is they were quite vanquished neither was their place found any more in Heaven 9. And the great Dragon was cast out that old Serpent with whom Christ had had no small combating long before called the Devil and Satan the reproacher and opposer of the Kingdom of Christ in all places and ages which deceiveth the whole world and seduceth them into false and idolatrous worship He was cast out into the earth and his Angels were cast out with him This appearance thus in Heaven signified the destruction of the Empire as Draconick and Idolatrous that none of that foul stamp should be in high places of the Empire but such as were professed Christians 10. And I heard a loud voice saying in Heaven Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. This is contemporary to the affairs of the sixth Seal or rather with the close thereof and the commencement of the Pergamenian Interval For the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before God day and night What the Devil is said to do concerning Iob accuse him before God the Pagans are here understood to do before the Emperour and other Magistrates of the Empire to raise most wicked calumnies concerning the Christians objecting against them Thyaestean Suppers Incests Adultery promiscuous Lusts Murders Conspiracies against Princes Plagues Famine Mischiefs by Fire or what other calamity happened in the Empire 11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb through the merits of Christ crucified on the Cross and by the word of their Testimony and spending their own blood also in way of Martyrdom For it is said And they loved not their lives unto the death This Verse makes it plain that the Battel that is said to be in Heaven denotes a Battel here on Earth betwixt the Christians and their Persecutors 12. Therefore rejoyce ye Heavens and ye that dwell in them Ye Angels and Holy Martyrs not without an intimation also to the Political Heaven in the Roman Empire to those in high Places and Offices under the Christian Emperour Wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea that is to the lower multitude For the Devil is come down unto you having great wrath and will stickle to do as much mischief as he can amongst you while he may because he knoweth that he hath but a short time For though the Great Ones of the Empire were turned Christians yet many of the Common People were still Pagans wherefore the Devil will find out a fetch to strengthen those in their Paganism and dissettle the other in their Christian Profession 13. And when the Dragon saw that he was cast unto the Earth and reduced to such a low base condition He persecuted the Woman which brought forth the Man-child An envious revengefull persecuting temper rose in him against her 14. And to the Woman were given two wings of a great Eagle that is by reason of the Roman Empire becoming Christian and now divided into two parts Eastern and Western and that the Eagle is the Ensign of the Roman Empire is notorious enough which these wings might represent she was in such a state that by a Prophetick Hypallage it might be said of her That she might fly into the Wilderness into her place that is the wilderness condition of the Church would come shortly upon her wherein she should by Divine Providence be ever safe from the red Pagan persecuting Dragon as it follows where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the face of the Serpent That is for three Prophetick years and an half which is seven Prophetical half years or semitimes which are the measures intended as seems to be insinuated by expressing the one thousand two hundred and sixty days vers 6. by a Time and Times and half a Time 15. But before the commencement of the Time as if he had a mind to overwhelm her before she could reach the appointed place it is said And the Serpent cast out of his mouth water as a stood after the Woman that is the water of Heresie and Contention that sore division of the Church by reason of that Heresie of Arianisme That he might cause her to be carried a way of the Flood That the Church which stood out the hottest persecutions with invincible valour against the red Dragon may now perish by the over-speading of Heresie and Intestine Division this furious controversie hardening the hearts of the unconverted people and staggering the converted in their Faith and Profession 16. And the Earth helped the Woman and the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the Dragon cast out of his mouth that is the Church was delivered from this overflowing Heresie and Dissension by the Decree of an Oecumenical Council viz. the first Nicene Council their opening their mouth in a Decree against Arianisme and condemning it for an Heresie was like the opening of the mouth of the Earth to a flood that presently sinks and never is seen any more Partly this real Analogie is alluded to and partly there may be an allusion to the title Oecumenical which is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earth For such gentle touches and glances at the signification of words are not unusual in the Prophetick stile 17. And the Dragon was wroth with the Woman and went to make war with the remnant of her Séed which kéep the Commandments of God The former wicked project failing the wrath of the Dragon was again incensed against the Woman viz. the Woman with the Crown of twelve Stars on her head and the Moon under her feet the pure Apostolick Church and went to make war with the remnant of her Seed those namely that she was to bring forth while she abides in the Wilderness which will approve themselves her genuine Off-spring by keeping the Commandments of God who forbids us making any graven Image to bow down to it or worship it and bids us worship serve and pray to himself alone And have the Testimony of Iesus Christ. For the Testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy in which sense the two Witnesses are said to prophecy as well as to witness The Testimony therefore of Jesus is to witness to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ not from mere custom or education because others have told us it is true but because we are assured of the truth thereof from the spirit of God and in virtue of the spirit of life in the new birth From this living Principle do these faithful Servants of Christ bear witness of the truth of his Word revealed in the Gospel and witness against the wicked inventions of an Apostatized Church and loath them and detest them For they are not dead vessels that will receive wholesome liquor and poyson alike but the Living Creation of God and therefore have an antipathy against all the
and delusions of his wicked Spirits at their Images or Altars to deceive the people 4. And they worshipped the Dragon which gave Power to the Beast namely which had given him his Armies his Throne and his great Authority that is to say though he appears in the shape now not of the Dragon but of the Leopard or Panther a Beast the Dragon is said so much to abhor that is in the gratefull shew of Christianity yet so far forth as they gave obedience to the Paganical and Idolatrous part joyned with it they indeed worshipped or obeyed the Dragon whose Fiends or Goblins might please themselves to receive that worship at their Altars and Images that they had by their jugling tricks and false Miracles reintroduced into the Church and flear amongst themselves at the Imposture that they made the Church in so gross a sense become the worshippers of Devils as it is said in the sixth Trumpet And they worshipped the Beast that is they yielded obedience to the Beast to the Imperial Power in such a state as it was saying Who is like unto the Beast who is able to make war with him Things are so well setled and strongly this way and so accommodately to all mens liking that neither Jew nor Pagan can be able to dissettle the Peace of the Empire in this point or make war and raise stirs against it 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies that is great and enormous blasphemies which are injunctions for Idolatry of several sorts for Blasphemy in Scripture often signifies Idolatry And Power was given unto him to continue forty and two months the same time the outward Court is trodden down by the Gentiles that is the entireness of his Dominion shall continue till the seventh Semitime till about the fourth month thereof 6. And he opened his mouth in Blasphemy against God to blaspheme his Name by giving his incommunicable Name to Idols or Images or Name may signifie his person and so his person is blasphemed by Idolatry committed against him by worshipping any other person besides God or Christ. And his Tabernacle namely the Body of Christ which is the Living Tabernacle of God it is blasphemed more wayes than one both in that they Idolatrously worship a mere Wafer instead thereof and make it also so vile a thing that it shall be at the command of every Priest for whatever uses he will please to fetch it down by his transubstantiating charm to be devoured into the foul stomachs of the People and as it may happen to be eaten by base Vermine such as Rats and Mice And them that dwell in Heaven that is the Saints and Angels they most wickedly blaspheme in that they set up Idols by the instigation of Evil Spirits the Forces or Armies the old Dragon delivered to the Beast who no doubt are busie enough to assist there and play tricks and do call these Idols by the names of the Saints or Angels and impute these tricks there played in the behalf of Idolatry by them to the Saints when they are the mere delusions of these Goblins or Devils Besides it it a gross reproach to the Saints and Angels to suppose they will accept of Religious Worship and so prove Rebels to God Wherefore that Power that established and decreed such enormous things as these Image-worship Saint-worship and Transubstantiation may well be said to open their mouth in blasphemy for publishing such Edicts c. 7. And it was given him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them that is to oppose them and subdue them and keep them under all along that they shall have no power in the Empire as it was said before of the mournful Witnesses that they were Politically dead all the three Times and an half in a manner But in some part of this time the war and slaughter or killing is not mystical but proper For of the Waldenses and Albigenses in France alone there is said to have been slain no less than ten hundred thousand And in the Inquisition within thirty years space no less than an hundred fifty thousand persons were consumed with all manner of grievances and miseries besides infinite numbers more And Sanderus the Jesuite reports that an infinite number of Lothards as he calls them and Sacramentarians through Europe were burnt with fire and fagot but excuses it as not done by the Pope and Bishops but the secular Magistrate which is the thing this Prophecy foretells that it is the Beast with ten horns the Secular Power of the Empire not the Beast with two horns that is the executioner of the cruelty or that dooms to death Iezebel excites but Ahab the Secular Powers execute or command to be executed her bloody suggestions against Naboth that is against those that have the Witnesses of Jesus the Spirit of Prophecy as is elsewhere explained And power was given him over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations namely that he might persecute and force men to Idolatrous worship in all the parts of the Empire 8. And all that dwell upon the Earth that is whose minds are fixed on earthly things shall worship him that is obey his Idolatrous Edicts and Commands whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world that is are not of the number of the Called and Chosen as they are termed Chap. 17. nor of those that are redeemed from the Earth as they are described Chap. 14. For those will ever stand out till they get the victory over the Beast 9. If any man have an ear let him hear For this was a remarkable intimation and worth the observing as also that which follows 10. He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword that is That Power which now in this forty-two months of years of the Beast domineers so and forces men to their Idolatrous worship shall at last be led captive into the Truth and they that kill now with the sword of persecution shall be slain by the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God answerably to the witnesses slaying their enemies by the fire that came out of their mouth Which victory was obtained in the resurrection of the Witnesses in a degree in the third or fourth month of the seventh or last Semitime viz. in the late blessed Reformation as I have above noted Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints that they may stand to it with these spiritual weapons till it shall please God to give them success as he did in the time even now mentioned 11. And I beheld another Beast coming out of the Earth Why there is two Beasts here since the Empire became Christian in profession I above intimated namely because there is as it were Imperium in Imperio a Secular Empire and Sacerdotal which pretends to an Universal Rule in
in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon both which words signifie a Destroyer which is a fit title he being a Captain of such numerous Troops that destroyed so many mens bodies by war and their souls by bringing a false Religion along with him contrary to Christianity reproaching it as if it maintained the worship of more Gods than One Which malicious pretense seems also to be glanced at in both the name of Abaddon and also of Apollyon Abaddon alluding to Adad as if it were Ab-Addon and Apollyon to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apollo both which names according to this allusion signifie ONE As if this Angel of the Abysse and his Locusts stood up for the worship of one God and that the Christians worshipped many because they worship the holy Trinity which nothing but their ignorance of the Mystery and their malice could make them conclude to be inconsistent with the Unity of the Deity Which passage therefore of the Vision is no small countenance to the Doctrine of the Trinity of the Godhead 12. One wo is past and behold there come two woes more hereafter namely under the sounding of the next two Trumpets which therefore as the former may well be called Wo-Trumpets 13. And the sixth Angel sounded and I heard voice from the four horns of the golden Altar which is before God For Iohn rapt thus into Heaven the Temple and the Throne of God was as it were continually represented to him and so the golden Altar which is the Altar of Incense And Incense is the Symbol of the prayers and breathing of the pure Apostolick Church oppressed and afflicted under that Antichristian or Pseudochristian and Idolatrous Constitution of things established by the second Nicene Council 14. Saying unto the sixth Angel that had the Trumpet Loose the four Angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates That is let loose the Turks upon the Idolatrous Empire For that Angels signifie Men under their conduct is a frequent Apocalyptical Figure And that the Turks are here meant is plain from those more notable four * Turkish Sultanies or Tetrarchies on that and this side of Euphrates that of Bagdad that of Caesarea Cappadocie or Iconii that of Aleppo and that of Damascus 15. And the four Angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year for to slay the third part of men Which term of time is another indication that the Turks are meant here For Togrulbec Prince of the Turks the City Bagdad being taken by him had his Imperial Robes put upon him and was inaugurated Emperour of the Turks by the Caliph Chaiim Biamrilla in the year 1057. From this time was the Turk invested in the Saracenical Empire And from this year to the year 1453 when Constantinople was taken and the remainder of the Roman Empire in the East utterly lost is a Prophetical day and a month and a year that is 396 years So notable an Indication is this that the Turks are here meant and the sense is this That these Turks were prepared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against a determined appointed time even to the expiration of 396 years for to slay the third part of men that is that about that time they might not vex only as the Saracens did but put an end to the Eastern Roman Empire For third is a character of the Roman Empire as I have already noted Which accordingly came to pass at the taking of Constantinople and swallowing thereupon the whole Roman Empire in the East 16. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand and I heard the number of them whereby I understood how exceeding numerous they were which is another note of their being Turks it being well known what vast Armies they bring into the field And this number does not signifie Arithmetically that is precisely that number but figuratively is put for a vast number in general and so vast that it could not be discovered by the eye so well as signified by speech And that there is no mention of Foot may be an allusion to their known name in Greek Historians who usually call them Persians which name signifies Horsemen which is another note of their being Turks 17. And thus I saw the Horses in vision and them that sate on them having breast-plates of fire and Iacinth of Iacinth that is of a blue colour and of Brimstone by reason that when they shot off the air betwixt them and the sight of the beholder seemed fiery at the flashing of the powder and then coloured with a blue smoke and after filled his nostrils with the scent of sulphur which shows that this Vision * belongs to the times since the Invention of Gunpowder And the heads of the horses were as the heads of Lions not for their shapes but for the roaring noise that seems to come from them at the riders discharging their Carbines or Pistols as what follows plainly intimates And out of their mouths issued fire smoke and brimstone 18. By these three was the third part of men killed that is the Roman Empire in the East was not only vexed and annoied but utterly subdued vanquished and destroyed by these Centaures as I may so call them the Turks who are called Persae in the Greek Historians from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paras which signifies a man on horseback including both the shapes in one Appellation as if that Country bred such Monsters which are usually called Centaures Which Centaures here are set out still more monstrously as killing men by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths as it may seem at a distance when they let off their Fireguns and Pistols 19. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails As in the Scorpio-Locusts before a monster made up of a Locust and of a Scorpion to signifie the Saracens so here is a Monster made up of a Horse and a Man a Centaure as it were to signifie the Turks and have tails whereby they are said to hurt men signifying the same venome or mischief of Mahometism The power of these Centaures is in their mouths and in their tails the Turks playing two parts viz. of a Warriour in the field discharging fire and shot against the Enemy and of a Religionist after the victory all their War according to their Alchoran being a kind of Holy War to propagate Mahometisme and Paradise is promised to them that dye in the Cause and therefore it is said For their tails were like unto Serpents and had heads and mouths too I warrant you to speak and tempt the vanquished as the Old Serpent did Eve from their obedience to God and his Christ and so with them they do hurt not only upon that false pretense as if we Christians were guilty of Polytheisme or of worshipping more gods than one because we profess the Trinity of the Godhead but
also upon a pretense then too lamentably true because they had so wretchedly corrupted the Ancient Apostolick Christianity with many intolerable Superstitions and gross Idolatries adding the persecution of all those that would not submit to them and their wicked Inventions For which gross degeneracy of the Church this scourge of the Turks especially was sent in upon them as is plainly implyed in what follows 20. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues that is of the Scorpio-Locusts and Euphratean Centaures as I may so speak but were only vexed with them by which is plainly meant the Western part of the Roman Empire which the Turk could never possess himself of yet as he has of the Eastern Yet for all this sad Example of Gods severity for the like crimes this Western part of the Empire repented not of the works of their hands their wicked and impious Inventions whereby they corrupted the Ancient Apostolick Christianity That they should not worship Devils * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Original has it that is Demons or middle invisible Powers betwixt God and Men whether Angels or Souls of men departed And in reference to these Idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk and yet they lift up their eyes and hands to them and pray before them as if they could see their posture hear what they said and were able to go and bestir themselves to accomplish their requests But in that the mode of their Idolatry here is by Statues not by Pictures this is another insinuation that the Western Church is here understood 21. Neither repented they of their murthers that is of their murtherous persecution of innocent Souls for not submitting to their Idolatrous Rites and Customs nor of their sorceries their imposturous exorcismes and enchantments of several things to holy pretended uses nor of their fornication their unnatural uncleannesses of all sorts upon an Hypocritical profession of a single life nor of their thefts their cunning tricks of cheating the people of their money by setting up Images for them to bring Oblations to their merchandises of hallowed Crosses Beads Medals and the like trumperies and deceits For such like wickednesses as these was the wrath of God poured down upon the Eastern part of the Empire by letting loose the Euphratean Horsemen upon them so as to quite over-run them and vanquish them and yet the Western Church the more the pity did not lay it at all to heart while those Judgments were thundring against the Eastern and these Euphratean Horsemen were let loose upon them Which happened a little before the year 1300 after the Caliphate of Bagdad with which the first Wo expired had in the year 1258 been abolished by the Tartars and the Remainder of the Turks who had Reigned in Persia on the other side of Euphrates were cast out as out of a sling into the parts of the Roman Empire on this side Euphrates by the said Tartars namely in the year 1289 who winning Syria and Palestine and dividing amongst themselves the greater part of Asia minor at last joyning in one Othoman Empire broke also into Europe nor ceased till they took Constantinople and quite abolished the Constantinopolitan Empire and made themselves fully Masters thereof But as for the close of this second Wo-trumpet the most natural extent I discern thereof is the Universal Impenitency of the Western parts of the Roman Empire till some Country or Kingdom appeared converted from such Crimes as the Eastern Empire was destroyed for by these Euphratean Horsemen And so we shall clearly observe with what succession of the Churches this sixth Trumpet or second Wo-Trumpet expires namely it ends with the Thyatirian succession The six Trumpets added to the six Seals reach just so far and no further So that the seventh Trumpet must be contemporary with the Sardian Philadelphian and Laodicean successions and equalize the succession of them all which is worth the remembring for the better understanding what follows NOTES CHAPTER IX Vers. 1. Fallen from Heaven to the Earth c. The Original has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though our English Translation renders I saw a Star fall from Heaven as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then falling yet I have made bold to translate it according to Grammatical truth fallen from Heaven But I understand it of a fallen Angel according to the warrantable sense of the Cabbalists See my Synopsis Prophetica Book 1. ch 8. sect 14. Vers. 5. The nature of the Scorpion perpetually to attempt to sting c. Semper cauda in ictu est nulloque momento meditari cessat ne quando desit occasioni Plin. Histor. Natur. lib. 11. c. 25. Her taile is alwayes a striking nor ceases she any one moment to endeavour to sting that she may be sure to miss no opportunity Vers. 14. Four Turkish Sultanies or Tetrarchies c. These four Sultanies their number is learnedly and ingeniously made out by M r J. Mede on this Text But besides this if they were not just four and the business is not their Number but their Office what they are to do and when yet by a Prophetick Diorisme they might be called four Four standing for a note of Vniversality in the Cabbalistick Mysteries And D r Hammond on this place would have Four not to signifie just four but indefinitely to be put for the number of the Angels concerned in this affair Which he might the better have adventured on if he had been acquainted with the Cabbalistick stile Vers. 17. Belongs to the times since the Invention of Gunpowder and the use of Guns in War Which Berchtoldus Niger a Franciscan Monk and Alchymist is said first to have divulged to the world about the year 1380 which was after the plague of the Saracens upon the Empire And shews also how vain the attempts of those are who would draw back these Visions to the times of Titus and the besieging of Jerusalem by the Roman Armies Vers. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Original has it c. And this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has the same signification that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Spirits whether the Souls of Men or Angels and that either good or bad This is certainly the sense of the word in the Greek Language And therefore it is not so justifiably and fitly translated here Devils which none amongst the Pagans themselves are said to worship unless Witches and Magicians and therefore it had been more safe to have retained the Greek word which also the Latines use and called them Demons which signifies as well goods Angels and the souls of good men departed this life as bad Angels or bad Souls or if you will Devils which in all Idolatrous worship are in all likelihood busie Assistants and several times make a show of Miracles and so attract the worship of Idolaters to themselves they worshipping
them that do these miraculous feats when any are done so that the sense is easie enough either way Not to add that by a just reproach to their worshipping of Saints and Angels they are said to worship Devils For who but a Devil would receive Religious Worship or at least to worship false Objects according to that of Psalm 98. v. 5. All the Gods of the Heathen are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the very word here in this verse And the Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no gods but vain objects of worship called in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there being no true objects of worship but he that made the Heavens See my Synopsis Prophetica Book 2. cap. 10. And M r Mede 's Apostasie of the latter Times ch 3 and 4 CHAPTER X. THe Euphratean Horsemen having over-run and destroyed and fully seized on the Eastern part of the Roman Empire natural method will prompt us to expect that what follows in this Prophecy of the sealed Book should refer to the Western parts of the Empire and concern the highest Dominion there to wit the Bloody Idolatrous Papal Hierarchy that Antichrist that exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped the Prophet Balaam Lord of the People and who had made the Secular Power a Balak an empty cypher or an Ahab that is wholly guided or directed by the Prophetess Iezebel So that this Papal Hierarchy in the West being in reality the Highest Power by Usurpation and the Antichrist exalting himself against Christ and above him we may rationally expect that the last Wo-trumpet which contains the residue of the Sealed-Book-Prophecy carries in it such things or alterations as tend to the downfall of Antichrist and restoring and enlarging the Kingdom of Christ in these parts of the Roman Empire and over the whole Earth And therefore accordingly it is said 1. And I saw another mighty Angel come down from Heaven one distinct from the seven Trumpet-Angels cloathed with a cloud that is clouds and darkness were round about him a thick cloud charged with thunder And a Rain-bow was on his head which betokens he came in the Glory of the Divinity even in the Glory of God the Father for the Rainbow in the Vision of Ezechiel so signifies And therefore this mighty and victorious Angel must be Christ and a further intimation hereof is from what follows And his face was as it were the Sun For so he appeared to Saul when he cryed out to him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and such was his description when he appeared in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks And his feet as Pillars of fire as it were coming out of the cloud and reaching to the Earth which are tokens of the great wrath of the Son of God or Christ and his coming to judge and take vengeance of his Enemies His feet was as fine Brass in the Thyatirian Interval here they are like a Pillar of fire 2. And he had in his hand a little book open which contains all the Visions of the Prophecy of the opened Book as we at first noted And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth standing in that Majestick manner and laying claim to or seizing himself as it were on his right by Sea and Land See ch 12.9 ch 13.11 3. And cryed with a loud voice as when a Lion roareth which is another intimation that it is Christ the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah And who in this majestick posture and terrible roaring could so well be said to set himself against Antichrist or the Papal Hierarchy as Christ The Roman Empire Eastern and Western too was sorely vext and scourged by the Scorpio-Locusts the Saracens and Eastern quite destroyed after by those Euphratean Centaures the Turks But the Papal Empire or Hierarchy here in the West Christ himself with his Apostolical Legions of Reformed Christians will utterly demolish and destroy as it is elsewhere said of the Ten Horns or Kings that at last they shall hate the Whore make her desolate eat her flesh and burn her with fire This loud roaring therefore of this Lion of the Tribe of Iudah sets off in general the anger and victorious terrour of Christ in assaulting and overcoming the Kingdom of Antichrist or the Papal Hierarchy and glorious Erection of his own Kingdom These in general are the affairs of this last space of the Sealed-Book-Prophecy And whereas it is said when he cryed or while he cryed seven thunders uttered their voices This is a distribution of the aforesaid space into seven parts which will be very serviceable for the orderly disposing of the Visions of the Opened-Book-Prophecy These seven Thunders may be seven Bath-Cols that is seven Oracles or Voices delivered in the midst of a Thunder and the last Thunder which betokens the turning of the Earth into a Lake of Fire by thundering and Lightning might happily send out some such voice as this Go ye accursed into everlasting fire This is the doom of them that adhere to the bloody imposturous and Idolatrous Papal Hierarchy 4. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices I was about to write namely what they said And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Seal up those things that the seven thunders uttered with an allusion to this Sealed Book of Prophecies as if he should say Though the seventh Seal be opened yet as to this part thereof let it be as sealed again for it is needless here so particularly to declare things touching the destruction of the Papal Hierarchy which agrees very well with what follows according to the reading of the Biblia Regia Andreas and others And thou shalt write them hereafter not And write them not namely in the Opened-Book-Prophecies where these affairs of the destruction of Antichrist and of the advancement of Christs Kingdom shall be more fully and particularly delivered which is a marvellous manner of transition from the Sealed-Book-Prophecy to the Opened-Book-Prophecy and sutable to the usual majestickness of this Book of the Apocalypse 5. And the Angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven as using that usual Ceremony of posture in swearing 6. And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever who created heaven and the things that therein are and the earth and the things that therein are and the sea and the things that are therein This is a mighty and vehement asseveration but it is concerning a thing that sunk flesh and blood are too too incredulous of which makes Christ in his Epistle to the Church of the Laodicean Interval which includes his coming to judgment and his putting an end to the Scene of things here on Earth use as vehement asseveration as might be by calling himself the Amen the faithful and true Witness
makes the Scripture a nose of wax which a man may turn which way he will subjecteth it to our vain lusts and humours and leaves us partially to apply the good things to ourselves and our own party and the bad things to our enemies Disp. 11. Quest. 2. These be the main arguments for his second Paradox 1. But to the first I answer That a Revelation may be a Mystery that is mystically or hiddenly conveyed but yet plainly to be known by them that have the Key As it is in Steganography by which Secrets are certainly conveyed or revealed but in such a mysterious way that none but they that know the clavis or Key shall be ever the wiser Wherefore it is not at all repugnant that the Apocalypse may be a Revelation and yet a Mystery that is a Revelation Mystically conveyed But where is that clavis will you say that will so certainly unlock the Mystery To that I shall answer after I have answered his three following arguments for this present Paradox 2. And therefore I proceed to the second which I say does not prove that where the Holy Ghost does not interpret the Text is litterally to be understood but that the Interpretation of those Texts that are interpreted are made with that skill and judgment that they give sufficient light to the rest of the Prophecies suppose of the Seven Churches or of the Sealed and Opened Book Prophecies And of this kind is that clavis offered Rev. 1. vers 20. and Rev. 17. vers 7 8 9. 3. And concerning the third I demand when he will allow that there is evident necessity of interpreting a Text mystically when the letter it self is simply impossible But this then argues his ignorance of the Apocalyptick stile and of the artifice of the external Cortex of the Prophecies in which so carefully is observed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in speech which figure you may call Pithanologia or Logoprepia if you will that no representation be over extravagantly incredible in the very Letter much less impossible But if he mean by an evident necessity a moral incredibility or impossibility in the litteral sense I say there is such an evident necessity the litteral sense putting him upon such an extravagant Hypothesis as that none of the Prophecies are yet fulfilled nor will be God knows when Which is little less than blasphemy against the Divine Providence as if he had neglected his Church in this point for sixteen hundred years together Besides that the Synchronisms demonstrable out of the intrinsecal characters in the Prophecies themselves do necessarily imply that most of the Visions are fulfilled already but not in a litteral sense wherefore there is evident necessity they be interpreted in a sense Mystical To all which you may add that the Holy Ghost his interpreting some parts mystically may justly be an intimation and animation to us to follow his example in the rest 4. To the fourth and last I answer This is but the old Popish allegation against all the Scripture unless it be fixt by the sense of the Infallible Chair as R. H. would have the Apocalypse by the litteral sense that so it may not be a nose of wax but a brasen nose or the same mettle that their foreheads are that can plead for such absurd Hypotheses But I say this mystical way of interpreting the Apocalypse will not make it a nose of wax if men will but make use of those helps that the intrinsecal characters of the Visions do afford to cast them into orderly Synchronisms so as M r Mede has done And those that have neglected this necessary help what pitiful Interpretations they have made R. H. himself can witness Nay certainly To the skilful the Mystical sense of the Apocalypse is as certainly determinable one way as any Scripture is in the Litteral sense thereof And if R. H. thinks it such a nose of wax I challenge him or any one else whosoever to make a nose of wax if he can of my Ioynt Exposition of the thirteenth and sevententh Chapters of the Apocalypse in my Synopsis Prophetica and to show that the sense which I have given is not the determinate sense of them And that R. H. himself has so shroudly confuted the Grotian way of interpreting the Apocalypse it may be an argument to him if he please that it is not such a nose of wax that will stand any way but that all false Interpretations like a frozen Muscovian nose before the fire will drop off But there is one certain true way as firm as Adamant which the fiery subtilty of no mans wit will be able to melt or dissolve And those that go this Synchronistical way to them the Prophecies are not left to interpret according to their own humour in favour to their own party and to the disgrace or disadvantage of their adversaries but the time of the Prophetical Vision being known and the acknowledged meaning of the Prophetical Iconisms observed in the application of History belonging to that time the Synchronism makes the Vision point to they are necessitated whether it be for or against their own party or others to render the certain clear and determinate sense thereof so little fear is there that this mystical way will make the Prophecies a nose of wax or leave men to the wantonness of their own humours to interpret as they please But in pretense of taking away this abuse to allow none but a litteral sense of the Apocalypse is indeed to take away all the use thereof which those that favour the Church of Rome full willingly would do III. As for his third Position he pretends Disp. 6. Ques 2. by many arguments to make it good but I shall take notice only of the chiefest by which you may judge of the rest 1. The first is That things revealed at once and not at several distant times must come to pass in order as they are revealed but the Apocalyptick Visions were revealed at once or at one continued time to Iohn without ceasing or intermission of his Ecstasy and therefore they must come to pass in order as they were seen 2. The Prophecies of the Revelation were all of them written in one Book and therefore they are to be fulfilled in that continued order they are written as Histories written in order as they come to pass 3. First second third fourth c. are Ordinal numbers not Cardinal and shew not only the number of things spoken of but their order also Now the Prophecies of the Revelation do all of them consist of these numbers Seven Seals Seven Trumpets Seven Vials and he might have prefixed Seven Churches too and therefore they being set in order and called first second third Seal Trumpet and Vial shows plainly they are to be fulfilled in the order they are mentioned 4. The fourth and last arguments is where no instance can be given to the contrary there things