but yielded which the Jesuit Alcasar * In v. 2. c. 11. Apocalyps Notat 4. item ante Notation See Preface to the Judgments of God upon the R. C. affirms to be necessary and the contrary of it to be not at all agreeable to the Enigmatical style of the Revelations that is That the 1260 days are to be taken in a Mystical and not in the literal sense Those Notes would be the surest confirmation that that Church must be the Great Babylon For as the Mystical acceptation of a Day in Scripture is a Year so is it impossible to apply the Characters answering to those Marks in the Revelations to any Ruling Power besides for the space of 1260 together since the writing of the Prophecy Ex. gr Where-ever was there an Empire since the writing of the Prophecy but that of the Roman Church that Note 1 was so Universal for 1260 years together as to have all that dwell upon Earth Peoples and Multitudes and Rev. 13. 8. c. 17. 15. Nations and Tongues to worship it What Ruling Power but that so Ancient as to have the Blood of Prophets and Saints and of all that were slain upon Earth of Note 2 that kind for that space of time to be found in it What Rev. 18. 24. Rule but that had ever so long a duration in the World as to continue set upon an Hill much less upon seven Hills Note 3 for so great a space of time or so as to answer the whole length of the time of the Saracen and Turkish Empires Rev. 9. 1 13. in the Two first Woes Never had any other Church Note 4 such an Amplitude or variety of Believers as to have all Nations drink of the Wine of her Fornication or so Rev. 18. 3 c. 13. 7. as to have a blasphemous power over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations None but that was ever so eminently conspicuous for so long a time for the Succession Note 5 of its Bishops under one Supreme Patriarch as to be the Living Image of all the Civil Dignities of the Empire where Rev. 13. 12 14 15. it was under one Supreme Church-Head exercising all the power of the Civil Head or with Imperium in Imperio Nor did ever any Enemy of God's Church act for so long a time like the Red Dragon in its bloody Laws against the Note 6 Followers of the Lamb And yet so far agree with the Primitive Church in fundamental Doctrines as to answer the Character of a False Prophet with the Horns of Rev. 13. 11. the Lamb Christ but speaking like the Red Dragon to his Followers as the Church of Rome has done Whereever but there has there been such an union of Head and Note 7 Members for that length of time to apply the one mind Rev. 17. 13 17. of the Ten Kings to for their agreement together to give their power and strength and their whole Kingdoms to the Beast Never did any but that Church appear so long together with such a medly of Sanctity in some Doctrines Note 8 10. and outward appearances of a strict holiness of life joined with other abominable Doctrines and Practises to qualify it for the Horns of the Lamb and the Speech of the Dragon for the Idolatrous and cruel Commands of the Rev. 13. 12 15. Image Or for having the Form of Godliness in the latter 2 Tim. 3. 1 7. times and yet denying the power thereof Or for forbidding 1 Tim. 4. 3. to marry and commanding to abstain from Meats and yet maintaining Doctrines of Devils What Deceiving Power but that did ever shew so wonderful an efficacy Note 9 of its Doctrine as to make the Kings of the Earth and Rev. 17. 2. all Nations drunk with the Wine of its Fornication Or where did God ever send such an efficacious Delusion as to make men so strongly to believe a lye things clear contrary 2 Thess 2. 11. to the common Sense and Reason of all Mankind Note 11 The Glory of Miracles never appeared any where so long Rev. 13. 14. to make good the False Prophet's lying Wonders and his Matth. 7. 22. deceiving all that dwell upon Earth by the means of them And never was there but in the Roman Church so long a Reign of those that prophesied in the name of Note 12 Christ with Signs and Wonders to assure the Gift of Prophecy to them and so to answer the Character of the False Rev. 13. 14. Mat. 24. 24. Prophet working Miracles to deceive the World and even if it were possible the very Elect. Nor ever had any Power upon Earth so numerous Confessions of its Note 13 Adversaries for the application of these Notes of his Church in the Revelations to verify the Testimony of the Witnesses Rev. 11. 3. no Church or State in the World beside has made such an unhappy end of any thing near so many of its Enemies Note 14 as the Roman to assure us That it can be nowhere but there that the Image caused all to be killed Rev. 13. 15 16 17. that would not worship it nor receive its mark and name Nor did Temporal Felicity ever attend any other Note 15 Religion for half the time of the Roman Reign to make it possible to understand the Riches and Glory of Babylon to Rev. 18. 16 17. her last hour of any thing else If it should here be said That these 1260 years are to be verified of some Empire yet to come It must however be allowed That the present Roman Church is as like that Antichristian Empire for all the time that it is to continue and that for 1260 years as one thing can well be like another This would make one apprehend That Bellarmin was perfectly infatuated to make choice of such things for the marks of his Church as make it the very picture of Babylon the Great in the Revelations and shews the Use and great moment of the Notes of the Church as delivered by Cardinal Bellarmin So also for other Intricate Controversies E. G. If this Application of the Apocalypse were once secured who would much trouble himself to prove the formal Idolatry of the Church of Rome when it appears here to be the Mother of Harlots that has made all Nations Rev. 18. 3. drink of the Wine of her Fornication Or to defend any Reformed Church from the imputation of Schism when there is such an express Command to the People of v. 4. God to come out of her any ways with or without the countenance of Authority that they be not partakers of her Sins and so receive of her Plagues Or to contend much for the perpetual visibility of the true People of God when the Prophecy does so expresly distinguish betwixt them as unknown and a False Idolatrous and Apostate Church Ibidem Rev. 18. 4. c. 7. wherein they sojourn and does set them forth as persons
It has the mouth of a Lyon the feet of a Bear and the body of a Leopard Chap. 13. v. 2. which is enough to distinguish him from all the Beasts in the World It would much surprise any one at the first to meet with so uncouth an appearance of a thing that has three such strange and unusual Characters which cannot be supposed to be mentioned by chance and yet have no kind of Interpretation given them as many of the Characters of that Beast have in the 17th Chapter But it thereby appears that this Beast is plainly drawn from another Original Copy viz. That Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel And there it appears that that Beast had devoured three other Dan. 7. 7 19. Beasts which where like to a Lyon a Bear and a Leopard So that this Fourth Beast in Daniel with the other three before it in the 7th Chapter being interpreted afterwards to signify so many Kingdoms His devouring them there can be nothing but v. 17 23. the conquering them and upon that conquest the having them added to himself And so the Kingdom signified by him comes to be made up of those three together with that which was properly his own Dominion before All the difference then betwixt them is that the one is said to have devoured those three and the other is shown with them digested into his own Body 2. The parts in which the Beast in the 13th Chapter of the Revelations are said to be like those three Beasts are just like the same parts of the Fourth Beast in Daniel For the mouth which is said to be like that of a Lyon in the 13th of the Revelations and to be a mouth speaking great things and that was opened in Blasphemy v. 5. against God is just like the mouth belonging to the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which spake great words against v. 8. the Most High The Feet which in that 13th Chapter of the Revelations are v. 2. said to be the feet of a Bear whose strength we know lies in his Paws were just like the Feet of the other in Daniel the Nails of v. 19. which were of brass and brake all in pieces and stampt upon the residue with his Feet The whole Body of that in the Revelations that was like a Leopard or like the Third Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel which being the same thing with the Third Kingdom in the 2d Chapter did bear rule over all the Earth v. 39. is just the same with that of the Fourth Beast in Daniel which devoured the whole Earth ch 7. 23. and so had a Body of the same likeness with the Leopard 3. The Beast in the Revelations had Ten Horns upon it just as that Fourth in Daniel had and the Ten Horns of both of them are said to signify Ten Kings Rev. 17. 12. Dan. 7. 24. But here indeed is the difference betwixt them that the one had Seven Heads and Ten Horns and the other nothing but the Ten Horns and the Little Horn. But 4. Since all the Heads of the Beast in the Revelations were past and gone excepting the last Prop. 6. and so that Beast is nothing but the Beast under the Last Head all the difference then betwixt that in the Revelations and that in the 7th of Daniel is but this That the one besides the Ten Horns had an Head and the other an Eleventh Horn and if this be all the difference betwixt them the fashion of their Figures signifies nothing we are only to regard what they are both interpreted to represent Since therefore the Little Horn is said to represent a remarkable bustling King and the last Head of the Beast signifies nothing but the last King of Seven very formidable and turbulent we have no reason at all to fear any difference betwixt them 5. Consider then what this Eleventh Horn was and the Characters Dan. 7. 8. 21. of it It had Eyes like the Eyes of a Man and a Mouth speaking great things and a Look that was stouter than that of its Fellows Surely an Horn that has a Look or Face and Eyes and a Mouth can be nothing in the World but an Head in the fashion of a Horn an ill-shap'd Head For it had also Brains and a Soul in it by what it was able to speak and to act and by ruling and commanding the whole Body So that the whole Beast was slain and burnt for the Crimes of that Horn v. 11. This Horn then was in reality an Head for it had all the Properties and Offices that an Head is known by And therefore see next how the Characters of it agree with those in the last Head of the other Beast 6. The Mouth of the one and the other we have found to Dan. 7. 7. Rev. 13. 3 5. be the same by their speech and both of these Beasts wondred at for their dreadfulness 7. The one had power given him to make war with the Saints Rev. 13. 7. and to overcome them The other was to wear out the Saints of the Most High Dan. 7. 25. 8. The one had power given him over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations and the other was the King of a Kingdom that had devoured Rev. 13. 7. the whole Earth and trod it down Dan. 7. 23. 9. Both the one and the other had Ten Kings at the same time with them in the same Kingdom 10. The one ariseth out of a Kingdom divided amongst Ten Rev. 13. 1. Kings the other ariseth up out of the Sea and Waters signify Multitudes and Tongues and Nations Rev. 17. It ariseth Dan. 7. 24. also with Ten Kings ready Crowned which we cannot think could be all at the same moment that it arose and so it must arise in a Kingdom divided amongst those Ten Revel 13. 1. 11. They both end with the Beast to whom they belong and Dan. 7. 11. Coroll 2. Prop. 6. Coroll 1. Prop. 12. Dan. 7. 25. are both destroyed at the beginning of Christ's Second coming in glory at the beginning of his Universal Reign over all the World which concludes with the judging of the Dead 12. The time of the continuance of both is exactly the same The one a Time Times and half a Time which by many Examples in Daniel and one Instance in the Revelations is known to Rev. 13. 5. be three years and an half and the other continues forty two Months 13. They both rule over the same place over the whole Earth Rev. 13. 7. Dan. 7. 23. over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations 14. And The Beast it self in both is said to rise out of the Rev. 13. 1. Dan. 7. 3. Sea From all these put together Though it could not be prov'd to be absolutely impossible from their Characters for the two Kingdoms represented by these two Beasts to be otherwise than one and the same Kingdom yet how could a man
names of Beasts and Horns are often mentioned amonst the other Prophets for that purpose But that which takes away all the fear of the unintelligibleness of these Figures is the explication that is given by name of the Beasts and their Horns in the 8th Chapter which is by all acknowledged to be very manifestly determined and is a clear instance of the general signification of those mystical Terms in all other parts of the Prophecy besides From hence it was that there has been so unanimous an agreement amongst the Interpreters of all former Ages concerning the particular Kingdoms that are signified by Daniel's Figures which in all reason ought therefore to determine all Interpreters to the search of the constant signification of Beast and their parts in all those places to fix the notion of the Beast and its Heads and Horns in the Revelations For the Book of Daniel is without any controversie owned by all to be the place to which those uncouth Figures in the Revelations do refer and from whence most of the peculiar Phrases for such things are transcribed And from an attentive consideration of all the Figures of Beasts and their parts in Daniel one may observe the constant uniform signification of them to be according to this following Proposition In all the Figures of Beasts in the Prophecy of Daniel Prop. 16. 1. By the Beast in general as the common subject of its Heads or Horns is signified a Ruling Nation or People 2. By the Horns and Heads of a Beast the several kinds of Supream Government in that Nation 3. And if they be described to come after one another they signify so many successive kinds of setled Government over the same Kingdom 4. But if they be described to be in Rule all at the same time they signify so many distinct Sovereignties or Kingdoms of one and the same Ruling People 5. And in both these kinds do the several Heads or Horns signify the setled continuance of that Successive Government or divided Kingdom to their last end To make the proof of this the more full and to shew how Dan. VIII uniform and constant to it self this Prophecy is in all its Figures and that it may appear that there is one constant and determinate signification in the use of them I will prove by an induction of all the particular Instances That this is a property in common to all the Prophetical Figures of this Book which signify Kingdoms as The Beasts every-where do That by every such Figure in general as the common subject of its parts is to be understood the Rule of some particular Nation or People and by the parts and divisions of the same kind in it that are said to denote Dominion is meant the Supreme Government of that Kingdom And if they be said to come after one another they do denote the Successions of them in the same state But if they be said to be all in Rule at the same time they signify so many divided Kingdoms in that Nation or People This general proof from the uniform signification of all Figures and their parts will give us the more assurance of the common use of all these Prophetical Schemes and so does make the Conclusions about any of the particular Instances contained under it so much the stronger and the more undoubted Now there are Ten whole Figures in Daniel which are interpreted to signify Kingdoms there and they all confirm that general Observation As may be seen by the particular Instances The Two Figures in the 8th Chapter concerning the Ram Daniel VIII and the He Goat are of the most known signification of any because of the particular Interpretation that is there given of them and therefore it will be the most convenient to begin with them The Ram with its two Horns is said to be the Kings of Media v. 20. and Persia which does very plainly determine it to signify a multitude in the notion of it The Kings of Media and Persia cannot possibly signify one single person only or only the person of Darius conquered by Alexander though that Conquest seems to be the main thing there described The Ram therefore said with his two Horns to be the Kings of Media and Persia must signify a succession of Ruling Powers in that Dominion since there was but one King of that Dominion at one time And then the two Horns being joined with the single mention of the Ram and there being mentioned but just two sorts of Kings viz. of Media and Persia that are said to be signified by the Ram with his two Horns what can be plainer than that the Ram under each of these two Horns does signify each of those two sorts of Kings For an Horn does very commonly signify in Scripture the Ruling or Commanding Power of the thing with which it is joined And the Ram being the same common subject of both the Horns since the two Horns are found to be the two kinds of Kings the Ram of which they are the Horns must be the Kingdom of Media and Persia of which they are the Kings or which is the same the Ram must be the common Ruling Nation of the Medes and Persians of which the Horns are the Kings For since the Ram with them is said in the whole to be the Kings of Media and Persia and since his Horns are now found to be the Kings in that expression the remaining signification for the Ram as the common subject of both of them must be that which remains of what the whole is said to signify and that is Media and Persia or the Ruling Nation of the Medes and Persians And though there were two different Lines of Kings in that Dominion first the Median Line and then the Persian as they are represented by two different Horns yet was the Dominion always counted one and the same common Kingdom and both the Nations were always joined together as one united People Thus in the time of the Median Rule the Laws of that common Kingdom are called the Laws of the Medes and Persians thrice in one Chapter Dan. 6. And again in the time of the Persian Rule all over the Book of Esther is that one Kingdom called Persia and Media But then to shew the Successions of the two different sorts of Ruling Powers in this one Kingdom the two Horns of the Ram are mentioned with this Remark That which came up last was v. 3. the highest which shews that they succeeded after one another And the last of the two Horns being the last of the two Kings that they are both said to be must be that which is last mentioned in the Interpretation or the King of the Persian Line which might well be represented by an higher Horn than the Median Line just before it because of the encrease of the Conquests of the Persian Monarchy from the time of Cyrus so as to have the Title of the Great King all over the
Chapter there are Five Kingdoms represented by four Beasts and a Majestical appearance of the Kingdom of the Saints And in the 2d Chapter there are Five Kingdoms represented distinct from one another by the Four several qualities of the parts of a Statue and a Stone made a Mountain If we can find these Five Kingdoms in each to be the very Chap. 2. 36. same Kingdoms in reality as they seem at the first view of them to be from their being exactly the same number of Kingdoms and from the extraordinary likeness of the fifth of them in each it will be easy from thence to conclude what is the signification of any Figure in general as distinct from the several parts of it that are represented with it in Rule and Power which is the first part of the Proposition And here is this further encouragement to ground our hopes of it upon That it is unanimously agreed by all Interpreters of CONSENT all Ages that are considerable That they are the same Five Kingdoms in each of those Chapters thô there be a different apprehension in some few of them from the rest about the particular names of these Kingdoms But because they have not distinctly proved the certainty of those Grounds upon which they build this common agreement It may be useful for a constant assured satisfaction of this point once for all to reflect upon the evidence that there is for it and to put it into a close and distinct order to make it unquestionable Consider then first That the 5th Kingdom in the 7th Chapter v. 13 14. must be some Kingdom of Christ For it was a Kingdom given to one like the Son of Man by the Ancient of days who had v. 9 10. Hosts of Angels Ministring unto him which cannot possibly be any thing but God himself And the name of the Son of Man is so peculiarly owned by Christ himself all over the Gospels That he cannot be more plainly known by the name of Christ or of Jesus than by that And 't is observed by a very accurate Mr. Mede Critick That there is no other place in the Old Testament that he could fetch this name of the Son of Man from as a name of the Messias but from this very place of Daniel The Circumstances of which our Saviour doth also expresly add to that name in his Prophecy about the Coming of the Son of Man in the Clouds of Heaven with great glory which we find in all the three Gospels and is the same with what is said here Of the coming of the Son of Man in the Clouds of Heaven to the Ancient of days with an infinite multitude of Angels about his Throne and a very glorious appearance Consider next That this Kingdom of the Son of Man in the 7th Chapter is said to be both Eternal and Vniversal or over all the Earth There could not well be more care taken to signifie this than there seems to have been by the fullness of the expressions for both of these For The Eternity of it in such words as these an Everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away v. 14. and a kingdom that shall not be destroyed and a kingdom for ever even for ever and ever as if it had been on purpose to stop all suspicions of ambiguity in the use of the word everlasting and for ever And then to assure the real universality of it It is called A Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him And the greatness of the kingdom under the whole Heaven And All Dominions shall obey him And it did succeed in v. 27. v. 23. the place of a Fourth Kingdom upon Earth which had devoured the whole earth and trod it down If now we look into the 5th Kingdom in the second Chapter we shall find just the same Characters of it from the 44th Verse It was to be set up by the God of Heaven It was never to be destroyed nor to be left to other people but was to stand for ever which secures the Eternity of it from any successions after it And the Vniversality of it appears from its breaking in pieces and consuming all other kingdoms which had Ruled over all the Earth especially the Fourth Kingdom which before it had subdued all things even a third Kingdom which bare Rule over all the v. 39 40. earth Here then are Two Kingdoms Both without End Both over all the Earth and therefore Both in the same place Let the Earth signify what it will since it must signify in both places at least the Prophets Countrey as all agree this makes it appear That the latter time of both is most undoubtedly the same because they are both at a time or eternal in the same place which no two distinct Kingdoms can properly be that are of the same kind as these are described to be Both the Kingdoms of the God of Heaven and such as began to be set up in the days of the other Kings Besides they both began the Universality of their Reign at the Ruin of a Power which had devoured the whole earth and Ch. 2. 39 40. Ch. 7. 23 26. which had broken in pieces and consumed all other Kingdoms and did themselves Rule over all the earth in the room of the former so that they both then continue at the same time in the same place and the continuance of them both is to all eternity And then they begin their Reign in that same place together Or else that which should come after the other would put an end to it which is a contradiction to the Eternity of either of them It seems then to be absolutely impossible That the Fifth Kingdom in each of those Chapters should not be one and the same Kingdom of Christ Eternal and Vniversal and which began at the ruin of another universal dominion before it Now if the Fifth Kingdom in each of these Chapters be the same the Fourth also in each of them before it must be the same For the Fourth Kingdom in each of those Chapters was the only Ruling power over all the earth when it was destroyed by the last For by the destruction of it the Fifth got its dominion over all the earth And so the Fourth could not possibly be more than one and the same Kingdom in each of the Chapters because the whole earth in each must as has been observed signify at least the same place and there could be but one Kingdom in the same place at the same time that each of them in those Chapters is said to be destroyed by the last For they are both destroyed by the same Fifth Kingdom as has been shown at the same time That is at the beginning of the Universal Reign of that Kingdom in each Chapter Two different Kingdoms cannot be destroyed by a Third in the same place and at the same time And the Fourth Kingdom in each is one Ruling
Kingdoms these in the 2 d Chapter are For they cannot possibly be the Four Reigns of so many single Persons either in the same or in different Nations In which sense Kingdoms are sometimes taken For the Four longest single Reigns that ever were heard of in an immediate Succession to one another do not reach to half the number of years that there are from the time of Nebuchadnezzar here said v. 38. to be the first to any Kingdom of Christ These Four Kingdoms then must necessarily be such Successions of Kingly Power as include the times of a great many single Rulers in them And then They must be either so many successive Forms of the Sovereign Power in the same Nation as Chap. 8. 22. the changes of the governing Form of the same Nation are called different Kingdoms and as the Monarchy of England and the Saxon Heptarchy may be said to be two different Kingdoms Or else they must be Four Kingdoms of different Nations in succession to one another Or some of them Forms of Government in the same Nation and others the Rule of different Nations For it seems hardly possibly to find any other acceptation of Successive Kingdoms but in one of these senses 1. It is certain that they cannot be Four Successive Forms of Sovereignty in the same Nation For since the first is known to be the Babylonian Nation the end of that would then be the Dan. 2. 38. end of all the Four and the beginning of a Kingdom of Christ upon Earth 2. Neither can they be part of them Forms of Sovereignty in the same Nations For the first of them is known to be the Babylonian Nation which had no differing Forms of Sovereignty in it from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to the last end of it and therefore the first must necessarily be the Babylonian Monarchy only And the next in immediate succession to it must be the Persian Monarchy upon the same account of its continuing in the same Monarchichal Form of Sovereignty from the beginning of it under Cyrus to the last Conquest of it under Darius But about the Third Kingdom in the 2 d Chapter there may be some question For that next the Persian is represented even in this very Prophecy Chap. 8. 21 22. with two several Forms of the Sovereign Power of it succeeding one another under the name of the Kingdom of the First King and of a Fourfold Kingdom after him But the Third also does appear to be nothing but the whole Dan. II VII time of the Graecian Monarchy from its Succession to the Persian till its Conquest by the Roman For the Fourth that is next to it is already found to be the same with the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th Chapter of Daniel pag. 121. And that Fourth in the 7th Chapter is already known to be a Kingdom of the Romans by Prop. 15. The Third Kingdom therefore beginning immediately after the Second or Persian Conquest and ending but immediately before the Roman Conquest immediate Succession being common to all the Four it must necessarily be the whole continuance of the Graecian Monarchy from the Persian to the Roman because the Fourth Kingdom is already known to be the Roman Thus then do we at last find that these Four Kingdoms in the 2 d Chapter must be the Kingdoms of Four Ruling Nations immediately succeeding one another and that it is at the same time determined what Nations they are in particular From hence then it appears that the Third in the 2 d and the 7th Chapters must be the same Ruling Nation For the Third in the 2 d Chapter was immediately before that which is the same Fourth in both Chapters pag. 121. Paragr praeced And that Third in the 2 d Chapter ruled over all the Earth and v. 39. therefore included in it any other Kingdom of the Prophet's Earth that was destroyed at the beginning of the same Fourth in the 7th Chapter Now the Fourth in the 7th Chapter did break in pieces the v. 23. Third there that was before it and therefore that Third in the 7th Chapter must be the same with or be included in the Third of the 2 d Chapter Besides by the term of all the Earth must at least be understood Chap. 2. 39. Judaea in Scripture or the Prophet's Nation according to the sense of all Interpreters And all the Four Kingdoms of the v. 17. 7th Chapter are said to arise out of the Earth or to be in Rule over it and so over Judaea Wherefore the Third in the 2d and in the 7th being both over Judaea at least because both over the Earth and both destroyed by the same Fourth they can be but one and the same Kingdom in one and the same place There is no question now to be made about the sameness of the First and Second in each Chapters For since they are the First and Second to the same Third in both Chapters seg praeced And that the use of the word Kingdom is found to signify a Ruling Nation pag. 107. And since the two first in the 2 d Chapter are already determined to be the Babylonians and Persians ibid. The Prophetical use of the same words with the same things is sufficient by Rule the 3 d to satisfy any that they signify the same things in both Chapters Besides that they are all represented in the 7th Chapter to be great remarkable Kingdoms under the names of Great Beasts and in succession after one another And then The Second before the Graecian Monarchy in the 7th Chapter can be no other Kingdom but the Persian as it is in this very Prophet also shewn in the 8th Chapter 20 21. And the First of these Successive Kingdoms in the 7th Chapter before the Persian must then be the Babylonian which the Persian conquered For there were no other two great Kingdoms in those times in a successive order to one another before the Graecian Conquest called the Third pag. 107. chap. 2. 39. The whole number also of the Four Kingdoms in the 7th Chapter seem to be plainly for no other end but only to measure out the time of the last Kingdom of the Saints about which all the concern of that Prophecy is as may be seen at the 17th and 18th verses where after the Interpreting Angel had said These Great Beasts are Four Kings without mentioning any thing of them he adds But the Saints of the Most High shall take tbe Kingdom and possess it for ever Wherefore since the Three last of these Kingdoms are found to be the same with those in the 2d Chapter about the same concern pag. 123. 126. and all the Five are the same number in the whole with the number of these here for the same end and are prophesied of in the same Reign of the Babylonian Monarchy which is the first of them in the 2 d Chapter v. 38. and so could not begin before that
or Kingdoms of one and the same Ruling People if they be described to be in Rule all at the same time And in both these kinds do the several Heads or Horns signify the continuance of that Government or divided Kingdom to their last End To this whole Discourse about the Sixteenth Proposition do the generality of the Roman Interpreters agree which all must CONSENT necessarily do who grant as they do that the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th of Daniel is the Roman Monarchy The only difference of some of them from the rest is that the Ten Kings and the 11th after them shall be after the whole Roman Monarchy is ruined and has lost the name a GRotius de jure B. P. L. 2. c. 9. Art 3. Populus est ex eo corporum genere quod ex distantibus constat c. The people are a Body of the kind of those which are made up of things distant from one another Item Art 8. It matters not which way they are Governed either by Monarchs or by many or by the multitude For it is the same Roman people under Kings Consuls and Emperors The Third BOOK THE Particular Signification OF THE BEAST And its Heads and Horns In the REVELATIONS CHAP. I. The Interpretation of The Beast in the Revelations and Rev. XVII of its Heads and Horns in the 17th Proposition Three Objections answered The inconsistency of the Roman Interpreters with themselves Bellarmin more Ingenuous but forced thereby to give up the Cause Grotius to mend the matter runs into greater Absurdities than any of them Conjectures about the first Five Heads AFTER the knowledge of the Constant Vniform Signification of a Beast and of the Heads or Horns of a Beast all over the Prophecy of Daniel any one would be ready to conclude with himself That it was no hard matter now to determine the signification of the Heads and Horns and of the Beast it self which is the Subject of all the latter part of the Revelations since it has been already found that all those peculiar Figures of Empire and Sovereignty and the particular Phrases and Style belonging to them in the Revelations are just the same with those of the like kind in Daniel and are not so distinctly to be found in any other of the Prophets besides But the undoubted confirmation of this is the assurance that we have of the 15th Proposition For by that it appears That the Beast in the Revelations is the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel and that it has the same and that a very great many most peculiar Characters and Expressions attributed to it by which that Beast in Daniel is described Wherefore according to all the Examples that are to be found in that Prophecy from whence it appears that these Figures in the Revelations and the most peculiar Expressions about them are taken it is unquestionable That The Beast in the Revelations in its general notion as the common Prop. 17. subject of its Heads and Horns does signify the Rule of the Romans in general The Seven Heads of it successive Changes of the Sovereign Power of that Nation The Ten Horns the division of that Empire into so many distinct Sovereignties There need no more be said for the proof of this than that the Seven Heads are said to succeed in this order Five one another c. to shew them to be successive Revel 17. and that the Ten Kings are described as acting all together with the Beast For according to the signification of a Beast and its Heads and Horns with these Characters in Daniel they must signify so many successive Sovereign Powers and so many divided distinct Kingdoms of one and the same Nation by Prop. 16. And the Prophecy of Daniel is the chief Example of the mystical use of Beasts and their Parts and to which all the Expressions about the Beast in the Revelations are found to refer Proposition 15. And the Beast in the Revelations is certainly some Roman Rule by Prop. 6. Therefore by Rule the 2 d The Beast its Heads and Horns do signify the Rule of the Romans under so many successive Changes of the Sovereign Power and divided into so many distinct Sovereignties as are represented by its Seven Heads and Ten Horns But it may possibly be pretended that there are clear grounds in the Revelations against the making the Prophecy of Daniel a Rule of Interpretation for the Figures in the Revelations For the Figures in the Revelations have a different use from those in Daniel For example 1. There are three several shows of one and the same Roman Monarchy and following immediately one after another from the 12th to the 18th Chapter of the Revelations which according to the use of such succession of Figures in Daniel must signify three several Ruling Nations Prop. 16. Besides that one of these three Beasts is expresly described in succession to the other Chap. 13. 2. But it must be remembred That it is according to the use of the Figures in Daniel to represent the same Kingdoms by different Figures in different Visions as in the 2d and 7th Chapters And in the 8th Chapter two of those same Kingdoms by two new Beasts and it is certain that the two Shows in the 13th and 17th Chapters are in two several Visions and that they are one and the same particular state of the Beast by Coroll 2. Prop. 10. And though the Beast in the 13th Chapter be described to be in succession to that in the 12th Chapter yet 1. it is described as a new Vision of a Beast with the same proper marks upon it which the other had before it viz. the Seven Heads and Ten Horns And next it must be considered That though they be two different Beasts yet it is plainly said That the one is Satan Chap. 12. 9. or the Devil and so does signify only a spiritual Rule of the Devil in the Roman Empire and no different Temporal Empire from the other and then it signifies no more to the making two different Monarchies than Nebuchadnezzar's Image to the constituting of a new Monarchy of the Babylonians distinct from that which was represented by the Head of the other Image Chap. 2. 2. It will be further urged that in the 13th Chapter There are Two Beasts represented as rising up after one another which according to Prop. 16. Part. 1. must signify in Daniel's way two different Ruling Nations This would signify very much by Rule the 2 d if the Text did not make it appear that they were not successive to one another But it is expresly said That the Second Beast did exercise all the power of the First Beast before him and that all Chap. 13. 12. for his Service as appears v. 12. The Text does therefore expresly affirm that the power of them both is but one and the same power or Ruling Nation And yet to show that the signification of a Beast in Daniel
rest That The Three last Kings of the Eight in the 17th Chapter are Three Proposit 18. Changes of Roman Government coming after one another in an immediate successive Order a CUspinian in Sextum Rufum pag. 6. Cuspinian p. 95. in Cassiodori Chronicon shews that Military Tribunes with Consulary Power differed only in name from Consuls Consuls were chosen by the People of Rome at first that after the expulsion of the Kings the Power of the Kings might remain with them ut penes illos Regia esset potestas Pancirollus in notit Imperii Oriental pag. 155. Appian says in his Syrian History that the Romans sent Praetors to the Army which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is six Axes because the Consuls did use to have twelve Axes and as many bundles of Rods carried before them after the manner of the Kings See in the Margent First That they are Three Changes of the Supream Government of the Romans appears from their being every one represented by an Head of the Beast which signifies a Rule of the Romans Prop. 17. and from their being said to Reign one after another v. 10 11. For Heads or Horns of a Beast said to come one after another do all over Daniel signify the successive Changes of the Supream Government of a Nation by Prop. 16. And Daniel is the only Example of the use of such Prophetical Schemes wherefore by Rule the 2 d they can signify nothing else here but three successive Changes of the Soveraign Power of the Romans b Thomas de Albiis Tabulae suffragiales p. 247. And under the name of King it self there are almost as many different sorts of Soveraign Power as there are Kingdoms in the World for there is not any Power of two different Kings that is altogether the same And next That they do reign in an immediate successive Order does appear from the Number of the Last which is said to be the Eighth Whereas if there had been any more than Two betwixt the Five that were then said to be past and this which is called the Eighth this Last would have been more than an Eighth according to the number of those that had come in betwixt the Five and the Last besides those Two that are mentioned This is further confirmed by the use of Numbers in Daniel which denote the Succession of Ruling Powers As in the four Kingdoms represented by the four Metals in the Statue Ch. 2. and signified to succeed one another every Kingdom does immediatly succeed that before it So also do the four Kingdoms in the 7th Chapter of Daniel follow one another in an immediate Chap. 15. lib. 2. order The Two Horns of the Ram in the 8th Chapter one of which is said to come up after the other are known to represent the immediate Succession of the Persian Government to that under the Median Kings The fourth King of Persia after Cyrus in the 11th Chapter v. 2. is known to be Xerxes in an immediate Succession from Cyrus The Succession of the first King and of the four after him signified by the Horns of the He-Goat in the 8th Chapter may indeed seem to be an exception to the rest because the quadripartite Division of the Graecian Monarchy did not immediately succeed the Reign of Alexander But then neither is there any number there used to denote an immediate Succession There is no mention of a first and a second King but only of a first and four Kings after him which does not exclude the intervening of others betwixt them as the name of a first or second would do And yet if it be well considered The Quadripartite Division of the Graecian Monarchy was so much the immediate next form of the Supream Rule of it to the Heirs of Alexander that there was no other setled Division of that Monarchy that came in between them and that one would esteem to be ground enough to call it the next immediate successive form of the Graecian Monarchy when there was no other setled form betwixt the Reign of Alexander's Heirs and the fourfold Division of the Empire Again The Beast is never without one of his Heads even in the time of his Ten Horns to his last ruine by Coroll 1. Prop. 6. Wherefore upon the falling of one of his Heads the next in order must immediately arise or else the Beast would be without an Head and so without any life in it For the Ten Horns from whence alone it could be supposed to have any life besides are all in the time of the Last Head by Coroll 2. Prop. 6. But still further it may easily be perceived That the three last Kings are set down in order by the Angel for no other end but to shew the time of the rise of the Eighth called the Beast and which is the only Subject-matter of all the Visions To confirm this it is plain That there is none of the whole number of these Kings but only the Eighth who have any thing more mentioned of them than barely the number that they are known by and the order in which they lie from that present time when these things were spoken to the time of the Reign of the Eighth The Sixth is therefore only said to be the King that was at that present time the Soveraign of the Romans that it might be thereby known how many Successions of the Ruling Power of that Monarchy there was to be from the time of the Vision to the Reign of the Beast Now if the order of these Successions had not been immediate to one another this number would really have signified nothing for that Design but would on the contrary have been a most certain means of deluding men into a mistake upon very clear and warrantable grounds for it especially since there is no intimation in the least to incline a man to understand it otherwise Wherefore by Rule the first it may be relied upon that the Succession of the three last Kings of the Eighth in the 17th Chapter was immediate And so plainly does this appear to be intimated from the CONSENT Text that it has the almost unanimous Consent of all the differing Parties of Interpreters Bellarmin indeed has a very singular fancy in this point he would have the Seven Heads or Kings to signify here all the Emperours because the Number Seven is generally so used in the Revelations Whereas nothing is more commonly known than that when Seven or Ten are divided into broken numbers as the number Seven is here into Five One another c. they are never used for a perfect number or to signify All. And the mention of the Eighth which was one of the Seven does plainly assure them to be just Seven and no more What more remarkable Instance can we have how extravagantly singular a man of good sense in other respects may be upon no manner of tolerable grounds for it If the three last Kings do
at Rome For besides that it has been demonstrated that the essential Character of an Head of the Beast is the Government owned at Rome by Prop. 21. It appears also by almost all the known examples besides of the changes of Government in a Monarchy either in Daniel or the Revelations That the continuance of the former Government together with a new face of the Soveraign Power is made to be a New Succession of the Sovereign Power of that Nation The most plain instance of it is in the Figure of the Graecian Monarchy in the 8th Chapter of Daniel where after the end of the first form of Government under the first King there succeeds a fourfold Kingdom notwithstanding that the Macedonian Sovereignty which was the first King continued still in being for it was one of those four Kingdoms So also in the figure of the Persian Monarchy just before it the successive changes of the Sovereignty are represented by the Two Horns coming after one another thô the first of them That is The King of Media was still in being when the latter was in Rule because the King of Persia was also King of Media and his Realm at that time called the Kingdom of the Medes and Persians This also is confirmed from the Succession of this very same Imperial Head which was a new head notwithstanding that the x Onuphr Panuvinus lib. Fastor p. 61. But the Consulary Dignity continued at Rome to the time of Justinian Joh. Fersius Silesius protonotarius de p. Praet Justinian Novell 105. calls the Consulship a Dignity that goes alway with the Imperial Power so that the Consulary Power seems to be so interwoven with the Sovereignty that it follows it of its own accord and is tacitly included in it as soon as the Scepter of the Empire is taken L. 6. Cod. Theodos The Emperors Decree That all other Dignities shall give place to that of Consul Prattica dell Medagglie de Carlo Pattin Pag. 67. The greatest part of the Money which the Emperors Julius Caesar and Augustus caused to be stamped was called Consular Money for the respect that they bore to that Supream Dignity Consulary Government continued with it thô in subordination to the Imperial much more must this Government be a new Head when that which was only Imperial is turned into a Regal form at Rome There is therefore no longer any question to be made whether the Imperial Government which was the Sixth Head at the time of the Vision be yet at an end CHAP. V. Rev. XVII The 23 d Proposition The Beast some Present Sovereign of Rome The 24th The 42 Months of the Beast at least 1260 years The 1260 Days of the Witnesses the same particular time The Two Witnesses the Representatives of the whole Church enslav'd by the Beast SInce it has been made unquestionable from the preceding Proposition That the Sixth King or Head has been past for some hundreds of years From thence it may as assuredly be concluded That The Beast called the Eighth King is a Sovereign Roman Proposit 23. Power that is owned for Supream by the Authority of the City of Rome at this present For the Sixth King in being at the time of the Vision was certainly at an end after the ruine of the Western Empire by the Heruli and Goths Prop. 22. And the Seventh King does immediately succeed the Sixth by Prop. the 18th And the Seventh King was to continue but a short space chap. 17. 10. Whereas the number of years from the Ruine of the Western Empire to this present is three times longer than the whole time of the sixth Head from the date of the Vision and as long as the whole time of the other six Heads before Wherefore the Seventh King must needs have been long since past and the Eighth King called the Beast have entred upon his Reign For the Eighth King did immediately succeed the Seventh by Prop. 18. And the Eighth King or the Beast is to continue till the Second coming of Christ by Corollar 1. Prop. 12. And therefore must the time of the Beast be both begun already and not yet past that is must be at present in being Upon the same grounds it appears That The forty two Months of the Reign of the Beast Revel 13. 5. are at least 1260 Years Prop. 24. For the Beast is in being at this present by Prop. 23. And he began his Reign soon after the fall of the sixth Head because the Seventh King was to continue but a short space Rev. 17. 10. And the sixth Head was at latest ended at the fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus by Prop. 22. which was above 1200 Years since It is therefore impossible that the forty two Months of the Reign of the Beast should have a literal signification in this place They must then of necessity be understood in a Mystical Signification by Rule 2. and in such a Mystical Signification also as must make them contain in them above 1200 Years Now there is no Example in Prophecy of any such Mystical Signification of Time as will make these forty two Months reach to 1200 Years and make them less exceed that number of Years than the Mystical use of Weeks and Days in some of the Prophecies Weeks are by almost the Vnanimous Consent of all Interpreters taken for so many Years as they have days in them in that famous Prophecy about the first coming of the Messias into the World in the 9th Chapter of Daniel v. 24. under the name of the seventy Weeks This is an unexceptionable Instance of the mystical use of days for years So also is the Year of Jubilee after 49 years called the end of seven Sabbaths or weeks of years Levit. 25. 8. Days also are made use of to signify Years in Ezekiel twice in one Chapter Ezek. 4. 4 6. and in the same manner in the Book of Numbers 14. 34. Against these two last Examples it is pretended That Days do not absolutely signify Years but are only made the Types of Years But this is no material Objection against this usage of Days For though in those two places they be used but as Types yet it is easie to observe that Types of things are ordinarily used in the New Testament for the things themselves after the Type is fulfilled in them and in that use of them they signify the things absolutely and not Typically for a typical signification of any thing is the signification of it before it is come to pass which cannot be when the Type is used for the real thing it self then in being And therefore in such a use of the typical word it must signify the thing absolutely only Thus do we find the names of Temple Altar the Holiest of Holies the Vail the Passeover-Lamb used to signify the Christian Church the Communion Heaven this Earthly state Christ Jesus after these Types were accomplished and so after their typical time was past
Mr. Mede supposes the rooting out of the Goths and Lombards and the Power of the Greek Emperors out of Italy may answer this Character the Pope's Excommunications and deprivations of some See References three remarkable Sovereign Powers 15. A great objection against this Opinion about the time of the Rise of the Beast is this following esteemed to be viz. That the Rise of the Beast was at the same time with that of the Ten Kings For Rev. 17. 12. it is said That those Ten Kings should receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast And that the term of one hour does signify in the Original at the same time Now it is known that the Roman Empire was divided into Ten setled Kingdoms at the fall of the Western Empire the Beast therefore must arise about the same time and this was almost a whole Age before the Conquest of Justinian 1. There is no clear grounds for any necessity of such a signification of the word in the Original that is rendred one hour On the contrary To render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the same time is at best but a very rare and unusual acceptation of it if it should be ever found to be used at all in that signification which is much to be questioned And therefore is it that we find not this Interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have been thought on till this present Age And even now the greatest number of Translations have nothing of this sense in them The proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Accusative Case is as it is rendered for one hours space which in a Prophetical Style signifies a short space of time And then it may be easily understood to signify that those Kings should Reign like Kings with the Beast for a little time but as it follows that they should give their Kingdoms to the Beast after it and so appear to be like the Slaves of the Beast for his use and service 2. Or if it should signify about the same time yet it might be understood only of the Reigns of these Kings together with the Beast at any the same time of both For to receive power as Kings at the same time with the Beast may be understood of any time of their Reign together in conjunction with the Beast and not necessarily of their beginning to reign at the same time with it On the contrary it is certain by the consent of all that most of these Ten Kings had begun to receive power as Kings long before others and so could not possibly be said to begin their power all together at the same time with the Beast If the Rise of the Beast should be counted from the first appearance of Ten Kingdoms in the Roman Empire the Reign of the Beast must be already past For it will be found that there were Ten Kingdoms erected there before the Year 420. As 1. The Almans who had been long a Roman Province had a King in Julian's time and after the conquest of him z Cuspinian de Casar pag. 102. mentions Julian's League with the Almains and p. 112. the Huns invading Epirus in Valens's Reign Julian See References made a League with that People aa Petav. Ration Temp. Part. I. lib 6. cap. 10. does particularly reckon up the chief Divisions of these Invasions of the Barbarians 2. The Ostro-Goths 3. The West Goths 4. The Hunns who were all three up about the Year 378. 5. The Suevi 6. The Allans 7. The Vandalls 8. The Burgundians 9. The Franks and besides these were the Vandals in Africa and Silingii another sort of Vandals in that part of Spain that is called Baetica besides other Divisions of Principalities amongst these People 3. Again In the signification of at the same time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might denote the Reign of these Ten Kings bb Alcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 3. For what I pray does one hour signify but that these Kings do Reign all together at one and the same time Theodoret. in cap. 7. Dan. de 10. Regibus It is therefore manifest that there shall Ten Kings arise up all together altogether at See References the same time with one another which the order of the words does make far more natural For whereas it had been just before said that they had not any of them any Kingdom as yet it here follows in this order in the Original but power as Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they receive with the Beast where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more naturally joined with the Kings than with the Beast And then it signifies That nevertheless these Kings should all reign together At the same time in the Reign of the Beast to denote the strange Division of the Roman Empire at that time And this was very proper and convenient to be signified because the Seven Kings just before had been described to succeed or to come after one another to distinguish which from these Ten Kings it might be on purpose made their Character that these did reign all together But this is only upon the supposition of this signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which after all there is no necessity 4. But however That it cannot signify the rise of these Ten Kings at the same time witb the first appearance of the Beast is determined by the description of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel which is said there should arise cc Blasius Viega in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 2. shews That it was the Opinion of all the Ancients according to St. Jerom that Antichrist the Little Horn should arise after the Division of the Roman Empire amongst Ten Kings Theodoret. in cap. 7. Dan. It is therefore says he manifest that the Prophet does here foretell that about the end Ten Kings shall arise up all together And that Antichrist should be the last after them So Irenaeus l. 5. contra Haer. c. 24. Aretas in c. 13. Apoc. Ausburtus in cap. 17. after the Ten Kings And v. 24. the Beast in the Revelations and the Little Horn are unquestionably the same particular Roman Rule Coroll 2. Prop. 15. and therefore has it been already concluded that the Beast cannot arise till after the Ten Kings Coroll 3. Prop. 15. 16. But it will be then demanded How Justinian's restauration of the Imperial Head can be the next Change but one of the Roman Sovereignty after the time of the Vision For the Division of the Empire into Ten Sovereignties before him would be accounted at least one Change of the Sovereign Power of that Empire as the four Horns of the He Goat in the 8th of Daniel was a new state of the Graecian Monarchy If so then the fall of the Western Empire must unquestionably be another Change of the Roman Rule and thus would there have been an 8th King from the Sixth that ruled in St. John's time before
10. Restauration of the Imperial Rule after the Reign of the Goths in Italy For their whole time was not above seventy years which Isa 23. 15. is but the Age of one Man and is by the Prophet Isaiah called the days of one King and is a very short space of time in comparison with those Kings betwixt whom it stands and to whose time of Reign the reference is made For those seventy years were as nothing in comparison of either the Imperial Rule before it which had continued for above five hundred years or of that after it which has already continued above a thousand years And besides it is a shorter space of time than is attributed to the Seventh King by almost all others who do not make him to be a single Emperor The changing of Times and Laws attributed to the Little Horn in Daniel may signify no more than appearing like a new Lawgiver in the Church But if it be desired to see this more particularly verified of the Reign of Justinian Is it not sufficient for that purpose that His Code was then made the standing Law of the Roman Empire and has ever since continued to be so And that the Epocha that Dionysius Exiguus did then bring in of the Year of our Lord against the old Epocha ab urbe conditâ has ever since been observed But I rather stick to his Settlement of the Laws of the Roman Church There is no manner of difficulty about the Ten Kings which Rev. 17. 12. are said to Reign with the Beast either one hour or at the same time For the number Ten is usually taken in Scripture for an uncertain multitude of those things of which it is said to be the number and in such a long succession and change of Kingdoms as it is here joined with and where there is no other circumstance to shew it to be a definite number it ought in all reason to be taken in that sense that is for an uncertain multitude of Kingdoms that were to be set up with the Beast in the bounds of the Roman Empire according as they are represented by Horns of that Beast which is agreed to be the particular Roman Monarchy Prop. 16. For it is unimaginable That ever that definite number of Ten Kingdoms should be found to have been constant under all those Changes of Masters that the Divisions of the Roman Empire have have been successively ruled by I am sure in the time of the Saxon Heptarchy in England it could not be so And many other Instances of the like nature might be produced against it But however it is not questioned by those who maintain the definite number but that these Ten Kings were up in Rule at the same time with Justinian That they should have their first Rise with him at one and the same time is not at all necessary from the Text though the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be granted to be at the same time See pag. 216. But indeed the common and unforced signification of that Expression is one hour that is a small time as has been observed And then all that could be made of it would be That those Ten Kings which are said to have received no Kingdom in St. John's time yet should receive power as Kings or as free Independent Sovereigns for a small time with the Beast and that only till as it is said they should give their power and strength and Kingdoms to the Beast that is Till they should submit themselves and their Kingdoms to that Roman Usurpation which the Imperial Authority should set up and be the Secular Head of which will be better understood when it is explained what the worship of the Beast and of his Image is For that end it will be now requisite to enquire what the Image of the Beast can be determined to be It seems at first to Chap. 13 14. be a figurative Expression and so capable of variety of Interpretations but there will be peculiar marks enough found of it in the Text to determine it to one certain thing But before we enter upon that it is to be premised That the mention of the Beast and his Image is a very manifest allusion to the b Panciroll de Notitia Imp. Orient pag. 46. gives the examples of raising the Emperour's Image and carrying it about to denote his Exaltation to the Empire And pag. 47. gives the examples of breaking the Emperour's Images or the throwing them down to signifie the end of his Reign or his being Deposed common custome of the Romans at that time to raise the Emperors Image in all publick places at his election to that Dignity and to continue the adoration of it during the time of his Reign and to pull down and break those Images at the end of every respective Reign The Emperor's Image and the worship given to it was the publick signification of his being in power And that they might have the fairer Title to Adoration c Panciroll pag. 47. Notit Imp. Orient shews the way of consecrating the Images of the Emperours and the unlawfulness of selling them after it no less than Crimen laesae Majestatis or High-Treason they were consecrated with a form of words as the Idols that were dedicated to the honour of the Gods And so sacred were they after that accounted to be that it was High-treason for any to sell them after Consecration The Beast then and his Image are here joined together with a reference to the worship of the Emperors and their Images The False Prophet who is the contriver of this Image has been already found to be a Church-Head with Supream Authority over the Roman Empire and that he is really distinguished from the Beast who is the Secular Head of it Prop. 24. And this False Prophet is determined to be in particular the Papal Authority Coroll 3. Prop. 25. The Characters of this Image in the Text are to be next considered It is said to be the Image of the first Beast which had the deadly Chap. 13. wound and was healed again It was then the Image of the Imperial Roman Rule restored again by Justinian Coroll 1. Prop. 5. Query 2. Now an Image of any thing is something made after the likeness of the thing of which it is the Image And particularly in this Case it must have as great a likeness to its Original as the Images of the Emperors used to have to the Emperors themselves But then this Image is different from all Carved Images of the Emperors For it is said to have life put into it and therefore must it be a living likeness to its Original That which it represents is the Imperial Roman State which is said to have power over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations This Image then must also be a living Supream Power over all tbe same Jurisdiction for otherwise it cannot be a living likeness of the
necessary to the Emperors for upholding their Power in the midst of the Invasions of the Barbarous Nations the Emperors were willing to enlarge their Authority to make use of it for the management of their own Affairs And after that the Divisions of the Roman Empire were setled in so many Sovereign Princes that Church-Authority which they themselves had now lost in those several Kingdoms they were not unwilling to bestow upon the Chief Bishop of their City and so by small advances he came at last to get the Title of Occumenical Bishop and Vniversal Head of the Church of Christ upon Earth But yet still did the Emperors retain their Power of the setting up of every new Bishop of Rome The Emperors m This is thus well expressed by John Wex de Antichristo p. 119. And so the Ten Kings delivered to the Beast their Kingdoms which they had got at the dissolution of the Western Empire according to Apoc. 17. 12. For after that the Western Empire was broken in pieces all the Kingdoms of the West did join again together in one body that by the bonds and tye of the Babylonish Superstition of the Bishop of Rome they might fight against the Lamb. Consent was still held necessary for the confirmation of the Election as the Chief Power upon Earth that gave him his Authority And upon this account he was set up as the Emperor's Deputy and Creature to be the Universal Head of the Roman Church in all the divided Kingdoms of the Roman Empire which now would own no other Secular Head of the Churches in them but those Sovereigns which ruled them And thus came the divided Roman Empire to be n one entire thing again and the several Kings in it to own one Roman Head again set up by the Imperial Authority Things continued not long in this mere spiritual and Ecclesiastical State The new Ecclesiastical Head used all ways to make himself universally acknowledged for such And to that end as Head of the Church he assumes a power of executing the Canons of Councils upon Sovereign Princes to the depriving them of their Kingdoms if they refused to execute the Orders of the Church upon all those that were disobedient to it and that even to the punishment of death From hence then we have a perfect Idea of the worship of the Beast and of his Image from the first Rise of the last Ruling Head or of the Imperial Power restored by Justinian The Imperial Authority was at first the sole Head of the Roman Catholick Church Afterwards the Submission of the divided States of the Empire to one Ecclesiastical Sovereign who was set up by the Emperor made this new Empire the exact Image of the first in respect of the Church-Government of it And the Manager and Contriver of this new Model is in History the Bishop of Rome and is in the Prophecy called the False Prophet CHAP. V. Rev. XIII Four Grounds for the applying of the Worship of the Beast to the Imperial Power How the False Prophet does Exercise all the Power of the First Beast causes all the World to Worship him makes them make an Image to him Gives Life to that Image and makes All receive its Mark c. BY the Observations in the preceding Discourse it is easie to see How justly the Worship of the Beast may be applied to the Imperial Authority after the degeneracy of the Christian Religion 1. For the Imperial Authority as has been observed p. 221. was 〈…〉 a long while the only commanding Head of the Roman Religion and the a SOcrates Proam in l. 5. We have therefore in the whole course of out History given an account of the Emperor's interest in it because that since they began to embrace the Christian Religion Ecclesiastical Affairs did seem very much to depend upon them so that the most eminent Councils were in times past and are at this day summoned by their consent and procurement See Notes on the third Chapter b c d e f g i k The Emperours had always the Right of Investing Church-Governours in their several jurisdictions till the Council of Worms in the year 1122. And then the Emperour Henry the 3d. wearied with the vexations occasioned him by the Popes gave up his Right of the Staff and the Ring the Ceremonies of the investiture to Pope Calixtus the 2d Aventin Histor Boior l. 6. The Abbot of Ursperg in his Chronicle gives the form of this Concordat betwixt the Emperour and the Pope And the Pope in return agrees for the future That the Elections of the Bishops and Abbots c. should be performed in his presence c. And that He that was Elected should receive the Regalia of the Emperour by the Scepter And this was called the Uniting of the Royal Power with the Priesthood and long endeavoured after under that Name Cardinal Cusan Concordia Catholic c. 6 7 8 9. Affirms That every Emperour and Prince in their several Jurisdictions are of God alone and that it belongs to the Emperours to summon General Councils and to regulate the Procedures in them and to every Prince to do the same in his respective Territory for National and Provincial Councils And that if the Pope be negligent in these things the Emperour ought to make use of his Authority in all such Cases That the Emperour always presided in the Councils assisted with fifteen or twenty of the Nobles of his Court whom he made to take place before all And He and his Legats propounded the matters that were to be considered Pererius in Apoc. Disp 5. de Constantino Then came the Imperial Majesty first into the Church which was then Armed with both the Swords c. For though from the first The Church had that Sword viz. the Secular Sword yet then first began the facility and conveniency of exercising it against whomsoever it pleased only Soveraign Authority upon Earth that was acknowledged in all Ecclesiastical Affairs so that all obedience given to the erroneous Acts of those Councels was really an obedience to the Emperors will only For those things had no obliging power in them to overrule the Conscience upon the account of the Councels Authority And therefore since it had been long before that time received as a maxime by those who owned that Councel That all was there done by the b Socrates l. 1. c. 6. Ep. 4. Constantine unto the Churches He there tells them That whatsoever is decreed in the Holy Councils of Bishops is to be attributed to the Will of God And of the Sentence of the Council of Nice in particular Ibid. Ep. 2. to the Church of Alexandria For that which has been agreed upon by the 300 Bishops is to be taken for nothing but the determination of God himself The Holy Ghost residing in the minds of such worthy persons and inspiring them with the Divine Will of God himself Concil Constantinop Universal 6. Action 17. sub finem The
would be but the taking of the word Latinos after the Ancient way of the Latins The False Prophet's punishment of those who had not the mark or name of the Beast is just the same with z The effect of the Papal Excommunications for this purpose does appear from the Bull of Pope Martin the 5th in confirmation of the Council of Constance and to be found at the end of it Which commands all Emperours Princes Lords and all Civil Magistrates as well as Ecclesiastical to expell all Hereticks out of their Territories not to suffer them to make Contracts or to exercise any kind of Merchandize amongst them the Papal-Excommunications For the hindering them from the Market or from buying and selling was one of the effects of the Excommunications of the Jews CHAP. VI. Rev. XIII Vnder the name of the Beast is comprehended all his under-Agents in the same design How the ten Kings give their Kingdoms to the Beast How the Character of speaking like the Dragon can agree with a Christian Bishop It cannot be any thing else THE particular instances explained in the former Chapter do clearly show that the exercise of the Power of the false Prophet does in all the parts of it regard the Beast as the principal concern of his design The Worship that he promotes is the Worship of the Beast The Image that he causes to be made is an Image made in honour of the Beast it self And the Worship that is given to it is because of its being the Image of that Beast that was deadly wounded and was healed again And the mark name and number of the name is the name of the Beast by which all Men were to own themselves the peculiar slaves of the Beast And this is no more than what the Character of that Power which the false Prophet did exercise in all these ways does plainly intimate to us for it is said to be the Power of the Beast it self exercised hefore him And therefore must the exercise of it be only upon his account and those that were employed in it were therefore but his Ministers and Instruments in it All which does signifie to us That the Supremacy of the Pope the Infallibility of the Church of Rome the blind Submission and Veneration that is paid to it the taking the name of a Roman Catholick the confining of all the publick Offices of Religion and Devotion to God and of the lively Oracles of God to the old Roman Language That all these things are done in honour of the Universal Imperial Power of the Romans or of the Empire of the City of Rome and that in the time of the Imperial Authority over Rome restored by Justinian And therefore are all these things signified to be the Worship of the Beast under the last Ruling Head because it is not a Civil honour that is given to this Empire and the Head of it But the giving them the Prerogative of Almighty God the Power of setting up a Spiritual Authority which shall give Law to the Consciences of Men according to their own will and pleasure and shall have the Spirit of God confined to their Arbitrary proceedings and the Curses of God to dispose of at their will against all that dissent from them The Beast therefore is the final Object of all the Worship N. B. and Honour that is given and therefore does generally comprehend in it all the under-Actors and Instruments in this Design where he is mentioned alone Thus ln the 17th Chapter of the Revelations there is no mention of the false Prophet or of the Image but only of the Beast and of the magnificent appearance of his Empire under the name of Babylon And therefore by the Beast must there be understood all his Ministers and Instruments joyned with him according to the nature of the several Characters that he is joyned with As in the time of the Mayres of the Palace in France by the name of the King must many times be understood the will of those Mayres to the prejudice of the Royal Authority because it was the King's Power that was exercised by them And all the Honour and Obedience that they had was upon the account of their being authorized by him So also do the Actions and Honour of the false Prophet and the Image go under the name of the Beast in that Chapter tho in reality they have been much to the diminution of the Imperial Authority It is enough to qualifie them to be comprehended under the name of the Beast that they concur with the Beast in his great design of making all the World to submit to an Ecclesiastical Authority of his own Creating as the acknowledgment of the Honour of his Empire For all the Worship that is hereby promoted is The Honour shown to the Imperial Power of the Romans which is submitted to as the only ground for any hopes of Salvation And that not upon the account of its being the Catholick Church of Christ but for that which is at present a contradiction to it viz. for being the Roman-Catholick Church Wherefore when the ten Kings are said to give their Power Rev. 17. 13. and Strength and Kingdoms to the Beast it is to be understood of their concurrence to advance the Roman Religion as the Imperial Religion of the Romans which was first set up and promoted by the Imperial Authority and so still continues to be defended and protected by it and therein does the Worship of the Beast more eminently appear because of the submission of crowned Heads to it who have no Superior upon Earth but God alone For it is very difficult to understand how ten Kings can be supposed to be of one mind and to agree to give their Kingdoms to the Worship of any Power upon Earth but only in this way of an Uniformity in a common Religion which is set up by the Will and to the Honour of another And here it is to be observed how exactly the Prophecy and the Event do agree with one another in respect of the Order which is observed in the Text. The Beast is described as beginning the Scene first and setting the design on foot And the false prophet and the Image come in afterwards to perfect and accomplish it which was very punctually verified by the beginning of the Universal Monarchy of the Church of Rome under the Imperial Authority and the advancement of it into a perfect Tyranny by the Roman Hierarchy So that after a while the False-prophet seems to take the power of the Beast out of his hands and to exercise it before his face and then the Beast had little to do himself in the management of it and seemed only to give Authority to what was done by others which is also now manifest from the common course of the Roman Church in their proceedings against Hereticks They judge condemn and pronounce sentence against them and then deliver them over to the Secular
the great difficulty here is to get any Readers at all and to prevent the being sentenc'd without a Tryal That which does so affright the World from these things is the usual fancifulness and looseness of Discourses of this nature and their great Confidence and Assurance with little or no care to make sure of their foundation I do therefore think it requisite to assure all those that look upon this That the whole aim of my Endeavours here is to restrain all kind of Liberty of Imagination and to force an Assent by close and clear proof instead of surprizing it by an Ingenious Scheme and by the tempting agreements and lucky likenesses of Characters My great fear indeed is that the dry strictness of the Reasonings in it will turn away more from perusing it than the strength and cautiousness of it will please But that will still the more clear my Attempt from the common Prejudice It may be some motive to the belief of this That the only end of this Vndertaking was to find out a more satisfactory foundation for what the Excellent Mr. Mede has endeavoured to demonstrate in this way Whose known Reputation for his impartial and cautious Judgment in the interpretation of other parts of Scripture is sufficient to silence all inconsiderate Prejudices against his Performances of this kind There have indeed been some very great Names of late Grotius Dr. Hammond c. amongst our selves who have excused the Church of Rome from any concern in the Judgments of this Prophecy and that only by laying down another Scheme of Interpretation without any tolerable proof of it But it is a sufficient prejudice against their Authority that they are forced to such shifts for their foundation as the most Judicious and the most skilful of the Romish Interpreters themselves do cry See the Preface to my former Treatise out against as things that none but Men out of their Wits would own and such as they affirm to be contrary to the general sense of all kinds of Interpreters Jews and Christians Ancient and Modern And when they come to speak of the like kind of Phrases do declare that sense of them which these New Men account monstrous in the Interpretations of their Brethren to be so clear that all but those that are blind may easily see it Or such as is agreeable both to the usage of common Speech and to the usage of Scripture Or such as must necessarily be allowed Which is a sufficient Vindication of those Learned Interpreters of our own who have brought the same Charge against these Ingenious Innovators It would at the first much surprize any man to see these Learned Protestants so busie to ease the Church of Rome of this trouble from their Brethren when all the thanks that they can get for it from the most Judicious of those whose Cause they oblige by it is to be called Madmen and fools for their pains But in this they themselves do satisfy us They acknowledge that they came to the Interpretation of the Revelations with a design to serve by it It was more to answer Objections against some singular Notions than to unfold the Mystery of that Prophecy They came to force their way through the Difficulties that the plain and obvious sense of the Visions did lay in their way And nothing is more ordinary than to see men wrest any part of Scripture that will not comply with their fancy for some particular Opinions Their Expedient for Catholick Vnion of all Christian Churches by the Compliance of the Roman Their Assurace of the necessity of the conveyance of a Right Succession and Ordination by a Church that was not formally Idolatrous c. were altogether inconsistent with the Protestant sense of the Apocalypse It is as evident on the other side from the closeness and cautiousness of Mr. Mede's Explications and the impartiality of his Judgment upon all other Occasions that his whole aim was to make sure of the clear and certain sense of these Mysteries He bad no private Opinion that he came to advance by it or to make it a drudge to And his way of life and the wariness and the Ingenuity of his Spirit in all his other Expositions of Scripture did sufficiently secure him that Character of himself which his Modesty would only own viz. his freedom from studium partium But the present Age is so generally prepossessed with the Interpretations of these Learned Men That it is further necessary to remind those that look upon them as a great service to the Church of England That they are great Novelties See Dr. Bernard 's Discourses p. 139 to 160. in its Doctrine and if continued in will but expose it to the rest of the Reformed Churches for departing from them and from its own first Faith only to uphold some Prerogatives of its own Reformation to the undervaluing and undermining of the grounds of theirs It is manifest * Third Part of the Sermon against Idolatry p. 69. And 6th Part of the Sermon against Rebellion p. 316. by the Homilies approved of in our Articles as the faith of our Church That the Charge of Babylon upon the Church of Rome is the standing Profession of the Church of England And it continued to be the †Bishop Jewell p. 373. Bishop Abbot Antichristi Demonstratio Archbishop Whitgift Tract 8. p. 349. Bishop Andrews Tortura Torti Bishop Bilson p. 527. Bishop Morton Mr. R. Hooker 's Treatise of Justification sect 10 57. currant Judgment of all the best Learned Members of it till the end of the Reign of King James the First It was really believed in his time to be so clear and important a part of their Faith That both the Church and the Court did applaud the King in his publick defence of it though he did thereby plainly endanger the honour of his Character and the Interest of his Kingdom amongst all Roman-Catholick Princes As appears by Lessius's Epistle Monitory to them After that time This Doctrine of the Homilies came to be more out of fashion either to be civil to the Marriages of the succeeding Reigns or to take away all the advantage that the Serapatists might have from hence against the necessity of an uninterrupted Succession and Ordination in every Lawfully-constituted Church Which might also shew them the necessity of uniting with the Church of England It is certain that the extravagant Heats of those times were enough to make Learned Men run into unnecessary Extremes But the common Danger of late has now revived the Ancient Doctrine of the Church again which these Novelties did contradict All the best Learned in the Church have been engaged in charging the Church of Rome with formal Idolatry in exposing all Expedients for Vnion with it in demonstrating the necessity of a Separation from them whatever becomes of the Succession in disowning of all kind of Right of Supremacy there c. If therefore the Authority of
of the most wary and cautious judgment withhold from concluding That it would be a very strange thing if two Descriptions agreeing together in such multitudes of most peculiar Characters never attributed to any Figures before should not really mean one and the same thing To hear of the Pictures of two Beasts described thus exactly like one another in such a strange make of all their Parts and Furniture with the same Qualities and Actions belonging to them the same manner of rise the same time of continuance and agreeing in the same peculiar way and circumstances of their Ruine and both these Figures interpreted to signify the same things in all their Characters that are interpreted And then to see the things wherein they seem to differ in words and expressions to be found to be in reality and substance the same sure this would make any man forth with resolve with himself that these two must be the Pictures of the very self-same Beast And since they both are said to signify Kingdoms that they must represent but one and the same Kingdom And if it should not be so he would conclude that they were on purpose contriv'd by the Relator of them to deceive men into wrong Apprehensions of them if he had given no plain intimation that they could not possibly be the same For to mention a Property or two in one which was not in the mention of the other would signify little to make him think them of different kinds where there were such strange Agreements unless the Relator had given such a property to the one as could not be in the other from the plain description of it which is not the present Case But after all this from the three last Characters of each of these Beasts it will appear to be absolutely impossible that they should be any thing but one and the same time of the same Kingdom They are both said to be destroyed just before the Universal and Eternal Kingdom of Christ that ruled over all the Earth and that for ever So that the description of that in those two places cannot possibly signify more than one determinate Kingdom over all the Earth and when they were destroyed are said at that time both of them to rule over the same place THE whole Earth and for the same continuance of time before their destruction But it is absolutely impossible that they should be two different Kingdoms over the same place at the same time both destroyed by a Third that succeeds in their place The beginning of the Universal Reign of Christ with his Saints when each of them were to be destroyed was the same time and their Rule over the whole Earth at that time was over the same place And besides they had continued the same length of time over the same place before their destruction and were both destroyed after the very same and that a most peculiar and unusual manner that is by fire Dan. 7. 11. Rev. 19. 20. It is therefore unquestionable that the Fourth Beast in Daniel is the same with the Beast in the Revelations and especially in the time of the Reign of the Little Horn From hence it appears That The Last Head of the Beast in the Revelations is b Malvenda de Antichristo p. 224. Fixum stabile omnium quoque Consensu firmatum c. It is sure and certain and confirmed also by the Consent of All that Daniel did understand by the Little Horn and as it were point at with his Finger nothing else but Antichrist that was to come Idem pag. 253. It is the agreeing Opinion of the Fathers and Interpreters that Antichrist is called the Little Horn. the same with Corollar 1 the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel And therefore That The Term of the Beast in the Revelations signifies the same particular Corollar 2 Roman Rule with the Beast in the 7th of Daniel in the time of the Little Horn. For the Term of the Beast in the Revelations signifies the Beast with the Last Head by Prop. 6. And the Last Head is the same with the Little Horn by Coroll praeced And the Rule of the Last Head is a Roman Rule Prop. 7. As also That The time of the Beast in the Revelations did not begin till after the Roman Corollar 3 Empire was divided into Ten Kingdoms For the Little Horn of the 4th Beast which is the same with that in the Revelations by Coroll praeced did not arise till after the Ten Kings were up and besides did subdue three of those Ten Dan. 7. 8 24. And from hence still is it further confirmed That the Kingdom of the Son of Man Dan. 7. and the Reign of Christ over Coroll Prop. 11. Prop. 14. the Kingdoms of this World Rev. 11. are the same time of Christ's Second coming in glory For they begin at the same time at the destruction of the same Beast and are universal from the beginning of them Thus does this last Proposition about the Fourth Kingdom and the former about the coming of the Son of Man much more strengthen the proof of one another and yet have evidence enough for them in themselves without any necessary dependance upon one another so that either of them might have been set alone by themselves but they are still more abundantly cleared and strengthned by the help of one another's Light It is therefore now manifest That The Reign of the Beast in the Revelations is not yet past Corollar 4 For the Reign of the Beast in the Revelations is the same with the Reign of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel Corollar 2. Prop. 15. and is therefore to continue till the Second Coming of Christ Prop. 14. and Corol. 1. Prop. 12. This is acknowledged by most of the Romish Interpreters who according to the general Opinion of the Fathers do expect the coming of Antichrist at the end of the World or just CONSENT before the Second Coming of Christ It must be acknowledged that both this Proposition and the former and their Consectaries are denied by Grotius and others but upon what small grounds for it and against how great an evidence to the contrary may be seen Cap. ult Lib. 1. and cap. 2 3 15. Lib. 2. And lest the Authority of great Names should have still too much weight in it to hinder ones full assent to these present Conclusions I would in the mean while have any one but reflect upon one of the Tenets of the Grotian way to which they are forced to maintain their Singularity in the present Case and that is their Opinion of the Kingdom of the Son of Man in the 7th Chapter of Daniel For that is sufficient to make one very much unconcerned at any thing that is built upon it The modern Jews are justly admired for denying that by the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel is meant the Messiah But it is much more monstrous in these men
East where the Prophecy was given The He Goat indeed in that Chapter at the first mention of the Angel's Interpretation of him may seem to be but a single Person for he is said to be the King of Greece But v. 21 22. when we see a first King in him and then four Kingdoms after him represented by the several Horns of that Beast It is altogether unquestionable that the He Goat himself is something that belongs in common to all his Horns or Ruling Powers represented by them And that can be nothing but the Graecian Monarchy or the Ruling Time of the Greeks The beginning of which is signified by the Conquest of the Ruling Monarchy of the Persians that was before it by Alexander the Great called here the Great Horn And the establishment and the continuance of the Graecian Monarchy from that establishment of it under the four setled Kingdoms of Macedonia Syria Egypt and Thrace or Pergamus which was the same is shewn by the four Horns coming up in the place of the first Horn that was broken For though there were more Kingdoms than four soon after Alexander's death yet they were were in a perpetual change and rather a tumultuous Scuffle of his Captains than any determinate number of Kingdoms till they came to be setled in those four So that till then the whole Monarchy could not be said to have any particular form in it Besides that during the time of that scuffle or at least the greatest part of it there were some or other of Alexander's Line remaining who might well enough be looked upon as the continuance of the Reign of the first Horn. But after that the Monarchy setled in the four mentioned divisions till the Roman Conquest There is indeed a little Horn said to come out of one of the four But v. 9. by that expression it appears that it cannot well be taken for any thing else than for a part of the Ruling Time of the same Horn which it came out of and therefore is it generally judged to the single Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes By both these Figures in the 8th Chapter it appears that the Ruling Parts of a Figure do not only signify the several Governments in the Nation but also the Succession of all the particular Persons in that form of Government As the four Horns signify the Succession of all the Kings in those Kingdoms and the two Horns of the Ram all the Line of the Median and Persian Kings Of this the 11th Chapter is still a further confirmation Dan. 11. 3 4. where after the Kings of Persia there is the mention of the Realm of Greece and of a mighty King who should have a Kingdom which should be broken and divided towards the four Winds of Heaven just as in the other the four Horns are said to come up towards the four Winds of Heaven Dan. 8. 8. And a Kingdom broken and divided towards the four Winds can be nothing but a fourfold Kingdom according as it is said in the other that the great Horn being broken said to be the first King four Kingdoms should stand up in the Nations And then two of these Divisions according to the points of the Wind are the subject of the greatest part of that 11th Chapter under the Names of the King of the North and the King of the South which though they seem to signify but two single Kings yet are indeed a Succession of many Kings in each Division And at last one of this Succession is there set out as much more considerable for his Villany than any of the rest just as the Little Horn was in the 8th Chapter which is there said to come out of one of the four Horns to denote him to be a single King of that Division And that all these Expressions were very clear significations of the Graecian Monarchy and of the Changes in it till about the end of it there can be no greater evidence than that Scoff of Porphyry the Philosoper mentioned by St. Jerom who derides this part of the Prophecies of Daniel with a great assurance that it must have been wrote after the things were done because of the exact agreement of it with the particular Circumstances of the Times which it foretells From these two Chapters may it also be seen That Kings N. B. and Kingdoms are promiscuously used for any intimations of Rule whether in a Ruling Nation or in a single Person when it is said to be his Kingdom As we ordinarily use the terms of the King of France or of Spain to signify the whole Monarchy of that Nation for all the time that it continues in power and the terms of England and France for the Actions of the Kings of those Places For Example The King of France and Spain have been always at war England was the King of France's Friend There is then assurance enough of the confirmation of the General Proposition by the Examples of the 8th Chapter a THeodoret in cap. 7. Daniel Utraque Cornua Because the Medes were also called Persians Foreign Writers do also join them promiscuously together CHAP. V. Dan. II VII All Interpreters agreed That the Five Kingdoms in the 2 d and 7th Chapters are the same Kingdoms whatever they be in particular This attempted to be demonstrated from the Characters of each of them in both Chapters The Fourth and Fifth in each of those Chapters proved to be necessarily the same particular Kingdoms THere is now good ground to apprehend that the Figures in Daniel were designed to be understood And that there is an exact conformity amongst them in the general significations of the same kind of Characters in every one of them as the exact agreement of the Two figures in the 8th Chapter in the same general signification of A Monarchy and the several Changes of the Ruling Power of that Monarchy has been shown to be very plainly expressed in the words of the Prophecy it self And this is sufficient to excite ones curiosity to a more particular examination of the other Figures of that Book which thô they have no such plain determinations of their signification as the former in express words yet are there such peculiar descriptions of them in the explication that is given of them as upon the first serious reflections would make one very confident that it was no hard matter either to come to the particular knowledg of them or to find them conformable to the Rule of the present Proposition It is a considerable encouragement to our hopes of this nature That it is almost unanimously agreed upon by all the several parties of Interpreters That the other Figures in the 2d and 7th Chapters are the successions of the four famous Monarchies from the time of the Prophet Daniel himself till some universal Kingdom of Christ at the end of them Let us consider them both according to their descriptions in each Chapter In the 7th
Chap. 7. v. 27. Power over all the Earth at the time that the greatness of the Kingdom of the Fifth under the whole Heaven began by the Conquest of it CHAP. VI. Dan. II VII The Five Kingdoms in the 2 d Chapter of Daniel immediatly successive to one another This agreed on by Interpreters and particularly evinced upon several grounds The nature of these Kingdoms shewn from their immediate Succession to one another Not successive forms of Government in the same Nation nor part of them of that kind From hece necessary that they must be the Four Monarchies And therefore must the Third in the 2 d and the 7th Chapter be the same Kingdom The First and Second also in both Chapters proved to be the same THE surest way to demonstrate the rest of these five Kingdoms to be the same is to find that those in the Second Chapter are immediately successive to one another For since the first of the Kingdoms in the Second Chapter is known to be the Dominion of Nebuchadnezzar and the last of them to be some Kingdom of Christ pag. praeced If they be all in an immediate v. 38. succession from the first to the last that will shew what kind of Kingdoms they must needs be to be able to fill up the distance of time betwixt those two Kingdoms by immediate Succession and thereby will make it appear from History what Kingdoms also they must be in particular and this will give light enough to find them to be the same with those in the 7th Chapter That the Five Kingdoms in the 2 d Chapter are successive to one Dan. II. another is undoubted For of the Second it is said And after thee shall arise another Kingdom And of the Third That it should bear Rule over all the Earth and so could it not be at the same time with any other that was different from it in the Earth at least where the Prophet lived And it is agreed by all that the Prophet's Countrey did belong to this Third Kingdom And then of the Fourth that it should break in pieces and consume all Kingdoms that had been before mentioned and so must come after them And then That these in the 2 d Chapter are all immediately successive Dan. II. to one another it is unanimously agreed amongst all kinds of Interpreters Jews and Christians of all Ages that are any CONSENT thing considerable which shews it to be here so plainly intimated if not expressed in words That the common sense of all considering Persons would judge it to be so from the usual acceptation of such words as it is signified by For how otherwise could those who differ from one another in almost every thing else be supposed to be so willing to agree together in this where there may be a great disadvantage given against the Party which they embrace by allowing it but no manner of advantage gained by it The Jews would be much surer of a defence for their deferring the coming of the Messias if the first Four Kingdoms were not determined to be the Four Monarchies immediately succeeding one another And it would not appear that Antichrist went along with the Kingdom of the Romans if the whole four were not found to be necessarily successive Empires that came immediately after one another from the times of Nebuchadnezzar The grounds of this agreement about the immediate Succession of these Kingdoms from the Text may be these 1. The mention of the number of them from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to the Kingdom of Christ seems to be plainly expressed to be to foreshew the determinate time of that Kingdom For there is nothing mentioned in any of the rest excepting that Tyranny in the last times of the Fourth Kingdom which ushers in the Kingdom of Christ about any Religious concern or any Action of God which yet is ordinarily the business of every Divine Prophecy Daniel does expresly tell Nebuchadnezzar that the end of his Dream was to make known to him from God what should be in the latter days And by the latter days must be there understood at least the latter days of those Kingdoms which are the subject of the Dream and therefore must they include the days of the last of those Five Kingdoms or the time of the Kingdom of Christ therein mentioned The whole number then seems to be wholly for this end to shew how many Successions of Empire there should be betwixt the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar's Kingdom and the Kingdom of Christ For who would not assuredly conclude it to be for that end only when there is nothing considerable spoken of the rest of the number And when the gloriousest state of things that ever was mentioned is set forth in that last Kingdom with this Introduction to the Interpretation of them all that the whole shew was to make known what should be in the latter days And how could that be possibly shewn by such an orderly number unless there had been no other Kingdoms betwixt them This therefore does make it manifest that the Succession of these Kingdoms was immediate to measure out the exact time of the coming of Christ in glory 2. An orderly number when joined with Successive Reigns as it is here under the names of a Third and a Fourth Kingdom v. 39 40. is generally used in speech to signify an immediate orderly Succession And who would ever call those a Third or a Fourth Kingdom from the First which had two or three more coming in betwixt them and the First 3. And then the last of the Five is known to be immediately Chap. 2. 44. Chap. 7. 26. successive to the Fourth pag. 120. which is an instance to shew the manner of the Succession of all the rest unless there were any thing clearer against it which is not by any pretended 4. The parts also of the Statue which represents these Kingdoms are immediatly joined to one another which must denote a property in the things represented some way answerable to it and that in Successive Kingdoms can be nothing else but the immediate Succession of them Upon these grounds it may safely be concluded That these Four Kingdoms in the 2 d Chapter do immediatly succeed one another especially when there is nothing offered against it but on the contrary as has been observed it has the unanimous Consent of all the differing Parties of Interpreters And by that it appears that in the Judgment of all that have considered these things it is so plainly suggested from the Text That unless it be really so there is occasion given for an unavoidable delusion about such things of moment as the great Tyranny of the last King of the Fourth Kingdom over the Church of God and the Universal Eternal Kingdom of Christ succeeding it and which the whole Prophecy was designed wholly to make known as is expressed v. 28. Chap. 2. It may therefore now be determined what kind of
time There seems to be no manner of doubt but that they are all the same Four in both Chapters For otherwise there would have been a plain ground laid down for a delusion in this Chapter also about the most momentous things that can concern the Church of God as has been observed And therefore do we find an unanimous Consent amongst all sorts of CONSENT Interpreters That whatsoever these Four Kingdoms be in particular yet that they must certainly be the same Kingdoms in both Chapters Thus are we at last come to find not only that the Five Kingdoms in each Chapter are the same particular Kingdoms but also what they all are by name And thereby is it manifest that the names of The Beast in general does signify a Ruling Nation and that the parts of A Beast signifying Dominion does denote the Supream Powers of that Nation which if they be represented as existing all at a time do signify the division of that Empire into so many Sovereignties as we see in the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter according to the Proposition at first laid down CHAP. VII Dan. II VII Objections against the making the Third Kingdom in the 2 d and 7th of Daniel the whole time of one Ruling Nation answered IT is unanimously agreed amongst the Interpreters of all Parties and Interests That the Four Kingdoms in the 2d and 7th Chapters of Daniel are the same particular Kingdoms how differing soever they are from one another in the particular applications of them It is also as generally agreed amongst them that the two first of these Kingdoms in each Chapter are the Babylonian and Persian Monarchies But about the Third Kingdom in each Chapter though acknowledged to be the Scheme of one and the same Dominion there is not the same consent for the particular application of it At the first mention of a difference one would be apt to admire what should make any one sceptical in this matter who affirms the other Two before this Third to be known Kingdoms and that all the Four do immediately succeed one another as has been observed to be acknowledged by all Parties For all that seems needful to be done for such an ones satisfaction is to desire him to enquire what Kingdom it was of the same kind and nature with the Babylonian and Persian Monarchy acknowledged to be the first and second that came immediately after the Second of these Kingdoms or the Persian Monarchy Since the Second is granted by all to be the Persian Monarchy from the time of its first great appearance in the World at its Conquest of the Babylonian who would not forthwith conclude that the Third must be that whole Monarchy which subdued the Persian and succeeded in its room that is the whole Graecian Monarchy This being the natural and obvious determination about it and according to the common Rule of reading the sense of all other places of Scripture that is from the known use of them in the Context it would be imagined that there must certainly be some very great appearing necessity that could make Grotius and some others of this last Age to judge the Third Kingdom in both Chapters to be of quite another nature than those before it were especially since it is against the sense of all the Ancients who have been found from St. Jerom to have been generally agreed in making this Third as well as all the rest to be the Successive Rule of an whole Nation The Opinion of these Innovators about the Third Kingdom is That it is the single Reign of Alexander the Great and that the Fourth Kingdom in both Chapters is the division of the Greek Monarchy amongst his Ten Captains immediately after him The Reasons that they rely upon for this new Opinion against all the seeming Absurdities that attend it are chiefly these that follow 1. Because if the Third Kingdom in the 2d and 7th of Daniel were the whole Greek Monarchy then the Fourth must be the Roman which conquered the Graecians and then the Kingdom of the Son of Man Chap. 7. which comes after the Fourth Kingdom there must not begin till after the end of all Roman Dominion upon Earth and this is supposed to give too great an advantage to the Jews to conclude that Christ Jesus at his first appearance could not be the King Messias or the Son of Man in his Kingdom For he died about the beginning of the Roman Monarchy after the compleat Conquest of the Graecian 2. This Objection will be thought to be much strengthened from the Prophecies that our Saviour and his Apostles have given out about the time of the coming of the Son of Man which seems to represent it to be the advancement of the Christian Church in the World by the destruction of the Jews its Enemies in that very Age when those Prophecies were delivered and therefore could not agree with the coming of the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel if the Fourth Kingdom there before the Kingdom of the Son of Man were the Roman Monarchy 3. Again If the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel were the Roman Monarchy then the Little Horn in that Kingdom would be the same with the Beast in the Revelations as appears from the exact agreement of the Characters of them both compared together But it is thought impossible that the Little Horn and the Beast in the Revelations should be the same For the Little Horn was Dan. VIII not to arise till the Fourth Kingdom was broken into Ten Kingdoms Three of which it was to subdue Dan. 7. 8. Whereas the time of the Beast in the Revelations must necessarily have been soon after that that Prophecy was given which was long before any such division of the Roman Empire It is said both at the beginning and at the end of the Book That the time of those Rev. 1. 1 3. things was at hand and that they should shortly come to pass and should shortly be done And to make this unquestionable The Rev. 22. 6 7 10. Prophet is commanded at the end of the Prophecy not to seal the Saying of the Prophecy of that Book because the time was at hand 4. It is most agreeable to the Event and to the other parts of the Prophecy of Daniel to make the Fourth Kingdom to be the Graecian Monarchy in the time of Alexander's Successors For it has Ten Kings arising out of it to signify that variety of Kingdoms that his Captains did set up after his death And after these Ten is there a Little Horn represented almost every way the same in every Character of it with the Little Horn in the 8th Chapter which all agree to be Antiochus Epiphanes one of the Successors of Alexander's Captains 1. In the first of these Reasons there is nothing to force a Answer man against what is but the most probable sense of the words much less what has seemed to be the
destroying the fourth Beast And therefore seemed it very useful for them to make the fourth Beast to be not the Roman but a part of the Grecian Monarchy It is also against the whole current of all the Learned Christian Fathers at least till St. Jerom's time near a thousand years after the Prophecy was given and above four hundred years after Christ a HIeronyme in c. 7. Daniel Let us therefore say what All Ecclesiastical Writers have delivered That in the end of the World when the Kingdom of the Romans is to be destroyed there shall be Ten Kings who shall divide the Roman World among themselves and that there shall be an Eleventh littleKing that shall arise and overcome three of those Ten Kings c. Ergo dicamus says he quod omnes scriptores Ecclesiastici In cap. 7. Dan. tradiderunt Which is almost as much as to say That it was an Universal Tradition or a Tradition of all the considerable persons of the Catholick Church to his time That the fourth Beast was the Roman Monarchy and so that the third Beast must be the whole time of the Grecian Monarchy from its succession to the Persian which is by all granted to be the second Is not this sufficient to make any man confident That the Prophecy does of its own accord offer this Interpretation to the common sense of men when it thus appears to be the impartial Judgment of all the Learned World b Malvenda de Antichristo p. 222. For All both Jews and Christians look upon it as unquestionable That the Third and Fourth Beasts are plainly distinct from one another so that he must have lost his wits that can think otherwise Maldonal in c. 7. Dan. The fourth Kingdom is the Kingdom of the Romans and so all take it to be Calovius in c. 7. Dan. All agree That the Fourth Kingdom is the Kingdom of the Romans as well the Ancients and the Jewish Church both before and after Christ and the Christian-Church for the first Four hundred years as the Moderns both Jews and See References Christians before there was any particular Interests to be served by it It has also been and is still the Judgment of even c Pererius in c. 7. Dan. This Fourth Beast according as all interpret it to be and as the matter it self does shew it did represent the Figure of the Roman Empire Malvenda in c. 7. Dan. p. 222. That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire is certain and agreed upon by all that profess the name of Christ The Reader then is thus to be set in the Right Road and the King's High-way Ibid. S. Hierom and others do very clearly show that Porphyry's Opinion is a perfect madness Alcasar Sect. 5. in c. 13. Apoc. It cannot be denied but that there is a plain allusion in the Ten Horns of this Beast to the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which does very plainly appear to be the Figure of the Roman Empire Item Sect. 3. in v. 1. The Beast out of the Sea does evidently allude to the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel and 't is most clear and evident That that Fourth Beast of Daniel is the Figure of the Roman Empire in an Idolatrous State the most Eminent of the Church of Rome tho' it be more for their Interest than any others that the fourth Kingdom were any thing rather than the Roman which does sufficiently shew that they are forced to allow it For they can have no manner of advantage from that concession and therefore must it be the impartial sense of their minds but it would save them a great deal of trouble to deny it if they fairly could and that shews the evidence for it to be too clear And this gives as strong a presumption against the possibility of any other sense as can almost be given from Authority It is therefore well worth the enquiry What might be the grounds of so universal and impartial an Agreement amongst all the differing Parties of all sorts about this third and fourth Kingdom The first Reason that may be observed for it d Theodoret in c. 7. Daniel Some would have the Fourth Kingdom to be the Rule of Alexander's Successors But they should have remembred that the Golden-Head was the Babylonians and that the second Kingdom was the Persians the third then must be the Graecians and the fourth the Romans Ibid. But at present I cannot but admire that there should be some pious Men who should take the Fourth Beast to be the Macedonian Kingdom For they should have considered that the Third Beast has four Heads which does openly show the fourfold division of the Greek Empire after Alexander's Death And then that the Fourth Beast has Ten Horns And that they were but Four and not Ten that continued the Reign of the Greek Monarchy after Alexander Ibid. That ought to be observed that the Prophet saw the Third Beast with Four Heads upon him And the He-Goat Chap. 8. after the first Horn was broken to have had Four in the room of it to make it clear and unquestionable That the He-Goat and the Third Beast were but one and the same thing is the plain intimations in the Prophecy That the third Kingdom is the Dan. 7. whole time of the Greeks from the Persians to the Romans 1. As first in the Text it self the third Kingdom has the same name of A Kingdom that hinders all the rest from being possible to be understood of single Kings or of different Sovereignties in the same Empire pag. 106. There is the same ground then against the parting the Reign of Alexander and his Captains into a third and fourth Kingdom which in reality are but one and the same Kingdom of the Greeks 2. It is against all the significations of Kingdoms besides that are represented by any whole Figures in this Book of Daniel and the common usage of Prophetical Terms especially in the same Book is the best Rule to determine their signification by Rule 2. Now by the confession of these men themselves and the unanimous consent of all Interpreters every whole Figure that is said to signifie a Kingdom does signifie the whole time of a Ruling Nation or People In that one constant acceptation we find it in no less than Ten distinct Figures not counting in this third Kingdom There are eight mentioned besides the third in the 2d and 7th Chapters and two in the 8th for the Kingdom of the Stone and of the Son of Man are two of those Schemes So that there is at least Ten to nothing against it That the third Kingdom is the whole time of the Monarchy of the Greeks after the Persians And that which appears to be the constant use of expressions in so wise and judicious a Writer as the Prophet Daniel was may be very securely relied upon as an unquestionable ground to determine his meaning whenever the same expression is
used in any other place in which it is not so clearly known Rule 2 3. 3. It is against all the other known representations of the different kinds of Supreme Powers in the same Nation all over Daniel or the Revelations that they should have two distinct Figures to represent two different kinds of them even according to the Interpretation of these men themselves For all the differences of Supreme Powers in the same Nation every-where else are granted to be set out by the parts or appurtenances of whole Figures As in the 8th Chapter that which represents the Succession of the Persian after the Median Kings in the same Nation of the Medes and Persians is the Two Horns of the Ram not two different Beasts And the four divisions of the Grecian Monarchy with the Rule of the first King are set out by four Horns after one great Horn which belonged all to the one He-Goat The Ten Kings arising out of the fourth Kingdom and the One after them are represented by eleven Horns of one and the same Beast in Chap. 7. 24. And the same Ten Kings in the fourth Kingdom of the Image in the 2 d Chapter are shewn by the Ten Toes of the Feet The Seven successive Kings also of the Kingdom in the Revelations and the Ten Kings who are all at a time in that Roman Rule are represented by the Seven Heads and Ten Horns of that One Beast All which if counted up together will be found to be the odds of above Forty to Nothing against the dividing of the single Reign of Alexander from those who succeeded him in the same Nation and against the representing him by one whole Figure 4. The Third Kingdom is certainly that which succeeded the Second and the Second by all is agreed to signifie the Persian Kingdom and what a kind of Kingdom it was that succeeded the Persian the Prophet himself informs us in the 8th Chapter v. 21 22. where the King of Greece who overthrew the Persian Monarchy does signifie the whole time of the Grecian Monarchy with a first Conquering King in it and a four-fold Kingdom after him And therefore here also must this Third Kingdom that succeeded the Persian and is represented in this 7th Chapter by One Beast as that was in the Eighth be the same time of the Greek Monarchy from its Conquest of Persia to the end of it 5. The proper Character of the Kingdom of the Greeks which Alexander's Reign was but a part of is a Kingdom first under one King then divided into four and joyned together in one Figure as appears in the 8th and 11th Chapters where v. 8. v. 4. the Kingdom of the first King is said to be divided towards the four winds of Heaven in both those Chapters Wherefore since the Third Kingdom in the 7th Chapter is shown by a Leopard v. 6. with four Heads and four Wings to make sure of the number Four If that be Alexander's Kingdom it must be his Kingdom divided into four and then it is the same with the whole Graecian Monarchy setled in the four lasting Kingdoms of it mentioned as the one Kingdom in the 8th and 11th Chapters 6. Besides that the Leopard with the four Heads and four Wings must signify such a divided Kingdom appears from all the significations of Heads and Horns and all the parts of Figures signifying Dominion in any place else of this Book and of that of the Revelations As in the 8th Chapter twice in the 2d Chapter in the feet and toes the same with the fourth Beast and his Ten Horns in the 7th Chapter pag. 104 c. which also are Ten Kings in one Kingdom and the Ten Horns of the Beast in the Revelations are of the same signification Prop. 15. So that the Leopard being granted by all to be a Graecian Kingdom there is at least Five to nothing clear to the contrary that the four-headed Leopard is Alexander's Kingdom divided into four which we know to be the fourfold Monarchy of the Greeks 7. If Alexander's single Reign were the Third Kingdom shown by the Third Beast in the 7th Chapter and his Ten Captains immediately after him were a fourth Kingdom shown by the Fourth Beast with Ten Horns then that Kingdom which was represented but as One and the same in the 8th and 11th Chapters of the same Prophet would be represented as One and Three For there would be one Kingdom under Alexander alone shewn by the Third Beast chap. 7. Another under his Ten Captains shown by the Fourth Beast and a Third by the fourfold Kingdom of the four Horns of the He-Goat in the 8th Chapter And thus one Kingdom shown by one Beast only in the 8th Chapter should be two Kingdoms shown by two Beasts in the 7th Chapter and a Third Kingdom besides shown by a part only of that one Beast in the 8th Chapter which represented the whole time of them all which would suppose that the Prophet had no consistency at all with himself in his Figures but that he did set them down at all adventures in contradiction to one another And this also must be supposed of him without the least plain ground from any thing that he had said to countenance it which is a sufficient warrant to make us determine that all this is more than these Men have any ground to affirm of him and contrary to what he is every where represented viz. As a very profound wise Man and even contrary to all the experience that we have of it in all the Figures which are granted to be known wherein he is acknowledged by All to observe a constant and determinate usage of them in one only signification 8. Again when we see the Graecian Monarchy after Alexander represented as a fourfold Kingdom in known and plain terms in the 8th and 11th Chapters to make the next Kingdom after him to be a tenfold Kingdom of his Captains in the 7th Chapter is to shut ones eyes against what the Prophet had plainly said in those two Chapters And which he seems openly to refer to by the four Heads of the Leopard And what a strange contempt of a Prophesy is it to reject a Figure of a Kingdom that has just the same marks that it is set out with in two open known places which expresly name it and to take up with another in the stead of it that has such marks as that Kingdom was never before set out with by the Prophet That is to pass by the Leopard with the four Heads which yet is granted to be a part of the Kingdom of the Greeks that is mentioned in the 8th and 11th Chapters by their own confession and instead of it to chuse a Beast with Ten Horns representing ten Kingdoms for the rest of the Graecian Monarchy which had before been twice called a fourfold Kingdom but never a Kingdom with Ten Kings in it 9. The Prophecies of Daniel we see were wrote by
does hold good in this use of it also it will be explained how this First Beast does also signify the a ALcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 6. By the Beast out of the Earth is signified a multitude of Persons as well as by the Beast that came out of the Sea Ibid. As well the one Beast as the other are taken not for single Persons but for a great Multitude as the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel Ibid. As the Beast out of the Sea does contain in it all the Nations of the Roman Empire so also does the Beast that came out of the Earth Rule of the Romans but in another manner of Kingdom than that Chap. 18. See References of the first Beast is so as that they are both in being at the same time For this second will be found to signify their Church-Rule as the first does the Rule of the State Prop. 24 25. 3. It may also be objected That the two Horns of the second v. 11. Beast Chap. 13. according to Daniel must signify distinct Sovereignties Prop. 16. Observat 2 4. But since these Horns have no mark of Rule or Dominion joined with them and are particularly said to signify the likeness of that Beast to a Lamb that does sufficiently shew a particular exception of them from the general Rule in Daniel And yet they may also signify the two distinct Kingdoms or Jurisdictions of that Beast over the Temporal and Spiritual Affairs of that Nation After this how manifestly does it appear to be but a Contrivance only to serve a turn in b Alcasar in Apoc. c. 12. de 10 Corn. It is most evident that the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel do signify the Roman Empire But those which are not Roman Commanders cannot be the Horns of that Beast Ibid. Ribera understands by the Beast the whole World which does easily fall to the ground of it self For it is evident that Daniel did prophesie of the Roman Empire only viz. in the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast chap. 7. Ibid. Another Opinion of his is that the Roman Empire shall be Idolatrous which Conjecture is very vain and empty For then it would be another Empire as the Empire that is now in Greece is quite different from that which is represented by the Third Beast in the 7th of Daniel Idem in cap. 17. v. 11. But any one may easily see how forced all that Interpretation is à Lapide Ribera and a number of other See References eminent Persons of the Church of Rome to make the general notion of the Beast in the Revelations to signify the World in general and the seven Heads to be seven Ages of it with the several Tyrannical Powers which persecuted the Church of God in each of them notwithstanding that they are agreed with all other Interpreters about the Constant Uniform Signification of a Beast and of its Heads and Horns all over the Prophecy of Daniel and that the fourth Beast there in the 7th Chapter of Daniel is the particular Monarchy of the Romans and that the Little Horn of that Beast is the same with the last Head of this Beast in the Revelations And yet c Alcasar in cap. 12. Apoc. de 10 Cornibus Quod autem Romanorum Imperium sit extinctum prorsus videtur certum It seems to be altogether certain that the Roman Empire is destroyed Again It is evident that the Roman Empire is destroyed although the Provinces of it be in the possession of other Kings and Emperours Ribera in cap. 12. Apoc. num 14. de 10 Cornibus That which the forementioned Writers apply to the Kingdom of the Romans because that is now altogether annihilated we understand of the whole World over which the Romans reigned do they not shew the least intimation from the Text to countenance this Contradiction to their own Judgments about the same Words and Phrases nor offer to give any Example from the Figures of the like kind to ground their fancy upon Bellarmin indeed is more ingenuous he owns the known Signification of Beasts in Daniel and that the fourth of the 7th Chapter is in particular the same with that in the Revelations and from the certainty of both does acknowledge that the Beast in the Revelations does signify in general the Roman Empire and that the Heads of the Beast must be all Heads of the Romans and that the time of that called the Beast is not yet past And what more convincing proof can there be for the irresistible Light that there is for these things than to see so able a Judge of the concern of his Church in this Affair to be forced thereby to yield to it without any the least shew of advantage from it to serve the Cause that he is so zealous for But especially when we see him thereby forced to desert all the other Defences of his Brethren and to reduce the whole merit of the Cause about the Charge laid against his Church to this only issue viz. Whether the Imperial Roman Government that was in Rule at the time of the Vision has been since that time cut off and succeeded by another form of Government which is to reduce the whole Dispute about the matter of so great importance in the consequence of it to a question about the truth of a matter of fact only in History and which is given against him d Tacitus just about the time that the Revelations were wrote reckons them up in this order in the beginning of his first Book of Annals Kings were at first the Governours of Rome L. Brutus brought in the Consulary Government and Liberty Dictators were set up upon occasion The Decemvirs continued not above two years The Consulary Power of the Tribunes of the Soldiers lasted not long The Domination of Cinna and Sylla was soon ended and Pompey and Crassus yielded to Caesar and Lepidus and Anthony to Augustus who took all into his hands under the name of a Prince or Emperour Livy before him had given much the same account for all those Governments which had been up in his time in his 6th Book I have says he in the five former Books given an account of all the Wars abroad and the Seditions at home which the Romans have had from the first building of the City to the taking of it under Kings Consuls Decemvirs Dictators and Consulary Tribunes So Onuphrius Panvicinus in his Preface to his Fasti Consulares For the City was first under Kings Then succeeded Consuls and sometimes under Decemvirs and sometimes under Tribunes of the Soldiers with Consulary Power and sometimes under Dictators Cassiodorus in his Chronicon gives the same account of the Change of the Roman Government from Kings to Consuls and from them to the Decemvirs and the Consulary Government again interrupted by the Military Tribunes and during all these spaces of time the intermixture of Dictators upon
the creation of whom all other Magistracies were at an end all which ended at last in the Imperial Government The Jesuit Pererius confirms this upon the Fourth Beast of the 7th of Daniel Why that Beast is without a name and all the other three named Because says he in the other three Kingdoms there was but one kind or form of Government But the kinds of Government amongst the Romans were of several sorts First Regal then Consulary after that partly Tribunitical partly Consulary sometimes by Dictators sometimes by Emperours Where he leaves out only the Decemvirs who yet are sufficiently known to have been a peculiar Government distinct from the rest If it should be objected That the Triumviri Rep. Constituendae were as different a Government from all these it is to be considered that that was only the Rule of three single Men for one turn only And single Persons are no-where made an Head of a Beast That of the first Horn in the 8th of Daniel is the King of Macedon or Alexander and his Heirs Fenestella does also reject this as no Magistracy cap. 21. And these two forms of these Governments which are the most questioned viz. the Decemvirs and the Dictators have a very sufficient warrant for them from the best approved Writers of the Roman Affairs Livy says of the Decemvirs Book the IIId in the 300th and first year after the building of Rome The Government of the City was changed from Consuls to Decemvirs as it had been before from Kings to Consuls And Fenestella of the Dictators chap. 8. of the Roman Magistracy that they were so much the Supream Power of the Commonwealth that there was no Appeal from them and that they had the power of the Lives of the Roman Citizens and the entire Jurisdiction of the whole Commonwealth And that He was called the Master of the People for his Absolute Power by Alcasar and by Ribera in express words who says that the Roman Empire is now at an end Therefore is it that Grotius is so higly applauded for that Masterpiece of his in confounding the acceptation of a Beast and its Horns in Daniel by denying the fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter to be a Rule of the Romans which is the only true way to strike at the root of any setled Interpretation of the Beast or its Heads in the Revelations But then we see it was necessary for him to run into a greater absurdity than any of these to maintain it as his Opinion about the coming of the Son of Man has been already made to appear And there need no other proof of the falseness of his Interpretation of the Heads of the Beast than to be satisfied that the coming of the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel is the Kingdom of Christ For that establishes such an uniform acceptation of the signification of the Heads and Horns of a Beast all over Daniel as makes his new contrivance about the seven Heads of the Beast in the Revelations to be against all the constant Prophetical use of them From hence then it does sufficiently appear That the seven Heads of the Beast are so many Sovereign Powers of the Roman Monarchy and because they are distinguished into five past at the time of the Vision one then in being and others to come it is certain also that they are successive and therefore by Proposition the 16th are they as many Changes of the Sovereign Power of that Empire as there are Successions amongst them By almost all Protestant Interpreters are these seven Heads determined to be at least seven Successions of the Sovereign Power of Rome But because there is no absolutely certain assurance of more than three successive Changes from the Text of which the sixth is the first Succession there signified by five are past one is All that can therefore be positively affirmed about the number of the successive Ruling Powers is That the three last are certainly successive Changes of the Ruling Power of the whole Roman Monarchy I dispute not here the successive Rule of the first five Heads but rather judge it to be highly probable that they are the five different Changes of the Roman Government that are ordinarily accounted upon e Bellarmin lib. 1. de Pontifice cap. 2. But neither was the Commonwealth governed always by the same Heads For in the beginning they had Consuls and Tribunes after he had before supposed Kings And when they were taken away Decemvirs Consuls and Tribunes were then recalled and sometimes had they Dictators and sometimes Military Tribunes with a Consulary Power But if any will further contend to have the Senate and the Interreges and the Triumviri Reipublic Constituendae to come in for a share of the Supream Government then the five Governments before the Imperial may be accounted to be those which had been in Rule from the first Succession of the Beast to the third Beast in Daniel ch 7. that is ever since the Roman Conquests of the Greek Monarchy and may be reckoned this way to be the Consuls Dictators Senate Interreges Triumviri Reip. Constituendae It is indeed usual to account all the Characters that are given to every Beast in Daniel from the time that it conquered the Beast that was before it And according to that the seven Heads may by some be thought necessary to be accounted for from the end of the Greek Monarchy The Roman Historians do reckon up the Changes of their Government in that order Bellarmin himself lib. 1. c. 2. de Pontifice does reckon up the same number of the Governments of Rome But yet it seems not to be plainly assured to us that the five first Heads may not have been all five in Rule at the same time before the sixth or at least not certain but that they might have succeeded by more than one single Head at a time As in the He-Goat in the 8th Chapter of Daniel it might be said that there was one Horn first and four more after it where there is a succession of five Horns and yet but one successive Change of the Ruling Power of the Greeks that is The division of that Monarchy into four after the time of the single Reign of one King over it CHAP. II. Rev. XVII The Eighteenth Proposition The Three last Kings of the Eight Rev. 17. 10 11. are Three immediately successessive Changes of Roman Government This demonstrated Bellarmin 's peculiar fancy of the signification of the number Seven The Eighth King one of the Six first returned into power The Nineteenth Proposition The Sixth King the Imperial Government at the time of the Vision Grotius examined in that point The Twentieth Proposition The Beast is the next Government of Rome but one to the Imperial at the time of the Vision Dr. Hammond 's Objection from the time being at hand answered WIthout any farther concern about the particular nature of the first five Heads or Kings it may be observed of the
immediatly succeed one another then it is certain that The Eighth King is one of the first Six returned into Rule again Corollary For the Eighth King is one of the Seven that were past before returned into Rule again Coroll Prop. 4. And it cannot be the Seventh because the three last Kings and therefore the Seventh and Eighth do immediatly succeed one another Prop. 18. so that if the Eighth were the Seventh and with the Seventh King it would be but the Seventh continued in being and therefore not an Eighth The Eighth King must therefore be one of the Six that were past before it It cannot therefore now be doubted but that The Sixth King of the Eight in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations Proposit 19. was the Imperial Government of Rome at the time of the Vision For the Sixth King is the Sixth Head of the Beast Prop. 5. And an Head or Horn of a Beast does in Prophecy signify a form of Supream Power in a Nation And the continuance of that Form under all the single Persons that reign in it till it be changed by another Prop. 16. Now there was no other Government over Rome when the Sixth King is said to be in Rule there but only that of the Roman Emperours The Sixth King then must be the Government of the Roman Emperours till that was cut off by a Form of Government of another name Observ 4. Prop. 16. If it should be objected That by the Sixth Head or King may be meant but one part of the Imperial Government or those only that were of the same Line or Family or of the same Countrey or of the same Religion or the like It may be replied that there is no warrant for any other signification of a new Successive Head or Horn in the same Jurisdiction than that of a new name of the Governing Power There were many other differences in the Successions of the several Kings of the Persian and Graecian Monarchies viz. several Lines and Families several different Countries but yet they were all comprehended under one and the same Horn. The only plain Example that we have of the change of a single Horn in the same Beast which is the same with the change of an Head Observ 3. Prop. 16. is that of the Two Horns of the Ram Dan. 8. where all the difference betwixt the latter Horn and the first is that the Last was known by the name of the King of Persia whereas the other was called the King of Media in the same one Kingdom of the Medes and Persians There is therefore no warrant for making the Sixth King any thing else but the whole time of the Imperial Government till it was changed for a Roman Government of another name There is no kind of scruple to be made against this upon the account of the name of King which is common to all the Eight Kings For that is known to be very dubiously used in Scripture but especially in Prophecy to signify either a Kingdom or a Government in a Nation of another kind than the Kingly Government The most certain Example of it is this present use of the word King where it must at least signify an Emperour which is a Government of another denomination and so different from that of Kings that the Romans which permitted the one are said to have †Hieron Balbus de Coronatione c. 13. Julius Caesar c. Julius Caesar who when he had engrossed the Dictatorian and Regal Power to himself because he knew that the name of King was hated by the Romans and even execrable to them to decline the envy of it instead of King chose rather to be called Emperour When Mark Anthony the Consul offered him the Diadem he cried out aloud that he was Caesar and not a King and threw away the Diadem an hatred for the other Grotius's Answer to this is That an Emperour had really the same power that a King had But if that be sufficient to qualify a Supream Power for the Name or Title of King Then all the several different Rulers of the Roman State might as well have See References that name and so be comprehended under the Five first Kings here mentioned For the Consuls are said to have succeeded into all the Power and the Authority of the Kings that were before them And all the other kinds of Government had the same Authority And though there should be some small difference in the degree of their Authority yet that is no more than is to be found betwixt c Ribera in cap. 17. Apoc. v. 10. numer 15. But if any one should think it hard and forced that many Kings should be signified by the name of one King and should think that these seven are but seven single Kings let him know in the first place that all Expositors have understood that in every one of these seven are comprehended a great many and that never did any take them to be seven single persons only but Victorinus whose Opinion all do deservedly cry out against And then next let him understand that it is not unusual in Scripture by one King to signify many of the like sort and as it were of one and the same Body which is especially to be observed So in Daniel 8. The Ram with the two Horns does signify all the Kings of Persia succeeding one another in order and making as it were but one body who are therefore accounted but as one King So that in Jeremiah chap. 25. And they shall serve the King of Babylon 70 years which it is impossible to understand of one single King different sorts of Kings As for the Plea that the Name of a King denotes a single Person almost d Ribera in cap. 1. Apocal. v. 3. numer 5. citat We may say that which is begun is now done or doing Wherefore since those things were shortly to begin he might well say the things which shall shortly be done although they were not shortly to be ended This is the common use of speech and the use of Scripture all the Examples in Daniel of that name do show See References that it does signify a Succession of many single Persons in a Kingdom Prop. 16. Part the Last This Grotius takes no notice of but thinks it argument sufficient against it to call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and quis unquam ita loquitur To which Ribera does best answer on cap. 17. Apoc. pag. 528. That all Expositors have said so and never any but Victorinus said otherwise But in the 7th of Daniel it is evident That by the Four Beasts called Four Kings is meant four Kingdoms and by the Fourth of these Kings the Roman Commonwealth For it is described in that state in which it conquered the Graecian Monarchy which was in the state of its Commonwealth And Deut. 33. 5. and Judges 9. 16 18. chap. 17. 6. ch 18. 1. ch 19. 1. ch 21. 25. the
name of King is given to Moses and the Judges of the Israelites And further That this Sixth King cannot be any single Ruler or Emperour which is the chief thing pretended to by those who will not have it to be the Imperial Government is most evident from this following Consideration viz. That then the Eighth King which is the Beast would have been the next single Emperour but one after him For the three Last Kings do immediatly succeed one another by Prop. praeced And then all the Characters and Attendants of the Beast must have been found verified of the next Emperour but one after the time of the Vision For by Prop. the 6th Corol. 2. Prop. 10. The Beast in all the Chapters of the Revelations is one and the same particular state of it under one of its Heads There must then have been Ten Kings that had no Kingdom at the time of the Vision who were yet such Masters of so many Kingdoms in the time of the next Emperour but one to it as that they should give their Kingdoms to that Emperour Rev. 17. 12 13. Rome must also have been so burnt with fire that it must have been finally ruined and have had all Soveraignty taken from it in the time of that Emperour v. 16. But in History we meet with Prop. 3. nothing like to this much less is there any account from History of the overcoming of any Emperour of Rome by the Christians v. 14. of those days nor that any Ten Kings confederated with that Emperour were conquered by them nor of any such Emperour that was destroyed by the Armies of Christ So that upon his Rev. 19. 19 20. Rev. 20. 4. death there was any such glorious Reign of the Kingdom of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World as is described immeately to succeed it But History is very full of the accounts of the afflicted and persecuted state of the Christian Church in those times which is quite contrary to that glorious Description of the state of the Church immediatly after the times of the Beast in the Revelations Besides that it has been proved that that Beast was to continue till the Second coming of Christ Corol. 1. Prop. 12. This seems to have been well enough observed by those who would have the Beast in the 17th Chapter to signify a single Emperour And therefore to evade those Confequences they are Grotius forced to make two or three distinct states of the Beast in the Revelations at the several mentions of him in chap. 13. chap. 17. chap. 19. But how evident it is that all the mentions of that Beast all over the Revelations do signify but one and the same state of him under his last Head may be seen by the whole process of the Demonstration of the 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Propositions The Sixth King or Head must therefore necessarily be the Imperial Government of Rome It is then unquestionable That The Beast called the Eighth King is that change of Roman Government Prop. 20. which was next but one to the Imperial Government of Rome at the time of the Vision For the Beast is the Eighth in immediate succession to the Sixth which is the Imperial Government Prop. 19. And it is The Beast under one of its Heads which signifies Supream Government under the Successive Reigns of many single Persons in that Government Prop. 16. Therefore must the Beast be the next Roman Government but one to the Imperial that Ruled at the time of the Vision By the preceding Proposition it appears what Absurdities and Inconsistencies they must fall into who would have the time of the Beast passed over almost as soon as it began One would think that there must be some great necessity that did force to these streights But the chief thing that is alledged for it from this Prophecy is That at the beginning of it it is said That the things were shortly to come to pass That the time was at hand And again at the end of it also That they were things which must shortly be done And that the Book should not be sealed because the time was at hand But these things have already been sufficiently considered pag. 114. And there is nothing more familiar in Speech than to say of things that require a great deal of time for the finishing them that they d will shortly be instead of They See References will shortly begin to be As one might say at Easter All the Summers work will shortly be upon us This Play will be acted presently though it be five hours in acting So about the Birth of Christ All things foretold of the times of the Messiah will shortly come to pass All the pretended necessity then comes now to be none at all Grotius could not have reflected more upon the Judgment of the most Eminent of the Roman Interpreters than to think it to be so plain that the time of the Beast was long since past from such obvious grounds as these and yet that this should never be found out by the most Judicious of them For it would save them all that trouble that they have to make it out that their present Church is not concerned in the Affairs of the Beast in which there would be no difficulty if it were so plain that the time of the Beast is long since past And besides it would keep them from granting so much as they do to the disadvantage of their Cause whereas in a concern of this nature 't is very unsafe to yield to any thing but what is necessary to be granted especially since what they do yield to does force them to such contradictions to what they allow to be the known significations of a Beast and its Heads or Horns in other places as we see in Ribera c. or to matter of fact as shall be made to appear against Bellarmin Prop. 22. who has granted so far as he has laid the whole stress of the Controversie betwixt us upon the truth of History CHAP. III. Rev. XVII The 21st Proposition What an Head of the Beast is in distinction to an Horn. This determined by Eleven Arguments What demonstrates an Head to be at an end The Sixth Head at an end when another Government was owned at Rome in the place of it TO take away all dispute that may arise about the distinguishing Characters of an Head of the Beast in the time of the last Head when there is ten Kingdoms to appear in the Roman Empire at the same time signified by the ten Horns This following Proposition is to distinguish an Head from an Horn. An Head of the Beast is that setled Sovereign Power of the Romans Prop. 21. whose Authority is owned to be Supream by the Government of the City of Rome 1. That it must be a setled Sovereign Power is confirmed from all the Examples of Daniel where there are no Heads or Horns to signify the Ruling Power of a
him which was the Supream Authority of that City The utmost that can be pretended from that is That that Greek Emperor had as much Roman Authority on his side after the fall of the Western Empire as he had before it but that being only one share of the Authority of Rome It is plain That those Kings who had the real Sovereignty of the City of Rome must at least be the other part of the supream Government of it And of the two they must unquestionably be the most r Bellarmin in his 9th Chapter De Translatione Imp. Rom. Lib. 1. does show that Odoacer was King of Rome and Italy against the Emperors will and so had no dependance upon him and that Theodoric after him was made King of Rome and Italy by the consent of Zeno as one Emperor did usually create another so that these Kings must unquestionably be qualified to be the Sovereigns of Rome both for their independance on any other and their possession of it by the same way that the Western Emperors used to have it properly the Sovereign Authority of Rome which is the qualification of an Head of the Beast Prop 21. This made Theodorick deal so harshly with Pope John for Crowning the Emperor Justin Roman Emperor at Constantinople Petav. l. 7. c. 3. Part 1. For that did show that it was then generally thought that the conferring that Honour by the chief Minister of Rome was the giving him a Title to the Command of the Authority of Rome In short one need but consider who was the Head of the Roman Empire before the fall of the Western Empire to determine whether that Head were changed or no by that fall It is certain that if it were but one of the Imperial Thrones that was then the Head of it it must be the Western who had the chief Imperial Seat in his power and then the Kings that succeeded him must be a new Head but if they were both together the Roman Head as is most likely then at the fall of the Western Power and the succession of a new Regal Government in the stead of it the whole Government of the State must be acknowledged to have been changed and a new Head set up in the room of it Wherefore instead of the whole Imperial Government in the Eastern and Western parts of the Empire by this new conquest of Rome There is a Succession of Kingly Government in the Western part to share with the Imperial in the East And of the Two the Authority of the Kings must be acknowledged to be the most considerable part of the Head of Rome But that the Imperial Government of Rome was then changed into another Form than what appeared before that conquest is no ways to be questioned There must therefore necessarily be thereupon the appearance of a New Head But whether it were the mixed form of Imperial and Kingly Government together that made that Head or the Kingly Government alone need not yet be determined It cannot be here Objected That the Gothish Kings could not be any part of a Roman Head upon the account of their being quite another Nation distinct from the Romans and therefore not possible to be any part of the same Beast by which the Roman Empire is represented and that there was then no other Head of the Romans at their Conquest but the Imperial Head at Constantinople which continued the same for all the time of the Reign of those Barbarous Kings of Italy and so was never put an end to by them For it is well known That those Barbarous Nations were taken into s Grot. in cap. 17. Apoc. v. 12. The Goths were the first that were made the Confederates of the Roman Empire as Procopius shows Gothic l. 4. And that before the time of Maximinus as we learn out of Jornandes To the same purpose Onuphrius Panuvinus Lib. Fastor pag. 307. The Romans a little before that is before the time of Augustulus had taken the Scythians Alans and Gothish people into Society with them The Dignity of the Roman Princes was so diminished about that time That they were even forced by these Strangers against their will under the decent Name of Associates and Confederates to let them share all the Italick parts of the Empire with them Grot. de jure Belli pacis Lib. 2. c. 9. Art 11. By the Decree of Antoninus All within the bounds of the Roman Empire were made Citizens N. B. of Rome Petavius shows out of Idatus That in the year 38. The whole Nation of the Goths were taken into Society with the Romans and had Lands assigned them Petav. Rationar Temp. Lib. 6. c. 8. the Society of the Romans and had Kingdoms and Territories assigned them within the bounds of the Empire long before this last Conquest of Italy at the subversion of the Western Empire By the Decree of Antoninus all that were within the bounds of the Roman Empire were made Citizens of Rome as Grotius observes c. 9. l. 2. de jure B. P. And all over Cassiodorus Variar t So also all over Cassiodorus's Variar The Gothish Kings stile themselves Roman Princes Cassiodor Variar Lib. 3. Ep. 16. 18. Lib. 11. Ep. 1 2. pag. 658 659 669. the Gothish Kings stile themselves Roman Princes and their Kingdoms Roman Empires And Theodoric who was the first of them had this Commission from the Roman Emperor Zeno and the Senate as may be seen in pag. 284 285. Jornandes affirms that the alliance betwixt the Romans and Petavius in Theodor. Goths began in the time of Maximinus but it is certain that in the time of Theodosius there was a very formal agreement betwixt them The whole Nation of the Goths delivered themselves up into the hands of the Romans and they had Lands of the Empire assigned them for their habitation and so were Members of the Roman State And such real Members were they of it in the time of Theodorick that he was u Jornandes de Reb. Geticis Sect. 86. Zeno Adopts Theodorit for his Son And he was made one of the Yearly Consuls which is the highest Office and the greatest Honour in the World Cassiodori Chronicon p. ult D. N. Eutharicus Cillica Justinus Aug. Caes made Consul of the Empire by Zeno and Eutharicus his Son in Law after him But that which gives the best satisfaction in this case is that the Goths of Italy must be either an Head or an Horn of the Roman Beast according to the interpretation of all Protestants who make the Ten Horns to be the division of the Roman Empire amongst the Barbarous Nations and then since the Kingdom of the Goths in Italy had the City of Rome for its share it was much better qualified to be an Head than an Horn by Propos 21. The continuance of the Imperial Roman Government at Constantinople could not hinder the change of that Head when there was a new face of Government
the time of the continuance and the last period of so formidable a power as that of the Beast and the False Prophet is described to be I will now proceed to propound my apprehensions about those particular circumstances which is so much the more necessary because almost all the applications of the many Characters and Properties of the Beast do seem to depend upon such a particular determination And because I know it will be difficult to prevail with any who have framed to themselves an Hypothesis of their own about these things to see any convincing proof for the way that I make choice of To be civil to the Understandings and Assurances of others I will now propound my own particular Application under the name of Queries instead of Propositions thô to my self they may appear to be of much the same strength I would therefore first have it considered Whether at the time of Justinian 's Conquest of the Italian Query 1 Goths there had not been at least Two such Changes of the Secular Soveraign Power of Rome since the time of the Visions about the Beast as might be called Two different Heads of the Beast For the Secular Soveraign Power of Rome at the time of the Vision was the Imperial Government and Sixth Head by Prop. 19. and 5. And the Imperial Government as the Sixth Head was changed at latest upon the ruin of the Western Empire by the Heruli and Goths by Prop. the 22. There remains then nothing more to be done for the determining of this question than to show That the Succession of the Heruli and Goths to the Government of Rome and Italy did make a new Head of the Beast For then it will not be questioned but that the Conquest of the Goths by Justinian did also make the other Head that was to be revived That the Succession of those Barbarous Kings at Rome did make a new Head of the Beast appears from the definition of an Head of the Beast Prop. the 21st For upon the ruin of the Western Empire by these Kings and their Reign over Rome and Italy The Supream Secular Power of Rome was changed and another owned there in the place of it Thô the one part of the Imperial Head remained still sound at Constantinople yet by the change of the other part of it which did more immediately preside over the City of Rome the Soveraign power of the Romans came to be divided betwixt a King and an Emperor And so that which was a form of Government purely Imperial before came to be a mixture of Kingly and Imperial Government For that the new Kings of Italy and the Eastern Emperours made still but one Supream form of Roman Government thô divided in the Seats of their Empire appears from the state of the Imperial Government before the ruin of the Western Empire by these Barbarous Kings The Eastern and Western Emperor were then but one and the same Imperial Head Thô they had Two different Kingdoms they had both of them their Authority Chap. xvii pag. 157 158. from the a SEe Note the second on Chap. 3. Grotius de Jure Bell. Pac. lib. 2. c. 9. Art 11. and in the Annotat. Onuphrius Panvinius lib. Fastor does frequently make mention of the Constantinopolitan and Roman Consuls and shews them to have been indifferently chosen from either of those Cities See Pancirollus in Note 2. Chap. 4. same people and Senate of Rome and therefore were there half the Senate and one of the Consuls ordinarily residing at Constantinople The Laws also of the Empire were joyntly subscribed by both and do now in the Code bear the names of both the Emperors and it is the Subject of a great part of Pancirollus's Explication of the Notitia Imperii to show that the Military Ensigns and the Arms of the chief Dignities of the Empire were almost every one of them Figures on purpose contrived by the Emperors and given by their Authority to represent the Vnity of the Roman Empire all over the World under the divided shares of the Two Imperial Heads of it as has Ch. 17. been before observed page 148. And thus were the Two Empires but like the Two Provinces of the Two Consuls of Rome which nevertheless were but one Vnited Supream Government of the Romans Now all the change of this Imperial Partnership in the Government by the change of the Western Empire was the introducing the Kingly power into that share of the Empire For in every thing else The new Kings observed b Sigonius de Occident Imper. lib. 15. Odoacer did humble the Authority of the Senate and Consuls but in every thing else he retained the Old Constitutions of the Commonwealth and the Rights and Names of the Magistrates gave the Bishops and Churches their due respect And speaking of Theodorick after him lib. 16. He retained the Roman Magistrates and because he reigned by the Emperour's Favour and the Consent of the Senate he laid aside his own Country Habit and wore the Purple and the Royal Robes He set up a Kingdom every way like the ancient Western Empire Joan. Fersius Silesius de Praefectura Praetor Theodoric retained still the Roman Laws and Customs and the very same Magistrates so that the Citizens of Rome were ashamed to create them themselves Cassiodor lib. 3. Variar Ep. 43. Theodoric says We delight in governing according to the Laws of the Romans whom we desire to maintain by our Arms. And all over that Book nothing is more frequent than the mention of the Roman Commonwealth for the Kingdom of the Goths in Italy And the whole business of it is The Kings or Governours Letters for the administration of the Civil Government after the same manner and by the same kinds of Magistrates that the Western Empire had been govern'd by before Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 867. speaking of the Gothish Government in Italy But altho they changed not any Roman Constitutions as the Senate the Praefects the Comites the Curators and the like yet they did ordinarily model them after their own fashion but yet all in imitation of the Roman Laws and Dignities And pag. 128. Then began Italy to breathe and flourish again and Theodoric when he saw the Romans whom he had an affection for very much bent upon their ancient Liberties he commanded all things should be administred by Roman Magistrates He committed the whole Government of the City to the Senate and People of Rome but so as that he himself chose the Praefect of the City the old form See References of Government which they found in use at their coming to the Crown as appears from all the History of their Government They changed no Roman Custom says Rubeus And it may H. Rubeus Histor Raven p. 128 167. more particularly be seen in Cassiodorus's Variarum That they retained all the same Magistrates by which the Government of the Western Empire was administred Besides the fall of
the Western Empire was in the time of Zeno Emperor of the East and Zeno could not be less a part of the Supream Government of Rome after the fall of the Western Empire than he was before the fall of it because he had his part of the Senate of Rome and the choice of one of the Consuls still continued to him all the the time of Odoacer the Conqueror's Reign and c Jornandes who was the Gothish Bishop of Ravenna in the time of the Reign of the Goths in Italy gives this account of King Theodoric in his Book De Rebus Geticis sect 86. Zeno upon the report that he heard of Theodoric then chosen King of the Goths invites him into the City and receiving him with Honour placed him amongst the Nobles of his Palace And after that to shew him greater Honour he adopts him his Son for the Wars and gave a Triumph in the City at his own Costs then made him Consul in Ordinary which is the highest Honour in the Empire But Theodoric weary of living idle begs of Zeno that he would give him leave to try his Fortunes for the recovery of Italy which had been a part of the Roman Empire and contained in it that City which was Head and Lady of the World For it is better says he that I who am your Son should possess that Kingdom by your Gift than one that tyrannizes over your Senate and Commonwealth for if I be Conquerour I shall hold it as your Gift and Favour Which Zeno hearing did yield to his desire and sent him away with Honour recommending the Senate and People of Rome to his Care Blondus Decad. l. 3. pag. 32. speaking of Theodoric 's Petition to Zeno When Zeno had reported this to the Senate they voted That it was not only very reasonable but that it ought freely to be offered him of their own motion wherefore Zeno when he had honoured Theodoric with a consecrated Veil which was then the surest Confirmation of the Emperour's Grant for any thing sent him away with a recommendation of Italy and the Senate and People of Rome to his Care Carolus Sigonius de Occid Imp. lib. 15. concerning this Grant to Theodoric Zeno thereupon gives him a Grant of Italy by a publick Instrument per Pragmaticum putting a consecrated Veil upon his Head De Translat Imp. Rom. in German Amongst the rest of the proofs that he gives of the Translation of the Western Empire upon Odoacer and the Goths brings this for one That Theodorick had the Grant of it by the Consent of the whole Imperial Senate for which he quotes Sigebert Abbas Urspergensis c. And that he was the Emperour's adopted Son and made Consul which was next in Dignity to the Emperour and had a consecrated Veil from him which he says was the Imperial Purple And that Pope Symmachus was subject to him and that he governed all the Bishops of Italy Ibid. As for the Name of King he proves from Baldus Examp. Col. fin de probat in lib. penultim C. de donat inter Vir. Uxor That a King in his Kingdom is the same with an Emperour the Emperours ordinarily called themselves Kings as well as Caesars Augusti Emperours by his own Authority did Zeno first make Theodorick who Conquered Odoacer one of the Roman Consuls Adopted him for his Son like a new Caesar then gave him a formal Commission for the Government of Rome and Italy as the Emperor used to See References create another Emperor to share with him in the Government and from that time was there much the same Union in the Publick Acts of the Government betwixt the Gothish Kings and the Eastern Emperors that there had been before betwixt the Eastern and Western Emperors Accordingly do we find the dates of the Decretals of the Popes of those days to have the mention of the years of the Gothish Kings as well as those of the Eastern Emperors As for their occasional differences That was no more than what used to be sometimes betwixt the two Emperors and must necessarily be sometimes betwixt the most united Soveraigns as it is expresly intimated by Sigonius as the Case between Zeno and Odoacer Lib. 15. de Imperio Occid Zeno says he took Odoacer's Invasion of Italy so ill that he would have no Society of the Empire with him which shows by the way That the Agreement of the Emperors with the following Kings of Italy was the same kind of sociable Government of the Roman Empire that had been before used amongst the Eastern and Western Emperors Thus was Theodorick d See Not. praeced And Sigonius de Occid Imp. l. 16. says of Theodoric That he conformed himself to the Purple of the Roman Princes and laid away the Habit of his own Country because he was made King of Italy by the Roman Emperour and Senate And Blondus says pag. 37. Decad. l. 3. That Theodoric was received at Rome with the applause of the Senate and all the people Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 122. says That Zeno and the Senate conducted Theodoric out of the City in his Robes of State chosen King of Italy and of Rome by Zeno and the whole Senate and with pomp accompanied by them out of the City in his Robes of State He is received at Rome for their King with the Applauses and Acclamations of the People and the Honours of the Senate After a small difference with Anastasius the next Emperor in e Cassiodor Variar l. 1. Ep. 1. Theodoric to Anastasius wherein those mentioned expressions are found and amongst them an Acknowledgment of frequent Messages from Anastasius To love the Senate To observe the Roman Laws To take care of all the Members of Italy which shews how much the Western Empire was still accounted by the Eastern Emperours to be a part of the Roman State as it had been before in Union with the Eastern the beginning of his Reign Theodoric begs Peace of him with an acknowledgment of his Superiority over all the World and moves him to it by this consideration That these two Common-wealths of the East and West were always one body under the former Princes And there ought to be but one Will and one Judgment in the Kingdom of the Romans And Onuphrius Pauvinius observes Fastor pag. 308. That Theodoric enjoyed the Government of Italy by the consent of Anastasius and the very difference betwixt them at the beginning of Anastasius his Reign does show what opinion Theodoric had of his being the Emperor's partner in the Government of the West For upon Anastasius's conferring the honour of Consul and Augustus upon Chlodoreus King of the Franks Theodoric is Pomponius Laetus said to have declared War against him for the Provinces of the Western Empire A manifest instance does he give of his owning the same conjunction with the Eastern Empire that the Western Emperors before him did testify by their joynt Suffrages in chusing of each
Laws about the Election of the Roman Bishops and Clergy Lib. 8. Ep. 15. Ep. 24. l. 9. Ep. 15. The Church-Annals do also give an account of many Synods that were called by Theodoric for the good of the Roman Church for which Baronius gives him this Character That though he were a Barbarian Arrian Heretick and Stranger yet notwithstanding the importunity of the Schismaticks he shewed so very great a Reverence to the Church or See Apostolick Baron Ann. 501. Petavius his acknowledgment That Theodorick whose Reign was the best part of the whole time of the Reign of the Goths in Italy did defend the Rights and Liberties of the Roman Church with the greatest care and faithfulness And we find much the same account of those who succeeded him See References We are also informed that in the point c Sanders de Visâ—b Monarch p. 220. In the Honour of the Saints the Arrians do also agree with us Quaere of the Honour of the Saints the Arrian Goths were of the same Opinion with the Romans and they are also charged with the giving Christ divine worship though they judged him to be but a Creature which is apprehended to be an Idolatrous Worship Besides The names of Blasphemy are not said to be on all the Heads whereas to make it appear that there were Crowns upon every Horn of the Ten it had been said just before Ten Horns and upon his Horns Ten Crowns which seems to make a difference betwixt that and what is said of the Seven Heads and on his Heads the names of Blasphemy not on his Seven Heads And tho there should be but six of the Heads blasphemous that were enough to say of them that the names of Blasphemy were on them as indefinite ways of speech are often used in Scripture For Example The Ten Kings it is said should burn the Whore which no one would judge necessary to be done by every one of the Ten. So is it said that the Four Beasts Dan. 7. 17. said to be Four Kings shall arise out of the Earth though the Rev. 17. 16. First or Babylonian were then almost past Grotius Apoc. 12. 1. observes That the Disciples were often called the Twelve when there were not so many of them together as particularly St. John 20. 24. after the death of Judas He does also there furnish us with another Answer to this that the names of blasphemy are upon the Seven Heads in the 13th Chapter to signify the Idolatrous State of the Seven Hills or of the Roman Reign when the Crowns were upon the Horns or when the Empire was divided into so many Sovereigns But the Crowns were upon the Seven Heads in the 12th Chapter to shew that then there was no other Seat of Roman Reign but the Seven Hills In this way the names of blasphemy have no respect to the Seven Kings that are signified by the Seven Heads but only to the Seven Hills which they do also represent or the City of Rome in the time of the Ten Kings This indeed and no other way does give a very good reason why all the Heads should be crowned in the 12th Chapter and none in the 13th If it be still urged That the Beast it self of which every one of them are the Heads is said to be full of Blasphemy that is easily answered For by the Beast there is meant only that one peculiar Rev. 17. 3. state of it under its last Head Prop. 6. And for the other Examples of Beasts in Daniel we find no Characteristick Note of Blasphemy or Idolatry upon them All that they are set out for as any ways dreadful is only the fierceness of their power in their Horns or their Paws or in their Teeth or in their prevailing Conquests And those Beasts in particular of which this in the Revelations is described to be made up of viz A Lion a Bear and a Leopard are such as both in their own natures are given to destroy and ruine And are so set out and that in conjunction with one another in Scripture as the destroyers of God's People So do we find the Lion and the Leopard joined together Jerem. 5. 6. The Lion and the Bear Amos 5. 19. Prov. 28. 15. And in the 13th of Hosea 7 8. We have them all three together And very great Criticks in these things though Defenders of Dr. Moor B. Bestia the Idolatrous quality of all the Heads and Horns of the Beast yet acquaint us that the d Dr. Moor in his Alphabet of Prophetical Iconismes Vol. I. pag. 598. Literar B. Bestia Great Empires are called Beasts not only for their Idolatry but also for their bloody Tyranny as Grotius has observed upon Mat. 20. Where Christ declares the difference betwixt his Disciples and the Kings of the Gentiles This opposition says he shews why the Empires of the World are set out amongst the Prophets by the Figures of Beasts but the Kingdom of Christ by the Image of a Man the Son of Man Where by Beasts Grotius must understand Feras and then it will properly answer the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint in the same way viz. for wild Beasts and has almost the same likeness of sound and derivation with it otherwise the Kingdoms of the World might have been called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Four Beasts in the 4th Chapter of the Apocalypse and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proper signification of a Beast in Daniel according to the word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is only a great living Creature It is indeed rendered by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to express the terror of it But that according to the general use of it by the Septuagint signifies only a fierce Beast to denote the conquering power of it without the least intimation of Idolatry in it And Grotius himself who will have the notion of a Beast to be nothing else but an Idolatrous Empire yet on St. Matthew 20. 25. observes that therefore are the Empires of the World represented by Beasts upon the account of their Tyrannizing Power but the Reign of Christ by the Figure of a Man And e Malvenda de Antichristo pag. 257. John does therefore call Antichrist a Beast that he might signify that his Persecution will be the fiercest But that under that name is very properly signified terrible and dreadful Empires for their fierceness and cruelty St. Jerome c. all agree Malvenda says that St. Jerome and all besides did agree that formidable Empires were properly signified by that name for their fierceness and cruelty And to the same purpose does f Ribera in v. 7. c. 11. Apocalyps item in v. 1. cap. 13. Bestia Though amongst the Latines it be a general word yet here it does properly signify a fierce and hurtful Beast as the Latins themselves understand Bestiarâ—i that is those that fight with Beasts and that are
of Competitors to the Kingdom and besides not owned as heads of Rome that there is no reason to account it any setled change of the Imperial Head Prop. 21. part 1. Hugo of Arles had indeed the Principality of Rome with Marozia but he was presently cast out of it again Besides that r Ibid. cap. 14. The German Writers account Conrad and Henry Auceps Emperors in succession to Ludovicus the immediate Emperor before them and then there will not be above 8 years of vacancy others reject these two because they were not anointed and crowned by the Pope But the Germans do much dispute the necessity of that the Kings of Germany with whom the Imperial Title of Rome had continued by right of Succession from Charlemaigne till that time did still retain the same right in appearance because they were neither formally disowned by the City of Rome nor had any other set up there in their place For the Kingdom of Italy was then accounted a particular Jurisdiction by it self distinct from the City of Rome And the Pope was by that time almost absolute in that City So that all that could be inferred from hence would be that the False Prophet acted for a little time without the Beast 9. And this last Observation may occasion a Scruple How the Emperors can be said to be an Head of the City of Rome when some hundreds of years they have had no more than the bare Title of it The easie Answer to this is That all that is required to make an Head of the Beast is to be Å¿ See Note the 6th on the 6th Chapter a setled Secular Authority owned for Supream at Rome And 't is no wonder that he should be called an Head of it and have so little power or influence over it For all his power was to be exercised before him by another Church-Head distinct from him It cannot be thought necessary Rev. 13. 12. for the Emperor to be particularly resident at Rome to be the Head of Rome For then the Roman Emperors ever after the making Ravenna the Imperial Seat by Honorius must have ceased to have been the Heads of Rome 10. It may then be replied That the Constantinopolitan Emperors in the time of the Gothish Kings of Italy had the Title of the Imperial Head of Rome and upon that account should seem not to have been changed from the time of the Vision But it must be remembred That it is not sufficient to have a Title only but that Title must be owned by the chief Authority of the City of Rome for the sole Secular Sovereign Power of it Whereas it has been made to appear that in the Reign of the Gothish Kings of Italy the Constantinopolitan Emperors were far from being owned for the only Sovereigns of Rome For they were no further owned to have any thing to do there than what the t All Historians give an account of the Imprisonment of Pope John the First for crowning the Emperor Justin in the East and of the absolute Sovereignty of the Gothish Kings over the City of Rome See Notes on the 4th Chapter Lib. 3. Kings of the Goths who were then in the real and actual possession of Rome did allow them as Partners with them in the Honour of the Title of that City 11. It may also be objected That the Emperors have been very often in Wars with the Popes which is contrary to the strict Confederacy that is every-where expressed to be betwixt the Beast and the False Prophet But since they have been notwithstanding at a constant agreement in the great design of their Confederacy which is persecution for false Worship their occasional differences about other things is not to be regarded at most not more than the Differences betwixt the Popes and the Ten Kings who yet give their Kingdom to the Beast 12. How also can the Ten Kings be said to have given their power to the Beast about the time of Justinian when they were many of them Arrians at the greatest distance from the Religion of Rome The Answer to this is That they were soon brought under the Authority and See of Rome France Spain and all Justinian's Conquests changed about the end of that Age. 13. If it be said That when the Roman Empire was divided into Ten Kingdoms distinct from one another there could be no one Secular Head that could deserve to be called the Beast It may be answered That the Beast is but such an Head of the Roman Empire as has a superior Right to the Authority of the chief City of the Empire while the whole body of it is divided Prop. 21. into ten Sovereignties and by that Right has a claim to a Jurisdiction paramount to them all And such is the claim of the present Emperors to u See Notes m and n on the 6th Chapter reserved Rights over all the divided Kingdoms of the Roman Empire And there is at present so great and publick an acknowledgment of the German Emperor's Superiority over over other Kings only as he is Roman Emperor That as has been observed he is suffered to have the precedence of Kings who have both a much larger Dominion than he and a much ancienter Title and who take place of him before he has the Imperial Title when he has nothing but his Hereditary Countries But that which is chiefly to be regarded for the qualifying him for this character of an Head amongst the Ten Horns is That he is properly said to be the Roman Civil Head of those Ten Kings in one common Design that they are all engaged in because he is so acknowledged to be by the False Prophet who manages them all for that end and gives Him the Title of their Head in it 14. It may be further enquired How it can be said That the Imperial Power has subdued three Kings as it is said of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel It is answered That whatsoever is said there of the Little Horn is to be understood of the Beast in the Revelations in his joint confederacy with the False Prophet as one Thing engaged in one Design And then whatsoever is done by the False Prophet in that Design will be said to be done by the Beast so that the subduing of the three Kings may thus be either x Hierom. Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 145. says That Justinian built that Magnificent Temple of Sancta Sophia in memory of his Persian Vandalic and Gothick Victories Cuspinian de Casaribus pag. 139. gives an account of Belisarius's Expedition against the Persians and that he entred in a Triumph into Constantinople for that Conquest And pag. 140. says That he had a most Pompous Triumph from the Spoils of the Vandals being then Consul in ordinary And pag. 141. says That when Justinian had recovered Italy and subdued Africa and Persia he put the Glory of his Victories into his Titles Justinian's Conquests or y
Justinian To resolve this Scruple it must be considered That there are two different kinds of Sovereign Power represented in the Beast the one by his Heads and the other by his Horns And the next Change of Sovereignty but one to that which ruled in St. John's time which constitutes the 8th King or the Beast is a succession of an Head of the Beast by Prop. 20 21. And that Head is called the Beast as a thing distinct from the Ten Horns for the Ten Horns are said to give their Kingdom to the Beast who before had been said to be the Eighth King and is one of the Seven Heads by Prop. 5. Coroll It matters not therefore at what time the Ten Horns arose For they were but so many Sovereignties in the Roman Empire distinct from that Eighth King which is the Beast or an Head of the Beast and who were confederated with him And to know the time of that Confederacy it must be enquired first what was the next successive Head but one to the Imperial that was up at the time of the Vision For besides the Ten Kings there was to be an Head amongst them whom they should all join with And the Ten Kings were but so many different Horns which signify a division of the Empire and not a single successive Head of it superior to them all which is here enquired after according to the mark that has already been given to know an Head by 17. This would also be another difficulty against deferring the appearance of the Beast till the Reign of Justinian viz. That the Reign of the Beast and the time of the Woman in the Wilderness do begin and end together and the Woman is said to fly into the Wilderness presently after her delivery of the Man-child that is presently after the Conversion of the Imperial Throne 200 years before Justinian's time But it is by almost all agreed that that first mention of the Woman's flying into the Wilderness is an anticipation because after several great Actions intervening it is repeated again at the 14th verse and there represented but as a preparation to rest in the Wilderness and then the Dragon cast out a flood after her whilst she was flying so that she was not at rest then till after that flood was swallowed up by the Earth which was just before the rising of the Beast out of the Sea chap. 13. 18. In the last place it may be objected That from the fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus to the time of Justinian was no new Roman Government in the West because the Barbarous Kings and their People were not Romans and therefore must if any thing be a new Beast and not a new Head of the Roman Beast and then all the time of their Reign will be but an Interregnum of the Roman Government and Justinian's return there will be but the continuance of the Sixth Head But it is sufficient answer to this that the ten Barbarous Kings which are made to be the Ten Horns of the Beast are thereby represented as Members of the Roman Empire as has been just now observed And moreover it does appear that the Goths who succeeded in the room of the Western Emperors had been long before made the Confederates and Members of the Roman Empire See Note y on Chap. 4. CHAP. IX Rev. XIII A short Account of the several Opinions of Interpreters that differ from the Propositions before demonstrated Their inconsistency with the Analogy of Prophecy The Shifts that they are forced to flye to to maintain them BY the same Light which has cleared up mine own Applications of the Prophecy it may be seen upon what grounds I depart from the Apprehensions of others about it 1. It is much to be admired That there ever should have been any at all much more any of the Ancients that had been conversant Andreas Caesar Aretas Primatius Beda c. in this Study that should apprehend it possible for the whole business of Babylon and the Beast in the Revelations to be nothing but a Mystical and Spiritual state of the Christian Church in relation to the whole World of the Wicked in general and not to any particular Empire of the World more than other For the Angel in the 17th Chapter does so expresly signifie Prop. 1. his design there to be to unfold the Mystery of Babylon and the Beast that had been before mentioned and does thereupon determine the meaning of them to the Roman Empire by such generally known and peculiar marks that the Romanists themselves whose only interest and considerable concern it is to divert the scene of these Visions from the City of Rome do yet almost unanimously in this latter age acknowledg to their Adversaries That there is nothing more certain and unquestionable than That some particular state of the Domination of See Consent of Antiquity c. Rome must be meant by them The ground of this paradoxical Fancy of the Ancients will be afterwards enquired into 2. It is in the next place very near as extravagant to grant That some particular state of Roman Rule must be the great object of these Visions and yet to make the Figure of the Beast in general to signifie the World and the Heads of the Ribera c. Beast either so many successive Ages or so many distinct successive Empires in it For by all the Examples of Beasts and their Ruling parts all Prop. 16. over the Prophecy of Daniel which is generally agreed to be the original pattern of the Prophecy of the Revelations it is acknowledged by these very persons themselves That a Beast does constantly signifie the Rule or Empire of one particular Nation only and therefore must the Heads also signifie so many Supreme Powers in that Nation only But the most inexcusable thing in this opinion is That the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel is granted by these same persons to be nothing but the particular Nation of the Romans which yet is the exact picture Prop. 15. of this Beast in the Revelations But then to grant 3dly That the Beast and his Heads do signifie nothing but Roman Power and after that to make the Seven Heads not to be so many distinct Powers but to be taken Bellarm. c. collectively for All the Rulers of one kind or for All the Emperors is to out-face the plain expressions of the Text which divide the number Seven into Five One Another and an Eighth that is one of the Seven and it is well known that when the number Seven is so expresly divided into parts it is never used collectively or for an indefinite multitude 4. As contrary to the known use of those Mystical Expressions is it to make the Seven Heads of the Beast to be so many single persons only of Rulers Grotius c. For it is evident all over the Book of Daniel That Heads and Horns of Beasts do signify all
beginning of the Reign of the Beast at Rome for the first half of the seven Prophetical years of years without their Epagomena or the five days at the end of them as is determined in the Revelations And tho the Goths did after that Triumph of Belisarius get head again in Italy yet the example that we have of the computation of Petav. Rat. Temp. part 2. l. 3. c. 12. the 70 years Captivity from the first carrying away of Jehoiakim long before the final Desolation is a very plain Rule given for the fixing of the date of the Conquest of a Nation in Prophecy For Belisarius's Conquest of the Goths at the taking of Vitiges their King was exactly the same kind of Conquest of them as Nebuchadnezzar's Conquest of Judaea at the carrying away their King Jehoiakim in Fetters though the Line of their Kings continued to the end of Zedekiah By this it appears That from the first times of the Bondage of God's Church at the beginning of the great Captivity of the Jews to the last end of it at the ruine of the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th of Daniel succeeded there by the Kingdom of the Son of Man there is just the space of seven Prophetical years or in the phrase of Daniel seven Times of which the one half begins with the Captivity of the Ten Tribes and ends at the first appearance of the Reign of the Beast and the other half is the times of that Reign At the end of which the great Prophetical Week of Times is accomplished or the times of the Servitude and Bondage of the People of God For as seven years was the allotted time in the Law for the slavery of a Servant so did that time seem to be made the Type of this great state of Bondage To confirm this We see the end of the Time Times and half declared to be the end of the Jewish Captivity Daniel 12. 7. Which does clearly show that those Times were only a part of that whole Captivity and where they appear to be the just half and to be called three and an half who would not assure himself that they must refer to the whole number of seven Times or years of years which was the whole time of that Captivity And thus comes the whole time of that long Captivity of the Jews to be measured out to our admiration by these two halves of it from the first time of the Captivity of the Kingdom of Israel as the 70 years from the first Captivity of Jehoiakim to the Rise of the Beast or Little Horn and from the beginning of that Reign to the end of it But if the 1260 years in both the halves should be also accounted without the five days or the Epagomena at the end of each year in them just as three times or three years and an half are here but 1260 days then they would be 18 years short of that number of years and then the first half of the whole seven would end just about Justinian's entrance upon the Throne in the East or at Justin's being crowned by Pope John four years before in acknowledgment of his Right over the Roman Empire And this might be so much a more remarkable date of the Rise of the Beast because this is said by Petavius Ration Temp. Part. I. L. 7. cap. 3. to have been the first Instance of the Crowning of an Emperor by the Pope And this was near 18 years before the other date from Belisarius's Triumph over the Gothish Kings and made remarkable by the change of the common Aera ab V. C. for that of the year of our Lord presently after by Dionysius Exiguus and by the beginning of a new Digest and Code of Laws by Justinian which have continued ever since to be the acknowledged standard of Civil Law to all Nations though properly nothing but the Laws of the Roman Empire The other half also of the Time or the 1260 years of the Beast must thereupon be concluded to end 18 years sooner or soon after the Year 1760. It has indeed been already determined that the first appearance of the Beast was at Justinian's Conquest of the Goths But though his first publick formal appearance might be not till then yet the time of his Reign might very well be accounted from the time of his first Inauguration or Coronation for that Design by the False Prophet since it seemed to be but one continued Design for the Elevation of the Eastern Emperor into the Western Throne And so was that Action of Pope John interpreted by the Goths in Italy as a translation of the Western Empire upon him and upon that account was the Pope so closely imprisoned at his return by the King of the Goths as it cost him his life The first date then of the 42 months of the Beast's Reign may very well begin at his first Coronation by the Pope as the Eighth King of Rome or the seven Hills But after all it is to be observed That there is an apparent ground from the Prophecy for the apprehending the two halves of the seven times of years not to be altogether of an equal length The mention of a Time Times and an half is indeed ground enough to make one conclude that they refer to an whole week of times of which they are three and an half But then to shew that this latter half was of a different length from the other three and an half before them these latter are industriously explained in the Revelations to be no more than three years and an half without the five days which were usually added to the twelve Babylonian Months in every year Which seems to be a plain exception there put in to distinguish them from all other Accounts of Babylonian years that had not that limitation added to them and therefore more particularly to shew their difference from the first three and an half in the seven times According to this The first three times and an half ought to be accounted according to the full number of days in the Babylonian year or with the addition of the five days or Epagomena after the other Twelve Months which would make every one of these first half of the seven Times to contain five days more in it than is accounted in every one of the latter half And then the first Three Prophetical Times and an half before the Reign of the Beast would be 17 years more than 1260 full years which would make them reach from the first Assyrian Captivity of the Jews to the year 558 after Christ Petav. Rat. Temp. l. 7 c. 5. in fine when Belisarius made an end of the last remainder of all the opposers of Justinian's Conquest of the Western Empire viz. the Nation of the Huns the Times of the Reign of the Beast the latter half would by this account not begin till about the year 558 and if they were full 1260 Babylonian years they would then reach to
about the year 1820 for their Last End But by the same reason that they are made to be but 1260 years or 17 years short of the full account of the three Times and an half N. B. every of those 1260 years as has been observed may be judged to want five days in them and then they would reach but to just the year 1800. And this I account to be the true way of determining the number of the years in both the halves of the Week of Times here referred to For the industrious care that the Prophecy seems to take in three Chapters of the Revelations to limit the number of years contained in the latter half of that great week is sufficient ground to conclude that the former half of it before the Times of the Beast which has no such limitation in it is to be accounted according to the received Custom of the Babylonian Nation for their number of days in a year to which all this peculiar calculation of the Times does refer For the Exception expresly put in to the one half is a confirmation of the common way of account in the other half where there is none Thus may we observe That this great Tribulation of the domination of the Beast does in that resemble the time of the greatest Tribulation that ever befel the Jews as it is characterized by our Saviour The days that this should have in it in proportion to the other half of the seven before it are shortned for the Elects sake And all the grounds that there are for the shortning of the length of 1260 years by the Chaldaick and Greek Account without the additional five days expresly referred to in the Prophecy do also prove that the Rise of the Beast whose time is measured out by these years could not be about the Year 450. for then his time would now have been almost just run out For 1260 Chaldaick years would be but 1242 which added to 450 would make but 1692 for the end of the Beast And yet that is the time to which the first Rise of the Beast is fixed by the most Judicious of the Protestants that take other ways for the succession of the Eighth King called The Beast But in the shortest account of these years they appear however to be so prodigious a length of time for the Reign of One Tyrannical Kingdom over the Church of God in comparison with any other of the Four Monarchies by which the whole N. B. time of the Captivity of the Church of God is measured out in the 7th of Daniel That that is a very sufficient Reason for the particular mention of them as the half of some week of years For by that this Antichristian Tyranny is set out by that which is the most remarkable Circumstance in it viz. The continuance of it in the last Monarchy of the Four as long as all the rest of the time of the slavery of the Church under all the other Three Monarchies and that also in but the one part of the Fourth Monarchy CHAP. II. Rev. XIII The Character of an Eighth which was one of the Seven explained of was and is not yet is Of coming after a Seventh which should continue but a short space Of the changing of Times and Laws Of the Ten Kings reigning one hour with the Beast Of the Image of the Beast TO go on with the rest of the Characters of the Beast in the Revelations The Imperial Head cut off by the Goths and restored by Justinian does very naturally agree with the Character of its being an Eighth King which was one of the Seven Because Rev. 17. 11. it was the Sixth of those Seven Kings at the time of the Prophecy and an Eighth in the time of its Restauration by Justinian And it is a strange thing to see how others are forced to make either their Eighth King to be the same with their Seventh or their Seventh King to be none of the seven Heads to uphold their Interpretation And that also shows How the Imperial Head restored by Justinian was the Head wounded to death and healed again ch 13. 3. And the Beast that was and is not and yet is ch 17. 8. which do but signify the same thing with its being the Eighth which was one of the Seven that had been once past before For all those Expressions signify no more than that the Imperial Head was before it was deadly wounded by the Goths then ceased to be while the Gothish Kings were the Kings of Rome and Italy and afterwards was healed again by the return of the Imperial Rule over Rome in Justinian Where by the way may be observed how justly the continuance of the Roman Imperial Power in the East after the ruine of the Western Empire does answer the Character of and yet is at the time when it had but a small share in the Authority of the City of Rome together with the Gothish Kings See the Account of their Note 20 21. on Chap. 18. Union in the choice of their Consuls c. But whereas the first of these Expressions seems to belong only to an Head of the Beast and the other is said of the Beast indefinitely It is to be considered that the notion of the Beast is the Beast in the particular state of its last Head Prop. 6. which is the healed Head Coroll 3. Prop. 10. As for the Riddle of was and is not and yet is The Learned Vol. 1. p. 642. Dr. More has shown that that is to be understood of the Beast as it was subject to those several changes of one and the same state of it and not to be tied to any one set particular time when those inconsistent Characters were really verified of it altogether as several compounded Names of things are found to be in the Old Testament For to understand it literally of the substance of the Beast is an open contradiction or to understand those Characters about the same qualification of it in the same respect at the same time And yet it cannot but be seen that in the time of the Gothish Kings it was very near being verified to the greatest nicety about the Imperial Government It was Supream at Rome before them it was not so in their time and yet it was owned for its share with them in the Authority of it But to make out this difficulty by applying these Expressions only to a quality of the Beast that was and was not and yet was as Dr. More does to the Idolatry of the Romans is contrary to that which has been proved to be the constant acceptation of the Beast Prop. 6 that is The particular state of it under the Eighth King which therefore must be the thing of which was is not and yet is must be verified The Character of his being an Eighth after a Seventh King which should continue but a short space agrees very well with the Ch. 17.
former A Carved Image is indeed but the dead likeness of some single Person But an Image of a Publick State that is alive as this is must be some Ruling Power in the same State that has a very lively resemblance to it for it is in being at the same time with it the Beast and his Image are ordinarily described to be together And the Image is made in honour of the Beast and so must like the Images of the Emperors be within the bounds of the Authority of the Beast And besides is made by a False Prophet in the exercise of the Power of the Beast This living Image then must necessarily be an Universal Rule of the World like to that of the Imperial Roman State And accordingly we find it speaking and commanding all the World to worship it chap. 13. 15. forcing all men to receive the mark of it and to take the name of it v. 16. which shows the extent of its Power to be as large as that of the Imperial Power its Original It had also power of life and death in it v. 15. which is the peculiar Prerogative of Supream Power Now this was all for nothing else but the enforcing of False Worship which it was inspired with life by a false Prophet to effect And one of the Punishments was Excommunication v. 14. v. 17. That men might not buy or sell which was an usual punishment d Selden de Synod l. 1. cap. 7. De effectibus Excommunicationis He that was excommunicated with either greater or lesser Excommunication was said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the effects of them were Separation from Converse from the Synagogue from the publick Assemblies from all the People and Commonwealth of the Jews And he that was accursed with Cherem was not to have any Commerce with any but just so much as to get Victuals of the Elders of the Synagogues amongst the Jews All which denotes it to be an Ecclesiastical Power equal to the Secular Power for the universality of its Jurisdiction Indeed what kind of Power within the same Bounds and Territories can it possibly be but Ecclesiastical that can be a living Image of the Secular Exercising Supream Authority at the same time with it and in the same places as this is described This Image therefore must be a Church-Rule equal to that of the State And since the Jurisdiction of it is Universal or Catholick and also Roman can it be any thing else but the Roman-Catholick-Church And since all the life that it has is inspired into it by the False Prophet who is already known to be the Papal Power Corol. 3. Prop. 25. what plainer description could we have had of the Roman-Catholick-Church under the Pope Or what can there be that is a e Leo Sermo 1. de Natali Apos Rome has a larger Jurisdiction in its Spiritual Reign than it had formerly in its Worldly Empire Bellarm. l. 5. de Pontif. c. 6. From whence it appears That the Pope is greater than the Emperour c. Stenelius Eugubinus lib. 1. de Donat. Constant By the Exaltation of the Papacy Rome has recovered a Greatness very little different from that of the Ancient Empires since all Nations from the East to the West reverence the Pope of Rome in the same manner as they formerly did the Emperours See the expressions of Pope Gregory VII of his own Authority Greg. 7. Epist 37. The Roman Ceremonial l. 1. c. 2. shews this to be the manner of investing the Pope with his Authority I invest Thee with the Authority of Pope that Thou maist Rule over the City and the World Urbi Orbi more exact living Image of the Roman State under the Imperial Power For the Head of it has a Jurisdiction equal to the Head of the State Both Pope and Emperor have long since had the Title of The Lords of the World They have both a Triple Crown tho for different Jurisdictions They are both called King of Kings The body of the Image is just the same with that of the Beast The Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions are parted out exactly according to the divisions of the Civil Government of the Empire The Patriarchs Archbishops and Bishops had their Ranks and Places every-where according to the Divisions of the Provinces of the State and the name of the Ecclesiastical Diocesses did arise from the distinction of the several Civil Diocesses of the Empire by Constantine And it is established by the Canons of f Concil 6º in Trullo Can. 37. The Canon which was made by the Fathers we do also observe which says thus If any City be or shall be new raised by the Royal Power the Ecclesiastical Dignity shall follow the Publick and Civil state of it two Synods That if any City were newly raised by the Emperor the Ecclesiastical Dignities there should be conformed to it So that the Church and State did run parallel to one another through the whole Body of the Roman Empire just like the Arteries and Veins in the Body of Man and observed the same proportion every-where to one another a MAlvenda de Antichristo pag. 234. de 10 Cornibus The number Ten is very often in Scripture used indefinitely for a great many CHAP. III. Rev. XIII Wherein the Worship of the Beast and of his Image doth consist BY the process of the former Chapter we have all the Confederates in the design of the Beast discovered to us There is the Imperial Roman State for the Beast with his last Head The Image and false Prophet for the Roman Catholick Church and the Pope The ten Kings giving their Kingdoms to the Beast for those Roman Catholick Kings who force their Subjects to submit to the Roman Religion enjoyned by the Papal Power or Imperial Authority And now it is to be examined what is meant by Worshiping the Beast and his Image It is certain in the first place That the words here used to express the Worship of the Beast and his Image are the same with those which were in use at the time of the Vision to signifie the Adoration given to the Emperors and their Images publickly set up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and adorare were the terms in common use amongst the Greeks and Latines of those times to express that profound Reverence which was paid to the Emperor and his Image And then there seems to be nothing more required to make Application of this Phrase but only to show what obedience was given to the Secular and Ecclesiastical Authority of Rome by all the World from the time of Justinian But because we find that the a GRotius in Decal Nor did the first Christians think it contrary to their Religion to fall down before the Emperours Images But when they afterwards joined the Images of false Gods with their own they chose to endure any thing rather than to worship them first Christians did pay that Reverence before-mentioned to the
whole Church which shows the Emperor's share in the Legislative Power of the Church to be near a-kin to his Power in the Senate about Civil Affairs but at least very near as great in the Councils as the Papal Authority was afterwards before it came to its full height And then in the Execution of the Laws and Canons of the Church the Imperial Authority appears every-where to be the last resort and the last Power that they k Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat p. 180. The Archbishops of Ravenna do there contend with the Popes of Rome for the Superiority John the Archbishop had many of the Italian Bishops of his Party in it And Sigonius de Regno Ital. l. 2. Blondus Decad. 1. l. 9. Ann. 608. gives an account of this Contest of Ravenna with Rome all the days of Pope Martin the First Eugenius the First Vitalian and Adeodat They would have no Pallium nor Consecration from Rome in acknowledgment of any dependance upon them S. Hierom. ad Evagre If you dispute about the Authority of the whole World Orbis major est Urbe Wheresoever there is a Bishop whether at Rome or Eugubium at Constantinople or Rhegium he is of the same Dignity and of the same Priesthood Cardinal Cusan l. 2. c. 12. shews that all Bishops are equal But the execution of their Office is bounded by Human Laws and Orders which if they come to cease those Differences of Greater and Less return again to their natural Right that is to an Equality Aeneas Sylvius Comment l. 2. Before the Council of Nice every Bishop lived independent in his own Jurisdiction appeal to for redress Dr. Barrow p. 324. to p. 372. Grot. in Decal Praecep 2. Note the 3d. or for correction of Church-Governours which shews it to have had also the full possession of the Executive Power And accordingly do we find the Title of the Vniversal Bishop of the Church in respect of the External Government of it assumed by Constantine In this state did the Imperial Authority continue in the Church when the exercise of its power was the most unblameable So that here was a Roman Catholick Church established from the very first appearance of the Imperial Throne in the Church and no other Political Vnity was there then of the Roman Church but only this Imperial Headship The particular Jurisdiction of the l Ludovic Bebenberg de jurib R. Imp. Romanor pag. 142. In Commentar M. Freherus When the Emperor Henry had objected to the Romans why against the custom of their Ancestors they had chosen them a Pope without the leave of the King The Pope excused himself that he was chosen by force but that he would not be consecrated till he did perfectly understand by an Embassy that both the Emperor and the Princes had consented to his Election Hieron Balbus de Coronatione cap. 14. It had been an ancient Custom that the Clergy and People of Rome should nominate the Pope After which it was in the Emperor's power to confirm or invalidate the Election and as he pleased either to admit him or to substitute another in his room c. Agatho 63. distinct And this Custom continued to the time of Pope Adrian Anno 815. who would have changed it But the old Custom obtained again of expecting the Pope's Confirmation from the Emperor as Platina observes in Gregor 9. in the Year 1072. Gregory was reconciled to the Emperor Henry who confirmed him Pope as it was then the custom Caronza Concil summa pag. 437. Severinus Papa in locum Honorii subrogatus ab Isaacio Hexarcho in Pontificatu confirmatur c. Severinus was confirmed Pope by Isaac the Hexarch of Italy For the Election by the People and Clergy was not accounted valid in those days unless the Emperors or their Exarchs had confirmed them Platina says the same in Severinus And Blondus the same with this of Caranza l. 9. Decad. 1. and adds That the Confirmation was put off for a year and an half because Isaac did not go from Ravenna to Rome before Sigebert in his Chronicle mentions a Council held by Charlemaigne at Rome before he was crowned Emperor by virtue of his being made Defender of the Church by Adrian And there Adrian and 150 Bishops did confer the Right of chusing the Pope upon Charles and of ordering the Apostolick See and the Dignity of the Prince The same is mentioned by Gratian D. 69. c. Hadrianus 22. And by Sigonius de Regno Ital. l. 4. In the time of the Emperor Ludovicus the Son of Charlemaigne upon Pope Stephen's being elected contrary to the Order without the Emperor's Command Stephen to mend the matter makes this Order in the Canon Quia Sancta D. 52. Because the Roman Church suffers great Violences at the Death of the Pope when the Election is made without the Emperor's knowledge We ordain That when the Bishop of Rome is to be chosen that he be elected in a full Assembly of the Bishops and Clergy and in the presence of the Senate and People and so being chosen in the presence of the Legate of the Emperor that he be consecrated Baronius Anno 827. says of the Election of Pope Valentinus That his Consecration was deferred till the Emperour should be consulted about it Pope Leo the Eighth Anno 963. makes this Order in behalf of the Emperor Otho That according to the Example of Adrian Bishop of the Apostolick See who granted unto the Emperor Charles the ordering the Apostolick See That he likewise with all the Clergy did constitute and by his Authority corroborate to his Lord Otho first King of the Theutons and to his Successors in the Kingdom of Italy The power of chusing a Successor and of disposing of the Bishop of the Sovereign Apostolick See and for that purpose that the Archbishops and Bishops should take investiture from him And that none for the future should take upon them the power of electing or consecrating the Bishop of Rome or of any other See without the Consent of the said Emperor D. 63. in Synodo 23. The Title of the Canon in Gratian is The Election of the Bishop of Rome does of right appertain to the Emperor Bishoprick of the City of Rome was in no other account for Supremacy than the rest of the Episcopal Jurisdictions and all of them were confined to their own particular Territories But it was reputed just and fitting at the coming in of the Emperors into the Church that the Bishop of their Ruling City should have a mark of distinction from the rest as an honour due to the Emperor's Court and Residence And thus came the Bishop of Rome to have the precedence of all other Bishops in the Church And upon the same account had Constanstinople the second place to that of Rome when that City became the Seat of a new Empire This Primacy gave the Bishops of Rome a great advantage over the Interests of their Fellow-Bishops And being become very
Diaconus de Gest Longobard c. 37. who was near those times Phocas says he at the request of Pope Boniface did Decree That the See of the Church of Rome should be the Head of all Churches because that the Church of Constantinople did write it self the first of all Churches See Note g on this Chapter Our Lords the Emperors Our Most Gracious and Pious Lords and subscribed themselves Their meanest Servants And that which is the chief flower of their Authority their Universal Headship or Supremacy over the Catholick Church was begged m Boniface the 3 d did so far acknowledg this Title of Universal Head to be the Emperour's favour That he has the Emperour's grant for it proclaimed at Rome in a Council of 62 Bishops Platina in Boniface 3. Sigonius says That Boniface sent an Embassy to Phocas to desire it by which means he obtained that Decree of the Emperor Phocas by Boniface and could not be obtained but by the drudgery of an approbation of Murder and Assassination and then also not without n The Contest about the Universal Headship appears plainly to have continued from the Order of the Council of Chalcedon for the place of the Patriarch of Constantinople The Law of the Emperors Leo and Anthemius l. 16. c. in fin de Sacros Eccles for the superiority of the See of Constantinople was soon after that Council Pelagius the 2 d. condemns John Patriarch of Constantinople for that claim and so does Gregory the 1st after him See Note g on this Chapter Platina says in Boniface 3. Though his pretentions were not always obeyed yet there has ever since that time been a Schism betwixt the Greek and the Latin Church Bellarmin in Praefat. in lib. de Pontifice The Greeks opposed the Popes Supremacy in the year 451. in the Council of Chalcedon and in the year 600. declare the Bp. of Constantinople Universal Bishop great contests against it as an usurpation upon the Rights and Liberties of other Churches to mind him by whose favour only he came to possess it For the Emperor o Cuspinian de Caesaribus p. 140. Mauritius wrote to Pope Gregory To obey John Patriarch of Constantinople as if Head Patriarch of all others Mauritius just before had commanded Pope Gregory to acknowledg John Patriarch of Constantinople for the Universal Head There is great reason then to account the Honour shown to the Papal Authority and his Clergy which are the Life and Soul of the Roman Church to be an honour done to the Power that raised him and supported him 4. The Worship that is given to the Roman Religion may well be called the Worship of the Imperial Authority because it is the Secular Arm that makes the Church-Laws to be obeyed and thereby it does appear That it is the owning of these Laws by the Secular Power for its own will and command that gives all the life and force to them and that therefore they are obeyed as the Laws and Will of that Power only The Church might make what Laws it pleased to the Consciences of men Their Anathema's would not have been much regarded by those who knew them to be unwarrantable But that which sets the edge upon them is the Secular Arm of the Civil Power 'T is then the Secular Arm that is in reality the chief thing that is worshipped or whose will is complied with as the Will of God and as the Law of his Religion It is therefore very properly the Worship of the Beast both before the division of the Empire when all the Secular Authority was only Imperial and also after the appearance of the p Canon 3. Concil Lateranens 1. The Secular Powers are enjoyned to take an Oath to prosecute Hereticks to the Rooting them out of their Territories And those Princes that neglect to do thus are to be Excommunicated and their Subjects Absolved of their Oath of Allegiance to them and their Lands to be exposed to the Seizure of Catholicks See Note c and f on Chapter 4. The Council of Milan and Arles send to their Emperours to make their Decrees effectual Aeneas Sylvius afterward Pope Pius 2d Epist l. 53. We are all of the same Faith with our Princes If they were Idolaters we should be so too and should deny not only the Pope but Christ himself also if the Secular Power did but press us to it Otho Frisius in prol l. 4. Chronic. There are two persons set up in the Church The Sacerdotal and the Regal the one to execute the Ecclesiastical Censures by the Spiritual Sword the other carries the Material Sword to execute the Secular Sentences And as Spiritual possessions are under the jurisdiction of the Spiritual Sword so are the Dignities of this World as Dutchies Counties c. under the jurisdiction of the Material Sword Ten Kings in it because N. B. they are found to give their Kingdoms to the Beast or to that Religion which the Imperial Authority does set up For this end alone is it that the Imperial Authority has its confirmation at present from q Goldast Polit. in Imperial H. 1. pag. 72. Speaking of the Installation of the Roman Kings or Emperours They do then require an Oath from the Supream Monarch of the whole World To defend the Roman Church to exterminate Hereticks and to secure the Dignity of the Pope by all manner of ways Glabar l. 1. Histor in fine Benedict the 9th made this Decree That none should be called or taken for Emperour but He whom the Pope for his good behaviour shall make choice for a fit person for the Common-weal and upon whom he shall set that Imperial Crown which is a Golden Apple set with Jewels and a Cross in the middle of it viz. To denote the end of his power to be to defend the Church And such is every Imperial Crown of every particular Prince Clementina unica de jure jurando Gives the Oath that the Emperour takes to defend the Rights of the Church the Head of the Church that it may enforce the Spiritual Power of the Church and by this means do both the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power come to be Worshipped in one and the same Act of obedience From hence it is now easie to apprehend how the false Prophet does exercise all the power of the first Beast before him For Rev. 13. 12. since the first Beast is found to be the Imperial power the exercise of all his power must be an Universal Supremacy over the Roman Catholick Church and this does very well answer the Popes exercise of the power of both the Roman Swords And it is said to be done before the first Beast as that signifies in Honour of him or in Honour of the chief seat of the Empire The first great effect of this power is to cause all the world to Ibid. worship the first Beast And that is when the Papal Authority does either make the World receive the Imperial
Ordain That all usurped jurisdiction of any Bishops over another's Province shall be ipso facto void And that lest the fear of any Mans power should creep in under a shew of an Holy Function and so we should lose that Liberty insensibly and unawares which our Lord Jesus Christ did purchase with his own Blood the Ephesine Council not long after the time of Theodosius had made an excellent provision against any incroachment of any one part of the Christian Church over the rest so that though there might be some irregular exercise of the Imperial Authority yet whenever any considerable Diocese should have stood up for their Liberty though against the Roman Church they had a right to plead for it from that Council In this estate did things continue till the fall of the Western Empire and then the Arrian Goths being the Masters of Rome and the West there was a composition betwixt them and the Eastern Emperors for a f It appears from Cassiodor Variar L. 10. Ep. 26. That the Gothish Kings did not press any in Italy to their way Theodate to Justinian says there Since the Deity suffers many Religions to be we dare not enjoyn one alone to be followed For we remember it is said That Men must sacrifice willingly to the Lord not at the command of any one to force them to it With good reason therefore does your Piety invite us to that which the Commands of God do require And in the time of Justin before Thedoric forced him to leave off persecuting the Arrians in the East And Zeno and Anastasius before Justin are represented as Lovers of Peace and Union rather than a strict Conformity of which Zeno's Henoticon is an example Petavius says of the Emperour Anastasius That he gave every Man liberty to profess what Sect he pleased Rationar Temp. Part 1. l 7. c. 3. Theodoric to all the Jews lib. 2. ep 27. Gassiodor Variar We cannot says Command Religion because none is to be compelled to believe against his Will mutual Tolleration of Orthodoxy and Arrianism in their respective Jurisdictions And before that had the Emperors Zeno and Anastasius contrived a form of Faith for a Comprehension and Union and did connive at a general Liberty of Conscience But the Emperor Justin after them begins the Project of an Vniversal Conformity to the Roman Religion At the sollicitations of Pope Hormisda he makes g See Petav. Rationar Temp. Part. 1. l. 7. c. 3. Item Anastasius Bibliothecar in Hormisdâ an Union betwixt the Greek and the Latin Church which had been in a Schism against one another near forty years After that in Pope John's time sets out several Edicts against h Petav. ibidem Item Blondus de Inclinat Rom. Imp. in Occidente Pag. 37. Pope John in whose time the Emperour Justin being wholly set upon rooting out all the Heresies throughout the Eastern parts deprived all the Bishops of that Sect of their Places and put their Ministers out of their Churches And a little after not only the Eutichyan Heresy but all kind of different Parties were suppressed throughout all the East Anastasius Bibliothecar to the same purpose in Joanne 1. the Hereticks and heavily persecutes them so as even to suppress all kind of Heresie throughout the Eastern Empire But he was forced by i Anastasius Bibliothec. in Joanne 1. gives an account of Theodoric's sending Pope John in an Embassy to Justin to acquaint him That he would ruine all the Catholicks in Italy if he did not restore the Arrians in the East to their Dignities and Churches And that Justin did thereupon comply with him Theodorick king of Italy to desist and so his Design came to nothing But however there was so good a Correspondence by this means setled betwixt the Emperor and the Bishop of Rome for that common Interest that the Emperor submits to be crowned by the Pope which was the k Petav. Rationa Temp. Part 1. l. 7. c. 3. The Emperour received the Pope with all honour and was the first that received the Imperial Crown at the Popes Hands Anastas Bibliothec. in Joanne 1. first Example of that kind and got the name of Justin l Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 141. Item Anastas Bibliothec. in Joanne 1. the Orthodox for his Piety to the Church This good Correspondence betwixt the Secular and Ecclesiastical Power of Rome was the only means to carry on an Vniversal Vniformity in the Roman Religion For the Imperial Authority was now confined to a very small Jurisdiction and the rest of the Empire was divided into several Kingdoms which had no other Secular Sovereign to command them but their own particular Kings There was therefore no other way of reducing them all to one Religion but by the advancement of a Spiritual Roman Authority to be the principle of Vnity amongst them whose business it should be to overawe the Conscience with the Curses of the Church for the enforcing the execution of the Imperial Penalties For as the Imperial Laws were for every thing else the standing Laws of these divided Kingdoms so the only way to make their Edicts and Sanctions of Councils about Church-matters to take place amongst them was to have them confirmed and enforced by the Authority of an Universal Head of the Church And though the Church Head seems by this to be the principal in all this Affair yet the Temporal Penalties of the Laws being the only certain means to effect an Universal Conformity and this Sovereign Head of the Church himself being also a Creature of the Imperial Power to carry on his design of Uniformity in the Roman Religion as has been observed all the Obedience that Chap. 22. is given by other Princes and their Subjects is really nothing but the Worship of the Beast or of the Imperial Religion and they give their Kingdoms to the Beast when they force their Subjects to submit to that Religion There was nothing that could make it look more like the worshipping of that Roman Authority than this Submission of the Ten Kings who were absolute in their Kingdoms and had as much right to appoint the Laws of Religion to their Subjects as the Roman Emperor had in his own Territories But by this conformity to the Romans they did seem to lay down their N. B. Crowns at the feet of that Nation and to adore them as the great Dictators and Oracles of the Will of God There is indeed not the least appearance of so general an Uniformity at the end of the Reign of the Emperor Justin who as has been observed was not able so much as to bring it about within the bounds of his own Territories But Justinian immediately after him appears in this Design like a new Blazing-star in the East whom all the World began to be afraid of One would indeed from a cursory view of his History be apt to entertain no other Idea of him than as a very eminent Conqueror
and Restorer m Therefore is Justinian chosen out by the people of Rome in their insurrection against Pope Innocent the 1st as the example of the greatest Roman Prince for the Emperour Conrad to resemble in favour of whom they declared in these Verses Imperium Teneat Romae sedeat Regat Orbem Princeps Terrarum ceu fecit Justinianus As Sigonius Lib. 11. de Regno Italiae does give the account of it so Procopius de Bello Persico makes Vitiges King of the Goths in his Letter to Chosroes King of Persia give Justinian this Character That it is his Nature to be always coveting of new things to which he had no Right And that he did aim at the whole World and every Mans Kingdom And in his description of Justinian's Buildings in his first Oration describes Justiman's Statue upon a Pillar holding a Globe in his Left hand to signify his Conquest of the World and stretching out the Fingers of his Right Hand towards the East to Command the Barbarians and Persians not to advance any further upon the Roman Empire without any Armour or Sword or Spear but only with a Cross upon the Globe to signify by what power he gained his Victories Which if it were to corrupt the Christian Religion was a Magnificent show of a False pretender to the power of Christ of the Imperial Authority in the Western Empire But as that made him eminent and remarkable enough to be taken notice of for the beginning or the restoring of a new Head of the Beast so did the great Bustle which he made in Church-matters signalize him as much for laying the first foundation of a general Uniformity in Religion His Contemporary n See Praefat. in Cod. Justiniani Procopius gives a Character of him that shows how much the Affairs of the Church were the concern of his heart He says of him That Justinian was so continually taken up with Church-men in private for the determining the niceties of matters of Faith that he lost his best time amongst them which he should have spent about his more weighty Coneerns And we do accordingly find him as fierce and severe in his Injunctions for a general conformity to the Definitions that were made about them In the beginning of his Reign He sets out o See Lib. 5. Cod. Justinian de summâ Trinitate an Edict concerning his Faith therein threatens all who should dissent from it that they should have no manner of indulgence And that upon the discovery of them they should suffer the Law as professed Hereticks which was to be banished the Roman Territories and which was never executed upon the generality of Dissenters before And here does his Faith appear to be made the Rule and measure of Orthodoxy to the whole Empire upon a Penalty which had terror enough in it This Faith he sends to Pope John for his concurrence with him in it And tells him that he did it to conform all to the Church of Rome that it was always his desire to preserve the Vnity of the Apostolick See and the state of the Holy Churches of God And for that purpose to bring all the Eastern Churches under his subjection and to unite them to the See of his Holiness p Ibid. l. 8 9 10. Pope John's Answer to him does repeat the same thing out of his Letter with great thanks to him As that he did preserve the Faith of the Roman Church and did bring all else under the subjection of it and did draw them into the Vnity of it Therein also does Justinian expresly call the Church of Rome the Head of all Churches and desires a Rule of Faith from the Pope for the Bishops of the East The Pope on the other side confirms the Emperor's Faith to be the only true Faith and that which the Roman Church did always hold and that whosoever should contradict that Faith must judge himself to be none of the Catholick Church And all this Intercourse betwixt the Pope and the Emperor is inserted into the Code of the Imperial Law as the Standard and Rule for all to conform to under the Penalty of being judged to be Hereticks that should either deny the Faith or the Authority of the Church that enjoin'd it and the q L. 5. c. de Haereticis Penalties against Hereticks was banishment Though the Emperor's Faith should be accounted Orthodox yet the inducing such a new Penalty which should force it upon the Consciences of all men as so necessary to salvation that a man could not possibly be a Member of the Catholick Church without the profession of it was certainly unwarrantable and the first beginning of that Tyrannizing Power in the Roman Church which made the whole World to conform to all its Arbitrary Decrees and to worship it with a blind obedience to all its most unreasonable Commands But the most publick Instances of the effects of the Emperor's zeal for Uniformity are the Synods that were called by him The first was that under Mennas against Anthimus Severus and Petav. Ration Temp. part 1. lib. 7. c. 7. others where after the condemnation of their Opinions they and all the other Hereticks with them were banished by the Emperor's Edict and very great Penalties says Evagrius l. 4. c. 11. were enjoined for all such as maintained their Opinions This indeed was the only means to arrive at a general Uniformity and Justinian had the first glory of it But this was nothing to his Behaviour in the Controversie about the three Chapters and in the fifth General Council as it is called which being after his Conquests of Africa and Italy found his Spirit in a right disposition to affect to exalt the Imperial Authority in the Church He first publishes a Book about those things and passes a censure Petav. Ration Temp. ibidem upon the three Chapters against the will and sollicitations of his Clergy then forces Mennas the Patriarch of Constantinople with the rest of the Patriarchs to subscribe to it sends for Pope Vigilius and after much reluctance he at last gets him to subscribe with the rest The next year Vigilius publishes a Decree in which with a Salvo to the Council of Chalcedon he does expresly condemn the three Chapters Justinian not content with this uses all means with Vigilius by threats and contumelies to condemn them absolutely without any mention of the Synod of Chalcedon but being not able to break him to it to shew him that the Bishop of Rome was set up for nothing but to be the Emperor's Property and to promote a general Conformity to the Imperial Religion Against the Pope's will he calls a General Council at Constantinople for this end which had always been the method of the former Emperors to unite the Differences about Religion and to make the whole Church conformable to their minds The Pope in the mean while declares against this Assembly not upon the account of any claim of
manifest enough from tbe confirmation of this Fifth Council by almost all the Roman Councils after And now came those Laws about Hereticks and Apostates in fashion which were always found to do the greatest service to Vniformity in the Roman Religion and those were such as had a sufficient Penalty in them to oblige all to obey them such as these t Lib. 5. Cod. de Haereticis It is a good observation of Du Plessis Mornay in his Mystery of Iniquity page 100. That Pelagius the first in Justinian's days who confirmed the 5th Council and desired the aid of Justinian against the Bishops of Milan and Aquileia was the first Pope that made a Decree to employ the Secular Arm against those who should be condemned of Schism or Heresie that Hereticks were not to continue within the bounds of the Roman Empire And Hereticks were defined by Justinian's Law to be all such who did not communicate in the Church although they did call themselves Christians But those who were of the Church were enjoined by u See Note d on this Chapter another Law to be called Catholicks Of the same kind is that x Cod. Justinian de Apostatis other Law against Apostates that their Estates should be exposed to sale and another That y Lib. 19. Cod. de Haereticis none but the Children of Orthodox Parents should be capable of the right of succession to the Estates of their Parents And Petavius is sufficient Authority to make any believe that he did by an innumerable Petav. Ration Temp. part 1. l. 7. c. 5. company of Edicts press the Faith and Discipline of the Roman Church And of what nature those Edicts were to force Conformity may be apprehended from the Character of him which Petavius does immediately add to it viz. That in the whole course of his life he was eminent for z See Note m on this Chapter Vitiges to Chosroes Procopius Tribonianus his great Counsellour in the making his Laws c. is set out by Historians as a contemner of all Religions Cuspinian de Caesaribus pag. 141. Oppression Covetousness and Perfidiousness Ibidem If we put all these things together and consider that all the Imperial Edicts were generally published with the Stile of aa See Note p on this Chapter and Novell Justiniani 126. in particular A manifest constitution of our Deity Nostri numinis And Novell 114. Jussionis Divinae And Panirollus observes That Justinian gave the usual Character of the Emperours Subscriptions A. M. D. the name of a Divine Mark Divinam subnotationem Constantine the Father of Justinianus junior Anno. Dom. 683. orders the Archbishop of Ravenna to go to Rome to be Consecrated Divali jussione by his Divine or Sacred Command Lib. Pontifical Our Divinity Our God-head and that Justinian does in particular turn bb See Onuphtius Panvinius's Observation in Pelagio 1. in Note i on the 4th Chapter all the Erroneous Canons of the Church into Imperial Law And that he was the first that made the cc Novell 45. de Episcop Cler. We Decree that those things that are defined by the Holy Canons have as much force amongst them as if they were written in Civil Laws Bishop of Rome's Creation to depend upon the Emperor's Confirmation And that dd Novell 131. And therefore we decree according to their the Council's Determinations that the most Holy Pope of Old Rome be the first of all Bishops the most blessed Bishop of Constantinople which is New Rome to have the next place after the Holy Apostolick See of Old Rome he Novel 45. was the first that made the Primacy of the Pope a Law of the Empire It will not be thought to be an hard Censure of him to think that the Character of sitting in the Temple of God and shewing himself there as God may be fitly enough applied to him as the first appearance of that Anti-Christian Supremacy in the Christian Church after the division of the Empire amongst so many Sovereign Absolute Princes It is certain That by his Conquests of the Western Empire and his suppression of Arrianism in all the parts of it and by the conversion of the Arrian Kingdoms in France and Spain about the same time to the Roman Faith There was a very fair Appearance of a General Submission to the Roman Religion for which the Ten Kings are said to give their Kingdoms to the Beast and to be of one mind and to agree together in it 'T is certain that his ee Justinian's Example was upon all occasions quoted afterwards for the Imperial absoluteness in Church-Affairs and for his Obligations upon the Church of Rome See Sigonius in Note n on this Chapter ceu fecit Justinianus So for all Commemorations of Donations to the Church he is ordinarily put in with Constantine and Charlemaigne as the three remarkable Raisers of that Church Cardinal Zabarella de Schismate about the Year 1406. contends that it belongs to the Emperor to summon the Council as Justinian and Charlemaigne did Example was so taking that the design of an Vniversal Conformity was ever after prosecuted with great success Gregory the Great the best Bishop that they ever had after those times did ff See Baronius Ann. 591. Bolerus Rel. Univer part 2. lib. 4. for these Exploits of Gregory the First not long after clear Egypt of the Agnoitae Africa of the Donatists and Arrians and by Gennadius the Emperor's Exarch converted the Arrian Goths and banished the rest out of Italy The Successors of Justinian continued also to be acknowledged the Supream Governours of the Roman Church and were so acknowledged gg See Note the 23d on the 21st Chapter especially that of Guicciardin there Benedict the Second obtained of the Emperor by Letters-Patents That he that should be chosen Bishop of Rome by the common Agreement in full Assembly should be owned for Bishop without expecting either the Emperor's or the Exarch's Consent which was never known since the time of Justinian the First Mornay Mystere d'inquite pag. 128 Justin Junior to Pope Constantine he sent him sacram his Letter to command him to come to Constantinople and the Pope is said to have obeyed the Imperial Commands in it Anastas Biblioth Constantius Guicciardin shows that the Popes always dated their Bulls according to the year of their Lord the Emperor's Reign Imperante N. Domino nostro Anno 1046. Gregory the Sixth is deposed by a Council held in Lombardy by the Emperor's Order The words of the Council are That he was deposed by a Canonical and Imperial Censure Sigebert in Chronic. Anno 1160. Frederick upon a Schism betwixt two Popes Victor the Fourth and Alexander the Third summons a Council at Pavie according to the Custom of the Ancient Emperors And thus summons the Bishops to meet Having understood by the Decrees of the Popes and the Decrees of the Church that when there happens a Schism in the Roman Church
Places but only in Religious Houses We decree says that Law that none shall endeavour to bring in the Venerable Cross or the Reliques of the Holy Martyrs into places made use of for the Peoples Sports or into the Temple of Fortune For now there is no want of Consecrated or Religious places to put them in But there was another kind of spiritual Fornication which was certainly in common use before the beginning of the Sixth Century and that was The Invocation of Saints And this Mr. Mede has given an excellent account of in his Discourses upon the Doctrine of Devils 1 Epist Timoth. 4. 1. And St. Augustine does acquaint us what the rest of the World thought in those days of the practices of the Orthodox of this kind Lib. 20. cap. 2. contra Faustum Faustus the Manichee is there represented by him as accusing the Orthodox Party of being perfectly like the Pagans in these words * Idola Paganorum vertistis in Martyres quos Votis similibus colitis You have turned the Pagan Idols into Martyrs which ye worship with the same kind of Invocation And Vigilantius was a known Stickler in those days against the Superstition of Saint-worship in the Church And his Adversary St. Hierom himself does commend him for it and many Bishops were there of his Party Indeed it may easily be observed that with the conversion of the Empire from Heathenism to Christianity after that the Imperial Throne was come into the Church were by degrees introduced most of the Ancient Ways of the Heathen Worship with a new name only of some Christian Ceremony to cover it So that in effect it was Heathenism new christened or with a Christian name upon it As may be more at large seen in the Third Part of the Church-Homily against Idolatry And thus came in first the Invocation of Saints in imitation of the lesser Gods of the Heathens of which there was afterwards a most remarkable Instance of Boniface the Third's Consecration of the Pantheon for the worship of the Virgin and of all the Saints which had been before dedicated to the Worship of the Mother of the Gods and all the Lesser Gods But till the Reign of Justinian these Idolatrous Customs were not pressed upon the Consciences of men whereas in his time it was made a Law that all that did not communicate in the Church where these things were practised should be †L. 5. Cod. de Haereticis banished the Roman Dominions under the name of Hereticks And thus though there might have been the worship of the Devil in these Adorations of Daemons or of Souls departed as Mr. Mede does very critically observe yet it was not the worship of the Beast and of the Dragon till it was inforced by that Power and Authority which the Dragon resigned up to the Beast and which has been found to have had the first beginning of its uninterrupted Settlement in the Reign of Justinian Before that time as it has been shown all the endeavours that were made for it were by some means or other put a stop to and forced to be laid down again But Justinian upon his reuniting the most considerable part of the Western Empire with the Eastern was in a very fit capacity to accomplish the Design of an Vniversal Conformity to the Worship of the Roman Church And he did accordingly lay hold of that advantage and by his Laws and the execution of them did very effectually compass his Design The Ten Kings also or the rest of the Crowned Heads within the compass of the Roman Empire were not wanting on their parts to contribute their assistance to him at that time They did so unanimously give their Kingdoms and their Power and Strength to this Design of the Roman Head or Beast as the Prophecy expresses it that at the end of that Age there was no considerable appearance of any other Faith and Worship in publick all over the extent of the old Roman Empire but only that of the Roman Church APPENDIX THE CONSENT OF THE ANCIENTS Concerning the Fourth Beast In the VIIth Chapter of Daniel AND THE BEAST In the REVELATIONS LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against Stocks-Market M DC XC APPENDIX CHAP. I. Testimonies of the best Learned Men amongst the Jews and Christians both of the Roman and Reformed Church concerning the General Agreement of the Ancients in making the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel to be the Reign of the Romans IT may seem to have been very evidently demonstrated from a full and close Examination of the Prophetical Schemes in the Book of Daniel That the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter is the Kingdom of the Romans But all the rational proof that can be brought for it will not be able to free it from very strong suspicions if that be true which * Prophetica pars libri Danielis sive posteriorasex capita quatuor illius Visiones continent quibus res quidem una eademque sed diversis modis indicatur Primam secundam quartam Visionem i. e. cap. 7 8 11 12. de Antiochi Epiphanis temporibus intelligunt ferè omnes qui post Josephum eâ de re scripserunt Sir John Marsham has positively affirmed about it in his Canon Chronicus pag. 610. Edit Lips viz. That almost all those who wrote after the time of Josephus about the Visions in that 7th chapter as well as those in the 8th and 11th chapter of Daniel did understand them of the Exploits of Antiochus Epiphanes For this would make any think that are swayed by great Authorities as the generality of the world are That this general agreement of the Ancients in their Applications of the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter to the Grecian Monarchy must in all reason be thought to be the most obvious and natural signification of the place and this would shake the whole foundation of all that has been demonstrated of the Beast in the Revelations which relies all upon the uniform Acceptation of the like Schemes in Daniel from the Certainty of the signification of the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter Wherefore besides the close Proof of it from the Prophecy it self it will be very requisite to shew in further confirmation of this Conclusion That it is so far from being the general agreement of the Ancients that the Fourth Beast in Daniel does signifie any thing else that it is certainly their almost unanimous Consent That it is nothing but the Empire of the Romans This will both take off all suspicion of the strength of the proof that has been given for it and add a new confirmation of it from Authority from the general Consent of all Writers of different Parties Opinions and Interests That it is the most easily offered from the Prophecy and the most obvious of any other Interpretation of it But that also which makes this Design the more necessary is the Rule
And Galatinus That they reverence it almost as much as the Text it self So that this may be very well accounted the Sense of the whole Body of the Jews in those days He has not indeed any Comment upon the Book of Daniel But in his Paraphrase upon the four last Verses of the first Chapter of Zechariah the Four Horns there that scattered the Men of Judah and Jerusalem he determines to be Four Kingdoms captivating the Jews And so also on the 6th Chapter v. 5. he mentions the same four Kingdoms coming after one another What he did particularly understand by these four Kingdoms is plainly expressed in the Paraphrase upon Habakkuk 3. 17. concerning the end of the Nations that should captivate the Jews For says he the Kingdom of Babel shall not remain nor exercise Dominion in Israel the Kings of Media shall be slain and the strong Ones of Grecia shall not prosper the Romans shall be rooted out nor shall they gather Tribute at Jerusalem Now it was always agreed That whatsoever the Four Kingdoms in the 7th of Daniel were in particular yet that they were four successive Monarchies that should measure out the whole time of the Captivity of the Church of God from the Babylonian Conquest of the Jews to the time of the Kingdom of the Son of Man and that the end of this Captivity was to be at the end of the Times of the Little Horn as it is also expresly said Dan. 12. 7. When therefore Zechariah who was one of the next Prophets to Daniel in the Captivity is by the Paraphrast determined to signifie four successive Kingdoms captivating the Jews or scattering them which is Daniel's own expression for it ibid. And when the only Conquerours and Enslavers of that Nation are mentioned by the same Paraphrast to be the Babylonian Persian Grecian and Roman Monarchies it is manifest That he does thereby determine the four Kingdoms captivating the Church of God in the 7th of Daniel to be those four Monarchies only and therefore That the last of the four is the Roman Monarchy And this is sufficient to shew it to be then the general Opinion of the Jewish Church at that time That the fourth Kingdom in the 7th chapter of Daniel was the Roman Monarchy And this Opinion of the Jews in those times was made to be the Faith of Christians also in those days by our Saviour himself so far at least as to assure that fourth Kingdom not to belong to the Greek Monarchy which is all the present Concern in his Prophecies every-where about the Kingdom and Coming of the Son of Man which has been found unquestionably to be meant of the same Kingdom that in the 7th of Daniel is also called The Kingdom of the Son of Man and of the Saints as may be seen in the Proof of the 13th and 14th Propositions And then that Kingdom of the Son of Man being signified by Christ not then to be come nor to be expected till at least some while after his Death that is not till long after the end of the Greek Monarchy and yet being described in Daniel to come to the destruction of the Fourth Beast or Kingdom there does make it sure That that Fourth Beast and Kingdom could not certainly be any part of the Reign of the Greek Empire and therefore must it be that which succeeded the Reign of the Greeks or the Reign of the Romans if the Third Beast before it were the beginning of the Greek Empire as it is here by all acknowledged to be A still more particular Determination of the Fourth Beast and Kingdom in Daniel to the time of the Romans is that exact Picture of the same Kingdom in the Revelations of St. John and that also fixed to Rome as the Seat of its Empire See Propos 15. Which all the Ancients before Constantine looked upon to be so plainly set out as a Roman Domination that there was no doubt of it And this is a lasting Testimony of the Sense of the Christian Church about it in those times And when St. Paul before this describes the last Coming of Christ as the Son of Man in his Kingdom 2 Thes 2. he does it with just the same description of it and of that eminent Opposer of the Church of God just before his Coming as the Coming of the Son of Man is set out in the 7th chapter of Daniel by the Destruction of the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast which therefore could no ways belong to the Greek Monarchy that was past And then by his appeal to their knowledge of what it was that did then withhold that Enemy from appearing he plainly intimates That that Antichrist must come after the time of that Ruling Power of the Romans which was then Reigning This also does shew That it was a commonly-known thing amongst the Christians of those days that the time of the Fourth Beast or Kingdom that was next before the Second Coming of Christ was not then past as the Greek Empire was And this may suffice for the Judgment of the Apostolical times about the Fourth Beast in Daniel All these places in the New Testament are still further confirmed by the general Sense of Antiquity about them Whether the fourth Book of Esdras be of so ancient a date as the first Century or no yet that it was writ not long after may reasonably be presumed from St. Ambrose's Quotation of it in several places as a Book of ancient Tradition in his time As in Epist ad Horontian 2. ad Lucam Commentar And especially in Libro de Bono Mortis where he questions Whether that Esdras were not older than Plato And the 4th Book of Esdras doth plainly determine the Fourth Beast in Daniel to be the Roman Empire 2 Esdr 12. 11. where the Roman Eagle is called The Kingdom that was seen by Daniel and called chap. 11. 39 40. The last Remainder of the Four Beasts c. CENTURY II. It is easie now to demonstrate the Consent of almost every one of the Ecclesiastical Writers in the following Ages for the Application of the Fourth Beast in Daniel to the Roman Empire from their Agreement about the time of the Coming of the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel For they generally understanding that of the Second Coming of Christ Jesus into the World must make the Fourth Beast or Kingdom that it is there described to destroy to continue till that time and therefore certainly not possible to be the Greek Monarchy and then since it is as manifest that the first of those four Beasts is said to be Nebuchadnezzar's Dan. 2. 44. 7. 2. Kingdom or the Babylonians the fourth from thence must at farthest be the Romans But I will only pick out those amongst them that have mentioned something relating to this Fourth Beast together with that Coming of the Son of Man Justin Martyr is the next considerable Remainder of Antiquity after the times of the Apostles In
his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew he cites the 7th chapter of Daniel to prove the Second Coming of Christ in Glory to be generally expected by all Christians after the times of that ACCVRSED One who is there set out as speaking great words against the Most High and who is there by Justin judged to be just then at hand whose time times and half a time he says Daniel had foretold By which it appears That the Opinion of Justin Martyr was That the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast did signifie some King who should appear out of the Empire in which he himself lived and so did suppose the Fourth Beast to be the Roman Empire Trypho does also acknowledge That that Prophecy did make the Jews expect one like the Son of Man who should take upon him an Eternal Kingdom that is their Messiah which did plainly exclude the Greek Empire from being any thing of the fourth Kingdom For upon the end of the Fourth Beast or Kingdom in that place of Daniel immediately succeeds the Kingdom of the Son of Man whereas the Greek Empire had then been past for near 200 years and yet there had been no appearance of their Messiah And thus have we in this Testimony both the Judgment of the Jewish Church in those days about this matter in Trypho's words and the Consent of All Christians at that time in Justin's Irenaeus not long after Justin lib. 5. cont Haeres cap. 21. does first mention Daniel's description of the end of the last of the four Kingdoms by the division of it amongst the Ten last Kings signified by the Ten Horns of the fourth Beast And then a little after But yet still much more manifestly hath John a Disciple of our Lord set out to us in the Apocalypse the last time of it and the Ten Kings who are in it amongst whom that Empire which NOW REIGNETH shall be divided declaring what were those Ten Horns that were seen by Daniel And again Daniel did diligently fore-signifie the dividing and sharing of the fourth Kingdom at the end of it by the Ten Toes of the Image And speaking of the Number of the Beast which he had before made to be a time of the fourth Beast in Daniel cap. 24. he pitches upon Latinos Because his Kingdom says he hath that Name which we know must be the Roman Monarchy And Irenaeus's Testimony may pass for the Sense of the most judicious of the Fathers at that time for he appears to have been the most diligent Searcher into the Book of Daniel and the Revelations of any of the first Ages See lib. 5. contra Haeres cap. 24. He had Lib. 3. cap. 3. enquired of those that had seen St. John face to face and of those that had given the clearest Reasons for their Expositions of the Revelations and had examined all the ancient and approved Copies of it CENTURY III. Tertullian presently after Irenaeus in his Book against the Jews after having quoted Daniel cap. 2. about the Second Coming of Christ adds Of which Second Coming the same Daniel also says And behold one like the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven which is in the 7th chapter of Daniel and must therefore by him be expected to come at the end of the Fourth Beast there of which he says in his Apology to the Emperour The Division of the Roman Empire into Ten Kings brings on Antichrist According to the description of the rising up of the 11th Horn of the 4th Beast after the Ten. And again says That that time of Antichrist was at hand which therefore must be in the time of the Roman Kingdom and so must the Fourth Beast to which that Horn did belong be the same Kingdom Hippolytus Martyr de consummatione Mundi I bring says he the testimony of a Witness worthy to be believed the Prophet Daniel cap. 2 cap. 7. where he says That the first Beast signifies the Babylonian Kingdom and the fourth signifies the Romans And then about the Ten Horns Who are these but the Empire of the Romans and the Little Horn Antichrist And a ltttle before This Prophecy will persuade all that have any judgment in them That the four Kingdoms in the 2d and 7th chapter are the same St. Cyprian lib. 2. adversus Judaeos speaking of the Stone Christ who in the last times shall become a Mountain in reference to the Kingdom of the God of Heaven Dan. 2. which was to succeed the 4th Kingdom there And ad Novatianum upon that of St. Jude ver 14. Behold the Lord cometh with Thousands of his Saints says It is just the same with the Description in Daniel cap. 7. v. 9 10. Which shows his Opinion of the Fourth Kingdom which was to come before it to be That it was not yet past and therefore not the Greek Empire and there was nothing else that it could then be but the Roman Lactantius soon after him hath a particular Application of the times of the Fourth Beast and of all the Account of it in Daniel to the Roman Empire lib. 7. cap. 16. CENTURY IV. Methodius in his Revelations upon that of St. Paul 2 Thes 2. 6. What is it then says he that shall be taken away but the Roman Empire Which refers to that Man of Sin who is there described by the Apostle as the same with the little Horn of the Fourth Beast in Daniel Athanasius in Synops de S. Scriptor Daniel also says he saw Visions of the Consummation two about the Kingdoms viz. cap. 2 7. and two more about the Coming of Christ and the Destruction of Jerusalem and about the Coming of Antichrist viz. cap. 9 cap. 11. So that by the Consummation-Visions of the Kingdoms he must understand the Prophecies of the Successions of the Four Monarchies to the end of the World and therefore that the Fourth could not be the Grecian but the Roman Eusebius Caesariensis is said by Jerom to have wrote three Volumes and Apollinarius five against Porphyry who made the Fourth Beast to be the Reign of the Greeks after Alexander against all the current of Interpreters before who had determined it to be the Roman See Jerom 's Preface before Daniel Victorinus supposed to be Afer in Apocalypsin c. 13. upon the mention of the Ten Crowned Horns chap. 13. These Ten Horns says he and Ten Crowns Daniel also did set forth before and that Antichrist should pull up Three of them After he had before interpreted that Beast and its Horns of the Roman Empire Chrysostom on 2 Thessalon 2. 6. speaking of that that did withhold the coming of the Man of Sin after he had determined it to be the Roman Empire adds For as the Babylonians and Medes were destroyed who were before the Roman Empire so shall this Empire it self be ruined by Antichrist and He by Christ And this doth Daniel deliver to us with great Evidence CENTURY V. Isidorus Pelusiota in his 218th Epistle says thus
of the Vision of the Four Beasts in the 7th of Daniel That Vision of the Divine Daniel so generally known and talked of in all places does compare the Monarchies of the Assyrians the Medes and Macedonians to a Lion a Bear and a Leopard But the Fourth Beast sets forth the Roman Empire And Sulpicius Severus Sacr. Histor lib. 2. has the same Four Kingdoms specified as foretold by Daniel in the four Metals of the Statue in the 2d Chapter which have the same Characters with those in the 7th Jerom is so much of this Opinion himself in his Comment upon Daniel that almost all his design in it is to expose Porphyry the Philosopher for interpreting the Fourth Beast and the Little Horn of it to be the Greek Empire and Antiochus Epiphanes in it And to shew the Paradoxicalness of that Interpretation he says upon the latter-end of the 11th Chapter That all Ecclesiastical Writers did understand the Fourth Beast and the Ten Horns and Eleventh little One in it of the Roman Empire and the dividing it among Ten Kings and of Antichrist that should subdue Three of them And when he heard that Rome was taken by the Barbarous Nations he concluded that the Man of Sin was just at hand in relation to the Ten Kings and the Little Horn. Epist ad Gaudentium Theodoret after him is so clear in this all over his Comment upon Daniel that it must be transcribed to take all that he says about it He Wonders how any Men of Learning could make the Fourth Beast to be the Macedonian Kingdom when the Greek Empire was so expresly represented in the 8th Chapter by the He-Goat with the Four Horns and applied to it by the Angel and when the Third Beast in the 7th Chapter had four Heads to set out the same thing Comment in cap 7. Daniel But what can our Modern Interpreters answer to that of his against the Jews in his time who were much of the same Opinion in their Application of the Fourth Beast and the Little Horn to the Greek Empire and that of the Kingdom of the Son of Man to the return of the persecuted Jews Very properly says he may that be applied to these Jews that which the Prophet hath long since said of them And thou hast put on an Whores forhead and refusest to be ashamed Jeremiah 3. 3. Ibidem Cyril Hierosolymitanus and Ambrose upon the 2 Thessalon 2. 6 7. speaking of the time that the Man of Sin was to be revealed When the times of the Roman Empire shall be fulfilled says one and the other That he should appear after the falling of the Roman Empire into pieces Andreas Bishop of Caesarea some while at least after the time of St. Basil whom he quotes cap. 44. in Apocalyps at the mention of the Ten Horns of the Beast in the Revelations chap. 17. These Ten Horns or Kings says he Daniel also saw And then determines Babylon the City of the Beast and the Kings to be Rome according to the Opinion of the ANCIENT DOCTORS for many reasons but CHIEFLY because on the Fourth Beast in Daniel that is the Roman Empire were seen the Ten Horns And also because Antichrist when he comes is to appear as King of the Romans VNDER PRETENCE OF RESTORING THEIR EMPIRE Whence he makes it the Consent of the Ancient Doctors That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire an Argument to prove the Beast of the Revelatious that was like it to be so too and therefore Babylon to be Rome So also does Arethas Bishop of Cappadocia in his Comment upon the Revelat. chap. 13. refer the show of the Beast with the Ten Horns there to that of the Fourth Beast in Daniel and applies it to the Roman Empire But Pope Gregory the Great does more positively apply the N. B. Reign of the Little Horn to his own times which was certainly a time of Roman Rule In his 38 Epist ad Constant lib. 4. he applies all the Prophecy of Daniel concerning the Little Horn or Antichrist to those that would arrogate to themselves the Title of the Bishops of the whole Roman Empire as the Bishop of Constantinople did then pretend The King of Pride says he is near at hand And which ought hardly to be spoken he has also an Army of Priests prepared for him in allusion to the Little Horn as the same with The Beast in the Revelations who was accompanied and assisted by the False Prophet Because after this there is no different mention of any other Interpretation of the Fourth Beast in Daniel Ambrosius Ausbertus may be the general Representative of the Opinion of all those of latter date till the time of the Reformation He upon the 13th Chapter of the Revelations makes the Beast under the healed Head to be the same with the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast in Daniel And upon the 17th Chapter compares that Beast with the Fourth Beast in Daniel And there adds For what can be understood by the Fourth Beast but the Roman Empire in which those Ten Kings are mentioned after whom Antichrist is to arise It may therefore now be safely concluded as the least that can be inferred from these Testimonies of the Ancients That never was any Learned Man more mistaken about a matter of Fact of which he could hardly avoid the having a clear satisfaction about than Sir John Marsham has been in his Judgment about this part of the Visions of Daniel CHAP. III. What the Ancients do expresly agree in about the Schemes of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel Why they much differed from one another in some particular Characters of it The Vse that is to be made of their Vnanimous Agreement in some things The Necessary Consequences of what the Ancients do expresly agree in FRom the preceding Testimonies of the Fathers it appears That however different the Ancients might have been in particular Opinions about the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel yet they are found unanimously to agree in these General Conclusions 1. That the notion of the Fourth Beast in general as CONSENT of the Ancients the common subject of all its Horns is The Roman Monarchy 2. That the Ten Horns of it are a division of that Monarchy into so many several Kingdoms under Ten Kings 3. That the Little Horn of that Beast is Antichrist that should have a Kingdom within the bounds of the Roman Empire 4. That the Kingdom of Antichrist should continue till it should be destroyed by the Second Coming of Christ after the time that they wrote in Victorinus was indeed singular about the last of these For he judged Antichrist to have been a single Emperor of Rome about the time of the Vision But that was esteemed as very extravagant by others Some think says Augustine ad Marcellin Lib. 20. cap. 19. that Nero is meant by the Man of Sin 2 Thessal 2. 4. But I extremely admire at their presumption or their
the things at first mentioned these seem to be necessary Consequences that they must be supposed to own 1. That by the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel must be Consequences understood a Kingdom of the Romans to the last end of the Beast with all its Horns For by the same reason that they took that Beast to be the Roman Monarchy in any part of its time they must also own it to be the same in all the mentions of it or in any time of its Horns As the Third Beast is the Kingdom of the Greeks in in all the time of its four Heads or its four Horns cap. 7. cap. 8. They were all said in the 8th Chapter to be the King of Grecia that is One Ruling Nation at first united and afterwards divided And therefore the Little Horn and the Ten of the Fourth Beast must be as much Roman Sovereigns as the Little Horn and the five other in the He-Goat Chap. 8. were Graecian Rulers And this shews how contradictory it was to the notion of the Fourth Beast in which all the Fathers agreed to make the Ten Kings in it to be Destroyers and Ruiners of the Roman Kingdom as some of the Fathers did imagine And therefore by the Ruine of the Roman Empire they must be understood to mean nothing but the ruining the entire form of it as the breaking a thing in pieces is called the ruine and destruction of it but no more the end of the Roman Kingdom than the four Horns of the Goat were the end of the Kingdom of the Greeks 2. From hence also does it follow That the Ten Horns and the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast are a time of Roman Rule 3. That the Kingdom of Antichrist or the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast is to begin among the Romans after the division of that Monarchy into Ten Kingdoms and is to continue from its first Rise to the Second Coming of Christ in Glory For the Little Horn continues with the Fourth Beast till it is destroyed by the Kingdom of the Son of Man 4. That the notion of a Beast all over Daniel is the Monarchy of one Conquering Nation only from the time of its Conquest to the last end of it For there is a general Agreement that the other Three Beasts in the 7th of Daniel do signify the Babylonian Persian and Graecian Monarchies till they came to be subdued And the Two Beasts in the 8th Chapter are said expresly to be of the same kind The Ram is called the Kings of Media and Persia V. 20. V. 3. and the Two Horns are represented as rising up the one after the other to denote the succession of the Persian to the Median Line till he is there subdued by the He-goat The He-goat also tho he be called the King of Greece in the single Person yet is said to have four Kings succeeding after one great one set forth by a V. 21 22. first great Horn and four rising up after it and is described to continue to the latter time of that Kingdom whose Character is V. 23. owned to be the fourfold Kingdom 5. That the signification of Heads and Horns of Beast all over Daniel is The several Supreme Powers in that Nation which is represented in general by the Beast If these Heads or Horns be said to come one after another they denote a succession of so many different Supreme Magistracies in the same place But if represented as rising up altogether they signify the division of that Nation into so many distinct Sovereignties or Kingdoms And also the continuance of each Succession of the Successive Heads or Horns and the continuance of each division of the Contemporary Heads or Horns till the change of either of them This all agree in about the four Heads of the Leopard in the 7th Chapter which signify so many distinct Kingdoms in the Greek Monarchy and about the successive Horns of the Ram in the 8th Chapter which signify the Succession of the Persian to the Median Government in the same Nation of the Medes and Persians according as that Kingdom is called both under the V. 8 12 15. Median and under the Persian Kings as thrice in Daniel 6. under the Medes and all over the Book of Esther in the time of the Persians The Horns of the He-goat also in the 8th Chapter are agreed to represent first the united Monarchical Government of the Greeks under one King and then the Succession of the fourfold Kingdom of the Greeks after it 'T is true the Little Horn coming out of one of the four in the 8th Chapter agreed to be but one single King makes no change in that fourfold Kingdom though he be described as coming after the four But then it is plainly intimated that he is not an Horn distinct from the other four but only a part of that out of which he is said to come and not to come after it Wherefore here are eleven acknowledged Instances of the proof of the beforementioed Rule about the signification of Heads and Horns And then for the remaining Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast and Little One after them in the 7th Chapter there wants nothing to assure their conformity to it but to prove that they belong to the same Nation that is represented by the Fourth Beast there And that is assured from the preceding Consequence For these Horns are but parts of that Beast which in the whole time of it signifies but one Nation only The Fathers indeed do seem generally to agree That the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast and consequently the Ten before him can be nothing but Roman Powers whatsoever is pretended to the contrary Andreas Caesariensis in his Testimony before-cited expresly says That the Ancient Doctors made Babylon in the Revelations to be Rome because they looked upon the Beast there whose City Babylon is to be the same with the Little Horn upon the Fourth Beast or the Roman Empire And Bellarmin does as good as say the same Lib. 3. de Pontif. c. 16. The Fathers say that Antichrist was to come as a Monarch of that Empire the Seat of which had been at Rome Thus for instance When Justin Martyr tells Trypho that Antichrist signified by the Little Horn was just at hand when the Roman Empire was then flourishing who could understand that of any thing but the Roman Empire When Irenaeus guesses his name to be Latinos because that he says was the name of his Kingdom he does plainly fix him upon the Romans When Tertullian makes the Ten Kings of the Roman Empire to bring on Antichrist and says That his time is at hand that is in the height of the Roman Empire he intimates the same thing Hippolytus makes him to arise amongst the Ten Kings whom he calls the Kings of the Roman Empire Cyprian and all the Fathers that make the Kingdom of the Stone or of the God of V. 44. Heaven
represented by the False Prophet cannot be the same thing with that which is called the Beast viz. Because the Beast is really nothing but an Head of the Beast which by consequence the 6th Chap. 3. does denote Prop. 6. a Civil Power of the Romans whereas the False Prophet is described as an Ecclesiastical Power employed in the service of that Civil Power See Revelat. 13 12 14. But yet they might very well agree That the Beast and the False Prophet might be used promiscuously to signify the really distinct Actions of one another because they were joined together in one Confederacy And the names of any Confederates or Partners in any thing are commonly used to express the Actions of one another in the common Design So Primasius upon the 13th of the Revelations concerning them both Both of them says he are every-where to be understood in conjunction And presently after It is manifest that both the Beasts are one and the same body of men and exercise the same wicked Worship so that the First is said to fight for the false Shows of the Second Thus I have drawn down the Consequences of the General Consent of the Ancients to mine own particular Opinion concerning the first date of the Rise of the Beast and the particular Roman Power that is now signified by that Term. But that which is to be observed for the General Confirmation of the Conclusion in which almost all Protestants agree in is That if it be sure as may appear from the 4th Query That the Sixth Head of the Beast is the Imperial Government at the time of the Vision then there need nothing be granted to prove the Beast and the False Prophet to be the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power of Rome at this present but only to demonstrate from History That there has certainly been two Changes of the Sovereign Power of the Romans since the time of St. John For they did agree That Antichrist from his first appearance must continue 4th Agreement Chap. 3. 3d Agreement this Chap. till the Second Coming of Christ and that the next Change of the Sovereignty of the Romans but one after the time of the Vision must be the Eighth King or the Beast and Antichrist And therefore at the beginning of the last of those two Changes of the Government of the Romans since the time of St. John must the Kingdom of Antichrist have begun whensoever that does appear from History to have happened And whatsoever the Fathers have delivered contrary to this concerning the Time Times and half a Time of the Beast as but three years and an half must have been acknowledged by them to contradict their General Agreements in other things more plain and from Experience which they often mention as the only means to determine the meaning of some Mystical Expressions that regarded future Times they would have learnt that those Times were necessarily to be understood in a Mystical Sense and not as they ordinarily signify according to the frequent Examples in Scripture of such a Mystical Signification of parts of See Corol. 1. Prop. 23. Rule 2. time and the true Rule of Interpretation in such like Cases For a clearer satisfaction about the contrariety and inconsistency of some of the particular Opinions of the Fathers with the Conclusions in which they agree with the Unanimous Judgment of the rest it may be convenient to inquire into the grounds or reasons of their Paradoxical Fancies about the Beast in the Revelations which contradicted the General Agreement about the signification of A Beast and its Ruling Parts in the Prophecy of Daniel For this purpose it is in the first place to be considered That it is a true Observation of the Learned Grotius That the Reason why the Apocalypse was not added at first to the rest of the Books In Praefat. ad Apocal. of the New Testament which did afterwards give ground for questioning the Canonical Authority of it was That it did so openly point at the Roman Government as the great Enemy of God that it lay concealed in a few hands amongst the Christians of the first times for fear of exasperating the Romans against them This does St. Chrysostome and Augustine make to be the ground why St. Paul spoke so mysteriously about the Roman Empire in In 2. Ep. Thess his Prophecy about Antichrist 2 Thess 2. 6. when he says And now ye know what doth withhold the Reason they give for it is That if the Apostle had openly named the Romans they would have accounted him and all the Faithful very pestilent Members of their Government This fear of the then Ruling Power together with the Professions of their ignorance of the application of the Characters of Antichrist because they look'd upon their times as not at all concerned in those things may be very reasonably judged to be the cause of the little care that the Fathers took to be wary in the Interpretations that they gave of this Book For they esteemed it to be both a dangerous study and also relating to things that they could not well judge of and also to future times in which they should not share And might therefore as Chrysostome and Augustine do expresly say bring themselves unnecessarily into great danger And Jerom in his Answer to 11. q. ad Algasiam and Primasius upon 2 Thess 2. 6. to the same purpose This Account may the more easily be allowed from the general neglect of the Book of the Apocalypse even in this Age to which the chief things in Mr. Mede Bp. Usher c. it are by the severest Examiners of the Sense of Scripture judged to belong so as to be even laid aside out of the Calendar for * Homilies of the Church of England p. 69 and p. 316. the daily readings of Scripture by Protestants themselves †who nevertheless do give the present Church of Rome the name of Babylon It is then no great wonder That Irenaeus and Hippolytus and some other of the Fathers whilst the Roman Government continued Pagan should be so willing to make the Beast in general to be the World and the Seven Heads of it to be seven Wicked Ages of the World as the sum or Recapitulation as Irenaeus calls it of all the Apostate times For in that way the Sixth Head said in the Prophecy to be then in being was not more applied to the Romans than to all the other Wicked Nations in the World at that time and the last Head called the Beast would not concern the then Roman Empire because it was not to come till after the end of that present Reigning Age. And their willingness to take this safe way might make them easie to be satisfied with such small grounds as these for it viz. 1. That the Beast in the Revelations is signified Chap. 13. 2. to 1. Dan. 2. 40. and 7. 7 23. contain all the Four Beasts of the 7th of Daniel in his own
shew of himself before the full rise of the Beast though his full-grown appearance was not till after the Reign of the Beast 7. If it be further objected That the Imperial Line that was begun in Justinian was cut off from the Rule of Rome at the deprivation of Leo Isaurus and the Eastern Emperors by the Pope and therefore that the Emperors from Justinian could not be the Beast since the Beast was to continue in being till the second coming of Christ It is to be considered That the conferring of the Title of Roman Emperor upon Charlemaigne not long after did continue the Succession of the Imperial Head to this day And if there had been a perfect Inter-Reign from the end of Leo Isaurus to Charlemaigne that would not have discontinued the Imperial Head For since there was no other Secular Head of Rome owned for Supream there in the room of the Imperial during that space of time the Imperial Head still continued without the interposition of any other For the Lombard Kings who were the only appearing Power of Italy besides were so far from being owned for Supream at Rome in the room of the Eastern Emperors that the Pope k Petavius Rationar Temp. Part. I. Lib. 8. cap. 7. speaking of Aistulphus King of the Lombards And then he delivered to the Pope by the Abbot Fulrade the Exarchat of Ravenna and the Five Cities that is Ancona and the four Towns of the Picene Territory and other adjacent had all their most considerable Territories given him by Pepin the Father of Charlemaigne And l Ludovic à Bebenberg quotes the Historiae Francorum for what follows Pope Stephen the Successor of Zacharias about the Year 753. anointed Pepin and his two Sons viz. Charles afterwards Charlemaignc and Carolomannus for Kings of the Franks and obliged the Princes of the Franks to chuse none of any Family than these whom he had made choice of by the Providence of God to defend the Apostolick See And so Pepin enters that year into Italy for that very purpose Upon this account it is very probable that the Chronicle of St. Martin and others of the same Opinion have said that Pope Stephen translated the Empire from the Greeks to the Germans For since the business of the Emperor is to defend the Roman Church and to exalt the Head of it the Pope as appears Dist 6. Tibi Domino and to protect the Clergy 96 Distinct c. ult and the Holy Churches as other Kings and Princes are 23. q. 5. c. Principes c. Administratores And since Constantine and his Son Leo required to do this by Pope Stephen against the Lombards as appears Ext. de Elect. venerabilem in ult glossâ did refuse to do it therefore did Pope Stephen chuse Pepin and Charles c. and their Successors c. And for the contrariety of Chronicles we ought to stand to the Chronicle of the Franks abovementioned which seems to have been wrote by a Frank who therefore was well acquainted with the Transaction of this Translation For this History of the Franks in this matter concerning Charlemaigne is taken out of the Writings of the Abbot Rhegius of the Diocese of Triers who has reason to be thought to be well acquainted with the History of the Princes of his own Countrey The sum of the Canon-Law printed at Venice with the Privileges of almost all Monarchs and Popes by the Title of the Speculum of Popes Emperors and Kings does affirm the Translation of the Empire from the Greeks to the Franks to have been done by Pope Stephen about the Year 753. Ludovicus a Bebenburg attributes to Pepin Ann. Dom. 753. and A. Rosellus to the Year 755. and Marinus to the same Year De Translat Imp. Rom. in Germanos sect Quod Translatio Imp. non facta erat per Papam And Bellarmin L. 1. de Translatione Imp. Romani in Germanos cap. 12. grants that Charlemaigne conquered Italy 20 years before he was Crowned by the Pope Charlemaigne himself See References was within some years after Leo Isaurus owned by the Pope for the Royal Defender of the Liberties of Rome and of the Church though he had not the Title of Emperor till many years after If any should dispute the Right of Charlemaigne because the Constantinopolitan Emperor was m Bellarmin in his First Book de Translat Imp. Rom. in Germanos c. 12. does give an account of the Succession of the Constantinopolitan Emperors to Charlemaigne and of the owning the Title of the Western Emperors And cap. 5. To the same purpose Ludovic à Bebenberg in note 6. on the 6th Chapter M. Frehems his Commentator unjustly deposed They may as well question the Right of Succession in most of the Emperors before Possession and not Right was that which did always confirm the Imperial Title And it will be hard to find any constant way of Succession or Election in the Imperial Line before Charlemaigne to found a right upon Sometimes the Emperor was elected by the Army sometimes by the People sometimes adopted by another Emperor All that can be found constant about it is that generally they used to have n See Grot. de Jure B. P. l. 2. c. 9. note 1. chap. 3. Hieron Balbus de Coronatione cap. 13. in the same note and the Comment there on Ludovic à Bebenburg See also Lipsius of these Acclamations 2. Elect. cap. 10. the Acclamations of the People of Rome and the Approbation of the Senate which were freely given o Of Charlemaign's Acclamations all Historians speak to Charlemaigne From whom there has been continued a Succession of the Imperial Line to this time It is certain that before Julius Caesar the Majesty of the Roman Kingdom was in the See References p Paulus Merula de Legibus Romanis pag. 58. The Jurisdictions were bounded The Senate had more Authority than the Magistrate The Common People had the greatest Authority In all the People together was the Majesty of the Commonwealth Cuspinian in Sextum Rufum pag. 6. The Consuls Rods were hung down when they came into a full Assembly of the People because the Majesty of the People of Rome was greater than that of the Consuls People of Rome And to commit Treason was in Majestatem Populi Romani peccare And it was a generally continued custome by the Emperors to receive the confirmation of their Title from the Acclamations of the People 8. But it may be here urged That the Imperial Head was manifestly discontinued in the time of the Tumults of Italy under the q See Petavii Rationar Temp. Part. I. L. 8. c. 13. Berengarii when there were such frequent changes of the Kings of Italy This can be of no more force than the former excepting the Ceremony of anointing Berengarius King at Rome by Pope John the Xth. But his Reign was so very short after it and the Successions of those after him so like a mere scuffle