the rest of the Apostles but the particular Fates and States of that Kingdom were never known till Christ revealed them to S. Iohn in the Apocalyptical Visions The like I say of the Fourth or Roman Kingdom the general revelation whereof could not but be before the opening of the sealed Book in the Apocalyps since it had then been so long a time in the world as it was grown past the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had fulfilled what it was to fulfil upon Daniel's people 4. As for the Persecutions of the Church I deny the argument either of the Seals or Trumpets to be the Roman persecutions of Christ's Kingdom or that any of them have reference to persecutions save the Fifth Seal only or that any thing contained in them was made known to Daniel save the Catastrophe only represented in the last Trumpet which the Angelus tonitruum proclaims there to be Consummatio Mysterii Dei prout annunciavit servis suis Prophetis The finishing of the Mystery of God as he hath declared to his servants the Prophets and therefore cannot be denied to have been both foretold and expected for the general although not for the Manner Time and Order in serie rerum gerundarum till now 5. Howsoever my Tenet here be yet your Assertion That the Romans persecution was revealed to none till Christ revealed it to Iohn cannot stand unless you deny the coming of the man of sin who is a limb of that Kingdom to be any part of the Churche's afflictions For this was revealed unto S. Paul both for the quality and the fall thereof viz. That Christ should destroy it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I make no doubt but S. Paul learned out of the seventh of Daniel where that ruffling Horn also is not destroyed until the Son of man comes in the clouds of heaven to receive that Universal Kingdom which shall never suffer persecution 6. But whereas you say that the ruffling Horn of the Fourth Beast is Antiochus Epiphanes I demonstrate the contrary by this one Argument The ruffling Horn reigns until the Ancient of days comes in fiery flames to destroy him and to give judgment unto the Saints of the most High and until the time comes that the Saints possessed the Kingdom viz. until the Son of man comes in the clouds of heaven to receive a Kingdom wherein all Nations People and Languages should serve and obey him Daniel 7. verses 9 10 11 13 expounded ver 22 26 c. But Antiochus Epiphanes reigned not until this time for he died 160 years and more before the Birth of Christ and almost 200 years before his Ascension the least of which numbers is a longer space of time than was from the death of Alexander unto Antiochus Ergò Antiochus Epiphanes is not that ruffling Horn. The changing of Times and Laws whereby the power of this Horn is described is an Oriental phrase to express potestatem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor are Times here to be taken in so abstract a notion but concretely for status rerum tempora varianâ—ium or Res quibus variatur status temporum as are mutationes Rerumpub regiminis rerum Times for things done in time whereby the Times are altered such as are the alterations of States and Governments According to which notion Dan. 2. 21. it is said of God that he changeth times and seasons he removeth Kings and setteth up Kings and I Chron. 29. 30. that the Acts of David were written in the Books of Samuel Nathan and Gad the Seers with all his reign and his might and the times that went over him and over Israel and over all the Kingdoms of the Countries And whether the Pope if I say he is that Horn took not upon him a power of changing such Times as these I shall not need to tell you And yet take Times in your own Notion and it would make a shift to fit him as well as Antiochus To your Second Position The proof of your Second Position That the Fourth Beast Dan. 7. is not able sufficiently to express the Roman Empire is in the mainest part Petitio principii wherein that is taken for granted which is in question For you take for granted that the Type of the Roman Empire in the Apocalyps borrows his Ten horns from Daniel's fourth Beast as a distinct Beast from it But I say he borrows them not they are his own proper and native horns Daniel's Beast and he being one and the same Beast I grant that the Apocalyptical Beast for the shape of his body is beholding to Daniel's three first Beasts but that he borroweth any from the fourth I deny Nor do Horns more or fewer distinguish the species of a Beast For in the Apocalyps there is a Lamb with seven horns and a Lamb with two horns and yet for kind a Lamb still So Daniel's He-goat had first one horn and afterward four horns and yet the same Goat still c. The correspondence in number of the several Heads of Daniel's four Beasts put together with the seven heads of the Apocalyptical Beast is but casual Neither can it be proved that the Fourth of Daniel's Beasts had but one head as is here to be supposed for the third Beast hath the four heads and the other three but one a piece For the mentioning of the Head which bore the ten horns in the singular number Verse 20. proves no more it had but one head than the mentioning of mouth likewise in the singular number Apoc. 13. ver 2 5 6. proves the Apocalyptical Beast had buâ— one mouth For indeed the Ten horns were all upon one head as well in the Apocalyptical Beast viz. upon the seventh or uppermost head as in Daniel's Beast and the mouth of the Apocalyptical Beast was the mouth also of the seventh head to act the state of which head S. Iohn saw him rise out of the Sea c. And whereas you speak of an insufficient expression of the Roman Empire by Daniel's Fourth Beast you may perceive by that I have said before that it would well enough agree with my Principles to grant it my Tenet being That the Fourth Beast should not be so distinctly with all accoutrements revealed unto Daniel as it was unto S. Iohn because the specification of the several States and Fates thereof was yet sealed and unrevealed And the third Kingdom was not so distinctly revealed to Daniel in the Leopard Chap. 7. as it was two years after to the same Daniel in the great He-goat Chap. 8. c. The dispensation of God in these Revelations is to be measured according to his pleasure and the use of the Church c. But it is now three a clock and I have no more time I had much rather confer of these things by word of mouth wherein perhaps I could give better satisfaction Conference by writing is wont to multiply it self into so much paper as takes away a great deal of my
How could this be but from Divine inspiration when S. Iohn as the rest of the Apostles was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and far enough from skill in Algebraical subtilties 2. That the Virgin-Company which follow and carry the mark of the Lamb and the Synagogue of the Beast which follow him and receive his mark are evidently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even secundùm literam besides their meaning not obscure namely That the one represents the true Church the other the Anti-church or Church of Antichrist If therefore Mr. Potter had fetched the Number of the true Church from this Virgin-Company perhaps his discovery of the Mystery of the Anti-numerus of the Beast would have appeared more evident and convincing For though the Number of the Wall of the New Ierusalem import as much as the Number of Christ's Church yet it doth it but remotely many things being first requisite to be granted by way of Postulata and therefore obscurely in comparison of the Number of the Virgin-Company I wonder therefore what the reason is he never mentions or alludes to this Number throughout the whole Treatise nay he affirms twice that the Number 144 is only to be found in the 21. chap. of the Apocalyps Which is true indeed in Unities but in Thousands not Was it the Thousands that would have troubled him in his way That Solertia which with so much happiness broke through greater difficulties would soon have mastered this Or is it some interpretation he hath of that Vision which was not compatible therewith Thus I mused and reasoned with my self 3. In his answering of what might be objected concerning the Root of 666 and in particular when he gives reasons why the Holy Ghost intending the Root 25 amongst all the Numbers which might have been taken to that purpose between 625 and 676 should pitch upon 666 rather than any of the rest I saw a door open to save the life of mine own conceit of that Number That the Holy Ghost would intimate thereby that the Antichristian State should be an imitation of the Sixth head of the Roman Seven-headed Beast rather than the off-spring of the Apostles and therefore made his Number all of Sixes But the matter is not great whether it be saved or not if a better come in the room of it You would have me send Mr. Potter's Treatise to 'T is true he is skilled in Mathematicks in which respect it may be the named him but so vehemently prejudiced and professed against that Tenet of the Pope being Antichrist that it would be to small purpose if he could be gotten to read it which I believe he would hardly be I have no confidence in the strongest demonstration against a man that is prejudiced and engaged in the contrary Nay 't is strange how unwilling all men are to read any Discourse this way I carried Mr. Potter's Book to some opposite otherwise to and no enemies to that Tenet I commended it desired them to peruse it told them it was that would please them they delighting in Mathematical Speculations related to them the summe of the Contents and Grounds thereof and whatsoever might allure them I left it with them a competent time yet when I went to fetch it and know their opinion they had not read one leaf thereof nay gave me less hope than that they would then at the first and instead thereof made Exceptions against something I had told them out of it What should I hope then of men professedly opposite and passionate or if you will impatient besides and so less tractable If any man would tell of it and that in such a manner as might work in him a desire to see it I would be most willing to communicate my Copy with him which I took some care to be so transcribed as might allure a reader dividing it into certain Sections and prefixing the Contents of them in the beginning of the Book with other distinctions but altered nothing in the context of the Author I caused the Figures to be drawn according to art the hand reasonable neat and promising no trouble to the Reader well pointed throughout c. By this you may see I was willing to have it read Thus I have scribled somewhat with an ill pen and an ill hand If it be such as you can read and will excuse it is enough I send back your Letters with thanks And so with my best respect and prayers I rest Christ's Coll. May 23. 1638. Yours in all friendly affection Ioseph Mede EPISTLE LXXIV Dr. Twisse's Fifteenth Letter to Mr. Mede about Mr. Potter's Book and the Holiness of Times and Places with some reflexions upon a Passage in the Inscription of his Discourse upon 1 Cor. 11. 22. as also an Extract of Mr. Potter's Letter relating to some passages in Mr. Mede's Letter touching the Number 666. Dear Sir I Think my self happy that I am the medius Terminus to convey Passages between you and Mr. Potter I received this Letter from him but on Friday last which here I send you enclosed wherein you will find him to rest satisfied with that you write concerning as also how well he is satisfied with that of yours having nothing to except against ought but rather you extended that which he delivered somewhat farther than he intended it You see he is desirous to see the division of his Book into Sections made by your hands and marginal Annotations and what else you can hear objected by any against it I pray satisfie him as far as it lieth in your power He is a very meek and ingenuous man and now you see what way lie his studies I would you would imploy him in ought that you shall find needful for I find him very desirous to gratifie any friend As I wrote to him about some things which what they were I know not but he hath promised to answer unto all He is exceeding studious in his way But is it not possible to get his Book turned into Latine in your Vniversity especially this Vacation-time and things standing as they do with you I have lately received a Book from you by the hands of Mr. Hartlib for which I heartily thank you The Title you give in your Dedication Sublati discriminis inter sacrum profanum Assertori eximio I doubt will do you wrong with many and make them to conceive that the sacrum profanum you speak of is in your account only in respect of Place and not at all in respect of Time But I know the contrary which makes me wonder at it the more I had recourse unto you about the Holiness of Places long ago meerly for information and I was then as abrasa tabula apt to receive ought that I saw reason for But to this hour I am not satisfied whether the fault be in my Understanding or in my Affections God knows or in the insufficiency of Evidence convincing And that my Affection should sway me I have this
City taken by Totilas and a third part thereof demolished and the rest left for a while memorandum Fortunae ludibrium without an inhabitant and lastly the Ostrogothish Kingdom which a while as a blaze continued the light of the dying Caesars in Italy by Narses utterly extinguished WOE WOE WOE The Fifth Trumpet is the First Woe and brings the Saracen Locusts upon the world proceeding out of the smoaky and darkning Seduction of Mahomâ—t conjured up by the Angel of the bottomless pit who though a warlike people and well armed yet had not power to destroy either the State of Caesars in New Rome or the Papal Principality sprung out of the Empire 's ruine in the Old but only Scorpion-like to torment and vex them as their Tail or hindermost Troups out of Africk did Italy and Western Rome 150 years The Sixth Trumpet is the Second Woe and brings upon the Roman Provinces the barbarous and dreadful â—nâ—ndation of the Turks loosing them from the great River Euphrates where they had been long before prepared and now let go as a plague for the Idolatry of Christians 〈◊〉 only as the Saracen Locusts to plague and torment the Roman State buâ— in part tâ— utterly slay and destroy it as they have done in the Empire of Greece which the Saracens had no power to do The Seventh and Last Trumpet is yet to come the entrance whereof is the Last Woe wherein all the Reliques of the Roman Beast with the last Principality of the City of Rome yet surviving shall together with the rest of the enemies of Christ be utterly abolished in the Great Day of Armagedden that all the Kingdoms of the world may become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Ch. 11. 15. Note that when the Angel comes at the Seventh Trumpet because the Event thereof is the common issue to both Prophecies he therefore suspends it a while till he hath fetch'd up Chap. 11. a transcurrent and through-running Vision of the Second Prophecy unto it and then joyns them together in one and the same close The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. The Second Prophecy The Opened Book containing Fata Ecclesiae I. By the Inmost and Measured Court of the Temple I understand the Church in her Primitive Purity whenas yet the Christian Worship was unprophaned and answerable to the Divine Rule revealed from above By the War between Michael and the Dragon about the Woman 's manly Off-spring contemporary with the Measured Court I understand that long and bloudy Combate which Christ our Lord animating with his Spirit his undaunted Souldiers fought with the Devil possessing and reigning in the Ethnick Roman State that is the Times of the Primitive Persecution by the Heathen Emperors a War lasting long and costing the lives of many a valiant Martyr yet at 300 years end when a Christian was installed in the Imperial Throne the old Dragon was dismounted and overthrown and the Souldiers of Christ our Lord prevailed For they overcame him by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and loved not their lives unto the death Note that the Description of this Vision is double in the Text 1. more General The Dragon's endeavour to destroy the Woman's Off-spring from ver 1. to the 7. verse 2. more Particular of his Battel with Michael the Woman's Champion For that these two Descriptions are of the same thing and same time is manifest in that one and the same Event The Woman's escape into the Wilderness is the Consequent to them both II. 1. By the Second or Outward Court trampled by the Gentiles and not to be measured I understand the Apostasie under the Man of Sin when the Visible Church being possessed by Idolaters and Idolatry like that of the Gentiles became so inconformable and unapt for Divine measure that it was to be cast out and accounted as prophane and polluted For the Apostasie of the Church is Ethnicismus Christianus 2. By the Witnesses in sack-cloth I understand the mournful Prophecy of God's true Ministers during all that time who when toward the end of their days of mourning they should be about to put off their sack-cloth and leave their lamentation seeing the Truth they witnessed beginning to take place by publick Reformation the Beast which ascends out of the Abyss shall slay them and rejoyce over them as dead three days and an half that is so many years 3. By the Woman in the Wilderness Ch. 12. I understand the condition of the true Church in respect of her Latency and Invisibility to the eyes of man As the Israelites when they had escaped the rage and gotten out of the reach of the Egyptian Pharaoh yet lived a long time after but in a Wilderness an infrequent and barren place where they could not have lived without being extraordinarily fed with Manna from Heaven Such was the condition of the Apostolical Woman and Church of Christ when she had escaped the rage and fury of the Dragon persecuting in the Seven-headed Empire 4. By the Virgin-Company of the 144000 Sealed ones I understand the opposite State of the unstained Church unto the Kingdom of Apostasie in their sincerity of Service and faithful adherence to their Lord and Master whilst the rest worshipped the Beast and his Image These are those who when the Trumpets were to sound were secured by the Mark of Divine protection lest their Society should have been extinguished in those Calamities which then fell upon the Empire How could this Holy Company else but have perished in such Confusions In that place they were represented by the Tribes of Israel for the present Church of the Gentiles is but Israel surrogatus and so by God accounted until the Fulness of the Gentiles come in 5. By the Seven-headed Ten-horned Beast the Two horned False-Prophet and Babylon the Mother of Harlots I understand the State and Kingdom of Apostasie according to three subordinate parts thereof 1. The Body 2. the Head 3. the Seat For Kingdoms especially of the ancient form consisted of three parts Regnum Rex Metropolis Regni So in the Kingdom of Apostasie for such it was to be are Regnum Apostaticum Rex Apostaticus Metropolis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Kingdom of Apostasie was to be the Roman Empire upon a deadly wound of the Caesarean Sovereignty shivered into a Plurality of Kingdoms yet all joyntly as one Body anew acknowledging the Motherdom of the Roman City This is that Seven-headed Beast with Ten crowned Horns upon the Seventh Head whereof S. Iohn speaks Chap. 13. whose description there I understand as if he had said I saw a Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns with Diadems which upon the recovery of a deadly wound in one of his Heads arose out of the Sea and succeeded in the Throne Power and
Authority of the Dragon blaspeming God by another Idolatrous worship and warring at length against his Saints and overcoming them This I would call Antichristendom Rex Apostaticus The King of this Apostatical Kingdom is the Two-horned False-Prophet the Roman Bishop who also is the Founder thereof forasmuch as by lying Signs and Wonders establishing a new-coined Idolatry therein he made it to be a living Resemblance or Image of the Kingdom of the Caesars in Ethnicism when the Dragon ruled Observe here that in Ch. 13. 14. those last words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not the words of the Beast speaking but of S. Iohn relating the Event of his speech And so the Interpretation will be plain The Metropolis of this Kingdom is Mystical Babylon that is the See and City of Rome of the Spouse of Christ become a Babylonish Strumpet This is the Mother of Harlots that is the Metropolis of the Brothel-Cities and Lady of the Apostatical Kingdom whose Kings commit fornication with her For the Beast she rides upon is the new-formed Beast which arose out of the Sea with Ten crowned Horns the meaning whereof the Angel here expoundeth and thereby openeth an entrance to the whole Prophecy which till now was nothing but an involved Mystery The Whore's Beast Chap. 17. The Whore's Beast is that Kingdom which in S. Iohn's time had Five Successive Heads already past One that of the Caesars in present being but the Last or Seventh wearing Ten Horns which was yet to come was that under which the Where should ride him Hence comes the Angel's Riddle The Beast which was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit The Beast that was and is not and yet shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Beast or State that had then been in the course of Five or Six Seals but in the Seventh was yet to come Some read the last expression of the Riddle thus The Beast that was and is not and yet is that is The Beast that had already been in the course of Five of his Heads was not then in that State of Sovereignty in which the Whore should ride him and yet was even then in S. Iohn's time in present being in the Sixth Head the Caesars then reigning The Seven Heads of the Beast are by the Angel made a double Type both of the Seven Hills where the Woman â—iâ—teth and of the Seven Sovereignties with which in a successive order the Beast should reign This is a pair of Fetters to tie both Beast and Whore to Western Rome The Seven Sovereignties must not be separated from the Seven Hills nor the Seven Hills from as many Sovereignties Constantinople may have so many Hills but those Hills had never so many Sovereignties In other Cities where the Sovereign Roman Name or but the Name hath reigned are neither so many Hills nor ever were those Seven succeeding Sovereignties By these Fetters we shall hold this Proteus-like and flitting Beast fast enough The Last Head of the Beast is indeed but the Seventh for the Beast we see hath no more Heads than Seven in the Vision yet for some respect is an Eighth namely because the Sixth Head the Sovereignty of Caesars that Head which in S. Iohn's time was declined at length to a Demi-Caesar confined to the West beginning with Honorius or if you will sooner till after a short time it failed upon the death of the last Valentinian which being in some sort diverse from the former takes the Seventh place and makes the False-Prophet the Eighth But being as in name so in substance the same Caesar with the former the False-Prophet in whose time the Whore rides the Beast is still in order the Seventh 2. The False-Prophet beginning his dominion as soon almost if not altogether as the Demi-Caesar is therefore in order of time the Seventh as well as he But the Demi-Caesar being soon gone the False-Prophet still surviving and therefore succeeding him is in respect of that time wherein he outlasteth him as it were an Eighth But whether Eighth or Seventh he is the Last Head this Beast shall ever wear When the former Heads failed the Beast still continued by succession of a New But in this he goeth into perdition that is shall utterly be destroyed Object Yea but when the Roman State was a Red Dragon it appeared then also with Seven Heads and Ten Horns as well as now Answ. As the Beast which carrieth the Whore appeareth with all his Heads though Six of them should be past before the Whore should ride him so the Red Dragon which watched the Woman in travail is represented with the whole Roman Cognizance of Heads and Horns though the Sixth Head only the persecuting Caesars were then in course when the bloudy Dragon informed it The Seven Vials The Seven Vials are the Seven several and successive degrees of the Fall of the Apostatical or Pseudoprophetical Beast some whereof are already past for his Declination and Ruine we see is already begun some are still to come They are called the Seven last Plagues in reference to the Seven Trumpets which are the Seven first Plagues the first ruining the Old Beast the last destroying the New which is risen out of his ruine Which is the reason why the Vials are so like the Trumpets For as this Latter Beast was fashioned after the image of the Former so was it fit his Ruine should carry the resemblance of the Ruine of it The Kingdom of Christ upon the Seventh Trumpet That Kingdom of our Lord to follow upon the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet at the appearing whereof in several Visions the Quire of Wights and Elders sing and worship before the Throne Ch. 7. 11. Ch. 11. 16. Ch. 19. 4 what it means and what shall be therein Posterity will better understand Perhaps we may be as wide of the meaning thereof as our Forefathers were of the State and Condition of the times of Antichrist Yet as they in this missed not of the main but erred in the manner and particular Circumstances so would it be considered whether the conceit the Ancients had of this Regnum Christi contains not likewise some general Truth received from the eldest times though deformed with many erroneous misconceits and idle yea some not tolerable fancies The End of the Fifth Book A TABLE of Places of Scripture not only quoted but illustrated and explained GENESIS Chap. 3. 13. And the Lord God said unto the Woman What is this that thou hast done And the Woman said The Serpent begniled me and I did eat pag. 220 Verse 14. And the Lord God said unto the Serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattel and above every Beast of the field upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou â—at all the days of thy life p. 228 Verse 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the Woman and between thy seed and her seed it
the presence of God the God of Israel Thou O God didst send a plentiful rain whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance when it was weary Vers. 11. Animalia tua habitabant in ea Thy living Creatures dwelt therein namely in thine inheritance And this is express according to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly Animal and sometimes Armentum whence we borrow that Metaphorical translation to turn it Thy Congregation and by inheritance to understand Canaan whereas the people of God were usually so called and that part of the Psalm seems to speak of what God did in the Wilderness and not in Canaan Which being not understood made the Vulgar to be corrupted by turning the Praeter-imperfect-tense into the Future as vers 10. Segregabis for Segregabas and vers 11. Habitabunt for Habitabant contrary to the Hebrew which reads in the Praeter-perfect tense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have dwelt But above all those four Faces of the four Cherubins which drew the Chariot of God in Ezekiel seem to have reference to some such matter I say four Faces not four Heads as some take it for the Cherubins had but one Head each of them on the four sides of which Head were the likeness of four Faces to signify that he that rode in the Chariot was the Lord of the four Standards of the Tribes of Israel Even as Kings horses carry upon them the Armes of their Master as ours of England Scotland France and Ireland And if you consider to what part of the Heaven Ezekiel looked when he saw this Vision you will find these Faces turned to such quarters of the Heaven as were assigned to the Ensigns they resemble as the Lion's face Eastward the Bullock's Westward c. If all this be true you see what reason I have to make S. Iohn's 4 Animalia to be the Body of the Congregation as answering to the 4 Standards of the Congregation of Israel and the 24 Elders to be the Pastors as answering to the Levites and Priests divided into 24 Courses their Crowns and Seats being distinctive to express their preeminence above the Congregation For though the Body of the People be a Society of Kings and Priests yet this is no note distinctive nor comparative but common both to Pastors and People Enquiry II. Concerning the Beginning of the times of Antichrist in the Scheme and the meaning of the 7 Trumpets The beginning of the Apostatical times was knit to the Beginning of the Seventh or Trumpet-Seal by the Characters of the Text. If therefore the interpretation of the fifth Trumpet of the Rise of the Pope cannot stand with this connexion it must be rejected as untrue as I verily believe it is For as I have heretofore intimated I could never believe no not before I thought of any Synchronism that the Trumpets concerned any rising of the Beast but that they were Warlike alarms sounding to the Ruin of the Roman state The first brings forth that terrible bloudy and furious storm of the Northern Nations pouring in upon the Empire and harrying burning and spoiling it especially in the West almost 45 years together without intermission The Second the bloudy rending in pieces of the Roman Iurisdiction in the West and sharing it among the barbarous Nations who divided the Lion's skin amongst them erecting that plurality of Kingdoms fore-prophesied of by Daniel and S. Iohn The Third Trumpet brings Lapsus Hesperi the Fall of the Occidental Star or utter extinction of the Western Caesar. The Fourth the abolishing of the whole Roman Majesty in the West in their Senate Consuls and Presidents the Sun and Moon in those parts having no light remaining These Four Trumpets as you well observe made way for the Rising of Antichrist but it was by taking that out of the way which hindred 2 Thess. 2. and by wounding the Beast that he by the cure thereof might make a new one Apocal. 13. But withall he slowed no time For as soon as the Empire began to crack he began to advance and for every degree of the Empire 's failing mounted a degree of rising And his age and time is to be reckoned not from his maturity but from his birth as we reckon a man's age not from the time he came to man's estate but from the time he was first editus in lucem The first four Trumpets were smaller ones and more particularly concerned the West but the Three remaining are more general and terrible and therefore called WOES The Fifth is that darkning cloud of the Saracen Locusts who out of Arabia not only overwhelmed with their innumerable troups the greatest part of the Empire even Italy itself but eclipsed the Light of Christianity with an abominable seduction The Sixth Trumpet is the inundation of the Turks from Euphrates who were first mercenaries to the Saracen Empire which when they had ruined they overwhelmed and destroyed utterly the Greek Empire and part of the Western Kingdoms for Idolatry The Seventh Trumpet is yet to come at the Battel of Armageddon which shall give an end to the Antichristian Soveraignty and finish the Roman times These Expositions you see are homogeneal and fitting the name of Trumpets But to make some of them Warlike invasions and others to be Heresies is to bring things of too-differing a nature under one name Enquiry III. Concerning the Slaughter of the Witnesses I willingly grant that the Slaughter of the Witnesses is not yet accomplished for the main though perhaps there have been some Praeludiums of it in particular Churches So you see I did your Opinion no wrong Concerning the not fulfilling of the Vials though I began them before the Seventh Trumpet soundeth For if the Witnesses be not yet slain the Sixth Trumpet is not yet past and the Vials may yet begin under the times thereof and be in a great part poured out before it end I am glad to hear you read the words of the Text Apocal. 11. 7. When they were about to finish their testimony for so should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be turned whereas our Translation puts it in the Praeter-perfect tense which cannot stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the first Aorist Subjunctive and every Grammarian knows that the Aorists Subjunctive supply the place of the Future which the Subjunctive wanteth and our Translation turned the same tense futurely and the same word Apocal. 10 vers 7. Enquiry IV. Of the Demi-Caesar and the Seventh and Eighth Head of the Beast I never thought the Demi-Caesar to be an Horn but an Head and Mr. Brightman's exposition of the Ten Horns for so many successive Christian Emperors I could never sufficiently wonder at it being not only in it self harsh but offering extreme violence both to the Text and Story and contrarying without cause a fundamental Exposition received from utmost Antiquity viz. That those Ten Horns should be a plurality of Kingdoms whereinto the ruined Empire should be
must imply some definite time because the Scripture follows that use of speech and useth no number indefinitely but those which the use of speech had made such as 7. 10. 1000. But mixt and compound numbers as these are viz. 3½ 42. 1260. are neither in the Hebrew nor I think in any other tongue used indefinitely Our Adversaries would have them literally understood for Three single years and a half as though it were an History and not a Prophecy But besides the use of Prophecy to reckon Days for Years I think it would trouble any man to conceive how so many things as should be performed in this time should be done in Three single years and a half 1. Ten Kingdoms founded at the same time with the Beast 2. Peoples and multitudes of Nations and Tongues to serve and obey him 3. To make war with the Saints and overcome them 4. To cause all that dwell upon the Earth to worship him 5. Babylon to ride the Beast so long that all Nations shall drink of the wine of her fornication all the Kings of the earth commit fornication with her yea the Merchants and all those that had ships in the Sea to grow rich by trading with her Methinks all these things should ask much more than Three years work or Four either To which I add moreover that that King State of Government Sovereignty or Seigniory or what you will of the Beast under which the Whore should ride him followeth immediately upon a Former which in comparison is said to continue but a short space Rev. 17. 10. But if the Antichristian State shall continue but Three years and a half literally taken how short must the time of that foregoing King or Sovereignty be which should occasion the Holy Ghost to insert so singular a note of the difference thereof from that which followed That it should continue but a short space Doth not this imply that the next State wherein the Whore should ride the Beast was to continue a long space Therefore Three years and a half Historically taken cannot be the Time of the Churches Apostasie and the Antichristian Sovereignty of Rome and if it cannot be taken Historically it must be taken Prophetically every Day for a Year and so 1260 days counted so many years shews the extent of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter times to be 1260 years NOW for the Second thing proposed The Beginning of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter Times S. Iohn tells us in the Revelation That his Blasphemous Beast of 42 moneths continuance should succeed upon the mortal wound of the Caesarean or Imperial Sovereignty of Rome and Apocal. 17. 12 13. the Idolatrous Beast which carries the great Whore upon his back should have a Plurality of Kings start up at the same time with him who should agree to submit their power and kingdom unto this Whore-ridden Beast And would not he also in the same Chapter have us take notice That the Antichristian State of the Beast which was to come should be the next to that of the Caesars which then reigned For the Angel there tells him That that State of the Beast wherein the Whore should ride him which then was not in being but should afterward ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition that this State or Head of the Beast should succeed so immediately upon the Sixth State or Head viz. the Caesarean then reigning that howsoever for some respect it might be called an Eighth yet should it in very deed be but the Seventh For how could it be otherwise when the Beast in the Vision hath but Seven heads and no more Vide ver 8. 10 11. Agreeable to this is S. Paul's Epocha 2 Thes. 2. 7. who tells us that as soon as the Imperial Sovereignty of Rome which then hindred should be taken out of the way then should that Wicked one be revealed Thus the Fathers generally expound it Hence was that custom in the Church in the most ancient times of it to pray in their Liturgy for the lasting of the Roman Empire that so Antichrist might be long a coming Tertul. Apol. cap. 32 39. Ad Scap. cap. 2. Upon this ground S. Ierome when he heard of the taking of Rome by Alaricus the Goth presently expected the coming of Antichrist Ad Gerontiam de Monogamia Qui tenebat saith he de medio fit non intelligimus Antichristum appropinquare He who hindered is taken out of the way and we consider not that Antichrist is at hand Idem Praefat. in Lib. 8. Comment in Ezek. Pascitur animus obliviscitur seculi calamitatum quod in extremo fine jam positum congemiscit parturit donec qui tenet de medio fiat pedes statuae quondam ferreae fragilitate digitorum fictilium conterantur Cadit mundus Cervix erecta non flectitur c. My mind is refresht and for the present forgets the woful calamities that this last Age Labours with groaning and travailing in pain till he who hinders be taken out of the way and the feet of the iron Statue be broken to pieces by reason of the brittleness of the clayic toes The world goes to ruine and yet the haughty neck does not bend c. Thus he Postquam clarissimum terrarum omnium Lumen extinctum est imò Romani Imperii truncatum caput in una urbe tâ—tus orbis interiit After that the most glorious light in all the world was put out and the Head of the Roman Empire was cut off and so the whole world was destroy'd in the destruction of that one City as he elsewhere deplores that woful calamity Praes in Lib. 1. Comment in Ezec. Answerable to that which S. Iohn told us Daniel's Kalendar also informs us That the Hornish Tyrant who was to act the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should then begin to appear when Ten Kings should arise in the Fourth Kingdom For the Ten Horns which at the last he espied upon the Beast's head and obâ—erved a little Horn with eyes and a mouth to spring up amongst them and displant Three of them chap. 7. v. 8. the Angel v. 24. expounds to be Ten Kings which should arise out of that Kingdom and another to wit Antichrist should arise behind them so it should be translated as the Septuagint doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which should be diverse from the first that is a King of another nature and should bring down or humble three Kings and play those recks which follow in the Text. Thus the Fathers universally and from the utmost antiquity expound this Scripture Iustin Martyr Dialog cum Tryphone takes it as granted that this Horn is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that man of Apostasie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that would attempt all the mischief imaginable against us Christians Irenaeus scholar to Polycarp l. 5. c. 21. aliis 25. saith Daniel novissimi Regni sinem respiciens id est
obstacle I found was that I could never perswade my self the times of Antichrist began so late as this conceit and our computation of the World's years imply they should namely not till near about the time of Carolus Magnus Nor can I admit that the 42. moneths which the Beast is said to continue should be reckoned from his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or aetas adulta and not from his beginning as must be here likewise supposed For as when we reckon the Age of a Man we reckon not from the time he came to man's estate or from the time he sued out his livery but from the time of his birth so should we do here for the times of the Man of sin Besides we ought not as I take it to fix our eyes so much upon the Popes dominion and his improvement thereof as upon the Apostasie of the Church from the rule of Christian Worship by Spiritual Fornication with Idols which is the Character the Holy Ghost gives us in the Apocalyps to know the Antichristian State and Times by Of which estate the Pope or False-prophet was indeed to be the Head and his See Babylon the Metropolis but the Body was to be and so is Bestia Romana novissimi capitis decem diadematis redimita the Roman Empire shiver'd into a plurality of Kingdoms but re-united again under this new Head and fashioned and renewed by him unto a lively Image of the former Roman Ethnicism which had but newly received a deadly blow and been cast down to the ground by the Lamb and his Champions This new Idolatry or Idolatrous state this Imaging of the wounded Draconizing Beast is that treading down or prosaning the Court of the Temple of God Chap. 11. that is of the visible Worship of Christ in his Church by a new Gentilism Unto which the 42. months are attributed as well as to the Beast and so the beginning of the Times of the one not to be reckoned without or severed from the other But whosoever shall impartially search into the Stories of the Christian Church as all those do not who labour to diminish the antiquity of Antichristianism rather than to find it will see her not only tainted but even all-over polluted with Spiritual Fornication with Saints Angels Reliques yea and Images too hundreds of years before the times of Pepin and Charlemaign nay the chiefest part of those lying wonders and strong delusions whereby this impiety and wickedness was advanced was long before that time How can I then believe that the time of the Gentiles profaning God's House and of the Witnesses or Prophets mourning for the same in sackcloth should not begin till about the year 792. whatsoever improvement the Pope's dominion then had V. Finding such an Obstacle as this and loth yet utterly and absolutely to reject this so ancient a Tradition I began to make with my self these Quaere's First Whether it were needful to reckon these Thousands of years compleat or only current in the last hundred which want of completion though unknown to us might abate so much of the full length of 6000 years as would bring the computation nearer the mark for the beginning and end of the times of the Antichristian Beast But finding no grounds to make such a conceit probable I rejected it as a vain imagination But then I made a second Quaere of greater moment namely Whether the computation of the years of the world before the Promise made to Abraham were or could be certainly known or not For as for the time after the Promise I make no doubt but it may be known even almost to a year The occasion of such a doubt was the great difference which is found between our Hebrew Copies and the Seventy concerning the years of the foresaid generations For though it be true or likely that the Seventy translating in Egypt voluntarily and of set purpose increased the years of those first generations to make them reach the antiquity of some Stories of the Egyptians and thereby exceeded the Hebrew computation above 1300 years yet it follows not that all the differences between them and our Hebrew Bibles in the years of those generations should proceed from this fountain but some of them perhaps from the reading of the Copy they used For that there should be differences of reading in the Hebrew Copies of the Old Testament is not a thing to be so much startled at as some conceive seeing we find many such in the Greek Copies of the New And how can it be proved that the Church of the Iews had in this particular especially when Prophecy ceased a greater priviledge than we For as for that admirable Masorethical method whereby they are now inviolably preserved from change it was devised since the coming of Christ and applied to one Copy only which they esteemed most true and authentical namely that as some of them say which was written by the great Rabbi Hillel's own hand and many hundred of years after kept as a Relique Yet nevertheless might some other Copies though in general far inferior yet in some few particulars have a better and righter reading than it 3. That most Learned Prelate and Mirror of Bishops the Lord Primate of Armagh could not be at rest till by his indefatigable industry and no small charges as such a business required he had some four years since gotten from the remnant of the Samaritans in Palaestine into a Christian hand that admirable Monument the Samaritan Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses which may be presumed to be that which they received from the captived ten Tribes when they first learned from them to worship the God of Israel 2 Kings 17. 27. This wondrous and noâ—-paril of Manuscripts he brought hither to Cambridge amongst us and during his stay here some time was most ready to shew it to all Scholars that came unto him and so free in communicating the use thereof that some of us had opportunity by comparing it with our Hebrew Bibles first to pick out the Alphabet and then to read therein It is in the same Hebrew tongue and words saving the diverse readings with our Bibles but written in a strange character namely the Samaritan which is supposed to have anciently been the Hebrew till it was changed by Ezra at the return from Captivity In this Book is found a strange difference in the years of the generations before the birth of Abraham both from the Septuagint and our Hebrew Bibles Before the Floud by diminishing the generations of Iared Methusalah and Lamech it comes short of us After the Floud for the most part agreeing with the Septuagint it much out-reckons us To be short it exceeds in the upshot our Computation 301 years so that the birth of Christ falls according to it to be Anno Mundi 4254. Agreeable whereto the 6000. year from the Creation would be compleat Anno Christi 1746. and consequently Antichrist's 42 months or 1260 years would begin
ea id est in haereditate tua A sense not improbable the Psalm speaking directly of God's marching before his people in the wilderness Yet we translate it much otherwise See now whether God's Session in the Apocalyps be not in every part accommodated to this his Encamping in the Wilderness 1. The Throne pitched is the Temple insinuated 1. by the Seven Lamps burning before it like the Candlestick of so many Lamps in the Tabernacle 2. by the Glassy and Chrystal Sea not the Ocean but the great washing Laver which in Solomon's Temple was call'd a Sea but there of brass here of more transparent metal And yet some allusion may be unto the Laver in the Tabernacle which is said Exod. 38. 8. to be made of the Looking-glasses of the women which assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation See the Temple called a Throne Esay 6. 1. Ier. 17. 12. Ezek. 43. 7. And such the whole Apocalyps supposeth the Throne to be in this Session How come we else to have Souls under an Altar Chap. 6. 9. a golden Altar of Incense before the Throne ch 8. 3. four Horns of the golden Altar before God ch 9. 13. the Temple Courts and Altar to be measured ch 11. 1. the Ark of the Testament seen in the Temple vers 19. Angels coming out of the Temple ch 14. 15 17 18. the Harpers upon the brim of the Glassy-Sea or Laver chaunting a Song of Deliverance from the Beast as being but newly cleansed and yet as soon as out of the water a-singing when not yet come off from the Laver ch 15. 2. Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony opened in Heaven vers 5. Temple filled with smoke from the glory of God as the Temple and Tabernacle were at their dedication vers 8. But most invincibly manifest ch 16. 17. where a voice comes out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne saying It is done 2. Round about this Throne and next unto it sit 24 crowned Presbyters representing the Pastors of the Churches which answer to the Priests and Levites about the Tabernacle and their number alludes to their 24 Courses 3. Lastly and outmost we have the Four Beasts signifying the Church in the four Quarters of the world and answering to the four Standards of Israel distinguished by the same Beasts in their several Ensigns Which Beasts are here said to be in the midst of the Throne and round about the Throne that is diametrally placed round about the Throne For so must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be understood quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 else it will make an impossible sense And so will the supposed Soloecism in the Greek vers 9 and 10 in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be avoided if the words be taken not as a Narration of what S. Iohn saw the four Beasts and the Elders then to do but what their Office was to do and what they would do afterward as occasion required in the progress of the Visions namely As often as the four Wights had occasion to give glory and thanks unto God the 24 Elders should fall down before him that sat upon the Throne c. This was the Stage whither S. Iohn was called to be a Spectator and where and whence he saw his Visions The Interpretation of the Seven Seals As Daniel in his Prophecy carries the Fates of the Church along with the State of the Empires and Kingdoms under which it lived so doth S. Iohn here the First Prophecy The Seals containing Fata Imperii what should besal the Empire the Second The Book opened Statum Ecclesiae the Fates of the Church until both do meet in one in Ecclesia regnante when all the Kingdoms of the world shall become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Fata Imperii the argument of the Seals are the successive States and Changes of the Roman Kingdom for the times thereof then yet remaining The First Six Seals distinguishing the times preceding its Fall by the Characters of Six predominant Tempers The Seventh is the Climacterical Seal sounding the warlike alarm to the Empire 's Ruine by Seven successive and languishing blows signified by Seven Trumpets The First predominant Character which befalls the Empire is of Conquest when Christ began to subdue the subjects thereof by the Sword of the Gospel Of which the First Beast gives notice because the Actors Christ and his Apostles came from his Quarter ab Orientâ— Aliter If the beginning of the Seals be from the destruction of Ierusalem then may this First Seal be expounded of Political Conquest Forasmuch as the Empire after the death of Nero being in extreme danger of dissolution was again not only restored anew but much enlarged by Vespasian Titus c. And so the First Beast gives notice at the opening thereof because the Epocha of this conquering State is Excidium Hierosolymorum an Oriental action and therefore of his Quarter The Second predominant Temper is of Slaughter and Massacres in the Empire as happened in the Bellum Iudaicum under Trajan and Adrian postea in Bello Marcâ—manico The Index is the Second Beast because the first of those Emperors which began and managed the Times of this Temper was Trajan a Spaniard of the Second Beast's Quarter ab Occidente 3. The Third State was remarkable for establishment of Equity procuratio rei frumentariae annonariae in behalf of the City of Rome The Index when this time began is the Third Beast the first of the Emperors of this State belonging to his Quarter Sepâ—imius Severus Afer Imperator à meridie Eutropius Solus ex omni memoria antea pòst ex Africa Imperator Most interpret this Seal of Famine but History 〈◊〉 not an Event answerable By Libra therefore I understand AEquilibrium Iustitiae Such were the Laws of Severus Legum conditor longè aequabilium saith Aurelius Victor and especially of Alexander Mammeae who so much delighted in that Christian Maxime Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri nè seceris For the prizing of provision in the Text I understand â— Choenix of Wheat and three Choenixes of Barley for one and the â—ame Denier and a competency of Oil and Wine into the bargain that is a compleat sufficiency for the price of one day's hire such was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By Choenix I understand Choenix Syriaca which is said to contain quatuor cotylas double to the other Choenix which holds but two and yet is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spartianus de Severo cap. 8. Rei frumentariae quam minimam repererat ità consulâ—it ui excedens ipse vitâ septem annorum Canonem populo Romano relinqueret ità ut quotidiana septuagena quinque millia modiorum expendi possent Olei verò tantum reliquit ut per quinquennium non solùm Vrbis usibus sed totius Italiae quae oleo indigeret
sufficeret Herodian Frumenti summam primus adauxit Lampridâ— de Alexandro Oleum quod Severus populo dederat quódque Heliogabalus imminuerat integrum restituit c. The colour of the Horse Black fits the severity and strictness of Iustice yea Severus his person both for countrey and quality Sed non est tanti The Fourth State was remarkable for concurrence of War Famine Pestilence This for ten years together as it is plain in Story The Index the Fourth Beast the first Emperour of this State Maximinus Thrax being of his Quarter Imperator ab Aquilone Thus the first Four Seals of the Six as being of unequal times and easy for their qualities to be confounded in the accommodation it pleased the Holy Ghost therefore to distinguish them by their several references to the Four Beasts but the other Two have no such need the Character of their qualities will sufficiently serve to sever them The Fifth State therefore which we may count from Aurelian Ann. 270 or 268. for thereabouts the former ended unto Constantine is notable for the Tenth Persecution by Diocletion the greatest that ever the Ethnick Caesars raised against the Saints of Christ in regard whereof the rest were but as Flea-bitings This is typified by the Cry of the Souls under the Altar How long O Lord Holy and True dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth And they had promise of present hearing as soon as their Fellow-servants which were yet behind should come in which was not to be long after The Sixth Seal is Terrae-motus a great Earth-quake That intestine Change of the Roman State begun with Constantine and was fully settled with the death of Iulian about the year 364. For an Earthquake implies not a Destruction but an extraordinary Alteration and Change of the face of things As an Earthquake changeth the positure of the Earth by exalting Valleys and depressing Hills turning the Chanels and courses of Rivers and such like And was there not here the whole Politick Government as well as Religion altered the Imperial Seat removed the distribution of Provinces Offices and Governments new moulded c Was not the former State of the Empire turned topsie-turvy when the low and trampled Valleys arose into Mountains and the haughty Mountains were laid as low as the Valleys And if the Roman Gods be any of the Stars or Hills here mentioned we need not go farther for an Exposition of this Earthquake and the shock it caused in the world The SEVENTH SEAL or Seven Trumpets The Seventh Seal or Seal of Trumpets brings forth the Ruine and miserable Downfall of the Roman State This is that which the Martyred Saints in the Fifth Seal prayed for How long O Lord Holy and True dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud upon this cruel Empire They were answered that some more of their Brethren must yet suffer as they had done When they were once come in then should the cry of their bloud be avenged upon that bloudy State This now comes to be accomplished And therefore when the Seventh Seal was opened and the Trumpets were to sound Christ the Angel of the Covenant offereth those Prayers of the Martyrs in a golden Censer upon the golden Altar before the Throne that they might come into remembrance before God And no sooner was the Incense of their Prayers ascended but instantly the Seven Angels come forth with their Seven Trumpets to sound alarm for the Empire 's Dissolution For though Iosiah were a good King and made a Reformation yet must the bloud shed by Manasseh needs be avenged upon the Kingdom of Iudah So although the Roman Emperors were now become Christians yet would not God forget their former slaughters of his Servants but require their bloud at the hands of that Empire The Epocha or beginning of these Trumpets was about the year 365. Now was the Censer wherein the Martyrs Prayers were offered thrown down to the Earth and there were Thundrings and Lightnings and an Earthquake the meaning whereof may be otherways expounded but was here even literally fulfilled in that stupendious Earthquake described by Ammianus Marcellinus l. 26. c. 14. Horrendi tremores per omnem Orbis ambitum grassati sunt subitò quales necfabulae nec veridicae nobis antiquitates exponunt Paulò post lucis exortum densitate praviâ fulgurum acriùs vibratorum tremefacta concutitur omnis terreni stabilitas ponderis c. Now the Trumpets began to sound which Ammianus c. 5. tells so happily as if he meant to be an Expositor Hoc tempore saith he velut per universum Orbem Romanum Bellicum canentibus Buccinis excitae saevissimae Gentes limites sibi proximos persultabunt Gallias Rhaetiásque simul Alemaâ—ni populabantur Sarmatae Pannonias Thracias diripiebant praedatorii globi Gothorum c. Of these Seven Trumpets the first Four are lesser ones and fall chiefly upon the West and made way for the rising of the Antichristian State of the Beast or Kingdom of the False-Prophet The last Three are greater and more terrible and more lasting and therefore distinguished from the former by the name of WOES verse 13. The First Trumpet which lights upon the Earth was that terrible furious and bloudy Hail-storm of the Nations of the North which Ammianus told us of even now without intermission harrying spoiling burning and wasting the inhabitants and Citizens of the Empire great and small young and old from the year 365 almost 45 years but not yet by setling therein impairing or diminishing the Roman Dition The Second which fell upon the Sea was the bloudy rending and destruction of the Amplitude of the Roman Iurisdiction in the West from the time viz. Ann. 410. when Alaricus sacked Rome and was occasioned by the swelling and burning ambition of Stilico who called in the Goths hoping when the waters were thus troubled to have made his Son an Emperor The Third Trumpet brought Lapsus Hesperi the fall of the Western Caesar which after the death of the third Valentinian When Gensericus with his Vandaels had again sacked Rome fell by degrees out of the Orb of Sovereignty though blazing a little as a Candle before extinction By the fall of this Star the Rivers and Fountains suffered the power of the Roman Presidents Ministers and Courts of Iustice failing in the West for want of their wonted influence from that Star the Western Caesareate being extinct in Augustulus resembled by reason of the then bitterness and sorrows by a falling Star called Wormwood vers 11. The Fourth Trumpet brings darkness upon the Roman Firmament by an Eclipse of the Sun Moon and Stars in the third part thereof when in the Wars of the Greek Emperors with the Kings of the Goths in Italy the remaining light of Rome's Majesty in the West was quite put out after the year 542 the long-continued succession of the Roman Consuls ceasing the Roman
true Those things that are absolutely necessary to be known and practis'd in order to Salvation they are plain and evident in the Scripture more especially to the good and honest heart to the sincerely-obedient Soul they are as clear as if they were written with a Sun-beam its Tertullian's expression yea they are as S. Chrysostome hath phrased it higher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In those things that pertain to life and godliness which lead to an happy life hereafter and constitute that Holiness here which is the only way to that Happiness the Scripture is clear and intelligible without any Paraphrase or Comment without any Criticisms or Philological learning they are not hard to understand but hard to practise nor are they hard in this latter respect but through our own fault through our unwillingness to implore and use those aids which God is ready to afford to such as diligently seek him Yet that the man of God may be perfect and throughly furnished to every good work and particularly to that good work which most properly becomes the man of God the understanding and explaining of many other considerable parts of H. Scripture it is requisite that he should be well read in Histories and Antiquities both Iewish Christian and Ethnick and withal be indued with an happy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Sagacity for the better discovering what Events recorded in History do particularly answer the Scripture-Prophecies And that Mr. Mede was excellently accomplish'd for such purposes is manifest to all judicious Readers of his Works in particular his Commentary upon the Apocalyps is an illustrious proof of the great and successful use he made of his acquaintance with the best Historians that treat of the successive Changes and States of the Roman Empire together with the Degrees of its Ruine represented in the Vision of the Seven Seals and Trumpets as also of the Saracens those Locusts that came out of the smoky and darkening Seduction of Mahomet together with their Successors the Turks those Horsemen from Euphrates and likewise of the Christian Church whether in its primitive Purity chap. 11. 12. or in its Degeneracy and Apostasy ch 13. 14 c. His acquaintance with the Iewish Antiquities enabled him to discover what was meant by that Glorious Session of the Divine Majesty upon a Throne as it is described in Apocal. 4. and by those Four Animalia the Ensigns of the Four Standards of the Israelitish Camp in the Wilderness that were placed about the Tabernacle or Throne of God From the same Antiquities he explain'd the Two Courts of the Temple mention'd Apocal. 11. the Inner Court for the Priests the Outer for the Israelites between which and the Atrium Gentium was a Wall of stone about three cubits high with an Inscription upon it forbidding any alien or uncircumcised Gentile to come within the Sacred limits and that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes. 2. 14. Middle wall of partition between the Iews and Gentiles does plainly allude hereunto But not to mention any more Observations of this nature there are several Phrases also in the Scripture illustrated by him out of the same Monuments of Antiquity as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second Death an expression four times used in the Apocalyps and that which occurs thrice in the same Book the being arayed or walking in white garments Other Instances might be added but these may suffice for a Specimen His acquaintance with the Ethnick Antiquities enabled him to explain the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Tenth part of the City Apocal. 11. 13. the two Eagle's wings chap. 12. 14. the receiving the Beast's mark in their right hands or in their foreheads chap. 13. 16. as there is mention also of the Virgin-Company having the Lamb's and his Father's name in their foreheads chap. 14. 1. with sundry other Passages in that Book of the like import But besides these and the foregoing Instances I might here mention several other Passages in Scripture which the Author had not occasion to touch upon in his Discourses whether Words and Phrases or whole Paragraphs if not almost whole Chapters sometimes not to be illustrated without skill in History and Antiquities as to name only some few 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 1 Cor. 4. 9. and the white Stone with a new name written therein given to him that overcometh Apocal. 2. 17. as also that in Acts 19. 2. where the Christians at Ephesus tell S. Paul We have not so much as heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether there be an Holy Ghost or as the Hebrew Masters phrase it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And for that Paragraph in S. Iohn 7. from vers 37. to vers 40. containing what was spoken by our Saviour in the last day that great day of the Feast of Tabernacles the elegancy and fitness as well as the genuine importance of those expressions is most clear to such only as apprehend the reference they have to the Customes and practices of the Iews on that day recorded in their ancient Authors Nor can that in 1 Cor. 9. from vers 23. to the end be illustrated without skill in the Ethnick Antiquities the whole Paragraph alluding to the Customes of those Exercises and Games kept at Corinth as they were also in 3 other places of Greece and call'd Isthmia certamina from that Isthmus on which that great and wealthy City of Corinth was situate and where those Sports were celebrated every fifth year Upon the knowledge of which Customes it would appear that the Apostles expressions in this Paragraph are most pertinent and Emphatical Much of S. Matth. chap. 24. relating to the Destruction of Ierusalem together with the Signs and Forerunners thereof is to be explain'd out of Iewish and Ethnick Historians and very particularly and clearly too out of those Authors who yet knew nothing of our Saviour's Predictions therein nor of that ancient Prediction in Micah ch 3. 12. quoted also by the Prophet Ieremy Zion shall be plowed as a field which was also most punctually fulfilled as were the other I will name but one Book of Scripture more and it shall be that of Daniel where the Interpretation of both the 8 th and 11 th Chapters do wholly depend upon History as also what in Ch. 7. is said of the Four Monarchies and particularly the fitness of representing the Third Monarchy that of the Greeks by the Leopard with four wings vers 6. and in chap. 8. by the He-goat and the first King thereof by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or notable Horn vers 5 21. together with the Four Horns that came up after it was broken vers 8. as likewise the fitness of representing the Second Monarchy that of the Medes and Persians by the Ram with two Horns vers 3. of which the Author has a short hint in his Com. Apoc. p. 474. to which might be added that Moris erat
which I shall dispatch quickly but with it may be laid to heart often He that goeth astray from the way of understanding that is He that wandreth from the Law and Discipline of God for that indeed is the true Wisdom Timor Domini principium sapientiae The fear of God is the prime Wisdom that 's the meaning or to speak after our Academical notion the chief Philosophy whence through all this Book of the Proverbs the wicked man who hath no skill in this Divine Philosophy or Discipline of God goeth for a Fool and so is called must one day go even to his Fellow-giants who as Baruch says in his third Chapter v. 28. were destroyed because they had no wisdom and perished through their own foolishness Vir qui erraverit à via Doctrinae in Coetu Gigantum commorabitur Are there then any of these Fools amongst us who profess the study of wisdom but who shake off the yoke of Discipline giving themselves to debauched courses and neglecting the fear of the Lord Here they may see whither they must one day go even to those Rephaims of the old World whose true sons they are that is unto the place of everlasting punishment From which God deliver us DISCOURSE VIII GENESIS 49. 10. The Scepter shall not depart from Iudah nor a Law-giver from between his feet until SHILOH come and unto him shall the gathering of the People be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IT is a Prophesie of the coming of Christ and the time thereof namely when the Scepter should depart from Iudah then should the coming reign and Scepter of Messiah begin and not till then the end of the one should be the beginning of the other Whence ariseth our Demonstration against the Iew If the Scepter be already departed from Iudah as we know it is many hundred years since then must Christ needs be come For the Scepter was not to depart from Iudah nor a Law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh came For that Shiloh here is the name of Messiah appears by the subjunction annexed that the People or Nations for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural number should be gathered or be obedient unto him Ergo He is to be a King of the Nations and who should this be but Christ That the ancient Iews so understood it appears by all the three Targums or Chaldee l'araphrasts The Targum called of Ierusalem renders expresly Vntil the time when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 King Messiah shall come Ionathan Vntil the time when Messiah shall come a little one of his sons that is of Iudah's sons which one of the late Rabbies saith Buxtorf expounds Rex Messiah qui venit ex David c. The King Messiah who came of David who was the least among the sons of Iesse his father Onkelos Vntil Messiah come whose is the Kingdom Likewise in their Talmud Shiloh is reckoned among the names of Messiah Thus we and the ancient Iews agree about the aim and purport of this Scripture But we Christians believe further that it is long since fulfilled howsoever for the very Point of Time when this Scepter departed from Iudah we vary in our opinions Some will have it to have been when Pompey first brought the Iewish State under the Roman subjection Others a little after when Herod an Idumaean stranger yet formerly incorporated into the Iewish State and bloud was by the Romans invested to be their King and the Hasmonaean or Maccabaean race which till then had born the chief rule by him extinguished Others not till the destruction and final dissolution of the Iewish State by Titus These are principal moments of time to be pitched upon But against the first the subjecting of the Iewish State to the Romans is objected First That it anticipates the time of Christ's birth too much being sixty years before it Secondly That it mâ—ght as well be affirmed that the Scepter departed from Iudah when Nebuchadnezzar carried them captive to Babylon or when they were subject to the Persian and Greek Monarchies as when they were made subject to the Romans Against the second of Herod lies the same exception that did against the former That it was too early being thirty years and more before the birth of Christ and more than twice as much more before his Passion and Ascension at what time he began his Kingdom Secondly That under the reign of Herod the Scepter of Iudah might seem rather to be advanced than departed forasmuch as they had then a King of their own reigning over them and though not of Iewish original yet a Proselyte and so one of their own body And if the Scepter were departed from Iudah because one not of their own Tribe had the soveraign rule over them why was it not departed all the time the Hasmonaean or Maccabaean families who were Levites reigned No man would say that the Scepter were departed from Poland though the Polanders should chuse a Swede a German or a Frenchman for their King So neither from Iudah though a Levite or Idumaean Proselyte were their Prince Against the last point of time the dissolution of the Iewish Sate by Titus is excepted That it is as much too long after either the Nativity or the Passion of Christ as the other two were before it to wit seventy years after the one and near forty after the other I mean not to enlarge my self any further in acquainting you with each particular passage agitated concerning these differing opinions or alledged in the disputing of them lest I should confound rather than instruct the yonger sort who I desire might have some smack of these speculations betimes lest all their life-time after they neglect them as many do I have therefore selected only so much as I thought requisite for the understanding of what I aim at which is to shew you such a construction of these words with but a little alteration of the common translating as being admitted will leave no more place for those difficulties wherewith this Question is entangled FOR the handling whereof I will divide the remainder of my Discourse into these two parts First I will unfold the words of my Text which seem to have any difficulty or obscurity in them secondly I will apply them to the time wherein they were fulfilled For the first I begin with the word Scepter which is not to be restrained to Kingly Dominion only but signifies any Power or Majesty of Government under what form or name soever whereof a Rod or Staffe was anciently the ensign whence every Tribe is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word here used as being united together under one staffe or power of Government The meaning therefore is not that Iudah should never cease from having a King or being a Kingdom but that it should not cease from being a State a body Politick or Common-wealth having a power of Government and Iurisdiction within it self until Messiah came wherefore the
the Ground and Rule of it III. If the Order Method and Connexion of the Visions be framed and grounded upon supposed Interpretation then must all Proofs out of that Book needs be founded upon begged principles and humane conjectures But on the contrary if the Order be first fixed and setled out of the indubitate Characters of the letter of the Text and afterward the Interpretation guided framed and directed by that Order then will the variety of Expositions be drawn into a very narrow compass and Proofs taken from this Book be evident and infallible and able to convince the Gain-sayers IV. This is that Method which I endeavoured to represent in my Scheme and demonstrate in the Tractate annexed In which therefore you shall find all Interpretation set apart and as it were disclaimed and all the Reasons founded upon the bare letter of the Text taking no notice at all of any Event or Interpretation whatsoever but leaving all at full liberty only reserved that the Order and Synchronism which I represent out of the Text be no way violated thereby and so let the Interpretation be what it may be V. I dare not be confident that this Order and Series which I have deduced and represented is in no part thereof faulty and swerving howsoever for the main I am well perswaded and think that if not this yet something like it ought to be thought on But he that shall espy the errors of mine I desire him to shew me them by such Arguments only as my self make my grounds namely from the Characters which the letter of the Text affordeth and not from Interpretation because Interpretation as I said is to be fitted unto the Order and not the Order to follow it VI. But for example sake yield me a-while that this which I have exhibited is indeed the true Representation of the Order and Connexion of the Apocalyptical Visions See then how admirable the use thereof will be for Interpretation For if we can once be assured of the meaning of some one principal Vision how evident then and ruled will the way be from it to find and discover the rest Will it not be like a Mariner's Card to guide our way in this mystical Sea For example Are we assured what the Prophecy of the Whore of Babylon means For here here I say we must first pitch and therefore mark it the Angel himself of purpose expounds this Vision only of all the Visions this Book or Scheme representeth Do we know then what this meaneth If we do then behold the Scheme and see there what will follow viz. 1. That all the Visions contemporating with Babylon's times must be expounded of such things only as belong to the times of Babylon's whoring 2. All Visions preceding must be interpreted of things foregoing it 3. All Visions following of things to be after it c. Verbum intelligenti sat est What a number of ambiguities uncertainties and varieties of interpretation will this cut off and strike dead at a blow It would be as fetters and cords to hold in yea as a ginn to intangle our desultorious and shifting Interpreters especially our Adversaries who do súsque déque miscere omnia The Consideration of these things will make the Apocalypse to appear for the frame and quality thereof the admirablest Prophecy in Scripture And as much as the divine Revelation of Spiritual Truths in the New Testament surpasses the Old for evidence and clearness so the Prophetical part of the New for the fabrick and sureness of the grounds for Interpretation exceeds all the Prophecies of the Old CHAP. II. Particular Considerations for the understanding of the Scheme c. I. OMitting the Vision of The seven Churches which is not generally granted to be a Prophecy The whole Prophetical part of the Apocalypse following consists of Two main Prophecies both of them beginning their race at the same Epocha or Terminus à quo of time and concluding together likewise at the same Goal or Terminus ad quem that is they begin ab iisdem carceribus as we speak and run ad candem metam The first of these is Prophetia Sigillorum The Prophecy of the Seals reaching from the 4. Chap. until almost the end of the 10. which is represented in the upper-half of the Scheme The second is Prophetia Libri The Book-Prophecy beginning at the 8. verse of the 10. Chap. and reaching to the end of the Book which is represented in the lower or under-half of the Scheme So that the Book of The Revelation might fitly have been divided into two Tomes and the second Tome to have begun at the 8. verse of the 10. Chap. at these words And the voice which I heard from Heaven namely chap. 4. 1. spake unto me again i. e. begun anew and said Take the Book And I took the Book And he said unto me Thou must prophesie again that is begin a new Prophecy ab ovo Consider it Certainly such a division would be most easie for interpretation if also every several Vision in each Tome was cast into a several Chapter or Section And it cannot be denied but the division of Chapters especially in the New Testament being but of humane institution is sometimes so ill ordered that it doth much prejudice the Reader in understanding the meaning of the Holy Ghost II. That the Times of the Inner Court begin with the Beginning of the Seals Now if this Second or Book-Prophecy do begin ab ovo from the same Beginning of time whence the Seals began and without doubt the Seals begin at the Beginning of the Apocalyptical time and runs over anew those times which the Seals before traced till it concludes with them will not then this reasoning be very reasonable viz. If the whole Prophecy of the Book comprehends the whole time of the Prophecy of the Seals then the Beginning of the Prophecy of the Book begins at the Beginning of the Times of the Seals But the Beginning of the Book-Prophecy in the Text is The surveying of the two Courts of the Temple the first Court measured the second uncapable of measure One of these two then must begin at the Beginning where the Seals began But the Second Court cannot for it synchroniseth with the Times of the Beast Ergo the Former must that is The Inward Court within which the Temple it self stood being capable of the Divine measure must note some condition of things and times which forewent and preceded the Rising of the Beast and the Treading down of the Second and Outward Court by the Gentiles And is there not as much need and use of a measure to distinguish of the different States of the Visible Church in the diverse Times and Ages thereof as of the differing Members of one and the same time Consider it And this granted will open a door for discovery of far more admirable matter than doth the confounding of both Courts into one Time I confess I was
enter nor the Ark of the Testimony be revealed unto them Consider Exod. 40. vers 36 37. Consider also what happened there at the Dedication of the Tabernacle vers 34 35. Thus with my prayers and best remembrance to your self I rest and am Your assured friend Ioseph Mede Christ's-Coll Iuly 12. 1624. CHAP. V. Mr. Mede's Answer to Mr. Wood's special accommodation of the four first Trumpets in Chap. 8. of the Apocalypse M r. Wood IF I mistake not your meaning your accommodation of the Trumpets appears to me very much intangled in the point of Time for it makes the three first Trumpets to begin at the same instant and all to be concluded within the sixth Seal nay if the sixth Seal be the wounding of the Roman Sovereignty by the Barbarians they will begin before it For the Council of Nice wherein Arrius whom you make the falling Star was condemned and where Contention among Church-men your first Trumpet burst forth and Ambition your second Trumpet was broached this Council was held An. 325. within two years after Constantine was sole Emperor But the wounding of the Empire by the Barbarous Nations your sixth Seal began not till after Iulian 365. and you make not the main stroke thereof till the year 410. by which time the Arrian Heresie was well cooled For it cannot be said that the Barbarous Nations defaced the Roman Majesty in the days of Constantine who was a glorious and when he once reigned alone a most peaceful Emperor And for Diocletian that bloudy Persecutor before him he was a most powerful and victorious Emperor in whose time the Roman Empire was more dreadful to the Neighbours than it had been many years yea almost Ages before I observe also a further confusion of the three Trumpets among themselves For Arrius whom you make the falling Star in chief and so the Head of your third Trumpet will in time rather challenge to be the first of the three for the Arrian heresie began before and occasioned the calling of the Council of Nice where you first begin that Contention and Ambition which you make the first and second Trumpet I had rather therefore yet continue my opinion That the great Earth-quake of the Sixth Seal should be that intestine change of the Romane State begun with Constantine and fully setled with the death of Iulian For an Earthquake implies not a Destruction but an extraordinary Alteration and change of the face of things as an Earthquake changeth the positure of the Earth by depressing Hills and exalting Vallies turning the chanels and the course of Rivers and such like And was not here the whole Politick Government as well as the Religion altered the Imperial Seat removed the Distribution of Provinces and Offices new moulded c. And though Christian Religion be of it self a perfection yet the introducing thereof turned the former state of the Empire topsy turvy when the low and trampled Vallies arose into Mountains and the haughty Mountains were laid as low as the Vallies How many Hills and Islands were by this means displaced And if the Roman Gods be any of the Stars or Hills here mentioned we need not go farther for an Exposition of this Earthquake and the shock it caused in the world Now if this be granted to be the right accommodation of the Sixth Seal then will the Trumpets of the Seventh follow in their due Order according to that Exposition of the four first Trumpets which you related even now as your Friend 's who yet is farr from deserving and acknowledging that Description you there give him I. M. CHAP. VI. Mr. Mede's Answers to those 3 Arguments of Mr. Wood endeavouring to prove That the Vials are immediate Consequents of the Seventh Trumpet Mr. Wood 1. UNto the Seventh Trumpet is attributed the last of the three great Woes Chap. 8. 13. chap. 11 14. But in the Seventh Trumpet 's effect there is no other Woe described but what follows in the pouring out of the Vials Ergo the Vials must needs be that Woe and immediately poured out upon the blast which the Transition Ch. 11. 14. calls for The third Woe cometh quickly viz. with the blast in the next words Mr. MEDE This Reason methinks were satisfied if only the last Vial fell within the seventh Trumpet For the third Woe I take to be that Battel of the Great Day of God Almighty under the seventh Vial which therefore I grant to be concurrent with the Beginning of the blast of the seventh Trumpet not yet blown But the other Vials I see no reason why they may not be referred to those Beginnings of the Ruin of the Beast and exaltation of the Undefiled Church described chap. 11. v. 11 12 13. which is before the second Woe or sixth Trumpet be expired Mr. WOOD. 2. The Temple is not open in Heaven until the seventh Trumpet blow Chap. 11. 19. Now the Angels which pour out the Vials come out of the Temple which was opened in Heaven Ergo the pouring out of the Vials must needs follow the blast of the Seventh Trumpet Chap. 15. 5 6. Which place shews that the 7 Angels come forth of the opened Temple Mr. MEDE It is true that the Temple is not opened in heaven till the seventh Trumpet soundeth But I think also that it shall not be opened till the seven Plagues of the seven Angels be fulfilled For is it not expresly said so chap. 15. 8 And the Temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power and no man was able to enter into the Temple till the seven Plagues of the seven Angels were fulfilled So I understand it as having reference by way of Antithesis to that in the 5. verse The Temple of the Tabernacle of Testimony in heaven was opened viz. when the Angels had done their Execution and the Harpers ended their Song of Deliverance Wherefore I grant not that the seven Angels came forth of the open Temple but suppose those five first verses of that Chapter to be a general Description of the Vials with the state of the Church under them newly washed in the glassy Laver of the Temple and yet standing upon the brink or brims thereof chaunting a Song of another Exodus like that of Israel with the conclusion whereof the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony in heaven is opened that those might enter which before could not In the following Verses beginning And the seven Angels came out c. the Apostle resumes the Vision ab ovo and makes a more particular Description of the seven Angels Executions which before he but generally touched but now tells their attire whence they had their Vials and what was every ones Plague in particular to the end of the next Chapter which is therefore ill severed from the three last Verses of this 15. Chapter And note that the Complutensis Editio reads not the sixth verse of this Chap. And the seven Angels
absurdity 3. Compound Numbers are never taken indefinitely either in Latin Greek or Hebrew Compound Numbers I mean those which are compounded of Units Tens and Hundreds c. Those which are of heterogeneal parts such as 42 the number of Months in the Apocalypse 1260 the number of Days Three times and a half which is a number of Fraction Let it be shewn that such Numbers as these were of indefinite use For as the Scriptures use words in that signification wherein men used them so spake they in those figures of speech which men used and that in those words which they had inured thereto The Second thing is That these Numbers of Times half-times of Months and of Days in the Revelation are not to be interpreted Literally but Prophetically not for single years single months and single days but for Anni annorum Menses Dies annales Days for Years and Months for Months of Years Which appears 1. Because the things reported to fall out in them require a longer time than 3 single years and an half viz. Ten Kingdoms to be founded at the same time with the Beast who should first submit themselves unto him and after revolt from him to have power over all Nations tongues and people to make war with the Saints and overcome them and such like 2. Because the King Seigniory or Sovereignty next before this under which the Whore rides the Beast is said in respect thereof to continue but a short space which implies that that which follows should continue a long time Thus I have confusedly and in hast answered all you propounded in your Letter If you reply I will deal but with one point at once in my after-answers So I shall by contriving my meditations into a more exact and perspicuous expression both save a labour which obscurity often occasioneth and answer with ease whatsoever business attends me I. M. CHAP. IX Five Reasons clearly demonstrating That the Antichristian or Apostatical times are more than Three single years and an half 1. BEcause impossible so many things and of such quality as are to be peformed in this time should be done in Three single years and an half As 1. Ten Kingdoms founded at the same hour with the Beast ch 17. 2. Peoples and multitudes of Nations and tongues to serve and obey him ch 13. 3. To make war with the Saints and overcome them ibid. 4. To cause all that dwell upon the earth to worship him ibid. 5. Babylon to ride the Beast so long that all Nations shall drink the wine of her fornication all Kings of the Earth commit fornication with her ch 17 18. 6. The Merchants and all those that had ships in the Sea to grow rich by trading with her ch 18. These things should ask more than three years work or four either 2. Because that King State of Government Sovereignty Seigniory or what you will of the Beast under which the Whore should ride him followeth immediately upon a former which in comparison is said to continue but a short space Rev. 17. 10. But if the Antichristian state shall continue but three years and an half literally taken how short must the time of that foregoing King or Sovereignty be which should occasion the Holy Ghost to insert so singular a note of the difference thereof from that which followed That is should continue but a short space Doth not this imply that the next State wherein the Whore should ride the Beast was to continue a long space 3. Because if the 1260. daies of the Witnesses which begin and end with the Time of Antichrist be literally to be taken then must their three dayes and an half wherein they lie slain by the Beast Chap. 11. 9. be so taken also But how is it possible the nations and people of the earth should make feasts send gifts and presents one unto another in three daies and an half how should the Half day be a competent time to distinguish or limit any of the Actions there mentioned If the Holy Ghost had meant nothing but daies would he have been so precise for half a day 4. Because Six of the Trumpets and the things which they bring to pass by necessity of contemporation are included in the compass of the Antichristian time Two whereof by the express times mentioned in them in the Fifth of five months in the Sixth of 13. take up a year and a half that is near half the time Which though far too little if literally taken for the great things prophesied in them yet what time will they leave for the Four other Trumpets and for the Seven Viols which all are poured out upon the Beast and afore his times are finished What time alone will the Sixth Vial require for preparing the way of the Kings of the East for the frogs to 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 c 5. Lastly from the Event If Antichrist's times last no longer than is supposed then either are they past long ago or that Sixth Roman Head which in S. Iohn's time was is yet still in being But that cannot be when neither Greek nor Latin Caesar are now remaining If any say the Latin Caesar yet remains in the Germane Empire as that which succeeded unto it I demand What succession can that be where was near 350 years interruption a longer time than some famous Monarchies have had for their whole continuance If the Caesarean State may revive and continue the same after so many years interregnum how shall we ever know when it is dead for adoe and the time come that Antichrist should be looked for Besides if the Times of Antichrist be so short and therefore yet to come as they must be unless they be longer then are we yet under the Times of the Red Dragon and all the Trumpets yet to come Let it be shewn how this can be If it appear we are not under those times of the Dragon then none of the Revelation is yet fulfilled Object But what example elsewhere in Scripture of Daies signifying Years Answ. Daniel's seventy weeks But you will say the Etymologie of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as appliable to Sevens of Years as Sevens of Daies and therefore this instance proves not I answer The question lies not in the Etymologie but the use wherein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alwayes signifies Sevens of Daies and never Sevens of Years wheresoever it is absolutely put it means of Daies is no where used of Years Object But in the tenth of Daniel we find as it were for distinction sake Weeks of Daies which intimates there are Weeks of Years which the use of the word might indifferently signifie Answ. It is ill translated the Vulgar is better which hath Daies of Weeks Lugebam trium hebdomadarum diebus meaning that Daniel fasted and did eat no meat
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LATTER TIMES in my Text which must be as I said before a Latter part of that general For the true Account therefore of Times in Scripture we must have recourse to that SACRED KALENDAR and GREAT ALMANACK of PROPHECY The Four Kingdoms of Daniel which are A Prophetical Chronology of Times measured by the succession of Four principal Kingdoms from the beginning of the Captivity of Israel until the Mystery of God should be finished A course of Time during which the Church and Nation of the Iews together with those whom by occasion of their unbelief in Christ God should surrogate in their rooms was to remain under the bondage of the Gentiles and oppression of Gentilism But these Times once finished all the Kingdoms of this World should become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his CHRIST And to this Great Kalendar of Times together with that other but lesser Kalendar of LXX weeks all mention of Times in Scripture seems to have reference Now these Four Kingdoms according to the truth infallibly to be demonstrated◠if need were and agreeable both to the ancient opinion of the Iewish Church whom they most concerned and to the most ancient and universal opinion of Christians derived from the times of the Apostles until now of late time some have questioned it are 1. The Babylonian 2. that of the Medes and Persians 3. the Greek 4. the Roman In which Quaternary of Kingdoms as the Roman being the Last of the Four is the Last Kingdom so are the Times thereof those Last Times we seek for during which times saith Daniel chap. 2. v. 44. The God of Heaven shall set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed nor left unto another people but it shall break in pieces and consume all those Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever which is figured by a Stone hewen out of the mountain without hands before the times of the Image were yet spent which Stone at length smote the Image upon his Feet of Iron and Clay and so utterly destroyed it that done the Stone that smote the Image upon the feet became a great Mountain and filled the whole earth The meaning of all which is That in the Last times or under the Times of the Last Kingdom the Roman should the Kingdom of CHRIST appear in the World as we see it hath done And this is that which the Apostle saith Hebrews 1. 2. God in these Last days or Last times hath spoken to us by his Son and S. Peter 1 Epist. 1. 20. that he was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these Last times This is that Fulness of time whereof the Apostle speaks Galat. 4. 4. When the Fulness of time was come God sentsorth his Son made of a woman and Ephes. chap. 1. v. 9 10. Having made known to us the mystery of his will That in the dispensation of the Fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ. Agreeable unto all which is that Hebrews 9. 26. Christ hath once appeared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the end of times or ages to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Where these Last times Fulness of time and Conclusion of ages are nothing else but the Times of the Fourth Kingdom whose Times are the Last period of Daniel's Four the Fulness of the Prophetical Chronology and Conclusion of the Sacred Kalendar During these Times Christ was looked for and accordingly came and reigned whose Kingdom shall at length abolish the brittle remainder of this Romish State according to the other part of the Prophecy when the Fulness of the Gentiles shall come in and our Lord subdue all his enemies under his feet and at the last even Death it self HAVING thus found What Times are termed the Last times in general let us now see if we can discover which are the Latter Times of these Last times or the Latter times in special which are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter Times in my Text which will not be hard to do For if the Last Times in general are all the Times of the Fourth Kingdom then must our Latter times as a part thereof needs be the Latter times of that Kingdom Let us therefore again to our Prophetical Kalendar and survey Daniel's description of the Fourth or Roman Kingdom as it is Chapter 7. from verse 19. where we shall soon find the Latter times thereof to be that Period of a Time Times and half a Time during which that prodigious Horn with eyes like a man and a mouth speaking great things should make war with the Saints prevail against them and wear them out and think to change times and laws until the Iudgment should sit and his dominion be taken away and in him that long-lived Beast finally be destroyed and his body given to the burning flame verse 11. For this Hornish Sovereignty is the Last Scene of that long Tragedy and the Conclusion of the Fourth Beast and therefore the times thereof are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter times whereof the Spirit spake expresly that in them there should be an Apostasie from the Christian Faith CHAP. XIII Two Enquiries concerning the Latter Times I. What durance they are to be of Answ. That the Times of the Antichristian State are to last 42 months or 1260 days That hereby cannot be meant three single years and an half proved by several particulars Enquiry II. When they begin Answ. That they take their beginning from the mortal wound of the Imperial Sovereignty of Rome or the ruine of the Roman Empire This proved from the Apocalypse and 2 Thessal 2. where by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Fathers generally understand the Roman Empire The same further proved from Dan. 7. That by the little Horn is meant Antichrist or The man of sin and not Antiochus Epiphanes was the judgment of the most ancient Fathers COncerning these Times thus found we will now further enquire First What durance they may be of Secondly When they take beginning and by what mark their beginning may be known For the First we will make no question but these are the self-same Times whereof S. Iohn speaks telling us That the Church should be in the wilderness a Time Times and half a Time the same with those XLII moneths wherein S. Iohn's restored Beast should domineer and play the self-same reeks which Daniel's Hornish Tyrant doth the same time with those XLII moneths during which the Church is trodden down of the Gentiles lastly the same time with 1260 days during which the Witnesses of Christ prophesie in sackcloth For a Time Times and half a Time or a Year two Years and a half are XLII moneths and XLII moneths make 1260 days If therefore we can find the continuance and beginning of any of these we have found the continuance and beginning of them all For the Duration and Length of them they
Hamath and of Arpad where are the Gods of Sepharvaim Isay 46. 1 2. prophesieth thus of the taking of Babylon by Cyrus Bel boweth down Nebo stoopeth they could not deliver the burthen but they themselves are gone into captivity In the like strain prophesieth Ieremy chap. 50. 2. Babylon is taken Bel is confounded Merodach is broken in pieces her Idols are confounded c. And again Ier. 51. 44. I will punish Bel in Babylon and I will bring out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up and the Nations shall not flow together any more unto him yea the wall of Babylon shall fall The same Prophet saith of Moah's captivity chap. 48. 7. Thou shalt be taken and Chemosh shall go into captivity with his Priests and his Princes together Moab likewise in his affronts and derision of Israel is said to have magnified himself against the Lord. According to which manner of speech the success and prevailing of the Roman in the advancing his Dominion and subduing every Nation under him is here expressed by his exalting and magnifying himself above every God This I suppose to be the ground of that manner of speech though if any had rather as others do take Gods here for the Kings and Potentates of the earth it will I confess come all to one purpose 4. By the Gods of their Ancestors whom the Roman State should at length cashier and cast off are meant all the Pagan Deities and Heathen Gods which were worshipped in that Empire 5. By the Desire of Women which the Roman also at that time should not regard as he was wont is meant Desire of Wiving or Desire of having Women for the society of life conjugal affection which is expressed Gen. 2. 24 to be such a desire for which a man shall leave father and mother and cleave to his wife and they shall be both one flesh And it might have been translated in this place Desire of Wives as well as Desire of Women for there is no other word used in the Original for Wives above once or twice in the whole Scripture but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here turned women With the like use of the word Desire the Spouse in the Canticles chap. 7. 10. expresseth her wel-beloved to be her Husband I am my wel-beloved's saith she and his Desire is towards me that is He is my Husband for so twice before the expressed her self chap. 2. 16. My beloved is mine and I am his and chap. 6. 3. I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine So Ezek. 24. 16. the Lord threatning to take away Ezekiel's wife saith Behold I take away from thee the Desire of thine eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and afterward ver 18. it followeth And at even my wife died Yea the Roman language it self is not unacquainted with this speech Cicero ad uxorem Eu mealex meum desiderium This Desire of women and married life the Roman should discountenance when he shook off the Gods of his Ancestors 6. By the Strange and Forein God whom the Roman should at length acknowledge is meant Christ. For though to the Iew every Strange and Forein God were a False God yet to the Gentiles who worshipped none but the Idols the Forein God was the True Therefore the Philosophers at Athens when S. Paul preached Christ unto them said He preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Forein God The want of which consideration hath much obscured this Prophecy this ForeinGod being still supposed to be a False God when to those who worshipped all kinds of False Gods as the Roman did a Forein God whom their Fathers knew not must needs be the True 7. Where it is said With this Forein God he shall honour Mahuzzims these Mahuzzims or Maùzzims are these Daemons we seek for whom the Roman should worship with Christ whom he should embrace For Mahuzzim are Protectores Dii such as Saints and Angels are supposed to be as I shall shew by and by where though I may be new for the particular yet for the general I shall agree well enough with the Fathers who constantly thought that under these Mahuzzim was some Idolmeant which Antichrist should worship and many of our time have taken it for the Mass. But I must first say something of the translation of this 38. verse and then will come to the signification of this word Mahuzzim For the first Whereas the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is usually neglected and the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and Mahuzzim construed together as one thing viz. God Mahuzzim or as some The God of Forces I express the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and construe God and Mahuzzim apart as Two viz. To or Together with God he shall honour Mahuzzims c. Ad vel juxta Deum Mahuzzimos honor abit c. For the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is made of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies the same with it namely an Addition or Adjoyning of things Ad Iuxta Apud and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 super propter c. To Besides and Together with as Lev. 18. 18. Thou shalt not take a wise to her sister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is together with her sister By this means the controversie betwixt Iunius and Graserus is taken away For Iunius as should seem seeing no reason why the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be neglected and that by so doing the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was made irregularly and against use to govern a Dative case he expresses the Preposition by Quod ad or Quod attinet ad that is As concerning But the words God and Mahuzzim he sundreth not but turneth them as in statu constructo viz. The God of Mights or Forces understanding thereby the True and Almighty God himself Against which Graserus excepts 1. That to render the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad As concerning savours of a Latinism rather than of an Hebraism 2. That he doth as good as strike out the distinctive Accent Athnach ◠which is a Colon in as much as he makes the sentence being a full member to be imperfect and defective and yet would seem to stand in awe of that smaller distinction Zakeph-katon over the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mahuzzim which yet stands there as elsewhere but for a Nota bene 3. That to expound God Mahuzzim to be the True God against the consent not only of Iews who ever take it for some Idol or other but of the ancient Christian writers who understand by it some Idol of Antichrist yea some the Devil himself and of many of our own who take it for the Idol of the Mass and some otherwise yet for an Idol-deity To expound this of the True and Almighty God without example in Scripture Graserus thinks not tolerable Wherefore himself had rather yield the
had been but contrary to the long-continued custome of the Romans single life shall be honoured and priviledged above it yea and soon after the Roman shall bear himself so as if he regarded not any God and with Antichristian pride shall magnifie himself over all Verse 38. For to or together with God in his seat he shall honour Mahuzzims even together with that God whom his Ancestors knew not shall he honour them with gold and with silver and with precious stones and with pleasant things 38. That is Together with the Christian God who is a jealous God and to be worshipped alone he shall worship Mahuzzims even in his seat and Temple even with the forein God whom his Ancestors acknowledged not shall he honour Mahuzzims with gold and silver and with precious stones and with pleasant things Verse 39. And he shall make the Holds of the Mahuzzims withal or joyntly to the Forein God whom acknowledging he shall encrease with honour and he shall cause them to rule over many and shall distribute the earth for a reward 39. And though the Christian God whom he shall profess to acknowledge and worship can endure no Compeers yet shall he consecrate his Temples and Monasteries Ecclesiastical Holds joyntly to the Christian God and to his Mahuzzims Deo Sanctis yea he shall distribute the earth among his Mahuzzims so that beside several patrimonies which in every Countrey he shall allot them he shall share whole Kingdoms and Provinces among them Saint George shall have England Saint Andrew Scotland Saint Denis France Saint Iames Spain Saint Mark Venice c. and bear rule as Presidents and Patrons of their several Countries Thus we see how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how expresly the Spirit foretold that the Roman Empire having rejected the multitude of Gods and Daemons worshipped by their Ancestors and betaken themselves to that One and Only God which their Fathers knew not should nevertheless depart from this their Faith and revive again the old Theology of Daemons by a new Superinduction of Mahuzzims Now although this Prophecy thus applied be so evident that the only pointing at the Event were able almost to convince the Reader yet that we may yet the more admire the Truth of God in the contemplation of an Event so sutable I will add these following Observations concerning it 1. First That agreeably with the date of the Holy Ghost the Roman Historians themselves have observed and marked out that time of their prevailing against Macedonia which I said was accomplished toward the end of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes for the beginning of their Dominion over the world Lucius Florus lib. 2. cap. 7. Cedente Hannibale praemium victoriae Africa fuit secutus Africam terrarum rrbis Post Carthaginem vinci neminem puduit secutae sunt statim Africam Gentes Macedonia Graecia Syria caeteráque omnia quodam quasi aestu torrente fortunae Sed primi omnium Macedones affectator quondam imperii populus Hannibal being worsted Africa became the reward of the victory and after Africa the whole world also None thought it a shame to be overcome after Carthage was Macedonia Greece Syria and all other Nations as if carried with a certain current and torrent of Fortune did soon follow Africa But the first who followed were the Macedonians a people that sometime affected the Empire of the World In Velleius Paterculus lib. 1. c. 6. is an Annotation out of one AEmilius Sura in these words AEmilius Sura de annis populi Romani Assyrii principes omnium Gentium rerum potiti sunt deinde Medi postea Persae deinde Macedones exinde duobus regibus Philippo Antiocho qui à Macedonibus oriundi erant haud multò post Carthaginem subactam devictis summa Imperii ad Populum Romanum pervenit Inter hoc tempus initium Nini Regis Assyriorum qui Princeps rerum potitus intersunt anni MDCCCCXCV The Assyrians had the Sovereign dominion the first of all Nations then the Medes and Persians after them the Macedonians afterwards those two Kings Philip and Antiochus being overcome and that a little after that Carthage was subdued the Imperial Power came to the Romans Between which time and the beginning of the Reign of Ninus the first Assyrian King there are one thousand nine hundred ninety five years Here the time of the Romans prevailing against the Macedonian Kings is made the beginning of their Empire even as Daniel also beginneth the Roman account from thence but with this difference that whereas AEmilius Sura seems to reckon from the beginning of those prevailings in the victories against Philip Daniel counts from the victory against Perseus his son when that Conquest was now perfected and Macedonia brought into a Province which happened as I have already said the same year that Antiochus Epiphanes prophaned the Temple of Ierusalem 2. That no Kingdom in the world that we know of could more literally be said in their conquests to exalt and magnifie them selves above every God than the Roman in respect of a solemn custome they used in their wars by a certain charm to call out the gods from any City when they besieged it The form whereof Macrobius gives us l. 3. Saturn c. 8. as he found it in Sammonicus Serenus his fifth Book of hidden secrets namely this If it be a God if it be a Goddess that hath the People and City of Carthage in protection And thou especially whosoever thou art the Patron of this City and people I pray and beseech and with your leave require you to abandon the People and City of Carthage to forsake the places Temples Ceremonies and Enclosures of their City to go away from them and to strike fear terrour and astonishment into that People and City and having left it to come to Rome to me and mine and that our Cities Places Temples Ceremonies be more acceptable and better liked of you that you would take the charge of me of the People of Rome and of my souldiers so as we may know and understand it If you do so I vow to build you Temples and to appoint solemn sports for you 3. That Constantine the first Emperour under whom that State forsook the Gods of their Forefathers and became Christian together with this alteration abrogated those ancient Roman Laws Iulia and Papâ—a wherein the Desire of women and married life was so much priviledged and encouraged and single and unmarried life disadvantaged Hear it in the words of Sozomen lib. 1. c. 9. Hist. Eccl. There was saith he an ancient Law among the Romans forbidding those who after five and twenty years old were unmarried to enjoy the like priviledges with married ones and besides many other things that they should have no benefit by Testaments and Legacies unless they were next of kindred and those who had no children to have half their goods confiscated Wherefore the Emperour seeing those who for God's sake were addicted to
where the Holy Ghost expresly placeth the end of that Kingdom much less will admit Cleopatra to prolong it and and that too after the Romans had subdued Iudaea You mistake my Answer That the Roman or Fourth Kingdom was revealed to Daniel in imagine confusa For I meant it neither absolutely as if it had no distinction in its description nor in comparison with the former Three than which in that place it is more particular and distinct But I meant it was in imagine confusa in respect of those distinct States and times thereof which were revealed unto S. Iohn and not unto Daniel that it was confused in comparison of that which was more particular of the same subject As is Daniel's description of the second and third Beast in the seventh Chapter compared with that more particular description of the same in the eighth and eleventh Chapters Whereas you say The Iews since Christ brought in this opinion of the Roman to be the Fourth Kingdom that so they might the better maintain their expectation of Messiah yet to come because that Kingdom was yet in being I say it was affirmed by whosoever first affirmed it without all ground authority or probability the contrary also being easie to be proved viz. That the Iews were of this opinion before our Saviour came as appears in Ionathan Ben Vziel the Chaldee Paraphrast and by the fourth Book of Esdras which whatsoever the authority thereof be is sufficient to prove this being written by a Iew for it is saith Picus the first of their seventy Books of Cabbalâ— and before our Saviour's coming as appears by many passages of Messiah expected and yet to appear within four hundred years after that supposed time of Esdras Certainly he that wrote it meant no hurt to Christians as will easily appear to him that that reads it and finds the Name Iesus and so often mention of the Son of God Which I note in case you should rather think it written after Christ. If it were it was certainly by a Christian. The ancient mention thereof is by Clemens Alexandrinus Anno 200. though I know some body affirms the first mention thereof is by S. Ambrose two hundred years after sed fallitur Yet I take not the Book to be Canonical Scripture As for the Christian Doctors it is well known that both Iustin Martyr within 30 years of S. Iohn's death and Irenaeus were of this opinion and knew no other amongst Christians and yet they both lived and conversed with the Apostles immediate Disciples and the latter of them brought up at Polycarpus's feet who was S. Iohn's Disciple and could relate to Irenaeus as himself saith what S. Iohn was wont to do and speak Therefore Eusebius was not worth the naming as caught with this trap seeing it cannot be proved that ever any Christian before him or after him till after S. Hierome's time held the contrary and then too was soon checked and not heard of again till the last Seculum But as for the opinion you would perswade to it was first broached by Porphyrie an enemy of Christ to the end he might prove the Prophecy of Daniel counterfeit and written about the time of the Maccabes soon after the death of Antiochus Epiphanes and so prophesied nothing but ab eventu as meaning by the Fourth Kingdom the Seleucidae c. not the Roman See S. Hierome upon those Chapters of Daniel 7. 11. and you will admire the Expositions and Evasions of Porphyrie should be the same almost yea in circumstances with those of Iunius c. But S. Hierome in his time knew no Christian that had been of that opinion Let any man shew as much for what you affirm of the Iews as insinuators of this opinion in praejudicium fidei Christianae The Purport of the Four Kingdoms in DANIEL or The A. B. C. of Prophecie THE FOUR KINGDOMS in Daniel are twice revealed First to Nebuchadnezzar in a glorious Image of Four sundry Metals secondly to Daniel himself in a Vision of Four diverse Beasts arising out of the Sea The intent of both is by that succession of Kingdoms to point out the time of the Kingdom of Christ which no other Kingdom should succeed or destroy Nebuchadnezzar's Image Daniel 2. Nebuchadnezzar's Image points out Two States of the Kingdom of Christ. The First to be while those times of the Kingdoms of the Gentiles yet lasted typified by a Stone hewen out of a Mountain without hands the Monarchical Statue yet standing upon his feet The Second not to be until the utter destruction and dissipation of the Image when the Stone having smote it upon the feet should grow into a great Mountain which should fill the whole earth The First may be called for distinction sake Regnum Lapidis the Kingdom of the Stone which is the State of Christ's Kingdom which hitherto hath been The other Regnum Montis the Kingdom of the Mountain that is of the Stone grown into a Mountain c. which is the State of his Kingdom which hereafter shall be The Intervallum between these two from the time the Stone was first hewen out that is the Kingdom of Christ was first advanced until the time it becomes a Mountain that is when the Mystery of God shall be finished is the Subject of the Apocalyptical Visions Note here first That the Stone is expounded by Daniel to be that lasting Kingdom which the God of Heaven should set up Secondly That the Stone was hewen out of the Mountain before it smote the Image upon the feet and consequently before the Image was dissipated and therefore that the Kingdom typified by the Stone while it remained a Stone must needs be within the times of those Monarchies that is before the last of them viz. the Roman should expire Wherefore Daniel interprets Ver. 44. That in the dayes of these Kingdoms not after them but while some of them were yet in being the God of heaven should set up a Kingdom which should never be destroyed nor left as they were to another people but should break in pieces and consume all those Kingdoms and it self should stand for ever And all this he speaks as the Interpretation of the Stone Forasmuch saith he as thou sawest that a Stone was cut out of a Mountain without hands and that it brake in pieces the iron the brass the clay the silver and the gold Here make the full point For these words belong not to that which follows as our Bibles by mis-distinguishing seem to refer them but to that which went before of their Interpretation But the Stone 's becoming a Mountain he expounds not but leaves to be gathered by what he had already expounded Daniel's Vision of Four Beasts Dan. 7. The same Kingdoms of the Gentiles are typified here which were in the former of Nebuchadnezzar's Image namely the Babylonian Persian Greek and Roman Only Nebuchadnezzar's Image pointed out both States of Christ's Kingdom first Lapidis then Montis But
after so many hundred years And if your self in this difference follow Mr. Broughton's way you may as soon perswade me there is no Sun in heaven as make me believe it And though it mattereth not much what I think or think not yet in this I dare say that all the Learned men of note in Christendom are of my mind And for my part I cannot but think it a prodigium that any man should think otherwise and I suppose your self are so far of my judgment 4. If you make the Fourth Beast hornless before his destruction you will make Daniel both at odds with himself and the Angel his interpreter If the Horn continue until the Ancient of days comes to give Iudgment to the Saints of the most High and until the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom verse 22. or if he continue until the Iudgment sit and they take away his dominion and the Kingdom be given to the people of the Saints of the most High verse 26 27. how was he Hornless when the Ancient of days sat in Iudgment to destroy him and give his body to the burning flame This I should have taken notice of in another place but I then forgat it yet I said there that which was sufficient to overthrow it I would not have such an Evasion in my Opinion 5. Though all the Four Kingdoms have respect to the Iews as those who were all that time to be in bondage under them yet it doth not follow that the beginning of each Kingdom should be counted from the time they were first possessed of Palaestine but from the time the Caput regni should be given unto the people which were next to succeed Nor is that Observation solid That those Kingdoms were called Beasts for the beastly usage of God's people the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies naturally Animal And you will not I know say so of the quatuor Animalia in the Apocalyps though we translate them also four Beasts The congregation of Israel as we translate it Ps. 68. 10. is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Coetus Caterva that notion may be applied to Kingdoms and States also So the type is so much the more concise by reason of the ambiguity of the word in those languages But whether it be this or that I affirm nothing nor is it much to the purpose either way And thus I think I have not left any thing of moment unanswered I had no other end in all this but to let you see I have sufficient grounds to be perswaded of my Tenet and to be averse from yours Whether others can be perswaded by them or not that I know not nor do I arrogate so much ability to my self as to perswade others what I am perswaded of my self There is more goes to perswasion than Reasons or Demonstrations and that is not in my power I desire not you should make any Reply but the contrary for I am now resolved to answer no more whatsoever you should send You know as much of my Opinion and my grounds for the same as I would desire of any mans and I think I perfectly understand yours and where your chief strength lies Why should then either of us both spend our time any further to no purpose Thus desiring the Father of lights to guide us in the way of Truth and to open our eyes to see where we see not I rest and remain still Your very loving Friend Ioseph Mede Christ's Colledge Octob. 21. EPISTLE XIII Dr. Twisse's First Letter to Mr. Mede Good Mr. Mede AMongst many fruits of my acquaintance with Dr. Meddus this hath been one of the chiefest that he hath brought me acquainted with your self though not de facie yet de meditationibus and that in the opening of Mysteries I was so happy as to light upon two Copies of your Clavis Apocalyptica thereby to gratifie both my self and my friend I was beholden to Dr. Meddus for the one and to Mr. Briggs for the other Since that I have seen divers Manuscriptpieces of yours whereof I make precious accompt Your distinction of Fata Imperii Fata Ecclesiae the one contained in the Seals the other in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth exceedingly affect me as a Key of great use for the opening of these Mysteries Your interpretation of the Seals proceeds in my judgment with great evidence of illustration And in the last place your Exposition of the Trumpets hath taken me quite off from the Vulgar opinion that formerly hath been so common For all which I most heartily thank you And did it become me to profess so much who am nothing worth I should be apt to say you are as dear in my affection as to any friend you have I beseech you go on to perfect the good work you have begun in the Revelation and in other mysterious passages for the clearing whereof I well perceive by the blessing of God you have attained to a very singular faculty I seem to discern a providence of God in causing the opinion of a Thousand years Regnum Sanctorum to be blasted as an Error by the censure passed upon the Chiliasts to take men off from fixing their thoughts too much on that in those days when the accomplishment was so far removed but with purpose to revive it in a more seasonable time when Antichrist's kingdom should draw near to an end Concerning which I have something to propose in searching after more particular satisfaction But I know not whether yet I may be so bold with you and besides I fear to divert you from your so weighty and so profitable studies yet they are such as withall I have thought with my self of accommodating an Answer But though my heart serve me not to communicate them to you at this time yet surely I shall make them known to Doctor Meddus A friend of mine also hath this day given into my hands certain Disputations upon divers mysterious points in Daniel and the Revelation In one of them he disputes of this Thousand years Regnum Sanctorum with variety of Reasons pro con but inclining rather to the contrary A very ingenuous man he is and a great student in Mr. Brightman If I may have liberty to communicate these things unto you and that it might be without offence to your more weighty studies I would so use this liberty as not to nourish my self in idleness but withal to imploy my self in answering what soever I find therein to the contrary At this time give me leave to propose to your consideration Whether that fear of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 almost of our Protestant profession may not be avoided and the three days and an half Rev. 11. not signify a space of time succeeding the continuance of those Witnesses but intermixed with it My Reason is this The two Witnesses signifie all the Witnesses giving
Kings which the little Horn is said to have displanted Dan. 7. 8. or as the Angel interprets v. 24. brought down or humbled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Vulgar turns humiliabit the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Irenaeus deminorabit vel ut in alio exemplari dehonorabit Vatablus opprimet Iunius deprimet Resp. In my larger interpretations of the Trumpets in Rev. 8 you have at the end of the second Trumpet a Table of Ten Kings or Kingdoms whereinto the Roman Empire was divided about Anno 456 and forward The off-spring of which Nations through many alterations partly by the inconstancy of humane things partly occasioned by the further enlargement of the Christian Faith are the body of most of the Kingdoms and States of Christendom at this day Look upon the Table and then I answer you thus The three Kings which Daniel saith the Antichristian Horn should depress and displant to advance himself were those whose Dominions extended into Italy and so stood in his light First That of the Greeks whose Emperor Leo Isaurus for the quarrel of Image-worship he excommunicated and made his subjects of Italy revolt from their allegiance Secondly That of the Longobards successors to the Ostrogoths whose Kingdom he caused by the aid of the Franks to be wholly ruined and extirpated thereby to get the Exarchate of Ravenna which since the revolt from the Greeks the Longobards were seised on for a Patrimony to S. Peter Thirdly The last was the Kingdom of the Franks it self continued in the Empire of Germany whose Emperors from the days of Henry the fourth he excommunicated deposed and trampled under his feet and never suffered to live in rest till he made them not only to quit their interest in the Election of Popes and Investitures of Bishops but that remainder also of Iurisdiction in Italy wherewith together with the Roman name he had once infeoffed their Predecessors These were the Kings by displanting or as the Vulgar hath humbling of whom the Pope got elbow-room by degrees and advanced himself to that height of Temporal Majesty and absolute greatness which made him so terrible in the world See in the Table 3 9 10. In the forementioned Letter to Mr. T. I. upon the same argument there is this additional Observation And here note it is one thing for the Ten Kings to give their power and authority unto the Beast capitis novissimi as S. Iohn speaks Rev. 17. that is voluntarily to subject themselves and yield homage to him as their Head and Principal and another thing for the same Beast or Antichristian Horn to displant depress or humble them The first should be common to all the Ten as was revealed to S. Iohn the latter proper to Three of them as was shewed to Daniel For observe that as in the History of our Saviour's Acts penned by the four Evangelists one relates that which another omits and è contra so is it in these Prophetical descriptions of the Fourth Beast by Daniel and Iohn Quest. 3. How those words in Dan. 7. ver 12. are to be interpreted and applied viz. As concerning the rest of the Beasts they had their dominion taken away yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time Resp. Before I answer it must be known and remembred that for that As concerning there is nothing in the Original but the Copulative Vau which as the sense requires is to be translated not only copulatively but disjunctivè adversativè causaliter ordinativè and sometimes as a particle of similitude and the like it being of it self as a Materia prima In the latter part of this sentence it is translated adversativè viz. Yet Yet their lives c. for which in the Original is nothing but the same Conjunction Vau. This premised I answer First If Beasts here be meant of the three first Beasts it is to be taken by way of a Parenthesis implying a tacite answer to a question For Daniel having spoken so largely of the destruction of the Fourth Beast and nothing of the other it might be asked Yea but what became of the former three He answers As concerning them also they had their dominion taken away but their lives were prolonged for a time and a season that is they reigned their time and then had their dominion taken away And thus our Translators seem to have understood it and accordingly to have sitted their translation by turning Vau As concerning This is an easie and smooth interpretation nor do I see any sufficient reason why it should not satisfie Secondly But some of the Hebrew Commenters understand not Beasts here of the three Beasts forementioned but of other Beasts that is other States and Kingdoms then reigning in the world at what time the fourth Beast should be destroyâ—d That these also as well as the Fourth Beast and his limmes should have their Kingdoms taken away though not at the same instant yet some time after And so Vau shall not need be translated As concerning but Also Also the rest of the Reasts c As for the word Beasts to be taken here for other Kingdoms as well as the Four great ones it needs make no scruple For we shall find it so in the next Chapt. where it iâ— said of the Medo-Persian Ram verse 4. that no Beasts might stand before him that is no Sâ—ate or Kingdom was able to resist his power So here may The rest of the Beasts be the States and Kingdoms contemporary with the fourth Beast And this interpretation would sound well with the words of S. Iohn in the end of the 19. Chapter where it being said that the Beast and False Prophet were cast into the fire as Daniel saith of hiâ— fourth Beast chap. 7. v. 11. it followeth And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sate upon the horse c. as if he had meant to express this of Daniel And the rest of the Beasts had their dominion taken away c. But the difficulty then will be how the latter part of the words should be taken viz. Yet or And or But their lives were prolonged for a season and time The Rabbins take it for some season and time after the fourth Beast was destroyed and R. Solomen at the time of the war of Gog and Magog which they look for soon after then â— stitution upon the destruction of the fourth Beast But whether can this stand with S. Paul's assertion that the fourth Beast terminating in the Man of sin shall be destroyed at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or appearing of Christ's coming How should any Beasts lives be prolonged for a season and time after that coming Or should we expound this season and time of a thousand year after when the last and final execution of Christ upon his enemâ—e is to be But Daniel seems to joyn the appearance of Christ in the clouds to receive a Kingdom with this destruction of the
rest of the Beasts together with the fourth Beast and so not to admit of such a distance Let others judge Thirdly But I will not conceal that I have suspected there might possibly be a third Interpretation farâ—d â—â—ering from them both and which would make the Vision fully to agree with the Angel's interpretation But the words then must be construed much otherwise than they use to be viz. Daniel in the former verse mentioning precisely the Body of the Beast to be given to the flames it should follow thus And as the Body was burned and destroyed so the rest of the Beast viz. the tâ—n Horns and ruffling Horn had their dominion at the same time the Body was burned taken away and prolongation of life was given them for a season and time viz. until I saw one like to the Son of man coming in the clouds c. that is they reigned till the Son of man came in the clouds c. The reason why I thought of this Interpretation is because the word which we traâ—slate here plurally is as it is pointed in the Original of the singular number namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas if it were the plural it should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that say the Chaldee Grammarians is the difference between the singular and the plural Emphatick that the one hath Scheva â— in the penultima the other hath Camets â— And so we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Scheva in this Chapter singularly Beast twice in the following verses of this Chapter viz. verse 19 23. The reason which moved the Interpreters to translate it here plurally was because the Affixes following are all plural their dominion their lives But this may be because that remainder of the Beast under the Horns consisted of many Kingdoms and in that respect the dominion and duration thereof is expressed with plural Affixes as of many March 31. Yours Ioseph Mede Post-script My paper streightens me and my time and I have been a 3. or 4. times troubled while I was writing this last way of Interpretation which made me so blurr and blot and scarce know what I did I should else have expressed my self more plainly and fully EPISTLE XXV A more distinct and perspicuous expression of the last of those three ways to interpret that twelfth verse of Dan. 7. I Confess my skill in the Chaldee is no more but Grammatical yet thus much a little smattering in Grammar could teach me and so made me seek in what sense it might be translated singularly notwithstanding the plural Affixes following it and what this rest or remainder of the Beast if it be so turned might be First I observed that in the destruction of the Fourth Beast immediately before mentioned the Body of the Beast was precisely and particularly named whereby I began to conceive the Remainder here spoken of might be the Beast's Horns that is the eyed and mouthed Horn with that Decarchy of Horns subject to him which the Holy Ghost would tell us was destroyed at the same time and together with the Body of the Beast And so the Text to be construed thus The Body of the Beast was destroyed and given to the burning flame And the rest of the Beast also viz. the Horns had their dominion taken away after that a continuance of life had been given them for a season and a time Thus interpreted it would answer to that part of the Angel's interpretation verse 25. which saith that the State of the Beast under the wicked Horn's dominion should last a time and times and half a time whereunto otherwise there will be nothing answering in the Vision Secondly The Kingdom of the Son of man immediately following the expiration of this season and time in the Vision would answer to that in the Interpretation verse 22. The Horn prevailed against the Saints until the Ancient of days came and the Saints possessed the Kingdom Thirdly It is certain that the Session of Iudgment described in the Vision sate to destroy the wicked Horn for so saith the Angel verse 26. But the Iudgment shall sit and they shall take away his dominion And Daniel himself in the Vision exspected to see that in special for as soon as the Bench was set and the Books were opened verse 10. I beheld then saith he verse 11. because of the voice of the great words which the Horn spake viz. he looked what would become of the Horn. Something then should seem to follow in special concerning it else Daniel was frustrate of his looking But what follows I beheld until the Beast was slain This is something but general only And his Body destroyed This indeed is special but not that which Daniel looked after For how would these hang together I looked to see what would become of the Beast's horn and I saw his Body destroyed should it not seem rather to follow to answer Daniel's looking And the rest of the Beast also that is not the Body only or people of the Beast's dominion were destroyed but the Horns also with their Captain-horn who spake the big words that is the State then domineering had their dominion taken away after they had enjoyed it a season and a time Lastly Those words of the Angel's interpretation verse 26. The Iudgment shall sit and take away his dominion that is the Horn's dominion seem to have reference to that passage in the Vision which saith in the same words that the rest of the Beast had their dominion taken away The reason of the plural Affixe's answering to a singular Antecedent being because this rest of the Beast had in it a plurality of Kingdoms according to the rule of the Grammarians That a singular Antecedent to be taken collectively or distributively may have a plural number answer to it This was my adventure I. M. EPISTLE XXVI Mr. Burnet's Letter to Mr. Mede touching the Provostship of Trinity Colledge near Dublin SIR I Am bold to write unto you though a stranger to certifie you that I hear Dr. Bedle Provost of Trinity Colledge in Ireland is chosen Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland which is valued worth 600 l. per annum appointed thereto by the King howbeit some time will be ere he leave the Colledge in the mean space I am bold to intreat your Answer to know if you will accept the place of Provost if you be chosen thereto as you were wrote to by my Lord. Primate formerly before Mr. Bedle went I am now writing to my Lord Primate an Answer of Letters this day I received from him and do certifie him of this accident for it was but this week that the King granted it and no Letter is yet gone over I sent the Book you sent me long since to my Lord Primate I dwell at the sign of the Golden fleece in Lombard-street and shall expect your Answer next return and so I commend you to God Almighty resting London April 12. Your loving Friend Francis Burnet
the Ancients 383. the same with Holy Table 389. the Altar of the true God called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an Idol or false God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 391. anciently but one Altar in a Church and in one Diocess 326. whether it may be called Sulium Christi 824. anciently it was the place where the Prayers of the Church were offered to God 844 363 819 America The first Gentile inhabitants and the late Christian plantations there 800 Ananias his Sin was Sacriledge 116. how this Sacriledge is described 117. the aggravations of it 118 119 Angels The conceit of Dionys. Areopag of 9 orders groundless 40. Angels present in the Iewish Temple and our Churches 344 c. their presence an argument for a reverent behaviour there 346. where they keep their station there is Gods Shechinah or special Presence 343 c. Angels are in Scripture put for those over whom they preside 459 471 495 514 527. Good Angels not envious at the advancement of mans nature by Christ 90. nor grieve at the good of others 91 See more in Archangels Antiochus Epiphanes not meant by the Little Horn in Daniel 733 753. the Calamity under him for 2300 evenings and mornings Dan. 8. 14. whence it is to be reckoned 659 Antichrist meant by the Little Horn in Dan. 8. 10. 714. how he is a Counter-Christ and his Coming a counter-resemblance of Christs Coming 647. The Saracen and Turk not the Great Anâ—ichrist 644 c. who primarily meant by the Antichrist and the many Antichrists in S. Iohn's Epist. 664 900 Apocalyps is Daniel explicate as Daniel is Apocalypsis Contracta 787. the subject matter of it 756. it contains the Fares of the Church till Christs second Coming 440 917 918. it is properly the Prophecy of the Church of the Gentiles 575 880. a particular argument for the Divinity of the Apocalyps 853. the authority of it doubted of by whom 602. the admirablâ—â— prophecy in Scripture 582 Apostasie implies a Revolt from God and Christ by Idolatry 625. where it was expresly foretold in the Old Testament 666. it was to be a general one 648. but not such an absolute one as wholly to renounce Christ 645 c. 651. the two man Apostasies of Israel in Ieroboam's and Ahab's days describâ— d 242 The Apostles age when â—ended 360 To appear before the Lord what 260. all the Males of the Iews to appear bâ—fore the Lord thrice a year but the Women were exempted and why 261 Ara and Altare how they differ 392 Archangels their number Seven proved from Scripture and Tradition 40 c. 908. represented by the seven Lamps in the Temple 833 c. their Office twofold 43 Assurance not a Cause or Instrument but a Consequent of Iustification 309 310. Obedience is the way to Assurance 310 Astrology the Authors judgment of it 601 B BAalim what and whence so called 630 Babel's Tower the confusion and number of the Languages there 275 c. Babylon in the Apocalyps is Rome Pseudo-Christian 523 c. not New Rome or Constantinople 922. why called the Great City 484 912. and the Great Whore 523 643. what 's meant by her Golden Cup and the Name in her forehead 525. the twofold ruine of Babylon 489 Baptism called by the Ancients Signaculum Gods Seal or Mark 511. from what Analogy Water was used in Baptism to be a sign of Regeneration or the New birth 63. that by Water in Baptism is figured the H. Spirit not the Bloud of Christ. 62. 63 Bâ—ptisteries were anciently without the Church 330 Bath Kol Gods Oracle and Answer from Heaven accompanied with Thunder 458 c. Beasts in the Prophetick style signifie States and Kingdoms 780. the seven Heads of the Beast have a double signification 524 922. the Beast with Ten Horns what 498 499. the Beast with Two Horns what 505 Blasphemy is put for Idolatry 502 503 To Bless hath a threefold notion in Scripture 83 Blessing sometimes in Scripture signifieth a Gift or Present ibid. Body when a dead Body begins to corrupt 52 Bread signifies sometimes in Scripture all necessaries of life 689 Breaking of Bread put for the Communion of the Eucharist 322 Breast-place of judgment why so called 184 The Bride 's making her self ready for the marriage of the Lamb. 912 Burnt-offering what and why offered daily 287. it had annexed to it a Meat-offering and Drink-offering and was accompanied with Peace-offerings 371 C TO be Called is To be 445 465 Calling of the Gentiles See Gentiles Canaan or Palestine divided into three Provinces 100. its Husbandry and Harvests 297. its Breed of Cattel in the Spring and at Autumn ibid. this Land was promised to be given for an inheritance to Abraham Isaac and Iacob and not to their Seed only 801 c. a figure of Heaven 249 c. the Iews cast out of their own Land by the Romans who yet used not to carry other Nations captive what implied thereby 250 Captivity The three chief Captivities or Dispersions of the Iews 75 76. Three steps or degrees of the Babylonish Captivity 659 Catholick Epistles See General Ep. Cerriâ—i why mad-men were so called 29 30 Changing of Times and Laws what it implies in SS 737 Cherub and Cherubim whence so called 567. their form 917. why the Curtains of the Tabernacle and Walls of the Temple were filled with pictures of Cherubims 345 Chiliasme See Millennium Christ his solemn Preaching began not till Iohn Baptist had done his and why 97. his Death and Resurrection foretold in the Law Prophets and Psalms 50. 51. his Vniversal Kingdom and the Glorious state of his Church is yet to come 196 c. He is to be received whole not only as Priest but as King 308. He is given to us for an Example of life 157. How he is to be imitated 158 The Christian Sacrifice See Sacrifice The true Church of Christ never wholly extinguished 649. in what sense it was either Visible or Invisible under Antichrist 136 137 649 c. Churches or Places for worship in the first Century 323. in the second Century 326 in the third 329. Reasons to prove this 333. Objections answered from p. 334 to 339. at first the sacred meetings were in some Vpper-rooms set apart for Religious uses 321 322. Salute the Church at his House how to be understood 324. That Christians had such Places for Sacred worship was known to the Gentiles 332. To erect and set apart Places for Divine worship is from the instinct of Nature 340 c. A Land without such Places for Religion was counted Vnclean 341. Churches are to be magnificent and decently adorned 406 407 408 Circumcision the Verba solennia used therein 53 54 Clean Heart See Heart Clergy Clerus why so called 15 182. Their obligation to a special demeanour and differing kind of conversation from the Laâ—ety 15 181 182 Clouds Christ's Coming in the Clouds whence the phrase is borrowâ—d 754 764 788 Coenaculum Sion or Church of Sion
the Events in Scripture 889. Iehoiakim not carried captive into Babylon Pag. 890 Ieremy's Prophesies not digested in order 834 Iews had a Second tender of Christ and upon their refusing it were cast off 164 though some of them believed yet the Body or Nation of the Iews rejected Christ and was therefore rejected 750. the manner and external means of their Conversion to be by Vision and Voice from Heaven 761. This argued from the manner of S. Paul's Conversion 761 891. and from the story of a miraculous conversion of many Iews as a Praeludium to their General Conversion 767. why God gave the Iews peculiar Rites and Observations 181 Ignatius his Epistles 327 Images were at first made for Daemoâ—s to dwell in c. 632 Image-worship brought in and promoted by lying stories 687. the great Opposition in the Greek and Eastern Churches against it for the space of 120 years 683 c. Impotency pretended doth not excuse us from our duty 308 Iohn Baptist a forerunner of Christ in his Nativity Preaching and Suffering 97 Isaac a Type of Christ. 50 51 Islands not taken always in Scripture for Countries encompassed by the Sea 272. Countries divided from the Iews by Sea were called Islands ibid. c. what they signifie in the Apocalyps according to the Prophetick style 450 Iudgment The description of the Great Iudgment when Christ shall sit on his Throne 841. a farther description of the Great Day of Iudgment 762 c. whence Christ and his Apostles received that term 754. the precise time thereof not to be known 895. K. KEri and Kerif See Hebrew Text King or Kingdom sometimes in Scripture put for any State or Polity 667 711 911. Kings of the East in Apocal. 16. 12. who are meant thereby 529 Kingdom of God or Heaven sometimes in Scripture signifies the Kingdom of Messiah 103. why it is so called 104. whence the Iews gave this term to the Kingdom of Messiah 103. a twofold state of Christ's Kingdom 104 the first state thereof called Regnum Lapidis the second Regnum Montis 743. the Time designed and prefixed for the coming and beginning of Christs Kingdom 104. it was to be set up in the Times of the Fourth Kingdom 745 754 c. That the Kingdom of Christ and the Saints in Dan. 7. is the same with that of 1000 years in Apocal. 20. 763. a twofold Kingdom one whereby Christ reigns in his Saints the other whereby they reign with him 573 Kingdoms 4 Kingdoms represented by Nebuchaduezzars Image of 4 sundry metals Dan. 2. and by 4 Beasts Dan. 7. the purport of them 743 c. why these 4 are singled out 712 713. That the Fourth is the Roman proved by 3 Arguments from p. 712 to 716. That these 4 Kingdoms are a Prophetical Chronology and the Great Kalendar of Times 654 The Kiss of Peace why so called 96 Kissing of the Pax whatâ— ibid. L. LActantius vindicated from the Antichiliasts 812 836 Lake of Fire and Brimstone why Hell so described 33 Lamps That the 7 Lamps in the Temple signified the 7 Archangels 833 Larvati why Mad-men so called 29 Last hour or time the End of all are meant of the End of the Iewish State and Service and not of the End of the World 664 Last times a twofold acception of them in Scripture 652. That the times of the Fourth Beast or Roman Kingdom are the Last times 654 c. their Epocha or beginning 656. their duration and length 655 Latter times of the Last times are the times of the Apostasie under Antichrist 653 655 Law may be considered either 1 as a Rule or 2 as a Covenant of works how Believers are not under the Law 114 In what respects the Law is dissolved or not dissolved by Christ 12 How Gods Law alone binds the conscience 208 209 Lawenus his Stricturâ— in Clavem Apocal. 541. the occasion of his writing them 783. his way of interpreting the Apocalyps 754 782. a full answer to his Stricturâ— 550 Law-giver why Christ so called in Genes 49. and what is meant by that phrase Law-giver from between his feet 35 Lay-Elders See Elders Legends Fabulous Legends their grosseness and the design of them 678 681 c. Levi what the name signifies 178. why Levi was chosen for the Priesthood 179 180. why called Gods Holy one 180 181. his Favoured one 181 Locusts what they signifie in the Prophetick style 467 c. Lords-day why observed by Christians 57. a Testimony for it out of Euseâ—ius 851 Lords-prayer twice delivered by Christ 2. intended not only for a Pattern but a Form of Prayer ibid. Lords-supper See Christian Sacrifice Lying unto the Holy Ghost what is meant thereby 118 M. MAgog See Gog. Mahuzzim in Dan. 11. the word signifies Fortresses Bulwarks Protectors Guardians c. That Saints and their Reliques were so called at the beginning of Saint-worship 673 c. Manna why so called 245. how it differed from the Apothecaries or the Arabian Manna 245 246. how it was Spiritual meat and a Type of Christ. 247 Mark To have the Mark of the Beast in the right hand or in the forehead Apocal. 〈◊〉 what it means 509 511 Marriage the Roman laws for it discountenanced by Constantine 672. Prohibition of Marriage a character of Monastick profession 688 Martyrs their privilege to riâ—e first 604 771 775. their Reign misinterpreted to an Idolatrous sense 759 why Christians anciently kept their assemblies at their Monuments 679. Martyrium Omeritarum 768 Mass Reasons against the lurching Sacrifice of the Mass wherein the Priest receives alone 253 254. In the Mass the ancient Offering of Praise is turned into an Offering of Expiation 293. How the Oblation of the ancient Church differed from that in the Mass 295. The Blasphemous Oblation in the Mass justly taken away 376. That the ancient Church never intended any Hypostatical oblation of Christ. 376 c. Meat put in Scripture for all necessaries of life 689. Abstinence from meats a character of Monastick profession 688 Meekness in the Scripture-use is of a larger signification than in Ethicks 161 Melancholia and Mania how they differ 29 Memorial why that which was burned upon the Altar was so called 342 Memorial of Gods Name what 341 Merit the word abused and in what sense tolerable 176 Messiah the Prince in Dan. 9 meant only of Christ. 700 Methodius Bishop of Tyre a passage out of him touching the Millennium 843 Michael in Apocal. 12. who 495 Middle estate or a Competency the best and safest condition 129 Millennium or the 1000 years Reign of Christ not to be understood in any gross carnal sense 603 836 837. to be asserted modestly and warily so as not to clash with any Catholick Tenet of the Christian Faith 603. to be propounded generally not particulatim seu modatim 571. a General description of it 603. no necessity of asserting Christs visible converse upon Earth Ibid. this Opinion of Regnum Christi Sanctorum was universally held by the