which was during the Time of the Christian Emperour who as we have seen was to come betwixt the sixth and the seventh Heads and had not the eighth Head been to Succeed and had He not actually Succeeded after no long space in the style of Prophecy The Beast had indeed Dyed That is the Roman Empire as Idolatrous and Bloody in its Persecutions had expir'd But because the whole of that Time Heathenish Idolatry and Persecution was Fashioning into Antichristian the Beast liv'd though deadly Wounded and the Dragon gave his Power and Seat as by Will to the Beast The Pope was long er'e he arose to such Supremacy as would Object 3. Answer the Prophetic Types And so Prophecy Represents it The Gentiles or Antichristianizing Answer Layty the Inhabitants of the Earth under the other Beast or Antichristianizing Hierarchy of Bishops their Dignified and Inferior Clergy Horn'd like a Lamb among which the Pope of Rome was Principal and ever aspiring were a Protecterian Supremacy during the Wound of the First Beast or Roman Empire as Idolatrous which under the Christian Emperours was Wounded deadly in One of viz. the sixth of its Heads or the Pagan Emperours and Powers subdu'd by the Christian Emperours During that Time therefore of the Wound and also during the Infancy of the Kingship of the Seventh Head and Eighth King That Hierarchy hath the High though Infamous Title of the Other Beast conferr'd upon it and accordingly Forty two Months were assign'd to the Gentiles as a Signification of such a Bestial Power under the Aristocracy of the Other Beast and to note its time And thus Things continu'd till the Grand * Call'd Beast tho' but a Head in Imitation of the little horn among the Ten another Emblem of this Beast call'd the Beast and deliver'd to the Flames Dan. 7. 11. Beast had an Image made to Him to be Worshipped and All Sware Fealty to him by Receiving his Mark which was the perfect Healing the Wound and the Infant Kingship of the Seventh Head Then He came to his Number 666 which was not till An. Dom. 725 or 6 during the Christian Emperours many Years after his Succession which the Infancy of a King does not Prejudice Then the Other Beast though undivided from the Grand Beast submitted to be his False Prophet and the Months of the Gentiles naturally merg'd into those of the Beast having till then supply'd what was wanting in the time of the Night although the Beast's Infant Succession as Eighth King and his Fourty Two Months commenc'd against the Twelve hundred sixty Days as the Moon 's Nights against the Sun's Days Thus it is no Objection against Prophecy but according to Prophecy that the Beast was so long Rising to his Exercise of Supremacy as seventh Head and eighth King. For He is the Beast that was in its Six Heads but deadly Wounded in the sixth of them by the seventh King no Head and so was as Not in any Appearance till the seventh Head and eighth King was grown up to his Number and the Wound healed by an Image made to Him And Great and Small Rich and Poor Bond and Free received His Mark. 2. But this Objection will be more fully answer'd by a further settlement of the very Beginning and Epoch of these Forty Two Months of the Beast For whenever the Beast Rose those Months Rose also Now the Beast's Rising is fix'd to an Hour For the Ten Kings receive Power or Authority at One Hour viz. the very same Hour with the Beast And they receive Authority as Kings that same Hour For here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be Interpreted at one Hour as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Ninth Hour Acts 10. 30. And they receive at that One Hour Authority as Kings They had no Kingdom in the Apostles Time although then they were as Ten Horns to the Roman Empire but uncrowned Horns For the Beast or Idolatrous Roman Empire consisting of its Seven Heads and Ten Horns and of the Body of the People were always alike pourtray'd in Prophecy yet with some regard to the variety of Times that pass'd over it The Heads are therefore in the Roman Dragon or Heathen Imperial State first represented Crowned for they always imported Supreme Power and then in the Beast the Heads having been already Crowned the Horns are presented Crown'd shewing at the one and the same Hour the Seventh Head of the Beast came to the Exercise of Sovereignty The Ten Horns also received Power as Kings And in this Vision c. 17. Neither the Heads nor the Horns are presented as Crown'd having been both Crown'd in the former Vision and explain'd in this But let us Examine when could these Ten Kings receive Authority as Kings and be justly own'd as such for the Prophecy says they had received no Kingdom as yet And it was at One and the same Hour with the Beast viz. when He succeeded the Seventh King or when the Roman Christian Empire ceased For when their Vniversal Monarch their Lawful Prince renounced Empire as Augustulus did Then had the Beast Authority to begin His Months and then these Ten Kings received Authority as Kings which could not according to the Law of Kingdoms to which Law the Prophecy yields Deference be while the Lawful Sovereign was in Being But he ceasing to be a King their Obligation ceas'd ahd then they Rise up as Kings whatever they had had done before towards being Kings was till then but Usurpation and not Authority Which Consideration absolutely fixes the Succession and the Time of it And they are call'd Ten not to raise a Scruple about their exact Number Ten neither more nor less but being several into which the One Empire sprouted against its will as All History well knows that at that Time the Empire was so Torn into Pieces But they are called Ten to preserve Regard to that First Image in which this Roman Empire came down to the Feet and was divided into the Ten Toes And this being the State of that Empire under its Seventh Head the Horns or Kings seated in it are called Ten with respect to that First Statue given of the Four Empires and of the last Form of the Last Empire And they are call'd Horns because notwithstanding They were Absolute Independent Kings Yet as Horns give offensive and defensive force to the Head and that hath Supreme Mannagement of them so these Horns gave their Power to the Seventh Head. So making Him an Universal Monarch or eighth King till the Words of God are fulfill'd Now I know not how a firmer Settlement of the Beginning of these Months just at the Cessation of the Christian Imperialism can be made than is now made by this last Addition But because it may be said the Name of Pope is no Kingly or Object 1. Imperial Name It seems to overthrow the whole Frame laid It is Admirable the Care Prophecy hath taken to tell us The Answer Beast of
Seven Heads of the Beast on whom the Woman sitteth the Woman her self is pourtrayed Sitting on Seven Mountains as The names of which are most universally known to be the Capitoline the Palatine the Aventine the Celan the Esquiline the Viminal the Quirinal Seven Heads besides the Beasts Heads I say so that the Divine Wisdom steps as it were aside to fetch in these Seven Mountains as the Cities Heads as an uncontroulable unmoveable Character and Assurance of this City For never was any City in the World so famously known by its Seven Hills as the Seven-Headed City Rome There being then no possibility of Avoiding it the most zealous Partizans of Rome in its present State dare not deny that the Woman here describ'd and expounded by the Angel into a City is the very City Rome and no other They do therefore Acknowledge it There are but Two ways then to rescue Rome in its present State from the Dint of this Prophecy 1. That it was Heathen Rome the Prophecy intended and that therefore it hath had its Accomplishment many Ages ago 2. Or that it may be some State of Rome that is not yet nor hath yet been but is to be some short time before the End of the World. If therefore the Prophecy will not endure either of these that it is past or to come it is then Demonstration that it must be the Present State of Rome that is under the Thunder-stroke of the Prophecy Seeing All that Time enfolds in its whole Nature is either past present or to come Now that the State of Rome here describ'd is not yet past there are these two Evident Reasons 1. That whenever this Prophecy is fulfill'd there must be an utter Destruction Ruine and Desolation of the City for the Woman expounded to be the City Chap. 17. is the same whose Desolation is so amply and finally declar'd chap. 18. so that there can be no possible supposal it can be otherwise And that the Desolation is utter and Final besides the whole Course of it all along is most apparent by the Emblem of the Mill-stone thrown into the Bottom of the Sea as of Babylon of old that is a place of Wild Beasts at this Day Every thing in the whole Prophecy is levied on purpose to express a supreme Abolishment of this City out of the whole Nature of Things Now no such Abolishment of the City Rome hath yet been but it hath out-liv'd the Calamities that it suffer'd at any Time since the Prophecy and hath always so recover'd it self that it is at this day in Grandeur so that the Truth of the Prophecy must be wholly overthrown or not yet fulfill'd and so it must be yet to be destroy'd I say nothing of the Cities of the Nations Falling at the same Time that Great Babylon came in Remembrance before God because I would rest only upon what is most indubitably plain 2. The Glory of the Church and of the Kingdom of Christ the Bride the Lambs Wife making her self ready to the Marriage c. 19. 20. 21. and that whole Blessed change of Things answering the great Types of the Prophecy immediately follow the Desolation of this City Rome So in Daniel after the giving the Beast to the Flames as is here foretold also after the Final Destruction of Babylon the Kingdom under the whole Heaven is given to the Saints of the most High and Sathan chain'd shut up and seal'd into his own bottomless pit that he might deceive the Nations no more But that these Happy Things have not yet come to pass there needs nothing more to convince All that bear the Christian Name than the Imposture and Tyranny of Mahomet that hath rag'd within the very Bowels of the Christian World so long a space The most observant therefore of the Roman Commentators on this Prophecy finding how impossible it is to adjust the Prophecy of these two Chapters to Rome changed from Rome Imperial as Heathen to Rome Imperial as Christian have thought the second Interpretation the safer Refuge from the Terror of its Judgment here foretold and much the rather I doubt not because an Exposition resting on a Futurity can be less Evicted in its Disagreeableness than what bears on Things past and what is to be just at the End of the World can be hardlier confuted by shewing the ill-matching of Consequences especially when the Consequences are so Great as the Day of Judgment only can parallel as they have truly enough consider'd then what was to have been so many Ages ago Attended with such Consequences as have not yet come to pass which every one can plainly charge But yet the due and close Search into this Prophecy will as much Confute this as the other as is now to be made evident which that it may be done I will lay down this Proposition and prove it from the whole Prophetick Table Rome in the present State is that which hath been from the Proposit Time the Imperial Name of the City Rome ceas'd and still continues that Symbolical mystical Woman or City upon which this Prophecy and the whole Designation of it perpendicularly or as we say point-blank Falls and not a Future Rome and Antichrist to be expected Three years and a half only before the Day of Judgment as some Papists would have it To prove this I use this General Argument That which 1 General Argum. gives us the distinguishing States and Times of this City according to this Prophecy and according to the General Reason of Things must be the distinguishing of the Times and States of its Seven Heads and Eight Kings Even as in all States Kingdoms and Cities their Times are given by the Reigns of the Princes and by the Governments over them If then by the computing the Times of these it shall appear the present Rome is this Woman or City the Demonstration will be secure Now Thus is the whole Prophetick Frame This City sits on a Beast of Seven Heads for those Seven Mountain-Heads are by the By and only to give the presumptive Knowledge of this City so fam'd for its Seven Mountains the certain and more accomplish'd assurance even to Plerophory of which is its having at that Time a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth yet this of the Mountains joyn'd with it establishes it in the Evidence of Two most undoubted Testimonies of it Yet still it is to be consider'd the Woman sits on the Mountains only as a City is describ'd by its Scituation and this City by its Scituation on Seven Mountains which is a very Grand Character of it But the Woman sits on the Beast of Seven Heads as a Man or Woman are carried aloft on the Beast that bears them or on which they Ride so this Woman sits as a City fast seated on Seven Mountains and as an Imperial Woman Riding in State on the Beast that bears as the Prophecy expresly styles it or carries her and offering her Golden
cup of Fornications to the Kings of the Earth intoxicated with the Grandeur and Riches as also with the Sensuality of her Lusts and Adulteries Encircled therefore with these Seven and Seven of Heads for Assuring the City and for the greater flourish of the Type The Woman sits on high and the Two Sevens of Heads are expounded by the Angel to be Seven Hills or Mountains unmoveable Heads And They viz. the Heads not There as the English Translation too Low are Seven Kings who are the moving living Heads of the Beast on which she sits and by the Flitting or Remove of the Principality from one Head to another the Times of the Woman or of the City as we shall see are to be dated for though the Heads are always united to the Beast as all one Animal or Bestial living Creature however monstrous it may seem yet the Kingship of the Heads was in a Succession till it came to the last King under which it now is and hath been so long Now among these Seven Heads that were Kings there was a Seventh King cast in that was of another kind as being no Head which is of very great consideration in this prophetical Portraicture as we shall find and He comming in makes the Seventh Head the Eighth King. That we may be therefore guided by this whole Type to the certain knowledge of the present State of this City I will lay down these four Propositions with the proof of each These Seven Heads and Eight Kings are not together Kings or Propos 1. in the Exercise of Sovereignty at one and the same Time but are in a Succession or after one another This is most undeniable for Five had been before the Prophecy given to the Apostle and were Fallen viz. from their Principality or Exercise of Sovereignty else they were not Fallen for they are still represented on the Beast and never part from it as in the Prophetick Image but pertain to the Integrity of the Beast or Roman Imperialism from first to last which always consists of all its Parts They were Fallen then in regard of Principality or Exercise of Sovereignty which they had in their proper Time or Season Their union therefore to the Beast preserves them still their place as Heads in the prophetick Sculpture but not as Kings still in Being Now these Five Fallen Heads are given as in One or as in a Knot and Clamp together the Prophecy being little concern'd in their exact Distinction or Succession it being enough to it that there were before the Prophecy Five Supreme Roman Governments which as we shall see It calls Kings Whether they were just in an order or whether traversing one another it is all one as to the Prophecies Concern in them The Caution therefore in the Prophecy in this matter is very observable knowing what objection might be made concerning the Succession of the Kingly Consular Dictatorian Tribunitial and Decemviral Power the so well known several Governments of the Roman States It gives them in a Heap of Five together Signifying It intended no more than to mark by them the Beasts Heads before the Prophecy as past or Fallen and only Remarks the Succession of the One that then was and that It was not while the Five were and that they had been and were Fallen before the Prophecy was given which sufficiently demonstrates the Succession betwixt the Five and the One then in Being which is all the Prophecy aims at and troubles not it self with the order of the Five among themselves any farther than that Five such were and that they drew along the Times of the City to the Succession of the One then in Being The Seventh was plainly to be a King but was not yet come but was to come and to continue but a short space when He came which farther assures the Succession For seeing He was not come He could not be together with the Sixth King who then was nor could He be at the same Time with the succeeding Eighth in whom the City was to be destroy'd for He was to continue but a short space And then after Him the Eighth King follows the Eighth viz. in strict Order because the short-liv'd Seventh came between Him and the Sixth But the Eighth was of the Seven viz. of the Seven Kings who were also the Seven Heads there must be therefore a Succession between the Seventh short-liv'd and the Eighth because the Seventh and Eighth imply so much the Seventh is to continue a short space The Eighth therefore necessarily is suppos'd not to be so curtailed in Time Both Kings and so not together and the Other Seventh no Head for the Eighth was of the Seven Kings that were Heads From all which it is most impossible but that a Succession must appear most manifestly There is no Appearance of the least of an Hiatus or Gap Propos 2. there is no Interreign no vacuum or empty space in the Succession betwixt the Sixth King then in Being the Seventh and the Eighth in which onely the Prophetick Time is concern'd but all the Caution against it that can be for why was this Seventh King who was no Head put in but that he might stand as an Embolimean or double Seventh King like our Embolimean or double Twenty fourth of February in every Embolimean or Intercalar or as we usually speak Leap-year that there might be no disorder in Time as here no Gap in the Succession For thus only could the Succession of these Kings exactly Lead the Course of the Cities Time So that the Spaces of it might be measur'd thereby But if Those Seven Kings only that were Heads had been nam'd while there was Another between that was no Head and he had not been Nam'd There must have been a Leap of Time from the sixth to the seventh Head and no Account of the Seventh King making the seventh Head the eighth King to have swell'd up that space of the seventh King's Time into Appearance and Notice From whence it is Evident that the Seventh King no Head of the Beast that Carries the Woman and yet A King of the City is cast in to keep the Course and Current of the Prophetic Time strait and tight For if the very exact Pourtraicture of the Beast had been only design'd It had been more Just and Even without any mention of the Seventh King that pertain'd not to the Beast nor to the Woman as carried by the Beast But It was absolutely necessary that King also should be mention'd that the Time of the Prophecy with Relation to the Beast and the City might be under just Computation which it could not have been except the Seventh King being King of the City as before said and Coming between the sixth King and Head and the Eighth King but seventh Head had been plac'd in his Regular Succession however it seem to interrupt the state of the Beast who for that time as we shall see lay wounded and so was to
suffer that Disorder in this his prophetical Representation The King that was no Head can have no room in the Order Proposit 3. of Succession but just in that Seventh Place For the Seven Heads are seven Kings viz. Seven that are also Heads Seeing then there are Eight Kings although but seven Heads There must be one of these Kings who is no Head Else there must be eight Heads which contradicts the Prophecy Which Place then the King No Head holds must be enquir'd It cannot be any of the Five Fallen For they are in Construction of Speech necessarily Heads For those seven Heads are Seven Kings Five of which Kings who were Heads are Fallen So the very Frame of the Words requires But besides the Five are put together and so must be of a Kind and therefore All alike Heads or All alike no Heads if All no Heads where then can be the Seven therefore of necessity All Heads And There is nothing more in the Mind and Design of the Prophecy than to assure us the Eighth King is a Head For whereas He is the Eighth in Number of Kings He is Transpos'd backward and made the Seventh viz. Head. For so he must be when of the Seven Seven Take them either as Kings or Heads both which as together and in one are Sevens and no other are Sevens but they who are both Kings and Heads For the seven Heads are seven Kings And it is plain He is last of the seven and so must be the seventh viz. Head and King. The Dispute then can only lye betwixt the seventh and the sixth Kings which of those Two shall be the King who yet is no Head. Now the very Contexture of the Words necessarily determines us upon the sixth as Head as well as King or at least strongly enclines us For Five Kings that are Heads are Fallen And One is One what but of the Heads who are Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another is not yet Come Another what but King Yet not Head For He is Another For when such a Point of difference is to be decided there is great Reason to give the word Another a greater weight of Sense then only a casual Word of Order but it seems the Spirit of Prophecy chose that word One that the word Another might fall emphatically and yet concealedly as possible to be casually where He would have it just Fall. Further when He Comes He must continue but a short space which is said only of the seventh King and no Head For the Five are put together The Sixth is The Eighth goes indeed into Perdition but after how long Time is here but Intimated Only the seventh is of short space who being no Head of the Beast that Carries the City ought to be of short space only For neither the Beast nor such a City could have survived long if the King no Head had been of long duration But they were to survive long Lastly the Eighth is expresly said to be of the Seven immediately after the Seventh had made an Interruption between the Heads being no Head Himself but if the seventh King had been a Head and the sixth none we might have expected what Falls so on the seventh King would have been fix'd on the sixth King to distinguish it from being a Head and what is set on the Eighth King to assure Him to be a Head would have been in the same measure Communicated to the seventh King to assure Him to be a Head as well as King if the sixth King had made a Chasm or Breach betwixt the Heads whereas All falls fit on the seventh King on all sides to be no Head. But though All This be enough yet we shall have much more to Assure us when we come to know who these Heads are that of all most indisputably the sixth must be a Head and the seventh could be no Head seeing the heads are Full of the Names of Blasphemy These seven Kings are not seven particular Kings or single Proposit 4. Monarchic Persons but seven Governments having each a Number or Succession of such single Kings under them For Kings in Prophetic Scripture signifie Kingdoms and not only single Kings So Dan. 7. 17. what are call'd Four Kings no one doubts Mean Four Kingdoms Accordingly v. 23. the Fourth King is Interpreted to be the Fourth Kingdom In this Prophecy proportionably the Beast with Seven Heads is the whole Roman Empire or Kingdom according to the old Prophetic Emblem of Heathenish Monarchies from its first Foundation and Beginning to its last Overthrow in which Rome the Imperial City hath been always by the Seven Headed Beast Exalted and borne on High. The Heads are the several Governments and Forms of Empire that have each in their several Seasons exercised Supremacy and Sovereign Authority in that Monarchy State or Kingdom Five of which the Prophecy as before nam'd binds up together as uninteressed in their Duration or Succession The Last of these Heads which is the Seventh and Eighth King is eminently styl'd the Beast because His Supremacy is chiefly treated of by this Prophecy and in which the whole City and All goes into Perdition with Him. Now to demonstrate that these Heads and Kings must be Forms of Government let us consider one and the same City the City Rome is Carried upon the Beast of these Seven Heads together with the Cast-in King its whole Time even to its final Desolation For its whole Ichnography or Representation is charg'd upon these Seven Heads in the last of which It is utterly Desolated The Heads therefore cannot be several Monarchies and Kingdoms For They are All the Heads of One Beast or Monarchy and so not several Monarchies or Empires They All bear up the One City Rome and so must be one Roman Supremacy Nor can they be single Kings or Monarchic Persons seeing neither would Seven Lives support the Grandeur of Eternal Rome as It was Call'd nor in Fact have any Seven so supported it from the Apostle John's Time much less Two One of which was then in Being although we cast in the Embolimean seventh King but not Head For since the Writing of the Apostle is above sixteen hundred Years and yet the Judgment Written in this Prophecy is not as yet Executed From the Time then that This City was said to have such an Ascendency as to have the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth to this time of the Desolation here Foretold the City Rome was to be kept up in Dignity by its sixth King then in Being by its seventh King no Head for a short space by its Eighth King and seventh Head under which it is to sink as a Mill-stone How impossible is it therefore these Kings should be other then Governments or Successions of several Persons or numbers of Persons in each Government Let us now lay together these Four Propositions and consider their Amount to that which we are upon That which we are upon is That the
THE COMMAND OF God to his People TO COME OUT OF BABYLON Revel 18. 4. DEMONSTRATED To mean the Coming out of the Present PAPAL ROME With a most Earnest Perswasive to All to Come out who are in it and a Dissuasive from looking back if come out or Entertaining any Alliance with That Communion And herewith a Calculation of the Time the Papacy can according to this Prophecy Continue is given On Solemn Proof notwithstanding the known Variety and Contrariety of Judgments and former Mis-Computations It can survive but Nine or Ten Years in its Present State. Printed in the Year 1688. To the Reader THe People of this Nation professing the Protestant Religion are in danger to be surrounded with all Methods of Insinuation and Seduction to entertain the Popish Leaven which how little soever it appears in Bulk and how small a Proportion soever in number of Persons compared with Protestants it is rated at it yet undoubtedly hopes to Leaven the whole Lump of the Nation claiming to it self the Privilege of the truly Catholic Christianity to which it can no more than pretend The Romanists do not only seem to themselves to be but likewise glory as being on the higher ground tho' infinitely as it may be in general Expression said inferiour to the Protestants in Arguments of Scripture Reason and Antiquity Yet while they offer Argument for Argument Objection for Objection Answer for Answer All Men and at all times are not so wise to see know and be firmly perswaded for Truth against Errors especially when Deceptions are flank'd with hopes of advantage on one side and fears of disadvantage on the other which the Supreme Prince hath in His hand to distribute on each side At the best the Controversie seems to depend and to be like to depend while the World stands as thus menag'd but if indeed the Word of God having plainly foreseen the state of things and the Roman Obstinacy and Impenitence to the last hath given the Pourtracture of Romanism in its full Proportion so that it may be known and understood of all who will apply their Minds to the Consideration This cuts off all further Dispute and all its specious Pretences and seeming Arguments and the Vails thrown over its Superstition Idolatry and Blood are thin Lawns under which may be seen plainly the City and the Beast described in the Revelation Now no Arguments against it can be like this nor sooner make an end of the Controversie nor more secure Persons from being tempted to revert to that Vomit the Nation hath cast out nor more effectually perswade out of that Congregation and Assembly those who are now in the midst of it altho it seems to Fare much with the Generality of them as with those of whom Solomon speaks who falling into a deep Ditch as abhorred of God They seldom return again and take hold of the ways of Life for such Guests are in the Depths of Hell. And because it concerns them who are the Votaries of that Religion to wipe off this great Blot that Prophecy I make no doubt to say I have demonstrated hath laid upon them And because too many Protestants are not willing to think so severely of them as this Prophecy Imports nor to judge the way of Prophecy proper to deal with them and because particularly One of a publick Ecclesiastic Character seems to take upon himself us an Umpire between Protestancy and Popery and like the Days-man in Job lays his hand on both I therefore desire any of those persons laying aside Passion in which soever of these Classes to make void what I call Demonstration and to render my Speech nothing worth For I would only surprize in the first place this one Objection viz. That the Greek Churches and the whole Train of Churches that follow them are either omitted by Prophecy or must be condemned as under the Apostasie with the Romanists although they have denyed and do deny the Roman Supremacy Infallibility and come not up at least to their Transubstantiation and its Idolatry But it is most Evident Prophecy hath not omitted them nor does yet charge them so deep in the Apostasie as the Roman Church though it does severely Censure them of too sad a Part in it It does not omit them For the Two Wings of the Great Eagle that bear the Church into the Wilderness the very Expression of the Apostasie though Including the mysterious Providence of God in things also do so plainly Import the Eastern and Western Empire that they define For all these things see the Line of Time. the Time of the Apostacy beginning within the space after Theodosius the Great and Augustulus For at no other time had that Empire its Two Wings so distinct as from his Death to the Cessation of the Western Empire It also Represents the Eastern and Western Apostatizing Hierarchies by the Two Horns of the Other Beast that spake like a Dragon though Horn'd as a Lamb that joyn'd in making the Image to the Grand Roman Beast and to Cause it to Speak and to Cause c. Revel 13. All which was notably fulfilled in the Grecian Affectation of Universality by John the Patriarch of Constantinople laying the Foundation of that Tyrannous Title which Phocas the Grecian Emperour soon after decreed to Rome and its Bishop and the Grecian Counsel of Nice together with the Bishops of the West establishing Image Worship is much more Notorious An. 787. On All which the Judgment of God in the Two Mahometan Woes of the Saracens and of the Turks fell so heavy on them That under the Ignorance Barbarity Superstition Poverty and the total Destruction of the Grecian Empire by the Mahometans Those Churches and All Dependent on them lye at this Day though not so deep in the Apostasie as the Romanists expecting the Resurrection of the Witnesses So many as are truly the Church of Christ and then the passing away of that Turkish Woe For the last of those Woes still keeps them down And only those who shall after that continue Impenitent will be in danger of Rome's last Judgment All which are sufficient Notices of Prophecy concerning them and of their Elevation in the Apostasie not of Rome's Degrees This Objection then Fore-clos'd let Him that can make void what I have said concerning Rome For that this Prophecy of the Revelation is a Book of Sense no one that looks into it and hath Sense himself can deny any more than that Euclid's Propositions are so though not understood by the most And I doubt not the generality of Hands into which this Discourse may fall believe it to be Divine But many believe also That the Divine Author did not design to be understood at least till some other state of Times I do acknowledge it hath in his wise Disposal lay much hid from Ages and Generations but that he hath given Leave Encouragement and Assistance to the understanding it I will use in this place no other Argument
particular Evidences of that Divine Reason nor with those vigorous Emotions of Zeal against such an unclean Communion as this Prophecy rightly apprehended would arm us with For certainly The Pen of this Divine Scribe was not made in vain I will therefore use the highest Diligence of Research and close Enquiry into the Prophecy concerning the City and the Times appointed to it and then concerning the Comming out of it and enforce the Charge here given to come out of it and all this as peculiarly deriv'd from this Holy Oracle in comparison of which all the Streams deriv'd from Antiquity are Low and Flat in shewing the Great Abominations of that City But Blessed is he that Readeth and They who Hear the Words of this Prophecy for now the Time is more at hand as to what we are now to Treat of than when the Oracle was first given although each part of this Prophecy was in its own Time and Order at Hand according to the Line wherein each Thing was to come to pass and which Line began in the Things that were first to come to pass and did come to pass from the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ which are but one Time in the Account of Prophecy as we say in Law The whole of each Term is but one Day and from thence the Revelation is dated as from its Epoch or Beginning-Point First therefore concerning the City there are such Characters as undeniably assure us This City can be no other than the City Rome that is here thus describ'd The City resembled by a Woman a not only Imperious but Charact. 1. Imperial whorish Woman is plainly Expounded by the Angel to be a City And it is usual in Prophecy to Figure Cities by that Embleme of a Woman and not only Cities but Churches as Revel c. 17. c. 18. Zion by a Woman grieved in Spirit the True Church in this Prophecy is often Typ'd by a Woman the New Jerusalem by the Bride the Lambs Wife And Adulterous Churches by Adulterous Women as Aholiab and Aholibah are the Pictures of Samaria Ezek. 23. and Jerusalem both as Adulterous Cities and Churches But this Woman this Imperial and Imperious whorish Woman is affirm'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all the Emphasis and Force of Expression that can be The City The Great That hath now saith the Apostle John that I am in writing it at this very present Time the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth Now a City that had then the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth undeniably imported a Capital City the Seat of an Vniversal Monarchy at that Time. For as a Monarch hath in the very nature of a Monarch all subordinate Magistrates under him and accountable to Him so an Universal Monarchy hath States and Kingdoms under it that however in their particular Kingdoms They may be over and above all others yet still their Power is Limitable and accountable to and may be Appealed from to the Universal Monarchy and Power When therefore This City is said to be The City The Great Having at that Time a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth It is to say the City spoken of was at the Time when the Revelation was given the Seat of an Vniversal Monarchy and that some Supreme Power had its Imperial Residence there took its Title from that City exercis'd its Power under that Title and as the then present Head of that City bore up the City by such Title so that it is said to have a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth because such a Power so related to it had a Kingdom over all other Kingdoms far and near or had such an Universal Monarchy or Kingdom Now what City that was that had then a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth in the sense now declared besides the Notices of Universal History in that matter it is most evident from Scripture that it must be even that very City Rome for Augustus at that time the Emperour of Rome when our Lord was Born made a Decree that All the World viz. the World of the Roman Empire which Aspir'd as it were to equal the very Habitable Earth in Extent should come under a particular Census Luc. 2. 1. or be describ'd that so an Account of the large Bounds of the Dominion the Numerousness Strength and Riches of the Subjects might be render'd to Him. We read in the History of the Acts of the Apostles how great the Honour was for any City to be accounted a Member of that City that its Natives might be the Free-Born of that City It made such a City no mean City The Immunity of being so Free-born was so great that many purchas'd it at an exceeding Rate who had it not by Birth We find the Apostle Paul though he was a Jew and immediately subject to the Jewish Law yet as it were directed by an Impulse of Providence Appeals to Caesar's Tribunal as the Highest upon Earth These and many other Expressions assure us what City it was that at the Acts 22. 28 Time Reigned over the Kings of the Earth And it was very necessary the Scripture that loves most in all weighty matters to be serv'd by its own Records should take this great Notice of the Roman Empire Because as the Fourth Monarchy it was of the Four the most Remarkable For in it Dan. 7. the Kingdom of Messiah that is to be so Universal a Monarchy indeed began to be set up in its Beginning and will in the End of the same Roman Monarchy be a Dominion under the whole Heaven given to the Saints of the most High the first of which is Accounted for in the History of the New Testament and the Last in this Grand Prophecy of it the Revelation But further to carry on the Certainty of this City being the City Rome at the time the Apostle John wrote the Revelation we may observe what is so well known That there was no Change in the State of the Roman Empire except a greater Enlargement of it from the Days of Christ and the Apostles to the Time of the writing the Revelation by the Apostle John. So that when This City is declar'd to be the City that Reign'd over the Kings of the Earth it is most evident Rome was the City intended It is therefore called the Great City according to the manner Charact. 2. of speaking at that Time Roma Sacra Augusta Aeterna Rome the Sacred the Imperial the Everlasting Rome How often therefore doth the Revelation style it the Great City and Babylon the Great and The City and The Great This Woman is said to sit on Seven Mountains And the Holy Charact. 3. Spirit is so Industrious if I may so speak with Reverence to give this Notice of the Famous Seven-Hill'd Rome that it goes out of its way to give it For whereas the Beast only and not the Woman is Entitled to the Seven Heads Besides the
of it as the Vision of the c. 17. does For He as King having Power of Life and Death those whom He Kills lye in the Street of his Great Emperial City So then the City and the Beast are here first so nearly conjoyn'd and so again c. 17. How then comes the Tenth of this Great City to Fall whatever we understand by it for I will not now dispute that How comes it to Fall I say when It sits on the Beast It could not be if the Beast Himself did not Sink and how could He Sink if His Fourty two Months were not out For so long was given Him by Prophecy which in another Character is call'd Time Times and Half a Time and as apply'd to the Witnesses Three Days and a Half in Imitation of our Lord 's three Days in the Grave Till the Morning then of the Half Time and Day there could be no such Alteration in his Kingdom as the Reformation made and till that Time of the Forty two Months fully exhausted when the Twelve hundred sixty Days End also in the Rising and Glory of the Witnesses There cannot be a Fall of the Tenth of the City which He bears up the Grandeur of And to shew farther that this Beast that Slays the Witnesses is the same with the Beast c. 17. It is made known by that certain Mark of it the Ascending out of the Bottomless Pit and that we may know they are both the same with the Beast who hath the Fourty two Months c. 13. He makes War with the Saints who are the Seed of the Woman and Hold the Testimony of Jesus C. 12. Vlt. or are the Witnesses being thereunto Deputed by the Dragon who gave him his Throne and Great Authority and He that Beast is Taken c. 19. as is foretold also c. 13. He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity And the Ten Kings who give him their Power who make War with the Lamb and He overcomes them are Kill'd with the Sword of his Mouth c. 19. as was foretold c. 13. He that killeth with the Sword shall be killed with the Sword. All which farther Assure together with what hath been said before That It is one and the same Beast throughout the Prophecy of the Revelation viz. the Seventh Head of the Roman Empire and its Eighth King to whom the Ten Kings as Horns give their Power The second Oracle given us concerning the Period of the Forty two Months is c. 17. God hath put into the Heart of the Ten Kings to Do his Will or execute his Determination and to execute and perform One Determination untill the Words of God shall be fulfilled Now this Counsel Determination and Will of God is that which is explain'd what it is It is even that they should Give their Kingdom and Power to the Beast And how long Vntill the words of God shall be fulfill'd And Those words were declar'd c. 13. Authority was given to Him as a Beast of Ten Horns to continue Forty two Months The great Event therefore at the End of the Forty two Months is That then the Ten Kings shall Hate the Whore and make her Desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with Fire From whence it is evident how close the Union is between the City call'd the Whore and the Beast For while the Kings give their Power to the Beast they bear up the Beast who bears up the City while they fulfill the Decree of God for the Beasts Forty two Months They are One in giving Him their Kingdom and Power and so long They are drunk with the Wine of the Whores Fornication But when those Words are fulfill'd and those Forty Two Months then They hate the Whore and then this Tenth of the Great City Falls viz. the whole Circle of the Power given by these Ten Horns or Ten Kings who now Recall their Power from the Beast and that Tenthness of Power Falls also For however the Grammar of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not bear such an Exposition of it as should signifie the Ten King'd Power yet the Prophecy of Daniel in the Ten Toes of the Image the Ten Horns of the Beast and The whole Frame of the Prophecy of the Revelation concerning the Beast his Ten Horns or Ten Kings does forcibly oversway the nicety of Grammar and carries the Prophecy to this Sense and much the rather because as hath been argued The Twelve hundred sixty Days will be then ended and the Words of God fulfilled concerning the Bestian Power which lay so much in its Horns or Ten Kings persecuting the Witnesses Let us now recollect the Summ of this Argument in the Proof it gives The Argument runs thus The Roman City or Church sits on the Beast or Eighth Kimg who hath been in Possession of the Time allotted him by Prophecy so long as from the Seventh other King of a short space after the sixth King that was in the Apost John's Time till now within nine or ten Years of the Expiration of that Time as a Time allowable to remain for the fulfilling of All Events This is the Beast or eighth King bearing up that Rome whether City or Church out of which Gods People are Called But the present City or Church of Rome sitting upon the Pope is and hath been in that Possession so long That Time so allotted is expresly said to be Fourty two Months those Months must be Prophetical Months or Days for Years Those Months must be Time of the Moon and not of the Sun. Those Months being time of the Moon given by Prophecy must be taken and applyed to time of the Sun given by the same prophecy that they may be rated and known what time They contain According to the exactest Computation that can be made Fourty two Months apply'd to Twelve hundred sixty Days for Years must be Twelve hundred twenty two Days for Years that is Twelve hundred twenty two Years The Epoch or Beginning then of these Months fixed at the Cessation of the Christian Emperour the prophetical Seventh King which was in the Year of our Lord 475 must needs reach to the Year 1697. The Twelve hundred sixty Days or Years both of the Witnesses and of the Woman ending necessarily at the same time for the one cannot out-last the other must begin thirty eight Years before the Months viz. 437. But because the Witnesses could not be supposed to put on their Sackcloth without just Occasion given the Gentiles under the other Beast Treading the Holy Court must have begun their Fourty two Months when the Twelve hundred sixty Days of the Witnesses Sackcloth and the Womans Wilderness State began also viz. 437. It is no matter what became of the Gentiles Fourty two Months after the Beast first Risen and grown up to his Image and Power to enforce the Worship of it and the receiving his Mark Name or of the Number of his Name viz. at 725 his Famous 666. For then
that we enforce the Command it self to come out of it by particular Inferences from it For hence It appears how necessary It is for Christians in general Infer 1. to know and to take notice that there is such an Apostacy from Christian Religion disguised under the Name of Catholick Christianity that hath concentred it self in Rome under the name of an Vniversal Church and in such a Head of it as the Pope under the name of Head of the Church and Vicar of Christ The Apostle not only speaking Face to Face Not only when with them but by Epistle when at distance from them writing to the Thessalonians thought it a point of great Moment and of deepest Interest to inform them of it and to possess them of it and in them all Christians Learned or Unlearned And the Love of God the Father gave the Revelation to Jesus Christ to shew it to his Servants as containing this as One of the greatest Points of it viz. Concerning this Apostasie the Seat and Residence of it this Prostituted Church and City and the Beast the Prince of it It can therefore be no such mysterious or unnecessary Doctrine as It is generally suppos'd but hath its greatest and most Fundamental Uses That the true Christianity may by the Compare be more known and understood in its true Beauty and Excellency being a Pure Solid Even Supreme Extract and Cube given from the Increated Unerring Wisdom of God in the Face of Jesus Christ Divine Heavenly Spiritual Pure and Chaste Full of Mercy and of all good Fruits But Popery is an Irregular Odd Traditional Christianity made up of Idolatrous and Superstitious Rites Pomp Riches and Pleasures of Sensuality All of the present Evil World full of Rage Cruelty and Blood against All who do not swallow their monstrous Articles of Faith and submit to that slavery of their Antichristian Government To keep men therefore wholly to that Excellent Rule of the Word of God in Doctrine Worship and Practice and under that most merciful Discipline it is necessary to know the Goodness of the One by the Badness of the other That one Grand Reason of the so sad Imprevalency of so excellent a Religion as the Religion of Jesus Christ might be understood The great Eclipse of it is by so foul an Apostacy and Mystery of Iniquity casting so black a shade upon it and such a Cloud of Tares upon the Field of Wheat And this hath so universally obscured Christianity and allay'd its Supreme Excellency and turn'd it into so worldly a Religion that it neither hath nor can be Refin'd to it self till that whole Apostasie be consum'd out of the World And then but not till then there will be another Face of Christianity And this is necessary to be known to abate the Scandal That the dark Interposition between the Kingdom of Jesus Christ according to all the Prophecies of Scripture due to him at his Resurrection and the glory of it may be duely apprehended For the Mystery of Iniquity work'd early that it might arise to the taking away the true daily Sacrifice of Christian Religion and scattering the power of the Holy People for Time Times and half a Time. Now this is most necessary to be known to take off the Scandal of so many Massive Prophecies and Promises as were to ensue on the Kingdom of the Messiah both in relation to the Jews and to the whole World of Mankind not yet come to pass but we ought against it deeply to consider There was to be forty two months of the Gentiles and of the Beast running parallel to the twelve hundred sixty days Sackcloth of the Witnesses and the wilderness-Wilderness-state of the Church all which was to be by the Fathers own Appointment who reserv'd Times even as that Day and Hour in his own Cognisance or Right of Dispose before the Kingdom of Christ and the glorious Accomplishment of the Prophecies such as Esay 2. 1. Zech. 14. with innumerable more which being so peculiar to that Kingdom cannot be adjourn'd to the Day of Judgment as generally understood For then Christ shall render up the Kingdom to God and the Father and God shall be All in All. There arises in the wise Ordination of God a mutual Justification of the Prophecy by the Separation from Rome upon the general Principles and Rules of the Word of God without close and strict and express Attendance to the Prophecy or deriving Directions from that for how is the Prophecy honour'd and vindicated in commanding to Come out of that City and Church which Holy Wise and Conscientious Christians see Reason and just Grounds from its extream Pollutions in Doctrine Worship and Practice and the Imperiousness of its Tyranny to come out from although they did not understand Prephecy so commanding them And how could Prophecy be either understood or fulfill'd if Things were not so bad upon such Fundamental Accounts How could it be verified that Prophecy were so to be interpreted if there were not so great Reasons for Coming out supposing there had been no such Prophecy On the other side How is the Separation justified by the Prophecy thus rightly expounded and interpreted For who might not scruple that so great and so long an Apostacy should grow up out of the Profession of Christianity and that the Prophecy of the New Testament should not have seen and foretold it So that it were without this Reason also hardly to be believed with that firmness and full Assurance that now it is viz. that such an Apostacy is And why should there be no easier a Remedy might men say than a Separation so solemn and avowed a Separation if there were not the Grand Prejudice against so guilty a Community that Prophecy hath long ago pass'd upon it There ought at least to be all means of Reconciliation perpetually us'd And who could believe they should be so long after so many Debates ineffectual if there had not been a Prophecy commanding the People of God to come out of it and not to expect its Repentance So that either it would not have been so bad as to necessitate such a Separation or we may be certain there is Prophecy concerning it Such a Prophecy and such an Apostacy undoubtedly belong to and interlock one within another Lastly what greater or better Determination of these everlasting Disputes than to seek into Divine Prophecy and to find them determin'd and decided so long ago by it against that prostituted Church and mystical City and on the side of the Separation This certainly in the nature of the Thing must surer and more speedily make an end of Controversie than those endless Combatings out of Antiquity for when all the Incertainties of the ways of Discourse among the Ancients may leave us in an Amaze and bewildred the Testimonies of God are sure Again Those Ancients might be deceived as Men but the Rightousness of Divine Oracles is Everlasting yea how great Certainty do these Prophetick parts