works of the Devil gross Superstition Imposture Idolatry Cuelty lying Impossibilities instead of true Miracles or Mysteries and what other Inventions of the Old Serpent that seduceth the whole world Against such Witnesses therefore you may be sure this Dragon will make war who in this Chapter is described under one single Figure of a Red Dragon the Roman Pagan Emperours being Pontifices Maximi as well as Caesars In the following Chapter this Draconical power is divided into two there being now such a state in the Roman Empire as that there may be said to be Imperium in Imperio the Papal or Sacerdotal Hierarchy distinct from the Caesarean Majesty and Power NOTES CHAPTER XII Vers. 6. For particular symbolical meanings and for the embelishing of the Cortex of the Apocalypse c. This symbolical meaning as I remember M r Mede takes notice of That the Time and Times and half a Time is expressed by one thousand two hundred and sixty days when the time or continuance of the Children of Light or of the Day is notified but by forty two months when the Children of Darkness or of the Night their continuance is signified Thus the continuance of the Ten-horned Beast Chap. 13. is numbred by months as also the treading down the Outward Court by the Gentiles Chap. 11. But the Womans stay in the Wilderness is expressed by Dayes as also the time of the two Witnesses prophecying in sackcloth And it is manifest that the outward letter or cortex of the Apocalypse is better adorned this way than if where ever we find forty two months or one thousand two hundred and sixty dayes a Time and Times and half a Time had been repeated But these reasons of varying the phrase thus being so apparent to say nothing of the use of turning Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into forty two months or one thousand two hundred and sixty dayes for the more certainly understanding that three Prophetick years and an half is meant thereby we may be the better assured that no greater accurateness of Time is intended by them than if the phrase of a Time and Times and half a Time had been alwayes used The not understanding of which has made sundry in vain attempt to predict events foretold in the Apocalypse to the accurateness of a Prophetical Day whenas indeed there is no use of either Prophetical Day or Month unless in saying such a thing was to fall out or did fall out in such a Day or such a Month or such a day of such a Month of suppose the seventh or last Semitime or Prophetical half year which consists of one hundred and eighty dayes or six months And the nature of the things foretold are such that they are not to terminate on a year but rather require that grosser numbring by Semitimes But the several particulars of the completion of a Prophecy suppose of the rising of the Witnesses might be more distinctly declared by saying this part was suppose in such a month of the last semitime and such in such in the fourth month suppose of the seventh or last semitime or Prophetical half year and such a day of that month c. CHAPTER XIII 1. ANd I stood upon the sand of the Sea that is me thought I stood by the Sea side or rather as the vulgar Latine reads it which not only M r Mede but Cornelius à Lapide and Alcazar and as they say the generality of Interpreters follow And he stood upon the sand of the Sea that is The Dragon stood c. And I saw a Beast rise up out of the Sea having seven heads and ten Horns which betoken the Roman Empire and upon his Horns ten Crowns In the former Vision there were no Crowns upon his Horns but here there are to denote that this is the Roman Empire divided into many Kingdoms viz. that the Vision reaches unto these times or belongs to the times of this state of the Empire which Division of the Empire happened betwixt four and five hundred years after Christ. And upon his heads the name of Blasphemy that is of Idolatry which signifies to us that this Figure represents the Empire only under that succession of Time that it was more or less Idolatrous 2. And the Beast which I saw was like unto a Leopard that is it was like a Kingdom divided into many parts as the Greek Kingdom was And his feet that is his forepart which are as the Arms and Hands of the Bear which are his strength and instrument of action to raven and prey with these were as the feet of a Bear Which denotes the likeness of it with the Persian Kingdom who as they were governed by their Magi in their affairs so these by the Papal Hierarchy by the Power and Counsel of the Pope and his Clergy And his mouth as the mouth of a Lion that is It is like the Babylonish Kingdom in its cruel Decrees against such as will not obey their Idolatrous Edicts nor worship the Golden Image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up Their stubbornness must be punished by an hot fiery furnace Fire and Fagot must be prepared for them that will not submit to this New Roman Idolatry And the Dragon gave him his Power his Seat and great Authority His power here according to the Original should be his Forces or Armies And what are the Forces and Armies of the Dragon but his Evil Angels or wicked Spirits and their Weapons and Artillery the external pomp of Images or Idols and such gross furniture of their worship whereby they overcome and captivate the feeble phancies of the people But his Seat and great Authority is the Imperial Crown and Authority Which showes that this Imperial Power as Idolatrous is the genuine successour to the Pagan Imperial Power 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death namely in the fight of the Dragon with Michael and the Holy Martyrs who were conquerours at last and converted the Roman Pagan Empire to Christianity And his deadly wound was healed that is the Roman Empire for that succession of Time it was represented to me under was recovered unto its former Pagan-like and Idolatrous plight and condition This Panther-like Beast who by reason of the beauty of his skin and sweetness of his scent allures other Beasts to him and whom the Dragon is said most chiefly to fly from under this fair show and yet with the assistances of the Dragon was easily reduced to the former Pagan-like state under pretense of Christianity they imposing the old Paganick Idolatries upon the People And all the world wondred after the Beast that is they were all mightily taken with the Beast he both gratifying them with his outward specious show of Christianity that seemed so contrary to the Dragon and from which he so much abhorrs and also having the assistance of the Dragon viz. the Dragon-like Idolatries and carnal sense-striking Rites of worship and the tricks
Condemnation of the Antichristian and Idolatrous Hierarchy for so whoredom signifies in the Prophetick stile That sitteth upon many waters who is seated amongst many People and whose Jurisdiction spreads far and wide and who pretends to be the Church Universal 2. With whom the Kings of the Earth the ten Kings suppose vers 12. have committed Fornication have joyned with in Idolatrous worship And the Inhabiters of the Earth have been made drunk with the wine of her Fornication so inflamed so intoxicated and dementated with the unwholesome heat of Idolatrous zeal that it has made them very boisterously quarrelsome against all opposers or despisers of their fair Diana and so sottish secure and heedless that they have lien exposed to all the deceits and injuries that this cunning Circe could put upon them 3. So he carried me away in the Spirit into the Wilderness and I saw a Woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured Beast whose colour denotes Tyrannical Cruelty as well as Imperial Majesty By this is understood the Roman Empire Full of names of blasphemy that is full of titles or kinds of Idolatry full of gods so Grotius interprets it understanding it of the Pagan Empire And we may safely render it full of Daemons in M r Medes sense that is full of superstitious and idolatrous worship of the souls of the Saints departed besides other Idolatries in the manner of worshipping the due object of our Religion God and Christ since the Empire has become Paganochristian Having seven heads and ten horns which the Angel interprets vers 9.12 4. And the woman was arayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with gold and precious stone and pearls that is to say this Idolatrous Hierarchy the Patriarchs or Popes especially and Cardinals c. have this Imperial colour and richness very gorgeously apparelled upon occasions in their rich Copes and costly Miters to say nothing of the furniture of their Altars Having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication An enchanted Cup or Philter an intoxicating Love-potion to inflame the Empire again with a whorish desire after Idols And it is further observable that the very metal of the Cup has a natural Magick with it to draw and allure men to her and at a distance to intoxicate the brains of their Clergy with the fumes of ambition and covetousness who are not enriched with the golden gifts of their Church but upon the condition of assisting and abetting the Idolatry thereof 5. And upon her forehead was a name written By way of allusion to some impudent Harlots who had their names written upon their foreheads Mystery Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth The first word is a Key to the rest and is to be understood in such a sense as that Chap. 11. vers 8. The great City which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt For in neither place is it a mere ordinary Synecdoche putting one Heathenish City for another For what Mysteriousness or Spiritualness could there be in that But it is a Christian Polity or Hierarchy so degenerated into unchristian Tyranny and Idolatry that it is mystically or spiritually set out by the name Aegypt in that Chapter and here by the name of Babylon the great Babylon as holding the Children of God in such an hard Captivity and also propagating as they the worship of Baalim of Daemons or false gods so this Hierarchy of Saints and Angels and Images and other Idolatries Great as pretending to be the Church Catholick or Universal and having indeed a large extent of Jurisdiction in the Christian world Mother of Harlots by way of reproach to her affectation of being accounted and called Holy Mother the Church when she is yet so unholy as to be the Author of the Abominations of the Earth that is of Idols or Image worship For so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated by the seventy Interpreters But to understand here by Babylon Rome Heathen one Pagan City for another certainly would be but a dry Synecdoche no mystery at all This Whore of Babylon therefore is the same with the two-horned Beast that had the horns of a Lamb that is pretended to be a Christian Hierarchy but spake as a Dragon that is Decreed gross Idolatries and cruel persecutions As here one part of the Charge laid against this Whore of Babylon is Idolatry and the other part follows in the next Verse Her bloody persecutions 6. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Iesus To be drunk with the blood of the Saints shows her excessive and unsatiable cruelty in persecuting them not only burning them with fire and fagot but destroying them with repeated massacres insomuch that those that have made a careful compute of their murders and cruelties have found them to exceed the bloodiness and cruelty of the Pagans against the Primitive Christians under the Red Dragon And when I saw her I wondered with great admiration To see a Woman so nobly and splendidly attired drunken and defiling her garments with blood and that God should permit so great impiety and wickedness and so great prosperity to consort together But that Iohn might the better understand the comprehension of Gods wayes and Providence touching his Church the Angel unfolds the riddle to him 7. And the Angel said unto me Wherefore didst thou marvel I will tell thee the mystery of the Woman and of the Beast that carrieth her which hath the seven heads and ten horns namely on his seventh head that thou mayest be satisfied touching the wayes of the Providence of God 8. The Beast which thou sawest * his name is and the occasion of it taken from the intercessation of Paganism when the Empire becomes Christian which to your comfort will come to pass his name is was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition that is to say the Roman Empire which is understood by the Beast with seven heads and ten horns is represented here under such a state or condition that at some time it might be said truly of it in its prefiguration that it is the Beast that was and is not which was only true in the time of pure Christianity obtaining in the Empire that is from Constantines time suppose to the Apostasie of the Church into Antichristianism or Idolatry For the Beast is the Empire Idolatrizing which Idolatrizing Empire ceased to be in the reign of the pure Christian Caesars but being there would be an Apostasie again into a kind of Paganochristian Idolatry in the Empire and so the Empire become a Beast again it is therefore called the Beast that was namely under the Paganical Idolatry but is not namely in that time that pure Christianity is the Religion of the Empire but should be afterwards which is expressed by And shall ascend out of the bottomless pit The word in the
understood of that time of the succession of this Beast which followed after it had ceased to be yet for sureness that you may not mistake the Angel calls him at the latter end of this Verse The Beast that was and is not and yet is Which therefore is necessarily understood of the latter part of his time after he once ceased to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Beast that is after this Empire had ceased to be a Cruel Idolatrous Empire but had become a Cruel Idolatrous Empire again though not perfectly the same Idolatrous Empire it was before which is the natural and necessary meaning of is not and yet is But yet we are never the wiser what Empire certainly to pitch upon if the Angel stick here and therefore he holds on vers 9. The seven Heads are seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth who is also said to sit upon the Beast Now he comes up closer to the business which plainly showes this Empire to be the Roman Empire whether you understand the seven Hills of Rome or Constantinople or both they both belonging to the Roman Empire Wherefore it is manifest the Roman Empire is here meant in that succession of Time after it had ceased to be an Idolatrous Empire which it did for a Time while pure Christianity prevailed and till the Apostasie came in After which it became the Beast that was and is not and yet is It was of old the Pagan Idolatrous Empire but is not so now and yet it is in a very considerable sense it being a Pagan-like or a Paganochristian Idolatrous Empire and cruelly persecutive of the pure Christians And that you may still be the better assured that this latter part of the succession of the Empire namely after it had become Christian and Apostatized again into Idolatry was aimed at the Angel holds on vers 10. And there are seven Kings namely which are the heads of the Beast and must take up the entire Times of the being of the Beast both the former and latter part thereof unless we will admit of a living Beast without an head Five are fallen and one is Now let any man living show five Heads that is five Supreme Governours to be fallen or past in S t Iohn's time unless they be those five sorts of Governours of the Roman State or Empire Kings Consuls Decemviri Consular Tribunes and Dictators No five single Emperours can fill up that space of time and therefore it must be understood of sorts of Governours whereof five had ceased in S t Iohn's time and one is that is was in his time viz. the Pagan Caesars or Emperours What can be more plain and assured But the other is not yet come namely the Christian Caesars or Emperours For the Emperours were Pagans in S t Iohn's time And when he cometh he must continue a short space that is the pure Christian Caesars Reign would be short the Apostasie into an Idolatrous Paganochristianism being so quickly to prevail in the Empire And the Beast that was and is not that is to say the Paganochristian Head be they Paganochristian Emperours or Popes that get the Soveraignty it is all one they make still or continue the Paganochristian Head of that Beast For that Beast is the Empire not the Head of the Empire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is both the eighth and one of the seven that is he is both the eighth King and seventh head of the Beast For the Beast is the Empire quatenus Idolatrous and so has but seven heads though there be eight Kings the seventh of them being King over the Empire while it ceased to be a Beast or Idolatrous or while the publick Religion of the Empire was purely Christian. And the ten horns which thou sawest namely on the seventh head are ten Kings which have received no Kingdom as yet viz. in S t Iohn's time but receive Power as Kings one hour with the Beast This also plainly denotes the time of the Beast commencing with the discerption of the Roman Empire into many Kingdoms which happened not while the Religion of the Empire was purely Pagan but when it was Apostatizing again into a kind of Paganochristian and Idolatrous condition The Empire therefore debauched again with Superstition and Pagan-like Idolatry and Cruelty after the expiration of the pure Christian Caesars or seventh King who was to continue but a short space is the Beast upon which the Woman rides And who this Woman is is plainly indigitated again and more precisely than in the ninth Verse viz. vers 18. And the Woman which thou sawest is that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth In the ninth Verse the seat of the Woman are Seven Hills and here in this Verse She is that great City that in Saint Iohn's time is said to reign over the Kings of the Earth which no City on seven Hills then did besides Rome But the Walls and Houses of Rome did not then Reign over the Kings of the Earth but the Roman Polity here signified by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City did then Rule over the Kings of the Earth And therefore the Roman Polity it must be that rides the Beast that was is not and yet is but not the Roman Polity Pagan For that Beast which is here ridden is after the expiration of Paganism properly so called and therefore it must be the Roman Polity Paganochristian that is the Roman Hierarchy which rides this Beast Which Roman Hierarchy the Spirit of God here calls the Whore of Babylon Quod oportebat demonstrare And what more assured demonstration of any thing can R. H. or any man living else desire than of this so concerning a truth And what a notable Key this is to unlock the sense of the Prophecies of the Sealed Book and Opened Book I will briefly show after I have smoothed the flawes and wiped off the rust that R. H. seems to fancy to stick on it I will produce his most material Cavils that by them you may judge of the rest 1. The first is touching the Hills of Rome which though at first they were seven three were after added while Rome was Pagan and that Papal Rome stands but upon two and no more 2. That Kings Dictators and Emperours being but one kind of Governours we shall fall short in our account of making up seven Heads of the Beast 3. That when it is said Five are fallen the meaning is not that Five are fallen in S t Iohn's time but that Five are fallen that is shall fall before the seventh Vial. Forasmuch as the Apostle writes a Prophecy not an History And therefore it must be understood of things to come 4. And the like he objecteth concerning the 18 th Verse That it does not speak of a City which raigned over the Kings of the Earth in Iohn's time but which is to raign in the time of the seventh Vial because the Apostle writes not an History but
a Prophecy 5. And lastly that this Babylon cannot be the City of Rome he proves by an heap of Arguments 1. That Babylon till the seventh Vial is not to taste of the Cup of Gods wrath but Rome hath tasted of that Cup many a time but especially in the time of the Gothes and Vandals by whom it was taken four times and made so desolate that not a Man Woman nor Child could be seen therein for forty dayes together 2. Babylon is one of the greatest Cities in the world but Rome at this day but a little City but the tenth part of what it was before 3. Babylon one of the strongest Cities in the world Revel Chap. 18. vers 8. but Rome but a weak City in comparison of other Cities and which was seldom besieged but taken 4. Babylon one of the most prosperous Cities in the world Revel Chap. 18. vers 7. but Rome a doleful City many a time 5. Babylon the last City to be taken insomuch that she thinks it will never be but Rome taken many a time by the Gothes and Vandals and She cannot think but that she may be taken again 6. And lastly Babylon is a City with which the Merchants of the Earth have great Trade and Traffick by Sea but Rome not so nor can she be so for since she became Pontifician the mouth of the River Tiber hath been stopped up for fear of Invasion so that no Ships of any great magnitude can pass thither These are the chief of his Arguments to which I shall answer briefly and in order 1. To the first I answer That those three Hills of less Note added to the first seven never were so considerable as in History or Poetry to alter that Title of Rome Roma septicollis or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seven-hilled Rome And it is the most clear and exquisite way to speak in the language of Historians when we would certainly define or describe things Again as for Rome Pontifician standing upon two Hills and no more which yet is not absolutely true it standing upon two Hills more besides as I am informed from a good hand skilfull and curious in these things the Text of the Prophecy does not require that exactness that Rome Pontifician should stand upon all the Seven Hills For the words run thus The seven Heads are seven Mountains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which only denotes the place of her abode or where she is seated And the Woman which is not the Houses and Walls of the City but the Polity residing there is possessed of the whole space of ground environed with a Wall that takes in all the seven Hills so that all the seven Hill may be said to be the place of her abode And if the being environed with a Wall be essential to a City I do not see but that the name of the City is to be conceived to reach so far and the Wall with all the space of ground contained in it all of it to be called Rome To all which you may add that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be taken partitivè as when it is said of Iephtah Iud. 12. Chap. 7. that he was buried in the Cities of Gilead and of Iosiah that he was buried in the Sepulchers of his Fathers 2 Chron. 35. vers 24. that is in some one of the Cities and some one of the Sepulchres So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signify upon some of the Hills as well as upon them all And the character is as certain whether Rome now stand but on four hills or two that Rome is meant as if it stood still on all As suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Seven-mouthed Nilus his stream so lessen that it did nothing near fill the Chanel so much as of old and that thence five of his Mouths being shallower than the rest should grow dry no man notwithstanding will deny that it is Nilus still and so this Rome is Rome still though contracted suppose to two hills and her walls stand at a great distance from the City as the banks of Nilus from his now more narrow and shallow stream So sure a character notwithstanding R.H. his exceptions are the seven hills that Rome is here glanced at 2. To the second I answer briefly as to the former If Prophecy describe things as they are described in History it self the description is more certain and exact and Historians generally make Dictators Kings and Emperours three several sorts of Government Which answer being abundantly full and sufficient for brevity sake I omit to prove they are three several sorts of Government as well as so called 3. To the third That this is a distorted unnatural exposition in this place to understand a preterperfect Tense in a sense future all Commentators that I have met with will testify Who however otherwise they vary in their Interpretations yet take it for granted that Five are fallen signifies had ceased to be in S. Iohn's time Which the varying of the Tense immediately in And one is would force any one that is not obstinately humorsome and perverse to acknowledge to be true as that also which follows must needs still put it further out of doubt And another is not yet come It is a mere madness to imagine in these circumstances Five are faln not to signify time past because forsooth the preterperfect Tense sometimes is used of a thing future in Prophecy as Rev. 14. vers 8. where there are no such circumstances But I add further that it is impossible but it should be so understood the Roman State or Kingdom as Idolatrous having but seven heads in all and the Pagan Ceasars or Emperours in S. Iohn's time being the present head Therefore of necessity those other heads must be past unsess you will have the Roman State or Kingdom till the Caesars time to have been an headless Animal which would be a very witless supposition And lastly his grand argument is a gross mistake For this interpretation of the Angel is not properly a Prophecy but the interpretation of a Prophecy which naturally requires plainness and propriety of speech and therefore not to understand by Five are faln Five shall fall but requires us to understand it of the time past according to the vulgar Grammatical sense thereof 4. To the fourth I answer as to this last That the Objector forgets that this eighteenth verse is part of the interpretation of a Prophecy not the Prophecy it self and therefore is to be taken in the plain Grammatical sense if there be no indication to the contrary as there is touching that saying vers 17. For God hath put in their hearts Where the preterperfect Tense is used for the future but safely and elegantly safely because the foregoing verse doth plainly determine the sense to a futurity and elegantly that which it expresseth being a cause antecedent to what is said before and therefore rightly intimated to have been first And where the verb substantive is or
neither the one hundred forty four thousand sealed Ones are the same individual persons continuing all the space of time near one thousand two hundred and sixty years nor the Two-horned Beast some one particular Witch or Magician nor the Two Witnesses two particular persons as R. H. with his litteral sense would have all these expounded but all of them successions of such and such Bodies or Companies of Men for such a space of time together And before we go any further let us observe of those Synchronals we have noted hitherto what either correspondent opposition or else close cognation or identity they have one with another which is a further marvellous confirmation of their Synchronizing That the Two-horned Beast and the Whore signifie one and the same thing and that the Ten-horned Beast Chap. 13. and the Ten-horned Beast Chap. 17. are one and the same Beast I have noted already and the cognation of the one two with the other two is apparent the former being the Ecclesiastical part of the Roman Empire and more particularly the Roman Hierarchy as appears by the Name and Number of the Two-horned Beast and the Seven Hills the seat of the Whore for which Rome is most remarkable as also that it is the City that ruled over the Kings of the Earth in S t Iohn's time according to the Interpretation of the Angel and the latter the Secular part of the Roman Empire debauched chiefly by the Roman Hierarchy with gross Pagan-like Superstition and Idolatry And the Secular and Ecclesiastick part together thus Paganizing in a new Mode are the Gentiles that tread under foot the Holy City or Outer Court of the Temple till the seventh Semitime of the forty two Prophetical months that is till the Rising of the Witnesses And these are the Synchronals of the debauched part of the Roman Empire for this time But the Apostolick Church never failed notwithstanding in this Apostasie This sincere part therefore that run in correspondent opposition to the former are set out by The Woman viz. crowned with twelve Stars to denote her Apostolicalness though now in the Wilderness The two Witnesses prophesying in Sackcloth The Servants of God sealed in their foreheads The bodies of the Witnesses lying dead three dayes and an half and unburied which showes that the Apostolick Christians though in being could not be a Living Body Politick that is invested with Open Power and Rule during the seven half-dayes or semitimes of the Beast till they were in the seventh Semitime expiring As the two mournful Witnesses could only protest and witness against the cruel Idolatrous proceedings of the Beast and denounce the judgements of God against them but proceed no further For that the three dayes and an half of their bodies lying unburied is the same with the one thousand two hundred and sixty dayes of their mournful Prophecy is plain from hence that else no war was made against them nor they either Politically or Naturally slain till the last three years and an half of their prophesying whenas they were Politically slain all the while and some hundred thousands of them in a Natural sense slain at times some by the sword others by fire and faggot c. Which is a demonstration that the three dayes and an half must be understood in the same sense that three times and an half or one thousand two hundred and sixty dayes The Virgin Company also by their avowed and resolved Virginity was a perpetual reproach to the Whore of Babylon and the one hundred forty four thousand marked with the Lambs Name and the name of his Father in their forehead are in an apparent opposition to the marked slaves of the two-horned Beast And this being the state of the Roman Empire for about something more than four hundred years after Christ till the seventh Semitime was expiring it is no wonder that the Judgements of God thundered upon them under the sounding of the six first Trumpets and that at the beginning of their sounding one hundred forty four thousand Servants of God are marked to save them both from these Judgements and also from the debauchings of the Two-horned Beast or Whore of Babylon which signifies that God would preserve to himself a pure Apostolick Church notwithstanding all the Calamities Persecutions and gross Superstitions and Idolatries raging in the Empire And conformable to the account of this period of time are the Pergamenian and Thyatirian Intervals For during eight parts of nine of the Pergamenian Interval and all the Thyatirian was this Pagan-like Superstitious and Idolatrous State of the Church and there is express mention of the Idolothyta in both those Intervals but in none else and the persecuting the Pure Christians by the sword in one and by fire and faggot in the other is plainly made out in our Exposition So admirably do the Visions correspond belonging to this Time and State of the Roman Empire which the Angels Interpretation hath pitched upon So that there is all the assuredness of the truth of the thing hitherto that Humane Reason can desire and that the middle Synchronals are to be expounded in such a sense as I have expounded them in my Exposition of the Apocalypse But let us now proceed and see how the Antemedial Synchronals will sute with the Times which they necessarily run into for that they all precede these middle Synchronals and so Synchronize one with another has been plainly proved in my Defence of M r Mede which Antemedial Synchronals are The six first Seals immediately preceding the six first Trumpets The Inner Court which is the Court of the Temple and the Altar symmetral or commensurate The Woman clothed with the Sun and crowned with twelve Stars not yet gone into the Wilderness and The fight of Michael with the Dragon while this Woman is in travail These are the Antemedial Synchronals and therefore all of them necessarily run into the Primitive Times of the Church before its Apostasie and reach up to its very first beginning as soon as the Church assisted by the promised aids of Christ after his ascending to his Father began to propagate his Kingdom There was the beginning of the parturient state of the Woman whose throes were great and sharp till Constantines Time and the Dragon spued out a flood after her while she was making into the Wilderness that flood of Contention about the Arrian Points Here I will appeal to R. H. or any man else living what a fit resemblance the sharp throes of the Woman is of those fierce resistances and cruel persecutions the Church of Christ found in preaching his Gospel and in their endeavouring to enlarge his Kingdom And how naturally the conflict betwixt Christianity and the Old Roman Paganism is expressed by the Fight of Michael with the Seven-headed Dragon And how significative the Inner-Court that is said to be measured and allowed but the Outer rejected as incommensurable is of the first Ages of the Church not
and delusions of his wicked Spirits at their Images or Altars to deceive the people 4. And they worshipped the Dragon which gave Power to the Beast namely which had given him his Armies his Throne and his great Authority that is to say though he appears in the shape now not of the Dragon but of the Leopard or Panther a Beast the Dragon is said so much to abhor that is in the gratefull shew of Christianity yet so far forth as they gave obedience to the Paganical and Idolatrous part joyned with it they indeed worshipped or obeyed the Dragon whose Fiends or Goblins might please themselves to receive that worship at their Altars and Images that they had by their jugling tricks and false Miracles reintroduced into the Church and flear amongst themselves at the Imposture that they made the Church in so gross a sense become the worshippers of Devils as it is said in the sixth Trumpet And they worshipped the Beast that is they yielded obedience to the Beast to the Imperial Power in such a state as it was saying Who is like unto the Beast who is able to make war with him Things are so well setled and strongly this way and so accommodately to all mens liking that neither Jew nor Pagan can be able to dissettle the Peace of the Empire in this point or make war and raise stirs against it 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies that is great and enormous blasphemies which are injunctions for Idolatry of several sorts for Blasphemy in Scripture often signifies Idolatry And Power was given unto him to continue forty and two months the same time the outward Court is trodden down by the Gentiles that is the entireness of his Dominion shall continue till the seventh Semitime till about the fourth month thereof 6. And he opened his mouth in Blasphemy against God to blaspheme his Name by giving his incommunicable Name to Idols or Images or Name may signifie his person and so his person is blasphemed by Idolatry committed against him by worshipping any other person besides God or Christ. And his Tabernacle namely the Body of Christ which is the Living Tabernacle of God it is blasphemed more wayes than one both in that they Idolatrously worship a mere Wafer instead thereof and make it also so vile a thing that it shall be at the command of every Priest for whatever uses he will please to fetch it down by his transubstantiating charm to be devoured into the foul stomachs of the People and as it may happen to be eaten by base Vermine such as Rats and Mice And them that dwell in Heaven that is the Saints and Angels they most wickedly blaspheme in that they set up Idols by the instigation of Evil Spirits the Forces or Armies the old Dragon delivered to the Beast who no doubt are busie enough to assist there and play tricks and do call these Idols by the names of the Saints or Angels and impute these tricks there played in the behalf of Idolatry by them to the Saints when they are the mere delusions of these Goblins or Devils Besides it it a gross reproach to the Saints and Angels to suppose they will accept of Religious Worship and so prove Rebels to God Wherefore that Power that established and decreed such enormous things as these Image-worship Saint-worship and Transubstantiation may well be said to open their mouth in blasphemy for publishing such Edicts c. 7. And it was given him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them that is to oppose them and subdue them and keep them under all along that they shall have no power in the Empire as it was said before of the mournful Witnesses that they were Politically dead all the three Times and an half in a manner But in some part of this time the war and slaughter or killing is not mystical but proper For of the Waldenses and Albigenses in France alone there is said to have been slain no less than ten hundred thousand And in the Inquisition within thirty years space no less than an hundred fifty thousand persons were consumed with all manner of grievances and miseries besides infinite numbers more And Sanderus the Jesuite reports that an infinite number of Lothards as he calls them and Sacramentarians through Europe were burnt with fire and fagot but excuses it as not done by the Pope and Bishops but the secular Magistrate which is the thing this Prophecy foretells that it is the Beast with ten horns the Secular Power of the Empire not the Beast with two horns that is the executioner of the cruelty or that dooms to death Iezebel excites but Ahab the Secular Powers execute or command to be executed her bloody suggestions against Naboth that is against those that have the Witnesses of Jesus the Spirit of Prophecy as is elsewhere explained And power was given him over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations namely that he might persecute and force men to Idolatrous worship in all the parts of the Empire 8. And all that dwell upon the Earth that is whose minds are fixed on earthly things shall worship him that is obey his Idolatrous Edicts and Commands whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world that is are not of the number of the Called and Chosen as they are termed Chap. 17. nor of those that are redeemed from the Earth as they are described Chap. 14. For those will ever stand out till they get the victory over the Beast 9. If any man have an ear let him hear For this was a remarkable intimation and worth the observing as also that which follows 10. He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword that is That Power which now in this forty-two months of years of the Beast domineers so and forces men to their Idolatrous worship shall at last be led captive into the Truth and they that kill now with the sword of persecution shall be slain by the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God answerably to the witnesses slaying their enemies by the fire that came out of their mouth Which victory was obtained in the resurrection of the Witnesses in a degree in the third or fourth month of the seventh or last Semitime viz. in the late blessed Reformation as I have above noted Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints that they may stand to it with these spiritual weapons till it shall please God to give them success as he did in the time even now mentioned 11. And I beheld another Beast coming out of the Earth Why there is two Beasts here since the Empire became Christian in profession I above intimated namely because there is as it were Imperium in Imperio a Secular Empire and Sacerdotal which pretends to an Universal Rule in
not markt with the name of this Beast or the number of his name that has not either his name in letters plainly writ or in figures that contain the number that the letters of his name make according to their numeral value for every Greek letter has such a numeral value those that are not thus marked that is profess not themselves of the Faith of this Sacerdotal Hierarchy signified by the two-horned Beast may neither buy nor sell but are excommunicated for Hereticks with whom by the very Sentence of their Synods there is to be no Negotiation Now who this Beast this two-horned Beast or Sacerdotal Hierarchy more particularly is is enigmatically expressed in the following Verse 18. Here is wisdom let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast Here is a dark riddle let him that has skill that way number the number of the Beast For it is the number of a Man that is not so strange a number but that it may be numbred by the Art of man And his number is six hundred threescore and six which is to be numbred no otherwise than by the extraction of the square Root which is 25 * which is marvellously applicable to the City and Church of Rome as 12 the root of 144 to the New Ierusalem And that you may be sure this Sacerdotal Hierarchy of Rome is more specially aimed at in this Vision take another easie sense of It is the number of a Man that is of a mans name For above there is mention of the number of his name And his name will prove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lateinos for those letters in their numeral value make just 666. And it is notoriously known that the Fathers of this Western Church of which Old Rome was the Head were stiled in subscriptions at Councils the Latin Fathers and the Eastern Fathers Roman from New Rome and the Eastern Roman Empire in those parts So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that name of a Man of that Man of Sin or Antichrist and 666 the number of this Man that is of his name which is a Cabbalistical device and by the Cabbalists called Gematria From whence we see that the pinch of this Prophetick Vision at last lights more particularly on the Pope of Rome and his Clergy NOTES CHAPTER XIII Vers. 13. Were rent off from the Church and made obnoxious to eternal fire c. That thunder is fire from Heaven is plain as also that the Popes Excommunications are compared to Thunder and that Heaven in the Prophetick stile are the high places in any Polity Wherefore his Thundering Excommunications against Princes is very fitly set out by that phrase That he causeth fire to come down from Heaven as if he thundered against them Which Analogy is still more accurate if we consider what Artemidorus saith of Thunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For thunder and lightning does not unite but disjoyns things that are united So does Excommunication that rives off a member from the Church And there is still a further congruity that Excommunication should be called Thundering and Lightning or fire from Heaven in that it is the Commination of Hell fire of which the destruction of Sodom was a Type which was burnt by fire from Heaven as M r J. Mede has judiciously observed See my Synopsis Prophetica lib. 1. cap. 6. sect 14. Vers. 18. Which is marvellously applicable to the City and Church of Rome c. Concerning this applicableness of this number 25 by way of counter-correspondency if I may so speak to the number 12. see my Mystery of Godliness lib. 5. cap. 16. sect 8. For it were too long and tedious to transcribe those things into these brief Notes CHAPTER XIV 1. THere was mention in the foregoing Chapter of the Wars of the Beast and his marked Soldiers and of his continuance viz. in his entire state to the seventh Semitime of forty two months of years which is one manner of expressing Daniel's time and times and half a time Now in counter-correspondency to those Soldiers and that War in this very first Verse there is exhibited the Lamb and his Soldiers And I looked and Lo a Lamb stood on Mount Sion which is Christ against Antichrist And with him an hundred forty four thousands that is to say an hundred forty four Chiliads or Regiments consisting of a thousand a piece Having his Fathers Name written in their foreheads that is making open profession of Christ and of God his Father against the pretended Holy Father of Rome the Pope as the word signifies Instead of receiving the mark of the two-horned Beast in their right hand or on their foreheads they have the name of God the Father and of his Son Christ marked on their foreheads that you may see whose Soldiers they are And in that they are said to be 144 Regiments it denotes that they are pure Apostolick Christians the square root of 144 being 12. Here therefore the number 144 from its root 12 denotes the Apostolick Church as the number 666 from its root 25 the Church Apostatizing 2. And I heard a voice from Heaven as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder and I heard the voice of Harpers harping with their harps This is a description of the Angelical Musick in Heaven where multitudes of Angels praise God and the Lamb the voice of many waters and thunder being symbols of a multitude speaking or singing together But it is further said of this Angelical Quire 3. And they sung as it were a new song before the Throne and before the four Beasts and the Elders and no man could learn that song but the hundred forty four thousand which were redeemed from the Earth This Song of the Angelical Quire which is the Joy that ariseth from the New Nature or the Divine Nature superadded to the Animal Nature and is the same in Men and Angels I mean regenerate men who thereby are made partakers of the Divine Nature as well as the Angels None could learn this Song that is none could know what belongs to the Joys of the New Birth or Divine Life raised in us that state of Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost but the hundred forty four thousand redeemed from the Earth that is from the earthy sense and wisdom that savours only the things of this world and of the flesh 4. These are they which were not defiled with women namely with the Daughters of Babylon that famous strumpet the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth These would not submit themselves to the lewd debaucheries of that Idolatrous Church For they are Uirgins For they have so holy and chaste a sense in the duties of Divine Worship that they abhor from every thing that has any shew of violating that loyalty and fidelity they owe to God or Christ to whom alone they are betrothed These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth These are
death is the death of this body Wherefore it is here a seasonable monition Fear not them which kill the body but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell which is the second death infinitely worse than the former 15. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life that is in the Book of Life of the Lamb as a faithful Soldier and true Member of his Kingdom was cast into the lake of fire and underwent the same doom with the Apostate Spirits which implies that those which were found in that Book of Life were adjudged to the enjoyment of Eternal Life to reign with Christ for ever in Heaven in the Kingdom of his Father as he promises in his Epistle to the Church of Laodicea NOTES CHAPTER XX. Vers. 4. And I saw also those that had not worshipped the Beast c. That the beheaded and these are two distinct sorts of persons methinks is plainly enough insinuated in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and those who had not worshipped c. David Pareus supposes an Ellipsis which he would supply thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so secure is he that two several sorts are meant If this be not the sense why is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been sufficient without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Text should have run And besides why is it said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they lived and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they lived again if both the Beheaded and the Not-worshippers of the Beast were of the same kind But indeed Interpreters do generally understand them to be of two sorts though otherwise they cannot hit it among themselves about the sense of this place the one sort Martyrs the other Confessours And I add surviving Confessours who with their Successours survive the Cruelty of the Beast and his Image See my Mystery of Godliness lib. 5. cap. 15. sect 6. CHAPTER XXI 1. ANd I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth One would think upon the Conflagration of this Earth immediately mentioned before But this is but the artificial embellishing of the outward Cortex of this Book of Prophecies in this place * by a Lemmatosynechia as it is called in my Synopsis Prophetica For the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away namely the former Heaven and Earth or World in the sense of the Prophetical stile according to which they denote a Polity which therefore intimates here that the Tyrannical and Idolatrous Polity of the Beast and the false Prophet which is the great Whore or great City of Babylon was now abolished as appears by Chap. 19. vers 20. And there was no more Sea no unquiet multitudes of the wicked who are like the raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame Tumults War and Bloodshed was under that Polity that is cast into the Lake of Fire Chap. 19. vers 20 which was the Reign of Antichrist But now the Reign of Christ is at hand who is the true Melchizedec King of Salem or Ierusalem King of Righteousness and Prince of Peace This Vision therefore goes back to the second Thunder 2. And I Iohn saw the Holy City New Ierusalem The truly Holy City not pretended Holy Church and the New Jerusalem not that Old Prophet-killing Jerusalem which is also spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt the Roman Hierarchy where Christ in his Faithful Witnesses were persecuted to death This sight therefore of the City Ierusalem is exhibited as a Polity succeeding the great City of Babylon and in opposition thereto Coming down from God out of Heaven which shows it is a Polity here upon Earth and of Divine Institution and to be setled after the utter destruction of the Whore of Babylon by a Council truly Holy and truly Oecumenical being persons of pure and upright Spirits and without all worldly interest and moreover inspired extraordinarily by the Spirit of God This is the meaning of this descent of Ierusalem from God out of Heaven all things then being to be ordered by that Wisdom which is from above when as the Constitution of the City of Babylon was from that Wisdom which is from beneath and is earthly sensual and devilish Prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband Not as a Whore to commit Fornication with the Kings of the Earth as Babylon did This Constitution of things is setled under the second Thunder after which immediately follows the Millennial Reign of Christ and is described in the following Verses 3. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people And God himself shall be with them namely by his Spirit whose presence shall sensibly and feelingly be acknowledged by all the Inhabiters of this New Ierusalem For this is the Reign of the Spirit or the Reign of Christ in the Spirit of which the Apostles of old witnessed Know ye not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost But in the City of Babylon instead of being taught and guided by the Holy Ghost they were forced to follow their blind Guides that led them into all manner of Superstition and Idolatry and gross Disobedience to the Laws of God and Christ unless they would be persecuted and barbarously murthered And be their God that is their Protector and Defender from all manner of Evil As it follows 4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes This Reign of Christ in the Millennium will be with that equity goodness and sweetness that no mans heart that is good shall need to be oppressed with grief or express his grief by his tears And there shall be no more death no more bloody massacrings of the Faithful Witnesses of Christ or burning them at the stake with fire and fagot as was done under the Tyranny of the Great Whore neither sorrow for the loss of Friends thus barbarously and inhumanely murthered nor crying no clamours against gross injustice and cruelty or crying out for the tortures that are inflicted on poor innocent men for keeping a good conscience towards God Neither shall there be any more pain by noisom and wearisom imprisonments or what other hardships they are put to for the testimony of a good conscience For the former things are passed away The bloody Whore or false Prophet with the Beast are now in the Lake of fire burning with brimstone And Babylon the Great like a milstone sunk into the bottom of the Sea never to rise again Such is the state of the blessed Millennium when it comes nor shall Gog and Magog prevail against the Holy City in the Laodicean Interval 5. And he that
shall come to pass in order as they are revealed and such are the Prophecies of the Revelation says he no instance can be given of any Prophecy that comes to pass before or after the order of its Revelation And therefore they shall come to pass Prophecy after Prophecy as they were revealed and presented unto Iohn in Vision 1. But to the first I answer The argument will not hold good there if at all where there are special Notes given of a new beginning of prophesying For that is as much if not more than if the Visions had been exhibited to Iohn at several distant times or days And that there are such Notes it is plain namely of a new beginning of prophesying For as the Prophecy of the Seven Churches was ushered in with a sound of a Trumpet so is the Prophecy of the Sealed Book betwixt which two Prophecies there was an intermission of Iohn's Ecstasy as you may see Chap. 4. vers 2. And then before the Prophecy of the Opened Book besides other certain indications of the beginning of a new Prophecy as I have above shewed there is again that voice like a Trumpet that talked with him at the beginning of the Sealed Book-Prophecy which is a greater assurance that there are three distinct Prophecies than if they had been revealed to him at three distinct times or days 2. To the second I answer That there is no harshness at all to conceive two Prophecies beginning at the same Epocha to be writ in the same Book one after another it being impossible according to the usual writing of Books that they should be written together no more harshness I say than to conceive that an Historian in one Volume may write the lives of all the Secular Governours and Bishops of a City from the first times thereof to his own times Is it any thing harsh or rather not necessary when he has gone through all the times of the Governours that he begin at the first Epocha to write the lives of the Bishops of the said City 3. To the third I answer That the argument proves only that the Seals and Trumpets are to be fulfilled in that order they are mentioned and the Trumpets after the six first Seals they being the parts of the seventh Seal But this does not at all hinder but that the Seven Churches in that order they are set may commence with the Seven Seals as also the measuring the Inner Court and the fight of Michael and the Dragon as is plain to any one that attends to what is said 4. And lastly to the fourth and last I answer That it is demonstrable by vertue of M r Mede's Synchronisms that there are many instances of things coming to pass not in the order they are revealed but before and after This is most evidently true if M r Mede's Synchronisms be true as most certainly they are and I have mentioned them to be so against all the pretended cavils of R. H. IV. As for his last Position all the proof it has is from the arguments of the three former which being so false and weak and this last Paradox but a Consectary of them it is manifest it falls to the ground with them if they be sufficiently confuted as they will all without question be deemed to be after I have perfected my answer to the first argument for the second paradox and shown what is the Clavis to the Apocalyptical Steganography which is such a mystical or occult way of Revelation I briefly therefore here answer Those two places R. H. himself notes viz. Rev. 1. vers 20. and Rev. 17. vers 8 9 c. are the two keys the one of the Prophecy of the Seven Churches the other of the Prophecies of the Sealed Book and Opened Book in vertue whereof we may come to a clear and certain knowledge of this Steganographical Revelation called the Apocalypse For as for the first that is the Interpretation of the Mystery of the Seven Stars and of the seven Golden Candlesticks it is a plain intimation to any one that is not stupid that there is something more meant by these Seven Churches in Asia than seven particular Churches in Asia minor at that time and that indeed the Vision of the Seven Churches represented by the seven Golden Candlesticks is a Prophecy concerning the whole Succession of the Church to the end of the world divided into seven Intervals For if it were not so what needed all the pomp of this Vision and the explication of it if concerning the seven particular Churches in Asia whenas Chap. 1. vers 4. there was mention of the seven Churches in Asia and after seven Epistles writ to them by name Wherefore he must be exceeding stupid and slow-witted or of a course perverse Spirit that cannot at least being advertised of it discern the scope of the Spirit in this Vision of the Seven Stars and Seven Golden Candlesticks and the Interpretation thereof that it is a Prophecy in so large a sense as I have shown in my Exposition and proved that it is such a Prophecy by twenty solid Arguments in the tenth Chapter thereof Such intimations suffice to the pious free and sagacious Reader But for profane Drolls carnal Politicians or prejudiced Superstitionists if seeing they see not and hearing they understand not the fault lies at their own doors Now for the Key of the other two Prophecies of the Sealed Book and of the Opened Book let us briefly observe the use thereof and how effectual it is for the purpose intended and what the clear result thereof will be Revel Chap. 17. vers 8. there begins the Interpretation of the Vision of the Whore of Babylon and the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns ridden by her The Beast that thou sawest saith the Angel was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition And here it is remarkable how the Angel does not go about to explain what a Beast is it being so well known that according to the Prophetick stile it is a Kingdom State or Empire Cruel and Idolatrous such as they were that are described in Daniel and called there by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as this Beast is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as to say a Cruel wild Beast Wherefore the Angels Interpretation plainly imports thus much That the Beast which Iohn saw denotes a Kingdom State or Empire Cruel and Idolatrous and withall whose condition is such that at some time it might be said of it truly that it was a Cruel Idolatrous Kingdom State or Empire but is not but will be again a Cruel Idolatrous Kingdom State or Empire and then afterwards quite perish at least as to its Cruelty and Idolatry that is the Bestiality of it shall perish This is the name or nature of this Beast in general And though it may already very well be
and such things as these Dissenters suffering for which are against common Sense Scripture and Reason and against the honour and Institutes of Christ and only make for the interest of the Antichristian Hierarchy to enrich and magnify their Priesthood as if they were more Omnipotent than God Almighty who according to their own Schools can do nothing that implies a contradiction to be done whenas Transubstantiation is nothing but a fardle of flat contradictions it may justly amaze any considering person that the Civil Powers in this long Reign of Antichrist have been so little sensible of their own Secular Interest For in the multitude of People is the Kings honour but in the want of people is the destruction of the Prince as Solomon speaks as to have suffered so many thousands of their useful innocent Subjects to be sacrificed to the lust and ambition of that proud and bloody Hierarchy to say nothing of that great guilt of blood that lay upon the Civil Powers themselves for listening to the counsels of that Iezebel The account that lay upon them in those times was heavy enough when the earth was as well full of darkness as of cruel habitations as the Psalmist speaks But now the fuller light of the Gospel being so manifestly dispread through so great a part of Christendom and the gross Idolatries Impostures and Cruelties of the Roman Church so generally known which cannot but take hold of the consciences of them that have the greatest sense and fear of God and the most sincere inclinations to approve themselves the faithful servants of Jesus Christ and therefore will be the most certain to suffer by the barbarous suggestions of that Woman that is said to be drunk with the blood of the Saints and the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus what a vast weight of guilt will lye upon such Civil Powers of Christendom as at this time of the day shall listen to the wicked suggestions of the abovesaid Iezebel for the destroying of the Prophets of the Lord and whither and how far it will sink them I dread to think and am afraid to speak out But it may be easily collected from the voice of that Angel Rev. 14. vers 9. If any man worship the Beast and his Image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone and the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever And if this be the fate of those that suffer themselves through fear and violence to be thus debauched what will be the fate of them that force them and debauch them The mighty shall be mightily tormented Wisd. 6. vers 6. Such things as these being exhibited to the view of all men in this admirable Looking-Glass of Providence the Apocalypse which doth so fully and faithfully set forth the state of the Church and how necessary it is to reform from the Roman Impurities rather than to have an hankering again after the fleshpots of Egypt their gross Superstitions and Idolatries hath made me with all possible care and diligence unfold the continued sense thereof with an unexceptionable coherence of things from the beginning to the end of the Interpretation And in this Epilogue thus industriously to confute any thing that might seem to have any shew of argument against the truth of my Exposition And that the Reader may be less prone to sleight my pains herein I give him to understand that nothing but the clear evidence of the truth hath driven me this way things manifestly appearing to me thus 1. Against my natural inclination which disposeth me to make the best of the Phaenomena of Providence which I meet with in the world and to interpret them with all imaginable favour and advantage out of that love and honour I bear to that Holy Godhead that is at the Helm and steers all And yet let me look never so earnestly upon things and never so favourably I cannot perceive otherwise than that the Church of Rome is very grosly guilty of Idolatry and consequently of most barbarous Murthers of conscientious men that cannot comply with her in that hainous sin against God 2. Against my repute and estimation in the World the pretending to understand the Apocalypse seeming a fanciful ridiculous thing to the Wits of this age that are ready to snear and flear at any such profession and indeed at the serious profession of any Religion at all as if it were an indication of but mean parts and wit and of great ignorance in matters of Philosophy 3. Against the civility of my nature thus to declare in such harsh terms as they cannot but seem to more courtly ears That so great a part of the Christian Church as the Roman Hierarchy is the Whore of Babylon which yet closely and impartially attending to the Interpretation of the Angel Revel Chap. 17. vers 8 9 c. I am as well assured of and as little doubt of as I do of any demonstration in Euclid 4. And lastly Against all my worldly Interest and the safety of my person as is plain I think to any one that considers the circumstances of things of late There being therefore thus many clogs in my way I think any man may be well assured as well as I am my self that it is merely the Evidence of the truth that has driven me to assent thereunto But they that are of another mind from me I will leave to themselves and others to consider whether some carnal sense or worldly Interest hath not swayed their judgments For as for prophane Wits and impatient of considering any thing that is weighty and serious I will only say to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 while my self in the mean time am so well assured of the Truths I stand for that I hope I shall not stick if Providence call me forth to it through the assistances of the promised Spirit of our Lord Jesus for our strength is not of our selves rather than to sin against God and my own Conscience to Seal the said Truths with my Blood FINIS A Catalogue of all the Treatises contained in D r H. More 's Philosophical and Theological Volumes many whereof having been originally writ in English are with the rest now published in Latin by the same Authour PRaefatio generalissima in qua nonnulla obiter de Vita Authoris habentur de Scriptorum verò occasionibus ac stylo generalÃque universorum scopo fatìs fusè agitur Enchiridium Ethicum praecipua Moralis Philosophiae Rudimenta complectens c. Scholiis subinde illustratum Enchiridium Metaphysicum sive De Rebus Incorporeis succincta luculenta Dissertation c. Scholiis multò jam auctior facta Ubi inter caetera Objectionibus respondetur Viri Clar. I. C. Sturmii Math. Phys. P. P. Altdorffini Philosophematum eruditi Authoris Difficilium Nugarum de Principiis Motuum Naturalium sive de Essentiis mediis de modo Rarefactionis