called Sodom for the Filthiness of its Fornications and dreadful Burnings that it is devoted to And Aegypt first for its Oppression of the Saints with whose Blood it is Drunk Then for the Plagues that will come upon it and lastly for its Pharaoh-like Principality first in the Pagan Dragon and then its Draconick Pope to whom the Dragon consign'd His Power And to follow all the Emblems of the City as on purpose to bring it Home to Rome It it both Resembled to the City where our Lord was Crucified signifying its Whoredom to be like the Whoredom of that Infamous Aholibah or Jerusalem the False Whorish Church and under the Jurisdiction of Rome so much at that Time that not without the most Notorious Sentence of the Roman Judge Pontius Pilate Our Lord was Crucified which was for the very Service of this Prophecy so particularly we may Believe Recorded that in that Sense the very City Rome was the City in which Our Lord was Crucified All this Affects this City so that its Tenth Falls Now this City sits on the Beast For to shew it is the same City that sits on the Beast when the Beast the very same Beast that Ascends out of the Bottomless Pit c. 11. c. 17. Kills the Witnesses Their Dead Bodies lye in the Street of that Great City which plainly joyns the Beast and the City together the City as the Imperial Residence the Beast as the King of it as the Vision of the c. 17. does For He as King having Power of Life and Death those whom He Kills lye in the Street of his Great Emperial City So then the City and the Beast are here first so nearly conjoyn'd and so again c. 17. How then comes the Tenth of this Great City to Fall whatever we understand by it for I will not now dispute that How comes it to Fall I say when It sits on the Beast It could not be if the Beast Himself did not Sink and how could He Sink if His Fourty two Months were not out For so long was given Him by Prophecy which in another Character is call'd Time Times and Half a Time and as apply'd to the Witnesses Three Days and a Half in Imitation of our Lord 's three Days in the Grave Till the Morning then of the Half Time and Day there could be no such Alteration in his Kingdom as the Reformation made and till that Time of the Forty two Months fully exhausted when the Twelve hundred sixty Days End also in the Rising and Glory of the Witnesses There cannot be a Fall of the Tenth of the City which He bears up the Grandeur of And to shew farther that this Beast that Slays the Witnesses is the same with the Beast c. 17. It is made known by that certain Mark of it the Ascending out of the Bottomless Pit and that we may know they are both the same with the Beast who hath the Fourty two Months c. 13. He makes War with the Saints who are the Seed of the Woman and Hold the Testimony of Jesus C. 12. Vlt. or are the Witnesses being thereunto Deputed by the Dragon who gave him his Throne and Great Authority and He that Beast is Taken c. 19. as is foretold also c. 13. He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity And the Ten Kings who give him their Power who make War with the Lamb and He overcomes them are Kill'd with the Sword of his Mouth c. 19. as was foretold c. 13. He that killeth with the Sword shall be killed with the Sword. All which farther Assure together with what hath been said before That It is one and the same Beast throughout the Prophecy of the Revelation viz. the Seventh Head of the Roman Empire and its Eighth King to whom the Ten Kings as Horns give their Power The second Oracle given us concerning the Period of the Forty two Months is c. 17. God hath put into the Heart of the Ten Kings to Do his Will or execute his Determination and to execute and perform One Determination untill the Words of God shall be fulfilled Now this Counsel Determination and Will of God is that which is explain'd what it is It is even that they should Give their Kingdom and Power to the Beast And how long Vntill the words of God shall be fulfill'd And Those words were declar'd c. 13. Authority was given to Him as a Beast of Ten Horns to continue Forty two Months The great Event therefore at the End of the Forty two Months is That then the Ten Kings shall Hate the Whore and make her Desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with Fire From whence it is evident how close the Union is between the City call'd the Whore and the Beast For while the Kings give their Power to the Beast they bear up the Beast who bears up the City while they fulfill the Decree of God for the Beasts Forty two Months They are One in giving Him their Kingdom and Power and so long They are drunk with the Wine of the Whores Fornication But when those Words are fulfill'd and those Forty Two Months then They hate the Whore and then this Tenth of the Great City Falls viz. the whole Circle of the Power given by these Ten Horns or Ten Kings who now Recall their Power from the Beast and that Tenthness of Power Falls also For however the Grammar of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not bear such an Exposition of it as should signifie the Ten King'd Power yet the Prophecy of Daniel in the Ten Toes of the Image the Ten Horns of the Beast and The whole Frame of the Prophecy of the Revelation concerning the Beast his Ten Horns or Ten Kings does forcibly over-sway the nicety of Grammar and carries the Prophecy to this Sense and much the rather because as hath been argued The Twelve hundred sixty Days will be then ended and the Words of God fulfilled concerning the Bestian Power which lay so much in its Horns or Ten Kings persecuting the Witnesses Let us now recollect the Summ of this Argument in the Proof it gives The Argument runs thus The Roman City or Church sits on the Beast or Eighth Kimg who hath been in Possession of the Time allotted him by Prophecy so long as from the Seventh other King of a short space after the sixth King that was in the Apost John's Time till now within nine or ten Years of the Expiration of that Time as a Time allowable to remain for the fulfilling of All Events This is the Beast or eighth King bearing up that Rome whether City or Church out of which Gods People are Called But the present City or Church of Rome sitting upon the Pope is and hath been in that Possession so long That Time so allotted is expresly said to be Fourty two Months those Months must be Prophetical Months or Days for Years Those Months must be Time of the Moon and not of the
THE Voice from Heaven Come out of BABYLON my People DEMONSTRATED To mean the coming out of the present Papal ROME AND IT 'S COMMUNION AND Herewith a Solemn Proof is given that the Papacy can survive but Eight Years in the Principality it yet Retains Enforced by a PREFACE ADJUSTED To the present Illustrious Appearances of God in the WORLD And particularly in this NATION By T. BEVERLEY Printed and Sold by John Salusbury in Cornhill 1688 / 9. A PREFACE TO THE READER Upon the following DISCOURSE suited to the present Juncture of Affairs in the World and to the particular Signs of the Times now Emerging THat which bore up the great Princes and Leaders among the Servants of God in Elder times to such a Transcendency of Action was immediate Revelation from God The Word of God came to them as Christ speaks and ennobled them as Gods upon Earth Immediate Revelation in the same manner bore up so High the Spirits of the Prophets that they feared none of the Powers upon Earth how great and formidable soever in delivering the Divine Messages even when they threatned them with that Ruine which they knew would most enrage them to Hear of The very same immediate Revelation stirred up the Spirits of the Vniversality of the Servants of God in Prayer and suitable Action so that they offered themselves willingly to the Services of their Generation even in the Loughtiest Atchievements when they knew themselves Arm'd with the Assurances of the Purposes of God to be fulfilled in those Seasons wherein they were summoned to such Action That which next to such immediate Revelation would now Inspire the Servants of God in each Station to the highest Elevation in Divine Manifestations to the World in Prayer and Action must be a Discovery of the Signs of the present Time according to sacred Prophesie and especially that great Prophesie of the New Testament which is peculiarly entitled The Revelation Because it is and ought to be in the place of immediate Revelation to All who Read and Hear it and all the Servants of Christ ought to Read and Hear it For it is the Revelation that God gave to Jesus Christ to shew to his Servants things that are shortly to come to pass And that shewing is plainly declar'd to be by their Reading and Hearing For it immediately follows Christs shewing and signification of it by the Testimony and Writing of his Servant John. For he is commanded to write-for after Ages And to encourage in such Reading and Hearing There is a Promise of Blessedness adjoyn'd to the Reading and Hearing I do not at all doubt there is a mystical Reading and Hearing by the Spirit and Power of Christ instructing and actuating his Servants according to the Principles and Services of this very Prophesie And that what is now doing and operating in the World and in our Nation is according to it without explicite understanding or attending to the Explanation of it But yet undoubtedly a more open and bold Explanation is due especially to this Age of the Churches of Christ and approach of his Kingdom We ought now to be more skill'd in the Signs of the Times than by a meer kind of Implicite Faith. And that must be by the Calculation of them according to this Prophesie for the Signs of the Times are compounded especially of the Definition of times by Prophesy and the events determin'd to come to pass in those Times and our discerning the Signs of the Times is to be by a compare of Prophesie and the product of Times agreeable to the Prophesie together even as the Time of Messiahs coming was design'd by the sure Word of Daniels Prophesy and Jesus Christ mighty in Word and Deed came at the same Time. Now our Lord condemns the Ignorance of the Scribes and Pharisees and People who did not discern the Signs of that Time not as simple Ignorance or Nescience but as gross Hipocrisie that they would not know what they might have known and proportionably in all times but especially in these Times wherein mighty Works are to shew forth themselves and begin to shew forth themselves in the downfal of the Turkish Tyranny with which the Papal is to meet in such degrees of Ruine as are determin'd to be parallel in each and in parallel Times I most humbly and earnestly therefore Beseech the Angels of the Reformed Churches That they would search this so great Prophesie of the New Testament as commensurate as hath been said to Immediate Revelation and that they would Minister out of it to the Princes and Powers of the Ten Kingdoms that have so long given their Power and Kingdom to the Beast especially to those which are already of the Reformation For the Words of God are near to be fulfill'd for God had said The Beast shall have Power to continue Forty two Months and to receive great Power and Authority from those Kings giving their Power and their Kingdom to Him. And the Word of God was fulfill'd so that their Kingdoms were entirely so given till the Reformation when the Morning of the last half Day or half Time of the forty two Months gave Liberty to some of those Ten Kings to reverse and recal the giving of their Kingdom As Christ arose early in the Morning of his last third Day and appeared to some of the Apostles and Disciples But it was Evening e're he met them in a Body and those who saw him since were Instrumental to prepare those who did not see him till the Evening so those Princes already of the Reformation shall be Instrumental to oblige the rest who have not yet renunciated to the Beast and the false Church to do the same now near the End of the last of the forty two Months Let them therefore have those grand excitements and encouragements of Prophesie undoubtedly Cyrus though a Gentile Prince was highly animated by the Prophesies of Isaiah and Jeremiah for the Destruction of Literal Babylon which Prophesies we may be assured were expounded to Him by Daniel so great a Prophet in his own Times how much more will Christian and Protestant Princes exalted in their Spirits summon their Prowesse and puissance for the service of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ to be within these Eight next Years proclaim'd by loud Voices from Heaven For when the Words of God are to be fulfill'd that the Ten Kings and their Nations do give their Power no longer to the Beast Then the Kingdom of Christ is proclaim'd although his Inauguration as we speak shall not be till seventy five Years after If any should say the Prophesie is dark and not to be understood and Men very disenclin'd to believe the Explications given of it let them consider it is very dangerous to say of any Book of Scripture with the unlearned we cannot read it because we are not learned and with the learned we cannot read it because it is sealed If there were by the pouring out of the Spirit
Power or as the Word signifies a Priviledge or Authority was given Him It sets out though not a Lawful Authority that was to be obey'd as is most apparent by every thing pertaining to this Beast yet It imports a signal permission and ordination of God's to that purpose and that He carryed the Woman as a King or Head of the Beast viz. of the Idolatrous Empire and by a Figure or Synechdochically the Beast Himself as Head oft denotes the whole Body For the driving this home to the purpose I am sensible It will be necessary to give Proof That the Beast c. 13. and c. 17. are one and the same Beast For if the Beast were not the same in both Chapters we could indeed have no guidance from the forty two Months assigned to the Beast c. 13. concerning the Time of the Beast c. 17. But if it be one and the same Beast in both Chapters then the forty two Months must needs be the Gauge of the Duration of the Beast c. 17. as It is c. 13. Now besides many Agreements between the Two Representations assuring them one and the same that would require much Discourse and Consideration of the whole Frame of this stupendious Point of the Prophecy I shall as I have endeavour'd all along in each Branch of this Discourse choose One that requires least Discourse and yet is most undeniable that is the Beast in the Beginning of chap. 13. who had one of his Heads Wounded and the Deadly Wound was healed is the Beast that had the Fourty Two Months limited to Him The very same Beast had by the Ministry and Service of the other Beast of whom I will not now enquire It being unnecessary to the Force of this Argument The very same Beast I say had an Image made to Him with which He is ever after so conjoyn'd that the Beast and his Image go inseparably together the very same Beast had the Number of his Name as also his Mark made particular unto Him All these the Beast that had the Fourty Two Months decreed to Him undeniably had for the Prophecy Affirms it in several express Words Calling the Beast that had these the First Beast the Beast that had a Wound by a Sword and did Live the Beast whose Deadly Wound was healed Now the very same Beast that hath the Image the Mark the Name the Number of the Name and was worshipped is He that is carryed all along with these infallible Characters upon Him through every Chapter of this Prophecy after his Description c. 13. till He is brought together with the Woman the City or Church under the seventh Vial and both utterly destroyed c. 19. And they who had gotten the Victory over his Image Mark Name Number of his Name and would not Worship Him nor his Image celebrate the Judgments of God made manifest upon the Woman the City and upon Him Cast into the Red Sea or Lake of Fire as Moses and the Israelites upon the Brink of the Red Sea of Old sung the Praises of God in casting Pharaoh and all his Host into that Red Sea a kind of Type of this Destruction c. 15. And after all was fully executed upon the City carryed upon the Beast upon the Beast Himself and upon his false Prophet and their whole Party They who are first and most eminent in the first Resurrection are they who had not worshipped the Beast nor his Image nor receiv'd his Mark nor his Name so manifestly referring to the Beast who had All these who is the Beast that had the Forty two Months assign'd to Him. c. 13. And indeed It is so far from two Beasts that there is not except that Beast whom the Prophecy calls the other Beast who had no Image Mark Name nor number of Name any more Beasts then this One Beast who had all these who is kept so distinct as not to be confounded by the special care and caution of the Divine Spirit And that other Beast first ministred to this grand Beast till He came to his Number and after serv'd Him as his false Prophet and they were adjudged both to the Lake together which I hope is full proof that the same Beast who had the forty two Months assigned to Him is the very Beast who bears Rome aloft in this c. 17. and supports its Time at this day And now the Time assign'd is very express in this Prophecy viz. Forty two Months which was the first point to be made out There must be substantial proof that the Time assign'd will Point 2 bear such a length as may comport with the Argument that is to reach from the Expiration of the seventh King above twelve hundred years ago and so onward till the Times of this Eighth King and seventh Head shall end also Now It is at first sight evident Forty two Months are naturally understood a Time so very short and curt that They afford no room nor space for Action that is great and considerable But it is as evident there is a Cyphar or prophetick Short-hand for Time that multiplies Days into Years and weeks of days into weeks of years and so consequentially and proportionably Months of Days into Months of Years and so proportionably these Months of Days into Months of Years And this hath been Standard for the Rate of prophetick Time ever since It was first set and seal'd by God Ezek. 4. 6. I have appointed thee each day for a year And that therefore It should be so here there is greatest Reason 1. Because It is eminent stupendious profoundest Prophecy even this whole Book of Revelation and particularly this of the City and of its Prince the Beast and requires deepest search and a Mind that hath Wisdom as is more than once admonished in this very point and part of the Prophecy that concerns the Beast as if it were the most dark misterious and lowest laid of any Thing in this whole Volume of Prophecy so that if ever there be place for such Interpretation of Time here it is 2. The necessity of deferring to the Prophecy it s own Grandeur requires this Interpretation of Time For when it portrays such a Power as the Beastial Power and Principality every stroke of which is great and admirable when It draws such a City or Community sitting upon it so every way wonderful as that John wonder'd with great Admiration and that principally and in a manner solely in relation to this Beast of the seventh Head and Eighth King and at the Woman upon Him. If the whole of this Grandeur Power and Principality both of the City and of the King for both are to be destroyed together were coup'd up within the short space of three years and a half how small and petite must the Prophecy be in describing with so great State and Eloquence of Types and words such a Mushrome City and Prince that should Rise and Fall before they could be known to Live or be warm in that
a Head full of the Names of Blasphemy or Rome the Famous Church of the World be Babylon the Mother of Harlots Whatever may be the Profession of the True God yet when that Profession is Adulterated with Idolatry and stain'd with the Answer Blood of Saints God accounts of those Powers and People according to what His Word declares Zedechiah was a Profane Wicked Prince and that latter Succession of wicked Princes after Josiah Lyons Idolatrous Israelites are said from the very Beginning to blaspheme God Samaria and Jerusalem are those Infamous Prostitutes or Harlots call'd Aholah and Aholibah This Prophecy Ezek. 20. 29. c. 23. hath therefore determin'd that Doubt what Esteem God hath and All his People are to have of both of the Pope and his Church And there is no Fence against the Divine Oracle The Man of Sin sits in the Temple of God and Exalts Himself as God and shews Himself that He is God which is both Blasphemy and Idolatry and He bears the Name of it in being called Holiness and our Holy Lord. According to the very Explanation of Prophecy given There Object 2 is not a close Succession of Heads though there should be of Kings For between the sixth and the seventh Head was the Christian Emperour who though He was a King was no Head and the seventh Head did not Succeed till the Christian Empire Expir'd The Prophecy expresly tells us the Beast was deadly Wounded in Answer one of his Heads which was during the Time of the Christian Emperour who as we have seen was to come betwixt the sixth and the seventh Heads and had not the eighth Head been to Succeed and had He not actually Succeeded after no long space in the style of Prophecy The Beast had indeed Dyed That is the Roman Empire as Idolatrous and Bloody in its Persecutions had expir'd But because the whole of that Time Heathenish Idolatry and Persecution was Fashioning into Antichristian the Beast liv'd though deadly Wounded and the Dragon gave his Power and Seat as by Will to the Beast The Pope was long er'e he arose to such Supremacy as would Object 3 Answer the Prophetic Types And so Prophecy Represents it The Gentiles or Antichristianizing Answer Layty the Inhabitants of the Earth under the other Beast or Antichristianizing Hierarchy of Bishops their Dignified and Inferior Clergy Horn'd like a Lamb among which the Pope of Rome was Principal and ever aspiring were a Protecterian Supremacy during the Wound of the First Beast or Roman Empire as Idolatrous which under the Christian Emperours was Wounded deadly in One of viz. the sixth of its Heads or the Pagan Emperours and Powers subdu'd by the Christian Emperours During that Time therefore of the Wound and also during the Infancy of the Kingship of the Seventh Head and Eighth King That Hierarchy hath the High though Infamous Title of the Other Beast conferr'd upon it and accordingly Forty two Months were assign'd to the Gentiles as a Signification of such a Bestial Power under the Aristocracy of the Other Beast and to note its time And thus Things continu'd till the Grand * Call'd Beast tho' but a Head in Imitation of the little horn among the Ten another Emblem of this Beast call'd the Beast and deliver'd to the Flames Dan. 7. 11. Beast had an Image made to Him to be Worshipped and All Sware Fealty to him by Receiving his Mark which was the perfect Healing the Wound and the Infant Kingship of the Seventh Head Then He came to his Number 666 which was not till An. Dom. 725 or 6 during the Christian Emperours many Years after his Succession which the Infancy of a King does not Prejudice Then the Other Beast though undivided from the Grand Beast submitted to be his False Prophet and the Months of the Gentiles naturally merg'd into those of the Beast having till then supply'd what was wanting in the time of the Night although the Beast's Infant Succession as Eighth King and his Fourty Two Months commenc'd against the Twelve hundred sixty Days as the Moon 's Nights against the Sun's Days Thus it is no Objection against Prophecy but according to Prophecy that the Beast was so long Rising to his Exercise of Supremacy as seventh Head and eighth King. For He is the Beast that was in its Six Heads but deadly Wounded in the sixth of them by the seventh King no Head and so was as Not in any Appearance till the seventh Head and eighth King was grown up to his Number and the Wound healed by an Image made to Him And Great and Small Rich and Poor Bond and Free received His Mark. 2. But this Objection will be more fully answer'd by a further settlement of the very Beginning and Epoch of these Forty Two Months of the Beast For whenever the Beast Rose those Months Rose also Now the Beast's Rising is fix'd to an Hour For the Ten Kings receive Power or Authority at One Hour viz. the very same Hour with the Beast And they receive Authority as Kings that same Hour For here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be Interpreted at one Hour as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Ninth Hour Acts 10. 30. And they receive at that One Hour Authority as Kings They had no Kingdom in the Apostles Time although then they were as Ten Horns to the Roman Empire but uncrowned Horns For the Beast or Idolatrous Roman Empire consisting of its Seven Heads and Ten Horns and of the Body of the People were always alike pourtray'd in Prophecy yet with some regard to the variety of Times that pass'd over it The Heads are therefore in the Roman Dragon or Heathen Imperial State first represented Crowned for they always imported Supreme Power and then in the Beast the Heads having been already Crowned the Horns are presented Crown'd shewing at the one and the same Hour the Seventh Head of the Beast came to the Exercise of Sovereignty The Ten Horns also received Power as Kings And in this Vision c. 17. Neither the Heads nor the Horns are presented as Crown'd having been both Crown'd in the former Vision and explain'd in this But let us Examine when could these Ten Kings receive Authority as Kings and be justly own'd as such for the Prophecy says they had received no Kingdom as yet And it was at One and the same Hour with the Beast viz. when He succeeded the Seventh King or when the Roman Christian Empire ceased For when their Vniversal Monarch their Lawful Prince renounced Empire as Augustulus did Then had the Beast Authority to begin His Months and then these Ten Kings received Authority as Kings which could not according to the Law of Kingdoms to which Law the Prophecy yields Deference be while the Lawful Sovereign was in Being But he ceasing to be a King their Obligation ceas'd and then they Rise up as Kings whatever they had had done before towards being Kings was till then but Usurpation and not Authority Which
upon the Reformed an united endeavour to search by the Books of Scripture and other Ecclesiastical Records with Prayer what and what manner of Time the Holy Spirit in it did signifie as they have search'd for the Sense of Antiquity in some things of far less moment or concern to the Kingdom of Christ what doubt can there be but that the two leaved Gates of Truth in it had open'd to them and by their concerted Light and Authority Princes would be awaken'd and perswaded so that the great City and its Decimal power would soon feel the Earthquake and fall I am not at all in doubt but that to me less than the least of all Saints and the chiefest of Sinners as upon the Banks of Chebar Ulai and Hiddekel and as in the Isle of Patmos that Grace hath been vouchsaf'd upon my most Attentive Thought and Contemplation of this and other Prophesies of Scripture and upon the whole Scheme of Scripture Time that I have certainly found That at the year sixteen hundred ninety seven These great Things shall come to their Complement that are to be at even Dates with the Proclamation of the Kingdom of Christ That the Pollution of the Sanctuary shall be so far finish'd that the measur'd Temple and it's worshippers sealed up within eight the last twelve hundred sixty years shall be opened and a far more excellent Church-state Appear The Ministrations of Truth and Divine Worship much purer as the Ark of Testament seen and the Witnesses Shall have come out of their Sackcloth wherewith the so long Apostacy together with the Turkish Woe a Judgement upon that Apostacy hath cover'd them I have publish'd several Discourses to this purpose viz. A Scripture line of Time and Solomons Song adjusted to it and have found none who hath thought fit to remonstrate to them or resist the Evidence with which I have written not because I have written but because of what I have written I may say It is written It is written in the Scripture of Truth Particularly the annexed Discourse I publish'd a year ago and I cannot but look upon the present appearance of things in the World a Justification of it I have observ'd hitherto a very wonderful progress of Divine Government in the World according to the Calculation of Prophesie I have made I observe a great Preparation for the Cessation of the Turkish Woe upon the Imperial Constantinople and the Greek Cities that those Candlesticks may be Re-placed I observe yet This seems to wait for the Fall of the Tenth of the great City which motion it is to attend I have been always of the Judgment the Reformed Churches that lye in the Bowels of Nations whose Princes and Staple Laws had not established the Reformation were in Danger of fresh Martyrdoms by the cruel Policies of the Jesuites Order whose Arcana Imperii or Politics may well be styl'd the depths of Sathan I have understood those Churches symbol'd by the Church of Thyatira in regard of whom the Feet of Christ burn as in a Furnace to this day The Nations whose Princes and Laws have establish'd the Reformation I have had firm Assurance could not be re-enslav'd under the enchantment of Restoring that Power to the Beast which they had repeal'd from him nor should the Churches in them except by a short Hurricane be in any danger of force I have had the same Confidence with particular Relation to this Nation and the Churches in it and that the Soveraign Power of it shall be of the principal that shall perfect that Revolution of the Reformation into it's Complement and on that account have pray'd for the good understanding of our Supreams to that very end I have compar'd such Reformed Churches and particularly this to that of Sardis esteeming our greatest danger to be a Security a slumber in a State though splendid as to this World yet short of the Glory intended by Christ in the Advances of his Kingdom and that thereupon he would come upon us and we should not know at what hour he himself would come upon us I find no Reason to change or so much as to suspect but to be more and more confirm'd in these Sentiments I make no more doubt the present Conjuncture is a dawn of that great Revolution awaiting the Year ninety seven next ensuing than I doubt whether the dawn of the day be in advance to the perfect Light because I am not upon any single Conjecture but upon the whole Conspiration of Apocalyptical Times compar'd with the Registries of History in the course of Time since our Lords Resurrection as famous and as well known as the Reformation from Luthers Time is known I am not on any single Line of Time but upon the Concatenation of Times throughout Scripture not as it is perplex'd with the Irreconcileable Chronological Controversies but assur'd by Massy Sterlyn Scripture both by compare of the Texts themselves and Scripture Reason argued from them I have only three parts of that Line to publish viz. from Abraham to the going out of Egypt from the going out of Egypt to Solomons beginning the Temple and from the Temple begun to Cyrus his Decree for restoring it after the Babylonish Devastation I have also prepar'd so great a Probation that the day of Judgment and the Resurrection so generally acknowledg'd in Christian Doctrine are at the full dimensions of Exposition the very Milennial or thousand years Kingdom of Christ that I think upon the comparing of Scriptures I have vouch'd and argued it cannot be denyed and as a Complement of all I have adjusted to those Illustrious Scriptures the Prayer we so generally acknowledge by the Name of the Lords prayer in the Explanation of it and proved it to be the Prayer of and prepared for that Glorious Kingdom of Christ as also by eminent Scriptures the Lords Supper to be the Sacrament of the Kingdom I hope by the good Hand of God towards me to be so assisted as to make Publication of these with the great and confiding Expectation that since I have had so great cause to believe no one sees Reason to chastise the Discourses I have publish'd and that the Divine Administrations of these latter Times are going on to justifie them they will be serviceable as Goads to the enquiries of greater Masters of Assemblies and their every way more acceptable Researches into these things to the greater hastning of the Glory and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fall of his Enemies to be his Footstool by the earnest Prayers of his Churches and Saints and that in the mean time they will be as Nails fastning those Tents and Pavilions of Princes who are to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in their Station For I am sure they are given from one even the chief Shepherd and Bishop of his Church Jesus Christ I am not enclin'd nor have ever had a Temptation to represent the Prophesies of Scripture as a Doctrine of
under him and this Rome and He must be destroyed together and if we will believe the Prophecy all this must be sure And so as I say the difference cannot be great For under whomsoever the City now is He must be the eighth King Rome borne up by Him must be the Rome here described and must be destroyed with Him the Beast and the People of God must come out of it as It is and hath so long been in the eighth King. Although the form of Government under the Heathen and Answ 2 Christian Emperours was alike and the same Imperial Form yet the Spirit and Soul of the Government being so purely Christian in Gods Account It highly merited to be reputed and given as a new Succession of Kings as a distinct seventh King being so much Another so much different from those before and from that after it although It had great Failings even as the Kings of the House of David had and yet were in substance a Line of Honour in the sacred Register By all this we must know the seventh Head but eighth King Conseq 4 must have immediately succeeded at the expiration of the Christian Empire because that continued but a short space after the Heathen Empire in Being in the Apostles Time but a long Time hath now run out and yet Rome is in Grandeur Whatever Name hath therefore carryed the Name of Supremacy derived from the City Rome it self and borne up that in Grandeur above the Kings of the Earth at any Time or at this day and more especially for a long space together since the Fall of the Heathen Empire and since the Fall of the Christian Empire and of its very Imperial Name must be the eighth King be the Name what It will And Rome sitting upon that Beast as that which hath drunk into it self the Name of the whole Beast must be that Rome and its eighth King from whom the People of God are to separate that they may not partake of their Sins nor receive of their Plagues or else the Prophecy can have no sense or its sense cannot be True. And seeing we know that All This Time Rome hath incorporated the Name of a Church with the Name of a City and that the Bishop or Pope of Rome hath had the Supremacy of that City and Church and carried it on high riding as a Queen in State by Virtue of that Supremacy since the fall of the Imperial Name first as Pagan and then as Christian we must know that He is the Beast the eighth King and seventh Head and that Rome as a Church now more then a City though a City too is that very Rome from which the People of God are to come out because of the foulness of its Antichristian and Idolatrous Fornications and because of the Horror of that Vengeance to be exacted upon it of which the Judgment upon Sodom the Plagues upon Aegypt and the Vengeance on Samaria and Jerusalem were but Types For It is that Edomitish Border of Wickedness against which God will have Indignation for ever For if Rome and no other be the City as we have seen beyond Contest it is the Pillars of its Time from the Prophecy are so high and lofty that they cannot be over-seen The sixth King then in Being when the Apostle John writ is one Pillar the so more than Monumental Destruction of so Imperious a City is the other Pillar Whatever time runs between these Two Pillars by the express Words of the Prophecy are given to the sixth King then in Being to the short space of the seventh King and the whole how long soever after to the seventh Head and Eighth King. It being then sixteen Ages since the Apostle Writ It is undeniable these Kings must be Governments or distinct Supremacies having each many single Persons under them else they could not sustain so long a space and the seventh fewest because the shorttest The Government that was in the Apostles time is long Fallen no one can question suppose then the seventh King were disputable who He is the Eighth must yet be in Action because the Seventh had so short a space Whoever the Eighth is He must be as close united to the City Rome as the Rider is to the Beast on which such Riders sit I appeal therefore to all the the World that can but understand Sense when it is most plainly laid before them who this can be but the Pope of Rome who alone and no other with Him hath been thus united to Rome the City and Church above these last twelve hundred Years From all which it most absolutely follows the Present Rome is the City and Church that is to fall under those Plagues for her Sins out of which therefore the People of God are call'd that they may not partake of their Sins nor receive of its Plagues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which I undertook to demonstrate and is I doubt not in every considering Mans sense demonstrated as far as is necessary by a general Argument But I shall yet give farther Assurance of it and Answer all Objections under the following Arguments which shall be yet more particular If it can be proved that the Beast that carries the Woman and Argu. 2 is that seventh Head and Eighth King of which so much hath been already discoursed hath been in the Possession of the Time expresly design'd by Prophecy to that Beast that carries the Woman as the seventh Head and Eighth King and is now in the Possession of that Time and that it ought to be so long as it hath already is now and must still continue to be This will be yet more particular proof of the Woman that it is the present Rome our of which the People of God are call'd to come For the due management of this Argument Three Points are necessary The Time it self of the Beast must be assign'd by express Point 1 Words of Prophecy that there may be certain Knowledge of that what it is There must be substantial Proof offered that the Time assign'd Point 2 will bear such a Length as will Comport with this Argument Seeing the Event at the End cannot yet as a matter of Fact Point 3 give Evidence that the Time is justly assign'd there must be good Evidence of the well fixing the Epoch or Beginning of that Time according to the Prophecy and according to Event also and the Event that is to be expected at the End must appear to be sufficiently defin'd by Prophecy both as to the City or Woman carried by the Beast and inclusively as to the Beast also I begin with the First Point viz. That the Time of the Point 1 Beast is expresly assign'd by Prophecy For which I Vouch that known Place Revel 13. 6. And Power Right or Authority was given to Him the Beast to continue as the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyn'd with a Word of Time generally signifies in the New Testament Fourty Two Months Now in that