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 ahd then they Rise up as Kings whatever they had had done before towards being Kings was till then but Usurpation and not Authority Which Consideration absolutely fixes the Succession and the Time of it And they are call'd Ten not to raise a Scruple about their exact Number Ten neither more nor less but being several into which the One Empire sprouted against its will as All History well knows that at that Time the Empire was so Torn into Pieces But they are called Ten to preserve Regard to that First Image in which this Roman Empire came down to the Feet and was divided into the Ten Toes And this being the State of that Empire under its Seventh Head the Horns or Kings seated in it are called Ten with respect to that First Statue given of the Four Empires and of the last Form of the Last Empire And they are call'd Horns because notwithstanding They were Absolute Independent Kings Yet as Horns give offensive and defensive force to the Head and that hath Supreme Mannagement of them so these Horns gave their Power to the Seventh Head. So making Him an Universal Monarch or eighth King till the Words of God are fulfill'd Now I know not how a firmer Settlement of the Beginning of these Months just at the Cessation of the Christian Imperialism can be made than is now made by this last Addition But because it may be said the Name of Pope is no Kingly or Object 1. Imperial Name It seems to overthrow the whole Frame laid It is Admirable the Care Prophecy hath taken to tell us The Answer Beast of
the Roman Idolatrous Empire is continu'd in Life and is healed of his deadly Wound by making an Image to Him who is the Seventh Head and Eighth King. The Papacy is not a real Martial Civil Sovereignty but it is the Image only of One It is yet nevertheless Haughty for it is Ador'd and Worshipped It Assumes Power over Princes and disposes Kingdoms It is nevertheless Cruel and Enforcive for it Kills All who will not Worship that Image It Causes All to receive its Mark or proscribes them how great or small soever It Arrogates not only a Crown but a Tripple Crown This Beast in an Image is therefore the Beast that is not yet is viz. is not the same yet the same the same in Real Power yet in an Image too viz. Spirituality of Power is an Image of Power but enforcing that Power by its Horns it is a Real Power and so Is not yet Is c. 17. 8. But It may be said it was long er'e these Kings gave their Object 2. Power thus to the Beast It is most true it was so even as It was er'e He came to his Answer Number For therefore Prophecy sets this Beast in View Rising with his Ten Crowned Horns first out of the Sea those Troublesome Commotions in the World when Rome Fell as a Burning Mountain into the Sea. But at the Rising of this Beast out of the Bottomless Pit whither He went down when He became a Fallen Star * When Phocas gave Him the Title of Vniversal An. 606. with the Key of it to Open it and Ascended Rev. 9. 1 2. Then did He Receive the Kingdom and Power of these Horns till He goes into Perdition For the once noting Him to Rise out of the Sea and Twice to Ascend from the Bottomless Pit shews He had a double Rising One by way of meer Providence as out of the tumultuous Sea of worldly Affairs that necessitated the Emperour to abdicate Empire and to leave Him the only Name of Supreme Eminency in Rome but then He was not till after as an Antichristian False Spiritual Power or Vicar of Christ He assum'd a Kingdom an Universal Kingdom as having the Keys of Eternal Damnation in his Hand viz. of the Bottomless Pit. If the Pope be an Eighth King a Roman Supreme Power and Object 3. the Head to whom the Ten Kings give their Power Why is it not then Lawful to acknowledge Him as the Roman Caesar was to be acknowledg'd by Christ's own Command and as the Crowned Horns or Ten Kings are to be acknowledg'd who give Him their Kingdom and Power No Kings or Powers may be acknowledg'd in their Idolatrous Answ 1. or Superstitious Commands No Caesars no Kings and much more no Popes can be so Obey'd 2. But upon this very Account He ought not at all to be acknowledg'd because He is a King only in an Image and in reality a Fallen Star a Corrupted Antichristian False Spiritual Power Undermining and Usurping the Kingdom of Christ and so to be abhorr'd and detested and his Adulterous Idolatrous Church or City to be separated from and to be Come out of And thus I have I Trust evinc'd the Settlement of the Epoch or Beginning of these Fourty Two Months both by the Prophecy and by the Event and come now to fix the latter Branch or what Prophecy hath determin'd concerning the End or Period of these Months although that cannot be declar'd in the Particulars or manner of the Event but must be waited for till He shall shew them who hath Reserved them in his own power till their appointed Season But in the mean time He hath given us the Bulk of the Events which at the end of these Months shall be in their Motion and continual Progress till all be Accomplished and no Iota of the Prophecy Fall to the Ground Now to make this Point as plain as Prophecy hath made it It is to be consider'd in the two Grand Oracles that are given of it and Relate to the very End of the Twelve hundred sixty Days and so consequently to the End of the Months or to the End of the Months themselves implying the End of the 1260 Days As to the End then of the Twelve hundred sixty Days since the Witnesses are to be in Sackcloth during them whenever the Witnesses come into a splendid State It is certain They can be no longer in Sackcloth For such a State and such a Sackcloth can by no possible means Agree And then it will as certainly follow the Twelve hundred sixty Days are at an End when they change their Sackcloth for Garments of Praise For all those Twelve hundred sixty Days they are to be in Sackcloth Although therefore the Prophecy does not positively say the Twelve hundred sixty Days are at an End yet in that It says they were Called up to Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies beheld Them It must needs be that the Sackcloth must be dropp'd when they are Chariotted in a Cloud and Ascend and so then It does by necessary Implication say that the Twelve hundred sixty Days are at an End For else the Witnesses could not part with their Sackcloth being determin'd to it for so long And so long the Womans the Churches Twelve hundred sixty Days last For as their Times are equal so their States Reciprocate When therefore the Twelve hundred sixty Days are by Consequence absolutely necessary ended the Fourty Two Months are wheeled along with them to their Period And that affects the City the Great Spiritually 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 oversway 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 Sun. Those Months being time of the Moon given by Prophecy must be taken and applyed to time of the Sun given by the same prophecy that they may be rated and known what time They contain According to the exactest Computation that can be made Fourty two Months apply'd to Twelve hundred sixty Days for Years must be Twelve hundred twenty two Days for Years that is Twelve hundred twenty two Years The Epoch or Beginning then of these Months fixed at the Cessation of the Christian Emperour the prophetical Seventh King which was in the Year of our Lord 475 must needs reach to the Year 1697. The Twelve hundred sixty Days or Years both of the Witnesses and of the Woman ending necessarily at the same time for the one cannot out-last the other must begin thirty eight Years before the Months viz. 437. But because the Witnesses could not be supposed to put on their Sackcloth without just Occasion given the Gentiles under the other Beast Treading the Holy Court must have begun their Fourty two Months when the Twelve hundred sixty Days of the Witnesses Sackcloth and the Womans Wilderness State began also viz. 437. It is no matter what became of the Gentiles Fourty two Months after the Beast first Risen and grown up to his Image and Power to enforce the Worship of it and the receiving his Mark Name or of the Number of his Name viz. at 725 his Famous 666. For then
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 out 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 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 multiples 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 Potency where could the worlds wondering after the Beast and worshipping Him lodg within such straits of Time How would the Acclamations to Him who is like unto the Beast be spent in a Breath How would the ministry of the other Beast to him have any place Where would his War with the Saints and his Power over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations receiving his Mark c. find Room How could the City or mystical Woman arrive to those heights as to offer the Golden Cup of its Fornication to all the Princes and Inhabitants of the World or to rise to those Riches to draw such Confluency as to make its Merchants the Greats of the World Who sees not this Nut-shell of Time cannot contain the Ocean of this Prophecy Besides as we have before at large found the City is to be kept on high by the sixth seventh and eighth Kings from the days of John the Apocalyptical Prophet we know how great a Time hath run out since then we know the King that then was is long and long ago expir'd the seventh King was to endure but a short space and what short space must it then be if the eighth King or Beast was to endure but three years and a half And yet upon this eighth King was the Woman Rome to ride until its utter Desolation But it hath and doth still sit Queen since the Apostles Time to this Day and mostly upon this Beastian King how can then forty two Months if Litteral answer so long a space