man upon earth may dispense with one tittle thereof But for authorizing Interpretations Opinions and the Rites and Ceremonies of Religious Worship either this is in a Christian Prince's power and not in the Priest's or else his Kingdome and safe administration thereof is not in his power For all these things according to the Eternal Law of Nature and of Reason are to be in the hand of him that is Supreme Governour and it is a contradiction to his Supremacy if it be not so For he that holds the rains of the Souls of men rules their whole Persons and the strongest rains are those of Religion And therefore if any Power distinct from the Kingly pretend to the right of ordering the affairs of Religion farther then his allowance and liking that Power is really the King and the King himself a precarious Power to be blown about and blown out of his Throne by the false breath of these pretenders to the Headship of the Church as often and as violently as they please Wherefore as the plain and confessed Law of Christ is immutable so what is doubtful and merely Ritual is to have its interpretation change or continuance at the judgement and discretion of every Christian Prince who has most justly and necessarily the power of accommodating such things to the peace composure and prosperity of his Kingdome Nor have the Ecclesiastick Powers any right in an immutable and essential manner to affix to the Christian Religion any thing that is not expresly and declaredly comprised therein according to the Divine Authority of the Scriptures For it is an high wrong to that Religion which is to be Everlasting and Universal to be bound and fettered with either Rites or Opinions that are but Temporary or Topical or that the Errours and Mistakes of dark Antiquity should become as a Law of the Medes and Persians to more serious and clear-sighted Posterity or what was fetched up upon some transitory emergency that all the importunities and necessities of after-Affairs of the Church or any parts thereof should not be able to conjure it down again for the making the Gospel more freely to run and be glorified 7. And therefore most apertly and judiciously has our Church declared in her Homily of Fasting That God's Church ought not neither may it be tied to any order now made or hereafter to be made and devised by the authority of Man but that it may lawfully for just causes alter change or mitigate those Ecclesiastical Decrees and Orders yea recede wholly from them and break them when they tend either to Superstition or to Impiety when they draw the people from God rather then work any edification in them And in the Book of Articles she again plainly asserts That it is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places Article 34. one or utterly alike for at all times they have been diverse and may be changed according to the diversity of Countries Times and mens manners so that nothing be ordain'd against God's Word And lastly in the close of that Article Every Particular or National Church hath authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Which Affairs of so dispensable and changeable a nature if they could be ordered by a power distinct from and independent of the Supreme Power of any Christian Nation and affecting and relishing a private Interest of their own what wilde commotions and confusions might they cause in a Christian State while they gore and spurre up the Ass to goe that way where he sees the Angel of the Lord with a drawn sword to drive him back Wherefore it is most safe and just that in all preter-Essentials to Christian Religion the Supreme Magistrate in every Christian Nation have the allowing or disapproving of them and that no Rites nor Opinions pass into Decrees but by his Authority that the Priesthood may not be able as they ought to be so faithful to their Prince as not to be willing to teach or decree any thing against his Interest whose Subjects they are or against the Safety Peace and Prosperity of the whole State of which they are but part and therefore ought to have no power to doe any thing independently of the Prince who is the Common Father of his whole Countrey and whose Interest is the good and welfare of all Who therefore must needs be the Head of the Church over all Causes and Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil as our Church does plainly acknowledge that vital Influence may indifferently flow from him into all the members of his Dominions But this is a point that might have been more seasonably deferr'd till we came to the Antichristian Opposition to the first branch of the Divine Life which is Humility and which the superlative Pride of the Papal Supremacy does so apparently affront But that there is not the least smutt of Antichristianism in Episcopacy itself I have already abundantly evinced 8. Now concerning those Oppositions that be made against Faith the Root of the Divine Life our Church is so plainly free from them as any one may perceive that pleases but to recount them that it is enough merely to intimate so much Onely I cannot let go this seasonable opportunity of triumphing in her behalf in that she is so throughly reformed from that notorious though subtle and slim piece of Antichristianism I mean that Self-ended Policy in those Doctrines and Practices which are so many in the Church of Rome and so profitable and yet Our Heavendirected Reformation has perfectly refined us and cleansed us from them all The consideration whereof must needs make our Mother the Church of England look very lovely and amiable to every ingenuous and discerning eye who cannot but bless God for that due judgment and faithfulness which he put into our Royal and Reverend Reformers and must be a great satisfaction to every honest Priest or Minister of our Church that he neither feeds himself nor the people with Lies after the manner of the Roman Priesthood nor puts one morsell of bread into his mouth filched from the Laiety by fraud and imposture and that as he labours in the Gospel so he lives by the Gospel and not by Figments and cunningly-devised Fables 9. Those Oppositions also against that Divine Grace of Humility which are specified in the ninth tenth and eleventh Chapters that our Church is cleared from them it is more apparent to any one that considers them then that I need give my self the trouble of particularly making it out The Pope's Supremacy is not onely declared against but sworn against as is very just and right And though there be peculiar Habits for Clergy-men yet as I have noted above our Church does professedly declare there is no Holiness in any such things but that they are for decency and distinction And distinction betwixt Laiety and Clergy is as
due to ride upon the necks of Princes And therefore every gainful sin and serviceable to this purpose shall be made a Law though never so point-blank against the Laws of God and Christ and all those sacred purposes of Christ's coming into the World shall be trode upon for a foot-stool to lift this pack of Impostours into the Throne that they may the better trample upon all the people of the Earth That is to say Whereas Christ by his Gospel came to silence idolatry throughout the world these Deceivers for their own advantage and profit will set up openly in their Churches as gross Image-worship as ever was amongst the Heathen Whereas Christ came to free the people of God from the yoke and burthen of Mosaical Ordinances these Oppressors of Mankind will load their bodies and Consciences with more numerous and tedious Superstitions and Ceremonies then eveâ—… Moses commanded and put them to a drudgery and slavery worse then the Aegyptian Task-masters did the children of Israel in their soarest bondage Whereas Christ was given to the world by his Father to be an absolute King from whose Decrees there can be no appeal nor any annulment of dispensation with his Laws a perfect High-priest who by the Sacrifice of himself once made and self-effectual Intercession is an all-sufficient Reconciler of us to God a Prophet and Teacher whose Instructions and Predictions are all infallible Oracles this King of Babylon for so I will call this Tyrannical Seducer with his Hypocritical Assistants shall pretend that Christ has given up his Kingdom to them and that they have the very same Power that Christ himself can dispense with or abrogate those Laws he has made or appoint Laws quite contrary to them oâ—… have authority to put what sense upon them they please which is the 〈◊〉 nulling of Christ's authority as he is Law-giver and King and the greatest Treason and the most contemptuous that can be committed against his Heavenly Majesty This false High-priest with his several Orders of levite as if that one offering of the Body of Christ which he himself made once were not sufficient for the atonement of the World nor yet his sole Intercession in virtue of his Infinite Merits and Passion available for our reconciliation with God pretend to the high dishonour and vilification of Christ's own offering himself up once to offer him up in their own hands really and bodily every day in a manner and as if the Intercession of Christ and his own inestimable Merits were of themselves maimed and defectuous clap to them to piece them out the Merits and Intercession of mere Mortals such as could merit for none but for themselves nor indeed have got to Heaven but upon the sole merits of their loving Saviour whom they are made thus to confront in his incommunicable Office And lastly This false Prophet with the rest of his devoted Impostours to the end that their own lies and misleadings of the people may not be discovered but withall to the unsufferable reproach of that great and true Prophet the Lord Jesus and the unspeakable injury of his cordial Followers withhold those lively Oracles delivered by him and his Apostles from the knowledge of men not without gross revilements and disparagements cast upon those Holy Writings then which nothing can be more outrageous against the Prophetick Office of Christ. 5. Again Whereas the Divinity of Christ is plainly and punctually and of set purpose asserted in Scripture to assure us of the allowableness of that Religious Worship we doe to him it being his peculiar Royalty or Prerogative as being not mere Man but God nay his Godhead being ascertain'd to us by that argument of Adoration due to him Worship him all ye gods yet this perfidious Antichristian Hierarchy will not stick to undermine this Prerogative and as much as in them lies to proclaim to the world that he is no more then mere Man for as if they had found an allowed instance of Men-worship in him they will give Religious worship to hundreds of Saints as well as to himself Whereas Christ is described in the Prophets as the Prince of Peace these falsely-pretended Successors of his or rather the Seed of Satan who was a man-hater and murtherer from the beginning will prove themselves Fomenters of dissentions and commotions and causers of embroilments of Nations and Kingdoms in War upon their politick and pragmatical Machinations for the unjust Interest of their own holy Crew Whereas Christ was the Light of the World these will study to keep the world in Ignorance that they may the better tyrannize over them and inslave them And whereas Christ professed himself to be the Truth these will make it their business to fill the world with Falsities and Lies so they be but so contrived as is most fit for the holding up their Interest Pomp and Power in the world 6. And thirdly and lastly Whereas the chief and most indispensable End of Christ's coming here upon Earth was to enliven the world with that Life which is truly Holy and Divine wherein are comprised those four Heavenly Graces of Faith Humility Purity and Charity as for the first This Pseudo-christian Church by reason of the multitude of their lying Miracles and gross Legends and falsified Reliques their incredible Stories of Purgatory and shameless Impossibility of Transsubstantiation all which tend to the Profit and Interest of these Seducers bring things to such a pass that if all the counsels of Hell were laid together they could not invent any thing more destructive of Christian Belief and more mischievously insinuating that Religion is onely a Fiction found out to inrich the Priest and make him powerful and honourable And then for Humility Their Supreme Patriarch being so very high and wrought to that high pitch by such frauds and forgeries by abetting and countenancing such Treasons Murthers and Villainies by raising such Seditions and Confusions in Christendom and this Sacerdotal Monarchy exercised with that haughtiness and unparallel'd pride this Supreme Levite so grossly and rudely treading upon the necks of Princes and making the greatest Emperours his foot-stool in his displeasure and his Sedan-men or Chair-carriers when he is at peace with them and the whole constitution of their Hierarchy in the several pomps and degrees thereof being rather a fiery rack of inflaming Ambition to set all mens spirits on the tenter-hooks in their reaching after the bewitching prizes which are ever flaring in their eyes then an allowable frame of a modest order of Government to keep up wholesome Discipline in the Church can we imagine any complexion of things more contrary to the Spirit of Humility then this And then again for Purity For this lofty High-priest to stoop so low as to set his Seal to the allowableness of Fornication by receiving an annual Tribute from the Whores of his Metropolis and to enjoyâ—… coelibate to his Priests as if he meant to drive them into the nets that these Nuns
might have heard of Barchocab But there being no mention of any one famous Impostour above the rest in our Saviour's Predictions in Matthew it is very suspicable that this rumour was raised out of the Prophecy of Daniel touching that little mischievous Horn which certainly is a Prophetick Figure of that eximious Antichrist that was to come 5. The same Author also interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Barchocab and renders it Quis potest esse major impostor and I believe very rightly For it were a dilute business for the Apostle to describe Antichrist onely by the bare denial of Jesus his being the Christ that great King Priest and Prophet sent of God to whom all Nations should flow For such Antichrists are all Infidels which are innumerable Wherefore such a Denier of Christ is here intimated as by playing the Impostour and by making of himself Christ or by putting of himself into the place of the true Christ which is Jesus denies Jesus to be the Christ and so by denying him denies him that sent him and witnessed of him that he was his beloved Son whom all should hear Such an Antichrist was Barchocab especially who by making himself the Messias did thereby plainly deny that Jesus was he But as there were eximious Types of Christ amongst the people of the Jews and such as one and the same Prophecies touch as well as Christ himself so it is obvious to conceive that there might also Antichrists arise among the said people to whom all things befell in figures which were Types of the famous Antichrist in the Christian Church and that one and the same Text might point at both as it is not hard to conceive that this does For as for that great Antichrist which I have described in my Idea of Antichristianism it is plain that he puts Jesus out of his Kingly Priestly and Prophetick Office usurping all that himself or conferring it upon others as is there copiously declared Wherefore he making himself so absolute an Head of the Church he does ipso facto cut off Jesus from being Head of the same and thereby discovers himself to be that notorious Antichrist in Christendom And by denying that Jesus is that Supreme King Priest and Prophet to whom all are to listen and obey whose Decrees and Words are an immutable Law he does thereby deny also the Father that sent him as much as any other Antichrist amongst the Jews can be imagined ever to have done For which of them was ever said to have professed himself an Atheist 6. Which things duely considered will inable us with ease to understand also the meaning of what is writ in the fourth chapter of this Epistle of S. John where he saith That every spirit that confesses that Jesus is the Messias come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is the Messias come in the flesh is not of God and this is that spirit of Antichrist which you have heard shall come and is now already in the World The vulgar Latine hath it Et hic est Antichristus de quo audîstis quoniam venit nunc jam in mundo est Which implies they read not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which Antichrist you have heard that he shall come And he addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like that of S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the futurity of a more notorious Antichrist is not excluded in neither place In this of S. John Grotius again understands the Impostour Barchocab but the Ancients even the Romanists themselves the famous Antichrist of the Fathers Whence it is confessedly true both from Grotius and the Romanists that such a Denier of Jesus his being the Messias or Christ come in the flesh is understood as is an Impostour and boasts himself to be that Christ whereby he denies Jesus to be him as I have noted upon the former Text. And the sense of both may be this namely That whereas those to whom S. John wrote had received a rumour or fame of that eximious Antichrist that was to come into the world in the last time occasioned I doubt not from Daniel's Prophecies of the little Horn and of that King of pride that would exalt himself above all the Event of these Prophecies being further off though at last certainly to come he fixes their minds upon such Antichrists as were nearer at hand and though but the Types and Figures of that great Antichrist to come some Ages after yet of more concernment to them to take notice of but in the interim describes Antichrist so that though it does more palpably point at these Types of the future Antichrist yet the Description more narrowly searched into takes fast hold also on that great Antichrist himself forasmuch as it is implied that it is one who by way of imposture puts himself into the place of Jesus who is the true Christ that King Priest and Prophet appointed by God to whom all must submit Which not onely Barchocab and such false Messiasses in the Jewish Common-wealth have done but he that has so made himself the Head of the Church as to null the Laws and Doctrines of Christ is deprehended to doe the like also 7. I must confess the Opposition and Intrusion of this grand Antichrist among Christians is more oblique and more subtil then the claim of those false Messiasses amongst the Jews but we are withall to take notice that the Christians Messias or Christ is more spiritual then what the Jews expected and therefore it is no wonder that their Antichrist be of another nature not a gross and violent Invader of the Empire of Christ but a more cunning Impostour and insinuating Hypocrite Nor are we to marvel that Christendom has been so slow-sighted in discovering this Antichrist after he was come the same thing happening to them that befell the Jews who could not discern their Messias when he daily conversed before their eyes For both these mistakes arose from a like prejudice and false prenotion of things the Jews decyphering in their minds such a Messias as should conquer Kingdoms for them and make them a rich and potent people upon Earth so crass and external a conceit had they of his Power and Office and the Christians prefiguring such an Antichrist as would cast away the external profession of Christ and directly and professedly oppose him in his Kingdom 8. But fraudulent and hypocritical Opposition is as true and a more mischievous Opposition then that which is open and direct And he that calls another Lord and King but professes a power of abrogating his Laws and of making what Laws he lists himself and of forcing this Prince's Subjects to obey them this man has really made himself King And therefore he that takes upon him the power to null the Laws of Christ and makes new ones of his own for the Rule of Christendom he in like
thy People that is Because whereas thou pretendest to be the Vicar of Christ the Bridegroom of the Church the Father of Christendome Universal Pastour of the Flock thou hast played the bloudy Butcher the Thief and Robber to forage in the Empire to eat and grow fat accordingly as it is written The Thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy which thou hast enormously done since thy usurpation in the House of God filling the Empire with intestine Broils Massacres Martyrdomes with Fire and Faggot with Racks and Tortures and all manner of Cruelties and this upon thine own Land and People that is to say upon Christians over whom thou pretendest to be Head nay the ghostly Father and tender Protectour of them Wherefore as thine Outrages have been singular thy Destruction shall be proportionable and thine End execrable and the stench of thy Memory shall fume up into the nostrills of all Posterities for ever and ever The reason of this dreadful End of the King of Babylon is the very same with that of the burning of the Queen of Babylon or the Whore for they are Types of one and the same thing And in her was found the bloud of Apoc. 18. 24. Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth And truly that last Clause of the Prophecy of the King of Babylon is so proper to the Papal Power that it belongs to it onely and not to the King of Babylon Which is a special pledge and assurance of this higher and more concerning sense of this Prophecy 10. The height of the Papal power above that of the Emperour is also prefigured in the Whore's riding of the Beast For certainly the Rider is superiour to the Beast that is ridden And it is expresly said of the Two-horned Beast the same with the Whore That he exerciseth all the power of the first Beast before him To these you may adde that Prediction in Daniel Ch. 7. 24. And another King shall arise after them which I have above shewed to be the Pope and he shall be diverse from the first and he shall subdue three Kings And he shall speak great words against the most High and shall wear out the Saints of the most High and think to change times and laws Which words plainly imply that extravagant Power that the Pope was to assume to himself as is easily understood out of what we have already said upon this Text. 11. And lastly It seems to me also to be very clear that this enormous Pride of the Pope is prefigured again in Daniel Ch. 11. 36 37. Of which two verses I would make this brief Paraphrase 36. After the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes that Type of Antichrist and notorious Enemy of the People of God in the Greek Empire shall there arise a Rex Sacrorum or rather a Regal Pontifex if you will who with his formed Body Politick or Ecclesiastical Power shall prove the very Antichrist indeed answering in the Roman Empire to that wicked Antiochus in the Greek that immediately preceded it Which Ecclesiastick Prince or Pontifex finding the stream of Affairs and good Fortune to carry him along shall at last exalt himself above every God that is every Supreme Magistrate the Emperour himself not excepted nay shall speak stupendious words against the Sovereignty of God himself as if he had power to abrogate or dispense with the Laws of God and Christ and were himself Supremum Numen in terris Which Impieties he will prosperously carry on for such a time as Divine Providence will permit that is to say till the time and times and half a time be expired or at the last gasp 37. But yet he shall not be a pure Pagan for all this nor regard the Gods of his Ancestors or Predecessors that is of the Supreme Magistrates of Rome who reigned there a long time before him such Deities as Mars Neptune Jupiter Venus and the like But this shall be notable in him that he shall be outwardly a strict Processor of Coelibate himself and it shall be against his Pontifical Office to marry and likewife his Clergy shall be tied to the same Laws that he might thereby the better promote the Designs of his rampant and insatiable Ambition which spirit of Pride and Worldliness shall grow so rank in him that he shall in time cast off the real and sincere sense of all Religion and care for no God at all but magnifie himself above all 12. In the two following verses there is no need of varying from Mr. Mede's Interpretation For the sense as it respects these foregoing verses is onely this That by reason of this great Impiety and Irrligiousness of him or at least of his haughtiness and presumption against the known Laws of God he will for his own advantage set up the religious worship of Demons accordingly as we have above expounded it out of Mr. Mede CHAP. XVIII 1. That the truth of the fore-going Paraphrase may be assured out of Saint Paul's Prophecy of the Man of Sin The three first verses thereof interpreted Ver. 4. Wherein this Man of Sin exalteth himself above all that is called God and what it is to shew himself to be God Ver. 5. The meaning of to be revealed in his time and what that is that withstandeth Ver. 7. The Mystery of Iniquity doth already work how to be understood and who thâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 8. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what the meaning and manner of his destruction with an intimation of the exquisite Applicability of this Prophecy to the Papal Power and Imposture 2. A short Parallel betwixt the little Horn in Daniel and this Son of Perdition 1. THat this is one assured sense of these two verses of Daniel that Prophecy in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians will more fully evidence which has so great affinity with this that I do not doubt but it points at the same enormous power of this Roman Patriarch and his Clergy with it and is in a manner a Transcript from it 1. Now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thess 2. and by our gathering together to him which I mentioned in my * 1 Thess. 4. 17. former Epistle 2. That you be not soon shaken in minde or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as from us as if we had prophesied spoke or wrote any thing by letter no not in that former to you that could be rightly interpreted to any such sense as that the Day of Christ is at hand 3. Let no man deceive you by any means either by pretence of Inspiration or by Scripture or by mis-interpreting any Letter of mine For that day shall not come except there come a falling away first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before that eminent Apostasy come for so Alcazar interprets the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
therein For we traffick not in Legendary Lies and false Miracles against the Sacred Title of Truth nor desire to keep the people ignorant of the Scriptures and to hold them in darkness against the Sacred Title of Light nor trespass against the Sacred Title of Life by making our Religion consist of dumb shows and heaps of dead Rites and Ceremonies nor derogate from the Divinity of Christ by giving Religious worship to Saints and Angels nor offend against his Paternity by making his Children a company of stocks and stones and by taking away the judgement of discretion from them and forcing them to believe as the Church believes right or wrong with Scripture or against it and are so farre from injuring the life of any Child of God by any captious and wicked Sanction that we profess nothing requisite to Salvation but what is plain in Scripture as appears from what has been already produced out of the Articles of the Church Which alone will also vindicate her from any imputation of the following points of Antichristianism against the Peace of Christ's Kingdome And for absolving Princes from their Oaths what Church unless that of Rome ever pretended to so blasphemous a Power 4. The next Antichristian Opposition and which occurrs in the next Chapter is that against the Divine Life in general Such as Idolatry and all manner of Superstition dumb Shows speaking in an unknown Tongue substituting silly Penances instead of real Repentance and Amendment of life all which our Church is so plainly and professedly against in her Articles and Homilies every-where and so acknowledgedly that I will not give my self the trouble of Citation Some not so well minded may peradventure be over-inclinable to imagine the Episcopal Office and Revenues to have a greater propinquity with that Hypothesis at the end of this Chapter then any indifferent man can possibly judge For he must be very ignorant of the Constitution of Christendome that does not plainly discern that in that Hypothesis it is the Papal Hierarchy that is perstringed and adumbrated which is done again more fully and particularly in the ninth and tenth Chapters For for my own part though I do not know the accurate values of the several Bishopricks of this Nation yet considering the largeness of their Dioceses and the great burthen as well of care as expensiveness in conscientiously executing the Function truly I cannot imagine them so great but that the weight of the Office will weigh down every-where the value of the Revenue and we reade in the Gospel that * Luk. 10. 7. the work-man is worthy of his hire And concerning the Office and Dignity itself it cannot sink into my minde that that Order of the Church which was instituted and in practice in those Ages thereof which were Symmetral can with any face or conscience be judged Antichristian And that the Church was Symmetral for about four hundred years after Christ is a demonstrable Consectary from my Joint-Exposition and that Joint-Exposition so convincingly evident that no Interpretation of any Scripture can be more 5. Whence I cannot but wonder that any true Son of the Church of England should be so shie of the Apocalyps or so fearful of it that they durst not touch it without a pair of Mittens of Grotius his making for fear it should bite them that is to say unless it be unfolded or rather folded up in Grotius his fond and groundless Explications For there is not any Book in the World that makes more for the establishment of the Crown and Church of England then this Holy Book of the Apocalyps if rightly and solidly understood A thing which that wise and sagacious Prince King James of blessed memory had discovered betimes and accordingly made use of it against the Usurpations of the Church of Rome And truly I finde nothing in the Apocalyps though the style seems Mysterious and Aenigmatical but what is very rational and look upon it as the most faithful and Philosophical writing that ever was penned A tast whereof we have in that Catalogue of the evil characters of them that are excluded the Holy City wherein bloudy and inhumane Zeal as also vain and imposturous Superstition is so plainly perstringed The former in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Murtherers the latter in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Sorcerers Exorcists or Enchanters and lying Legendists and in fearful intimidated spirits that are superstitiously inclined to submit to the delusions and lies of such shameless Deceivers These doth our faithful Redeemer of Souls who deals bonâ fide with Man-kinde to rescue their abused minds from the Tyranny and burthen of Superstition note with a mark of Infamy and Condemnation So fast a friend is the Lord Jesus to Humanity to Equity to Truth and Reason 6. And not to insist upon those passages of the Apocalyptick Visions that imply it which are more then one or two either there is the greatest Equity and Reason in the world that every Christian Prince should next under Christ be Supreme Head over all that part of his Church over which he is King or Sovereign over Clergy as well as Laiety in Causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil and that not any Papal or Presbyterian Power should be above him as our English Episcopacy does most justly and professedly submit unto him For why should any Clergy-men expect of a Prince who has received like precious Faith with themselves to fall in his Power by becoming a Christian Which is as unjust as it were ridiculous to phansy that every proper man should be bound to remit so much of his natural stature as would make him goe lower then the Priest that baptized him For Christianity does not take away Nature nor Power but rightly employs it Could any of the Pagan Emperours think you have been brought over to the Christian Faith if the Bishop of Rome would have laid claim to the Headship of the Empire so farre as it became the Church of Christ or would they not have suspected the preaching the Kingdome of Heaven a trick of the Priests to make themselves Lords of the Earth No certainly a Prince once become Christian that is a Believer and Professour of the Apostolick Faith comprised in the Word of God in those plain and generally-confessed Points of our Religion is a Person so Sacred that nothing can mount above him for Headship in his own Dominions For the anointing of the Spirit whereby we believe to Salvation is infinitely more holy then any external Sacerdotal oil whatsoever Why may not then so sacred a Fountain be the Head and Influencer of the whole Church Or whether is Christ greater as he is Priest or King of Saints Or who had the preeminence in the Polity of the Jews the Kings or High-Priests of Israel And was not that Polity a Type or Figure of the Church of Christ The plain Law of Christ is indeed immutable and it ought to be so no
〈◊〉 as * Ch. 9. Esay describes him that is to say the Father of his Church As it is written concerning the Logos or Eternal Word That As many as received him power is given unto them to become the sons of God which are born not of bloud John 1. 12. nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God According as our Saviour speaks to Nicodemus That which is born of the flesh is John 3. 6. flesh but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit It is therefore the Spirit of Christ whereby we are begotten into a new creature If any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his 3. But this Spirit of Christ is also the Spirit of God the Father and therefore our new creation or Regeneration is also attributed to him For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works And Ephes. 2 10. S. Peter in his first Epistle Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Ch. 1. v. 3. Jesus Christ who hath begotten us again or regenerated us c. But after in the same chapter he again brings the Eternal Word as a sharer in Vers. 23. this action of Paternity Being born not of corruptible seed but incorruptible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per sermonem viventem Dei in aeternum permanentem though it may be also rendred per sermonem Dei viventis in aeternum permanentis and thus may refer either to God the Father or to the Eternal Logos As I conceive that may also in S. John He that is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed that is the Spirit of Truth which is from the Father 1 Ep. 3. 9. and the Son remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Wherefore as Christ is said to be Head of all Principalities and Powers though God the Father be also rightly so styled and Christ is likewise said to be the Head of the Church though no man can deny but that God is so also for he that is an Husband to his Church is also ipso facto the Head of her So Christ in like manner may rightly be termed the Father of his Church although that be the ordinary appellation of the First Hypostasis of the holy Trinity And therefore there being such a real respect of Paternity betwixt Christ and his Church laid in this so remarkable ground of Regeneration by his Spirit into a new Creature I thought it both allowable and usefull to take notice thereof and adde this fifth Title to the rest there being most hainous sins committable against Christ in this respect also 4. That Christ is our King Priest Prophet and our God are Truths so generally acknowledged and so exceeding plain that I need produce no proof either of the things themselves or of the fitness of the Phrase 5. The other general branch of the Positive Scope of the Gospel is The spreading and propagating the exciting and nourishing the Divine Life in the members of Christ to the best of their capacities In which Divine Life is comprized Faith in God and a Belief of a Reward of righteousness in the other World as also those three excellent Evangelical Graces Humility Charity and Purity That these make up the grand Scope of the Gospel I think any one will be sufficiently satisfied by what I have written in my Explanation of the Mystery of Godliness 6. Now from hence it will follow with evidence and certitude plainly Mathematical That such a Mystery as in effect is a real counterplot and undermining as well of the Privative as Positive Scope of the Gospel of Christ in the above-named particulars that is to say That Mystery that in stead of ridding the world of Idols pollutes the Church with multifarious Idolatry instead of easing of the Church of the burthen of Judaical ceremonies fills it with a number of superfluous Rites either Judaical Pagan or pretendedly Christian That Mystery that makes Christ a King without power and laws a Prophet without prediction or instruction that sets up corrivalls with him in Heaven and on Earth for both his High-Priesthood and Divinity and eludes or prevents the inchoation or growth of the New birth by mischievous devices and practices That Mystery that naturally tends to the superinducing upon the world Atheism and Infidelity by magisterially obtruding upon mens belief the acknowledgement of such things as are not only useless to be believed but impossible to be and lastly That Mystery that is the Mother of Pride the Nurse of Uncleanness the School of barbarous Injustice and bloudy Cruelty This Mystery I say that is so horrid and Diabolical and so Antipodal to both the Person and Spirit of Christ and to all the Christian Graces provided there be but found a colour for these gross enormities as if they tended to the honour of Christ and the good of his Church must needs be that famed Mystery of Iniquity and the very body of Antichristianism with the distinct Limbs and Articulations thereof 7. Whose Image I having exhibited to your sight in this contracted Draught I shall now endeavour more fully and amply to set it before your eyes pursuing the parts I have enumerated in a more particular manner and in such a method as will carry along with it a reflexion upon the universal nature of the Mystery of Iniquity as it is opposite in a general respect to the Mystery of Godliness that is to say As those more comprehensive members of the Mystery of Godliness were A venerable Obscurity A communicable Intelligibleness Demonstrable Truth and desirable Usefulness so I shall trace along as I goe in every one of the above-mentioned Particulars of the Mystery of Iniquity these three general Depravations or Malignities as namely in opposition to the Truth in the Mystery of Godliness gross and palpable Falseness in stead of Usefulness intolerable Mischievousness and in stead of that venerable Obscurity joyned with Intelligibleness the unwholesome and abhorred fogs of a worse then Aegyptian darkness wherein harbours nothing but deceitfull Sophistry and self-seeking Fraud 8. In brief therefore the Falseness the Fraud and the Mischief shall be the points of inquisition upon every particular member of this Mystery of Antichristianism whose Idea when we have fully set out and demonstrated to be such we shall then proceed further to enquire Where it is actually to be found and by virtue of the said Idea to clear our own Church that is guiltless from the unjust suspicions and aspersions of malicious or inconsiderate spirits that either misrepresent or misapprehend things and so pass unrightfull censures upon what is at least allowable if not praise-worthy 9. He that is the Searcher of hearts and the Enlightner of our eyes so purge all our Hearts from partiality and Hypocrisie and so clear our Understandings that what shall be penned down with truth and sinceritie may be
wealth honour and sensual pleasures 9. This is a competent Draught of the second Limb of Antichristianism which consists In the heaping together a number of trouble some and unwarrantable Superstitious conceits and observances whereby the yoke of Christ would be made far more grievous then the dispensation of Moses yea whereby the Servitude of Christians would be little inferiour if not greater then the slavery of the Israelites in the Land of Aegypt and in that house of bondage as it is styled peculiarly in the Scripture And therefore I think this particular constitution of things which I have described may very well goe for a confiderable Member of Antichristianism BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. The Positive Ends of the Gospel which the rest of the Limbs of Antichristianism do oppose 2. That to lay claim to a Right of Infallible Interpretation of the Laws of Christ is a supplanting of his Kingly Office 3. An instance of that danger in the Glosses of the Pharisees 4. Several places of Scripture alledged to prove the Church Infallible 5. The first general Answer to these Allegations by demanding whether the Promise of Infallibility be to the Whole Church or to Part. 6. The second by demanding whether the Promise be Absolute or Conditional 7. A third That the Promise cannot be Universal touching all Objects that may be considered 8. A particular Answer to the first place of Scripture 9. An Answer to the second and third 10. Infallibility a Promise onely to the first Founders of the Christian Church 11. What the meaning of The pillar and ground of truth 12. A further exposition of that passage of Paul to Timothy 13. That if understood of the Universal Church it may be meant onely of it in the Apostles times 14. And that the like may be said of the last allegation 1. WE have now done with those Members of Antichristianism that oppose the Privative Ends of the Gospel of Christ which were The removing of Idolatry and the Burthen of Superstition out of the world we come now to the Positive End thereof which in general is The Advancement of the Divine Life and this either Personally in Christ or by way of propagation in his Members the Church Those Divine Honours and Offices the Person of Christ is advanced to and are most obvious to take notice of are those of King Priest and Prophet the opposing or supplanting of which cannot but be so many abhorred parts of this wicked Antichristianism whose Image we are now setting out in its genuine colours 2. As concerning the first therefore of these Suppose any man or company of men under pretence of being the true Visible Church successively descending from Christ and his Apostles should take upon them to be the Infallible Interpreters of the Law of Christ and teach that all men were to embrace and to submit to their Glosses seem they never so harsh never so improbable nay if you will never so impossible and declare it a mortal sin for any to doubt of their determinations in this kind This surely were a plain opposing or utter supplanting of the Kingly Office of Christ and the quite taking away His exercise of Sovereignty which cannot otherwise be exercised then by Commands and Decrees which when a King has published if another have power to interpret them any way as he pleases the Kingly power will really be in the Interpreter and not in the King I say this pretended right and power of Infallibly interpreting does in very truth make the Interpreter King and the King a Shadow or Cypher Assuredly no Earthly Prince would think himself truly Sovereign over his people if all the Injunctions and Edicts he made were not to bear the easie natural sense which he intends them in but to be drawn to some other meaning by any exception or evasion or any forcible interpretation that some forein Potentate should put upon them Wherefore whosoever pretends a Right and Infallibility in the interpreting the Law of Christ does in effect make Christ no Law-giver and consequently no King nor Governour in his Church then which what can be more grossly Antichristian 3. Cui jus est interpretandi hujus Sententia pondus habet legis Divinae is a saying which although * In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Erasmus has put into the mouth of a mean person yet is a great Truth And our Saviour knew and has noted the mischievous abuse of this presumption so plainly in that instance of the Pharisees who could interpret away the force of that Command Honour thy Father and thy Mother by saying it was Corban that it is impossible he should allow of any visible Interpreter with such an unlimited Right as some contend for to the abuse of his Church and the taking his Kingly Office out of his own hands For he has there observed That the Matth. 15. 6. Pharisees had made the word of God of none effect through their Traditions that is to say through their Exceptions Qualifications and Interpretations of it 4. I but they will pretend that Christ will make his Church Infallible and if they be so he himself will really reign in them they interpreting alway according to his mind And that he has made his Church Infallible they will pretend to appear plainly out of such places of Scripture as these * Matth. 16. That the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her and again * Joh. 14. I will ask the Father and he will give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth which the World cannot receive c. again * Joh. 16. When he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth To which adde that of S. Paul to * 1 Tim. 3. 15. Timothy where he seems to call the Church the Pillar and Ground of Truth And lastly that to the * chap. 4. Ephesians where Christ is said to have given some Apostles and some Prophets and other some Evangelists and other some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ till all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ. Let these passages then be their Letters patent their grand pretended Commission of Infallibly interpreting and never erring in any Determinations or Conclusions and we shall easily discover that it is a mere pretence 5. For I demand whether this Promise of Infallibility be to the Whole visible Church in succession or
he is in Heaven If therefore this Person of Christ which is ordinarily called the Holy Sacrament should be less respected then the High-priest that consecrated it it is plain that he were exalted above it Wherefore for example If in solemn Processions this High-priest should appoint the Ceremonies in such sort as that this Sacrament that is to say according to them the real Person of Jesus should be placed amongst the less noble of the Pomp but the High-priest himself in the midst of the most illustrious Princes that Jesus Christ should be carried on an Horse but the High-priest on the shoulders of Kings and Potentates that a mean servant of the Sacrist shall lead the Horse that carries Christ Jesus but if the High-priest be on horse-back at that time some Prince or Emperour that the Canopy over Jesus Christ shall be carried onely by Citizens of the City but the Canopy of the High-priest by great Nobles or Embassadors Were not this plainly and palpably to take place of God Almighty himself and to be so proud an Oecumenical Patriarch as to prefer himself before the Eternal Father and Maker of the Universe 7. Which might be done also in more ordinary journeyings If this High-priest suppose should appoint Jesus Christ to ride on an ordinary Gennet led by an ordinary Stable-groom and to go before there is Precedency indeed but amongst the baggage of his Retinue Calones Lixas Curtesannas to be an Harbinger of his holy Highnesse's coming himself in the mean time marching fairly on accompanied with Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops and such like persons of Quality Surely this would suggest to any musing man a very deep conceit or profound meditation to wit how one and the same person according to his circumscribed bodily presence should at one and the same time ride on Horse-back here on Earth disgracefully and contemptibly amongst those Scullions and Curtesans and yet sit in a Throne of Majesty and Glory in the highest Heavens incircled with the Praises and Adorations of the Holy Angels But be that how it will it is in the mean time very manifest that this sublime Priest is so far out in good manners as well as in usurpation of real right of Jurisdiction that he does elate himself above God himself according to his own concession or doctrine of his Church in appointing thus to himself more honour then to the Itinerant Person of Christ. 8. To all which we might further adde this supposition also That this High-priest at his Inauguration into this Supreme Office might be placed upon the Holy Altar of Christ in some chief Church of his Metropolis the seet of his Chair of State trampling upon the Sacred Throne of the Body of Christ and there receive Adoration from his Ecclesiastick Princes and the gazing and amazed People But I think I have already drawn the Effigies of so perfect an Antichristian Pride that nothing need be added thereto nor the least scruple left but that he that exalts himself thus high cannot but be that Man of sin which 2 Thess. 2. sits in the House of God and exalts himself above all that is called God CHAP. XI 1. That the Pride of this Superlative Head will diffuse it self also into its Members 2. Further general Incentives to this Vice in this usurping Priesthood 3. Peculiar Incentives thereto in some great Dignities 4. The singularity of Habits and way of living in some Religious Orders an occasion of Pride 5. The pretence of meriting in these Orders an high and hateful Instance of this Vice 6. That such an elated Pseudo-Clergie as this might well go for that Man of sin that exalts himself above every thing that is worshipped 7. And be emblematized in the description of the Leviathan who is called the King of the children of Pride 1. NOr can we imagine the Head so diabolically proud but this poison must diffuse it self into all the Body and swell up all the Members thereof in some sort or other For though this High-priest have a great power over his Clergie themselves to tax them and fleece them yet they would all of them be not a little puffed up to conceit themselves parts of that Body whose Head is so transcendently raised above all the Princes of the Earth over whom he having once usurped the Tyranny and being warm and well settled in his power he may haply be the more easie and beneficial to his own Tribe Besides their being exempted from all Secular Powers must needs elate their minds and make them haughty and domineering and prone to be injurious they being able to recoil to such Judges as will be parties for them 2. Moreover the power of receiving Auricular Confession is a mighty subjugative and insulting Privilege over the poor prostrate Laiety at the feet of their Confessors And that distinctive Privilege of the Eucharistick Cup peculiar to the Priest must needs make the Lay-men lear or Iounge aloof off and look maimedly on 't as acknowledging so vast a distance betwixt them and the Priesthood All which things tend naturally to the swelling up of this Clergie How then can they bear that conceit of the power of creating their Creator and of being such Priests as offer the very Body of Christ for a propitiation and therefore in this regard may conceit themselves in some sense superiour to Christ himself These are common to the whole Body Sacerdotal 3. But there are also Considerations peculiar though to great numbers as those that are Sacerdotal Princes and great Persons in this Church have a peculiar instigation to this Vice For it were easie to phansy that this mighty High-priest may create Ecclesiastick Potentates under him which may be Co-assessors and sharers with him in this Spiritual Domination over the World he creating them with some such Form as this Estote Fratres mei Principes mundi which must needs set their spirits at an high pitch But many Ranks inferiour to these and yet equal to Secular Princes and Nobles such as may have the pomp or accommodation of * Rev. 18. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of Horses and Coaches and Lackeys or Pages to attend them or run by them may make up a numerous company of these children of Pride who yet bearing the Titles of Pastours and Over-seers of the Flock of Christ oversee them in no other sense then of over-looking them they being placed so high above them that they have not any mind or ability to feed them but rather to flay them and Lord it over them 4. And lastly for those that are yet more numerous which we may suppose to have put on the vizard of a more peculiar Holiness listing themselves under the Title and Conduct of this or that Saint and making a show of Humility by wearing some uncouth and sordid Habit and seeming separate from the World by retiring into lazie and populous Monasteries and mortified to the pride and glory of it while
of the spoil or rather to erect a Spiritual Polity to enslave all and bring the most insupportable Servitude of Body Soul and Estate such as Paganism could scarce ever shew the like certainly this must be very highly Antichristian For indeed what can be more salvagely oppressive in reference to the very Estates of men then to frame such a Religion upon the pretence of their Infallibility as is perfectly repugnant to the plain Word of God and immutable Rules of Reason depraving of things so for their own worldly advantage as I have already abundantly set out to bring in a more ample Revenue to feed the Pride and Luxury of this false Church And then when they have thus grossly perverted the Truth of God to declare that they who will not say Amen to their lies and forgeries have no more right to their own Estates then a Thief or Robber to what he has got by unlawful spoil and therefore accordingly not onely to hinder them from any employments of either profit or credit but disable them from making of Wills and their Heirs from inheriting their Estates and awing them from laying claim to their Patrimonies lest their Father's Heresie be intailed upon them whether they will or no. 7. To which Antichristian Barbarities you may adde also the scornful and cruel Penances they put upon them that do submit themselves to their Church making them go in procession in contemptible disguises or else enjoyning them to march in their shirts bare foot and bare leg and to whip their own bodies in the sight of the people as they go along How unlike nay how utterly contrary is this to that Meekness and Sweetness that is described in the Discipline and Government of the Kingdom of Christ But we need not insist upon these things we having treated sufficiently of them already 8. Now upon the second particular viz. that Humility and Lowliness which is also one fruit of Charity and by which the Person and Rule of our Saviour is described in the ancient Prophecies We have shewn the Antichristian Detestableness of the opposite to this Vertue already in the first Branch of the Divine Life and need adde nothing more thereto 9. The third character of Charity is her delighting in true and faithful dealing amongst men The opposites to which are easily discoverable To say nothing therefore of the manifold Frauds which we have already taken notice of all along in this our Description of Antichristianism this certainly must be very Antichristian and uncharitable namely To misrepresent mens Actions and Opinions in publick Speeches or Writings nay to invent notorious lies and fictions to the disparagement of mens Persons and Doctrines and suborn men to write them and divulge them to the world for truths Which is to doe so as was the custom of those who were under the Dragon that old Serpent and false accuser of the ancient primitive Christians whom they aspersed and calumniated as worshippers of the Sun because they put up their prayers with their faces towards the East as Man-sacrificers and as Eaters and Drinkers of humane flesh and bloud because of their calling the Eucharistick Bread and Wine the Body and Bloud of Christ they understanding it onely in a mystical or symbolical sense For professing with S. Paul There is neither Male nor Female in Christ but that both have equal admission into his eternal Kingdom That they had no regard of Sexes but were vile Sodomites and abusers of themselves with Mankind For meeting together to serve God in private in Grotts and Caves of the Earth for fear of persecution That they were Conspirators against the Roman State and Empire And lastly for their reverently receiving the Elements of Bread and Wine at their holy Communions That they were Worshippers of Ceres and Bacchus 10. In like manner we may imagine that this Pseudo-christian Church may raise such perverse Calumnies against the true members of Christ as namely traducing them for Atheists or at least Arrians because they will not acknowledge the Divinity of a consecrated piece of Bread reporting them as Manichees because they do not hold the power of the Church to be superiour to that of Emperours and Kings to make thereby but one Sovereignty in the Church but affirm the Secular Power independent thereon as if the holding these two distinct Powers were forsooth the holding the two Principles of the Manichees defaming them for Beesoneriders or Witches because they have by reason of hard persecution been driven to inhabit desert and mountainous places or upon their meeting more privately in houses by night to impute to them some such horrid and villainous practices as were reported of the primitive Christians that the Candle being put out they committed Incest and all manner of Uncleanness in the dark nay that they killed their own children in these concealed Assemblies of theirs To accuse them of reviling the Saints merely upon their professing it unlawful to invoke them or of blaspheming the Blessed Virgin because they hold it unfit to worship her To tax them of disobedience to the Magistrate onely because of their persisting in the sincere profession of that Faith that is consonant to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles And lastly to father upon them what abominable actions they please and speaking without a Metaphor to gag the mouths of the thus accused and slandered that they may not answer for themselves to clear themselves in the audience of the people Nay to rack men till their very bowels break out of their belly to force them to acknowledge themselves or their party guilty of such villainous crimes as it is incredible their very persecutors should in good earnest suspect them of merely to get a pretence from such an extorted Confession to verifie their wicked Slanders to the world and to make the harmless and innocent professors of the Truth of the Gospel to be odious and hateful in the eyes of all men Certainly if this be not diametrically opposite to that part of Charity that discovers it self in true and faithful dealing nothing can be excogitated that is so CHAP. XIV 1. The nick-naming of the true Christians by the odious Title of Hereticks with their barbarous injuries thereupon 2. That Heresie and Schism are sins against the truly-Catholick and Apostolick Church 3. What is meant by One Catholick and Apostolick Church 4. What is that hainous sin of Heresie 5. What Schism 6. That while men are sincere members of the Apostolick Body they can be neither Hereticks nor Schismaticks 7. The Hypocritical and Schismatical Niceness of this Antichristian Church in forbearing to joyn in any Religious Duty with any member of the truly-Apostolick Body 8. Their fraudulent purpose in fostering this Schismatical Niceness and Unsociableness 1. BUt we will also take notice of that which will be so usually cast upon the Dissenters from this false Church that it will be scarce accounted any reproach done to them but rather civility
perpetual Confutation of Hugo Grotius in all his Expositions wherein he would undermine and elude the orthodox Protestant sense of the Prophecies we make use of in this Treatise And lastly Though I am very loath to have any difference with so excellent an Interpreter as Mr. Mede yet I must ingenuously confess that I cannot but dissent from him in several things which I deem not a little material 7. As first for example in his Exposition of the Beast that was The Author's dissent from Mr. Mede in his Exposition of the Beast that was and is not and is not For of this Beast he saith it might be said in S. John 's time Et jam olim eam fuisse necdum tamen natam esse With this short account would Mr. Mede turn off that Description of him But I must confess it seems to me impossible that those words should be used with any truth if restrained or tied to the time when the Vision was exhibited as if it spoke of his existing or not existing then and not only of the order of succession of Existence and Non-existence For the Beast that was to be again under the last Head was in actual being in S. John 's time Wherefore how harsh must it be to say of it while it is in being that it was But how plain a contradiction to say it is not while it is or that it is not yet born when it has continued so many ages and does and is to continue uninterruptedly so many after Apply this to any particular person still alive and in health and to live many years will it not grate against common sense to say of him he was and is not while he is alive and in being Besides that necdum tamen natam esse does not at all specifie his succession under the eighth King more then the seventh that being left out in this Interpretation which is the most plainly and most materially signified in the Prophecy namely That the Beast was to cease to be for a time Which Intervall of Non-existence immediately was to precede the succession of the Beast under the last Head 8. The oversight whereof seems to me to put Mr. Mede to the As also of the seventh King plunge also in his Exposition of the eight Kings where he glosses upon Unus est alius nondum venit after this manner Unus Regum seu Dynastarum ordo putà Caesarum adhuc superest sed is quoque sub Caesaribus Christianis ità mutaturus ut quasi alius sed brevis admodum aevi dynastes videretur reverâ tamen non alius Where quasi alius and reverâ tamen non alius I must ingenuously confess seem to me to fall short off or rather to be quite contrary to the scope of the Text this Seventh King being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on purpose to indicate his extreme difference from all that went before him that he did toto genere differre as being purely Christian and that the Eighth and six first have a greater cognation one with another then he with any of them which is according to truth Nor can the shortness of his Reign for was not that of the Decemviri and Dictatours far shorter nor his being still Caesar make him not an express and distinct King from the rest For upon this account the Beast that was and is not will want a proper and distinct Head at least till the Pope perk't up into the Caesareate which will be for some hundreds of years For the Head of the Empire till Hildebrand 's time or at least Pope Constantine and the two succeeding Gregories were the Caesars 9. And lastly Therefore the said oversight put Mr. Mede to the The unaccountableness of there being but seven Heads though eight Kings in Mr. Mede's way puzzle how to make but seven Kings of eight and upon committing this Paralogism There are but seven Heads of the Beast therefore there must be but seven Kings Whereas if he had considered according to the plain Indication of the Prophecy that there was a time when the Beast was for a while to cease to be which was the Intervall when pure Christianity was the Religion of the Empire and that the seven Heads of the Beast were Heads of Blasphemie or Idolatry he might have easily discerned not onely that there might be eight Kings though but seven Heads of the Beast but also that it was necessary it should be so For when the Beast was not in being his Head was gone also But the Empire never yet ceased to be no not in the Intervall of the Beast's not being nor could it be then without a Sovereignty Wherefore there is a necessity that there should be eight Kings though but seven Heads of the Beast For the Beast in his Non-existence could neither want nor have an Head The great serviceableness of the Authour's Interpretation of the Perdition of the Beast and of the burning of the Whore for the peace and security of Christendom 10. This is true as I have fully and it may be over-fully demonstrated in the ensuing Discourse But if it had not been also mainly usefull as well as true I should not have made it my business so carefully and copiously to have evinced it Nor take I any pleasure in having different opinions from others much less in divulging them were it not for a common good as this certainly is it tending so naturally to the peace and safety of all the Secular Powers of the Empire and to the vindicating of this holy Book of Visions it self from that contempt or hatred that some bear to it as seeming a Countenancer or Exciter of Fanatical persons to tumultuate against their lawfull Sovereigns whenas on the contrary as I have elsewhere intimated there is not any Book more faithfull and more friendly to the Prerogative of Secular Princes then this Volume of Prophecies the Prediction of the Perdition of this fourth Beast being rather a mercifull Promise then a Commination Which is this That as it ceased to be for a time so after a certain Period of time it should cease to be for ever Now the temporary ceasing of the Beast to be was onely the Empire 's entertaining and maintaining the pure and Apostolick Christianity as yet uncontaminate with any Pagan-like Idolatries Wherefore the ceasing of it to be for ever is nothing else but the being cleansed for ever from all Idolatry and Antichristianism Which can be no ill news to the Emperour and Secular Kings or Princes of the Empire they being quit of Idolatry which makes the Empire a Beast and of the imposturous Tyranny and Usurpations of the Pope of Rome over them at once But for that Hierarchical Power of the Pope and his Clergie and truly it will analogically touch such a Presbytery as hath not learn'd the lesson of due Subjection to the Secular Sovereignty in things indifferent that Papal Hierarchy I say which as * Praefat.
Monitor ad Caesar. c. King James of ever-blessed memory has smartly and justly taxed them sub larvata simulatione curae spiritualis animarum regna exhaurit orbémque Christianum caede sanguine miscet to this Power I must confess the Visions of the Apocalyps are somewhat more severe as it is most fit they should be For this Power except so much therein as agrees with the Primitive Ages of the Church comprising in it nothing but a masse of Frauds and Impostures of Superstitions and Idolatries and bloudy and Antichristian Cruelties the Visions of the Apocalyps were not the Visions of God if they predicted not ill to so ungodly and Diabolical a Polity And yet if I might profess freely my opinion were but that heap of wicked stuff cast out and abolished and all her false Merchandizes every-where interdicted as they are here in England such a purification as this would undoubtedly fulfill the prediction of the burning of the Whore of Babylon with fire according to the primary sense or scope of these Visions and the Church and whatsoever is comely and usefull be saved from any farther or severer Castigations provided they did not Antichristianize in what is left and place all their Religion merely in an outward though unexceptionable Form neglecting the indispensable Laws of the Life of God and of honest and laudable Morality So little reason have any to be affraid of the right sense of the Apocalyps in those Visions unless they have a favour for the Kingdom of sin and dominion of the Devil in the World 11. Again I must confess also that I cannot but dissent from Mr. His difference from Mr. Mede's way in expounding the three days and an half of the death of the Witnesses and in the placing of the Vials c. Mede in his expounding the three days and an half wherein the Witnesses lay slain three years and an half and not three times and an half which is a mistake of no small consequence As also in his placing of six of the Vials within the sixth Trumpet whenas I have shewn reason I think sufficient why they should be all ranged within the seventh Upon which supposition the pouring out of the first will follow the ascension of the Witnesses into Heaven in a cloud with a very close and natural coherence and such as is intimated in the very Text. For it is said that they ascended up into Heaven in a cloud and their Enemies beheld them and you may be sure Apoc. 11. 12. with a very envious eye and with much wrath and bitter exulceration of spirit accordingly as it is said Ver. 18. And the Nations were angry This is presently upon the blast of the seventh Trumpet And the first Vial answerably thereto is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apoc. 16. 2. an evil and wicked Ulcer or Sore Which does very significantly indigitate that rancour and exulceration of spirit that fell on them that had the Mark of the Beast upon their seeing the exaltation of the Witnesses and hearing the Triumphal Song of those mystical Israelites that had escaped the Tyranny of the Roman Pharaoh by betaking themselves to the safeguard of the Red Sea in such a sense as I have above intimated These are considerable Examples of differences betwixt Mr. Mede 's Interpretations and mine From which several others must necessarily flow as depending thereon beside others that depend not on these which were to little purpose to note particularly But they all put together will not amount to any such summe as will at all impair that rich stock of honour and esteem which will be for ever due to so excellent a Writer whose Modesty Judgment and usefull Industry will I doubt not be admired and applauded to all posteritis For there is no reason at all that those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I mention here should derogate any thing from either that singular ability Mr. Mede had of interpreting Prophecies or from the credit of other performances of his in this kind where he had more maturely considered things and therefore according to the accuracy of his Judgment had perfected his Interpretations beyond all just exception But these that I differ from him in he does ingenuously confess to be but certain Specimina which he had communicated to his private friends nor did look upon them himself as throughly concocted and completed 12. These are the main prejudices that seemed to encumber our Design The reason of the Prolixness of his Alphabet of Prophetick Iconisms which I think I have clearly removed As for particular Exceptions they are of less moment such as might be made against the Prolixity and Inadequateness of my Alphabet of Iconisms my Confutation of Grotius onely and that with some sharpness in some places and lastly my uncharitable Liberty in applying those Prophecies of the Apocalyps and other Scriptures which by the ancient Fathers and more modern Writers even of the Romanists themselves are understood of the famous Antichrist unto the Papacy and Church of Rome To which I shall briefly answer and in order To the first That that Alphabet of Prophetick Iconisms is neither prolix nor inadequate to the whole design I had in mine eye when I compiled it though it be much too long for the use of the present Treatise But we are to remember that I had occasion to write of other Visions in my Mystery of Godliness which are pretermitted here as not appertaining to our present Scope But the use of this Alphabet is extendible also to that former Writing as likewise to a future design in my last part of the Mystery of Iniquity where I shall have occasion to range very far into the Prophecies of the Apocalyps besides other Divine Predictions even upon this very account more fully and accurately to examine whether those Comminations that threaten destruction to the Fourth Beast and the Whore or by whatsoever other Figures those Powers are indigitated do primarily signify any bloudy or boisterous destruction such as the keen Fifth-Monarchy-men or any other Enthusiasts are over-forward to imagine or whether the Mystery of God may not rather be accomplished in such an orderly Reformation as was made by the Sovereign Power of England in King Edward and Queen Elizabeth 's time Which can be no affrightfull news to any that have any Knowledge of God or Love of the Truth For assuredly that was an eminent Example of Christ's Re-visiting the World in the behalf of the faithfull and of his coming again to Judgement in thus judging the Whore and rescuing this part of his Kingdom here in this Island out of the hands of that Man of Sin though few have taken due notice hereof or had a right notion of this so marvellous Event 13. And therefore it is a wonder to me that there are so many that talk so loud of the Spirit of Elias and pretend to be in that Dispensation A Description of
are such as these Apoc. 8. The third part of the Trees was burnt up The third part of the Ships was destroyed The third part of the Sea became bloud and ch 12. The third part of the Sun was smitten and the third part of the Moon c. where Third does not signify the proportion of that which was smitten to that which did escape but the Empire at large which was smitten is indigitated by this Number Which has a smack of the Cabbalistick Genius who use Numbers for the Symbols of things as I have already noted So the Tenth part of the City is not the Tenth of the City that then was but of a City whose extent bore but the proportion of a Tenth part to what it had been as Mr. Mede has carefully computed To this head you may also refer that Apoc. 18. Double unto her double according to her works and Fill unto her double Which is so definitively spoken as if she should be repay'd with as much more as she had injured others but the sense is onely that she should be pay'd home for all her injurious dealings 10. Examples of Specifical Diorisms are such as usual Synecdoches are that put the Species for the Genus which being a more determinate Object strikes the Phancy stronglier and with fuller gratification Thus is the Imagination more loudly alarm'd by being informed that such a Thing or Person shall be burnt or consumed with fire then if it were only said they should perish or be consumed and not specify the manner So to make warre is more determinate and specifick then to oppose and to be beheaded then simply to die or be killed and to be slain more specifick then to be destroyed and lastly King is a more specifick term and more fully strikes upon the phancy then Supreme Magistrate or whatever other appellation that is more general and consequently more dilute Which Examples of this third kind of Diorismus occurre up and down in the Apocalyps and indeed every where in the Prophets CHAP. III. 1. Hylasmus what it is with the kinds thereof 2. Eximious Examples of each kind 3. What the first and chiefest kind of Henopoeia 4. That one single Beast signifies a Body Politick demonstrated out of Daniel 5. That a Succession of Individuals is represented by one Individual 6. That one individual Beast represents a Kingdom or Body Politick from its rise to its fall 7. That one single Man or Woman does also represent a Body Politick in the Prophetick style 8. The second kind of Henopoeia what it is 9. What Zoopoeia with examples thereof 10. A second kind of Zoopoeia proved and illustrated from Examples 1. HYlasmus is a Prophetick Scheme bearing strongly upon the Phancy by exhibiting crass and palpable Objects such as in Logick would bear the Notion of Subject or Matter The first kind is coincident with Metonymia Subjecti as when a City is put for the Inhabitants or a Temple for them that worship therein Examples of this kind are frequent every where To the second kind I would refer such Representations as are from Buildings Pavements and the like which are compact of crass and palpable Materials but are Mystical or Spiritual Symbols of quite another thing Examples of this kind are the Inward and Outward Court of the Temple the one Symmetral the other Asymmetral which signifies the Christian Church one while in her Purity another while in her Apostasie to Idols So the Holy City troden down by the Gentiles signifies the Christian Church over-run with Gentilism So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this case is an Emblem of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Body Politick as Temple may be of the living Church of Christ. 2. An eximious Example of this kind of Hylasmus is the Description of Jerusalem Apoc. 21. with its high wall and twelve gates and by a Prophetick Diorism the measure of the City is concluded twelve thousand furlongs and the wall an hundred fourty four cubits and the Materials are Gold and Pearls and precious Stone And yet this City so Hylastically set out has a most Spiritual meaning and signifies nothing else but the Church of Christ reduced again to Apostolical Purity But the most notable Instance of a Prophetick Hylasmus is the Description of the Temple by Ezekiel to which I cannot say but this of S. John alludes in several passages And that it is an Hylasmus and not a literal Description I think any one will easily grant that does but peruse the 47 Chapter Lastly The destruction of the City Babylon in the Apocalyps is also a remarkable Example of this Scheme but though in the general it appertain to this second kind of Hylasmus yet things are there set out very much by the former kind which is a Metonymia Subjecti not continentis as before but occupantis the Objects of their Spiritual Negotiations being so crassly discovered and described 3. The next Prophetick Scheme is Henopoeia and the most graceful but withall as much obscuring as any And the first and chiefest kind thereof is this The collection of a multitude of Individuals into the show of one Individual as also of a Succession of Individuals or Multitudes into the show of one standing Individual This is an ancient method of delivering Mysteries as any one will discern if he throughly perpend the nature and truth of the ancient Cabbala Which that both Daniel and S. John I may adde S. Paul too have imitated in their Prophecies I think is easily to be evinced 4. Touching the collection of a Multitude into the show or representation of one Individual it is plain in Daniel for one individual Lion there denotes the whole Kingdom of the Babylonians one Bear the Kingdom Dan. 7. of the Medo-Persians one Leopard the Kingdom of the Greeks and the fourth Beast the Roman Kingdom It is true it is said The four Beasts are four Kings but the vulgar Latin has it four Kingdoms as also Theodotion and the Text says expresly that the fourth Beast is the fourth Kingdom upon earth So the Ram and the Goat in the eighth Chapter according to Grotius his own Interpretation out of the Hebrew Idiom though they be said to be Kings are Kingdoms And whereas it is written And the rough Goat is the King of Graecia and the great Horn that is betwixt his eyes is the first King unless this Goat either signifie a Succession of Kings or a Kingdom it is not sense yea though Succession yet it will be very harsh sense to make the great Horn the first King and the Body the rest Wherefore unless we would distort things beyond all measure the Body of the Goat must signifie the Kingdom of Graecia as the Horns the Supreme Power consonantly to what Grotius has written and I doubt not but his Interpretation is true And I think that scarce any one can be so weak but upon the reading of Daniel he will be assured that in Prophetick
the Horse also signifies impediments in the affairs of the Rider and his contumacy and intractableness if he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hard-mouthed the Rider's both fault and affliction And several other things in the Horse are in like manner referred to him that rides him c. 152. And again c. 233. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And presently after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of all which it is plainly manifest that these Horses are the Symbols of the Conditions of their Riders or of the People over which they are set who are the Beast they ride upon Which will facilitate the understanding of the Visions of the Four Horses in the Apocalyps whose Riders are easily conceived to be Commanders who are properly Emperours and what is signified in the Horses to respect either the Empire or the Emperours themselves Hour See Time Islands That Islands may signifie persons of greater Dignity their eminency or bearing themselves above the Planicies of the Sea does intimate to us But that they may sometimes signifie Temples or places consecrate their being disterminated from other Land as these Edifices are from all other Houses may well allure a mans imagination to believe See Mr. Mede upon the Sixth Seal 8. King and Kingdom If King be look'd upon as one distinct kind of Sovereignty when it is put for Supreme Governour it may either be an Icasmus for every Supreme Governour is to his Body Politick as a King to his or else a Diorismus which is a kind of Prophetick Synecdoche as I have said setting down the Species for the Genus But if it be so as Mr. Mede seems abundantly to have proved in his Regnum Romanum est quartum Regnum Danielis that King and Kingdom in the Hebrew is as large in use of signification as Supreme Power and that Body that is subject thereto be it Kingdom or Commonwealth then to use King promiscuously of any Supreme Power calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Apoc. 17. it is onely an Hellenism and the calling the Seven Heads there Seven Kings needs neither the solution into a Diorismus nor Icasmus but onely an Henopoeia for those Heads amongst them which are conceived to be such a Sovereignty as resides in many 9. And that they are said to be Seven Kings and not seven sorts of Kings that is no unusual manner of speech for we say Four Moral Vertues Five Senses Three Physical Principles Four Passions and the like for three kinds and four kinds of Principals and Passions and so of the rest So the Four Beasts in Daniel that are said to rise out of the Sea are four kinds of Beasts not Individuals of the same kind And the Two Witnesses in the Apocalyps are Two several kinds of Witnesses as Grotius himself acknowledges But were it not that use has made it thus familiar to call seven sorts of Kings seven Kings were a Diorismus the speech being more restrained and determinate For an Individual is more determinate then the Species and the Species then the Genus So little difficulty is there in calling seven sorts of Supreme Governours Seven Kings as the Text of the Apocalyps does chap. 17. 10. 10. Leopard Achmetes c. 272. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Leopard signifies an unreconcilable Enemy And in the same Paragraph he saith If a Commander dreams that he fights with this Animal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cum hoste potente fraudulento formidoloso bellum geret Locusts That Locusts signifie numerous Armies of men pillaging and destroying a Country is plain from Joel 1. 6. For a Nation is come up upon my land strong and without number whose teeth are the teeth of a Lion and be hath the cheek-teeth of a great Lion He hath laid my Vine waste and hath barked my Fig-tree he hath made it clean bare and cast it away the branches thereof are made white By Nation the Jews and Vatablus with others understand a multitude of Locusts but that is but the Type The Persians and Babylonians as also other Nations that were to lay waste Judaea are signified thereby according to Munster and Clarius Grotius also interprets it of the Armies of Phul and Salmanasser Also in the next Chapter vers 2. the gloominess and darkness of that day is imputed to the cloud of Locusts that flie in the aire and their sudden lighting on the place compared to the morning spread upon the mountains And v. 3. The land is as the garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness namely by reason of their devouring all the green herbs where-ever they come That is the Interpretation of several Hebrew Expositors as also of Vatablus Castalio Drusius Liveleius But Munster and Grotius expound it of the numerous Armies of the Babylonians and Assyrians that were to waste and destroy Judaea Achmetes c. 300. according to the mind of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The latter part of which Aphorism is to be referred to the Indian Onirocriticks and does assuredly allude to that of Joel And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any King or Potentate see Locusts come upon a place let him expect a powerful multitude of Enemies there and look what hurt the Locusts doe the enemy will doe mischief proportionably 11. Male-child As the Woman that brings forth is not a single woman but the Apostolick Church so the Child must not be a single person but a company Apoc. 12. to which Grotius also subscribes And Andreas upon the place Filius masculus est Ecclesiae populus the Mystical Christ. Totus enim Christus Caput Corpus est as * Cassandr Consult Art 7. Cassander has noted out of S. Austin If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore may be understood of a Multitude under one Head why may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thess. 2. 3 Measure See Balance Mark See Character Mill. Achmetes out of the Onirocriticks of the Indians c. 194. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If any one dream he has a Mill grinding he shall prosper in his employment and live in affluence proportionably to theâ—… thickness and fairness of the Mill-stones c. And cap. 195. out of the Persian and Aegyptian Interpretations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Month. See Time Moon See Sun Moon and Stars 12. Mountain Mountain may have several significations As first it may signifie the Temples or Holy places of Idolaters of which there is frequent mention in Scripture under the title of High places Jer. 3. 23. according to the vulgar Latin Verè mendaces erant colles multitudo montium verè in Domino Deo nostro salus Israel Upon which Grotius Colles illi in quibus Idola colebantur nos deceperunt Secondly Mountains signifie Cities Esa. ch 13. 2. concerning Babylon Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain Forerius out
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apocal. 12. that great red Dragon with seven Heads is so called from his Sanguinolency But that his Seventh head 's growing out of this red body signifies that this Beast will be cruel also under the Seventh Head and that this Cruelty it self is part of the Image of the Beast this every one has not noted 5. Resurrection That the Resurrection of the dead has a Political sense as well as a Theological or Physical may appear plainly from Ezekiel 37. 9. Then said he unto me Prophesy unto the wind prophesy son of man and say to the wind Thus saith the Lord God Come from the four winds O breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding great army That this is to be understood in a Political sense concerning the restoring of the people of Israel to their own Land out of thraldome and captivity is plain from the very mouth of God himself in the following verses Then he said unto me Son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel Behold they say Our bones are dried and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Therefore prophesy and say unto them Thus saith the Lord God Behold O my people I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel Whence it is plain that to be cut off to be slain and to rise from the dead has as I said a Political sense as well as a Natural or Theological and that Resurrection is a Recuperation of such rights and liberties as have been taken away and a deliverance from persecution affliction and bondage Achmetes cap. 5. according to the Indian doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And cap. 6. according to the doctrine of the Persian Onirocriticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And lastly according to the Aegyptians c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of all which put together is That the dreaming of men rising from the dead signifies the execution of Justice and deliverance from war bondage and affliction 6. Rivers A River has a double consideration The first in respect of its Original and its recourse thither which is hinted Ecclesiast 1. 7. All the Rivers run into the Sea yet the Sea is not full unto the place from whence the Rivers come thither they return again According to which consideration supposing the Sea a Type of the Extent of the Jurisdiction or Empire of any Potentate as it indeed is Rivers will signifie any Emissary Powers from thence whether Armies or Provincial Magistrates or what Agents abroad soever that are under this chief Power and so act in reference to it These may according to exact Analogie be called Rivers because both themselves and their affairs have recourse to the main Sea the amplitude of that Jurisdiction to which they belong Achmetes c. 178. according to the mind of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of which is That any great King is resembled by the Sea I suppose he means his Kingdom and as all Rivers run into the Sea so the wealth of the world to him And again to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That new Rivers running into the Sea signify new Revenues accruing to the King or Kingdom from people afar off suppose made Provinces by his power 7. The other consideration of Rivers is their limpidness and irrigation but in this respect they have either a Spiritual sense or more Mundane The former appears from what our Saviour hath said John 7. 38. He that believes in me out of his belly shall flow Rivers of water This he spake of the Spirit which they that believed in him should receive The fruit of which Spirit as it is communicable to the generality of the Church is Righteousness Peace and Joy according to that Onirocritical solution of Astrampsychus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of this Water our Saviour Christ John 4. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life Like that in Esay 58. And thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not But Waters are also meant of worldly affluency Jerem. 31. 12. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Sion and shall flow together for the goodness of the Lord for wheat and for wine and for oil and for the young of the flock and of the herd and their soul shall be as a watered garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all Achmetes c. 176. according to the Aegyptian Solutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rivers that water the soil are interpreted of mans livelihood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one sees a River that uses to water the country dried up it portends death sorrow and affliction 8. Saints The first style of Saintship belongs to the Israelites who were a separate people set apart from other Nations and made holy to the Lord by adhering to that Law he gave them not contaminating themselves with the Idolatrous Institutes of the Gentiles Deuteron 33. 2. The Lord came from Sinai and rose from Seir unto them he shined from mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of Saints that is to say saith Vatablus cum populo Israel quorum fuerunt quidem multa millia licèt nâ—…n singuli Sancti tamen sancta fuerunt millia quòd Deus illos sanctificâsset in populum suum illos sibi segregâsset And further in the following verse Yea he loved the people all his Saints are in thy hand Which is plainly spoke of the Israelites according to that sense in Exodus ch 19. v. 5 6. where they are called a peculiar treasure above all people and also a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation And this they are said to be if they obey his voice and keep his Covenant Whence it is easy to conceive that those Christians succeed into this Title that are purely Evangelical and do not contaminate themselves by any Idolatrous Practices against the Command and Covenant of God they are Saints in this peculiar and separate sense in that they do not mingle with the Rites of the Gentiles but keep themselves to the Commands of that one Master Christ. If they doe this sincerely and constantly and truly there is little doubt of their sincerity that did not stick to lay down their lives for the truth though they be not so wise and plausible according to the mode of the world nor devoid of all blemishes of humane infirmity yet undoubtedly they are those Saints of which there is so frequent mention in the Apocalyps and are the true Israel of God under whatsoever hardship or low condition of fortune they
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of all which is in brief that in the interpretation of Visions or Dreams the Sun immutably represents the King the Moon the next in power to him the Planet Venus the Queen and the rest of the bigger Stars the Princes or Nobles of the Kingdom 13. Which is not so superstitiously to be understood but that if there were no Queen any third in dignity might be represented thereby For this Venus is also Lucifer which the Hebrews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under which the mighty King of Babylon is represented Esay 14. 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the Morning how art thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken the Nations Which seems to be against the analogie of the Onirocriticks which say the Sun signifies the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But they do not say a Star may not signifie him especially when he is not compared with his own Nobles and Princes but with other Kings For a plurality of Suns is unnatural Wherefore in that case the Parable is to be made from the Stars onely and the chiefest King is the greatest and most glorious Star Whence when the Roman Empire had two Caesars unsubordinate to one another they could not well be called Suns but Stars though glorious ones Which agrees well with Mr. Mede's interpreting of that great Star that fell at the sound of the third Trumpet of the expiring of the Western Caesareate 14. But that there is a more Mystical sense of Stars also may appear in that Promise of Christ * Revel 2. 28. I will give him the Morning-star But where Christ saith * Chap. 22. 16. I am the root of David and the bright Morning-star I know not but that may be understood in a Political sense for all Kingdoms had not then nor have yet submitted unto him But where Stars signifie Angels that is more Cabbalistical Apocal. 1. 20. The seven Stars are the seven Angels of the seven Churches According as they signifie also in Job 38. 7. When the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy As many of which as kept not their station but fell into this terrestrial pollution may well be called Fallen Stars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stars fallen from Heaven to the Earth According to which that Apocal. 9. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing but a Periphrasis of some one fallen Angel or Devil who afterwards is called the Angel of the Abyss a great Officer in the Kingdom of darkness That this is the sense is plain in that it is said not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the preterperfect Tense It may not be impertinent also to adde what * Lib. 2. Hieroglyph 1. Horus Apollo says of this Hieroglyphick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. IX 1. Tail Temple 2. Throes Throne of God 3. Thunder an Iconism of Divine assistence for the discomfiting of the Enemies 4. Other more mystical meanings thereof 5. Time Hours Days That Day signifying a Year is an Icasmus 6. The appropriation of Months and Days to the story of the Wicked and Righteous with an inference from the latter of a latitude of compute in the 1260 days in the Apocalyps 7. Trees Vintage Water 8. White-clothing Wilderness Winds 9. Whore and Whoredom 10. The exquisite Analogie Idolatry bears thereunto 11. Wine-press 12. That it signifies also spiritual Destruction and slaughter 13. Woman and Women 14. Worship World 15. That the Prophetick style is so determinately intelligible that the endeavour of understanding Prophecies is most unjustly reproached for any insuperable difficulties therein 16. Certain Rules to try Interpretations of Prophecies by which are more warrantable and genuine which less 1. TAil The Tail of a Beast is that part that follows or comes behind to which therefore the Train of a great Prince or Potentate will correspond in Analogie But me-thinks the Analogie is most exact in Serpents of a great length who therefore have a long train following them But it is significant enough in other Animals also as the Onirocriticks have taken notice Achmet c. 152. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one dream he rides on a generous Steed such as the Persians called Pharas having a large Tail thick of hair and long he shall have a Retinue or Train of Men or Officers answerable to the fulness and length of the Tail This Analogie will hold good from Nobles to Princes and Emperours or any Sovereign Power over a State or Kingdom In which case their Forces and People are their Train or Tail Temple To omit those more Mystical or Moral meanings of Temple it signifies sometimes in the Prophetick style a People consecrated to God by an outward profession of him and so set apart from other Nations as consecrated Places are from other buildings or plats of ground 1 Tim. 3. 15. That thou maiest know how to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church And Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God which both Grotius and Dr. Hammond interpret of the Church Visible Grotius of the Sardian Dr. Hammond of the Church Catholick 2. Throes of Child-birth The Throes of Child-birth are a Figure or Image of great endeavours to bring something to pass not without much difficulty pain and danger And the compassing their end is a delivery of what they were big with and a deliverance from the pain and danger they laboured under There are several examples of this Iconism in the Prophets Jer. 30. 6 7. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail and all faces are turned into paleness Alas for that day is great so that none is like it it is even the day of Jacob's trouble but he shall be saved out of it Also Esa. 66. 7. Before she travailed she brought forth before her pain came she was delivered of a man-child which Interpreters usually understand of the sudden Birth of the Church I mean of the sudden Conversion of the Gentiles to it Grotius of the deliverance of Judaea by Maccabaeus Throne of God The Throne of God signifies a great Throne a magnificent Throne according to that usual Hebraism where Nouns joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acquire a sense of excellency vehemency or greatness So the Trees of God the Cedars of God the Mountains of God are great and high Trees Cedars and Mountains the Fire of God a vehement Fire and the like According to which the Throne of God is an high and exalted Throne a Royal or Imperial Seat from whence the Political World is ruled as God from Heaven rules the whole Universe 3. Thunder Thunder and Lightning signifies the disjection and dissipation of the forces of War Esa. 29. 6. Thou shalt be visited of
with great admiration Chap. 13. 15. And he had power to give life to the Image of the Beast that the Image of the Beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast should be a Par. 1. Agr. 6. killed Chap. 17. 7. And the Angel said unto me Wherefore didst thou marvell I will tell thee the Mystery of the Woman and of the Beast that a carrieth her which hath the b seven heads and ten horns Chap. 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming up out of the Earth and he had a Par. 〈◊〉 Agr. 7. two horns 1. And I saw a Beast having b Par. 2 Agr. 1. seven heads and ten horns Chap. 17. 8. The Beast which thou sawest a was and is not and shall ascend out of the b bottomless pit and goe into c perdition and they that dwell on the Earth shall d wonder whose names were not written in the Book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the Beast that e was and is not and yet is Chap. 13. 2. And the a Par. 2. Agr. 3. Dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority 4. And they worshipped the a Dragon that gave power to the Beast c. See also verse 3. 1. And I stood upon the sand of the Sea and I saw a Beast b Par. 2. Agr. 6. rise up out of the Sea 10. He that leadeth into c Par. 2. Agr. 7. captivity must go into captivity he that killeth with the sword must be c killed with the sword 3. And all the world d Par. 2. Agr. 8. wondred after the Beast 8. And all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him whose names are not d written in the Book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to a Par. 2. Agr. 3. death and his deadly wound was a healed 14. Saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make an c Par. 2. Agr. 5. Image to the Beast which had the wound by the sword and the Beast revived 15. And he had power to give life to the c Image of the Beast insomuch that the Image of the Beast should speak Chap. 17. 9. And here is the mind that hath wisedom The seven Heads are the a seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth Chap. 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming up out of the Earth and he had a Par. 1. Agr. 8. two horns like a Lamb but spake as a Dragon Chap. 17. 10. And they are seven Kings five are fallen and one is and the a Par. 2. Agr. 10. other is not yet come and when he cometh he must continue a b Par. 2. Agr. 4. short space Chap. 13. 1. Having a seven heads and upon his heads the name of a blasphemy 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was b healed Chap. 17. 11. And the Beast that was and is not even he is the eighth and is of the a Par. 2. Agr. 9. seven and goeth into b Par. 2. Agr. 7. perdition Chap. 13. 1. Having seven heads and upon his heads the name of a blasphemy 10. He that killeth with the sword must be b killed with the sword Chap. 17. 12. And the ten Horns which thou sawest are ten Kings which have received a no kingdom as yet but receive power as kings a one hour with the Beast Chap. 13. 1. Having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten a Par. 2. Agr. 11 12. crowns Chap. 17. 13. These have one mind and shall a give their strength and power to the Beast Chap. 13. 1. I saw a Beast rising out of the Sea a Par. 2. Agr. 13. having ten horns Chap. 17. 14. These shall make a war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall b overcome them for he is Lord of lords and King of kings and they that are with him are c called and chosen and faithfull Chap. 13. 4. Who is like to the Beast who is able to make a Par. 2. Agr. 14. war with him 7. And it was given him to make a War with the Saints and to overcome them 16. And he causeth all both small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or on their foreheads 17. And that no man may a buy or sell save he that has the mark or the name of the Beast or the number of his name 10. He that leadeth into captivity shall b Par. 2. Agr. 15. go into captivity he that killeth with the sword shall be b killed with the sword Here is the patience and c Par. 2. Agr. 16. faith of the Saints Chap. 17. 15. And he saith unto me The waters which thou sawest where the Whore sitteth are a peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues Chap. 13. 7. And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations 12. And I beheld another Beast come out of the Earth and he had a Par. 1. Agr. 7. two horns like a Lamb and he exercizeth a all the power of the first Beast before him Chap. 17. 16. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the Beast these shall hate the Whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire Chap. 13. There is nothing in this Thirteenth Chapter answering to the 16. verse of the other but that verse answers punctually to the main Title of the Vision which is The judgment of the great Whore But that this defect is no prejudice to the certainty of our Parallelism I have already noted Chap. 17. 17. For God has put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast untill the a words of God shall be fulfilled Chap. 13. 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was given unto him to continue a Par. 2. Agr. 17. forty and two months Chap. 17. 18. And the Woman which thou sawest is that great City which a Par. 1. Agr. 9. reigneth over the Kings of the Earth Chap. 13. 18. Here is Wisedom let him that hath understanding count the Number of the Beast for it is the number of a man and his number is a six hundred threescore and six 7. Thus you see the Two Visions of the Thirteenth Chapter wholy imbibed into the Vision of the Seventeenth excepting the Original of the Two-horned Beast of which I have given an account already And that it is naturally drunk in not dash'd in by force will appear from that joint-Exposition which I shall make of these two Chapters together interpreting those verses or parts of verses of the Thirteenth which I have subnected to each verse of the
Bishop he in a more peculiar manner entitling himself thereby to all the foul miscarriages of the Catholick Church 3. And that the Vision of the Two-horned Beast does also imply such an universal Idolatrous Corruption in the Clergie as well in the Oriental as Par. 1. Agr. 7. in the Occidental parts of the Empire is intimated in the Two horns of that Beast as also in exercising all the power of the former Beast in his sight which I will defer to speak of till we come to the 15 th verse of this present Chapter I shall onely take notice before I pass any farther that I have in the foregoing Chapter proved by a method plainly Demonstrative That this Great Whore is not to be understood of any Body Politick that promoted Idolatry while the Empire was Pagan but after it became and continued Christian though contaminated with a Pagan-like Idolatry of a new Fashion which I have proved to have been many Ages already in being according to the evident sense of this Prophecy So that there can be no rub nor scruple as concerning this Ver. II. With whom the Kings of the Earth have committed Fornication That is to say By whose allurements and perswasions the Kings of the Roman Empire which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inhabited Earth Luke 2. have admitted and embraced Idolatrous doctrines and practices which is Spiritual Whoredome Haply the Ten Kings may be alluded to which are mentioned v. 13. and are said to have one minde and to give their power and strength to the Beast which the Whore rides And the Inhabitants of the Earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication that is to say The people of the Empire were so inflamed intoxicated and dementated with the unwholsom heat of Idolatrous zeal that it made them very tragically quarrelsom against all Opposers or Despisers of their fair Diana and made them so sottish secure and heedless that they were exposed to all the deceits and injuries this intoxicating Circe could put upon them 2. Now as this Great Whore is said to be such a Promoter or Restorer of Idolatry so likewise is the Two-horned Beast which though he have two horns like a Lamb yet is said to speak like a Dragon that is to publish Paral. 1. Agr. 1. Idolatrous Edicts or Doctrines And again v. 12. he is said to cause the Earth and them that dwell therein that is the Empire as I said before to worship the first Beast whose deadly wound was healed And v. 14. to command them that dwell on the Earth that they should make an Image to the Beast who had the wound by the sword and did live The sense of the latter of which citations is this That the Two-horned Beast by his authority and power of speech perswaded them of the Empire which was now purely Christian and was therefore the death of the Beast as I have demonstrated in the fore-going Chapter to introduce such a face of Idolatry again though upon pretence of the better adorning and promoting Christianity that the slain Beast might justly seem to revive again in this Image that is to say that the Empire might be said to become a Beast again by becoming Idolatrous as the death of the Beast was the Empire's ceasing from Idolatry And therefore to make an Image to the Beast that was slain is as much as to make an Image in the behalf of the Beast that was slain that he might at least live again in this Image And it is said in the very Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 revixit so Vatablus and Grotius that is upon the making this Image the slain Beast revived again and lived in this Image Wherefore it is no wonder that this Two-horned Beast is said to make them that dwell on the Earth to worship the first Beast whose deadly wound was healed when he was the Healer and Reviver of him and put him in a capacity of being worshipped that is obeyed as I have noted in my Alphabet and that in such Injunctions as were Impious and Idolatrous For this Pagano-Christianism becoming the Religion of the Empire it was made thereby the Law and Commandment of the Empire so that the healed Beast may be rightly said to be obeyed in the submission thereto Out of all which does plainly appear That the Two-horned Beast as well as the Whore of Babylon was a Restorer and Promoter of Idolatry in the Empire Ver. III. So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness This is no part of the Vision unless we make Wilderness Hieroglyphical And indeed Alcazar from the authority of many of the Fathers makes it a Symbole of Gentilism But whether you consider the Type or no this Two-horned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wild beast will naturally be conceived to be in the wilderness as well as the Whore is declared to be so and this Pagano-Christianism of which they are both the Authors what is it but a kinde of Gentilism So that it had not been inept to have made this one Agreement in our first Parallelism 2. And I saw a Woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured Beast The sitting upon a Beast implies the riding and guiding of him the exciting and quickning of him to this or that course as the Rider pleases And the Two-horned Beast is said likewise to animate the Seven-headed Beast and to prick Paral. 1. Agr. 2. him up to those bloudy Edicts that seem to be alluded to Chap. 13. v. 15. That the revived Beast should speak and cause as many as will not submit to him as Beast that is to say as Idolatrous to be slain And this may suffice for an intimation of the truth of the second Agreement of the first Parallelism That as well the Whore as the Two-horned Beast has the governance and rule over the Beast with seven Heads 3. Now for the scarlet colour of the Beast it has a double indication the one of Tyrannical Cruelty the other of Imperial Majesty In the former Paral. 2. Agr. 2. sense Victorinus Aretas Zegerus Viegas Alcazar and others interpret it In the latter Cornelius à Lapide Paraeus Ribera and Grotius Fera coccinea saith he nimirum quia eo colore tingi solebant Imperatorum Romanorum Paludamenta But where both senses are so fit they are both to be understood by an Henopoeia which reduces many Objects prefigured under one Type But for the present I shall onely take notice of the Cruelty of the Beast set out by this bloudy colour And the like is also figured in the shape of the Seven-headed Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter His body there being like that of a Leopard his feet like a Bear 's and his mouth like a Lion's All which are Beasts of great Rapine and Cruelty 4. Full of names of Blasphemy that is Full of Titles or Kinds of Idolatry Plenam Diis so Grotius understanding it of the Pagan Empire and we may
coherence or ligation with the time of the Prophet but onely with one another For so far forth as is expressed in this verse the signification is onely of succeeding Order in Existence and Non-existence and Re-existence which changes upon that consideration are indeed tied to one another but free as yet from being fixed to the Prophet's time or any ones time else Which thing though I have been so carefull to make good yet is an apprehension so easy to admit that Alcazar in his Exposition supposes it without asking leave or giving any account For he understanding the revived or re-existent Beast of the persecuting Empire under Julian the Apostate whom he makes the eighth King and acknowledging the Visions exhibited to John in Domitian's time when the Roman Empire was actually persecutive does evidently implie that The Beast which thou sawest was and is not is not to be understood of Existence or Non-existence joyned with the time of the Vision for it had been false to say the Beast is not in Domitian's time but onely of permutations and successions of the Condition of the Empire Cùm igitur saith he persecutiones interrumpendae forent hâc ipsâ interruptione significatur quod Angelus ter repetit capite decimo septimo dum ait de Bestia Fuit non est Erat non est Quod idem est ac si diceret Modò est modò non est Which phrase signifies no set time of Existence or Non-existence but onely the vicissitude of them This upon the Thirteenth Chapter and to the same purpose he speaks upon the Seventeenth where he asserts that by the Beast that was and is not the Angel onely intimates that there would be an Intermission of Persecution I might adde also that our Protestant Expositours go generally upon the same supposition as Paraeus has noted But this point I hope is abundantly cleared 10. And what has been said of this first Description of the Beast Was is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition is to be understood of the second Was is not and yet is namely that it is the Name Nature or Character of the Beast not any Assertion concerning his present Existing or Not-existing For of that Idolatrous Empire which is here indigitated it could not be properly said when S. John wrote that it was but is not for it did then continue still in an uninterrupted being Nor could it be said of it Is not and yet is for it was not the Image of the Pagan Idolatrous Empireâ—… but that very Empire it self And it is remarkable that this Beast is described as to come hereafter out of the bottomless pit and that the world shall wonder at him when he ascends again upon the Stage beholding the Beast that was and is not and yet is Where therefore neither Was nor Is not have any connexion or ligation with that present Age of S. John seeing it is so evident that Is has not the prediction being not of a present Beast but of one to come And indeed to me it seems very improbable that the Title or Name of the Beast would have been so presently in the same verse repeated again with this little variation had it not been done on purpose to be a Key to the meaning of the former Title and to cast the considerate Reader upon such a sense as I have pitched upon But to reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to make the Prophecy guilty of a sapless and useless Tautologie and to deface in it a special Note and Mark of direction to the true meaning thereof But we proceed 11. Nor can Is not and yet is be understood of any Object but with a close touch on the known laws of a right Contradiction Which is the Mysterious dress which is here affected to excite amusement and without which it will not sound like either sense or an Elegancy The same thing therefore in some sense or other must be affirmed and denied of the same Subject Wherefore as by that part of the Title Was and is not it is naturally understood he is not what he was and as Is not is to be understood in the same extent that Was as if Was intimate his whole Existence Is not must take away his whole Existence and if Was intimate onely the Condition or Qualification of Existence Is not must take away just so much and no more So Is not and yet is must be understood in the same extent and the Object of their Affirmation and Negation must be equal that is to say either the whole Existence of the thing must be affirmed and denied or the same Condition or Qualification 12. The former in this case cannot be pretended to it being so real a Contradiction that it is a down-right Falsity And in the latter if there were a perfect Sameness it would be as rank and as unreconcilable a Contradiction As suppose a man were a King and should be deposed for a time but then afterwards be restored to his Kingdom in as full power as ever it were a real contradiction and gross falshood to say He is not King as well as He is King Whence the fondness of Hugo Grotius his interpretation is detected who makes Domitian the Beast that is not and yet is For it could never be said of him while he was Emperour that he was not Emperour or while he was not Emperour that he was Emperour because to be Emperour was utterly the same Condition at both times he was so if he was so twice For which he has no evasion but by reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But when this sameness is in some respect defective and verges rather towards similitude then exact Identity then indeed this Riddle is proper and though the Aenigma seems to amuse a man with a contradiction yet it declares a truth As is apparent in our Interpretation of the Beast that Paral. 2 Agr. 5. is not and yet is which is this That the ancient Idolatrous Empire is not and yet is where both parts are true For as to the manner of Idolatry it is the same Beast but in respect of the persons whom they would worship it is not the same and therefore as I have already noted is also called the Image of the Beast 13. Wherefore this second Title of the Beast Was and is not and yet is being thus plainly discovered not to signify existence but condition and order of succession it is a farther assurance that our Interpretation of the former Title of the Beast is true also and that the omitting of the Intersertion or subjunction of This is his Name or Property or the like is a mere Prophetick Ellipsis and Artifice of concealment warrantable upon a double ground either as spoken rapturously and ecstatically and therefore thus Elliptically or else because there are Examples of such an Ellipsis in other places of Scripture and in the very
sense in this notable Ellipsis because though the commissure be as invisible as that in curious Steel-work yet the apparent Agreements of this second Parallelism betwixt the Seven-headed Beast in this and the Thirteenth Chapter would not fail to unscrue the meaning with the considerate and intelligent 20. Is not and yet is Of which I have shewn already that there can Paral. 2. Agr. 5. be no good sense unless we understand not a perfect Identity but rather a Resemblance or Similitude Which Resemblance by way of elegancy gives the title of Identity as if that which is very like were exactly the same So he that came in the Spirit of Elias was called Elias and one egregiously Epicurean or Platonical might be called Epicurus redivivus or Plato redivivus as if the one were really Epicurus the other Plato And it is a vulgar expression That such an one will never die while such a Son of his namely one that is exactly like him is alive conceding herein that the Father may be dead and alive at once dead in his own person but alive in that lively image of himself his surviving Son Quanquam nullum monumentum clarius Servius Sulpitius relinquere potuit quà m effigiem morum suorum constantiae pietatis ingenii filium Of such a son as this is that saying of Siracides Though his father die Ecclesiastic 30. 4. yet he is as though he were not dead for he has left one behind him that is like him So then as Servius Sulpitius may be said to be dead and alive at once dead in his own person but alive in his son who is so perfect an Effigies of him so it may be said of the Beast that he is not and yet is Because he is not really that ancient Pagan Empire which was the Beast killed by the introduction of pure Christianity but yet he is in that he is revived in the Empire 's becoming again so Paganly Idolatrous and so lively representing the state thereof in the Dragon's time Res enim dicitur existere saith à Lapide cùm ejus Exemplar Imago Typus aut Figura existit And how lively an Image or Resemblance this degenerate Empire is of that under the Dragon I might here particularly display but I will rather defer it to the following Chapters In the mean time this may suffice in general to prove the fifth Agreement of our second Parallelism CHAP. XIV Ver. IX What is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Siracides seems to allude to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his description thereof 2. That Constantinople is also allowed to have Seven Hills and that it makes for the proof of the eighth Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. X. That the making the seven Heads seven sorts of Governours is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a natural and necessary truth 2. How naturally the different successions of the Supreme Powers of the Roman Empire fall into eight parts 3. The onely true reason why there are numbred Eight Kings though but Seven Heads of the Beast 4. That the dividing of the Emperours into Pagan Christian and Pagano-Christian is aimed at or supposed in the enumeration of the Eight Kings is an unexceptionable Truth 5. That it is most credible that after the Sixth King no other account of distinction of the Supreme Power of the Empire was look'd upon by the Angel but what respected Religion 6. A demonstrative Inference from One is that there is an Ellipsis in The Beast that thou sawest was and is not c. 7. Why * Apocal. 17. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence the last subdivision is confirmed and the tenth Agreement of the second Parallelism made good 8. The fourth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XI That the description of the Beast is his Name and part thereof used for the whole as in the Name of God which farther confirms the above-mentioned Ellipsis 2. The easie and genuine meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. That the meaning of * Verse 11. The Beast that was and is not he is the eighth is that his Head is the eighth 4. That the Eighth King by an Henopoeia may admit of more Caesars then one reigning at a time and why 5. The ninth Agreement of the second Parallelism 6. The seventh Agreement Ver. XII The eleventh Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The twelfth Agreement 3. The meaning of * Verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. XIII The thirteenth Agreement together with the meaning of * Verse 13. being of one minde and of giving their strength and power to the Beast 2. That the Pope once emerged above the Emperour even in Secular Power may continue the succession of the seventh Head there being nothing else intended thereby but the secular Pagano-christian Sovereignty of the Empire Ver. XIV The fourteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The fifteenth Agreement 3. The sixteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. IX AND here is the mind that hath wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In such a sense as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 13. 18. Here is wisedom that is Here is a special Arcanum Here is recondite Wisedom or a Cabbalistical Parable According as is intimated Ecclesiastic 6. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For wisedom is according to her name and is not manifest to the vulgar Where Siracides in all likelihood alludes to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to cover over a thing and so conceal it as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were derived from thence And assuredly the Wisedom of the Ancients was such had an outward crust or rind as well as an inward pulp And Diogenes should have rather wrote thus of Parmenides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the ancient Sophia which Siracides would have sound like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had a double sense one according to external appearance the other according to an inward truth Wherefore as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Here is such a kind of recondite wisedom as I have described so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Here is a meaning that implies a special example of the ancient Sophia which used to hide great and concerning Truths under outward Hieroglyphicks and Types 2. The seven Heads are seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth That Old Rome is here indigitated by these seven Hills Interpreters generally consent that City being so famously taken notice of for them both by Historians and Poets As by Dionysius Halicarnasseus Pliny Plutarch also by Varro Tertullian and others By Poets as Virgil Horace Ovid Claudian and the Sibylls Which things being so well known and obvious in Commentators I think it needless to produce any examples But there are that please themselves in finding Records of Constantinople's being also noted for her seven Hills which Bishop Mountague does Part 2. Ch. 5. in his Appello
Caesarem where he saith this City is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Nicetas Urbs Septicollis by Paulus Diaconus and that it is so acknowledged by Janus Dousa and by Mr. Richard Knolls in his Turkish History To which I will adde what I finde in Theatrum Urbium That Scholarius Patriarch of Constantinople in his Enarratio Vaticinii de Turcici Reg ni interitu styles the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dilichius also in his description of the City not onely mentions the seven Hills but tells also what magnificent structures stand upon them And lastly Ludovicus Gotofredus Muri ejus saith he speaking of this City sunt incredibilis altitudinis complectentes ambitu suo septem Colles So that though there be not so ancient and early mention of the Seven Hills of Byzantium or Constantinople as of those of Rome and that it may be probably conceived that upon the Emperour's pleasure of having the City called New Rome they would also finde seven Hills in it in emulation of the old Imperial City whether there were just Seven or no I mean though there might be more then seven or if fewer take occasion to phansy one and the same Hill for some little unevennesses in it to be more then one yet I cannot well distrust but that there is a tolerable ground for this Title and being that it has obtained in the Writers of her History I will not gainsay but that she may also goe for Urbs Septicollis Which will be no inconvenience to our Interpretation but a further confirmation of our Exposition of the Two Horns of the Beast which I conceive to be the two Imperial Patriarchates the Roman and Constantinopolitan which shews the extent of that Pseudo-prophetick Beast that it reached over the whole Empire as well Oriental as Occidental And here we finde the Seat of the Whore as broad these Seven Hills not confining her as is usually conceived to Old Rome but permitting her to reside also at New Rome or Constantinople there being Seven Hills Paral. 1. Agr. 〈◊〉 there as well as at the other Seat but not so famous as those other as the fame of her whoredomes is not so great from the one as from the other According to which sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would be rendred Septem capita septeni sunt montes The seven Heads signifie the two Septenaries of Mountains the one at Rome the other at Constantinople From whence the eighth Agreement of our first Parallelism is cleared Ver. X. And they are seven Kings that is They signifie seven sorts of Supreme Governours which are called Kings here by a Diorismus or an Hebraism who understand by King and Kingdom any Body Politick with the supreme Power thereof be it in one or in many And these Seven Sorts are not seven Individuals of different sorts but the whole Succession of each sort by an usual Henopoeia And that seven different Sorts of Governours may be called Seven Heads as well as seven Individual Persons I think is demonstrable by Reason because there is a greater difference betwixt Kind and kind then betwixt Individuals of the same kind Whence I wonder that Grotius should call seven forms of Government taken concretely as every one does take them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whenas if there be such a sevenfold difference in the supreme Powers in the succession of an Empire the Empire once considered as a Beast it will be ipso facto Seven-headed whether we will or no. So farre is it from being a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is a natural and inevitable truth 2. Now the Division of the succession of the Supreme Powers of the Empire is made naturally thus This Power was either in many or in one In many as in the Consuls the Tribuni Militum the Decemviri In one as in the Kings Dictatours and Emperours Which Emperours I will again divide into Pagan Christian and Pagano-Christian So that the whole line of succession of these Supreme Powers is divided first into two equal parts and then each of those two subdivided into three and then one part of the second subdivision into three again So that the whole line does naturally fall into eight parts agreeably to the History of things and declaration of the Prophecy For there are plainly numbered Eight Kings though but Seven Heads of the Beast For under the Christian Emperours the Empire was no Beast and therefore there could be no Head thereof 3. Nor know I any tolerable solution of this Riddle of Eight Kings and yet but Seven Heads but this For the shortness of the stay of the Christian Succession cannot put them out of the number of the Heads since the stay of the Decemviri was above fourty times shorter Wherefore it is not this but because the Empire during their succession was not a Beast nor they either fit or actual Heads of one but were onely Heads or Kings of the undegenerated and not-yet-again-Paganizing Empire Which therefore was the time of the Death of the Beast when he was not and therefore was to have no Head nor could have any 4. Nor is there the least ground of any Cavil against our last Subdivision which is of Emperours into Pagan purely Christian and Pagano-Christian as if there were not a cause fundamental enough of this last Distribution Whenas on the contrary there is such a strong Opposition betwixt the two first members thereof that one outs the other the seventh King being the wounder and killer of the sixth Head And forasmuch as when a Religion is made the Religion of a Kingdom or Empire it is in a sort the Law of that Empire it may be rationally conceived that there is even a Political difference betwixt a Christian and a Pagan Emperour And lastly be that how it will it is plain to all men that there is a very eminent and notorious difference betwixt a Christian and a Pagan Emperour and of more concernment to the Church of God then any Political Distinction of Government And that which most concerns his Church we may be assured God takes most notice of and therefore would be as likely to distinguish the succession of Supreme Governours by this difference as by any 5. Nay I think I may safely adde that it is likely that when once the Angel had come to the division of the Heads or rather Kings into Christian and Pagano-Christian he did wholly neglect the confideration of the Political differences of forms of Government in the Empire that notion being now impertinent to his design and contented himself with the distinction of them from the account of Religion onely But till this he numbered according to the distinction of Political form they all of them till now agreeing in pure Paganism So that the sense of The Beast that was and is not his Head is the eighth King seems to be this That supreme Power be the Political frame or Title of it what it will which is
noted and so necessary an Expression to set off the quite different nature of him from all that went before he not being properly of that kind of Line For what communion or affinity had the pure Christian Caesars with the purely Pagan But now when he comes to this last Head which I cannot avoid for significancy to term Pagano-Christian the whole Empire from head to foot being supposed such this King he thinks good to call the Eighth because he being derived from a double Line takes in all Predecessors before him as well Christian as Pagan and therefore reckoning here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Succession from whom also he is derived he is rightly called the Eighth King and yet considering that he is a Paganizing or Idolatrizing Head as well as Christian he is said to be one of the Seven namely of those seven Kings that are noted by the seven blasphemous Heads of the Beast which were seven and no more This in my apprehension is the most easie and the most assured sense that â—…ny can desire of any place of Scripture 3. Nor need we distrust it for the seeming harshness of that Synecdoche by which the whole Beast is put for part namely the Head the speech being to be salved not onely by this Figure but confirmed by Example As Dan. 2. 38. Thou art this Head of Gold and yet this Head of Gold was a Type of the whole Kingdom of Babylon Wherefore it is plain that the whole Head of Gold is put for some chief part thereof Also Dan. 4. 20 22. The Tree which thou sawest which grew and was strong c. It is thou O King that art grown and become strong c. Where notwithstanding that Tree was an Emblem of his whole Kingdom and of the large extent of the Dominion thereof So that the King is here again called the Tree whenas indeed he was but part thereof the Root as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the stumping of the Tree to the ground was a Figure to represent the cutting him off from his Kingdom for a time Besides all which it is not sense without this Synecdoche for how can any Head be truly and properly the whole Beast 4. Wherefore the Eighth King is the Succession of the Christian Caesars for that time wherein the Empire Paganizes that is Idolatrizes in Christianity Which though their Succession be long and their Persons more then one at a time in some Ages yet by an Henopoeia they are expressed under the show of one single King For the Division into Seven was not by Individuals but by difference of Kind as I have above declared And therefore the Eastern and Western Emperours reigning at once in the Empire breaks no squares in this Prophetick way of Computation which reckons not by Individuals but by Sorts and Successions contrived into one Individual shape or show Which is the reason there is no mention of succession of Persons no more then enumeration of Years in this Book of the Apocalyps though it treat of things that fill the Period of almost two thousand years and that of this side of the Millennium 5. And is of the Seven This also intimates that the Seven Heads of Par. 2. Agr. 9. the Beast are Idolatrous Heads accordingly as they are declared Chap. 13. v. 1. Which is the evidence of the ninth Agreement of our second Parallelism 6. And goeth into perdition that is into final destruction as is intimated Par. 2. Agr. 7. also in the Thirteenth Chapter v. 5 and 10. where his time is set 1260 days but then death allotted him It is the seventh Agreement of our second Parallelism as I have noted already Ver. XII And the Ten Horns which thou sawest are Ten Kings which Par. 2. Agr. 11. have received no Kingdom as yet that is to say in S. John's time who liv'd in the reign of the Sixth Head under which the Beast fought and was slain by Michael in which Battel he is also represented with Seven Heads and Ten Horns but no Crowns upon these Horns their actual Coronation being not till the Seventh Head And therefore Which have received no Kingdom as yet answers to that Type of the Horns without Crowns upon them Which is the eleventh Agreement of our second Parallelism 2. But receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast that is to say Par. 2. Agr. 12. with the Beast whose name is Was and is not and yet is which is the Beast considered under the succession of the Seventh or last Head the healed or revived Head from the mortal blow it lay under the Kings receive power and are actually crowned Kings at the time of this Beast's getting again into Being And therefore this healed Beast his ten Horns are represented with ten Crowns on them Chap. 13. 1. which answers exactly to this present Text They receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast and is a manifest proof of the twelfth Agreement of our second Parallelism 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meaning is I conceive But they are receiving power about the same hour with the Beast For the present Tense may intimate a productedness of the Action as being in fieri nor does imply but that they may be receiving though not in such a passive way as it does not involve with it some stout effort of their own towards the getting of this power for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have an higher sense and more active then so that they may be receiving I say this Roial power for some time together though some speed sooner then other some but none long without their booty For so I would understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Diorismus that it does not signifie an Hour properly so called but any short space of time the measure of which Circumstances will make us the best to understand Wherefore I would render it But they receive power as Kings about the same time with the Beast so as it is understood Exod. 9. 18. Behold to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very great hail The Greek has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plain from Exod. 36. 9. and several other places of Scripture The sense therefore is this That about what time the Beast should revive and be worshipped that is obey'd or in plainer English About what time the Empire should relapse again into Idolatry and be a-resuming the ancient Pagan Rites though placing them upon Christian Objects about that very time should the Empire be rending into Ten Kingdoms or these Ten Kings be catching at and receiving power as Kings all of them appearing and succeeding in their Enterprises within a little time from the first Degeneracy of the Empire into Pagan Idolatries and Superstitions which may be within the space of fourty or
fifty years See Mr. Mede's Diagram of the ten Kings Ver. XIII These have one mind and shall give their strength and power Par. 2. Agr. 13. to the Beast And therefore in the Thirteenth Chapter he is also adorned with this gift where he is described The Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns and upon his Horns ten Crowns which shews that even when they were actually Kings they were voluntarily the strength of this Beast For what strength in the Empire could have constrained them they being the very strength thereof Whence appears the thirteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism But the sense of this verse is briefly this These ten Kings shall be of one mind that is of one mind in matters of Religion shall be of the Religion of the Empire that is to say of the Pagano-Christian Religion whereby the Empire had again become a Beast and shall give their power and strength unto this Beast that is to say shall be ready even by force of Arms if need be or by what other power or authority they have to maintain this Beast in its beastly that is in its Idolatrous condition and Pagan-like Superstitions or else understanding all along a Synecdoche shall give the Pagano-Christian Emperour which is the Head of this Beast the aid or afford him the assistence of their Armies or forces if need should so require against all Opposers of this Pagano-christianism For the Emperour is look'd upon as the chief Champion and Generalissimo of all the Pagano-Christian Forces And though those Kings be distinct and absolute in their own Dominions yet looking upon them as held together in one upon the account of the Religion of the Empire of which the Emperour is by place the chief Champion these ten Kings may be considered as coming into a kind of subordination unto him and be conceived to be the Horns of this Head I mean of this Generalissimo or Emperour of that Army which makes War with the Lamb. But that Power which influences all is the Whore that rides the Beast 2. And truly when the Head of this Whore is once found to be so big as to out-top the Secular Head of the Empire the Emperours themselves and both pretends to and makes use of that boasted Jus utriusque gladii that is to say So soon as the Pope is found to act the Caesar as well as the Universal Patriarch there is no incongruity to allow him represented in two places as well as he sustains two parts and conceive him to be typifi'd as well in the last Head of the Beast as in the costly adorned Head of the Whore But my way is more distinct and more compliable with Grotius his opinion who stands so stoutly for the permanency of the Imperial Majesty to this day And it seems also reasonable to me to interpret Prophecie according to the sense and phrase of History Prophecie being nothing else but an Anticipative History And therefore the Series of Roman Emperours and Title of the Empire and the Body of the Empire continuing still though much contracted and being so look'd upon in History I should think it is the most natural way to interpret according to the common acknowledged phrase and sense of Historians But as I said if the Pope be conceived to supply the room of the Emperours as soon or as oft as he appears to out-top them even in Secular power and to prove the real Head of the Empire acting the Caesar as well as the Patriarch that Interpretation also is very approvable and unexceptionable For the Supreme Power of the Beast that was and is not is by the Angel look'd upon as one and the same Head provided it be but all along the Head of that Beast that is Pagano-Christian For the spirit of Prophecie takes no notice of any useless distinctions and discriminations Wherefore that Supreme Power that shall be found Pagano-Christian is still one Head in the style of this Prophecie as I have above noted And that which is under it though it were invested with the Title of Emperour will fall under the number of the Ten Horns after the division of the Empire into many Kingdoms Ten suppose at least or thereabout For I look upon the number to signifie Symbolically rather then purely Arithmetically Ver. XIV These shall make war with the Lamb. What is said of these Par. 2. Agr. 14. Ten Kings is said of the Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter That he should make war with the Saints which is the same as to war with the Lamb. Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And these Ten Kings being the Horns of the Beast what is done by them is done by the Beast So that the Beasts in both Chapters make war with the Saints according to the fourteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism As for the 16 and 17 verses of the Thirteenth Chapter the sense of them is this That no man of what degree soever that was not of the Pagano-Christian Profession for that is meant by receiving a mark in the hand or in the fore-head should have any traffick or commerce in the Empire or Territories of any of these Ten Kings which is a kind of besieging them with famine and therefore not unfitly reckoned under the Hostilities of War Which interdiction of all commerce and traffick is an effect of Excommunication by the Two-horned Beast Examples of which Warfare are obvious every-where in History Concerning the Name of the Beast and the Number of his name mentioned in those 16 and 17 verses I shall speak upon the last verse of this present Chapter 2. And the Lamb shall overcome them According to that in the Thirteenth Par. 2. Agr. 15. Chapter v. 10. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity This fifteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism is very manifest 3. And they that are with him are Called and Chosen and Faithful Par. 2. Agr. 16. Sutably to that in the Thirteenth Chapter v. 10. Here is the Patience and Faith of the Saints The great stress lies upon Chosen and Faithful Patience and Faith For many are called but few are chosen But those choice ones that are said to be with him are stout Souldiers that will follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes never leave him for any persecution whatsoever but be Firm and Faithful unto him be their Patience never so much exercised by sufferings In which is comprised the sixteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism CHAP. XV. Ver. XV. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. XVI The folly of those Interpreters that understand the Burning of the Whore of the burning of the Houses of Rome by fire Ver. XVII The Ten Kings giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast according to the will and purpose of God how stupendious an Arcanum 2. In what sense God may be said to put it into their hearts 3. That it is rather Fate then Policy that has carried on the affairs of the Whore
Inhabitants of the Earth with the cup of her Fornication This Inscription on the Pope's Crown and the chusing of a Woman-Pope who besides other feats betrai'd herself to be a Whore by falling into labour in the streets of Rome at a solemn Procession and did therein by a palpable Hieroglyphick insinuate to the world that Rome was indeed the Seat of that great Apocalyptick Strumpet are two notorious Specimens of that Jocantry and Festivity as I may so speak that is sometimes observable in Divine Providence answerable to that Ludibundness in Nature in her Gamaieu's and such like sportful and ludicrous Productions And verily this Accident of a Woman-Pope is as assured a truth as that of the Inscription if the Testimonies of above threescore Authors and that of the Romish Party may be thought sufficient to assure it All which are produced by Gabriel Powel in his Theological Disputations De Antichristo Lib. 1. cap. 28. Thes 7. But these things I was not hasty to interweave in my Exposition of these Chapters the contexture of things being abundantly clear and full and firm without them CHAP. XVI 1. What remains for the making up the fullest assurance that can be desired of the truth of our Joint-Exposition 2. That the Roman State from the beginning to the end is to be look'd upon as One Kingdom or Empire appears out of Florus 3. That there had been Five sorts of Supreme Magistrates in S. John's time in the Roman State Reges Consules Tribuni Consulares Decemviri Dictatores and that the Tribuni Plebis were no Supreme Power 4. Nor the Tribuni Militum simply so styled 5. But that the Decemviri and Tribuni Consulares were 6. As also the Dictators 7. That there had been no more then Five sorts of Supreme Governours in S. John's time and that the Interreges were not nor were at all reckoned by Historians a Supreme Government distinct from that of Kings 8. That the Triumviri Reipublicae constituendae was either a Scuffle and Confusion in the Roman State 9. Or else a formal Caesareate exercised by Augustus Lepidus and Antonius 10. That there is full and sufficient ground from Reason and History not to reckon the Triumvirate of constituting the Commonwealth a Sixth Form of Government distinct from Emperours and the Five fore-going Forms 11. That though there had been some other Forms truly distinct but yet of a near affinity with some of the other it had not been so harsh to have accounted them one with those they had that nearness with 12. But that there is a greater Exactness then this in the Application of this Vision and such as Scepticism it self can hardly doubt of 13. The Conclusion of the whole drift of the Chapter with a fuller enforcement of the truth thereof 1. I Have now finished my Joint-Exposition of these 17 th and 13 th Chapters of the Apocalyps saving that I am more fully to confirm that part concerning the Seven Heads being Seven sorts of Supreme Governours succeeding one another in the Empire as also more particularly to indigitate How exact an Image of the Beast that was slain the Revived Beast became in points of Superstition and Idolatry To which if I adde a solid confutation of Ribera's Interpretation of the Seven-headed Beast as also of Grotius his I think there will be nothing wanting to the greatest assurance of the truth of our Interpretation that any one can desire 2. In the first the Controversie is onely concerning the Six first Heads Whether from the Kings to the Pagan Emperours speaking inclusively there were Six Forms of Government and no more or if you will Whether there were just Five before the Roman Caesars That the Roman Kingdom or Empire is to be reckoned from their first Kings downwards I think no man will scruple nor that it is all along the same Beast as well as Florus considers it as one Man and distinguishes his Ages allotting the first 250 years from Romulus to the Infancy of the Roman People or Empire and then 200 years more to its Youth and then 250 years more which reached to Augustus his time to the Manly Age of the Empire but the next 200 years he calls Senectutem Imperii Which shews plainly that he looks upon the whole Succession as one and the same Empire though under several growths which yet was longer-lived a great deal then to be accounted old in Trajan's time Wherefore History it self looking upon the whole Succession of the Roman People as one Body Politick there can be no harshness at all in describing this Body by such a number of Heads as reached from the first beginning of this Succession to the last Period of the Empire 3. Five whereof had passed away in S. John's time and no more nor no fewer then Five as I come now to make good namely Kings Consuls Tribunes Decemviri and Dictators For the People of Rome had never any other Supreme Powers over them but these before their Caesars viz. Reges Consules Tribuni Consulares Decemviri Dictatores Of Kings and Consuls there is no controversy at all Now for these Tribuni Consulares they are so called to distinguish them from the Tribuni Plebis and the Tribuni Militum ordinarily so styled neither of which were the Supreme Powers of the Roman State or Empire For the Tribuni Plebis were rather Plebis then Populi Romani Magistratus And for those few years wherein they hindered the chusing of other Magistrates the City was look'd upon to have no Magistracy at all Quatuor annis sine Magistratibus Roma fuit saith Sextus Rufus of that time Which condition of the City Diodorus Siculus also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that likewise of Marcus Varro in Gellius plainly shews that they could be no Supreme A. Gell. Noct. Attic. lib. 13. cap. 12. Power In Magistratu habent alii Vocationem alii Prensionem alii neutrum Vocationem ut Consules alii qui habent Imperium Prensionem ut Tribuni Plebis alii qui habent Viatorem Neque Vocationem neque Prensionem ut Quaestores caeteri qui neque Lictorem habent neque Viatorem Where it is plain that the Tribuni Plebis are reckoned amongst them qui non habent imperium and therefore are no Supreme Powers 4. No more are the Tribuni Militum simply so styled as appears out of that of Livy Disciplinâ enim militari miles Centurionis Centurio Liv. lib. 8. Tribuni Tribunus Legati Legatus Consulis paret imperio But the Tribuni Militum Consulari potestate are those Tribuni Consulares which I have already named Of which Fenestella Penes quem sanè Magistratum De Magistr Roman c. 16. ut ipsum nomen indicat eadem quae apud Consules potestas erat collata est nominibus tantùm immutatis ac Plebis ratione haberi â—…oeptâ 5. That the Decemviri was a Supreme Power is plain out of Livy Anno trecentesimo altero quà m condita
Concretes in the same kind but a handsom Repository for different matters signifiable by one Type as is easie to be understood from what is declared concerning that Scheme Eighthly If Domitian be the Beast and the Whore the Roman Power then the Roman Power rides on Domitian's back as if Domitian were not the Head but the Body of the Empire or if you will metamorphoz'd by this marvellous Interpretation into Apuleius his Ass for the Roman Power to ride on But then again Domitian being chief of the Roman Power himself he must by this account ride also upon himself and make a wonderful Centaure such as the deepest-witted Poets never so much as dream'd of 7. Ninthly If the Whore be the Roman Pagan Power how can she be said to be the Mother of Fornications and out of her Cup to intoxicate the Kings of the Earth with that kind of wickedness whenas all the Earth before the Empire was Christian were Idolaters of themselves and stored Rome her self with multifarious kinds of Idolatry Which Objection neither Grotius nor any one else with all the fetches they have will be ever able to assoil Tenthly This Inscription on the Whore of Babylon Babylon the Great Apoc. 17. 〈◊〉 the Mother of Fornications cannot be understood of Rome Heathen as Grotius would have it because there is prefixed Mystery before it which would be a sorry Mystery indeed if it were onely a bare Synecdoche and should intimate no more then that Rome Pagan was another Babylon that is to say an Idolatrous City O the depth of the Mystery In the eleventh place Those ten Kingdomes which Grotius would insinuate to be the ten Horns were not Kingdoms intra fines Imperii Romani as he speaks before the Conversion of the Empire to Christianity nay indeed before the subversion of it or discerption into many Kingdoms how then could these Kings give their Power to the Beast I mean not Apocal. 17. 13. onely to Domitian who is farther removed from them but to the Roman Pagan Idolatry which by this time of Discerption had ceased to be the Religion of the Empire Or how can they be said to eat the flesh of the Whore and burn her with fire whenas the City of Rome had ceased to be Vers. 16. the Pagan Whore before these Kings were in being much more before she was assaulted and sacked by Totilas which was Anno 547. whenas Gentilism was cast out and the Temples of their Idols demolished all over the Empire about the year 399. the very next to that wherein according to the Devil's mistake upon his survey of the proportion betwixt the Inward and Outward Court of the Temple Christianity was expected by the Heathens to expire And again in the twelfth place How can those Ten Kings which Grotius assigns be said to fight against the Lamb in his sense that is against Christianity Apoc. 17. 14. in the behalf of the Roman Pagan Idolatry whenas the Empire had then become Christian and was not that Pagan Beast to whom they should lend their aid and power against the preaching of the Gospel Was it a likely thing that such ten Kings that were foes to Christianity should as Grotius speaks intra fines Imperii Romani Romanis ipsis concedentibus regnare So impossible is Grotius his Interpretation concerning the ten Horns every way 8. In the thirteenth place This destruction of Babylon is a perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full and final destruction set out by the casting a Milstone into the midst of the Sea But none of Grotius his Ten Kings ever destroyed Rome in such a manner In the fourteenth That exhortation to the People of God to goe out of Apoc. 18. 4. Babylon lest they partake of her sins can make no good sense in Totilas his time For would the Angel have all the Christians leave the City of Rome in the year 546. and for several years upwards toward Constantine's time because there might be some Pagan Idolaters still amongst them and not rather keep the City for the better suppressing Idolatry and quite extinguishing it and not let it spread more by the receding of the hearty Christians out of it Truly this gloss of Grotius is very ridiculous and incredible that makes the Angel utter such an irrational Exhortation Fifteenthly If Come out of her my people lest ye partake of her sins be as Grotius interprets Tu popule mi ubi apparuerit Totilae exercitus exite ad Basilicas Apostolorum extra Urbem it will follow that to have returned again into the City after Totilas was gone had been to return into Babylon and partake of her sins again Which is a very vain and fond conceit 9. Lastly His interpreting that Instigation Reward her as she has rewarded you to be made to Totilas and the Goths is harsh and groundless For what injury had Rome done to the Goths but rather the Empire was injured by them And therefore Grotius is sensible of the ill service that Pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does his Interpretation and upon that account applauds a certain Manuscript that has left it out but not very loudly it being so generally contradicted by other Copies Sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abest in MS. non malé CHAP. IV. 1. That this Mis-timing of Visions must needs cast Grotius into the like Absurdities in interpreting the Thirteenth Chapter and that his Exposition of the first verse thereof is guilty of at least nine or ten 2. Four gross Contradictions in the second 3. As many Incongruities or Weaknesses in the third 4. As also in the fourth and fifth 5. Two Absurdities in the sixth and seventh 6. As many in the eighth 7. Three Difficulties in the exposition of the tenth verse 8. Five Incongruities in the eleventh 9. His gross Interpretation of the twelfth verse 10. Four Absurdities in the thirteenth 11. Eight Incongruities or Weaknesses in his expositions on the fourteenth verse 12. Three in the fifteenth 13. Three or four more in the sixteenth and seventeenth 14. And nine more in the eighteenth verse 15. The astonishing consideration of the Absurdness of Grotius his Expositions compared with his Parts and Learning 16. An useful Illation from this weak performance of his That all the Expositions of the Romanists upon these two Chapters are superlatively frivolous and incredible 1. THus many Incongruities and Inconsistencies that I may not say Impossibilities and Contradictions are there in 〈◊〉 Exposition of this Seventeenth Chapter Let us now see how successful he is in the Thirteenth where he taking the same liberty of applying the Prophecy to times it was never meant of it will be a wonder if we finde not the Interpretation alike harsh and incongruous Let us pass therefore through the whole Chapter from verse to verse Where In the first he makes the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns to be the Roman Idolatry whose Heads are seven Hills and whose Horns are ten Kings namely
miss-led into so bad an adventure The Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven according to him is Populus Romanus nullum intra se habens regem When our Saviour Christ intimated to the high Priest that he was that Son of man that should come in the clouds of Heaven it seem'd so high an Arrogation that he rent his clothes and said he had spoken blasphemie And truly I think that neither Jew nor Christian can well acquit Grotius of that crime who attributes that which is the peculiar character of the Messias to a Prophane and Pagan people and that forsooth because they had no King as if they were ever the better for that But they had Kings at first and both in the Infancy of their Empire and afterwards they had a Supreme Power so great and imperial as may excuse them from the least shew of Contempt They had always over them a Sovereignty so that they could not be deemed the Son of man for any such private condition For the Summa Potestas is the Summa Potestas under what name or form soever and of the same real grandeur Besides that they were a most glorious and victorious people before Antiochus his time So that it is a very dilute and sapless conceit of Grotius to apply the phrase of the Son of man to them for any inconsiderableness in them or obscurity For they were not so in the times of Antiochus 6. Again the Kingdom of the Son of man and the Stone cut out without hands are all one both in truth and according to Grotius his own Concession But this Stone is Christ and his Kingdom as being Heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing erected not by humane power but by the power and Spirit of God That this is the meaning of without hands is the general vote of Interpreters S. Jerom Irenaus Justin Epiphanius S. Augustin Theodoret and several others Where think you does Grotius take shelter now Why This Figure which is so appropriate to Christ and mentioned of him so often in the New Testament This Stone must be cast away as if it were neither precious nor a Corner-stone and be bestowed again on a Pagan people the Romans For so Grotius does not stick to profess Idem Lapis Filius hominis and he made the Son of man before the people of Rome But can a man believe that the Original or Success of that people was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing brought to pass by the special power and Spirit of God and not more humano according to the usual course of the World and that not of the best kind their beginnings being helped on by a rabble of Ruffians and Robbers 7. No but that is not Grotius his gloss you will say Let us therefore hear what it is Lapis abscissus de monte sine manibus according to him is Exercitus populi qui suae esset spontis nullique regi pareret cujus populi origo à monte nempe Palatino In which there is nothing sound nor solid For was this Roman Army any thing more suae spontis in that they had not a Kingly Government at Rome That Supreme Power of Consuls and Senatours was as directive and coactive as if it had been Regal So that the motion of this Army was never the more spontaneous for this Again The Stone cut from the mountain without hands implies that it was then spontaneously divided from the Mountain when it is said to be cut thence But when the Romans first issued from mount Palatine yea so soon as they were populus Romanus Regal Government was amongst them it being the first Government of this People and therefore they were not then Populus suae spontis according to Grotius his Conceit so that he cannot bring both ends together And lastly To interpret Mountain here in a literal sense is unskilfully done and not according to the analogy of the Prophetick style nor the very intimation of the present Text which says the Little stone became a great Mountain itself and filled the whole Earth Wherefore this Mountain signifying not literally but politically there is no question but the other does so too and that the Stone is in some sense homogeneall to this rocky Mountain Whence the sense is plainly this That out of the great Mountain that is the Roman Empire there should be a People raised not by humane power or policy but by the Spirit of God and the preaching of the Gospel by Jesus Christ and his Apostles which should be a peculiar people to him and become the Subjects of his Kingdom that is to say That the Church of Christ should be cut out of the Roman Empire without humane help This is a most easy and undistorted sense and against which there cannot be made the least Exception 8. Fourthly which I have already intimated above The Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast with iron teeth and the Ten toes of the iron leggs of the Statue signify the same thing Wherefore it is plain sith the Ten toes imply a Coexistence of the Ten Horns by reason of the coordination of their Site that there must be Ten Kings together in the Fourth Kingdom But in the Kingdom of the Seleucidae and Lagidae there were not Ten Kings together all at once Therefore that Kingdom is not the Fourth 9. Fifthly Antiochus Epiphanes part of this Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is said to rise up in the latter time of the Kingdom of the Successours of Alexander Dan. 8. 22 23. Wherefore this Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae has expired near two thousand years ago But the Kingdom of the Fourth Beast reaches even to the Day of Judgment Dan. 7. 9 10. And I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did sit His throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the Judgment was set and the Books were opened c. That this is the Description of the Day of Judgment is the general Opinion of both Christians and Jews and answers exactly to the Lake of fire and the opening of the Books Apocal. 20. which Grotius himself does interpret of the Last Day Whence we may safely conclude that the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is not the Fourth Kingdom as having ceased so long before that time though we understood the Day of Judgment in the sense of the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to which the meaning of I beheld till the thrones were set and the Books were opened is this That the Prophet Daniel had a prospect even to the utmost end of that great Day But he begins more particularly at the beginning of that Day in the eleventh verse But this I have onely noted by the bye 10. Sixthly and lastly Alexander's Kingdom and that of his Successours
is all one Kingdom But that of Alexander's is the Third according to Grotius his own Concession Now that that of his Successours of which Line are the Lagidae and Seleucidae is one Kingdom with that of Alexander's is evident out of Daniel Ch. 8. 21. The rough Goat is the King of Graecia and the great Horn that is betwixt his eyes is the first King Now that being broken whereas Four stood up for it Four Kingdoms shall stand up out of the Nation but not in his power This is one plain proof that the Kingdom of Alexander and his Successours is all one Kingdom For he calls Alexander the first King which necessarily implies that his Successours are the second and that therefore they all belong to one and the same Kingdom Nay he says plainly that these four Horns stand up for that great one that is in his stead What is this but to succeed in place of him as the Heads of one and the same Empire For no new Beast is said to succeed this Beast but the Horns the Horn. And then the comparing of them and saying but not in his power farther intimates a cognation and succession of one Line and that he does not speak of the Heads of two different Kingdoms Which appears farther from vers 8. Therefore the Goat waxed very great and when he was strong the great Horn was broken and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of Heaven But where should these come up but on that Head that had lost this great Horn which is compensated with four lesser ones though in their kinde notable For it is very incongruous and extravagant to phansy them to come up in any other And surely if they had belonged to any other Beast that Beast would not fail to have been named Wherefore they must either grow out of this Goat's Head or no where unless out of the ground which is ridiculous And therefore it is plain that Alexander's Kingdome and that of his Successours is but one Kingdome For that Goat is but one and the same Goat under the Succession of this variety of Horns 11. And yet there is still greater evidence of this truth from Ch. 7. 6. After which I beheld and lo another like a Leopard which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl the Beast had also four Heads and Dominion was given unto it That the four Heads of this Beast are the four Successours of Alexander namely Perdicca Seleucus Ptolemaens Meleager Grotius himself does frankly confess The Wings therefore denote the four Kingdomes Alexander's Empire was divided into after his decease which is still look'd upon as one Beast notwithstanding as the Roman is with its division into Ten Kingdomes noted by ten Horns or into Oriental and Occidental figured by the two Wings of an Eagle Here Grotius if he would speak out would make Alexander the Beast as he has Domitian and others in the Apocalyps against all the Laws of Prophetick Interpretation nay indeed against all rhyme and reason For he glosses thus Pardus varium Animal sic Alexander moribus variis But how grosly incongruous it is let any one consider For then would Alexander be inferiour to his four chief Officers and they would be the Head of him which is a Political Absurdity nay the Head of him when he ceased to be which is an Absurdity Metaphysical Wherefore Alexander is the first Head or great Horn of this Beast not the Body of it that he may be superiour to his four grand Officers and not be the Beast to bear these four Horns or Heads when he has quite ceased to be on this stage of things For these were not Heads nor Horns before he was dead Alexander therefore is the first of the Succession of the Heads or Horns of this Beast not the Beast it self But to come up closer to our business I say it is very manifest from these four Heads and four Wings that this Leopard is said to have that the Third Kingdome takes into it the four first Successours of Alexander Nothing can be more plain then this from the very Text. For the Leopard is described in the third place and immediately after him the Fourth Beast is mentioned and called the Fourth v. 7. Wherefore this four-headed Leopard is plainly the Third Beast But now that the succession of these four Heads even to Antiochus Epiphanes is the succession of one and the same Kingdome is plain from Ch. 8. 22. Now that being broken namely the great Horn where as Four stood up for it Four Kingdomes shall stand up out of the Nation but not in his power And in the latter time of their Kingdome the Original has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the very same with our English and there is no doubt of the Translation a King of fierce countenance shall stand up Which Grotius and every one acknowledges to be Antiochus Epiphanes Whence it is evident that the whole Succession of Alexander's Captains from the first four inclusively even to Antiochus his time is one Succession and one Kingdome For he calls the times of Antiochus the last times of their Kingdome Wherefore it is plain seeing that the Kingdome of Alexander is one and the same with the Kingdome of the four Captains for that is the Third Kingdome and the Kingdome of the four Captains the same with their Succession even to Antiochus his time that the whole Succession from Alexander to Antiochus is one Succession and one Kingdome If this be not demonstratively true there is no demonstration in Mathematicks But if this be true the Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae are not the Fourth Kingdome but the Kingdome of the Romans according as all sober men have hitherto held 12. Which we being so firmly assured of we shall easily know where to seek for this little Horn that is said to change times and laws For where can we finde it but amongst those many Horns in the Roman Kingdome or Empire not in the Greek to which Antiochus Epiphanes appertains And we have already plainly shewn that the Apocalyptick Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns is this Roman Kingdome and that this Beast once healed or in such a condition that it may be said of him that he is the Beast that was and is not and yet is which is when he is become Pagano-Christian is this Empire actually divided into Ten Kingdomes and that together with this Division the Empire began to relapse gradually into Idolatry by the Agency and Guidance of the Two-horned Beast or the Whore whom I have also shewed to be Synchronal to the healed Beast or the Beast that was and is not and yet is 13. But the Beast restored or healed his duration is 42 months which is 1260 daies or a Time and Times and half a Time For the abode of the Woman in the Wilderness is indifferently expressed by
innumerable Institutes are there of the Pope's injoyning of which may be truly said what our Saviour told the Scribes and Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the Mat. 19. 8. beginning it was not so And what is this therefore but to change Times and Laws and in many of them in a most perfect Opposition to the Laws of God and Christ as I have already noted in its place Whence we see plainly that this Antichristian Opposition against the Regal Office of Christ is very expresly foretold in this Vision of the little Horn which rose up with the Ten Horns in the Roman Empire and did fabricate Imperium in Imperio as some phrase it and became a Two-horned Beast in the Ten-horned Beast erecting an Ecclesiastick Antichristian Empire within the Civil in opposition to the true Empire or Kingdome of Christ and in defeatment of his Power and Laws in the Church nay in opposition to those Immutable Laws of the Eternal Logos that enlightens every man that comes into the world CHAP. XIV 1. The Vision of the Rider of the white Horse Apocal. 19. proposed 2. A general account of that Vision 3. What meant by the white Horse what by the flammeous eyes of his Rider 4. What by his Name known onely to himself 5. What by his garment dipp'd in bloud and that this as also the precedent Characters are applicable to Christ's Body the Church 6. The meaning of the Sword coming out of his mouth 7. And of the treading the Wine-press of God's wrath 8. The meaning of the Inscription upon his thigh in reference to himself 9. As also in respect of his Church to which it is applicable As also the treading of the Wine-press and the Sword coming out of his mouth 1. THE latter of which two Oppositions I mean that against the Eternal Logos seems to me to be very lively prefigured Apocal. 19. beginning at the eleventh verse Where we may see what has been held under in the reign of the Whore of Babylon which I have intimated to be the same with that little Horn in Daniel by the Description of his Triumph after her Fall For this Triumphal Pomp is upon her ruine as it appears from the precedent Chapter that describes it But the Pomp is described thus 11. And I saw Heaven open and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True and in righteousness he doth judge and make warre 12. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns and he had a Name written which no man knew but himself 13. And he was clothed with a vesture dipt in bloud and his Name was called THE WORD OF GOD. 14. And the Armies which were in Heaven followed him upon white horses clothed in fine linen white and clean 15. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp Sword that with it he should smite the Nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron and he treadeth the Wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God 16. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a Name written KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS 2. In this Vision you see that the Eternal Word of God of which the holy Bible is in some sense and some part a Transcript is at last upon his triumph adorned with many Crowns and has got into possession of his just Title exposed visibly to the view of all the world in a writing upon the thigh of this great Heros KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS Which power the Lady of Babylon had usurped before and under the pretence of her Infallibility had silenced not onely the express Law of the written Word of God but most coursly and barbarously had troden down those Innate Principles of Morality and Reason that the Eternal Word had implanted in the Souls of men and by terrour and cruel forcibleness did what she could to smother stifle and extinguish them But here the Scene of things is changed and the pure Word of God has got the victory over the corrupt Superstitious Idolatrous and contradictious Opinions and fond Institutes of that Antichristian Body of men over whom the Pope has a special Headship and Sovereignty 3. There is no great difficulty in the understanding this Prophecy if we have recourse to my Prophetick Alphabet where I have set down what Horse and what the Colour of White signifie That the Eyes of this Heros are said to be as a flaming fire intimates his sharp-sightedness as it is said in the Hebrews That the Word of God is a discerner Heb. 4. 12. of the thoughts and intents of the heart and that there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight but that all things lie naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to doe Where the Written Word and the Eternal Word are jointly spoken of as here they seem to be in this Vision by an Henopoeia Again in that his Eyes are said to be a flaming fire we may note also how Fire is a Symbol of Intellectuality especially a flaming fire that implies light as is easily understood out of the Philosophick Cabbala of the first Day 's Creation Igneus est illis vigor coelestis origo Seminibus And we reade of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Magick Oracles and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attributed to the Soul as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plethon speaks Wherefore the Logos here is rightly said to have Eyes like a flaming fire because he is not onely Intellectual but that Great and Eternal Intellect from whence all Intellectual Beings are as also all their Operations exercised by virtue of the more pure aethereal and igneous Spirits 4. That also of having a Name written that no man knew but himself seems to be agreeable to the Cabbalistical Doctrine who make Aaron a Symbol of the Eternal Word that fills the Universe as also of Christ who is this Word Incarnate The Allusion therefore may be to Aaron's having the Tetragrammaton written upon his Mitre that Name which is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and could be read onely by the High Priest that had it written upon the golden Plate on his Mitre as Alcazar has observed But in brief it signifies the Incomprehensibleness and Imperscrutableness of the Divinity of our Saviour he alone who is it being able to comprise it 5. And in that his vesture is said to be dipt in bloud it is a Symbol of his Passion so that we may know that it is the Messias that is here meant of whom S. John in his Gospel has said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word was made flesh And here he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word of God and yet in a bloudy garment that indicates his Humanity or Terrestrial body for this Body is but a Vestment of the Soul no part of the Man according to the Platonists which
And do they not make the Will of the Pope a Law Supremum Numen in terris at whose beck and nod all things are to be done right or wrong nay they cannot be wrong if he will have them Which is to make him have an heart like God indeed not onely an irresistible but infallible one Thus high has he clombe in the confidence of his own subtilty and policy But the terrible of the Nations shall draw their swords against the beauty of his wisdom and they shall defile his brightness saith the Prophet Which what it is in the literal sense is easy to understand and accordingly is applicable to the King of Tyre and may ex accidenti be also applicable to the destruction of Rome But it may also have a more Mystical sense And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they render robustos gentium may signify nothing else but the zealous and resolute Assertours and Abettours of Truth then which nothing is more robustious and strong Great is Truth and mighty above all things Esdras 4. These stout Champions therefore shall draw their swords against the beauty of his wisedom that is to say They shall use the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God even that Sword that comes out of his mouth that rides on the white Horse which is unsophisticated Reason and Scripture against the finely-wrought subtilties whether Scholastick or Politick and all the plausible and goodly fair pretences of the Pontifician wisedom and the Glory of the Gospel shall darken the Seat of the Beast as the Sun-shine obscures or puts out the light of every artificial Fire Thus shall the Pontifician Power perish from the midst of the Nations 6. And then as for that more then Imperial Majesty and Splendour in the Pope's Habiliments it is said of this King of Tyre Every precious stone was thy Covering the Sardius the Topaz and the Diamond so as it is said of the Whore of Babylon that she was decked with gold and precious stones and pearles Which Pontifician Power though it be prefigured by the image of a Woman in the Apocalyps the better to set out the Meretricious Mysteries of that Church yet the Haughtiness thereof and more particularly that of the Pope seems also to be typified in the King of Babylon For is it possible that any one should doubt but that Babylon being such an acknowledged Type of the Antichristian Church the Head of this Antichristian Church is likewise typified in the King of Babylon 7. Let us hear therefore what Esay saith of this exalted Potentate in the fourteenth Chapter Verse 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the Morning how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the Nations 13. For thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. How every Nation is weakened by the power of the Pope we have adumbrated in our Idea of Antichristianism His ascending into Heaven stylo Prophetico and his exalting himself above the Stars of God which is the Stars of the greatest magnitude in this Heaven is as much as his clambering into Imperial Power and his advancing himself above all the Kings and Princes of the Roman Empire His sitting upon the Mount of the Congregation is his sitting in the Temple of God So that there seems to be a double Allusion both to the Mount of the Temple of God at Jerusalem and to the Mountains or if you will some one peculiar Mountain at Rome which is the chief City of the Church of Christ. This sitting upon this Mount of the Congregation or the Church of God is marvellously coincident with that Prophecy of his sitting in the Temple of God Nor is In the sides of the North put in for nothing though a thing of little moment in the letter for it seems to foretell that the Dominion of the Pope was to spread more notoriously Northward and we know he could never make any great business of the Southern Churches the African ever resisting him very stoutly Besides other considerations which for brevity I omit Ver. 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be like the most High That is to say I will be above all Rule and Dominion I will be absolute uncontrollable infallible as God 15. Yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell to the sides of the pit 16. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying Is this the man that made the Earth to tremble that did shake the Kingdoms The meaning is Is this the man that did terrifie the world with his dreadful Thunder-claps of Excommunication and by the great Interest he had in the Princes of the Empire and by the power of his Clergy could unhindge and dissettle Principalities and Kingdoms by reason of the blindness and Superstition of the People 17. That made the world as a Wilderness and destroyed the Cities thereof that opened not the house of his Prisoners That is to say That filled the Empire with intestine Warres by his wicked Incendiaries and so brought great depopulations and destructions upon Cities rather then he would let goe those that he held captive in this Babylonish or Aegyptian Slavery Many of whom were most barbarously abused in the close Prisons of the Inquisition and treated with such Cruelty as exceeds all the Tragick stories of the bloudy and persecutive Infidels 18. All the Kings of the Nations even all of them lie in glory every one in his own house That is The Dynasties or Polities of the Nations the Secular Kingdomes and Powers have and shall expire with glory in comparison of thee and have an honourable Burial and Memorial 19. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch as a carkass troden under foot The meaning is That the Pontifician Power shall not expire with any honour at all but the very Memorial thereof shall be abominable and execrable it shall not have that Kingly Burial whose dead Bodies were embalmed with Aromatick odours and Sepulchres adorned with goodly and splendid Artifice but shall be as a stinking Carkass cast into the high-way that offends the eyes and nostrills of every one that passes by So unsavoury a stench shall arise from the Records of this bloudy and Idolatrous Antichristian Polity as is intimated in this last verse Ver. 20. Thou shalt not be joyned with them in Burial because thou hast destroyed thy Land and slain thy People See Homily against Rebellion part 〈◊〉 6. That is to say As thou art a Power distinct from that of the Secular Powers and Potentates of the Earth so thy Fate shall be distinct and singular for thy Memorial shall be accursed and thy Name an hissing to Posterity And the reason is also singular Because thou hast destroyed thy Land and slain
prolixity of the Title hinders not but that it may be called the Name of the Beast 4. The meaning of the Name 5. That the Angel having considered the whole Successions of the Roman Kingdom or Empire fixed his mind on that time the Empire was purely Christian and why And that it thence appears what succession of the Beast's time is understood 6. As likewise from his name a little varied into Was is not and yet is Whence the fifth Agreement of the second Parallelism is also evinced 7 8. How the Angel came to give the Beast these Names And that there is an Ellipsis in the Angel's saying The Beast which thou sawest was and is not c. 9. That the Name Was and is not and shall ascend c. signifies the successive Order in being not the actual being or not being of the Beast with a confirmation thereof out of Alcazar 10. A plain Eviction from the Name Was is not and yet is that Was and is and is not do not signifie actual Existence or Non-existence but order of Existence and Similitude 11. That Is not and yet is would neither be good sense nor any elegancy unless the Laws of a right Contradiction were closely touched on in this mysterious Assertion 12. And yet that an absolute Sameness in either Essence or Qualification could not be under this affirmation and negation without falsity Whence Similitude is necessarily intimated thereby 13. That the certainty of the meaning of this Title Was is not and yet is confirms the sense of the former and demonstrates a latitant Ellipsis in the Application of these Names of the Beast which is farther argued from other considerations 14. Why he interprets the Re-existence or Image of the Beast of the Empire 's becoming Idolatrous again rather then of the Revival of its ancient Polity in the Pontifical Power 15. The third Agreement of the second Parallelism 16. The sixth Agreement 17. The seventh 18. The eighth Agreement 19. The third Agreement again noted with a Confirmation therefrom of the above-mentioned Ellipsis 20. That near Resemblance stands for Identity in common elegancy of speech Whence The Beast that was is not and yet is and the Image of the Beast is again evinced to be all one and the fifth Agreement of our second Parallelism thereby farther confirmed 286 CHAP. XIV Ver. IX What is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Siracides seems to allude to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his description thereof 2. That Constantinople is also allowed to have Seven Hills and that it makes for the proof of the eighth Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. X. That the making the seven Heads seven sorts of Governours is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a natural and necessary truth 2. How naturally the different successions of the Supreme Powers of the Roman Empire fall into eight parts 3. The onely true reason why there are numbred Eight Kings though but Seven Heads of the Beast 4. That the dividing of the Emperours into Pagan Christian and Pagano-Christian is aimed at or supposed in the enumeration of the Eight Kings is an unexceptionable Truth 5. That it is most credible that after the Sixth King no other account of distinction of the Supreme Power of the Empire was look'd upon by the Angel but what respected Religion 6. A demonstrative Inference from One is that there is an Ellipsis in The Beast that thou sawest was and is not c. 7. Why Apocal. 17. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence the last subdivision is confirmed and the tenth Agreement of the second Parallelism made good 8. The fourth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XI That the description of the Beast is his Name and part thereof used for the whole as in the Name of God which farther confirms the above-mentioned Ellipsis 2. The easie and genuine meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. That the meaning of Verse 11. The Beast that was and is not he is the eighth is that his Head is the eighth 4. That the Eighth King by an Henopoeia may admit of more Caesars then one reigning at a time and why 5. The ninth Agreement of the second Parallelism 6. The seventh Agreement Ver. XII The eleventh Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The twelfth Agreement 3. The meaning of Verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. XIII The thirteenth Agreement together with the meaning of Verse 13. being of one minde and of giving their strength and power to the Beast 2. That the Pope once emerged above the Emperour even in Secular Power may continue the succession of the seventh Head there being nothing else intended thereby but the secular Pagano-christian Sovereignty of the Empire Ver. XIV The fourteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The fifteenth Agreement 3. The sixteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism 296 CHAP. XV. Ver. XV. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. XVI The folly of those Interpreters that understand the Burning of the Whore of the burning of the Houses of Rome by fire Ver. XVII The Ten Kings giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast according to the will and purpose of God how stupendious an Arcanum 2. In what sense God may be said to put it into their hearts 3. That it is rather Fate then Policy that has carried on the affairs of the Whore so prosperously hitherto with an Admonition thereupon 4. The meaning of Until the words of God be fulfilled with a farther Admonition to the Apostatized Church 5. The eviction of the truth of the seventeenth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XVIII Why the Seat of the Whore is so determinately affixed at last to Old Rome in this Prophecie 2 3. A clear and confessed evidence that Old Rome is here pointed at as the Seat of the Whore with a short Paraphrase upon the sense of the Verse 4. That the Seat of the Two-horned Beast is also fixed to Old Rome and of the Cabbalisticalness of the Apocalyps 5. That the Numeral Name of the Beast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that it is so to be written and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proved from the ancient Orthography of both the Greek and Latin Tongue 6. That the ancient Latines who usually sounded long i as a Diphthong pronounced their Vowels nearest to the Greeks 7. How exquisitely this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to Events 8. That the finding the number 666 in other names does not at all weaken the determinate applicability of this 9. In what sense 666 is called the number of the Beast 10. The application of the Root thereof illustrated from the Cabbalistical application of the Root of the Tetractys 11. The last Agreement of the first Parallelism 12. The last Agreement of the second 13. That the Vision of the Whore is more appropriate and peculiar to the Church of Rome 14. Of the Inscription Mysterium on
may be found to disguise the worthiness of their persons For the Witnesses were to be clothed in sackcloth a thousand two hundred sixty days Scorpion See Serpent Scorched by the Sun Achmetes Onirocrit c. 167. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream that the Sun has scorched him much he will be punished by the King proportionably to that scorching according to the doctrine of the Aegyptians Indians and Persians 9. Sea Waters signifying people as the Angel tells S. John the gathering together of people into one Body Politick Kingdom or Jurisdiction may fitly be called a Sea in the Political world as the gathering together of the Waters is so termed in the Natural Gen. 1. And the whole University of Kingdoms or a great part of them may according to this analogie be called either the great Sea or Ocean as is figured out also in the Vision of Daniel Ch. 7. I saw in my Vision by night and behold the four winds of Heaven strove upon the great Sea Where by Winds undoubtedly is meant War as well as by the great Sea a comprehension of several Kingdoms in which this bluster and tempest of War is made one Kingdom fighting against another to enlarge their dominions This analogie of the Sea is also acknowledged in the Interpretations of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians Achmetes c. 178. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any dream he is Master of the Sea he will be entire successour in the whole Kingdom And so likewise of the Winds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a King see the Sea troubled by a wind from a known quarter â—…e will be molested by some Nation from that quarter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if he see the Sea calm he will enjoy his Kingdom in peace This interpretation therefore of the Sea will farther confirm that of the Rivers Serpent That notorious Serpentine shape which deceived Adam and Eve and lapsed them into rebellion against God cannot but assure any one that in Scripture all the Serpentine kind that are described in Prophecy do in all likelihood refer to the Kingdom of the Devil Ship That a Ship as well as a Mill may be an Hieroglyphick of Profit any one may easily conceive if he think but of Merchandizing Achmetes according to the mind of the Aegyptians and Persians c. 180. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream he builds Ships he shall grow rich proportionably to the number of the Ships he builds But out of the foregoing Chapter according to the doctrine of the Indian Interpreters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is an interpretation as far fetched as from the Indies indeed Nor is it easy to conjecture why a Ship should intimate the congregating of men for the celebrating religious Mysteries unless we conceive a Ship to represent a Temple Which why we should I know not unless because they are disterminated and solitary buildings as Temples are not joyned to one another no more then a Temple to other Houses But in that it is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Navis mercatoria it may be the profit of the Priest from sacrifices or offerings to Idols may be alluded to And whether any darker recesses in the Ship may represent the Adyta in Temples I know not Such particularities I leave to every mans phancy to pursue at leisure Slain See Resurrection Slaughter See Death 10. Sun Moon and Stars The Sun and Moon have either a Spiritual signification or a Secular Of the Spiritual signification of the Sun there is an example where Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness as he is by the Prophet Malachi Also the Apostle to the Ephesians Awake thâ—… that sleepest that Christ may give thee light The Moon also may have a Spiritual signification supposing it to typifie the Mosaical dispensation Which it may very well doe both because it is a light and a far dimmer light then that of the Gospel as also in allusion to their New Moons and other Festivals of the Jews the order of which depended on that Planet See Mr. Mede on Apocal. 12. To which you may adde That as the Law of Moses is compared to the Moon so may the Light of the Gospel of Christ be compared to the Sun For that the Word of God is compared to Light is plain from that of David Thy word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path And Psalm 119. 105. that great Lamp of the Universe the Sun is the clearest Light men can walk by Whence that vulgar expression of the Sun-shine of the Gospel was framed by very warrantable analogie and does further assure unto us that the Light of the Gospel may also be one Spiritual signification of the Sun 11. The Secular signification of Sun and Moon is when they signifie the Power and Glory of this world And that either generally and at large as Jerem. 15. 9. Her Sun is gone down while it was yet day Which the Targum renders Their glory passed from them in their life-time The like to which is in Amos 8. 9. I will cause the Sun to goe down at noon and I will darken the Earth in the clear day Vatabl. Cùm eritis in supremo felicitat is gradu tunc indè vos dejiciam infelicissimos reddam Again Esay 60. 20. Thy Sun shall no more goe down neither shall thy Moon withdraw herself that is to say Thou shalt have uninterrupted glory and prosperity as it follows presently after The days of thy mourning shall be ended In such places as these Sun and Moon have not a sense determined to any particular Dignity in a Kingdom but signifie onely at large the Glory and Prosperity thereof 12. But in other places there may be a more particular meaning of these Lights For as there is a Political Universe as well as a Natural as I have already shewn which has its Heaven also as well as Earth so there must be something answering in the Political Heaven to those chief conspicuous parts of the Natural the Sun Moon and Stars Whence it will follow that he that is chief in a Political world must be the Sun thereof as may appear though in an inferiour instance touching a Body Oeconomical Gen. 37. 9. viz. the Dream of Joseph that the Sun and the Moon and the eleven Stars made obeisance to him Which Jacob unriddling What is this dream saith he to his son that thou hast dreamed Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to how down our selves to thee to the Earth Wherefore if these Symbols signifie so distinctly in a Family which is but a Body Oeconomical much more is it to be expected that it may signifie so in a Body Politick Achmetes according to the mind of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians cap. 167. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the next chapter he calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second or lesser King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he calls in the following chapter 〈◊〉