is most ridiculously disproportioned to the rest it being but three years and an half as Ribera has computed it Which yet were more tolerable if it were well proportionated to those great Exploits that Antichrist is to doe in that short space For he is to subdue all the World or if you will the Ten Kings which they feign will be the Rulers over the whole World when Antichrist begins to lay about him For having first made an Expedition against Three Kings namely the King of Aegypt the King of Libya and the King of Aethiopia overcome them and slain them the other Seven shall submit to him and become the Seven Heads of Antichrist the first of which being mortally wounded in his service he shall miraculously raise him from the dead Thus by a wonderfull Metamorphosis have
years 17. Wherefore assuredly as the Outward Court troden down by the Gentiles is Synchronal to the first six Trumpets in the seventh Seal so the Inward Court is Synchronal to the first six Seals which was the thing to be demonstrated and which is a Conclusion of excellent use and weighty consideration as may appear in its due place 18. Finally as our Middle Synchronals have thus necessarily detected those that precede so they will with like facility and certainty discover them that succeed For the Thousand years wherein the Saints reign Satan is bound the Palmiferous Company triumphs and the Heavenly Jerusalem is seen upon Earth all these must in some sense plainly Synchronize with the seventh Trumpet And the seventh Angel sounded and Apoc. 11. 15. there were great voices in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever So that it is plain that the Millennial Empire of Christ and of his Saints is under the seventh Trumpet The Palmiferous Company Apoc. 7. 9. also immediately succeed the 144 Virgin Regiments which are Synchronal to the first six Trumpets whence necessarily this company of Palm-bearers are under the seventh The Fall of Babylon also conterminates with the sixth Trumpet and therefore the New Jerusalem which succeeds it must needs be found in the seventh And lastly Satan who fought with Michael all along the first six Seals and bore such sway in the Kingdom of Antichrist in the first six Trumpets cannot be said to be bound cast into the bottomless Pit and sealed up there for a thousand years till the Millennial Empire of Christ till the glory and brightness of the Heavenly Jerusalem upon Earth till the Victory and Triumph of the Palm-bearing Company that is till the sounding of the last Trumpet not onely the Series of the Synchronals but the very nature of the things themselves forcing the Ligation of Satan into this last Period of times This is very easie and plain But if any one be unsatisfi'd he may reade Mr. Mede Part 2. Synchronism 4 5 6 7. where he shall have a more full and copious demonstration of these Synchronals contemporizing with the seventh Trumpet But how this contemporizing is to be understood will better appear out of this following Chapter CHAP. VII 1. Mr. Mede's Account of placing the first six Vials within the sixth Trumpet 2. That the truth of this Account depends upon an unlikely sense of the Expiration of the Reign of the Beast as if immediately after 42 months it should entirely and universally expire 3. A caution touching the Interpreting of the Prophetick style 4. That the Expiration of the Reign of the Beast upon the Exit of the sixth Trumpet is but partial or speciminal argued from the seventh Trumpet 's being also called a Woe-Trumpet 5. As likewise from the seven Thunders 6. Two more Arguments to the same purpose 7. Lastly from the fixed Epocha's of the Middle Synchronals compared with the affairs of Europe 8. That it follows hence that all the seven Vials are naturally to take their places in the seventh Trumpet as being the seven last Plagues 9. The same further proved from the Song of the Harpers upon their victory over the Beast 10. And from the order of the Vision of the Vials as also from the appearing of the Temple out of which the Angels come after the sixth Trumpet and before any of the Vials be poured out 11. In what sense the Middle Synchronals are to be fulfilled at the Exit of the sixth Trumpet 12. A larger Declaration how all the Middle Synchronals expire together in what sense or degree soever they do expire 13. Of the commencing of the last Synchronals and what the time of the Millennium more eminently so styled 14. The serviceableness of the premising these orderly Synchronisms for his further search into the Prophecies that foretell the Lapse of the Church into Antichristianism 1. I Had almost omitted the placing of the Vials the first six whereof Mr. Mede ranges within the sixth Trumpet briefly upon this account Because they being the seven last Plagues of the Beast they are to begin with the inclining of the Beast to ruine But it was proved above that the 42 months of the Beast's domineering over the Saints and overcoming them expired with the last breath of the sixth Trumpet as all those middle Synchronals do And it is as true that the Throne of the Beast does not wax dark before the fifth Vial. Wherefore he concludes that at the least five Vials if not six precede the seventh Trumpet 2. Which Ratiocination of Mr. Mede's were very firm if we could be sure that the meaning of the Continuance of the Beast for 42 months were such as he supposes it namely That this Duration or Reign of his is to be understood absolutely That he shall reign so long and no longer and not comparatively That after 42 months he shall not reign with that full power and victory over the Saints so keeping them under that they cannot appear a distinct Polity able to defend themselves from his Tyrannies and Cruelties Which latter may be a warrantable meaning of the Prophecie as well as the other namely That as soon as there appears a Kingdom or Polity of truly Evangelical or Apostolical Christians not Superstitious nor Idolatrous nor Persecutive and Bloudy but such as joyn heartily with one another in the plain Points of Christian Religion and make no other Fundamentals then the undoubted meaning of the Word of God requires and leave men free in the rest That as soon I say as such a Polity as this is in being the 42 months of the Beast may be said to expire as to the entireness of his Reign and also for that there is that set on foot which will certainly be his ruine and therefore in the Prophetick style he is accounted as ruined already According to which tenour Mr. Mede has interpreted that of Esay * Chap. 21. 9. Babylon is fallen is fallen whenas in the time of Esay there was onely the first Ground-work laid for her ruine by the Medes who casting off the Assyrian yoke and rescuing themselves into liberty and building Ecbatana under their new King Deioces laid the foundations of a Kingdom fatal to the City of Babylon Nor can we well understand that in the Apocalyps upon the sounding of the seventh Trumpet to that height it seems to be spoken The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. Chap. 11. 15. Of which I must confess I cannot but surmise the most sober meaning to be something parallel to that saying of our Saviour Now is the judgment of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out and yet he kept Joh. 12. 31. possession till Constantine's time But in such a sense as the Kingdoms of the world at the beginning of
Accordingly as Pareus renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tum flebunt Apoc. 18. 9. And by King is here meant as else-where in Daniel a State or Kingdom And that the Roman is here meant the order of Succession implies it following the Greek according to all Chronologie and according to the sense of Historians is conceived to succeed the Greek upon the Romans Conquest of Macedonia which was in the latter times of Antiochus So fitly do things fall in for matter of time in our Hypothesis which does promise an easie flowing of the sense all along which is this 5. In the first of these verses That the Roman State or Kingdom towards the end of Antiochus his reign shall carry all before them and domineer as they list they shall exalt themselves and make themselves greater then any Kingdom For to conquer a Nation is to conquer their Gods whom the Romans vocally called out of those Cities they took by a certain Charm I spoke of above and so led away the Gods of the Nations as it were captive as well as the people Nay the Officers of this State spoke marvellous things and blasphemous against the God of Gods that is against Christ Jesus himself when he was so mocked and despightfully used by his Persecutors and Crucifiers and yet they prospered and were successful in the Empire notwithstanding all this their villainy towards Christ and bloudy persecution of his Members wherein he was again reproched and blasphemed till the determinate time of this Rage ran out and that the Empire became Christian. For as it follows in the next verse the time was next to succeed wherein the Roman Empire should contemn neglect and cast off the Gods of their Ancestors that is the Pagan Gods and turn Christians but that withall Marriage which was in so high esteem with the Romans before as it appears by those Laws which were called Julia and Papia which Constantine abrogated should be much slighted at first but in process of time be superstitiously forbidden as well to Priests as Monks that Man of sin then getting the rains of the Empire into his hands who respected not any God but for his nulling the Laws of Christ and trampling on the necks of Princes is justly said to magnifie himself above all according as it is written of him in the Epistle to the Thessalonians 6. And sutably to this lawlesness and contempt of God it follows in the next Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say For together with or besides for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signifie so God will he honour Mauzzim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in sua ditione Grotius renders it referring it to Antiochus The Latine reads in loco suo referring it to the Idol Mr. Mede in his Seat referring it to Christ the true God There may be also another sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. super basin ejus as if that honour done to the Mauzzim was grounded in the honour intended therein to Christ which is the plea of the Pontificians The sense therefore briefly is this That it is plain that this Roman Power as was said in the foregoing verse has cast away the true fear of God from them and exalt themselves above every thing that is called God even Christ himself in that against the express Law of God they doe Divine honour to the Mauzzim though in pretence of worshipping thereby the true God with gold and silver and wooden Statues and with whatsoever is costly and precious as it immediately follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Even together with a God whom their fathers knew not that is Christ who was truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very stranger amongst the Roman Deities and such as the ancient Romans never sacrificed to will he worship them viz. the Mauzzim with gold c. Whence it is plain that the Daemons spoke of by S. Paul are here prophesied of For these Mauzzim are they namely the Saints by this Idolatrizing Empire turned into Daemons which are here called Mauzzim by a wonderful strange prevision of God this Hebrew word being for sense the very language of those that by too superstitious a zeal and affection towards the Saints brought in this Daemon-worship placing a more sensible trust and repose in their Reliques and Protection then in the Omnipresent God himself These therefore they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Towers Fortresses Walls Bulwarks Guards Protectors and what not All which Mauzzim does naturally and properly signifie as you may see more at large in Mr. Mede So easily does the sense flow concerning the abuse of Saint-worship who though Christ be pretended in all that Divine honour done to them yet it is plain they go partners with him in the Dedication of Temples and other Religious worship 7. Which this last verse seems to aim at also in those words so artificially couched 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The holds of the Mauzzim with the strange God as if they were Joint-Tenants which Holds are the Holy Houses Churches Chappels Monasteries dedicated to the honour of Christ and the Saints For these Holy Places are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strong Holds in allusion to Mauzzim which has a warlike sense in it and signifies military Protectours and Champions whose Houses therefore may well be called Strong Holds The sense of the whole verse is this And this Roman Power shall erect Temples and other Religious Houses to Christ and the Saints where Christ is indigitated by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strange God he being both according to his Humanity born of a stock distinct from all the Heathen Nations so that he is more strange then any other could be in that respect and also being perfect God and perfect Man which is such a Deity as never the Nations had any thought of before so singularly significant is this Description of Christ in this Prophecy by this name of a strange God But that he being once known to them they should give him condign honour saving that they should share part thereof amongst the Mauzzim and make them also Rulers over the Empire dividing the world amongst them as a Reward of their Sufferings as is pretended one Saint being constituted Patron or Protector of one City or Countrey another of another accordingly as I have above more fully Book 1. Ch. 17. Sect. 4. declared 8. This is so clear and easie a sense thâ—… it is no wonder that S. Paul saies that the Spirit speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresly that in the latter times that is to say in Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time which is the latter part of the continuance of the Roman Empire men should Apostatize from the Faith and embrace the Doctrine of Daemon-worship or the worship of the Mauzzim To which Prophecy the Event is so exactly answerable that a man must be strangely blinded with prejudice that cannot see it as also a
are said to ascend up to Heaven in a cloud it seems an Allusion to Christ's Ascension after his Crucifixion which is also alluded to here in the eighth verse And the time of Christ's mournfull Prophecy before his Resurrection was about Three years and an half if we may believe Chronologers to make the Allusion still more perfect Ver. XIII And the same time there was a great Earth-quake and the tenth part of the City fell and in the Earth-quake were slain seven thousand Names of men and the Remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of Heaven That an Earth-quake signifies Political Commotions and change of affairs is obvious to any one to note But that the City here mentioned should be understood not of a City of brick or stone but a Polity has not been so easy for every one to hit on But I conceive it is plain enough that this City is the very City mentioned in the eighth verse which is called the great City and this great City is the Whore of Babylon and the Whore of Babylon is nothing but the body of the Idolatrous Clergy in the Empire who appertain to the seventh or last Head of the Beast which is an Head of Blasphemie as well as the six first that is to say an Idolatrous Head Whence we may understand what is meant by these Seven thousand Names of men For neither seven nor thousand signify any determinate number though by a pleasant Diorismus they seem to doe so but onely the nature or property of those Names of men that are said to be slain namely That they are Titles Dignities Offices or Orders of men belonging to the State of Christendom as under the Seventh Head that is become Idolatrous and Antichristian And in that this Number Seven is multiplied into a Thousand it signifies a perfect and durable nulling all such Offices and Orders of men Which if Mr. Mede had taken notice of it would have saved him the labour of making out the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and also the solicitude touching the proportionableness of the Number of the slain For no men at all here are necessarily implied to be slain but onely all Antichristian Offices and Fraternities to be dissolved and abrogated and things to be reduced to the purity of the first four hundred years For to slay by a Diorismus signifies nothing else but a causing a thing to cease to be This I little question but is the true meaning of this place And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will have a sense marvellous coincident therewith But that there is any design upon the brick and stone the walls and buildings of Rome either in this present Vision or any other in the Apocalyps I do profess my self for the present so dim-sighted as not to discover the Papal Polity by an Hylasmus not the material City being understood in all the denunciations against her so far as I see yet So that if she be to be burnt or sack'd or sunk by Earth-quakes it may be but a By-Accident and not directly pointed at nor prefigured in the Apocalyptick Visions But if such a thing should happen in such circumstances as should in a special and peculiar way fit with some of these Prophecies it will be therein comprised by an Henopoeia of the second sort as I have intimated in my Prophetick Schemes But be this how it will I make no question but this thirteenth verse of the Chapter we are upon concerns mainly if not onely the Idolatrous Clergy it self But it is said of the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the remnant that they were indeed affrighted and amazed but gave glory to the God of Heaven as being just in his judgments 2. Out of what I have written here and in my Mystery of Godliness I think it is evident enough that that Antichristian Opposition that is made Book 5. Ch. 17. Sect. 8. against the Prophetick and Regal Office of Christ is clearly prefigured in this Vision of the Two Witnesses who are said to lie slain in the street of the great City during the Conculcation of the Outward Court of the Temple by the Gentiles And truly though some please themselves in conceiting this Vision such an invincible puzzle I cannot but prosess that the fense thereof seems to me as clear as the Meridian Sun And for that special Knot therein imagined to lie in the eighth verse how these Witnesses can be understood of Christendom their bodies being said to lie dead in the City where our Lord was crucified which must be Jerusalem I have already intimated that this City is called the old Jerusalem spiritually or mystically as well as Sodom and Aegypt And if any one have an heart to hear for it requires no great labour of the head to understand it the brief and plain sense of this verse is this That these Two Witnesses shall lie despoiled of all Respect and Power in the Precincts of the Jurisdiction of that Church which hitherto has always been the greatest and is now very large indeed consisting of mere formal carnal and Hypocritical Professours of the worship of the true God in which Church our Lord also was crucified What can be more easy and plain then this For it onely supposes that this carnal Hypocritical Witness-slaying Church of the Christians is one succeeding City Synagogue or false Church with the formal Hypocritical Prophet-murthering Church of the Jews Which is a plain truth whether this Prophecy suppose it or no. But we proceed CHAP. XIII 1. That the little Horn in Daniel is a Type of that Power which should oppose the Regal Office of Christ. 2. That the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel is not that of the Lagidae and Seleucidae but the Roman proved from the universal Consent of Ecclesiastick Writers 3. From the eminency and greatness of the Fourth Kingdom 4. From the distance of time betwixt the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae and the Kingdom of the Stone cut out without hands or the Kingdom of the Son of man which is also the Kingdom of Heaven or of God 5. Grotius his fond and profane Interpretation of the Son of man as if thereby were meant the People of Rome 6. The like extravagancy in his interpreting the Stone cut out without hands of the same People 7. The unsoundness of that conceit more particularly discovered 8. The Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae farther proved not to be the Fourth Kingdom from the Coexistence of the Ten Kings according to Type 9. From their vastly-differing Periods the one ending according to Daniel presently after Antiochus the other not before the Day of Judgment 10. From Daniel's making the great Horn the first King in the Third Kingdom and four lesser to grow up after him on the same Goat's Head 11. From the four Heads of the Leopard which are the four Successours of Alexander in this Third Beast or Kingdom and from Daniel's reckoning Antiochus in the latter end of
this Succession 12. That the little Horn does of necessity appertain to the Roman Kingdom become Ten-horned and Pagane-Christian at once 13. That it is of equal duration with the Whore and Two-horned Beast and at least coincident in time with them and the Beast restored 14. From which Equality and Coincidence he is discovered to be the Whore or Two-horned Beast 15. That the Patriarch of Rome is more especially concerned in this Type 16. The exquisite Applicability of the Characters of this Horn to the said Patriarch 17. The Application of those Characters that more particularly concern his opposing the Regal Office of Christ. 1. THat Prophecy also in Daniel of the little Horn that is said to change times and laws is an express Prediction of that Antichristian Opposition which is against the Regal Office of Christ. For that this little Horn is the same with the Two-horned Beast or the Whore in the Apocalyps I think no man will scruple that considers that this Horn is part of the Roman Kingdom which is decyphered by Ten Horns and that it belongs to that time when the Kingdom is actually Ten-horned which is not in succession but together as the Ten toes of the Statue which answer to these Ten horns do not signify the succession of Ten Kings but Ten Kings ranked in the same time as the Toes of the feet of the Image which have not properly a precedency but rather a co-ordination in Site 2. Now that the Fourth Kingdom which is prefigured by the iron leggs feet and ten toes of the Image and by the Beast with Iron teeth and ten Dan. 2. Horns is not that of the Lagidae and Seleucidae as Grotius would have it but the Kingdom of the Romans there are these weighty Reasons to convince us First It is the universal sense of all Ecclesiastick Writers That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire as both Cornelius à Lapide and Caspar Sanctius both of them Jesuites yet do roundly assort The words of the latter are these Est ergò omnium sententiâ innominata has atque â—…rribilis bellu a Romanum Imperium neque necesse est quonquam nominare cùm nemo non dicat 3. Secondly That it cannot be the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae as Grotius would bear us in hand in which odd conceit of his he forsakes the judgment of the whole Church of Christ to follow Porphyrius his who was a sworn Enemie to the Christian Religion appears from what is said Daniel 7. 23. The Fourth Beast shall be the Fourth Kingdom upon Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod majus erit omnibus regnis Which shall be greater then all Kingdoms so the vulgar Latine and Vatablus The Seventy also render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it agrees best with what follows and shall devour the whole Earth which must be understood in such a sense as Earth was before and shall tread it down and break it in pieces Which it could not be said to doe unless it were so great a Kingdom as is here intimated Now it is manifest that the Kingdom of the Seleucidae and Lagidae was neither greater more excellent nor a more victorious Kingdom then any of the three preceding namely the Babylonian Persian and that of Alexander the Great from whose Kingdom they would make this of the Seleucidae and Lagidae distinct Wherefore their Kingdom cannot be this Fourth This Inference is so plain to Gaspar Sanctius that he does though but justly yet very severely chastise Porphyrius for this errour which Grotius has so unluckily taken up For he breaks out into these words upon this Text Vide Porphyrii stuporem oscitantiam in cujus mentem venire potuit ut existimaverit regnum eorum qui Alexandro successere omnium esse maximum quódque omnem terram sibi subjecerit conculcaveritque cùm reliquis regnis longè fuerit infirmius ab omnibus concisum aut malè vexatum Nay the very Prophecy it self makes the Kingdom of the Successours of Alexander less then his in power and greatness Dan. 8. 22. where it is said that four Kingdoms shall stand up but not in the power of Alexander Which is they shall be inferiour to him Which questionless is meant of them joyntly it being a needless intimation of them single 4. Thirdly The Kingdom of the Iron leggs and toes and of the Ten-horned Beast with iron teeth are one and the same Kingdom according to Grotius his own acknowledgment which he makes that of the Seleucidae and Lagidae Now it is said that a Stone cut out of a Mountain without hands should break in pieces these leggs and toes Dan. 2. nay the whole Image of iron brass silver and gold and so succeed this Kingdom of the Seleucidae according to his sense of the Vision And Chap. 7. One like the Son of man in the clouds of Heaven comes to receive a Kingdom namely upon the destruction of Antiochus Epiphanes that little Horn amongst the ten in this fourth Kingdom of Grotius his framing of whom it is said at the 21. verse I beheld and the same Horn made warre with the Saints and prevailed against them untill the Ancient of days came and judgment was given to the Saints of the most High Which is the same with the Son of man his coming in the clouds of Heaven to receive the Kingdom of the Ancient of days ver 13. And both agree with the Stone cut out without hands to shew it is not the work of man but of the Ancient of days God himself and that this is indeed the very Kingdom of Christ as Interpreters ever have expounded it Which is a perfect contradiction to Grotius his dream That the Fourth Beast with iron teeth and the iron leggs of the Image denote the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae and that Antiochus is this little Horn. For Antiochus Epiphanes was dead almost two hundred years before Christ so much as preached the Doctrine of the Kingdom or had any Disciples to follow him and yet it is said Dan. 2. 44. And in the days of these Kingdoms shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed From which passage I doubt not but that phrase The Kingdom of God as also from that above The Kingdom of Heaven does so often occurre in the Gospel as also that Title which Christ so often gives himself of the Son of man And Grotius himself upon Matthew Ch. 8. 20. acknowledgeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of man mentioned Dan. 7. 13. is to be understood of the Messias Wherefore it is impossible that the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae should be the Fourth Kingdom 5. But here Grotius contrary to his judgment when he wrote upon Matthew has found a device which is scarce to be uttered without horrour and astonishment So that I am infinitely amazed that a man otherwise so learned and laudable as he speaks of Porphyrius should be
miss-led into so bad an adventure The Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven according to him is Populus Romanus nullum intra se habens regem When our Saviour Christ intimated to the high Priest that he was that Son of man that should come in the clouds of Heaven it seem'd so high an Arrogation that he rent his clothes and said he had spoken blasphemie And truly I think that neither Jew nor Christian can well acquit Grotius of that crime who attributes that which is the peculiar character of the Messias to a Prophane and Pagan people and that forsooth because they had no King as if they were ever the better for that But they had Kings at first and both in the Infancy of their Empire and afterwards they had a Supreme Power so great and imperial as may excuse them from the least shew of Contempt They had always over them a Sovereignty so that they could not be deemed the Son of man for any such private condition For the Summa Potestas is the Summa Potestas under what name or form soever and of the same real grandeur Besides that they were a most glorious and victorious people before Antiochus his time So that it is a very dilute and sapless conceit of Grotius to apply the phrase of the Son of man to them for any inconsiderableness in them or obscurity For they were not so in the times of Antiochus 6. Again the Kingdom of the Son of man and the Stone cut out without hands are all one both in truth and according to Grotius his own Concession But this Stone is Christ and his Kingdom as being Heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing erected not by humane power but by the power and Spirit of God That this is the meaning of without hands is the general vote of Interpreters S. Jerom Irenaus Justin Epiphanius S. Augustin Theodoret and several others Where think you does Grotius take shelter now Why This Figure which is so appropriate to Christ and mentioned of him so often in the New Testament This Stone must be cast away as if it were neither precious nor a Corner-stone and be bestowed again on a Pagan people the Romans For so Grotius does not stick to profess Idem Lapis Filius hominis and he made the Son of man before the people of Rome But can a man believe that the Original or Success of that people was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing brought to pass by the special power and Spirit of God and not more humano according to the usual course of the World and that not of the best kind their beginnings being helped on by a rabble of Ruffians and Robbers 7. No but that is not Grotius his gloss you will say Let us therefore hear what it is Lapis abscissus de monte sine manibus according to him is Exercitus populi qui suae esset spontis nullique regi pareret cujus populi origo à monte nempe Palatino In which there is nothing sound nor solid For was this Roman Army any thing more suae spontis in that they had not a Kingly Government at Rome That Supreme Power of Consuls and Senatours was as directive and coactive as if it had been Regal So that the motion of this Army was never the more spontaneous for this Again The Stone cut from the mountain without hands implies that it was then spontaneously divided from the Mountain when it is said to be cut thence But when the Romans first issued from mount Palatine yea so soon as they were populus Romanus Regal Government was amongst them it being the first Government of this People and therefore they were not then Populus suae spontis according to Grotius his Conceit so that he cannot bring both ends together And lastly To interpret Mountain here in a literal sense is unskilfully done and not according to the analogy of the Prophetick style nor the very intimation of the present Text which says the Little stone became a great Mountain itself and filled the whole Earth Wherefore this Mountain signifying not literally but politically there is no question but the other does so too and that the Stone is in some sense homogeneall to this rocky Mountain Whence the sense is plainly this That out of the great Mountain that is the Roman Empire there should be a People raised not by humane power or policy but by the Spirit of God and the preaching of the Gospel by Jesus Christ and his Apostles which should be a peculiar people to him and become the Subjects of his Kingdom that is to say That the Church of Christ should be cut out of the Roman Empire without humane help This is a most easy and undistorted sense and against which there cannot be made the least Exception 8. Fourthly which I have already intimated above The Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast with iron teeth and the Ten toes of the iron leggs of the Statue signify the same thing Wherefore it is plain sith the Ten toes imply a Coexistence of the Ten Horns by reason of the coordination of their Site that there must be Ten Kings together in the Fourth Kingdom But in the Kingdom of the Seleucidae and Lagidae there were not Ten Kings together all at once Therefore that Kingdom is not the Fourth 9. Fifthly Antiochus Epiphanes part of this Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is said to rise up in the latter time of the Kingdom of the Successours of Alexander Dan. 8. 22 23. Wherefore this Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae has expired near two thousand years ago But the Kingdom of the Fourth Beast reaches even to the Day of Judgment Dan. 7. 9 10. And I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did sit His throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the Judgment was set and the Books were opened c. That this is the Description of the Day of Judgment is the general Opinion of both Christians and Jews and answers exactly to the Lake of fire and the opening of the Books Apocal. 20. which Grotius himself does interpret of the Last Day Whence we may safely conclude that the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is not the Fourth Kingdom as having ceased so long before that time though we understood the Day of Judgment in the sense of the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to which the meaning of I beheld till the thrones were set and the Books were opened is this That the Prophet Daniel had a prospect even to the utmost end of that great Day But he begins more particularly at the beginning of that Day in the eleventh verse But this I have onely noted by the bye 10. Sixthly and lastly Alexander's Kingdom and that of his Successours
either of these latter and the first and the second are joyn'd together in the Vision of the Outward Court and the Two Witnesses Wherefore 42 months and a Time and Times and half a Time being the same with 1260 daies they are the same one with another But this little Horn in Daniel we speak of his reign is also set out by a Time and Times and half a Time Therefore it is of the same duration with the Whore or Two-horned Beast which is Synchronal to the Beast restored whose continuance is 42 months Wherefore it is a strong suspicion that there is a Coincidence at least of time if not of affairs or complication of natures if not Identity of some betwixt this little Horn in Daniel and those three Synchronals the restored Beast the Whore and the Two-horned Beast For that expression Dan. 7. 24. And another shall rise after them does not at all hinder since the Seventy translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behind them it signifying order of situation as well as of time And this being placed behind is the most convenient posture for such an exploit as is attributed to this Horn which is said to throw down or humble three Kings which is more by treachery and craft then open force 14. Now from this equality of time it will also follow that the duration of this little Horn is 1260 years by the last Consectary of our Joint-Exposition Which again shews how impossible it is this Horn should be Antiochus Epiphanes To which you may adde that it is said to be different from the rest of the Horns in the explication of them * Dan. 7. 24. And the ten Horns out of this Kingdome that is the Roman Kingdome as has been demonstrated are ten Kings that shall arise and another shall rise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behind them and he shall be diverse from the rest and he shall subdue three Kings Now I demand what one of the ten Kings or Kingdomes is so different from all the rest unless it be an Ecclesiastical Kingdome Wherefore the Coincidence of time with the Pagano-Christian Empire and the long continuance as also the difference of this Kingdome from the other ten is more then a strong suspicion that it is part of the succession of a Kingdome Ecclesiastick which is necessarily to run along with the Empire professing Christianity But if the question be whether this part of this Ecclesiastick Kingdome be the uncorrupted Kingdome of Christ or the Reign of Antichrist the solution is not difficult For that it is not the Kingdome of Christ is plain in that Christ is said to come to burn and consume it Whence it is manifest that the Church has not been out in their Conjecture in deeming this little Horn to be Antichrist and therefore say I the same with the Two-horned Beast and the Whore who is plainly Isochronal and I doubt not but Synchronal to this little Horn and is adjudged to be burnt in the Apocalyps as this little Horn is here in Daniel 15. To speak briefly therefore This little Horn is the Idolatrizing Clergy of the Empire but more chiefly and particularly that great and notorious part thereof under the Bishop of Rome who has been a more then ordinary stickler for both the obtaining this degenerate Ecclesiastick Empire in the Roman Empire and in lapsing and keeping down the Empire in Superstition and Idolatry and therefore is rightly said to be an Horn growing out of this Beast the Symbol Beast itself according to Grotius his own Confession intimating Idolatry 16. And if exquisite fitness of Application will assure us of the right sense of a Prophecy we cannot fail in this examining every character of this little Horn. For as it is little so is the Original of the Popes mean and obscure and their Secular Principality small in comparison of those Princes they have contested with Again As this Horn had the Eyes of a man so it is well known that for politick quick-sightedness there has not been any Body of men comparable to the Roman Hierarchy insomuch that it is Proverbial to say That the Roman Religion is nothing else but a mere trick of Policy to encrease and keep up the honour power and wealth of the Pope and his Clergy See Sir Edwyn Sandys his Speculum Europae and you shall finde this part of the Prophecy fulfilled to admiration and that it is not for nothing that this little Horn is said to have the Eyes of a man in it which is said of no Horn in all the Prophecies besides this Thirdly As this Horn is said to have a mouth speaking great things whether you mean thereby boasting of its own Sovereignty or Blaspheming it is well known that from this Horn are uttered such words as imply the Pope greater then all Princes and Emperours nay that he is not onely said to be Infallible but styled God and declared worthy of divine worship Fourthly For the humbling and subduing three Kings which this Horn is foretold to doe is it not long since performed by the Pope of Rome in his usage of Leo Isaurus in ruining the Kingdome of the Lombards to get to himself the Exarchate of Ravenna and in tormenting and disquieting Henry the Fourth and his Successours with his Thunder-claps and mischievous Political Plots till he wrested from them all their Right and Jurisdiction in Italy 17. Fifthly and to come nearer to our purpose in hand Whereas it is said that 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 for a time and times and half a time I say this Idolatrous Clergy has bid fair toward the fulfilling this Period of times already the Degeneracy of the Church beginning about four hundred years after Christ and which is more considerable they having received so notorious a Check in the Decursion of this Half-Time which is elsewhere called a Half-Day in which his swaggering is pretty well diminished and chastised Sixthly And for his wearing out and consuming the Saints of the most High he has done it even more bloudily and cruelly then the very Pagans on the Primitive Christians which is the most furious Opposition against the Regality of Christ that can be imagined thus to wast and destroy his true Subjects Seventhly And for his speaking great words against the most High that is against the Divine Sovereignty is it not plainly done in the Pope's pretences of having power to dispense with or lay aside the Laws and Injunctions of Christ of which we have given several Instances in our Idea of Antichristianism and such as are notoriously well known to appertain to that Church Besides that he is Reus laesae Majestatis Divinae in appointing Religious worship to his canonized Saints which is an Honour due to God alone Lastly In that he is said to change Times and Laws what
made him capable of suffering death This is all spoken of our Head and Captain and yet it may be not without some reflexion upon his Body the Church To whom also the riding upon white Horses belongs as appears in the fourteenth verse They have also flammeous and fiery eyes because of their Intellectual Graces and it is said that the Spiritual man discerneth all things 1 Cor. 2. They have also a name that no man knows besides themselves which is their New birth or the participation of the Divine Nature Their garments also are died in bloud in that so many have suffered Martyrdom for the testimony of the Gospel against the Idolatry and Tyranny of Antichrist and all have been martyr'd that is slain and mortifi'd as to the life of sin and besprinkled also with the bloud of the Lamb in the pardon of what-ever Transgressions are past And lastly they are to be crowned and reign as Kings upon earth for the Kingdom is given to the Saints of the most High Dan. 7. 6. But to return to the Description of this Heavenly Heros A sharp-edged Sword is said to go out of his mouth Which is analogical to that in the Hebrews The word of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two-edged Heb. 4. sword And in that he is said to rule the Nations with a rod of iron it is an allusion to the second Psalm which is a Prophecie of the Messias Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel Which is a Prophetick Symbol of that wonderful contrition of heart that the powerful Word of God makes when sincerely and seasonably evibrated against the enemies of his Kingdom as in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said to divide asunder and cut betwixt soul and spirit and hew down into the very joints and marrow Such is the Militia of this Heavenly Host. He shall smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips will he slay the wicked Esa. 11. 4. 7. And in that he is said to tread the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God it looks as if it referred to that of Esay 63. Who is this that comes from Edom with his died garments from Bozrah this that is glorious in his apparel travelling in the greatness of his strength I that speak in righteousness mighty to save Which answers to that in this present Vision Whose name is Faithful and True and in righteousness doth he judge and make war But it follows in Esay Wherefore art thou red in thy apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat I have troden the wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me For I will tread them in my anger and trample them in my fury and their bloud shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment For the day of vengeance is in my heart and the day of my redeemed is come This answers to what is said of the Rider of the white Horse in this Vision that he was clothed in a vesture dipt in bloud Which in both these Prophecies referrs both to the Passion of Christ and his Spiritual Victories over his Enemies The Wine-presses also answer to one another in each Vision And being that the Harvest is as our Saviour says the end of the world the Vintage which is something later then it must be a later part of the end of the world So that this Vision of Edom and Bozrah will very well sute in that respect also to this of the Apocalyps And it is farther considerable that Bozrah signifies Vintage and Edom the carnal persecutive Church real enemies to the true Jerusalem as the Edomites were to Israel And I need not adde that Edom and Ismael are Types of one and the same thing So that the warfare seems plainly to be spiritual as it may be I shall take occasion to clear up more fully in another place 8. Lastly in that it is written upon his thigh KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS it shews the Royal Descent of Christ even according to the flesh as if he had laid claim to this Sovereignty by descent from David the King accordingly as it is said Chap. 22. I am the root and off-spring of David and the bright morning-star The root of David as to his Divinity and the off-spring of David as to his Humanity But the meaning of this part of the Vision is That the Word of God that is to say the Law of Christ inward and outward is at last in conspicuous Triumph though it had been kept under and plainly troden into the dirt for so long a time in the Reign of the Two-horned Beast or the Whore 9. But that the Church of Christ which is his Body has also a share in this part of the Vision is easily discoverable For in that this Title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords is written upon his thigh it signifies also the Dominion of his posterity the Church as Ribera and Alcazar have rightly noted and accordingly as it is said else-where in the Apocalyps He has made us Kings and Priests c. And for the treading of the Wine-press of the wrath of God or the subduing of Edom does not Christ doe it by the powerful and convictive zeal of his Saints and faithful Ministers of his Word who seriously and weightily laying the Law and the heavy wrath of God against Sinners to the hearts and consciences of these carnally-complexionated Edomites squeeze out if I may so speak their corrupt bloud that is the principle of that ungodly life in them for in the bloud thereof is the life thereof and so making them dead as to sin after revive them into righteousness unto everlasting Salvation And so for that sharp-edged sword which is here said to come out of the mouth of Christ it is in effect the very same that comes out of the mouths of his Saints who rule the world by convincing them of their wickedness and causing them to return to God This sharp piercing and vehement Reproof out of the mouths of the people of God against the Beast and the False Prophet is here said to be a Sword coming out of the mouth of Christ because their mouths are his mouth by right use and possession and he inspires by his Spirit and they are onely his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that transmit this fiery Law this blast of fire and flaming breath as it is called in Esdras whereby the wicked are consumed They are I say but as a seized Gate or Passage through which or in which this sharp-edged Sword wherewith the Nations are smitten is so powerfully brandished by our victorious Saviour For this Flame and this Sword I take to be clear Truth and sound and searching Reason inspired from the Eternal Word which whetted with an holy sincere and unaffected kind of Enthusiastick Zeal
And do they not make the Will of the Pope a Law Supremum Numen in terris at whose beck and nod all things are to be done right or wrong nay they cannot be wrong if he will have them Which is to make him have an heart like God indeed not onely an irresistible but infallible one Thus high has he clombe in the confidence of his own subtilty and policy But the terrible of the Nations shall draw their swords against the beauty of his wisdom and they shall defile his brightness saith the Prophet Which what it is in the literal sense is easy to understand and accordingly is applicable to the King of Tyre and may ex accidenti be also applicable to the destruction of Rome But it may also have a more Mystical sense And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they render robustos gentium may signify nothing else but the zealous and resolute Assertours and Abettours of Truth then which nothing is more robustious and strong Great is Truth and mighty above all things Esdras 4. These stout Champions therefore shall draw their swords against the beauty of his wisedom that is to say They shall use the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God even that Sword that comes out of his mouth that rides on the white Horse which is unsophisticated Reason and Scripture against the finely-wrought subtilties whether Scholastick or Politick and all the plausible and goodly fair pretences of the Pontifician wisedom and the Glory of the Gospel shall darken the Seat of the Beast as the Sun-shine obscures or puts out the light of every artificial Fire Thus shall the Pontifician Power perish from the midst of the Nations 6. And then as for that more then Imperial Majesty and Splendour in the Pope's Habiliments it is said of this King of Tyre Every precious stone was thy Covering the Sardius the Topaz and the Diamond so as it is said of the Whore of Babylon that she was decked with gold and precious stones and pearles Which Pontifician Power though it be prefigured by the image of a Woman in the Apocalyps the better to set out the Meretricious Mysteries of that Church yet the Haughtiness thereof and more particularly that of the Pope seems also to be typified in the King of Babylon For is it possible that any one should doubt but that Babylon being such an acknowledged Type of the Antichristian Church the Head of this Antichristian Church is likewise typified in the King of Babylon 7. Let us hear therefore what Esay saith of this exalted Potentate in the fourteenth Chapter Verse 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the Morning how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the Nations 13. For thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. How every Nation is weakened by the power of the Pope we have adumbrated in our Idea of Antichristianism His ascending into Heaven stylo Prophetico and his exalting himself above the Stars of God which is the Stars of the greatest magnitude in this Heaven is as much as his clambering into Imperial Power and his advancing himself above all the Kings and Princes of the Roman Empire His sitting upon the Mount of the Congregation is his sitting in the Temple of God So that there seems to be a double Allusion both to the Mount of the Temple of God at Jerusalem and to the Mountains or if you will some one peculiar Mountain at Rome which is the chief City of the Church of Christ. This sitting upon this Mount of the Congregation or the Church of God is marvellously coincident with that Prophecy of his sitting in the Temple of God Nor is In the sides of the North put in for nothing though a thing of little moment in the letter for it seems to foretell that the Dominion of the Pope was to spread more notoriously Northward and we know he could never make any great business of the Southern Churches the African ever resisting him very stoutly Besides other considerations which for brevity I omit Ver. 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be like the most High That is to say I will be above all Rule and Dominion I will be absolute uncontrollable infallible as God 15. Yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell to the sides of the pit 16. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying Is this the man that made the Earth to tremble that did shake the Kingdoms The meaning is Is this the man that did terrifie the world with his dreadful Thunder-claps of Excommunication and by the great Interest he had in the Princes of the Empire and by the power of his Clergy could unhindge and dissettle Principalities and Kingdoms by reason of the blindness and Superstition of the People 17. That made the world as a Wilderness and destroyed the Cities thereof that opened not the house of his Prisoners That is to say That filled the Empire with intestine Warres by his wicked Incendiaries and so brought great depopulations and destructions upon Cities rather then he would let goe those that he held captive in this Babylonish or Aegyptian Slavery Many of whom were most barbarously abused in the close Prisons of the Inquisition and treated with such Cruelty as exceeds all the Tragick stories of the bloudy and persecutive Infidels 18. All the Kings of the Nations even all of them lie in glory every one in his own house That is The Dynasties or Polities of the Nations the Secular Kingdomes and Powers have and shall expire with glory in comparison of thee and have an honourable Burial and Memorial 19. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch as a carkass troden under foot The meaning is That the Pontifician Power shall not expire with any honour at all but the very Memorial thereof shall be abominable and execrable it shall not have that Kingly Burial whose dead Bodies were embalmed with Aromatick odours and Sepulchres adorned with goodly and splendid Artifice but shall be as a stinking Carkass cast into the high-way that offends the eyes and nostrills of every one that passes by So unsavoury a stench shall arise from the Records of this bloudy and Idolatrous Antichristian Polity as is intimated in this last verse Ver. 20. Thou shalt not be joyned with them in Burial because thou hast destroyed thy Land and slain thy People See Homily against Rebellion part 〈◊〉 6. That is to say As thou art a Power distinct from that of the Secular Powers and Potentates of the Earth so thy Fate shall be distinct and singular for thy Memorial shall be accursed and thy Name an hissing to Posterity And the reason is also singular Because thou hast destroyed thy Land and slain
like extravagancy in his interpreting the Stone cut out without hands of the same People 7. The unsoundness of that conceit more particularly discovered 8. The Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae farther proved not to be the Fourth Kingdom from the Coexistence of the Ten Kings according to Type 9. From their vastly-differing Periods the one ending according to Daniel presently after Antiochus the other not before the Day of Judgment 10. From Daniel's making the great Horn the first King in the Third Kingdom and four lesser to grow up after him on the same Goat's Head 11. From the four Heads of the Leopard which are the four Successors of Alexander in this Third Beast or Kingdom and from Daniel's reckoning Antiochus in the latter end of this Succession 12. That the little Horn does of necessity appertain to the Roman Kingdom become Ten-horned and Pagano-Christian at once 13. That it is of equal duration with the Whore and Two-horned Beast and at least coincident in time with them and the Beast restored 14. From which Equality and Coincidence be is discovered to be the Whore or Two-horned Beast 15. That the Patriarch of Rome is more especially concerned in this Type 16. The exquisite Applicability of the Characters of this Horn to the said Patriarch 17. The Application of those Characters that more particularly concern his opposing the Regal Office of Christ. 410 CHAP. XIV 1. The Vision of the Rider of the white Horse Apocal. 19. proposed 2. A general account of that Vision 3. What meant by the white Horse what by the flammeous eyes of his Rider 4. What by his Name known onely to himself 5. What by his garment dipp'd in bloud and that this as also the precedent Characters are applicable to Christ's Body the Church 6. The meaning of the Sword coming out of his mouth 7. And of the treading the Wine-press of God's wrath 8. The meaning of the Inscription upon his thigh in reference to himself 9. As also in respect of his Church to which it is applicable As also the treading of the Wine-press and the Sword coming out of his mouth 419 CHAP. XV. 1. That the rest of the Sacred Titles of Christ are referrible to the Prophecies we have already treated of 2. As likewise all the Oppositions to the Divine life in general saving that of turning the Church into a City of Merchandises 3. Which seems predicted in the Lamentation over the Ruines of Babylon Apoc. 18. Ver. 11. The meaning of the eleventh twelfth and thirteenth verses Ver. 14. Of the fourteenth fifteenth and sixteenth Ver. 17. Of the seventeenth eighteenth nineteenth and twentieth Ver. 21. The Exposition continued from the twentieth to the end of the Chapter 423 CHAP. XVI 1. This mystical sense of the burning of Babylon confirmed out of his Joint-Exposition and from Alcazar's Interpretation and that the same is prefigured in the destruction of Tyre 2. How lively the Patriarch of Rome is typified in Ezekiel by the King of Tyre 3. Another Vision to the same purpose in the same Prophet 4. A third Vision in Esay concerning Esay 23. Tyre typifying Rome Pagan Christian and then Pagano-Christian Ver. 18. That Tyre that is Rome will be reformed from her Pagano-Christianism and become purely Christian again and Apostolick according to this Vision 6. That these Visions of Tyre must needs have a farther meaning then what literally concerns that City 7. An Exposition of the eighteenth verse of the last Vision comprising the Prediction of the Reformation of Rome Pagano-Christian 8. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a general reflexion upon the appositeness of these four last Prophecies for the setting out the Merchandising of the Church of Rome in the management of her Ecclesiastick Affairs 429 CHAP. XVII 1. Their lying Legends perstringed in S. Paul's Prophecie of the Latter times 2. A more full Prefiguration of that Antichristian Opposition that is against Faith in part of his Prophecy of the Man of Sin 3. A clear Exposition of that part of the Prophecy 4. Strictures in the Apocalyptick Visions to the same purpose 5. The Pride of the Bishop of Rome prefigured in the King of Tyre as also his Downfall and how 6. His gorgecus splendour set out both in the King of Tyre and in the Whore of Babylon 7. The Pride and Downfall of this Patriarch typified in the King of Babylon The meaning of the twelfth and thirteenth verses Ver. 14. The meaning of the Prophecy from the fourteenth to the nineteenth verse Ver. 20. An Explication of the twentieth verse 10. Farther Prefigurations of the Papal Pride in the Whore and the little Horn. 11. An easy and genuine Exposition or Paraphrase of the thirty sixth and the thirty seventh verses of the eleventh Chapter of Daniel wherein the Impious Self-elation of the Bishop of Rome is clearly foretold 12. That the sense of the two following verses of this Prediction may be still the same with Mr. Mede's 435 CHAP. XVIII 1. That the truth of the foregoing Paraphrase may be assured out of Saint Paul's Prophecy of the Man of Sin The three first verses thereof interpreted Ver. 4. Wherein this Man of Sin exalteth himself above all that is called God and what it is to snew himself to be God Ver. 5. The meaning of to be revealed in his time and what that is that withstandeth Ver. 7. The Mystery of Iniquity doth already work how to be understood and who the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 8. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what the meaning and manner of his destruction with an intimation of the exquisite Applicability of this Prophesy to the Papal Power and Imposture 2. A short Parallel betwixt the little Horn in Daniel and this Son of Perdition 441 CHAP. XIX 1. A summary Proposal of Grotius his Exposition of the foregoing Prophecy 2. That the coming of Christ in this Prophecy cannot be understood of the Destruction of Jerusalem 3. Nor Apostasy attributed to Caius nor he said to sit in the Temple of God nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fit so well with Vitellius 4. That Caius his purpose of placing his Statue in the Temple was no Mystery of Iniquity but gross Prophanevess 5. Grotius his ridiculous luxation of the sense of the Prophecy in making Caius the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition concealed by Vitellius his standing in the way and yet upon Vitellius his removal not Caius but Simon Magus to be the man revealed and destroyed 6. That in all likelihood the Story of Simon Magus is a Fiction and from what Occasion 7. That if it were true it is not so applicable this wicked man Simon being not consumed by the Spirit of Christ's mouth but onely his Coach and Horses 8. That Grotius makes Paul prophesy of things past his Epistle being written ten years after Caius his death with a full Answer to Grotius his first Argument to the contrary 9. An Answer to the
therein For we traffick not in Legendary Lies and false Miracles against the Sacred Title of Truth nor desire to keep the people ignorant of the Scriptures and to hold them in darkness against the Sacred Title of Light nor trespass against the Sacred Title of Life by making our Religion consist of dumb shows and heaps of dead Rites and Ceremonies nor derogate from the Divinity of Christ by giving Religious worship to Saints and Angels nor offend against his Paternity by making his Children a company of stocks and stones and by taking away the judgement of discretion from them and forcing them to believe as the Church believes right or wrong with Scripture or against it and are so farre from injuring the life of any Child of God by any captious and wicked Sanction that we profess nothing requisite to Salvation but what is plain in Scripture as appears from what has been already produced out of the Articles of the Church Which alone will also vindicate her from any imputation of the following points of Antichristianism against the Peace of Christ's Kingdome And for absolving Princes from their Oaths what Church unless that of Rome ever pretended to so blasphemous a Power 4. The next Antichristian Opposition and which occurrs in the next Chapter is that against the Divine Life in general Such as Idolatry and all manner of Superstition dumb Shows speaking in an unknown Tongue substituting silly Penances instead of real Repentance and Amendment of life all which our Church is so plainly and professedly against in her Articles and Homilies every-where and so acknowledgedly that I will not give my self the trouble of Citation Some not so well minded may peradventure be over-inclinable to imagine the Episcopal Office and Revenues to have a greater propinquity with that Hypothesis at the end of this Chapter then any indifferent man can possibly judge For he must be very ignorant of the Constitution of Christendome that does not plainly discern that in that Hypothesis it is the Papal Hierarchy that is perstringed and adumbrated which is done again more fully and particularly in the ninth and tenth Chapters For for my own part though I do not know the accurate values of the several Bishopricks of this Nation yet considering the largeness of their Dioceses and the great burthen as well of care as expensiveness in conscientiously executing the Function truly I cannot imagine them so great but that the weight of the Office will weigh down every-where the value of the Revenue and we reade in the Gospel that * Luk. 10. 7. the work-man is worthy of his hire And concerning the Office and Dignity itself it cannot sink into my minde that that Order of the Church which was instituted and in practice in those Ages thereof which were Symmetral can with any face or conscience be judged Antichristian And that the Church was Symmetral for about four hundred years after Christ is a demonstrable Consectary from my Joint-Exposition and that Joint-Exposition so convincingly evident that no Interpretation of any Scripture can be more 5. Whence I cannot but wonder that any true Son of the Church of England should be so shie of the Apocalyps or so fearful of it that they durst not touch it without a pair of Mittens of Grotius his making for fear it should bite them that is to say unless it be unfolded or rather folded up in Grotius his fond and groundless Explications For there is not any Book in the World that makes more for the establishment of the Crown and Church of England then this Holy Book of the Apocalyps if rightly and solidly understood A thing which that wise and sagacious Prince King James of blessed memory had discovered betimes and accordingly made use of it against the Usurpations of the Church of Rome And truly I finde nothing in the Apocalyps though the style seems Mysterious and Aenigmatical but what is very rational and look upon it as the most faithful and Philosophical writing that ever was penned A tast whereof we have in that Catalogue of the evil characters of them that are excluded the Holy City wherein bloudy and inhumane Zeal as also vain and imposturous Superstition is so plainly perstringed The former in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Murtherers the latter in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Sorcerers Exorcists or Enchanters and lying Legendists and in fearful intimidated spirits that are superstitiously inclined to submit to the delusions and lies of such shameless Deceivers These doth our faithful Redeemer of Souls who deals bonâ fide with Man-kinde to rescue their abused minds from the Tyranny and burthen of Superstition note with a mark of Infamy and Condemnation So fast a friend is the Lord Jesus to Humanity to Equity to Truth and Reason 6. And not to insist upon those passages of the Apocalyptick Visions that imply it which are more then one or two either there is the greatest Equity and Reason in the world that every Christian Prince should next under Christ be Supreme Head over all that part of his Church over which he is King or Sovereign over Clergy as well as Laiety in Causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil and that not any Papal or Presbyterian Power should be above him as our English Episcopacy does most justly and professedly submit unto him For why should any Clergy-men expect of a Prince who has received like precious Faith with themselves to fall in his Power by becoming a Christian Which is as unjust as it were ridiculous to phansy that every proper man should be bound to remit so much of his natural stature as would make him goe lower then the Priest that baptized him For Christianity does not take away Nature nor Power but rightly employs it Could any of the Pagan Emperours think you have been brought over to the Christian Faith if the Bishop of Rome would have laid claim to the Headship of the Empire so farre as it became the Church of Christ or would they not have suspected the preaching the Kingdome of Heaven a trick of the Priests to make themselves Lords of the Earth No certainly a Prince once become Christian that is a Believer and Professour of the Apostolick Faith comprised in the Word of God in those plain and generally-confessed Points of our Religion is a Person so Sacred that nothing can mount above him for Headship in his own Dominions For the anointing of the Spirit whereby we believe to Salvation is infinitely more holy then any external Sacerdotal oil whatsoever Why may not then so sacred a Fountain be the Head and Influencer of the whole Church Or whether is Christ greater as he is Priest or King of Saints Or who had the preeminence in the Polity of the Jews the Kings or High-Priests of Israel And was not that Polity a Type or Figure of the Church of Christ The plain Law of Christ is indeed immutable and it ought to be so no