or justice and that is the so freely nick-naming them by the style of Hereticks and Schismaticks Which yet in their own judgment I suppose not to bear so little weight with it whenas their real estimate is discoverable by their proceedings they deeming an Heretick so odious or contemptible that he is not worthy of the common privileges of mankind and of that protection that the Laws of humane Society do afford men that he shall not have the security of a Promise though confirmed by Oath Faith not being to be kept with Hereticks Not to mention here that they have made the penalties of Heresie capital Which how justly though a man were an Heretick in the matters of Belief provided it were not out of Pride and conceitedness but out of invincible Ignorance I will not here discuss 2. It will be of greater use to consider what is real Heresie or Schism that the sincere and knowing Christian may not be reproached nor the less skilful affrighted with these Bug-bears Those that make so great a cry against the hainousness of these sins their Zeal and Rhetorick would be more usefully placed if they would be so faithful as to give us a right Notion of them otherwise while they pretend to be so industriously desirous of Peace and Unity in the Church they may but give greater occasion of Dissensions and Animosities For to make more things Heresies and Schisms then are is to create more quarrels then there need be I will acknowledge as soon as any that Heresie and Schism are very grievous crimes even of the deepest dye but then it must be truly Heresie or Schism not what-ever the peevishness or interest or prejudice of a domineering party will be pleased to call so under the pretence that they are that One Catholick Church from whose Doctrine be it never so false or corrupt for one to dissent must be Heresie and to separate from their communion be their practices never so Idolatrous Schism No certainly those high sins of Heresie and Schism are not against this or that particular Synagogue be they never so numerous but against that ancient and truly Catholick and Apostolick Church and he that sins against her Unity sins against his Creed which has taught us to say I believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church Which words because they may be abused to the making of the Church look less Catholick and One then it is I shall offer an easie resolution of the sense of them 3. I conceive therefore that the Object of our Belief in this Clause of the Creed are these three Propositions First That the Church of God wherein eternal Salvation is to be had is but One that is to say That a man cannot be saved in any Religion as some wantonly conceit but that there is one onely way of Salvation which is revealed to God's true Church under which all must come before they can be saved Secondly That this Church of God is now a Catholick Church not Topical or National as in the Commonwealth of the Jews but a Church that is by right to spread over the face of the whole Earth and is designed so to doe by Providence as is expressed in several passages of the Prophets From the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same my name shall be great amongst the Gentiles c. as * Chap. 1. Malachie has fore-told And David in the second Psalm Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Thirdly and lastly That this One Catholick Church is neither to be stretched so wide as to be acknowledged there where the Apostolical Doctrine the Faith and Practice delivered and commanded by Christ or his Apostles is oppugned and contradicted and quite contrary Doctrines and Practices brought in nor to be made so narrow as that such companies of men should not be allowed to be part of this Catholick Church amongst whom notwithstanding the Apostolical Doctrines do obtain and Primitive Practices of the Church set on foot by the Apostles or Christ himself are in use That is to say The adequate Character of this One Catholick Church is that it rejects nothing of the Apostolical Doctrines and imitable Usages which were commanded by Christ or by his Apostles to the Church nor teaches or institutes any thing that is point-blank opposite thereto or to the Word of God to which Christ and his Apostles give testimony That therefore is the true Catholick Church in the whole and in every particular company of it which has for its visible Laws and Usages whereby it self becomes also visible the Laws and Usages of Christ and his Apostles and nothing contradictorious thereunto This I hope will be acknowledged by all men the most easie and genuine sense of this Article of the Christian Creed that the words are capable of 4. And hence I think a man may easily discover what that Heresie is that is justly to be deemed so hainous a sin namely That it is A Dissent from the Catholick Church even in those things that are in it Apostolical For by them alone they being entire and uncontradicted in her does she discover her self to be that One and onely Catholick Church of Christ. And this would be an hainous sin indeed against that Authority she has to instruct and imbue the world with this saving truth I say to dissent from any part of this Apostolick Doctrine out of a spirit of contradiction and self-conceitedness would be Heresie in the most loathsom circumstances that can be imagined And the next degree to this would be the dissenting from the Catholick Church in such things as they generally agree in though they be not expressly any part of the Apostolick Doctrine but in the mean time not plainly dissonant to the Word of God nor to the immutable Notions of humane Understanding And the third and last degree is to dissent from the determinations of a mans own particular National Church in the like circumstances with the former These seem to have something an over-near affinity with what we have defined most properly primarily to be Heresie But considering that even Oecumenical Councils themselves may erre and that Scripture in things necessary to Salvation is sufficiently plain and the Affairs and the Genius of particular Nations exceeding different and changeable and General Councils very hardly and slowly to be congregated I must not be over-hasty to call a Dissent here no not from an Oecumenical Doctrine or Usage by so harsh a denomination as Heretical there being no entrenchment made thereby upon the Apostolical Laws and Doctrines But to dissent from or not to subscribe to the determinations of what Church soever that are plainly repugnant to the Doctrines Apostolical were not onely not Heretical but Heroical especially if the Dissent is likely to beattended with any personal inconveniences to the Dissenter 5. And now for Schism there is much-what
sense corrupting Christianity with the illicite Doctrines and practices of Idolatry For how can Rome Pagan that past under the first Six Heads sit upon the Beast that was and is not and yet is that is to say upon that Beast that had no existence before pure Christianity had become the Religion of the Empire but was afterwards to succeed that State as a sad Corruption thereof under the Seventh Head Rome Pagan therefore sate upon the Beast under the succession of the Six first Heads onely At which onely time it could rightly be said of the Beast and simply That he is But the incorrupted Christianity being once made the Religion of the Empire at that time it might rightly be said That the Beast was but is not but that he was again to ascend out of the Abyss and then after a certain considerable duration of time utterly to perish But during the time of that corrupted Condition when Christian Religion became Paganish and Idolatrous it might rightly be said of the Empire then That it is the Beast that was and is not and yet is But the Whore is said to ride this very Beast Wherefore it is not ancient Rome but the Pagano-Christian Harlot or the Roman Hierarchy which is the Whore that rides the Beast in this Vision 15. Nor can the Vision be understood of Paganism grosly so termed that should again over-run the Roman Empire a little before the End of the World under a Chimaerical Antichrist then to appear as some are willing to phansy for a shuffle but is to be interpreted of an Antichristianism that has already seized it forasmuch as it is said that the truly Christian Caesars shall continue but * Revel 17. a short time Which implies that the Antichristian State will continue a long time in comparison thereof Wherefore if this Antichristian State is not come but all is well and that Pagano-Christian Idolatry has not entred from the reign of Constantine to this very day the Reign of Antichrist will be at least three or four thousand years long Which is so monstrous a consequence and so point-blank contrary to Scripture that the Position must be necessarily false that infers it 16. Wherefore we may safely conclude That the main Subject of the Vision in this 17 th Chapter of the Apocalyps as also of that in the 13 th which is in a manner the very same with this is the State of the Roman Empire corrupted and degenerated from the true and pure Christianity into a Paganish and Idolatrous condition by reason of the false direction and guidance of those of the Roman Hierarchy that took upon them to rule the Empire in matters of Religion But withall That this Idolatrous condition both in the Hierarchy and Empire after a certain Period of time shall be changed and true Christianity overflow all again and Idolatry never again revive This is the Summary Account of these Visions We will now fall upon the Exposition of every Particular of each Chapter whereby this general Account may be still more convincingly demonstrated CHAP. XII 1. The Scope and Order of his Joint-Exposition Ver. I. What is meant by Whore 2. What by her Greatness 3. That she is not Rome Heathen but Rome Pseudo-christian Ver. II. Who the Kings of the Earth and what their Drunkenness 2. The first Agreement of the first Parallelism made good Ver. III. That the Two-horned Beast and the Whore's being in the wilderness might have made one of the Agreements of the first Parallelism 2. The second Agreement of the first Parallelism 3. What meant by the scarlet colour of the Beast 4. The second Agreement of the second Parallelism 5. The first Agreement of the second Ver. IV. The Woman 's purple and scarlet and precious stones and pearls what they signify 2. And how plainly the third Agreement of the first Parallelism is evinced 3. What is meant by the Cup of abominations in the hand of the Whore 4. That it is a Philtrous Cup with an inference therefrom of the truth of the fourth Agreement of the first Parallelism 5. The chief charm used in the mingling of this Philtre 6. Fire from Heaven Excommunication 7. Other Miracles for the promoting Idolatry 8. What the golden Cup signifies in respect of the Metall Ver. V. The names of Whores inscribed on their forcheads 2. That the whole sentence is the Whore's Name and how ridiculous it is to understand by Mystery a mere Synecdoche 3. The Interpretation of these parts of her name Mystery and Babylon 4. As also of Babylon the Great the Mother of Fornications 5. A demonstration of the fifth Agreement of the first Parallelism 6. The different Rise of the Two-horned Beast from Others 1. IN this Joint-Exposition though I shall not be wanting in other Particulars my main drift shall be to note out and confirm the Agreements of the two Parallelisms I have above delineated And for brevity sake without any farther Analyse I shall guide my Exposition by the Order of the Verses of the Seventeenth Chapter passing from verse to verse and comparing those out of the Thirteenth which I have subjoined with what is comprized in each Verse of the Seventeenth accordingly as I have above intimated Ver. I. The Judgment of the Great Whore that sitteth upon many waters The Judgment or Condemnation of the Great Whore the Punishment to which she is sentenced is a special part of this Vision and therefore bears the Title of the whole I need not here insist upon what I have so fully instructed my Reader in in my Doctrine of the Prophetick Schemes How in the Prophetick style a Body Politick or a Multitude of Persons and their Succession is represented under one Individual shew or shape whether Belluine or Humane which Scheme we called Henopoeia And Ch. 3. Sect. 7. therefore he will easily understand that the Whore is no single or particular Woman but a Type of a Body Politick which being called a Whore implies their Idolatrousness as I have abundantly made good in the Explication of that Icasme in my Prophetick Alphabet Ch. 9. Sect. 9. 2. And that she is said to be that Great Whore it may either signify the height of her Whoredom or the extent of her Jurisdiction the latter whereof is agreeable to her being placed upon many waters The Greek has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to be demonstrative and emphaticall pointing at the whole Roman Empire For that is those many waters indeed a great Sea or Ocean in the Prophetick style Whence I conceive the Great Whore to be the Roman Hierarchy in a larger sense understanding thereby the whole Body of the Idolatrous Clergy throughout the Roman Empire though I do not doubt but that this imputation will more notoriously concern one part then another more the Roman then the Greek Church and then especially when the Bishop of Rome had once got the Title of Universal
with the Israelites through the Red Sea by Night The Name or Colour also of the Sea may not unlikely be alluded to in this Description Red being not an improper Epithet of Fire There may be also still a more Mystical meaning of this Sea mingled with fire the Spirit with the Bloud of Christ which for brevity sake I pass over and will onely adde a short Paraphrase upon the verse I first cited 3. In the street of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is ordinarily rendred where also our Lord was crucified which is very good and easie sense if we referre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the great City and read which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt Parenthetically but if we referre it to or rather joyn it with Sodom and Aegypt the sense seems more harsh unless we understand an Ellipsis the supply whereof would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt and the City where our Lord was crucified that is the Prophet-murthering Jerusalem which certainly is alluded to be this Ellipsis how it will And the meaning of the Text I conceive to be this That that great Body Politick which pretends to be the Catholick Church though so grosly Apostatized from the Apostolick Doctrine and Practice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius speaks Spiritually or Mystically called Sodom Aegypt and the City where Christ was crucified with just reproach to their contrary Pretences As if the Spirit of God should speak thus Whereas this degenerate Church of Rome by boasting of their Profession of vowed Coelibate and perpetual Virginity would make show of being that true Virgin-Company and the holy and chast Spouse of Christ and of the Lamb I do pronounce them a Nest of unclean Birds as foul as Sodom and as polluted as Gomorra And whereas they would pretend to be the onely Church of my Son Christ who hath declared that if the Son make you free then are you free indeed and to be that Jerusalem that is free and is the Mother of all true Believers I do proclaim to all the World that they are Spiritually or Mystically that very Land of Aegypt and House of Bondage wherein my People are oppressed and tired out with tedious Superstitious and burthensome Observances that serve for nothing but to uphold the Pomp and Pride of that Spiritual Pharaoh and his unmerciful Task-masters a Tyrannical and Idolatrous Clergy And lastly whereas they would make men believe that they are that Holy City which is a Refuge and Protection to the Saints of God and a Shelter from Persecution where all tears shall be wiped from their eies that New Jerusalem that descended from Heaven which they were if they were what they boasted the true visible Church of Christ they are indeed a succession of that old Jerusalem the superstitious and burthensome Scribes and Pharisees who were the Crucifiers of my Son Jesus as these are to this very day of his true Members who himself accordingly as he has told them is persecuted so often as they are persecuted And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may respect as well the Members of Christ as himself notwithstanding it is the first Aorist For that is a good Note of Grotius his and a true one Aoristi sine designatione tempor is designant quod fieri solet And therefore here is intimated by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the often-Persecution of Christ in his true Members under this power of Antichrist For Crucifixion by a Diorism signifies any kind of Persecution Jerusalem therefore literally is not here understood under the disguise of Sodom and Aegypt which would not be any such mystical or spiritual meaning but a mere Synecdoche such as every School-boy understands but that Great City which is a Polity of men that pretend to be the onely true Catholick Church though so miserably Apostatized from the Faith This City in such a mystical sense as I have declared is called Sodom Aegypt and that Jerusalem that kills the Prophets and crucifies our Lord in persecuting his Members But the thing that we note now especially is their being called Aegypt for keeping the People of God in such Spiritual Slavery and Bondage 4. Which Slavery and Vassallage we may conceive also to be glanced at in the figure of the Whore of Babylon that rides upon the Beast For that this Imperious Clergy of Rome is so called seems not onely for that Babylon looks like the first Precedent of Idolatry in worshipping Belus but for their Tyrannical Pride and holding the people in such a forcible Captivity from under which no man might withdraw himself and make back toward Jerusalem and the true Temple of God but he exposed himself to the Cruelty of this bloudy Whore that sits as a Queen and saies she shall never see sorrow The Beast also being said to be rid by the Whore insinuates a kinde of beastly droyling and slavery the Christian Empire has groaned under for so many Ages Which that it might be more like a Beast an Horse or Mule that has no understanding they endeavoured to keep as ignorant as they could that the People might be the more patiently Priest-rid as the phrase is and carry their Riders with more ease and safety 5. These are the chiefest strictures that do occurre to my minde in the Prophetick Visions that are applicable to this second member of Antichristianism and that onely in this general way That of S. Paul is more particular Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats but so easie to be understood that the naming thereof is sufficient And therefore I shall pass to the next branches of Antichristianism those Oppositions that would run down the Sacred Offices of Christ as he is King Prophet and Priest The grand Injury against the last of which is this The making other Mediatours besides Christ and giving them Religious worship which is predicted in S. Paul and Daniel in those places we have already produced and expounded touching the Daemons or Mauzzim or else the suppressing or slighting the chief use of the Death of Christ which is a comfortable ease of Conscience from all suspicion of God's displeasure or fear of punishment in the other world for want of satisfaction for our misdeeds here so long as we have repented of them sincerely and have amended our lives according to the word of Christ. Which abuse is one grand piece of that Slavery and Bondage that the People of God are held under in this Spiritual Aegypt and therefore is generally prefigured in that Type we have already explamed and also in the Whore of Babylon according to what we have above intimated So that we may pass over this Office of Christ and proceed to his Kingly and Prophetick Office 6. The Opposition to the latter whereof is plainly predicted in the mention of the False-Prophet in the Apocalyps
God to have interpreted the Scripture and not for their own ends or carnal satisfaction in any thing And questionless in this case they can shew their Commission and that they act by Authority Let all things be done to edification 1 Cor. 14. 26. But that because every Civil controversy must be determined by a Judge therefore there must be an Infallible determinative Judge of all the nice and unprofitable controversies that emerge amongst Christians about Scripture and Religion is but a weak and lame Illation For Civil controversies cannot be undecided without injury to some party but no man is injured by not having those unprofitable at least unnecessary questions determined for they may hold their several opinions without wronging one another if they will but keep to that known Law of Christ that Royal Law of Charity Nay the deciding such controversies by a pretended Infallible Judge were a vast wrong to one party it galling their consciences and streightning their liberty and making the way to Heaven narrower then Christ has made it For so does this Infallible Judge that imposes his Determinations on men upon pain of eternal Damnation But God of his infinite wisedom and mercy has not given the least Intimation for any such Usurpation And therefore this Infallible Judge being not appointed by God and being unappointable by man the Scripture alone and not these pretended Infallible decisions must be the Rule of our belief 7. The fourth and last pretence is That unless the Sense of Scripture be determined by the Infallibility of the Church every private Spirit must be Judge of the meaning thereof nay and which is worse be Judge of the Church and thereby superiour to the Church then which nothing can be more wild and extravagant This seems a big difficulty at first But I answer That every particular man should judge for himself he has a Commission from the very Word of God nay I may say a Command As where he is bid to try 1 Thess. 5. 21. all things and to hold that which is good as also not to believe every 1 John 〈◊〉 spirit but to trie the spirits whether they be of God and in another place to be ready to give a reason of his Faith The Beroeans also are commended 1 Pet. 3. Acts 17. for searching the Scripture and trying whether the things that Paul even an inspired and chosen vessel of God had taught them were true or no. But for any one man or any company of men to be appointed by God Authoritatively and absolutely to be Judges for others in matters of Faith and Religion we do not find any where in Scripture or in Reason any such Commission given unto them but we are rather admonished to take heed how we be led hoodwinkt by any lest the blind Matt. 15. 14. leading the blind both fall into the ditch 8. But not Scripture onely but Reason it self does plainly commissionate private Spirits as they call them to judge for themselves For these pretenders to Infallibility doe it onely upon the boast that they are the true successive Church from the Apostles But unless they will be above all measure ridiculous they must convince the Reason of him whom they would make a Proselyte to their Church that their Church is that true and Apostolical one For to say so without proof is a madness to be hooted at by all men But to goe about to prove it is to appeal to the private Reason of him they would convince And if he be a Christian already though not of their Church the common acknowledged Principles are the Holy Scriptures in arguing from which the Disputant appeals to him he would bring over if his Interpretation or Allegation of them be not true But if he be an Infidel or Pagan he is to use Reasons to prove the Truth and Authority of the Scriptures themselves Which is still an appeal to the conscience of him that is to be gained to the Church whether what is offered to him be true or false And that which is offered to him being the whole Christian Faith for that is it which makes a true Church it is plain that his Reason and Conscience is appealed unto whether the whole Summe of the Credenda in Christianity is not true That is to say Though the Church and he that argues in the behalf of the Church have already judged and firmly concluded that the Christian Faith is a true Faith in the whole and in every part and make no appeal from their own judgment in reference to themselves yet in reference to the party they would convince they appeal to him if the grounds of their Belief be not solid and so imply and acknowledge that he is Judge for himself in these affairs call that in him a private spirit or what you please 9. But I do not know but it may be too reproachfully called a private spirit at least in the sincere and simple-hearted who have no private designs but to know the Will of God and to doe it and it is the Will of God all men should doe so and the spirit of man * Prov. 20. is said to be the Lamp of the Lord and that which judges according to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common notions of Reason in all men and has not lost the * Psell. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those common characters and ingenuous sentiments of Indispensable Truth and Morality which the Father of lights has of old sealed upon the Soul and which are hardly obliterated quite in any and are necessarily continued and that vigourously in the sincere I say such a Life or Spirit as this judging in a man is very hardly to be called a private spirit it judging according to the Universal sense of humane Nature and so as every one judges when he is unbiassed Nay if this will not serve I say that the Judgement which is thus made is the Judgement of that Universal King and Law-giver the Eternal Son of God it is his sentence in these cases but writ in the tables of our hearts and pronounced by our mouths as by the Praeco of a Court. So far is it from being the Judgement of a mere private spirit But that rather is the Judgement of a private spirit though it should bear the Title of an Infallible Church which is decreed not according to the plain Texts of Scripture so as all unprejudiced men would certainly understand them nor according to those indeleble Characters of Truth which Christ the Eternal Logos has writ in the Rational Souls of all mankind but according to partial Interest and depraved desires The sentence of Thousands nay of Millions of such Judges is more the verdict of a private spirit then the Judgement of the meanest private man that pronounces from such Principles as I have declared 10. Now for that odious imputation of making a mans self Superiour to the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For if they say there was not a Church at Thyatira in being at that instant when S. John wrote they plainly declare that S. John did prophesie and intimated afore-hand that there would be one Wherefore Epiphanius found little reason why he should from the state of the present Controversie chuse the ordinary opinion rather then that which is accounted his own 8. The other place of Epiphanius is Haeres 51. Sect. 12. where he tells us how S. John was impelled and constrained to write the Gospel by the instigation of the Holy Ghost though he very much declined it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet he was forced by that impulse and that in his old age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he was more then ninety years old after his return out of Patmos which happened in Claudius his time Where there is this adjection of the mention of his return from Patmos as a confirmation of the grandevity of the Apostle at that time Now let us see what service this Magnus testis Historiarum diligentissimus Inquisitor as Grotius calls him as well as he does Petavius who so plainly contradicts him in this very point can doe this learned Interpreter in the present case For this passage if there had been any force in the former does quite obtund it it shewing Epiphanius not at all diligent in Chronologie as Alcazar has also well observed in making S. John above ninety years old in Claudius his time whenas the common Tradition of the Church is that he was very young when he entred upon his Apostleship S. Jerom saith that Christ chose him when he was but a youth or child Baronius makes him just twenty five years old at the Passion of our Saviour The Scripture it self implies also that he was but young in that Christ says to his Mother concerning John Woman behold thy son which should imply that he was at least as young as our Saviour Christ he being himself born of the Virgin when she was but of the age of fifteen as Nicephorus relates out of an Epistle of Euodius Bishop of Antioch But by Epiphanius his Chronologie S. John would be at least twenty years older then the Blessed Virgin concerning whom notwithstanding Christ says to John Behold thy Mother And which is still worse if S. John was ninety years old when he came out of Patmos under the reign of Claudius it will run the Nativity of Christ near fourty years back and place it long before Cyrenius was Governour of Syria forasmuch as all men conceive S. John to be at least as young as our Saviour if not much younger Which Absurdities detect Epiphanius not to be so great and unexceptionable a Witness in History as Grotius would make him And therefore Petavius again peremptorily sets down in the Margin over against Epiphanius his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sub Cocceio Nerva Joannes revocatur ab exilio Which certainly is the truth and agrees with that time of S. John's age which Epiphanius allots to him when he wrote the Gospel For supposing him to be born about the same time our Saviour was or a little later this writing of the Gospel will fall into the years of Nerva or at least some few years after Domitian according as you shall finde it set down in Chronologies 9. But supposing Epiphanius his Testimony of value in this case the same Epiphanius that witnesses John in Patmos under the reign of Claudius witnesses him out again in the same reign which as I have * Sect. 4. already noted spoils Grotius his Project who would have S. John prophesy in Vespasian's time else all the fat is in the fire as touching the Interpretation of the Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalyps But I think I have plainly proved that there can be nothing gained out of Epiphanius for establishing Grotius his conceit these Passages of the Father being either but Conjectures or Inadvertencies or else some lapses of the Scribe who wrote it seems more glibly the name of Claudius then of the other two Emperours as it might appear in that second Citation S. John being indeed about that age when he came out of Patmos in Cocceius Nerva his time but not in Claudius's 10. So that Grotius has not so much as one Witness to countenance his new Invention and if he had had this one what is one to the whole stream of Antiquity and of the Churches Nay what is Epiphanius his Testimony compared with the Testimony of that one single Father Irenaeus he living two hundred years nearer S. John's time then Epiphanius and who expresly asserts in Eusebius that the Apocalyps was imparted to S. John at the end of Domitian's reign For speaking of the Name of the Beast he writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the name of the Beast had been openly to be divulged at this time it would have been told by him that saw those Visions which under one collective Title are called The Apocalyps For they were seen not long since at the end of Domitian 's reign 11. This I doubt not but is the genuine sense of these words and that he speaks not of the Vision of the Beast alone under that name of the Apocalyps but of the whole body of Visions so called Otherwise for distinctness sake he would have said not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially considering Apocalypsis had then passed into a known Title of this volume of Visions Besides that the Name of the Beast was not seen by S. John but the Number of his Name And therefore whereas the Latine has it Antichristi nomen per ipsum utique editum fuisset qui Apocalypsin videret neque enim ante multum temporis visum est I should easily believe that visum got in for visa by the oscitancy of the Scribe For unless the Interpreter of Irenaeus had understood qui Apocalypsin videret of the whole Collection of Visions and not of the Beast onely and his Name he would have rather said Revelationem and for sureness have added ejus to make the sense more distinct and determinate qui Revelationem ejus videret And lastly suppose this Testimony proved onely that the Vision of the Thirteenth Chapter of the Revelation was seen at the end of Domitian's reign which I have not the least conceit of it will not serve Grotius his turn since this of the Seventeenth Chapter is later both by order of situation in the Apocalyps and also by nature For it being the plainest Vision concerning the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns that was exhibited to S. John and containing in it a Key for the right understanding the other it ought to come last the Comment being naturally later then the Text according to common sense and reason 12. Wherefore seeing there is no proof at all that Claudius persecuted the Christians much less that he exiled John into Patmos but that Domitian was a notorious Persecuter and
universal Antiquity attesting that S. John was banished into Patmos under him and that there he received the Apocalyps there is nothing to give a stop to the Conclusion but that we may inferre that the whole Volume of those Visions was there wrote by him towards the latter end of Domitian's reign as Irenaeus has affirmed the Second Persecution beginning not till the tenth year of Domitian I mean the latter end of his real and uncontrovertible reign when he succeeded his Brother Titus not that imaginary one in his Father's absence for he was not then truly Emperour And though we should admit he had two reigns if the end of his reign be mentioned at large as it is here in Irenaeus it must either signifie the end of all that time he reigned or the end of his more notorious and confessed reign which is here all one and therefore most certainly understood So that there is no avoiding the Authority of Irenaeus by this sleight Not to adde that there is no Persecution taken notice of in all Vespasian's reign and therefore no Patmos for S. John and consequently no Prophecy as I have noted above So that there is not the least shadow of probability that the Apocalyps was wrote at any other time then in what Irenaeus has declared it to be 13. The Apocalyps it self also witnesses against this dream of S. John's being in Patmos under Claudius his reign in that general Preface to all the Visions I John who am also your brother and companion in tribulation and in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ c. Which shews it was a time of great distress amongst the Christians and of smart Persecution Which was so to none but John if this was in Claudius his time at least not in Asia to which Churches he writes But there is yet another more apposite place for our purpose I mean the Martyrdome of Antipas Bishop of the Church of Pergamus who suffered under Domitian about the tenth year of his reign That which I note as most remarkable in his story is That he was solicited by the Governour of the place to renounce Christianity because it was but a Novelty urging upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same argument which the Papists use to seduce our modern Antipae or Antipapists But that which I drive at is this That the mention of Antipas his Martyrdome as past in the very beginning of this Book of Visions does plainly detect that they were all seen after the beginning of the second Persecution which was under Domitian and above twenty years after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus For that the Record of Antipas his Martyrdome is true there can be no doubt his mention in the Apocalyps engaging the Church to take more then ordinary notice of that Martyr Nor can any After-figments concerning his suffering I mean the manner of it make the faith of the Church at all suspected concerning the time So solid assurance is there every way that this Volume of Apocalyptick Visions was delivered to John in Patmos at the latter end of Domitian's reign and so convincing evidence on every side that he must be Sceptical even to dotage that after due consideration can at all doubt of it 14. The eviction of which truth I have thus copiously and industriously wrought out because it does not onely lay flat to the ground all the Interpretations of Grotius in these Thirteenth and Seventeenth Chapters but also all his Expositions of the Seven Seals and Seven Trumpets and consequently of the whole Book of the Apocalyps For he interprets the Seals and Trumpets of things that happened many years before this Prophecy which makes the Apocalyps as good sense as if it were a Foretelling of things that were past whenas the Preface to the whole Book runs expresly thus The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as are shortly to come to pass But according to Grotius his Interpretation of the Seals and Trumpets which are a chief part of the Prophecy and also of the Battel betwixt Michael and the Dragon and several other Visions the Preface should have run thus The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants what things came to pass some while ago Which things being also set down so Aenigmatically as if he had a minde to hide what was plainly brought to light in actual Events the Title might have been more properly the Obvelation or Obscuration then the Revelation So fruitful is one Absurdity once admitted for the encrease and multiplying many others CHAP. III. 1. That as Grotius has mis-timed these Visions so his Interpretations are accordingly absurd and incongruous 2. The groundlesness of his beginning the Compute of the Seven Heads at Claudius and ending it in Domitian 3. The dim-sightedness of the ancient Fathers that could not discern Domitian to be the Beast that was and is not though they stood so exceeding much nearer him then Grotius 4. The trivialness and falsity of this Conceit of his 5. The second third and fourth Absurdities of Grotius his Exposition of this Seventeenth Chapter 6. The fifth sixth seventh and eighth Absurdities 7. The ninth tenth eleventh and twelfth 8. The thirteenth fourteenth fifteenth and sixteenth Absurdities of his Exposition 1. WHerefore the Foundation of Grotius his Expositions being so false and flitting and such as cannot but shrink if it be hard pressed upon the structure cannot be sound nor well shapen but forced distorted and difform For if Prophecy will fit as well those times they aim not at as those they do they will be clouded with such invincible obscurity that they will lose both their usefulness and authentickness We shall shew therefore that Grotius as he has gone upon a false Ground so his Expositions of these Seventeenth and Thirteenth Chapters are answerably harsh and unapplicable and that he has left the plain road and rush'd through hedge and ditch and pulled up all fences to gather a Nosegay of Flowers that both smell ill and immediately wither in his hand in the very gathering of them 2. Supposing then that the Visions of the Seventeenth and Thirteenth Chapters were imparted to S. John in Vespasian's time which yet to me is undoubtedly false let us take this brief view of the Harshnesses and Incongruities of his Interpretation As first Whereas he makes the Seven Heads of the Beast to be Seven Emperours five whereof were gone in Vespasian's time namely Claudius Nero Galba Otho Vitellius I have shewn already that there is no reason at all for his beginning his compute at Claudius John neither being banished in his reign nor he being so ill an Emperour as his Predecessour Caius Caligula and the Church reckoning not their Persecutions before Nero nor any complaint made of Nero's successours till Domitian that these should be such Heads of Blasphemy above the rest of the