they gnawed their Tongues for pain The Author pretends that that darkness ought to signify a total overthrow of the City of Rome and that the affliction signified by the darkness which happened to the Papal Empire by the Reformation of Luther hath not been great enough to exhaust all the force of the Terms of this Prophecy I know not why the Author will not acquiess to the Explanations that have been given thereupon for they seem to be of great evidence to me It is clear that the Holy Ghost makes allusion to the Sun spoken of in the fourth Plague The fourth Plague is the Sun who is to scorch men with his beams that is to say of his Power and Authority Whereas in that fourth Period this Sun scorches men by his Authority in the fifth the same Sun becomes dark that is to say his Authority diminishes Now what is it that renders a Sun darksom It is an Eclipse And what is an Eclipse of the Sun if it be not when he is cut into two by an opacous body that comes to divide him And could there be a more exact and natural emblem given of that division that was made of the Papal Seat whereof one half was to be seen at Rome and the other was hid by the See of Avignon during the great Schism The Seat of the Beast is Rome as the Author confesses He also very pertinently observes that the Prophecy says not That the Seat of the Beast but that the Kingdom of the Beast was full of darkness That is well but it is flatly against him For if it be not the City of Rome to which that plague of darkness is to be adjudged she is not then to be ruined by that plague It is the Kingdom that is to say the Authority power credit and so it came to pass actually in the great Schisms and in the Councils of Constance and Basil where the Authority of the Popes suffered so great a diminution But saith he what the Conncil of Constance did against the Papal See is so far from being sufficient to answer the Idea which these words give and the Kingdom of the Beast was full of darkness that even the Reformation of Luther comes short of the importance of those terms So that he will have these words to signifie a total destruction of the Papacy But by what rule and in what language does darkning necessarily signifie total ruin And how could the fifth plague signify the total ruin of the Papacy and Babylon when Babylon appears again in the seventh plague The great City was divided into three parts Great Babylon came in remembrance before God that she might be destroyed she was then still in being and not ruined by the fifth Vial. The fifth plague falls upon the Seat of the Beast that is Rome That does not signifie necessarily that Rome is Sacked and reduced into ashes like Sodom It is enough that Rome hath received a great blow And that befell her when she lost her Popes who transported their See to Avignon She became a kind of desart The Kingdom of the beast was full of darkness Where the Holy Ghost alludes to darkness caused by an Eclipse or else to the darkness wherewith Moses covered Egypt which soever of the two it be that does not import destruction For the throne of Pharaoh was not exterminated though Moses covered it with thick darkness and a luminary perishes not when it suffers an Eclipse So that darkness does no wayes import a total destruction And by consequent that first reason proves not that the seven plagues are not as yet fulfilled The second Argument alledged by the Author is indeed the only thing that may be termed difficult for with his leave I 'le say that the rest deserve not that name The difficulty consists in this that the Holy Ghost says that the seven Vials are the last plagues and that by them the Wrath of God is accomplished If they be the last plagues they are not then the Judgments of God which are already fallen upon the Antichristian Empire for seeing that Empire is still in being and that therâ— are plagues still to be expected against it those which are to come are the last and those that are past can only be the first This is an objection that will be every whit as good the night before the last day of the duration of the Antichristian Empire as it is at this day For the blow which shall compleat the ruin of that Empire will be the last and so also it may be said then none of these plagues have as yet happened for Babylon is still in being And where is it to be found that every one of these plagues ought to pull Babylon down Babylon is to stand till the last moment of the last plague for it is that last moment which ought to throw it down She 'le stand as a great tree beaten by a storm which receives seven thunder stroaks that bruise it and destroy its verdure Nevertheless it is only the last that layes it flat upon the ground But it may be said how can plagues that have lasted seven or eight hundred years and began so long ago be called the Last They who make this objection ought to call to mind that in the stile of Holy Scripture all that brings a thing to its end is called the last of whatsoever length it be The same objection exactly may be made to us when we alledge the text of the fourth chapter of the first epistle to Timothy The Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith That ought not to happen then may one say before the end of the world and the end of time It appears by the words of St. John that it was a tradition firmly believed in the time of the Apostles that Antichrist was not to come till the last times And by this the Papists back their chimerical whimsey that Antichrist is not to come till 3 or 4 years before the end of the world But St. John answers Little children it is the last time 〈…〉 St. â—â— Chap â—â—â— and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come c. The last time was then already and nevertheless it is above sixteen ages since St. John began to reckon that last time which still continues That is half as long again as the duration of the seven Periods which we have assigned to the seven Vials and seven Plagues So begin these seven Plagues where you please provided they lead the Antichristian Empire to its end they are still the last plagues It is certain that the last time includes the whole duration of the Antichristian Empire Now we agree that that duration is of 1260 years if a duration of 1260 years may be called the last times upon better reason plagues which last seven or eight hundred years may very well be called the last plagues And though these plagues did wholly take
orders and comply with them no farther than they think good If after this we should examin the whole conduct of the Papacy it will appear altogether conformable to that spirit of humane policy whereby the whole body is compounded and all its parts united When any difference in Religion comes to be determin'd provided that the persons whose different Opinions are under examination are favorable to the Court of Rome all their Heresies are but trivial Mistakes but if they are less bigotted for the Pope all their Opinions deserve an Anathema Grace by it self efficacious is sound doctrine in the Jacopins but down-right Heresy in the Jansenists the plain reason is because these latter are enemies to the Pelagianism of the Church of Rome as well as to its Tyranny Because the Protestants are Adversaries to the Pope they must be Hereticks in the Article concerning the Trinity and that of the Incarnation of Christ They must err mortally when they say that Concupiscence is a sin notwithstanding Baptism and the marriage bond is dissolved by Adultery Let us look into the Popish Councils and we shall evidently discover this Spirit of Human Policy there we may see all the Arts and Tricks and Devices that are in use in the World for men to gain what they desire and reach the ends they aim at All the world hath observ'd this in the Council of Trent 't is every where complain'd of and all men consent to the truth of what was said by the Marquis of Lansac the French Ambassador that the Holy-Ghost who was invok't at the opening of that Council came every week from Rome in a Cloak-bag with the post letters It hath often been observ'd that the conduct of that Councill was altogether by the spirit of Worldly Bolicy and had nothing at all of the Character of a Divine spirit and yet those Canons which were forg'd by the Tricks of Humane Policy must be obtruded on us as Divine Decisions from the Spirit of God. In a word if we would see the Politiques of the Roman Church in the source and fountain and upon the Threne we need but go to Rome All the Courts in the World how refined and subtle soever are but meer Blockishness and Stupidity in comparison of that of the Pope Cardinal Pallavicin mentions this to the honour of his Religion pretending that Policy is the Principal of all moral vertues and that the Church ought to be govern'd according to the Politicks of Aristotle and after the Maxims of the Pagan Common-wealths CHAPTER III. The Pretence of Infallibility and eternal Duration The third Character of the Antichristian Kingdom HEre is an Example that will teach us how much we ought to be on our guard with respect to fair Pretences and Appearances that we be not surpriz'd and deceiv'd by ' em Doubtless if there be any strength in any thing of the Papacy it must be in their pretence of Infallibility For nothing can be more specious and glittering than their Arguments about the Necessity of an Infallible Judge upon Earth They have had recourse to this Article as their last refuge for twenty five or thirty years last part There is good reason they should make it an Idol because 't is their Tutelar God and if men could once be brought off from this Chimaera of the Infallibility of the Roman Church she were utterly lost 'T is her only Foundation by the removal whereof she tumbles to the ground But this Principle which appears so comely so useful so necessary is the most Pernicious the most false and the most absurd that was ever alledg'd This makes me say that we ought to stand upon our guard with respect to the fairest Appearances Rome the Eternal and Infallible is the name of Blasphemy of the Beast The first fault I find with this Principle is that it is one of the Characters of the Antichristian Kingdom according to the Prophets When S. John describes it under the image of a Beast he saith that on his heads was writ a name of Blasphemy All the Ancients and moderns ever since S. Jerom hold it for certain that the name of Blasphemy there is that of Rome the Eternal and I cannot question it The City of Rome hath alaways pretended to an endless Duration Virgil makes Eternity to be one part of her Destiny and makes Jupiter say Imperium sine fine dedi Now this is blasphemy because unchangeableness is one of the divine Perfections incommunicable to a Creature All things under the Sun are subject to change Modern Rome is much more guilty of Blaspheray than Rome Pagan was of old Not only doth she say that her Monarchy shall never cease shall not be destroyed untill three years and an half before the end of the world but declares that her faith can never be changed that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it So that now more than ever doth Rome carry the name of Blasphemy on its fore-head Rome the Eternal This is that which is afterwards exprest by those words of S. John And there was given him a Mouth Rev. c. 13. v. 5. speaking great things and Blasphemies For those great things can be nothing else than the great Encomiums and glorious Titles she gives her self of being the Queen of all other Churches the seat of Infallibility the Eternal Temple of the H. Ghost the Fountain of Oracles the Infallible Interpreter of the H. Scripture the Judge of the Prophets and Apostles the soveraign Decider of all Controversies who makes and discovers the Authority of the sacred Writings without whom they deserve no credit All these great things which she speaks of herself what are they but so many Blasphemies against God for none can ascribe that to themselves which belongs only to God without Blasphemy Rev. c. 18. v. 7. But this Character of Antichristianism doth most plainly appear in those words of the Apostle She hath glorified herself and lived deliciously she saith in her heart I sit as a Queen and am no Widow and shall see no sorrow 'T is Babylon who speaks thus or the H. Ghost who introduceth Babylon thus boasting of her self She hath glorified her self This the Church of Rome doth by assuming to her self the most glorious Titles that can be given to a Society she hath said in her heart I am Queen the Mistress of the world the Chair of the Vniverse the Metropolis of the Catholick Church God hath establisht me to be an Head unto all Christians He hath intrusted his own Power in my Hands the happiness or misery the good or evill Destiny of Mankind is at my dispose I shall never be a Widow the Holy spirit whose spouse I am will never abandon me he will love me forever and continually guide me in the Way of Truth and be with me to the end of the world I shall never see Sorrow or Mourning I shall never fall into Error or know what it is to dye I shall allways
Roman Empire reviving under a new Form and under the name of the Roman Church it being still future and yet to begin he was to give us the History of its growth as well as of its decay which as we shall see he hath also done 5. The Prophet then considering the whole continuance of the Roman Empire as well with respect to that which remained of it as Pagan as in reference to that which was to rise and subsist under the Name of the Roman Church to the time of the arrival of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ he doth divide it first into Seven Seals And under the six first Seals he predicts all that should befal it under the Heathen Emperors till the time of Constantin's overthrowing Paganism and his advancing the Christian Religion to the Throne 6. Now this Revolution having made a great change on the stage of the World the Holy Spirit therefore makes a stop here and suffers the Roman Empire now become Christian to enjoy a little Rest while the Successors to Constantine should finish the subversion of Paganism And then the seventh Seal is opened which being subdivided into seven Trumpets these Trumpets run along with and divide the whole remaining duration of the Roman Empire as well Civil as Ecclesiastical Whereof the six first Trumpets reach unto the tenth Age and bring forth six Plagues that afflict overthrow and totally destroy the Worldly or Civil Roman Empire These Plagues are 1 The Inundation of the Empire by the Barbarous Nations under Theodosius the younger 2. The taking and desolating of Rome and Italy and almost all the Western Provinces under Honorius and Alaricus 3. The Invasion of the Provinces by the Goths Huns and Vandals and their erecting several Kingdoms in Spain Africk upon the Rhosne and in Panonia 4. The fourth Plague was the total destruction of the Western Roman Empire under Valentinian by Gensericus King of the Vandals in Africk 5. The fifth Plague is the Rise of the Sarrasin Empire which destroyed the Roman Empire in the East 6. Lastly the sixth of the first Plagues is the Empire of the Turks which wholly subverted and overthrew the Oriental Roman Empire 7. Now while the providence of God was destroying the Grecian Empire under the fifth and sixth Trumpets the Roman Empire revived in the West under the Name of the Roman Church The Beast with two Horns exerciseth all the power of the first Beast he makes an Image resembling the first Empire he makes it to be worshipped he worketh Signs and Wonders causeth Fire to come down from Heaven and deceiveth the Inhabitants of the Earth He giveth life to this Image of the Beast causeth it to speak and maketh this Image of the Roman Empire which he re-established under the name of the Roman Church to act with power and efficacy So that he causeth all those to be killed that will not yield a homage to this Image of the Empire And he will have all the Inhabitants of the Earth to bear his Name and his Mark and his Number and that they call themselves Members of the Roman Latine Church And this contains the History both of the Birth and of the Progress of this new Empire under the fifth Trumpet and under the beginning of the sixth 8. The sixth Trumpet having brought the Worldly Roman Empire to its final Ruin there remains nothing more for it to do with respect to that and therefore it is that it comes to be subdivided into 7. Vials which are designed for the ruining of the Roman Empire as Ecclesiastical And these Vials do precisely begin at the sounding and at the beginning of the 6th Trumpet Which Trumpet runs paralel with and reacheth unto the last and universal destruction of the Ecclesiastical Roman Empire until the manifestation of the Kingdom of J. Christ having under it the seven Vials Now the seven Trumpets and the seven Vials do signify seven Periods of Time according as the seven Seals of the Book do The Seals denote Periods of Time by vertu of an Allusion to Tables and to Chronological and Historical Books wherein Times are marked The Trumpets intimate Periods of Time by an Allusion to Iubiles which by the Law of Moses were to be opened and proclaimed by the sound of a Trumpet And from thence Iubile comes being derived from Iovel which signifieth a Hunters Horn or Trumpet These Iubiles falling out every fiftieth year and these Periods of Time being published by the sound of a Trumpet it becometh thence a very natural figure for the pen of a Iew such as St. Iohn was to express Periods of Time by Trumpets Finally the Vials which are poured forth signify Hour-glasses seeing at the season when S. Iohn wrote Hour-glasses were nothing but Vials full of Water having a narrow and strait mouth which was turned downward So that this Figure is also clear and intelligible And the reason why the Holy Spirit useth these three different Images of Seals Trumpets and Vials for the designation of Times is that he may thereby avoid confusion It being evident that if he had all along used only one of these Figures there would have been much more obscurity and less distinction in the Intimation which he gives of Times Carrying then the remembrance of this with us the first Seal beginneth at the Time of S. Iohn and the seventh Seal openeth and commenceth after the death of Theodosius the Great and comprehendeth thirteen Plagues which are contained under the sounding of six Trumpets and under the Effusion of seven Vials â—â—x Plagues under six Trumpets which destroy the Roman Empire as worldly and purely Temporal The sixth Trumpet is subdivided into seven Vials as the seventh Seal was into seven Trumpets And these seven Vials are the seven last Plagues which bring the second Period of the Roman Empire that is to say the Empire of the Church to its end as the six Trumpets had brought the worldly Roman Empire to its end I would now after this think that no man should find any difficulty in the objections of these Gentlemen and that every one should easily comprehend why the Vials and the plagues which continue near eight hundred years come to be called the last They are thus stiled 1 because they serve to distress and ruin the second and last period of the Roman Empire which carries the name of the Roman Church whereas the six first plagues were employed for the ruining of the first Period of the Roman worldly Empire and which still retains the name of the Roman Empire 2 Because these seven Plagues did really in the order of Time follow the six first and all successively fell the six first as well as the seven last upon one and the same Empire upon one and the same Beast in their two Periods So that by reason of the relation of the one to the other they ought to be stiled the first and the last Finally they are called the last plagues because
sixth Trumpet and before the 7th The fourth Reason brought by the Author of the Illustrations on the Apocalypse to prove that all the Vials are yet to be poured out is that the Vials are nothing else save the seven Thunders spoken of Chap. 10. and that the seven Thunders are adjourned till the sound of the seventh Trumpet For St. John being about to write it was said to him Seal the things which the seven Thunders have uttered and write them not I beg the Author's pardon if I say that this Reason is accompanied with two great faults The first is that it supposeth a thing which is more than doubtful The second is that if it were true yet the inference deduced from thence signifies nothing First he supposeth that the seven Thunders are one and the same thing with the seven Vials And I can hardly guess upon what ground he is able to raise so strang an opinion and one that is so little agreeable to his own principles For as to the number seven that is found alike in the Thunders and in the Vials all men know that this can be no proof other way 's the seven Spirits the seven Lamps and the seven Trumpets should all be the same thing with the seven Vials Nor doth it agree with the principles of the Author For if the seven Thunders and the seven Vials are only to take up the space of 12. or 15. years at the very end of Antichrists Reign how then comes he to speak of an affair that should possess so little a time of the whole duration of the Antichristian Empire before he had spoken of the rise growth of that Empire why doth the H. Spirit speak by S. John of the 7. Thunders that are to exterminate an Empire when he had not before spoken one word of its birth and grandure So that what we have said is much more probable namely that the seven Thunders are the Oracles revealed to the Prophet about all that concerns the Antichristian Empire Which Oracles are stiled Thunders because of the doleful Events which they do foretel Thunders precede the breaking out of the lightning And they are mentioned by the number of seven which is that of perfection to signify thereby the perfection of this Revelation I say in the second place that if this supposition were true viz. that the seven Thunders are the same thing with the seven Plagues it doth no way follow from hence that the seven Thunders and the seven plagues are not to take place until the time of the seventh Trumpet Nor is this intended by these words Seal them up and write them not All that this can signify is only that the seven Thunders were not suddenly to be revealed but it is not therefore needful that they should be delayed until after 16 or 17 hundred years For seeing the seven Thunders or the seven plagues begun roâ— till the tenth Age nine hundred years were enough to the Prophet to make him say that the Thunders were not immediately to manifest themselves Finally that I may omit nothing which the Author upon this subject may call a proof or a Reason I think that I may reckon for his fifth Argument his saying that the Vials shall be poured out within a small distance of time the one from the other because 't is said chap. 10. that the Angel sware that there should be time no longer Few can apprehend the strength of this pretended proof For these words there shall be time no longer have not the least reference so far as I can perceive neither to the seven Thunders nor to the seven Vials And it may be affirmed with the greatest certainty that these words there shall be time no longer are to be joined with the following but in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God shall be finished The Author hath very well observed that the Mystery of God is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which we are in expectation of So that this signifies that when the Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall come at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet that then there shall be no longer either Time or Times or a half of Time for the Enemies of God. But this neither refers to the plagues nor to the Vials nor to the Thunders This is what I have to say for justifying my Exposition of the 16. Chap. of the Revelation concerning the seven Vials and the seven Plagues And I hope that the Author of the Illustrations will not take this short Apology amiss seeing it detracts nothing from the Esteem which I have both for his Person and for his Book FINIS
Spouse of Christ always young and beautifull without spot or blemish This is the Language of the Popish Church who calls herself fair beautifull tho it be the most hideous deformed Society that bears the Christian name and calls herself Infallible in the midst of numberless Errors which make a Night of darkness wherein she hides herself IV. 'T is the Enemy of God of his Religion and his H. Word that endeavours not a conformity to the rules he hath given in his Word making to themselves another word of God which they call Tradition which is altogether and directly opposite to the true Word of God. Vnder pretence of making use of the H. Scripture they wretchedly abuse and wrest it Applying Scripture to all their false and foolish Mysteries without either reason or Conscience and by ridiculous and impious applications of Scripture exposing it to the derision of the Profane to the contempt and scorn of Infidels They maim and curtail it and impudently falsifie and pervert it and lest all this be not enough they speak as ill things of it as can be said of any book This Book they say is Imperfect 't is obscure 't is full of snares 't is the source of Heresies it abounds with Contradictions it contains an hundred things whose out side is proper to scandalize the weak it is insufficient one half of it is lost it hath no authority without the Church any more than the History of Titus Livius Lastly the Papacy makes use of the Scripture as if it were its own they abrogate the Laws of God laid down in the Scripture they grant dispensation contrary to those Laws they command that which the H. Scripture forbids and forbid that which it enjoyns and to make it evident that the Papacy is indeed the Enemy of God it always stands upon its guard to resist the force of Scripture defend themselves against the word of God by their Distinctions V. 'T is a Prodigy of Filthiness and Impurity whereas Christianity should be a Miracle of Holiness The Head of that Religion hath discovered such a train of Impieties and disorders that for enormity or continuance the like hath never been seen Some of their Popes have been seen wallowing in the pollutions of the flesh in drunkenness and all manner of filthiness and debauchery not only as to women but even Sodomy and Brutality and the most unnatural Lusts Some of 'em have been Magicians and Sorcerers Some have been seen who were Profane Atheistical without God without Religion bathing themselves in Blood Assassins Poisoners Murderers Traitors and oftentimes putting the whole world in a flame Their Priests and Ministers have been seen plung'd into the same disorders following the Example of their Head and treading in the steps of their Leader Ignorant Impious debaucht neglecting the service of God and intent only on their dishonest gain and fleshly Lusts Their Convents of men and women which they call Retirements from the world and little forts and castles of Holiness these I say have been observed to be as bad as the most infamous places of prostitution for all manner of debauchery Lastly their People also were carried away with this fearfull Torrent of corruption having lost the Spirit and power of Religion and retained nothing of Christianity but the name All this may be seen in the history of former ages VI. 'T is a Prodigy of Pride all whose doctrine Theology and Religion is proud and tends to destroy that Spirit of Humility which is the Spirit of the Gospel Pride discovers it self every where in the Papacy in its actions conduct words outside and inside It speaks loftily and magnificently of it self boasting that she is the only Body of J. Christ the only way to Heaven treating all other Communions as Heretical Sects Schismaticks Reprobates Damned Excommunicate as people that deserve to be condemned to the Fire and to be burnt in both worlds The Head of the Papacy is a monster of Pride who as God sits in the Temple of God who gives out his orders as if they were Oracles who makes himself be plac't upon the Altar and there to be worshipt who makes Kings and Emperors kiss his feet and will be carried on the shoulders of Nobles and great Men who holds the Keys of Hell of death and of Paradise in his hand who pretends to the Right of deposing Kings giving away their Crowns who will have homage paid him by all Christians who will be called God upon Earth his Holiness and the Holy Lord Who saith he is the Sun of the world and that all other Princes are but as the Moon and Stars His Ministers under him are Earthy Princes who will not give place to Soveraigns The meanest of their Priests exalt themselves above all other men and crowned Heads must kneel at their feet in Confession and they magisterially give sentence concerning the Eternal Life or Death of men VII 'T is a Merchandise a Trade of forgery lying covetousness and deceit The Papacy by innumerable unrighteous methods hath gained prodigious wealth not only in money and moveables but in lands not only in Lands but in Cities not only Cities but Provinces not particular Provinces only but whole Kingdoms It hath then pillaged and cheated the world and therfore is the worse of the two and by this means hath acquired extraordinary Riches to maintain and augment their abundance every thing in the Papacy is exposed to sale Offices Benefices Churches Sacraments Sins Adultery Incest Murder Parricide Sodomy Brutality and dispensations for any for every thing Paradise and God himself are to be sold but 't is their unhappiness not to be able to deliver 'em into the possession of the Purchasers VIII 'T is a great and vast Body which hath the Spirit of Impurity and Reprobation as a soul to animate it And these imprue Spirits come forth out of the mouth of the Papacy as so many frogs These unclean Spirits are diffused by the mouth of their Schoolmen who amuse the world with a silly obscure and bold Theology by the mouth of their Canonists who have given the Christian World such rules and laws as are obscene wicked and impure and filled volumes with their decisions of Cases full of absurdities extravagant and contradictory stuft with pride and filthiness of all sorts by the mouth of their Casuists and directers of Conscience who have vended such Morals that Pagans would be ashamed of who make nothing of the vilest Crimes and lay men under no obligation to love God who permit men to kill to steal to eommit adultery fornication and any other wichedness only as inconsiderable Venial Faults by the mouth of their Legendaries who have compiled an heap of frightfull and silthy Fables by the mouth of their Masters of Devotion who direct the People to pay that Honour to Saints and Angels which is due only unto God and speak such things in the praise of the Creature which are
conformable to the common Rule of all Christians let them not instance in the Unity of one God the adorable Trinity of Persons in the Godhead the Incarnation of the second person in our nature who is call'd J. Christ His death which was the Ransom and Redemption of mankind his Resurrection which hath ascertain'd ours his Ascension which hath open'd Heaven and made way for our admission his sitting at the Right hand of his Father who hath constituted him Lord and King of the Church and of the World his Intercession which procures for Believers all the good that is necessary to their Eternal Blessedness the Efficacy of the Redeemer's blood with respect to men The Life Everlasting the Resurrection of the dead and the last Judgment Let them not I say instance in any of these to prove the agreement of their Religion with the H. Scripture for 't is not to the purpose All that is Christianity and not Popery 't is my Religion as well as theirs We know very well that Christianity hath continued in the Papacy but we know likewise that Paganism hath been built upon it in the Church of Rome and this is that which makes it truly Antichristian Popery is that which constitutes a particular Sect and distinguisheth it from all others and this we assert hath no kind of Conformity to the Law of J. Christ The Sacrisice of the Mass hath no foundation in Scripture Let us instance in the Sacrifice of the Mass a point of very great importance if in any Religion there be any such because it concerns the sacrifice of a God unto God thereby to obtain Eternal Life the remission of sins and all the blessings of Heaven and Earth for mankind Because it treats of establishing a new Priesthood and new Priests and such as in the act of sacrificing are superior to their own God who is but a meer victim Now in making this Sacrifice I assert that they have altogether neglected and slighted the H. Scripture and had no regard at all to the revelation and Law of J. Christ After the establishment of this Sacrifice it was thought fit to search the Scripture for arguments to prove it but antecedent to such an establishment this was not thought of insomuch that the passages brought to prove the Sacrifice of the Mass seem to be collected and produc'd for no other end than to expose the Christian Religion to the scoffs of the Profane and the raillery of Infidels From the old Testament these words in the book of Genesis are quoted Genes 14. 1 Sam. 2.34 that Melchisedeck brought forth or offer'd unto Abraham bread and wine those words of God to Eli I will raise me up a Faithfull Priest who shall do according to that which is in my mind and in my heart And that which the wise man saith in the book of Proverbs Chap. 9.1 Wisdom hath built her an house c. she hath furnished her Table and the words of the Prophet Malachy In every place Incense shall be offer'd unto my name and a pure offering 1. C. 11. From the new Testament are alledged the words of our Lord to his Apostles Do this in Remembrance of me 26. Matth. And these of our Lord to the Samaritan Woman Believe me the hour cometh 4 John 21. when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father but they that worship him shall worship him in Spirit and Truth And those words of S. Luke 13 Acts. v. 2. And as they ministred to the Lord and those of S. Paul to the Corinthians You cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devills you cannot partake of the Table of the Lord and the Table of Devills and in another place we have an Altar whereof they could not partake who served at the Tabernacle One would wonder how these Texts should be produc't as Proofs in this case Where is the Victim where is the Priest where are the Ceremonies the Consecration Elevation Adoration and Oblation of the Sacrifice where are the Introitus the Gradual the Canon the Offertory used by the Romanists If the Jews to maintain their worship their Sacrifices and the different orders of their Ministers who serv'd at their Altats their High Priest their Feasts their Pascal Lamb their Continual Sacrifice Morning and Evening their Scape-Goat their Ark their Mercy-seat their Cherubims their Distinction of Meats their Circumcision if I say to justifie these things the Jews had produced such Texts of Scripture and said these contain the Proofs of our Religion this is our Authority for it I 'am confident they would have past for Mad-men and if the World were once cured of their Prejudices they would say as much concerning the Papists This is one great point wherin Popery is not sollicitous to keep any agreement with the Scripture the common Rule of all Christians There is no Scripture Evidence for the Pope There is another Instance no less notorious than the former After the Sacrifice it naturally followes that we consider the Priest now Popery hath an High Priest and Head of the Universal Church a Vicar of J. Christ a Lieutenant of God on Earth This is the binding stone of the Arch 't is the Center of the Union So capital an Affair that there is no salvation without adhereing to this High Priest and must we be put off to Tradition for the proof of such an Article as this what Title is there in the scripture to this great Office what Call to such a Charge This is alledged Thou art Peter and on this Rock will I build my Church and what thou hast bound on earth shall be bound in Heaven feed my sheep I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not All this is spoken by our Ld. to the Apostle Peter and this is the establishment of the office and Imployment of High Priest which the Pope claims as his peculiar I would that a meer Turk who is not prepossest with the sentiments of a particular sect might be our judge in this case Let him look upon the Infallible man at Rome with his Triple Crown on his head who pretends to be the Judge the King the Spiritual Soveraign of all Christians even of Kings themselves and examin those passages cited out of our Law in savour of his Pretentions 'T is manifest that this Turk would believe you mockt him Where is there any thing here would he say of the City of Rome where are the Cardinals where is there any appointment of this Soveraign Tribunal to which all the World must appeal If those words bestow any special priviledge upon S. Peter is it said he must have a Successor in those Prerogatives and if he was to have a Successor is there any one syllable that should make us imagine that this Successor must have his Seat at Rome 'T is certain they may say that S. Peter was at Rome that He did
we call Avarice and Simony is an honest and lawful means to support the honour and the Majesty of the Church CHAPTER XII The Eighth Character of Antichristianism which agrees to the Papacy The Spirit of Impurity and Reprobation IN the 16th Chapter of the Revelations we have an admirable Character of Antichristianism and a very plain and evident one where He speaks of three unclean Spirits coming out of the mouth of the Dragon of the Beast and the False Prophet V. 13. And I saw three unclean spirits like Frogs come out of the Mouth of the Dragon and out of the Mouth of the beast and out of the Mouth of the false Prophet V. 14. For they are the Spirits of Devils working Miracles which go forth unto the Kings of the Earth and of the whole World to gather them to the battel of that great day of God Almighty V. 15. And he gatherd them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon The Spirits coming out of the Mouth of the Dragon are his words I cannot think that any man who will consider without prejudice the interpretation we have given of this Oracle in our Accomplishment of Prophecies can doubt of the truth of it 'T is manifest that those Spirits coming out of the mouth must be understood of words for so words are exprest in a figurative stile in the H. Scripture The Spirits therfore which come out of the mouth of the Dragon the Beast and the False Prophet are doubtless the Words Laws and Doctrine of Antichrist And termed Vnclean Spirits because of the Impiety Folly Extravagance and Character of Reprobation which is to be apparent in those Laws and in that Doctrine of Antichrist Let us see whether this agree to the Papacy whether their words be not impious and impure extravagant and foolish and bear the marks of a Reprobate Spirit We must look for this in the words of Antichristianism that is what hath been said and taught by those who have liv'd in the Antichristian Kingdom in one word by the Doctors of the Church of Rome They are of several ranks and degrees Schoolmen Canonists Legendaries Preachers Casuists and the Authors of Mystical Theology Devotion and Controversy If we examin the words of all those different Authors we shall find in 'em the Characters of these impure and diabolical Spirits which come out of the mouth of the Dragon the Beast and the False Prophet The Impurity of the Schoolmen In the first rank are the Schoolmen a sort of Doctors who started up in the twelvth Century when the Devil had just compleated the Antichristian Monarchy and made up the confused mass of Errors and Superstitions which belong to Antichrist the Beast spake and innumerable lying Doctors appear'd under his Authority to abuse the People and continue them in the darkness of Ignorance The Patriarchs of this kind of Doctors who gave rise to this Monstrous Theology were Lombard whom they call the Master of the Sentences Albertus Magnus Abelardus and Thomas Aquinas The H. Scripture was buried in oblivion Aristotle succeeded in the place of S. Paul and a barbarous Philosophy brought forth a Divinity that was much more barbarous What is this Divinity of the Papists 'T is a black and gloomy science rising from the Bottomless Pit cover'd with Clouds and Darkness 'T is a Dedalus an inextricable Labyrinth which the wisest of mankind can never unriddle 'T is a dark and confused Chaos where a very little of that which is good is buried under a great deal of that which is otherwise 'T is a new and barbarous Language invented to astonish and confound the simple where they talk of nothing else but Quiddities and Entities Formalities and Modalities Hecceities and Identities Categoricks and Syncategoricks and a thousand such like things good for nothing but to darken the minds of men and hinder the light of Truth by an infinity of trifling unintelligble distinctions 'T is an Heap of frivolous Questions knotty impenetrable obscure and oftentimes blasphemous In this Scholastick Divinity they gravely inquire whether God can seperate a Relation from its subject whether the Body of J. Christ could be in the Eucharist before his Incarnation whether God could become a Woman whether this Proposition God is a snail or a pumkin be as possible as this God is man whether God could command all sorts of Crimes even the Haâ—red of himself and the Hypocrisie and Dissimulation of all good Actions even in his own Service whether numeral words do add any thing real to the Divinity whether the number of divine Persons ought to belong to first or to second Intentions whether this Proposition God the Father hates his Son be possible or no whether the second person of the Trinity might not have been united to a Devill to a Stone to a Plant to an Asse and if that be supposed how the Stone or Plant could have been crucified have preacht and wrought Miracles c. In all this one may plainly perceive an Impure and Reprobate Spirit and the unclean spirits which come out of the mouth of the false Prophet There is none of the Christian Mysteries but they have polluted and blemisht by their bold Questions that of the Trinity of the Incarnation of the Divine Nature and Providence And tho of late they are a little come off from that way there yet remains so much of it as is sufficient to discover this character of Antichristianism The Errors and Superstitions and Idolatries of Popery are concealed and cloak't under the niceties and darkness of this Divinity 'T is this that hath coin'd those numberless distinctions which are so many Subterfuges where error and Idolatry secure themselves when we attempt to discover ' em 'T is to this Theology that we owe those famous terms of worship absolute and relative Dulia Latria and Hyperdulia of Transubstantiation Concomitance and an hundred others like these Impurities of the Canonists The Canonists are another kind of the Mouths wherby the Dragon the Beast and the False Prophet do speak their words likewise have the Character of unclean and diabolical Spirits Burchard Bishop of Wormes Albertus Abbot of Gemblour Anselme Bishop of Lucca Ives Bishop of Chartres Gratian a Benedictine Monk of Bologna Raimond of Penna Fortè were the principal Composers of the Papal Laws and of those Decrees of the Papacy the body whereof makes up the Canon Law and they are in truth the unclean and diabolical spirits which come out to deceive the Kings of the Earth and to gather them together in battell against God in the place of Armageddon and that under the bond and tye of Excommunication It may be said truly that there is no Folly Filthiness Extravagance or Blasphemy which is not to be found in these Authors of the Canon Law. In one place we read that a Community of Wives is a very good thing and that Plato who would have introduc't it was the wisest of all
much more freely and say that these Visions are the Illusions of the Devil and these Miracles are the Cheats of the Monks Hear with what heat and zeal the good Father replyes 'T is an intolerable rashness says he to give the name of Tales and Fables to those Histories that are related by Authors eminent for Learning and Holiness and to reckon as the Mistakes of a weak understanding such Revelations as have merited the approbation of the Council of Basil of the Popes Gregory II. Urban VI. and Martin V. In the next Page the Reverend Father addeth For my part saith he I shall not think that I wrong the Historians of our Age if I give as much credit to St. Antonin who relates that Vincent Ferrier raised eight and thirty men from the dead as I do to all the stories in Gazetts out of which they make their Histories These grave Authors eminent for learning and Piety as F. Crasset calls'em are St. Antonin Arch-Bishop of Florence Bartholomew of Pisa Author of the Book of Conformities Pelbart of Temiswar the Speculum of Vincent Bernardin de Bustis the Monk Caesarius the Annalists of the Monks and in a word all the Authors out of which we have taken our proofs Our new Converts as they are called ought to be very wary as to this point They persuade'em that all these Extravagancies these Cheats these Fables and Legends are at this day out of date We shall see that in a little time In the mean while they ought to know that F Crasset who asserts the credit of those Books which some despise and decry is esteemed and approved by the whole Gallican Church it self What ought to be said to the superstitious and credulous as to the matter of Legends and that those of his sentiment are still the bulky part of the Papacy What is to be done with such people 'T is best I think to leave 'em to their evil Genius as those Patients whose case is desperate and say to 'em well even remain Fools without judgment and without conscience seeing you have a mind to be so believe that Vincent Ferrier raised 38. from the dead and Jacynthe 52. Take for Gospel the horrible Lyes collected by your Batholomew of Pisa by your S. Antonin by your Caesarius c. But give us leave to look on you as persons given up to a reprobate mind This in my opinion is all that can be said to these wretched creatures If they were capable of hearing reason we might thus bespeak them Consider in the name of God whether it is likely that your Monks and their Disciples have wrought more Miracles in ten years time than all the Prophets the Apostles and Iesus Christ himself have wrought in two thousand years We might add Reflect upon the impertinence of these Miracles which we have proved and judge if it be probable that the Wisdom of God should expose his Power to be turn'd into ridicule by doing mean sottish things and altogether unbecoming his Majesty The Famous Maimonides a Jewish Doctor in his Book of the Foundation of the Law makes an important and judicious remarque The Israelites saith he did not believe Moses because of his Miracles for one that would not believe unless there be Miracles might suspect lest the Miracle should be wrought by Sorcercy and Enchantment But all the Miracles that Moses did in the Desert he wrought them as it were out of necessity and not directly to confirm his Prophecy Thus it was necessary to divide the Red Sea to make a passage for the Israelites and to drown the Egyptians we wanted food therefore he brought down Manna from Heaven c. Indeed this deserves to be remarqu't God scarce ever hath wrought Miracles meerly to work them i. e. such kind of Miracles as are properly prodigies and serve only to discover the power of the Speaker All the Miracles of Iesus Christ and his Apostles were miraculous Cures raising of the Dead multiplying of Bread to feed the people There was always some profit and they were not meer prodigies And this is another evidence of the Falsehood of Popish Miracles that their Saints make impertinent prodigies which are good for nothing change pounds of Butter or heaps of Flegme into Gold make Light to stream out of their fingers make use of the Sun-beams or of the shadows of Trees to hang their Garments on Never any of the real Saints wrought such like Prodigies that are of no use and good for nothing in the world We might further say to these superstitious Creatures examin the Character of those Authors whom you style Eminent for learning and holiness Read their Writings and see if they deserve not very well those titles Men of leaden Hearts of Iron Months of Brasen Foreheads as some of your own Catholicks have called 'em on the account of their stupidity their barbarous style and their impudence in venting notorious Falsehoods for Truths We might also say to them Examin the Authors of the five first Centuries you will find in 'em some relations of Miracles especially in the fifth Century But is it the thousandth part of what is to be read in the Chronicles of Saints who have liv'd in the last seven or eight hundred years The Fathers and the Authors in whom we find the Narratives of these true or pretended Miracles wrought none themselves How comes this to pass Was the Jacopin Vincent Ferrier who raised 38. from the dead a greater Saint than S. Augustin who never rais'd one St. Athanasius the famous Champion of the Son of God and of the Holy Spirit St. Cyprian the glorious Martyr St. Polycarp the famous Disciple of the Apostles wrought no Miracles at all but St. Jacynthe a Polonian Dominican and Father d' Aviano a Capucin shall have the Priviledge to do that which the great Lights of the Church for Learning and Sanctity never did A man must have lost his reason if he believeth this When the Church was sorely assaulted by persecution and Heresie there was little talk of Miracles We might also say to these Gentlemen the Devoto's Pray tell us when the Church was cruelly persecuted by Heathens her Doctrine openly attacqu'd by Hereticks had she not more need to be supported by Signs and Miracles than in the time of S. Francis of S. Dominick of S. John Vincent Ferrier when she reign'd triumph't and was without Enemies And yet we hear of few or no Miracles when one would judg the Church stood in most need of 'em afterward we hear of millions when the Church did not want ' em But these Miracles they 'le say were wrought to authorize the new Religions i. e. the new Orders of Franciscans of Dominicans of Begging-brothers c. This is ingenious and well contrived that God should work a hundred fold more Miracles to establish the Order of St. Francis than he had wrought to establish the Christian Religion Observe well the design of these Miracles
of which you have whole heaps in the Legends 'T is to set on foot the Adoration of the V. Mary Invocation of Saints the Worship of Images of Reliques Purgatory and such like stuff Now is it probable that God should work no Miracles to confirm the Divinity of his Son and of his Holy Spirit which fundamental Articles were once cruelly opposed by the Arrians and afterwards should work Miracles without number to confirm some Devotions which 't is granted are not necessary Cheats discovered even in our Age. We might further say to these Devoto's who would have us believe all the stories of Miracles that are read in the Legends that if in so learned an Age as ours and in places where the Priests have so many Eyes to watch 'em they yet have the boldness to counterfeit Miracles they could surely do so in an Age when they acted behind the Curtain i. e. the ignorance and stupidity of the people who took pleasure in such Cheats And here we might relate to them a hundred Cheats of the Monks in the last Age and in the present one We might instance in the very late and famous Miracle of St. Florent very night Saumur where the Wafer appeared in the form of a little Child for the confounding of the Hereticks who had an Academy i. e. the nursery of their Heresy very nigh the place We might entreat 'em to remember that the Bishop of Anger 's after he had approv'd of this Miracle was ashamed of it when the Cheat came to be known We might produce to 'em the Saint of Troye a Nun that liv'd on consecrated Wafers and felt all the torments of the Martyrs when ever the days of their Passions return'd people flockt from all parts of France to see her but she was found out to be a Cheat by the Bishop of the place in the year 1673. what is acted at this day without doubt might be very well acted formerly Lastly we might tell these Gentlemen that in case God were obliged to be so prodigal of Miracles he ought to have laid 'em out in the Indies where men go to convert the Heathens Notwithstanding we do not find that he hath done so or at present doth so 't is true the Jesuites have publisht a vast number of pretended Wonders wrought by Francis Xavier their Apostle But 't is pretty strange that none knew any thing of these Miracles till after Xavier was dead yea that Xavier himself knew nothing of ' em We have his Letters among those written from Japan wherein the relates every thing he did in that Country excepting his Miracles if God had granted him the Gift of Miracles among the rest he ought to have had the Gift of Tongues But we find that he often complains that he could not edify these Indians because he could neither understand them nor make himself understood by them since Francis Xavier a vast number of Missionaries have gone into those Countreys who have not been able to work Miracles tho they would very fain have done so And yet I suppose the design which carrieth 'em thither viz. to plant the Christian Religion among the Indians is at least as important as the design to establish the Orders of S. Francis or of S. Dominick This is what we might say to such as Father Crasset and their Devoto's What is pleaded by the Papists who would not have us believe the stories of the Legends But there is another sort of men who do us a great deal more mischief These are the Luke-warm with respect to Popery your Libertines in the opinion of Father Crasset but as they account themselves Christians of a Finer-spun Religion These are our Converters in France who have had the best success in seducing those wretched Protestants who had a mind to be deceived These have told 'em you ought not to regard what your Ministers cite out of these rascal Legendary Writers sorry Monks Fabulous Authors who have neither wit or judgment This is not the Religion of people of Fashion The Reign of these Fables in expired you are not obliged to believe these impertinent Tales This is a most dangerous Snare which those who have any care of their Souls ought to take heed of For this end they ought to know that this filthy shameful lying History of Legends hath been the Popish Gospel The Legends have been the Popish Gospel for 7. or 8â—0 years for the space of seven or eight hundred years and a Gospel receiv'd with so universala consent that not one man hath been so bold as to question muchless to oppose it The common people sunk into a profound ignorance nourisht their false Piety only with these kind of Fables This already is enough to prove that Popery is Antichristianism for 't is impossible that God should suffer the true Church to sink into so horrid a degeneracy that all the bread they had for their Souls should be only a monstrous heap of ridiculous Fables But further the new Converts ought not to suffer themselves to be deceived this Gospel of the Father of Lyes is at this day in vogue as it was formerly all Italy all Spain have no other Spain and Italy even at this day have no other Gospel but Legends All the devout Clients of the Monks are fed with no other Nourishment The Hero's of the Papacy are the Patrons of these enormities Bellarmin and Baronius both learned men both Cardinals both of great reputation the Possevins the Vasques's the Snares's in a word all that are eminent and considerable in the Papacy do take the part of these fabulous Histories if some few confess that there are some Fables which may be cashier'd this scarce signifieth any thing Have we not an evidence of this in those vast Gollections of the Lives of the Saints begun by the Jesuit Rosweyd and continued by his Successors in that work They are already come to the fourteenth Volum in Folio and other three are every day expected and yet this Martyrology is come hitherto but to the moneth of May so that this Body of Fables will be about forty Volums Vast Volums of Legends printed at this day if the remainder be proportionable And will be the most prodigious work both for matter and bulk that was ever seen since the beginning of the world Ask the Carmelites if they are willing to lose any one of the Priviledges of their Order which were founded on meer Fables Know of the Franciscans and Dominicans if they be in the humour to correct their Annals and blot out those passages which we call Impieties and impure Fables Is it not Father Bouhowrs an Author of great Reputation at this day in France among persons of note who translated the Panegyrick of S. Rose in which we see all the Follies of the old Legends revived Lastly who is the person that hath dar'd openly to oppose and condemn the Book of F. Crasset excepting Mr. Arnaud
who writing in a Country of Liberty styleth it the Pitiful Book of F. Crasset For one man who dareth to censure the Impieties of this Book there are numberless multitudes who canonise it and we see in the Instance of the Bishop of Agen and his carriage towards the Monk who preached at Duras at that rate which we related above how those who disapprove the fabulous Theology of the Monks are notwithstanding obliged to treat them with civility even in the places where they have a Jurisdicton over ' em Are not every day such kind of Books printed even under the Nose of the Bishops And are there not modern Saints which exactly resemble the antient ones Witness St. Mary of the Valleys whose life F. Eude hath written and cryed up her Sanctity Witness Magdelen Vigneron whose life written by F. Bourdin in the year 1678. and approved by the Chancellor of the University of Paris and the gravest Doctors contains all the Follies and impieties of the most fabulous Legends Popery is founded on the Fables of the Legends Lastly 't is replyed that we ought not to stumble the ordinary people with the Lying Histories of Popery because that Religion is not founded on ' em Take away all these will they say and 't will not be less true that men ought to adore the B. Virgin invoke the Saints worship the Cross Images and Holy Reliques because these Services are founded on the Authority of the Church I answer 'T is false that these fabulous Histories are not the Foundation of the false Worship and Idolatries of the Papacy This Spirit of Lying and Superstition begun in the Church exactly at the same time The People could never have been perswaded to worship Ashes and Bones if they had not been perswaded that these Reliques did work Miracles The people had never been brought to these wicked Services that make the Virgin Mary equal to Christ if they had not been disposed to them by the high-sounding Fables concerning the Miracles of her Conception her Birth her Life and her Assumtion The Worship of Saints could never have come to that prodigious excess as it now is without the assistance of Monks of their Legends their Cheats their false Miracles and their Fables So that we may say to these refin'd Papists that which St. Augustin said to the Pagans about Cicero This wise Pagan did himself turn into ridicule the Fables and Theology of the Poets yea accused the Poets that they had made such to be Gods who could not have been reckon'd among honest men if they had been men Many of the Heathens made use of this sentiment and driven to it by the Christians condemn'd their own Theology as foolish and impertinent pretending that their Religion was not founded on it But St. Augustin lets 'em see how weak this Entrenchment was and how Pitiful and false this Excuse was And proves particularly to 'em that all their Services the Mysteries of Ceres of Bacchus and Vesta their solemn Playes and in a manner all their practical Religion were built upon the Poets Fables and referr'd to ' em The case of Popery is the very same at this day the wise Papists reject the Romance of the Virgin Mary but notwithstanding their Devotion towards the Virgin the Festivals of her Conception of her Nativity of her Assumtion are founded on these Fables All the Titles which they bestow on her all the Prayers that they address to her all the Offices that they assign to her refer to her fabulous History CHAP. XXIII The Twelfth Character of Antichristianism that fitteth the Papacy is Cruelty and Shedding of Blood. 'T Is past all doubt that Antichrist must be a furious Beast and Antichristianism a cruel and persecuting Empire This Character is joyn'd with the preceding The two principal Characters of the Devil are a Lyar and a Murtherer our Lord Jesus Christ saith that he was such from the beginning Now seeing Antichristianism is the Master-piece of this Murthering and Lying Spirit it must be stampt with this impression of its Author This was layd down in the Prediction V. 1. And I saw a Beast rising up out of the Sea Apoc. 13. having Seven Heads and Ten Horns c. V. 2. And the Beast which I saw was like unto a Leopard and his Feet were as the Feet of a Bear and his Mouth as the Mouth of a Lyon. These are three most ravenous and destroying Beasts The Leopard overtakes his Prey with the greatest swiftness the Bear holds it fast and never lets it go the Lyon is the strongest Beast and whose Teeth are most terrible The Mouth of Antichrist is to be the Mouth of a Lyon always dyed red with Blood. V. 7. And it was given to him to make War with the Saints and to overcome them c. V. 15. And he had power to give life to the Image of the Beast and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast should be kill'd V. 6. And I saw the Woman drunken with the Blood of the Saints Chap 17. and with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus V. 24. And in her was found the Blood of Prophets Chap. 18. and of Saints and of all that were slain on the Earth V. 6. For they have shed the Blood of Saints Chap. 16. and Prophets and thou hast given them Blood to drink for they are worthy Behold one of the principal Lineaments of Antichristianism let us see if there be a Kingdom on Earth to which this doth agree better than to the Papacy It is a Lyar like its Father it is a Source of Fables It is not less a Murtherer The Antichristian Idolatry began about the end of the fourth Century and the beginning of the fifth 'T was also exactly at the same time that the Church began to lose the characters of Gentleness Clemency and Patience which are the Characters of the Gospel and turn'd Persecutor She had always been persecuted and had always condemn'd Persecution yet she had contrary to her own principles begun to persecute the Donatists But when Antichristianism which then was only in the bud was come to its full shape 't was then that its Persecuting spirit did fully discover itself I mean in the Wars between the Image-worshippers and the Image-breakers The Image-worshippers opposed the Orders of their Emperors who had a mind to banish this Abomination out of the Church This resistance forced the Emperors to exercise some Severities on the Idolatrous party But when Idolatry had got into power it retaliated its Enemies double The Image-worshippers made all Italy and the rest of the Western Provinces to cast off their Allegiance to the Emperors and in the East they kill'd and massacred all who would not conform to ' em Irene the Mother of Constantin put out the Ey 's of her own Son and after put him to death that she might reign alone Theodora another Empress who made the worship
which ought in their judgment to be always under the Cross is fully obtain'd by these kind of sufferers I know not what Notions F. Maimbourg once a Jesuit had 'T is reported that he had begun to write the History of the Flourishing of Rome Christian probably he would have observed the Method which he used in his History of the Fall of the Empire If so 't is probable that he did not reckon among the Crosses of the Church all the troubles which the Popes endured from the Emperors who opposed their usurpations If the Papacy therefore will have Martyrs it must register in its Martyrology all that have dyed in the Wars raised against Kings by the Popes all that dyed in the Croisado's or in the massacring of the Waldenses and Albigenses all that dyed in the Field in the Wars raised in France on account of Religion at the Battels of Dreux of S. Denys Moncontour Coutras and many other engagements during the Design of the H. League in France to extinguish by Fire and Sword the Sect of the Calvinists and the antient Race of the French Kings I confess that such a reckoning would make a huge Martyrology and the Papists might glorie in being persecuted But the Hereticks in these dayes are somewhat scrupulous in the point of Martyrs and will find out something to hinder the Canonizing of such a vast multitude They will call those good Catholicks who dyed in the Wars against the Emperors of Germany Rebells who received from Heaven the just punishment of their Revolt They will say that the blessed Cross-bearers who dyed in the H. Lâ—nd or in going thither were a company of sidy distracted men who smarted for their rashness They 'le say that those who lost their lives in murthering the Waldenses and Hugenots were like Executioners who sometimes pay the scores of those who eâ—cape Laâ—â—ly they 'le say that the Church of Rome for eight hundred years past never suffered evil but when she had a mind to do mischief that She hath not born Jesus Christ's Cross but the Devils Cross that she hath been a Persecutor and not persecuted that she always came off victorious and that both her victories and combats have not been design'd for the advancing of the Throne of J. Christ but of that of the Pope Bellarmin is very ingenious Temporal prosperity cannot be a mark of the true Church Deâ—otis Eccl. â—ob 4. cap. 28. when he proves that temporal prosperity is a mark of the Church and among the Arguments to prove the real presence worship of Images Invocation of Saints c. he sets down the defeating of a hundred thousand Waldenses by eight thousand Catholicks the victories of the Popish Cantons in their Wars against the Protestant Swâ—â—zers and that of Charles V. over the Duke of Saxony in the year 1547. How well doth this agree with the Confession of the Bishop that the most peculiar Law of the Gospel is that of bearing the Cross These constant victories of the Papacy this continued prosperity of the Popes and of the Heroes who have defended their cause the dismal adversity of all that have opposed 'em these things I say in my opinion do afford a very strong Exception or prejudice against this Church For no such thing was ever promised to the Christian Church This prosperity was wholly reserved for the Antichristian Church at least until a certain Period in which the Church in her turn shall have Dominion over the earth and the world CHAPTER XXV The Conclusion In all Ages it hath been fore-seen or known that Rome and her Bishop are the Seat and Empire of Antichrist FOr a conclusion of this Work and of all that we design to say concerning the Antichristianism of the Church of Rome we will add some evidences to prove that we are not the only or the first men who have discern'd the Characters of Antichrist and of Antichristianism in Rome and her Bishop in the Pope and the Papacy 'T is above fifteen hundred years since some begun to discern that which we at this day behold more clearly The Fathers tho they fell into some mistakes concerning Antichrist yet did perceive something of this Mystery And in the Ages that were the darkest and the most enslaved under the Tyranny of the Papacy some were found who clearly saw Antichrist in Rome tho it was their great Interest not to see it because they always lookt on the Church of Rome as the true Church and both lived and dyed in her communion S. Irenaeus saw Antichrist in the number of the Beast S. Irenaeus without doubt was very unhappy in his Interpretations of the Mysteries of the Apocalypse as to what concerns Antichrist About whom he hath occasioned the mistakes of all those who followed his steps Notwithstanding we are beholding to him for the understanding of the Mystery coucht in the Name of Antichrist which was to make 666. He hath observed that the name Lateinos i. e. Roman or Latin does exactly make this number and this is of great use 't is a considerable discovery that lets us know where we ought to seek for Antichrist Not at Constantinople nor at Isphahan nor at Pequin but at Rome and in the Master of Rome S Jerom saw Antichrist in Rome Christian St. Jerom lived in the fourth Century in which the Church had a most glorious Age as to temporals The Church of Rome began at that time to raise herself above all other Churches to act the Queen and appear as a Star of the greatest magnitude The Bishop of Rome began to be a great Prince he had a brave House a stately Equipage a sumtuous Table was courted by many In a word his condition was such that a Roman Consul would willingly have changed preferments For a Heathen named Praetextatus prickt for Consul said Make me Bishop of Rome and I 'le turn Christian From hence the Flatterers of the Popes draw this profitable conclusion for the Church of Rome that she is naturally and necessarily the Queen of all the Churches St. Jerom who relates this saying of Pretextatus doth not draw the same conclusion on the contrary he begins to discern the characters of mystical Babylon in this pomp of the Roman Church his words are Whilst I dwelt in Babylon Praefat. in lib. Dydyâ—â— de Spir. Sâ—â— and was a subject of the Woman cloathed in purple I had a mind to discourse concerning the Holy Spirit and to dedicate that smal work which I had begun to the Bishop of that City but behold the Pot which Jeremy saw in the Northern climate behind a Staff began to boyle The Senat of Pharisees and all the false Scribes not one excepted making up one faction of Ignorance set themselves to conspire against me as tho I had a mind to contest with 'em in point of learning 'T is not Rome Pagan that he speaks of for 't was almost fifty years since she had submitted to Christianity
and Christian Emperors Therefore he began so early to see in Rome Christian the Apocalyptick Harlot the impure Babylon which maketh the Kings of the Earth drunk with her Cup of her fornications Yea he saw further for he knew that the time of Antichrist's appearing was at hand He speaks admirably of this thing The Roman Empire was cruelly torn by the Incursions of Barbarous Nations Notwithstanding it remain'd intire as yet but St. Jerom seeing its approaching ruin saith But to what purpose am I so concern'd Ad Gâ—rontiam I am pleading for the Marchandise of a Ship that is wrack't He who did hinder is removed and yet we do not perceive that Antichrist is at hand But where was he to sit Read saith he the Revelation and what is said there Paula Eustaâ—h ad Marcellam of the Woman cloathed in purple which hath writ in her forehead Names of Blasphemy of the seven Mountains of the great Waters and consider the song which is there concerning the Fall of Babylon Come out of Babylon my people c. 'T is true the H. Church is there but the Pride the grandeur the power c. which are in that City agree not with the life and retirement of Monks In other places he granteth that Rome is the whore that hath written on her Forehead a Name of Blasphemy Ad. Algasiam quaest 21. viz. Eternal Rome and that Antichrist ought to sit there as soon as the Roman Empire shall be destroyed Yea he goeth so far as to observe that Antichrist must sit in the Church Gâ—â—â—â—â—â— I found out that Antichrist was to be Head of the Priests Gregory I. Bishop of Rome about the year 600. was in a very great rage at John Bishop of Constantinople who assumed the Title of Oecomenical Bishop which none had done before and he writes about this matter as one inspired He saith that ' lis a name of Blasphemy plainly alluding to that Name that Antichrist in the Apocalypse was to have on his Forehead He goeth further and saith What signifieth this Pride out of which he exalts himself Iâ— â—4 〈◊〉 24 but that the time of Antichrist is at hand And writing to the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch he saith to 'em You see clearly Fâ—â—â— â—â— my dearest Brethren who is now ready to follow since such pernitious beginnings are already to be seen in the Priests He is even as the door of whom 't is written that he is the King of all the Children of pride This is a definition of Antichrist 't is he whom he meaneth and whom he pointeth at as ready to appear In another place he speaks more plainly All things that were fore-told I pist 38. are come to pass the King of Pride is at hand and what I scarce dare to say they prepare for him an Army of Priests It seemeth as if these words were spoken by inspiration Antichristianism was at hand it must be in the Church yea in the Priests an Army of Priests must support it This is very much to be said by a Pope and who himself was in Antichrists Seat. 'T was impossible that a Pope should see more especially in the sixth Century when the Tyranny was not arrived to that heighth which it did a little while after For after Gregory I. the Antichristian tyranny swell'd at a strange rate and like a torrent did overflow the whole Christian world Accordingly the Antichristianism of the Bishop of Rome was soon perceived In the ninth Century In the ninth Age two Bishops prove that the Pope is Antichrist Gauthier Bishop of Collen and Tetgand Bishop of Triers being perhaps fpr a just cause deposed by Nicholas I. but against the forms of Law because the Bishops of Italy had no power over those of Gaule they perceived a character of Antichrist in this attempt who was to sit in the Temple of God as if he was God. They complain to himself in these expressions Aventin annal Boior lib. 4. You call yourself Father but you act as Jupiter and as God Professing to be the Servant of Servants you will be Lord of Lords According to our Masters Orders you ought to carry yourself as the least Minister of the Church but you give way to a desire of Ruling and believe that your will hath no other Rule but itself Therefore we and our Collegues do not regard your petty Edicts we know not your voyce we fear not your Thundrings and Thunderbolts c. The Holy Spirit is the Founder of all the Churches in whatever part of the world they are The City of our God of which we are Citizens is larger than the City that is called Babylon by the Prophets which usurps the Divinity equals itself to Heaven and boasts to be Eternal as if She was God and was fill'd with immortal Wisdom She falsly glorieth that She never err'd nor can err 'T is hard to make a more exact and close application of Antichristianism to the Church of Rome And this passage is remarkable in that we find in it one of the most antient claims of Infallibility made by the Roman Church But at the same time we see how this Chimaera was treated in the nineth Century The Council of Rheims in the tenth Age finds Antâ—christ in the Pope In the tenth Century the See of Rome was fill'd with the greatest villains in the world so that its Antichristianism became more sensible A whole Council of French Bishops met at Rheims in the year 991. spoke home to this point by the mouth of one of their principal Members Arnulph Bishop of Orleance O deplorable State of Rome Concil Rheim annâ— 991. Ap. Centuriat Cent. 10. which in our Fathers dayes did shine so bright and now is nothing but darkness which is dismal in this world and will be so in that to come c. What think you Reverend Fathers what think you concerning this Man who sits on a high Throne glittering with Gold and Purple if he wants Charity and is only puff'd up with knowledg He is Antichrist who sits in the Temple of God and acts as if he were God. But if He hath neither Charity nor Knowledg He is like a Statue or Idol in the Temple of God to consult him is to speak to an Idol Thus a whole Council speaks whose Acts were preserved by a Pope i. e. Gerbert then Bishop of Rheims and was Pope afterward by the name of Sylvester II. The Popish Compilors of the Councils had no mind to insert this They wisht that it was quitâ— lost but in spite of 'em we have it still intire After Gregory VII Antichrist was discernd in the Pope If the corruption of the Popes was somewhat less in the eleventh Century and if this did somewhat obscure the character of Antichristianism in the Roman Church to recompence for this their Tyranny did infinitely increase and fully open'd mens ey 's as to this point Men
up all the last times they might very well be called the last plagues For it is natural to call those the last plagues which happen in the whole duration of the last times But it may still be said he that says last plagues supposes that there have been former now seeing we begin the plagues that have fallen upon the Papacy in the tenth age it will be asked what plagues that Antichristian Empire suffered before that time I might Answer that the terms of First and Last which are relatives and refer to one another are not always so in Scripture nor yet in the stile of other languages St. Luke says that Mary brought forth Jesus her first begotten son that has no relation to a second and a last and signifies not that the Virgin had other children It is enough to be first that there were none before and it is not necessary that there be others after In the same manner to be last it is enough that there have been none after but it is not necessary that there have been others before I might Answer also â—hat the Holy Ghost may have respect to those smaller plagues that is to those first mortifications which the Antichristian Roman Empire sustained from the fifth age which is that of its birth to the tenth age wherein we have given beginning to the seven last plagues For it is certain that that Antichristian Empire was not established without crosses oppositions and heavy Judgments of God. Rome the Seat of that Antichristian Empire was afflicted by the Vandals possest by the Goths laid desolate by Belisarius and Narises who retook it from the Goths cruely distressed by the Lombards besides that the Bishop of Rome met with great difficulties to struggle with from other Bishops in the settlement of his Monarchical power The great Schism of the East which separated above the half of Christendom from the Church of Rome was a very great Plague For the Bishop of Rome pretending Jurisdiction over all the Churches of the East it was a great lessening of his power when they with-drew themselves from the dominion which he pretended to have over them Thus those seven last Judgments which God hath made to fall upon the Church of Rome within these 800 years may very well be called the last plagues with reference to those that went before them However we have no need of this solution because in reality these seven Plagues are not called the last with relation to what we have been now speaking of but with reference to the six first Plagues that God made to fall upon the Roman Empire under the six first Trumpets For it is to be observed that the revelation makes mention of thirteen notable plagues which fall upon the Empire of the fourth beast Under the first Trumpet the first plague falls Chap. 8. There followed hail and fire mingled with blood and the third part of trees was burnt up Under the second Trumpet the second plague fell A great mountain burning with fire was cast into the Sea and the third part of the Sea became blood which killed the third part of the fish and destroyed the third part of ships Under the third Trumpet the third plague happened and that was a great burning Star that fell in the rivers the name of that Star is wormwood and the third part of the waters became bitter The fourth Trumpet brought with it the fourth plague And the third part of the Sun was Smitten and the third part of the Moon and the third part of the Stars Chap. 9. The fifth Trumpet made a fifth plague to fall And that is the opening of the bottomless pit the Smoak that rose out of it as out of a great furnace the darkning of the Sun and the Air and the Locusts that came upon the Earth to torment men for five Months The sixth Trumpet opens a door to the sixth plague which was that innumerable army of horsemen riding on horses out of whose mouth issued fire and smoak and brimstone to kill the third part of men These I say were the six Plagues with reference to which the seven last Judgments that have fallen upon the Empire of the fourth Beast are called the seven last Plagues There remains a last Trumpet of the Seven which is confounded with the end of the last Vial. That is the moment wherein the Empire of the fourth Beast shall be utterly destroyed and wherein all Empires shall submit to Jesus Christ by the Fall of Babylon and the conversion of the Jews and Pagans My Readers I hope will pardon this whimsey of mine if it be one they have pardoned the like in many others but in short I cannot but be perswaded but that if one would take the pains to penetrate into my principle and examin it attentively without prejudice he could not but acquiess to it it is so just clear and congruous to the events To make this appear I will hear give an Abridgment of it that so what I have now said of the six first and seven last Plagues may be put out of doubt It is to be remembred then 1. that according to me the whole Revelation is a Commentary upon what Daniel had said in short of the fourth Monarchy that is the Roman Empire 2. Now that Roman Empire hath two great Periods almost of the same duration The first is the worldly and Heathenish Roman Empire which continued somewhat more then 1200. years from the foundation of Rome to Valentinian the third the last Emperor of the Romans the second will endure 1260. years from the midle of the fifth Age to the beginning of the eighteenth 3. That whole Empire with its two Periods is Mystically represented to us in the first Beast of the Revelation chap. 13. it hath seven Heads which signifie seven Governments the six first Governments are included within the first Period of the temporall and Pagan Roman Empire 1. Kings 2. Consuls 3. Dictators 4. Decemvirs 5. Tribunes of the People 6. Emperours that lasted above 1200. years The Seventh Head are the Popes who re-establish this Roman Empire under another form and that Head alone makes a second Period to that Empire and alone continues 1260. years 4. And because of its long duration and that this Roman Empire hath a Name and Form different from the civil and Pagan Roman Empire therefore the Holy Spirit do's in this 13. Chap represent it apart as a distinct Beast having two Horns as a Lamb and speaking as a Dragon As to the first period of the Roman Empire there was no need that the Prophet should mark its beginning and progress seeing it was not only formed but risen to its height and grandure in his time So that all which was necessary for him to do was to speak of its decay and of the several Judgments of God which should bring it to its end and this St. John hath likewise done But as to the second Period of this
none shall come after them And to those whom these answers are not satisfactory I have nothing farther to say upon this subject Nor is it difficult after what I have said to reply to two objections which contain nothing in them save what depends upon this principal difficulty The first Objection is that the Holy Spirit saith that by the seven plagues the wrath of God is fulfilled whereas say these Gentlemen the Wrath of God is not yet consummated upon Babylon forasmuch as it still subsisteth When I say that I am to give seven blows to this house in order to overthrow it is it thereby meant that the first of these strokes shall overturn the house Assuredly not But all thereby intended is that the seventh blow shall finish the subversion of that house They ought to remember that I have said the seventh Vial is not yet run out It runneth from the time of Luthers preaching until this day and will continue to run out till the entire destruction of the Antichristian Empire And so long as the Vial that is so long as the Period of Time is a running so long doth the plague continue nor will the destruction of that Empire be consummated until the last moment of the hourglass or Vial and until the last moment of the last plague If this had been thought upon these Gentlemen would have found no room for that objection which they advance from the words which the seventh Angel saith upon the pouring out of the seventh Vial namely that 't is finished whereas say they Babylon being still standing it is not true that 't is finished nor by consequence that the seventh Vial is fallen I say if they had remembred what I had answered for the preventing this objection they would not have a second time made it We are then to know that the word it is done has relation to the whole continuance of the Vial and of the plague The Vial hath run and the plague hath endured since the preaching of Luther and the Vials will continue to run and the Plague to endure until the entire destruction of the Antichristian Empire Had I said that the seven Vials are entirely poured forth finished and run out and that the seventh plague is wholly accomplished they would in that case have had reason to make this Objection But I expresly said that the seventh plague is divided into two other whereof the one is called the Harvest and the other the Vintage in the 14th Chap. The Harvest is the first part of the last plague and is the Reformation of the fore-going Age and the Vintage is the second part of the said last plague and will be the Reformation of the next Age. Now this second part of the last plague which is still to come will assuredly be the most considerable and will come up unto and answer the whole signification of the word it is done For altho the word hath a relation to the first Reformation of the Church by which almost a half of the Papal Empire was overthrown yet it most especially respects the second Reformation which is to finish the ruin of the Antichristian Empire In a word that which is signified by it is done is that the last Vial which is finally to destroy the Antichristian Empire is pouring forth and is running and that when it shall be wholly run out Babylon shall be wholly destroyed But I will propose one difficulty upon this which these Gentlemen have not made For it may be askt whence is it that I do suppose that the Reformation made the last Age and that which is to be made the next Age come to make but one general plague that hath two parts seeing these two Reformations are so considerable and so far distant the one from the other as to make two Vials and two distinct plagues This difficulty is much greater than any of those they have made to me for it is both specious and wholly breaks the order which I have assigned of the seven Vials and of the seven plagues But to this I have divers things to Reply which I Judg to be very solid Whereof the first is that the Holy Spirit hath comprehended both these Reformations under one and the same plague because the Space and Period is the same We have observed that the several plagues are things different from one another The corruption of the tenth Age which rendred the Antichristian See odious the Croisados the Excess of Papal Tyranny which vexed the Princes of Europe the great Schism in the West the Invasion of the Latine Provinces by the Turks and the Reformation are one and the same kind of punishment therefore the Holy Spirit did not think it convenient to make two plagues of them But one may object that according to my Exposition of the Visions God hath made two plagues of the two Reformations There are two reasons of that difference The first is because the Croisados are naturally branched into two parts by the loss of Jerusalem which was the scope and design of the Conquests 'T was about the year 1093. that men begun to be impetuously carried towards that Holy or Croisado War by means of one called Peter the Hermite and in the year 1187. eighty years after the first design of Conquering the Holy Land was Jerusalem retaken by Saladin And as this made a Period of considerable length so this was such an eminent event in the History of the Croisado's that it is no wonder if the Holy Spirit made the retaking of Jerusalem by Saladin one Epoch and that he there terminated These Wars continued a hundred years after the loss of Jerusalem but so feebly that the Holy Spirit represents this second Period of the Croisado's only as a River of Blood whereas he had represented the first as a Sea of Blood. Now we have no such signal Event in the midst of the duration of the seventh Plague as to make it divisible into two which is the reason that the Holy Spirit hath made it but one Plague Moreover there is no ground for dividing the two Reformations into two Plagues because they are but one Plague continued and carried on without interruption Whereas the Croisado's had two remarkable interruptions not only by Truces but by a peace made with the Sarazins especially after the taking of Jerusalem by Saladin I say there hath been no interruption in the work of Reformation in that the Reformation consists in the clearing up of the Truth For tho since the time of Luther and Zwinglius the Papacy instead of continuing to decay in its power hath in some degree recovered what it had lost yet nevertheless the Truth hath alway's acquired fresh strength and hath from day to day for above these 150. years been so illustrated and cleared up that it seems at this time to be arrived at the utmost evidence that it is capable of and which will not fail erâ— long to bring a total ruin upon
the Antichristian Empire The other reason why the Holy Spirit hath divided the Crâ—isado's into two Plagues and into two Vials and why he hath not done the like by the two Reformations is because the Vials as I have often said signify Periods of Time. Nor could he ascribe a Vial to each Reformation because each of them apart would have consisted of too few years to constitute a Period For as the Reformation of the last Age was wrought in 25. or 30. years so that which we do next expect will in all probability be brought to pass in a less time And therefore to have made two Vials of them he must have allowed each but 25. or 30. years continuance Which would carry no kind of proportion to the rest of the Vials or to the for'going Periods every one whereof were much longer Beside it would have been needful to have interposed a third Vial between the two Vials of the first and second Reformation which ought to comprehend the time that elapseth betwixt the Reformation of the fore-going Age and the Reformation that we hope and wait for Every one will easily perceive that this would not have been a disposing of the Vials as they ought and that it is much more natural to make but one Vial or one Period of all the Times which comprehend the beginning the progress and the consummation of the destruction of the Papacy by means of the Reformation and of bringing the Truth into light and evidence This I take to be enough for the satisfying persons of justice and moderation in reference to the present difficulty And we ought after all to consider that it is free for the Spirit of God to rank Events and to dispose them into such Classes as he thinks meet The whole which belongs to us in this case is to consider the Relation and Agreement of the Events unto and with the Prophetical Schemes and Images Now it is evident that the Figures in the Prophecy concerning the seven Plagues do admirably accord with the Events to which we have applyed them So that now I think we may return to the Reasons assigned by the Author of the Illustrations upon the Apocalypse which he calls a kind of Demonstrations proving that none of the Vials are yet poured out His third Reason so far as I can comprehend it is that all the seven Vials are contained under the third Wo pronounced by the Angel when he cried Wo wo wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth by reason of the other voices of the Trumpet of the three Angels which are yet to sound For saith that Author the third Wo shall not be accomplished until after the sounding of the last Trumpet And S. John saith Chap. 11. v. 14. The second Wo is past and behold the third Wo cometh quickly To which he adds And the seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in Heaven saying the Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord. If then the seven Vials be all contained under the third Wo and if the third Wo be not to come to pass till the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and if this last Trumpet which is to bring over the Kingdoms of the World to Jesus Christ have not hitherto sounded 't is then says he evident that none of the Vials are yet poured out And he concludes that this doth invincibly follow c. Tho for my part I do not comprehend how these can be stiled invincible proofs Nor is it true that the third Wo is contained under the seventh Trumpet But 't is true that this last Trumpet shall immediately and without any interval follow the third Wo so that we are not to wonder that the Holy Spirit speaketh of these two things as conjoined together The third Wo is the last Fall of Babylon and the moment of its total ruin The seventh Trumpet is the moment of Jesus Christ's entring upon his Kingdom For we may truly reckon the beginning of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ to commence immediately after the Fall of Babylon tho it will not attain to its perfection and glory until that the Jews and Pagans are converted This proof that is proposed unto us as invincible is herein weak that it supposeth a thing which is not true and which the Author cannot advance any reason in confirmation of Namely that the Plagues and the seven Vials are all comprehended in the third Wo. Whereas there is not so much as one of them therein contained For the third Wo is to arrive at the End of the seventh Vial and of the seventh Period of the downfal of the Papacy But when one supposeth what he pleaseth he may also prove what he pleaseth Only he ought not to call suppositions that are more than uncertain invincible Reasons And to prove that the seven Vials are not comprehended in the third Wo it is enough to prove as we have done that the seven Vials are seven Periods of Time which run along as water runs out of an Hour glass For seven Periods of time cannot be comprehended within the Time of the third Wo seeing that Wo it self is confined to the compass of a few years The third Wo is properly that which the Holy Spirit chap. 14. calls the Vintage 'T is added by the Author that the Vials must necessarily be still to be poured out because we are yet under the sixth Trumpet 'T is true that we are yet under the sixth Trumpet but it is almost 800. years that this sixth Trumpet hath been pouring forth its Influences For as we have said it is subdivided into seven Vials and we are now towards the end of the seventh Vial of the sixth Trumpet Nor are we to think it strange that the sixth Trumpet comprehends so many Ages seeing the seventh Seal contains a great deal more because comprehending the Trumpets into which it is subdivided it reacheth from the Reign of Theodosius until the End of the World. And our affirming that the seventh Seal comprehends under it the seven Trumpets is not a supposition advanced at random forasmuch as St. Iohn does plainly inform us of it For he does nothing at the opening of the seventh Seal of that which he had done at the opening of the former but all he doth is to give the seven Trumpets to the seven Angels And when he had opened the seventh Seal there was silence in Heaven about the space of half an hour and I saw the seven Angels which stood before God and to them were given seven Trumpets 'T is true that the Holy Spirit doth not so expresly say that the sixth Trumpet is subdivided into seven Vials But this may be gathered from the sixth Trumpets sounding at the time of the Turk 's invading the Grecian Empire which was about the tenth Age and from our finding that the first Vial fell about the same season on the Empire of the Beast So that the course of the Vials is confined within the