it is well known that those Kings submitted to the Laws of the Roman Emperours which Justinian caused to be collected not for the use of his share only of the Empire but for the use of the Roman Empire at large insomuch that some phansie that to be the reviving of the Roman Beast again or making his Image 2. History calling them Roman Emperours that is the Emperours of the Roman Empire and Prophecy being but Anticipatory History and the Emperours of an Empire being the Heads thereof it is wonderfully easie and natural to imagine the Pagano-Christian Caesars to be the seventh Head of the Beast till the Pope play'd the Caesar himself and perked up above them 3. The secular Head of the Beast upon which the Horns grow is of a more general and abstracted nature than to be confined either to the Idolatrous or Pagano-Christian Emperours separately or to the ten Kings taking the Emperour in for one It is only a Pagano-Christian or Idolatrous Secular Sovereignty in the general abstractive comprehension and succession thereof which is the seventh Head of this revived Beast as the He-goats head in Daniel which takes in the great Horn but one and the four Horns after with their successions and this all but one Goats Head and therefore the Idolatrous or Pagano-Christian Emperours separately and after taken in as one of the ten Kings all this makes but one seventh secular Idolatrous Sovereignty or seventh secular Head of the Beast as may appear out of the first and third Premisses 4. And lastly therefore The Emperours separately first and then in Conjunction with the Kings to make them ten being but one continued Idolatrous or Pagano Christian Sovereignty which is all the Vision aims at and so but one Head of the Beast it is manifest that an eighth Head is shut out of doors and the force of the first Argument plainly enervated And that therefore for all this the Beast was in being before the Kings were risen and commences as high as the Re-paganizing Caesars and Apostasie of the Empire Which is also confirmed from the fourth or last Premiss To the second Argument we answer 1. That the Pagano-Christian Caesars or Emperours though they be Idolatrous and Emperours yet it does not follow that they are only the sixth Head which was Idolatrous Emperours re-introduced on the Stage not a seventh For these Pagano-Christian Emperours though they be Idolatrous yet they are considerably Christian in their way they professing the true Fundamentals of Christianity and therefore are rightly deemed a distinct Head of the Empire as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other not yet come is accounted a distinct King or Head of the Empire for being purely Christian He is according to the Declaration of the Angel the seventh King or Head of the Empire though not of the Beast the Empire then ceasing to be a Beast in his Reign Wherefore if Christianity did constitute the purely Christian Caesars or Emperours a seventh Head of the Empire distinct from the sixth Head the Idolatrous Emperours Pagan during the Time the Empire ceased to be a Beast surely Pagano-Christianity or Idolatry mixt with Christianity in the Caesars and Empire will make the Pagano-Christian Caesars or Emperours the Christianity in them a Head distinct from the sixth Head the Pagan Idolatrous Caesars and the Idolatry in them will make them not the Head of the Empire ceasing to be a Beast as it did under the Reign of the purely Christian Caesars but the Head of the Empire grown a Beast again by its Apostatized condition into Idolatry And thus the Pagano-Christian Caesars will prove plainly the next Successours to the sixth Head of the Roman Beast though not of the Roman Empire and therefore will consequently be part at least of the successive Sovereignty that is the seventh Head of the Beast 2. But in the second place I answer That the real full and complete seventh Head of the Beast is that Hieratico-Political Sovereignty described in the third Premiss nor do I doubt but that it is the most full and perfect Notion of the seventh Head of the Beast And this Hieratico-Political Sovereignty commenced as early as the Apostasie of the Empire as may be made out from my Answers which declare the early complying of the Emperours with the Apostasie of the Empire into Paganick Superstitions and Idolatries c. Whence it plainly follows that to restrain the seventh Head to the time of the ten Kings risen in the Empire upon pretence that there was no seventh Head distinct from the sixth till then is to conclude a thing upon no sufficient grounds For at the very first sight this Hieratico-Political Head is manifestly a sort or Species of Head distinct not only from the sixth Head of the Beast but also from all the five foregoing Heads in the very Constitution thereof The thing is so plain of it self that there wants no insisting upon it Consider but the third Premiss and the thing will be abundantly clear Thus are these two Arguments for the proving that the Roman Beast under the seventh Head was not in being till the ten Kings signified by the ten Horns were risen up in the Empire utterly defeated I shall hint only now two brief Arguments against the Conclusion the other two would infer to prove the contradictory thereto and so conclude that is to say to prove That the Roman Beast under the seventh Head was in being before the ten Kings signified by the ten Horns were risen up in the Empire 1. My first Argument shall be grounded on the fourth or last Premiss which is the genuine sense of Apoc. 17.12 The ten Kings receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast Of which the easie and natural sense is That at what time the Empire grows into that state of Apostasie viz. into Paganish Superstition and Idolatry that according to the Prophetick Stile it may be called a Beast at that very time will the barbarous Commanders that invade the Roman Empire be catching at and obtaining Kingdoms some here some there some sooner some later for a matter of forty or fifty years together at least till all ten appear upon the Stage Wherefore if the Beast be not under the seventh Head till then the ten Kings at least nine of them will not receive their Kingdoms with the Beast but before the Beast is which is point-blank against the words of the Prophecy Wherefore this alone may demonstrate That the Beast was in being under the seventh Head unless you will make an headless Beast of him which shall be my second Argument before the ten Horns i. e. the ten Kings rose up in the Empire 2. The other Argument is taken from the second Premiss So soon as the Empire apostatized into Paganish Superstition and Idolatry the Empire became a Beast according to the Prophetick Stile and as soon as it was a Beast again it had an head and that very seventh Head exhibited in the
Prophetick Visions by Premiss the second But this State commenced at least fifty years before the ten Horns that is the ten Kings were all risen up in the Empire Wherefore the Beast under the seventh Head was in being before the ten Kings or ten Horns were risen up in the Empire Which was the thing to be demonstrated and which I conceive can never be confuted nor solidly answered by any one that acknowledges the Apostasie began at least fifty years before the ten Kings appeared in the Roman Empire In the interval indeed betwixt the Pagan and Pagano-Christian Caesars there was no Head of the Beast but that was the time wherein there was no Beast It was that time in which that part of the Name of the Beast was made good viz. Is not was and is not as that part is made good under the Pagano Christian Caesars or at large under the seventh Head viz. Is not and yet is For then it is rightly said of him He is not that old Pagan Beast and yet being again then revived into the Image of the former Pagan Beast in this Pagano-Christianity it is rightly said of him that he is and so the whole is fulfilled Is not and yet is But certainly when-ever he was either in his primitive or revived state he was not without an Head by Premiss the second And thus we have seen how solid and unexceptionable their Opinion is that place the Epocha of the forty two months War of the Beast with the Saints or Witnesses as high as the Apostasie of the Empire into Paganish Superstition and Idolatry that is to say about three hundred ninety three or four hundred years after Christ According to which Epocha the Reformation begun by Luther which is the partial Fall of Babylon and the then commensurate Rising of the Witnesses will commence about the middle of the second month of the last Hexamenon or Semi-time and reach into the middle of the fifth if not into the sixth month which is a wonderful easie natural and congruous completion of the time of the Event of that Vision But if the Epocha of that forty two months War be placed fifty or sixty years later viz. at the Rising up of the tenth King or tenth Horn in the Roman Empire the Rising of the Witnesses will begin about twenty years before the last Semi-time which is harsh and incongruous Besides that it would not reach the end this Epocha is intended for viz. to shew there will be a further fulfilling of this Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses even to a full ruine of the City of Babylon or the Beast so that the deliverance of the Church will be fully completed before the Expiration of the forty two months Which is plainly repugnant to express indications in the Vision it self For first The partial Fall or Fall of the tenth part of the City is plainly said to come to pass after the three days and an half which is the same with a Time and Times and half a Time or forty two months So that it is as evident as if it were writ with a beam of the Sun that the final issue of the forty two months War of the Beast with the Saints or Witnesses is no other than the partial Fall or Fall of the tenth part of the City and not of the whole City and a Rising then of the Witnesses commensurate thereto And then in the second place If the completion of this Vision of the Fall of the City and Rising of the Witnesses were within the forty two months space extended to a full deliverance of the true Church and an utter Ruine of Babylon or the Beast since the fulfilling of this Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses is before the Exitus of the sixth Trumpet Apoc. 11.14 and that it is confessed on both sides that the Vials all of them follow the sixth Trumpet and are in the seventh and that yet these Vials are to be poured upon the Beast by this reckoning there will be no Beast left for them to be poured upon Which is a most manifest Repugnancy CHAP. XXXI The Ichnography of Ezekiel 's Temple according to Villalpandus with two ways of computing the proportion of the Outer Court to the Inner thereby THE right and assured understanding of the Extent of the Symmetral Times of the Church being of so good use and great moment and that depending upon the knowledge of the proportion which the Outer Court has to the Inner which proportion is to be understood out of the Ichnography of Ezekiel's Temple which that learned industrious and judicious Writer on this Subject Johannes Baptista Villalpandus has delineated I shall first set down this Ichnography of the Temple so far as is useful to this purpose according to the mind of Villalpandus and after prove the truth and solidity thereof SW Africus NW Caurus SE Eurus NE Aquilo The entire Area of the whole Temple on which it is built viz. a. b. c. d. is five hundred Cubits long and as many broad and therefore is a perfect Square A perpetual Porticus noted with three Lines of which the middle is punctulated or made by points fifty Cubits broad divides this whole Area into seven equal square Area's SW NW X. Y. SE. Z. NE and into one oblong Area α. β. γ. δ. having the length of two hundred and fifty Cubits but the breadth of an hundred Cubits And there is a perpetual middle Ambulation or Walk in this perpetual Porticus And the middle Line viz. that which is punctulated drawn through the midst of this Walk doth fitly and that perpetually divide the Porticus in respect of the said Area's into exteriour and interiour Which being done it will be manifest that the oblong Area with the interiour Porticus lying about it and appertaining to it viz. ε. ξ. η. θ. will bear precisely a double proportion to each of the seven Area's with their interiour Porticus's belonging to them and looking into them single as in ε. ι. χ. λ. and so of the rest For the interiour Porticus's look into their own proper Area's or Courts the exteriour into their neighbouring Courts or Area's excepting the outmost of all as μ. ι. Ï. ν. and the rest which are placed on the Perimeter For these look out into the fields But from hence we may understand how naturally all the Porticus's which have Courts and Area's placed on both sides as σ. α. γ. ν. and φ. χ. ψ. ω. are divided long-wise into two equal parts and that those parts only which look into the next Area are to be reckoned to be the Porticus of that Area And therefore whenas that long Porticus which on all sides compasseth the rest of the space of the Temple can be rightly thought to look into a neighbouring Area only by one half of it self divided long-wise it is very reasonable that that interiour half part only of the Porticus should
of that Community though the whole be the Woman which whole takes in all yet those particular persons belonging to that Community are her Seed or Children according to the Prophetick Stile But to come yet nearer to the matter This Notion is plainly ratified by that passage in Daniel Chap. 8. v. 5 21. where the Kingdom of Greece is set out by an He-goat with a great Horn betwixt his eyes and it is said v. 8. that when that great Horn was broken four other Horns rose after it Here is plainly a Beast the He-goat with its Head for there is mention of its Eyes and of a Horn on its Head betwixt these two Eyes and of other Horns rising successively on this Head we may be sure not on his Back and yet that great Horn is said to be the first King And if so then the other four Horns must be four Kings after him and yet there is an Head distinct from the Horns plainly in the Vision Wherefore what can that Head be but the Idolatrous Sovereignty in this Beast the Goat in the general abstractive comprehension and succession thereof And therefore the Kings that in concreto are the real Heads of the Greek Empire are in this abstractive Generality called the Horns thereof And hence it is plain that the Idolatrous Sovereignty in the general abstractive comprehension and succession thereof is the Head according to the Prophetick Stile of which the succeeding Kings may be said to be the Horns 2. The next thing which we will premise by way of Postulate is this That the revived Beast set out Apoc. 13 and 17. was not revived without an Head there being nothing more absurd than to imagine a Beast to recover out of the state of Death or Non-existence and leave its Head behind it And it being acknowledged on both sides that its Recovery is not till under the seventh Head we premise also that the abovesaid Beast did not recover till the seventh Head and that there were no more Heads than seven 3. Thirdly therefore We are to inquire what in truth this seventh Head of the Beast in the full sense thereof is and in what it differs from the other six forasmuch as all seven are acknowledged on both sides to be Idolatrous The seven Idolatrous Sovereignties or Heads of the Roman Beast are these The Regal the Consular the Tribuno-Consular the Decemviral the Dictatorial Imperatorial and Hieratico-Political or Ecclesiastico-Secular Sovereignties or Heads of the Beast Which last is most palpably differenced and specifically from any of the six former so that this is the very seventh Head Which will appear if we seriously contemplate the Vision of the Beast and the Whore riding him Apoc. Chap. 17. Here we see the Beast and the Whore By the Beast undoubtedly is understood the Civil part of the Empire which must also have a Civil Head for his Civil Horns to be grassed upon which is nothing else but Secular Idolatrous Sovereignty in the general abstractive comprehension and succession thereof as was noted above It is also agreed on both sides that the Whore is the Sacerdotal or Hieratical part of the Empire But in that this Whore rides this Beast it is apparent that she rules him and guides him and governs him as an Heros on a Pharos or goodly Steed is the very Symbol of an Emperour Wherefore here is plainly in the Vision two Sovereignties Hieratical or Sacerdotal and Political or Civil distinctly described and both supposed Idolatrous But now for their Coalescency into one seventh Sovereignty that is as apparent as the other in the Vision For the Whore having the guidance of the Secular Head of the Beast has the guidance of the Beast and his Horns as they come up come they up as fast or slowly as they will Wherefore the Head and Horns being at the guidance or governance of the Whore and both aiming at the same end the advancing or maintaining the Idolatrous State of the Empire for that is that which the Vision drives at not Secular affairs they do evidently constitute this complex Sovereignty to which there is nothing like in all the six foregoing Sovereignties which I call Hieratico-Political or Ecclesiastico-Secular the Ecclesiastick and Secular Sovereignty complying together to make the Empire a Beast again that is bloody and Idolatrous So that whereas in my former Answers I was at a loss in a manner to define whether the Hieratical Sovereignty or Secular was the Head of the Beast here I have fairly and solidly I hope compounded the matter by making them both but one Hieratico-Political Head of the Roman revived Beast or Apostatized Empire With which as I have noted in my former Answers that passage in Daniel excellently well agrees that seems to make the Roman Empire in the time of the ten Toes of the Metalline Image rather Sacerdotal than Secular Chap. 2. v. 41. The Kingdom shall be divided but there shall be in it of the strength of Iron forasmuch as thou sawest the Iron mixed with the miry Claâ— There shall be of the strength of the Iron in this Kingdom as if that was but accessory to it but the Kingdom it self Clay i. e. Sacerdotal And so the Iron is said to be mixt with the miry Clay as if the Clay which is the Sacerdotal Sovereignty or Empire were the Principal again the Iron accessory As when the greater share is of water in the Cup we say there is Wine mingled with the Water but if the greater share be Wine we say Water is mingled with the Wine And out of this Sacerdotal Empire how naturally does the Pope rise at last quite to over-top all and how easily is the Papal Hierarchy conceived to be the little Horn arising properly out of the Hieratical part of this Complex Sovereignty of the Empire 4. Fourthly and lastly We will take notice of the genuine meaning of those words Apoc. 17.12 That the ten Kings receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast whose natural and unforced sense is this That at what time the Empire began to be a Beast and to Apostatize into gross Superstitions and Idolatry the ten Kings would be catching at and obtaining Kingdoms some here some there some sooner some later till about the four hundred and fifty sixth year after Christ they had all sped For that this one hour does signifie a pretty latitude of time all Interpreters consent and History witnesses that it was at least forty years till there appeared ten Kingdoms in the divided Empire And therefore if the Beast be not till the tenth King appear they cannot be said to receive Kingdoms with the Beast but before him Which is plainly to contradict the Text of the Prophecy These things being premised we answer To the first Argument 1. That what is here presumed is not proved nor will prove true if examined viz. That the Emperours had no more Sovereignty over the other Kings than what was merely Titular or Honorary For
dying in the Lord does questionless refer to times of Martyrdom and Persecution and that after the Rising of the Witnesses as well as before but whether greater or more frequent than those before that the Text does not define b That the Angels Vintage should rather signifie Execution of Judgments because performed by Angels I see not any reason for that since all performances are imputed to Angels here in the Apocalypse though this Vintage also proves a Judgment to the City of Babylon c There is not the same reason of the destruction of the Jewish religious Polity and the Roman Because the Jewish Religion did essentially respect their City and Temple and it was a Topical Religion But the Roman Religion is the pretended Catholick Religion nor confined to one City or Temple It was as much the Roman or Papal Religion when the Pope was at Avignion as when he was at Rome If the Papal Hierarchy be kept up whatever becomes of Rome that which is now called the Roman Religion is kept up as the Peripatetick Philosophy is the same and still continues though Aristotle's Peripatus in Athens perished many Ages ago And so vice versâ the Roman Religion now so called the Papal Hierarchy once dissolved though Rome stood firm would be utterly destroy'd d And this may serve for an Answer to Cardinal Perron's Conceit also which you cited e Nor does the language of the Apocalypse imply the destruction of the Material City of Rome but of the Sacerdotal Polity denominated from thence The destruction of Babylon in a literal sense is no more understood than the Fabrick of the New Jerusalem How Hylastick the Stile of the Apocalypse is is exceeding obvious to any one that observes it f And a man may as well say there is no Peripatetick Philosophy remaining the Peripatus at Athens being destroy'd as that there would be no Roman Church Rome being destroy'd g Nor was it a City of stones that reigned over the Kings of the Earth in the times of Paganism but the Roman Polity and therefore it must be the Pontifician Polity under Pagano-Christianism that must be understood of Babylon whose lamentable downfal is described Chap. 18. and which God's people are warned to come out of For if it was meant of coming out of that Material City of Rome what a small pittance of people would that Cry concern in comparison of the whole extent of the Pontifician Polity h But I believe the Objector has rather acted the part of a Literalist to see what I would say to it than seriously urged these Arguments for a Material Ruine of Rome of which the Prophecy gives no assurance And therefore he is the best Interpreter that declines what is at least uncertain and contents himself with what is certainly contained in the Vision CHAP. XLI A brief Account of the thirteonth Chapter of the Apocalypse An Answer to six Arguments from a witty hand whereby he would prove against Mr. Mede that that Image of the Beast mentioned Apoc. 13.14 is not the Ten-horned Beast but rather an Image of that Ten-horned Beast restored BEfore we propound and answer his Arguments this brief Account of this thirteenth Chapter is to be considered viz. That from v. 1. to v. 11. the State of the Roman Empire Re-paganizing in Idolatry and Blood is set out Which Idolatry and Cruelty are the most lively Lineaments of the old Roman Pagan Empire From v. 11. to the end there is a description of another Beast that has the power of a Magician or Conjurer for doing strange Feats through whose Agency the former Beast with ten Horns became what he was so Idolatrous and persecutive a Beast hugely resembling the Roman Pagan Empire in Idolatry and Cruelty This is the general summ of the Chapter which is natural and unforced and which therefore made that excellent Interpreter Mr. Jos Mede make the Image of the Beast to be the Ten-horned Beast which I doubt not at all but that it is true Now let us hear what this witty Man says to the contrary The Image of the Beast says he cannot be the Ten-horned Beast for these Reasons Arg. 1. Because the Ten-horned Beast v. 1. was like a Leopard and Re-paganized v. 2. and consequently was an Image of the Pagan Draconick Beast before the Image v. 14. was made Answ In this therefore we are both agreed That the Ten-horned Beast described in the fore-part of the Chapter is indeed a lively Image of the Pagan Draconick Beast But I deny that this Image was before that Image mentioned v. 14. but it is the very same Image of which afterwards an account is given how it became such namely that the Artificer was the two-horned Beast and this the Effect and Object of his Art so that the Method is easie and warrantable according to that general Analyse which I did premise For the Ten-borned Beast being indeed so living an Image of the old Pagan Draconick Empire and here we finding in the second part of the Chapter an Artificer wonderfully skilful at making of Images how naturally is it suggested that this is the Artificer that made that lively Image of the old Pagan Empire represented in the sore-part of the Chapter and this the Magician indeed that raised this dead Beast to life again conveighing a Spirit into him to the wonderment of the World Arg. 2. In these words The Beast and his Image Mr. Mede saith by the Beast is meant the two-horned Beast and by his Image the Ten-horned Beast who is said to be the two-horned Beast his Image because he created him an Image of the Draconick Beast But these words are but the same as to say The Beast and the Image of the Beast Now the word Beast in those words The Image of the Beast Chap. 13.15 does certainly signifie the Ten-horned Beast Compare the 14 and 15 Verses who being the first and of the most noble Extraction is the fittest to be called the Beast demonstratively with an Article prefixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Beast Answ I deny that the Beast and his Image are the same that the Beast and the Image of the Beast and that Beast in those words the Image of the Beast Chap. 13.15 does signifie the Ten-horned Beast in this thirteenth Chapter In those words The Beast and his Image Beast there signifies the two-horned Beast and his Image the ten-horned Beast restored by him But Beast in those words The Image of the Beast Chap. 13.15 signifies the red Dragon that had his deadly wound in his fight with Michael which wound the two-horned Beast healed In the Image made to the Beast v. 14. and the Image made of the Beast v. 15. there thrice repeated Beast signifies the old Draconick Beast not the Ten-horned Beast restored And as for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 14. in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which occurs so often afterwards it is understood of the old Draconick Beast which is the
expired So inauspicious an Epocha every way is the 326. year of our Lord for the time of the Witnesses till their Rising CHAP. XLIII Certain odd Glosses on v. 8 v. 10 and v. 11. of the seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalypse Vpon v. 8. That was is not and yet is with an Answer thereto How Dr. More according to his Sentiments disposes of the Arrian Emperours and of Julian the Apostate Vpon v. 10. And there are seven Kings An Answer to the Gloss Vpon v. 11. He is the eighth The Gloss and the Answer thereunto THE Text and Gloss on v. 8. That was is not and yet is The same Empire was before Augustulus was not under the Ostrogothian Kings and was recovered again by Justinian This Exposition does not exclude an Ecclesiastical sense of Rome as Pagan Christian and Re-paganized But it is not so proper to substitute a Body mystical or a Quality instead of a Body Politick as Rome was under the rest of the Heads And so for the Ecclesiastical sense or pure Caesar the time of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be short indeed viz. confined to some part of Constantine's Reign Nor do I see how Dr. More according to his Sentiments can well dispose of the Arian Emperours and Julian the Apostate Answ I say 1 That the Beast that was is not and yet is is the same that ascends out of the bottomless Pit and whom the Inhabitants of the Earth shall wonder after whose names are not writ in the Book of life Which therefore plainly concerns Religion not the Civil State And besides it is the whole Roman Empire as appears by the Ten Horns of which the Ostrogothian Kings are one in a new disguise 2 We cannot say under the Ostrogothian Kings the Roman Ten-horned Empire was not for it was then as before Augustulus Nor after the Recovery by Justinian that the Empire is not as then and yet is viz. as to Civil Constitution which the Glosser aims at For the Roman Laws and Magistrates were supported by the Ostrogothian Kings as you may see in Carolus Sigonius De Imperio Occidentali lib. 15 16. 3 The true Exposition does not only not exclude the Ecclesiastical but shows that it alone is the right meaning this other being so exceeding weak and vain For can it be said of that Civil Recovery by Justinian that all the Inhabitants of the Earth whose Names were not writ in the Book of life would wonder after it or after that Civil Beast of Justinian's Recovery 4 The Ecclesiastick sense does not put a Quality instead of a Body Politick but shows the Qualifications of the Body Politick and the Head And it is further observable That the Red Dragon quatenus wounded in the Head by the Conversion of Constantine was in the Glosser's sense a Mystical Body that is a Religious Body Paganly Religious and in that sense wounded in his Fight with Michael and in his Head mystically also Constantine turning Christian Who therefore is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quite different King from the seven Kings that answer to the seven Heads of the Beast 5 And this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his time indeed is short according to the Text. But I deny that it is confined to some time of Constantine's Reign but reaches to the succession of the Head of the Beast that was is not and yet is Which is the Time of the Empire 's Division into ten Kingdoms For they receive their Kingdoms at the same hour with this Beast This is inevitably plain from which there is no subterfuge and is an undeniable Testimony for the Symmetricalness of the Church for about four hundred years after Christ 6 Dr. More according to his Sentiments can dispose very dextrously both of the Arians and of Julian the Apostate For first for Julian the Apostate his time was exceeding short so that after the deadly wound of the Pagan Head by Constantine's Conversion this little short Reign of Julian a Pagan Emperour was but as it were a short Throb or gasp of the mortally wounded Head after which it quite dyed till it was healed by the Apostasie into a kind of Pagano-Christianism 7 And lastly for the Arian Emperours they kept this Head in death sufficiently in that they were zealous Christians not Pagans nor Pagano Christians by worshipping Daemons and Images of those Daemons or Saints And as for that gross Arianism which when it was at grossest worshipped no Object but what they conceived the Maker of Heaven and of Earth it was hufft off the Stage betimes And none of these Arians denied the first Chapter of S. John's Gospel where the Deity of the Logos was expresly signified only their weakness could not reach the full sense of so deep a Mystery as it proved to them And those more refined Arians how near they were to the Truth or how near they might be understood to have come to the Truth and that it might be proved to be rather a frabble of words than a distinct disagreement of senses it were too operose a matter to declare here How much some Fathers have cryed out against the over-much curiosity of Definitions by Councils History will teach us See what is attempted Chap. 40. The Text and Gloss on v. 10. And there are seven Kings This is in effect to say The seven Heads are seven Kings and but seven Kings That as the first Head is the first King so is the seventh Head the seventh King Answ The seven Heads indeed are seven Kings that is the seven Heads of the Beast are so and also but seven Kings And as the first Head is the first King that answers to that first Head of the Beast so is the seventh Head of the Beast the seventh King that answers to the seventh Head of the Beast But there being a time when the Empire was not Idolatrous and consequently not a Beast but having then also a King or Head but not of the Beast the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being a King the seventh King of the Roman Empire though no King or Head of the Beast and numbred expresly in the Text in the seventh place and the succeeding King called the eighth it is manifest there are eight Kings though but seven Heads of the Beast What can be more plain The Text and Gloss upon v. 11. He is the eighth He does not say the eighth King or Sovereign but by reason of the sixth Head reviving he is as it were an eighth King or an eighth Head but not otherwise For there were but seven Heads and seven Kings and that this Beast redivive was not the eighth King and seventh Head as Dr. More saith I have proved before And it is further proved by the following words viz. And is of the seven which was not proper if he was not the seventh Answ You say he does not say the eighth King 1 What does he say then He says five Kings are fallen one King is and another
Rising of the Witnesses For all the Vials are after their Rising And if any one will be so freakish as notwithstanding to pitch upon some one of the Vials to be a Prediction of the late Reformation I demand what Event before the Reformation is the fulfilling of that illustrious Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses for the Event that answers to it must be so notorious that it cannot be passed by in History It necessarily therefore follows that the aforesaid Reformation only can be the Event that answers to the Vision of the partial Fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses and consequently be that which the Song of Moses and the Lamb gives thanks for Which was the thing to be demonstrated CHAP. XXIV Whether the Witnesses wear sackcloth for any time after their being risen Whether the Vial-Angels received their Vials before or after the Song of Moses and the Lamb sung by the Victors over the Beast What is the adequate Visum of the sixth Trumpet What the full meaning of the Lamb 's being found worthy to open the Seals of the Seven-sealed Book Whether a year in the Apocalypse any where signifies a Year of years Whether there be any mystical meaning in noting Prophetick Time sometimes by Days sometimes by Months IT is demonstrated in the foregoing Chapter with Evidence plainly Mathematical that the Reformation begun by Luther is the Rising of the Witnesses but there being some ingenious and diligent Studiers of the Apocalypse who though they are convinced that the abovesaid Reformation is the fulfilling of the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses yet think their wearing of sackcloth may be extended to a longer time I shall endeavour here to clear that Point And in order thereto we are first to consider that the wearing of sackcloth is not literally to be expounded but is only a Symbol of a mean and squalid condition and of a grieved and pensive heart which are things inconsistent with the Witnesses being risen from the death they were in viz. a Political Death whose Resurrection implies the contrary prosperity and respect according to their different degrees of Quality Wherefore the nature of the thing it self may teach us that the risen Witnesses in their being risen did ipso facto put off their sackcloth and were clad with garments of Joy Besides the Text does assure us thereof Chap. 11. v. 15 16 17. For what were those Acclamations in Heaven there and the four and twenty Elders Doxology but an intimation what a time of Joy and Triumph it would be on Earth upon the Rising of the Witnesses and could they themselves then be in such a squalid and forlorn condition as to wear sackcloth Again Chap. 15. the Song of Moses and the Lamb is said to be sung by them that had got the Victory over the Beast and over his Image and over his Mark and over the Number of his Name Which Victors over the Beast most assuredly are the very Witnesses against whom he warred this Song being Synchronal to the Acclamations in Heaven and Doxology of the Elders What then shall we think that these Triumphant Witnesses while they had the Harps of God in their hands and sung this joyful Epinikion to them wore sackcloth on their backs what can be more incongruous But I will yet add a third place Chap. 7. there is mention of the 144000 sealed ones which synchronize and indeed are the same with the 144000 Chap. 14. which are the Souldiers of the Lamb the Saints or Witnesses and who are warred against by the Beast during the time of the first six Trumpets For though in the Cortex of the Prophecy this Sealing seems to be done at once immediately before the first Trumpet sounds yet undoubtedly it is a continued thing all along the time of the first six Trumpets which is for about twelve hundred years for such a space the sealed Souldiers of the Lamb as conflicting with the Beast are conceived to continue but at the end of the sixth Trumpet the Victory is obtained Babylon falls viz. the tenth part thereof and the Witnesses rise and as I noted before sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb and as that is the sign of their Victory there so their being cloathed in white Robes and having Palms in their hands Chap. 7.9 denotes the same here And v. 14. in that they are said to be those that came out of great Tribulation it implies their fresh emergency out of the calamities they suffered under the entire Reign and Tyranny of the Beast After which Victory of the Saints or Witnesses you see they forthwith appear cloathed in white Robes which is a plain Argument they had put off their sackcloth which is the thing I aimed at Nor can the Argument be eluded by pretending that these here cloathed in white Robes with Palms in their hands are those mentioned Chap. 6. to whom white Robes are given viz. the Primitive Martyrs who obtain a blessed Resurrection at this time for suffering under the Dragon as those do at the beginning of the Millennium for suffering under the Beast the description also of their condition implying it to be their assumption into Heaven not a state on Earth For to this I answer besides the absurdity of making more Resurrections than two the correspondency of the 144000 sealed ones to the 144000 with the Lamb on Mount Sion shows plainly that instating of these Palm-bearing Victors in their white Robes into that State here described is not till after the sixth Trumpet at the Rising of the Witnesses There begins the joyful condition of the Palm-bearers and reaches to the end of all including the New Jerusalem-state and blessed Millennium Which New Jerusalem-state being so described as to be also a fit Type of the Church Triumphant in Heaven it is very congruous that this Vision also may be so framed as to be Typical of that state likewise though in the mean time it is a Prophecy of the state of the Church on Earth But that those in white Robes Chap. 6. v. 11. answers so handsomly to the Palm-bearing Victors in white Robes Chap. 7.9 this is but a pleasant Lemmatosynechia in the Cortex which occurs oft and which entraps many heedless Readers of the Apocalypse before they be aware Wherefore I think it is a plain case that these Palm-bearing Victors in white Robes are the same with the Victors over the Beast Chap. 15. and they with the Risen Witnesses Chap. 11. who being upon their Victory and fresh emergency out of great tribulation cloathed in white Robes did not continue any time after their Conquest cloathed in Sackcloth Something akin to this protracting the time of the Witnesses wearing sackcloth beyond their Rising is that opinion of some who although they acknowledge the Reformation to be the Rising of the Witnesses yet will not have the fulfilling of the Vision of their Rising completed therein but expect a further Rising of them signified as they
belonging also to the Emperours though they mainly intrusted the Hierarchy with it and they giving no check by any Edict or Rescript from Theodosius M. his time to Leo Isaurus as I noted above this not forbidding is plainly encouraging commanding or assuring them in this erroneous way as he that rides an Horse and has the reins in his hands is supposed to approve of the way the Horse goes if he checks him not with the bridle and so direct him into the right way So that the Apostasie thus begun under the Emperours it is manifest they stand guilty thereof and so became Apostatical or Pagano-Christian Heads of the Beast so soon as the Apostasie began Which is the thing that was to be demonstrated 6. And that the forty two months War of the Beast commenced as early as the Apostasie may be easily understood by any body that understands the Genius of the Apocalyptick Stile which is highly figurative and of a lofty vigorous sense-striking strain using the fullest and strongest Metaphors and therefore it is no wonder that all the Contest and Tug betwixt the Apostatizing Empire and the Witnesses from the beginning to the end of the Contest is set out by that one high-sounding Word or Phrase of War though at first it was only a Dispute and Contest in words as in the Case of S. Jerome and Vigilantius And the Metaphor is so easie and natural though so grandisonant that our Theological Controversies and Disputes are ordinarily called Polemical Divinity that is in plain English Warring or Warlike Divinity And this War is not said to be betwixt the Head of the Beast and the Witnesses as if the War could not begin till the Head of the Beast positively opposed the Witnesses but betwixt the Beast and the Witnesses so that even while there was no Edict of the Emperours against the Witnesses yet the War might be begun and continued betwixt the Beast and the Witnesses unless a man will be so humoursom as in the Fight of an Horse with a Bear because the Horse bites not with his head but only kicks with his heels to deny he fights with the Bear And yet how positively the Emperours did concur with the Apostatizing part of the Empire has been declared above 7. That the Beast was in being before the ten Kings rose in the Empire is demonstrated from your own Concession viz. That the Apostasie of the Empire was before the ten Kings rose in the Empire For the Apostasie into Pagano-Christianism is that very Form or Essence that turned the Empire into that state which the Prophetick Stile calls The Beast that was is not and yet is And its being divided into ten Kingdoms confers no more to its being a Beast than quartering a slain Mutton into four quarters by a Butcher contributes to its being a slain Mutton which it was as fully before So that this Division in neither case is a Causa sine qua non of the thing being so Nor does it follow because the Apostatized Empire is represented by the Beast with ten Horns crowned that therefore it was not a Beast before those ten-crowned Horns no more than it follows that the Apostatized Hierarchy represented by the Whore Chap. 17. so drunk with the blood of the Saints and so gorgeously apparelled was not a Whore till she was grown so extremely sumptuous in her Ornaments and barbarously cruel in her Persecutions The use of the ten Horns crowned in the Representation of the Beast Chap. 13. is not to signifie it was not a Beast till those actually crowned Horns but to distinguish him from the Dragon with ten Horns uncrowned Chap. 12. and so to intimate that this Beast Chap. 13. is a Representation of the Empire after it had degenerated into a Pagano-Christian State For the Division of the Empire into ten Kingdoms was not till after it had become Christian 8. And lastly As for your Postscript I do not ground my distinction of the Beast's forty two months prosperous Reign from his Reign at large upon the different Readings of Rev. 13.5 but prove that their Reading that read v. 5. That power was given him to make forty two months War with the Saints or that he was to proceed prosperously or do prosperously forty two months and not to continue at large is the best and truest sense As is proved in the Preface to the Answer to the Remarks I say that Reading or sense I contend for is not supposed but proved forasmuch as the issue even the final issue of that War is but a partial Fall of the City and correspondent Rising of the Witnesses I pray consider the sixth seventh and eighth Queries and the Notes on them and I think it will be impossible for you not to be convinced CHAP. XXIX Hints of an Answer to a fourth Letter That the Rising of the Witnesses Rev. 11. denotes a partial Regaining only of the Kingdom of Antichrist into the hands of Christ A further Enforcement of the same Truth The Event of the forty two months War of the Beast in what sense partial in what final The whole Event of the Rising of the Witnesses the Object of the Prediction The Times and Half reach not beyond the sixth Trumpet The Object and Subject of the three Wo-Trumpets not the same The continued Conflict betwixt the Antichristian and Evangelical Party with the Effects thereof to what Visions referrable Passages in Daniel Chap. 7. amply explained That even from our Antagonists Epocha the Reckoning not by Years but Semi-times in the Medial Visions is necessary No hopes of foretelling from the Medial Numbers to a year or thereabout when the Church's Affliction shall cease proved by many Arguments The danger of forcing out pleasing Interpretations of the Prophetical Visions when they will not afford them 1. TO your first Paragraph I say That which falls out after the War of forty two months equal and Synchronal to the three days and an half to the three Times and an Half and to the rest that synchronize with these and is the issue of this forty two months War is the final issue thereof But the Rising of the Witnesses falls out as the issue of that War betwixt the Beast and them after the three days and an half equal and Synchronal to the forty two months according to the express intimation of the Text Chap. 11.11 Wherefore the Rising of the Witnesses commensurate to the partial Fall of Babylon or of the great City is the final issue of the forty two months War of the Beast against the Saints and Witnesses according to the express indication of the Vision This is the final issue of the forty two months War which closes with the Exit of the sixth Trumpet which the Vials follow and are intended for a further Ruine of the Beast afterwards So that this so plain a Truth is not inconsistent with the regaining of larger shares nay the whole Kingdom of Antichrist into Christ's own hands again
the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that are in them to him that sits upon the Throne and unto the Lamb to what times possibly can this belong but to the holy happy and glorious Millennial Reign of Christ in his Saints upon Earth The Song of the twenty four Elders and four Beasts prefigure the Joy of the Millennial Monarchs and People that of the Angels the Joy of the Angels in Heaven at this flourishing State of the Church on Earth and that of the rest of the Creatures the Conviction of all the World that the Lord Jesus was no less than he declared himself to be the Son of God and Saviour of the World to whom the Father had given all Power in Heaven and Earth of which this Millennial State of the Church is a most illustrious and glorious Effect filling all the World with wonder and amazement And this I hope may satisfie the eighth Query 9. Ninthly To the ninth Allegation I answer That the Doxology of the Angelical Quires does prefigure the Joy of Angels in Heaven for that blessed condition of the Church in the New Jerusalem state on Earth So that though this Vision which is a Representation of the glory of the God of Israel in his Spiritual or Angelical Kingdom in the Dramatical frame of things is so contrived that the four and twenty crowned Elders and four Beasts prefigure also the Monarchs and People of the Millennium yet there are left numerous Quires of Angels in counterdistinction to these to signifie Angels literally so called and the Song is to signifie their Joy at this State of the Church on Earth Nor has that strong Angel that makes the Proclamation any other sense than so that he was one of the Angelical Retinue of the God of Israel in Heaven Nor is that Rule of interpreting Angels of men in the Apocalypse universally true I am sure not in the Introductory Visions The word Angel occurs in several places of the Introductory Visions where it stands for an Angel literally so called not for a man to say nothing of other places So little force has this ninth Allegation 10. And lastly for the tenth which urges That if there had been any such universal Doxology to Him that sits on the Throne and to the Lamb after he had taken the Book that there would have been some traces or footsteps of it in History To this I answer That it is a marvellous groundless conceit and expectation that what is here Parabolically and Dramatically set down only to express that Joy and Happiness which would redound to the whole Creation from Christ's being invested with this Power of opening the seven-sealed Book that is to be enabled both to foretel and guide the affairs of his Church so as that the state thereof will be so glorious and prosperous at last here upon Earth that all the World will be convinced of his stupendious Foresight Wisdom and Power that therefore there shall be such an universal Te Deum sung to him throughout the whole Universe at once so that the Solemnity might be recorded in History This is not the meaning of the Prophetick Stile And besides if it were the time is not yet come when this is to be For such expressions as these can suit with no meaner State of the Church on the Earth than that of the Millennial Reign when the four and twenty Millennial Monarchs including both the Jewish and Gentile Sovereigns or Princes may seasonably sing this Song Thou hast redeemed us with thy blood and made us Kings and Priests and we shall reign upon Earth viz. in Christ's Millennial Empire But to expect Records of such a Doxology in History before the Doxology has been is a great Incongruity Wherefore I hope any indifferent eye may easily discern that notwithstanding all these ten Allegations my Exposition of this Vision comprized in the fourth and fifth Chapters of the Apocalypse is unexceptionably true CHAP. XXXV Three Objections from a considerate hand The first against our making the three Times and an Half the forty two months and twelve hundred and sixty days to be the same time The second against oun affirming the Euphratean Horsemen to have subdued the Eastern Roman Empire with Fire-Guns The last against our making the Aegyptian year to consist only of three hundred and sixty days in Arithmetica Apocalyptica but in Apocalypsis Apocalypseos of three hundred and sixty five with Answers to all three THE first Objection Every day in the forty two months signifying a year makes in the whole twelve hundred seventy seven years at least there being really in every year not three hundred and sixty but three hundred and sixty five days This seems to make the three Times and an Half or forty two months and twelve hundred and sixty days not to be the same Answ That the forty two months are Aegyptian Months and consist of just thirty days apiece is manifest in that thirty times forty two make just twelve hundred and sixty days And these days and those months are the time of the mourning of the Witnesses and of that which all along occasions their mourning viz. the outer Court being trodden down by the Gentiles which is a plain indication that the twelve hundred and sixty days are a note of no more nor less time than the forty two months and that therefore they must be Aegyptian Months And as it is plain that the months are Aegyptian so we must conceive that the years in the three Times and an Half are so many Aegyptian years and an half consisting of Aegyptian Months which therefore make each of them three hundred and sixty days See Rev. Chap. 12. v. 6 14. This is their solid Year consisting of so many months to which they add the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are called the Dies adjectitii which are five which here the Spirit of Prophecy takes no notice of but resolving the forty two Aegyptian months which is three solid Aegyptian Years and an half into just twelve hundred and sixty days shows that no more years than so are to be understood thereby And this not respecting at all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or five adjectitious days in this Compute of the Time of the Medial Visions all which synchronize one with another complies excellently well with that Truth which I have made out viz. That the eventual measure of the Medial Visions is not a Year which has been thought hitherto so to be but a Semi-time in respect of which seventeen years or more is not at all considerable So that there was no need of being so precise as to take the Dies adjectitii into the Reckoning and so to make the whole twelve hundred and seventy seven years at least as you would infer Wherefore though every day in the forty two months stands for a year yet these months being Aegyptian months and consisting of just thirty days apiece and there is the
Archetypon of which the Ten-horned Beast restored is but the Image And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to or for or in the behalf of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the behalf of that eminent Beast the Dragon So that the arguteness of this Argument is perfectly blown away Arg. 3. Else the expression would be very uncouth if sometimes by the Beast should be meant one thing and sometimes another like Dr. Hammond who sometimes makes him Domitian sometimes Diocletian c. Answ I say there is no shifting in the Interpretation of this Chapter by Mr. Mede For by Beast in the words the Image of the Beast is always understood the old Pagan Dragon so that so harsh a comparison was not here apposite But where the Beast and his Image occur in one contexture of speech there indeed the Beast signifies the two-horned Beast and his Image the ten-horned Beast This has Mr. Mede declared with unexceptionable Judgment and Solidity Arg. 4. Mr. Mede saith that where the Beast is present together with the false Prophet the Image of the Beast in the same construction of words is not to be found 2. But whereas he addeth As if there the Appellation of the Beast should serve the turn why should that but serve the turn which is the Principal 3. I see not how this concludeth that the Ten-horned Beast is the Image of the Beast but rather the contrary 4. For if it had been said The false Prophet and his Image there might have been something in that but they never being mentioned together it is a sign they are for substance the same or of very intimate Relation as the Pope and his Clergy Ans We have distinguished this Argument into its parts and we shall answer accordingly To the first therefore I say That Mr. Mede's Observation is true and I will add the reason how it comes thus to pass viz. Because there are but two Polities in the Pagano-Christian Empire Sacerdotal and Secular by Daniel resembled to the Clay and the Iron and to the seeing Horn which is the pretended Seer or Prophet and to the Horns without eyes Wherefore those two being all and the Prophet the seeing Horn and the Beast the ten Horns without eyes there is no room for any third which is neither of these and therefore the Beast here is the Image of the Beast or Ten-horned Beast restored as the false Prophet the two-horned Beast To the second Mr. Mede says it serves the turn Beast being a briefer expression than the Image of the Beast but they signifie the same thing nor is one more principal than the other as is apparent out of what I have answered to the second Argument To the third I say That this doth conclude the ten-horned Beast to be the Image of the Beast because as I said before there be but two Polities or Powers Sacerdotal or Secular and the false Prophet standing for the one it is plain the Beast must stand for the other namely the restored Ten-horned Beast restored I say into the similitude of the Idolatry and Cruelty of the old Pagan Empire And therefore that Secular Beast that synchronizes with the false Prophet being the Image it is superfluous to call him so the thing inferring it self To the fourth and last part That out of what has been said I say it is evident that in the mentioning together the false Prophet and the Beast there is no mention of the Image of the Beast because the Image of the Beast and the ten-horned Beast restored are for substance nay are altogether the same but not the Prophet and the Image of the Beast the same as if the Pope was the Image of that Beast so made by his Clergy Arg. 5. The Image is most properly the Image of that Beast to whom it was made and whom it did resemble but the Image did resemble the ten-horned Beast as I have shewed before and was made to him Chap. 13.14 saying that they should make an Image to the Beast which had the wound by the Sword and did live 2. Therefore Mr. Mede is here constrained to make a great Ellipsis before the last Clause viz. as if it had been said And they did so and he lived 3. Lest the Clause should refer to the cure of the wound which makes against Mr. Mede as may appear from my first Argument 4. But I disprove this First because it is made his Character before v. 12. that his deadly wound was healed from v. 3. Secondly because the living of the Image is spoken of in the words immediately following Thirdly if those Copies which read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be admitted the matter is out of doubt Answ To the first part I answer That the Image was not made to the Ten-horned restored Beast but to the Ten-horned Dragon wounded and slain in his fight with Michael For so it is plainly said v. 14. that they should make an Image to the Beast which had the wound with the Sword Which for certain was the Dragon and consequently the Ten-horned restored Beast must be this Image the Two-horned Beast caused to be made To the second That it is no great Ellipsis or rather a very little one or none at all the sense being so obvious and plain as it is That they should make an Image to the Beast which had the wound by the Sword And he lived How natural and plain is the sense to have interposed and they did so had been a superfluous bungle at least it had been a breach in the Artifice of the Cortex which is so framed as to slur the heedless Reader And he lived that is He revived again in the living Image of himself To the third I say the Clause does refer to the cure of the wound for it implies the reviving of the whole Beast For so much imports 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as for the first Argument I have answered it above And to the fourth part I answer That none of those Reasons prove that the Ten-horned Beast was restored before the two-horned Beast restored him in this living Image he made of the wounded Dragon Where note by the bye That there is no description of the manner nor means of his Restauration unless this be it And it is in the 12. verse that his Restauration and Conservation in that state is compendiously and as it were in the Summ represented See my Paraphrase on the Verse But as for the living of the Image being spoken of in the words immediately following if he refers to v. 15. the word there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Life but it may be as well rendred Breath in reference to speaking which is a further degree and operation of life and therefore rightly follows so close to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And lastly for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if that Reading were admitted it would do no prejudice to Mr. Mede but
yet partly because I have dwelt already on this Calendar of Prophetick Time longer than I intended and partly because I have already noted such things as may satisfie the Reader touching the Matters betwixt the Calendarist and my self I shall endeavour to be exceeding brief in my strictures on this Postscript Wherefore as for his first second and third Objections and Answers pag. 80 81. I have so fully set down what may satisfie the Reader therein in the foregoing forty fifth Chapter that I will omit saying any thing of them here We come therefore to his fourth Objection pag. 82. which is this But if the Line of 2300 Evening-Mornings could be supposed to begin at Cyrus yet the 1335 days Dan. 12. cannot be set to any other point of time than Antiochus for it is expresly dated from the taking away the daily Sacrifice and that is enough to destroy the Calendar His Answer to this is ample and ingenious but the summ and substance is this That the taking away the daily Sacrifice by Antiochus being a Type of the Beast or Antichrist his taking away the pure Christian Service which was at the beginning of his Reign this is to be the Epocha of the 1335 days as the taking away the daily Sacrifice is the Epocha of the 2300 Evening-Mornings literally understood But here I reply Why then is not the taking away the pure Christian Service the Epocha of the 2300 Days mystically understood especially I having demonstrated Chap. 45. that the Epocha of 2300 days mystically understood cannot be Cyrus his taking of Babylon though it would thus be very pretty the Typical Line reaching from literal Babylon's falling to mystical Babylon's falling and from literal Jerusalem restored to the mystical or New Jerusalem as he urges pag. 80. But that Epocha I have fully routed in that forty fifth Chapter and therefore the Epocha of the Typical 2300 days must either be in the taking away the Christian pure Service at the commencement of the Reign of the Beast where he would fix the Epocha of the 1335 days Whence the Church of God will not be cleansed from the impure Worship of Antichrist till above a thousand years hence Or else the Epocha must be from the taking away the daily Sacrifice which is most true but this will again destroy infallibly the ingenious Author's Calendar which I think I have hinted above also We pass therefore to the fifth Objection The Beast's time began before 400 and that spoils the Calendar-Account In Answer to this he recurs to that witty Invention of his whereby he concludes 404 years after the Refurrection to be the Time of the Purity of the Church and consequently the 437 of our Lord to be the Epocha of the Time of the Beast But this is already refuted in the foregoing forty fifth Chapter so that I need say nothing more here Furthermore to my Argument drawn from the proportion of the outer Court to the inner he answers First That let Villalpandus his Measures be never so punctual the Text seems not to point at Time but to the Churches Purity or agreement with Ezekiel's Measures Secondly Villalpandus's Measures are adjusted to the Temple but the Vision to the Tabernacle and City to make the outer Court Whence Villalpandus his Measures will be unapplicable to the business Thirdly The Church symbolizing with the Eremitical Woman was retired into the Temple worshipping before the golden Altar of Incense the daily Sacrifice being taken away viz. at the entrance of the Reign of the Beast before which time he supposes the outer Court was commensurable Fourthly Although it be hence that the first Vision of the Opened Book does not begin so high as the seven Churches or Seals yet this is according to the true Apocalyptick Order which first compleats the History of the Trumpets begun to the very end of the Apocalyptick time and then begins from the very first in the Woman cloathed with the Sun as a new set of Visions But to the first I reply This measuring respects not only the Purity of the Church but the Time of the visible Church continuing pure else why is that third proportional so seasonably offered in the Vision To the second That Villalpandus his Measures are adjusted to Solomon's Temple in Ezekiel which is Typical or Prophetical but the City being added it is Iconismorum Metallaxis usual with the Prophets to typifie one thing by more Symbols than one And by the Holy City is signified the People of Israel congregated in the outer Court to worship and answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the inner Court. To the third I say The retiring into the Temple can be no fit Symbol of the Woman in the Wilderness by Wilderness Paganism being emblematized as Alcazar has noted and brought a Cloud of Witness to confirm it and the reason thereof is added in my Alphabet of Iconisms So little congruity is there betwixt the Woman's retiring into the Temple and her being in the Wilderness which is as wide and vast as the two-winged Empire Eastern and Western Re-paganizing and so becoming a Wilderness or Desart And for the outer Court 's being commensurable before the entrance of the Reign of the Beast we were not come to the outer Court then and the Vision respects the external and visible state of the Church To the fourth and last I reply That the making the outer and inner Court synchronous does most certainly infer the first Vision of the Opened Book not to begin so high as that of the seven Churches and Seals Which is an intolerable absurdity and as great a piece of violence as can be done to the sacred Method of the Prophecies And now for the Calendarist's Apocalyptick Order so far it is true as that it points to the running through the History of the Trumpets begun to the very end of Apocalyptick Time which is the thing that is done in the roaring of the Lion-Angel distributed into seven Thunders which are equal put together to the space of the seventh or last Trumpet which therefore reach to the very end of Apocalyptick Time And therefore the Angel having declared that there was no more time than this seventh Trumpet which he had in so general a touch run thorough after his giving the Book to John to be eaten John is immediately bid to prophesie And therefore the Vision of the measured Temple and Witnesses is as certainly the first Vision of the Opened Book-Prophecy as any thing in the World can be certain And if it be so the Calendarist himself cannot but confess it begins as high as the seven Churches or the Seals But if he imagine the History of the Trumpets begun to be compleated to the end of Apocalyptick Time in the Vision comprized in the eleventh Chapter because of the second Woe 's being said to be past and the seventh Trumpet sounding to make the Vision of the Woman cloathed with the Sun the first Vision of the