from the time of St. John Prop. 22. At the ruine of the Western Empire by the Heruli and Gothish Kings of Italy the Sixth Head was at the latest at an end Prop. 23. The Beast called the Eighth King Rev. 17. 11. is a Sovereign Power of Rome that is owned there for Supream at this present Corollar 1. The 42 Months of the Beast Rev. 13. 5. are at least 1260 Chaldaick Years Corollar 2. The 1260 days of the Two Witnesses Revel 11. 3. are the same concurrent time with the 42 Months of the Beast Corollar 3. The Two Witnesses in Sackcloth Revel 11. 3. do represent the whole True Church of Christ during all the time of the Reign of the Beast Prop. 24. The Second Beast Revel 13. 11. is a Church-head owned for Supream over all the Roman Jurisdiction and distinct from the First Beast Prop. 25. The Beast in the Revelations is a Secular Sovereign Power of the Romans confederated with an Ecclesiastical Roman Head in an Antichristian Idolatrous League and distinct from him Coroll 1. The Second Beast Revel 13. 11. is a Succession of Ecclesiastical Persons having Supream Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs Coroll 2. The Beast and the False Prophet are those Two Secular and Ecclesiastical Governours which are at this present time acknowledged Supream by the City of Rome and distinct from one another Coroll 3. The Present Imperial and Papal Power of the Romans are the Beast and the False Prophet Concerning the First Appearance of the Beast Query 1. Whether at the time of Justinian's Conquest of the Italian Goths there had not been at least two such Changes of the Secular Government of Rome since the time of St. John as might he called two different Heads of the Beast Query 2. Whether the First Rise of the Beast was not upon the Conquest of the Goths by Justinian THE SEVERAL OPINIONS CONCERNING THE BEAST IN THE APOCALYPSE IT is generally agreed by all the considerable Interpreters of all Churches in this present Age That Babylon and The Beast in the Visions of the Apocalypse do signify some Idolatrous State of Roman Reign For they all agree that by Babylon must be meant some Domination of Rome But there are three main Differences amongst them in respect of the Age to which they fix their Interpretations Some do apply these Visions to the Affairs of Rome-Heathen and so maintain that the time of the concern of these Visions is already past Others apply them to the times of Antichrist near the end of the World who contend that the matter of them is not yet begun to be fulfilled And others again Interpret them of the present times in which we live and of many Ages past since the time of Rome-Heathen There are some other Opinions that are a mixture of these but these are the only considerable Differences of the Interpreters of our present Age. 1. Those that lay this Scene in Rome-Heathen they make The Beast considered as the common Subject of his Heads and Horns to be the Roman Empire or Nation And when that Term is used only for Him who is called the Eighth King it is then the Roman Nation under that particular King or He himself Ruling the Romans The Seven Heads are Seven Persecutions of Roman Emperors either of so many single Emperors or of so many kinds of persecuting Emperors Of this Opinion are the latest of the Roman Interpreters and Grotius and Dr. Hammond c. 2. Those that defer the Application of these things to some State of Rome near the end of the World are more uncertain They will have many of the things that are said of Babylon alone by it self to belong to Rome-Heathen but far the greatest part of the Account of it and all that concerns the History of the Beast they determine to the time of the appearance of Antichrist three years and an half before the end of the World according to the litteral Acceptation of that space of time mentioned five several times within the compass of three Chapters Therefore are they forced to make the Beast signify The World of wicked Men in general when taken for the common Subject of its Heads and Horns But the particular State of it when used to signify the Eighth King only they determine to be either some Roman Antichrist or which is much the same the Devil in Antichrist in the time of the Reign of Antichrist as the 7th King in the Roman Territories The Seven Heads they would have to be Seven Ages of the World with the several Tyrants against the Church of God in each of them the Sixth of which was that Age in which St. John lived because it is said Five are past One is which appears to be the ground of all this Opinion that they may make the Sixth Head continue from St. John's time to the time of Antichrist near the end of the World whom they make to be the Seventh Of this Opinion are almost all the Roman Interpreters and ground themselves for it upon the general Opinion of the Fathers concerning the three years and an half of the Reign of Antichrist near the end of the World And Alcasar says of them that they think it so certain that there is no doubt to be made of it Disput in Argument totius cap. 13. Apocal. But Alcasar himself is of another mind and after twenty years Labour in this Study says That it is plain from the Characters of the Beast in the Revelations and from its Allusion to the Ten horned Beast in Daniel That this whole Beast is nothing but the Roman Empire Disputat in Argument cap. 13. Apocal. And that to fly to the Kingdom of the whole World for the Beast and to make the Seven Heads to be Seven Ages in it is so forced and wrested an Interpretation that any one may observe it Disput 1a. in cap. 17. Apoc. And that Ribera's Opinion does offer a fair occasion to the Hereticks to calumniate the Roman Church as being at last to be an Apostate from the Faith On the other side Cornelius à Lapide does thus censure the first opinion that interprets all of Rome Heathen and which therefore is forced to interpret the first part of the Visions of the ruin of the Jewish Common-wealth or Synagogue as Salmeron and Alcasar in particular so also Grotius and Dr. Hammond He says of this opinion in Prolegomen in Apocal. That it is 1. an Innovation 2. Mystical not Historical 3. Of a Prophecy it makes the Apocalypse an History for the Jewish state was down before the writing these things 4. Because it was against the agreeing-sense of the Fathers He says further in the same place That tho it was not flattery yet it was only a Love to and Reverence for the Apostolick See and a zeal for the honour of it that put Alcasar upon this opinion as he himself does ingenuously confess But Ribera says positively That he is blind that does not see that
each particular description 1. As they are in the 13th and 17th Chapters both described with seven Heads and ten Horns so are they also characterized more peculiarly by one Head only of the seven The one by his Chap. 13. 3. Chap. 17. 11. healed Head and the Mouth of it The other by the 8th King or Head which was one of the seven Heads 2. The peculiar Head that the one is described by is an Head Ibid. wounded to death and healed again and under which The Beast with the same False Prophet that he is found with in the 13th Chapter does in all appearance come to his end and that Head therefore must be is Last Head and yet it cannot be distinct from the other Seven because it is but one of them healed and it comes after them all as the last of all and so must necessarily be an Eighth which was one of the Seven Now the Head of the other is expresly said to be an Eighth which was one of the Seven 3. It is said of the one that the World wondred at the Head Chap. 13. 3. deadly wounded and healed And of the other that the World Chap 17. 8. should wonder at The Beast which was and is not and yet is who is said to be the Eighth King or Head Which seems to be the same 4. The one is said to arise out of the Sea with the former Character of its Head wounded and healed again Chap. 13. 1. Chap. 17. 8. And the other to ascend out of the Bottomless Pit with the latter Character of Was and Is not and yet is which signifies the same And the word in the Greek for the bottomless Pit The Abyss is the common term in the Septuagint to signify the Sea and the Septuagint was the Copy that our Saviour and his Apostles referred to in all their Discourses and Writings 5. The one had Ten Kings in power with it signified by its Chap. 17. 12. Ten Horns who gave their power to it which they had not at the time of the Vision the other arose up with Ten Horns upon it all crowned which had no Crowns upon the Dragon in the Chapter before 6. The one is described by one particular mouth speaking Blasphemies Chap. 13. 1. Chap. 13. 5. v. 3. The other with one Head who is that Beast all over the 17th Chapter who is said to be full of Blasphemies Prop. 6. 7. The City of the one and the other was the same Babylon in one particular state of Idolatrous and Antichristian Tyranny Prop. 2. and which is said to be fallen in both which one would judge should signify one and the same particular time of Chap. 14. 8. Chap. 18. 2. that City Other the same Characters in both I omit here to mention because they may be accounted not such particular Characters As that they have the same Enemies the same kind of Friends and make the same kind of Wars and have the same variety of Success and Loss in Battel To make them then signify two different states of The Beast or of Roman Rule as the Beast is here agreed to signify there must at least these unlikelihoods be digested viz. That all these Characters together which are the same in both must be twice verified of the Roman Government viz. That it had twice a Supreme Government over it which came after Seven before it and yet was one of the Seven and Ten Kings twice confederated with such a Power at two several Changes of Roman Power in two several states of the same kind of Idolatry and Antichristian Tyranny of Rome and that Rome must have two eminent Ruines in the midst of all these same Circumstances twice repeated For these and many other very peculiar Characters must have been all at a time in conjunction or have belonged altogether at the same time to each of these same repeated States of the Beast Which would have been much like a Story of the throwing so many Dice out of a Box at two several times into just the same Order and Chances without any contrivance For all the credit of this way of Interpretation lies wholly upon the affirmation of the Interpreters themselves Would not this be to lay the plainest ground for an almost unavoidable delusion about the sense of a Prophecy For who would ever take such a representation of Two Beasts with so exact a likeness to one another in so many peculiar Characters with the same peculiar way of rise marks actions make and circumstances for two different States of that Beast and only because they are Two several Shows of it Can any one believe Rev. XIII XVII this of a Vision that men are exhorted to understand and which an Angel of God comes on purpose so to explain as to make an Apostle of Christ apprehend it was to tell him the mystery of these things for the edification of the Christian Church And the Rules for interpreting of which according to the common Apprehensions of Men in other Cases he himself See CHAP. 2. gave an earnest of in his own Explication Certainly unless it can be proved to be impossible for two Shows of a Beast to signify but one and the same state of it one would be very apt from hence to be confident That they are in these Chapters but Two Shows only of one and the same state of the Beast After all this particular Examination If we would be content with ordinary proof and such as makes men sure of almost all other places of Scripture that is what the Context does as it were of its own accord force one to be confident of The Consideration of the Histories of these Two Beasts and of their order and dependance upon one another would appear to be a sufficient ground for a full conviction of the certainty of this Truth For it is very obvious to observe That the 17th Chapter comes in about the conclusion of the History of The Beast of the 13th Chapter for nothing but to tell the Prophet as the Interpreting Angel himself does seem to intimate what was meant by the Beast and his Seven Heads and Ten Horns and by Great Babylon which had been the Subject of all the four Chapters before it To secure us in this Persuasion we see that the business of the 17th Chapter is brought in immediately after the 16th by one of those Seven Angels with the Seven Vials who had been just before employed about the Seven last Plagues that were poured out upon the other Beast in the former Chapter And the Introduction to all that this Angel had to communicate in the 17th Chapter is an offer from him to shew the Apostle the Judgment of that Great Whore called Babylon the Great which had been just mentioned before by that very name of Babylon the Great in the History of the other Beast at the end of the 16th Chapter And then again after the
interposing of the Interpretation of Babylon and The Beast in the 17th Chapter comes in the continuation of the History of the same Babylon and Beast that had been broken off at the end of the 16th Chapter and is carried on to the last end of them both in the 18th and 19th Chapters This does very plainly shew That the 17th Chapter comes in only to interpret those Mystical Expressions in the Chapter before it by a new Representation of the same Beast and of the same Babylon that had been the great Subject just before discoursed of Now it is already assured That The Beast in the 17th Chapter signifies but one particular state of it under its last Ruling Head Prop. 6. And therefore if it be the same with that mentioned in the other Chapter that Beast also must be the same particular state of it under its last Head To secure us also still further in the assurance of this there is CONSENT a Certum namque est Maris Bestiam de quâ in hoc cap. sc cap. 13. Et Bestiam illam cui Babylon insidet cap. 17. unam eandemque esse ut disere Hieronymus For it is certain That the Beast that is said to arise out of the Sea in this Chapter that is the 13th Chapter and that Beast upon which Babylon sitteth in the 17th Chapter are but one and the same Beast the general Consent of all those whose greatest interest it may be to confound all the Significations of The Beast but who can have no manner of interest to affirm it Almost unanimously agreeing That The Beast is all over these Visions but one and the same particular time of the Reign of the 8th King b Those of the second Opinion who take the Beast in the 13th Chapter for Antichrist and that in the 17th for the Devil yet they interpret it to be the Devil inspiring Antichrist which is much the same thing though they join the 7th with him which is a very considerable Testimony of the Evidence that there is for it in the Text. ALcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 5. postea in cap. 17. CHAP. VII Rev. XIII XVII Further attempted to be demonstrated That the Beast in the 13th and 17th Chapters are the same particular thing The 8th and 9th Propositions together with their Corollaries The strength of this Demonstration The Beast his Image Mark Number Name in the 13th Chapter and every-where else defined and distinguished from the Second Beast in the 13th Chapter THE Evidence that has been insisted upon in the former Chapter is of the nature of that accumulative proof which in Courts of Judicature does determine the best and wisest men about the nearest Interests of men in this World But notwithstanding so strange a concurrence of such peculiar Circumstances in the Beast of the 13th and 17 Chapters yet Grotius does make them to be very distinct states of the Roman Monarchy and therefore it will be requisite to search for a more cogent and convincing proof That they must both necessarily be the same particular state of one only of the Heads of the Beast The Consequence of mistaking in this search being no less than the falling into confusions about the first grounds of all clear knowledge of these things which would multiply into infinite Errors in the reasoning upon them It is therefore necessary to use the greatest circumspection in it and to advance in it but by such short steps as we may clearly see that we tread firm and sure in all the way towards it And in this Design that which is first to be cleared is That The Term of The Beast all over the 13th Chapter does signify Proposit 8. only the First Beast shown v. 1. This seems to be sufficiently evident For there is no mention of any other Beast besides in that Chapter but of the Second Beast and that it cannot signify the Second Beast either before or after the first mention of that Beast there may thus be shewn in order 1. That it signifies nothing else before the mention of that Beast is agreed by all because there is no other Beast before that Second that it can signify And four times is it so called by the name of The Beast without any other addition and twice is it said that all the World or the Earth did worship him before the mention of the Second Beast 2. And that the Term of The Beast does signify the First Beast also after the mention of the Second is certain enough For though thrice after the rise of the Second Beast the First has a note of distinction added to the Term of The Beast As The First Beast and The Beast that was deadly wounded c. yet when that Term has no note of distinction added to it it does also signify the First Beast as distinguished from the Second So v. 14. where it is said of the Second Beast that he had power to do Miracles in the sight of The Beast it is unquestionable that by The Beast is meant the First Beast In the same manner is the Second Beast brought in after as employed about the Affairs of the First Beast to the end of the Chapter Where it is distinguished from the several mentions of The Beast by the name of He as the Agent about something that has the term of The Beast joined with it For example He gave life to the Image of the Beast which in the Verse before v. 15. was said to be the Image made to the First Beast He made all men receive the Mark and Name and Number of the name of the v. 16. Beast Which Beast all the World would understand in common construction of speech to signify a Beast different from him who did all these things about the Affairs of the Beast but more especially when it is found that this term of The Beast had four times Chap. 13. v. 2 3 4. before the mention of the Second Beast in the same Chapter been used to signify the First Beast and once at least after the appearance of the Second Beast without any dispute about it and had v. 14. been often mentioned after the Second Beast with some other addition to it And yet the Second Beast had never been clearly intimated by the name of The Beast after the first mention of its rise but in every Verse after that is signified in the Original only by a Verb in the Third Person as acting in the Affairs of that which is called The Beast which must therefore certainly be some other Beast that is referred to by that Article of reference as distinct from him and as before known and mentioned Wherefore by Rule 1 and 3. The Beast must all over the 13th Chapter signify the First Beast And therefore By the terms of the Image of the Beast the Mark Name and number Corollar 1 of the name of the Beast in the 13th Chapter must
name of King is given to Moses and the Judges of the Israelites And further That this Sixth King cannot be any single Ruler or Emperour which is the chief thing pretended to by those who will not have it to be the Imperial Government is most evident from this following Consideration viz. That then the Eighth King which is the Beast would have been the next single Emperour but one after him For the three Last Kings do immediatly succeed one another by Prop. praeced And then all the Characters and Attendants of the Beast must have been found verified of the next Emperour but one after the time of the Vision For by Prop. the 6th Corol. 2. Prop. 10. The Beast in all the Chapters of the Revelations is one and the same particular state of it under one of its Heads There must then have been Ten Kings that had no Kingdom at the time of the Vision who were yet such Masters of so many Kingdoms in the time of the next Emperour but one to it as that they should give their Kingdoms to that Emperour Rev. 17. 12 13. Rome must also have been so burnt with fire that it must have been finally ruined and have had all Soveraignty taken from it in the time of that Emperour v. 16. But in History we meet with Prop. 3. nothing like to this much less is there any account from History of the overcoming of any Emperour of Rome by the Christians v. 14. of those days nor that any Ten Kings confederated with that Emperour were conquered by them nor of any such Emperour that was destroyed by the Armies of Christ So that upon his Rev. 19. 19 20. Rev. 20. 4. death there was any such glorious Reign of the Kingdom of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World as is described immeately to succeed it But History is very full of the accounts of the afflicted and persecuted state of the Christian Church in those times which is quite contrary to that glorious Description of the state of the Church immediatly after the times of the Beast in the Revelations Besides that it has been proved that that Beast was to continue till the Second coming of Christ Corol. 1. Prop. 12. This seems to have been well enough observed by those who would have the Beast in the 17th Chapter to signify a single Emperour And therefore to evade those Confequences they are Grotius forced to make two or three distinct states of the Beast in the Revelations at the several mentions of him in chap. 13. chap. 17. chap. 19. But how evident it is that all the mentions of that Beast all over the Revelations do signify but one and the same state of him under his last Head may be seen by the whole process of the Demonstration of the 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Propositions The Sixth King or Head must therefore necessarily be the Imperial Government of Rome It is then unquestionable That The Beast called the Eighth King is that change of Roman Government Prop. 20. which was next but one to the Imperial Government of Rome at the time of the Vision For the Beast is the Eighth in immediate succession to the Sixth which is the Imperial Government Prop. 19. And it is The Beast under one of its Heads which signifies Supream Government under the Successive Reigns of many single Persons in that Government Prop. 16. Therefore must the Beast be the next Roman Government but one to the Imperial that Ruled at the time of the Vision By the preceding Proposition it appears what Absurdities and Inconsistencies they must fall into who would have the time of the Beast passed over almost as soon as it began One would think that there must be some great necessity that did force to these streights But the chief thing that is alledged for it from this Prophecy is That at the beginning of it it is said That the things were shortly to come to pass That the time was at hand And again at the end of it also That they were things which must shortly be done And that the Book should not be sealed because the time was at hand But these things have already been sufficiently considered pag. 114. And there is nothing more familiar in Speech than to say of things that require a great deal of time for the finishing them that they d will shortly be instead of They See References will shortly begin to be As one might say at Easter All the Summers work will shortly be upon us This Play will be acted presently though it be five hours in acting So about the Birth of Christ All things foretold of the times of the Messiah will shortly come to pass All the pretended necessity then comes now to be none at all Grotius could not have reflected more upon the Judgment of the most Eminent of the Roman Interpreters than to think it to be so plain that the time of the Beast was long since past from such obvious grounds as these and yet that this should never be found out by the most Judicious of them For it would save them all that trouble that they have to make it out that their present Church is not concerned in the Affairs of the Beast in which there would be no difficulty if it were so plain that the time of the Beast is long since past And besides it would keep them from granting so much as they do to the disadvantage of their Cause whereas in a concern of this nature 't is very unsafe to yield to any thing but what is necessary to be granted especially since what they do yield to does force them to such contradictions to what they allow to be the known significations of a Beast and its Heads or Horns in other places as we see in Ribera c. or to matter of fact as shall be made to appear against Bellarmin Prop. 22. who has granted so far as he has laid the whole stress of the Controversie betwixt us upon the truth of History CHAP. III. Rev. XVII The 21st Proposition What an Head of the Beast is in distinction to an Horn. This determined by Eleven Arguments What demonstrates an Head to be at an end The Sixth Head at an end when another Government was owned at Rome in the place of it TO take away all dispute that may arise about the distinguishing Characters of an Head of the Beast in the time of the last Head when there is ten Kingdoms to appear in the Roman Empire at the same time signified by the ten Horns This following Proposition is to distinguish an Head from an Horn. An Head of the Beast is that setled Sovereign Power of the Romans Prop. 21. whose Authority is owned to be Supream by the Government of the City of Rome 1. That it must be a setled Sovereign Power is confirmed from all the Examples of Daniel where there are no Heads or Horns to signify the Ruling Power of a
Monarchy in the time of the unsetled Confusions of a Nation As particularly the time of the Magi in the Persian Monarchy has nothing to distinguish it from the rest of it nor the time of the Confused Scuffles of Alexander's Captains after his death As may be seen in the 8th Chapter Where there is no mention of any change of Horns after the first great one till the rising of those four which did signify the four setled Kingdoms of the Greek Empire And next 2. That an Head of a Beast must be that Roman Power whose Authority is owned to be Supream by the Chief Government of the City of Rome one would think were sufficiently evident by the Interpretation that the Angel himself has given of the signification of the seven Heads For the same seven Heads which he interprets 1. to be seven Kings of the Romans do also signify the seven Hills of Rome to which the City of Rome is inseparably tied which does very plainly signify that all the seven Kings are Kings of the seven Hills or of that City which those Hills do signify What could be more closely joined together in a Prophetical Scheme to shew them to be inseparable Companions than to make both Kings and City to be represented by the very same Figure And therefore does it seem to be so very extravagant Ribera c. an Opinion of some to make the first five of these Heads to be perfect Strangers to the Romans and their Affairs Neither Bellarmin nor Grotius himself could have the confidence to assert this though it would have served their purpose better than any of those other strange Suppositions that they have advanced to answer their Adversaries 2. The whole time of the Roman Monarchy is set out by the Beast and the seven Heads by Prop. 15 and 16. And then the seven Heads being interpreted to signify the City of Rome do plainly determine the City of Rome to be the Royal Seat of that Monarchy during the whole time of it The Reign therefore of every Head must necessarily go along with the Authority of that City 3. No other Empire whatsoever in all the Figures of Daniel is so set out by its chief City as this of the Romans is So that the addition of the seven Hills to this Beast does more inseparably tye the Sovereign Authority of the Empire to this particular City and seems to be added on purpose to express something about this Empire which had been omitted in all others viz. The constant conjunction of the Sovereign Power of this Empire with the Authority of this City of Rome 4. And it was necessary to do this more than in the Figure of any other Monarchy because there are two kinds of Sovereign Powers in this Monarchy at one and the same time that is Heads and Horns To distinguish which at least in the time of the last Head there is no other mark in the Text but only the Authority of the City of Rome for the Head 5. The Authority of the City of Rome can be no more separated from the Sovereign Power of that Empire than the Beast can be separated from all its seven Heads 6. The flourishing and decaying condition also of the Roman Monarchy is set out by the flourishing and decaying condition of the City of Rome all over the Book of the Revelations In the time of the sixth Head the whole Monarchy is described by the Chap. 17. 4 18. Reign of the City of Rome over the Kings of the Earth In the time of the last Ruling Head Rome is described in a Majestick Appearance to express the Power of the Roman Rule over Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues And the ruinous and desolate State of the City of Rome is afterwards made use of to Chap. 16. 19. Chap. 18. signify the fall of that Empire and the last end of all Roman Rule All which is sufficient evidence That the City of Rome goes constantly along with the chief Head of that State 7. The Fates of the chief City of any other Empire that is mentioned by the Prophets do generally signify the condition of the chief Head or of the Sovereign Power that goes along with that City And the end of any such Ruling Power or Empire is expressed to be at the loss of their Royal City Thus is the flourishing and ruinous State of the Israelites set out by the like Characters of Samaria that of Judah by Jerusalem the rise and fall of the Babylonians by the glory or ruine of Babylon c. And therefore by Rule the 2 d. The Authority of the City of Rome must go along with every Head of the Roman Power unless there were any thing clear against it which is not pretended 8. But most especially must this be true of an Head of the Beast at the time that Rome enjoyed the Ensigns and Badges of the chief Authority of the Empire For that chief Authority is the distinguishing mark of an Head of the Beast And therefore it is impossible that in the division of the Roman Empire either into Two Empires or into Ten Kingdoms that the Emperour of Constantinople should be an Head of the Beast or of the Roman Monarchy any longer than he was owned and allowed either together with or without another Partner by the Senate and People of Rome whilst they did retain their usual Authority For as long as they continued in that Authority let their State be never so much diminished in comparison with what they had been yet they had all the qualifications that the Prophecy requires to be represented by an Head of the Beast They were still the Ruling People of the 7 Hills and the same continued Body with those that reigned in the most flourishing State of the City of Rome a GRotius de jure B. P. L. 2. c. 9. Art 3. Isocrates and Julian after him have said that Cities are immortal that is They may be so because the People are of that kind of Bodies which are made up of distant Parts and fall under one name which has one Soul or Spirit in it And that Spirit in a People is a full and perfect Society of Civil Life the first product of which is Government the bond by which the Commonwealth holds together the Vital Spirit which so many thousands partake in Now these Artificial Bodies are just like Natural Bodies A Natural Body ceases not to be the same for the change of some of the Particles of it while the Species continues the same So a River is still the same notwithstanding the continual succession of Waters in it so an outward accession may possibly add to or take from the dignity of a People but not make it another People And the way that a People ceases to be is either by the ruine of the Body of it when the Body of the People are lost by Earthquakes c. or Wars or Pestilence or by the
Laws about the Election of the Roman Bishops and Clergy Lib. 8. Ep. 15. Ep. 24. l. 9. Ep. 15. The Church-Annals do also give an account of many Synods that were called by Theodoric for the good of the Roman Church for which Baronius gives him this Character That though he were a Barbarian Arrian Heretick and Stranger yet notwithstanding the importunity of the Schismaticks he shewed so very great a Reverence to the Church or See Apostolick Baron Ann. 501. Petavius his acknowledgment That Theodorick whose Reign was the best part of the whole time of the Reign of the Goths in Italy did defend the Rights and Liberties of the Roman Church with the greatest care and faithfulness And we find much the same account of those who succeeded him See References We are also informed that in the point c Sanders de Visâ—b Monarch p. 220. In the Honour of the Saints the Arrians do also agree with us Quaere of the Honour of the Saints the Arrian Goths were of the same Opinion with the Romans and they are also charged with the giving Christ divine worship though they judged him to be but a Creature which is apprehended to be an Idolatrous Worship Besides The names of Blasphemy are not said to be on all the Heads whereas to make it appear that there were Crowns upon every Horn of the Ten it had been said just before Ten Horns and upon his Horns Ten Crowns which seems to make a difference betwixt that and what is said of the Seven Heads and on his Heads the names of Blasphemy not on his Seven Heads And tho there should be but six of the Heads blasphemous that were enough to say of them that the names of Blasphemy were on them as indefinite ways of speech are often used in Scripture For Example The Ten Kings it is said should burn the Whore which no one would judge necessary to be done by every one of the Ten. So is it said that the Four Beasts Dan. 7. 17. said to be Four Kings shall arise out of the Earth though the Rev. 17. 16. First or Babylonian were then almost past Grotius Apoc. 12. 1. observes That the Disciples were often called the Twelve when there were not so many of them together as particularly St. John 20. 24. after the death of Judas He does also there furnish us with another Answer to this that the names of blasphemy are upon the Seven Heads in the 13th Chapter to signify the Idolatrous State of the Seven Hills or of the Roman Reign when the Crowns were upon the Horns or when the Empire was divided into so many Sovereigns But the Crowns were upon the Seven Heads in the 12th Chapter to shew that then there was no other Seat of Roman Reign but the Seven Hills In this way the names of blasphemy have no respect to the Seven Kings that are signified by the Seven Heads but only to the Seven Hills which they do also represent or the City of Rome in the time of the Ten Kings This indeed and no other way does give a very good reason why all the Heads should be crowned in the 12th Chapter and none in the 13th If it be still urged That the Beast it self of which every one of them are the Heads is said to be full of Blasphemy that is easily answered For by the Beast there is meant only that one peculiar Rev. 17. 3. state of it under its last Head Prop. 6. And for the other Examples of Beasts in Daniel we find no Characteristick Note of Blasphemy or Idolatry upon them All that they are set out for as any ways dreadful is only the fierceness of their power in their Horns or their Paws or in their Teeth or in their prevailing Conquests And those Beasts in particular of which this in the Revelations is described to be made up of viz A Lion a Bear and a Leopard are such as both in their own natures are given to destroy and ruine And are so set out and that in conjunction with one another in Scripture as the destroyers of God's People So do we find the Lion and the Leopard joined together Jerem. 5. 6. The Lion and the Bear Amos 5. 19. Prov. 28. 15. And in the 13th of Hosea 7 8. We have them all three together And very great Criticks in these things though Defenders of Dr. Moor B. Bestia the Idolatrous quality of all the Heads and Horns of the Beast yet acquaint us that the d Dr. Moor in his Alphabet of Prophetical Iconismes Vol. I. pag. 598. Literar B. Bestia Great Empires are called Beasts not only for their Idolatry but also for their bloody Tyranny as Grotius has observed upon Mat. 20. Where Christ declares the difference betwixt his Disciples and the Kings of the Gentiles This opposition says he shews why the Empires of the World are set out amongst the Prophets by the Figures of Beasts but the Kingdom of Christ by the Image of a Man the Son of Man Where by Beasts Grotius must understand Feras and then it will properly answer the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint in the same way viz. for wild Beasts and has almost the same likeness of sound and derivation with it otherwise the Kingdoms of the World might have been called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Four Beasts in the 4th Chapter of the Apocalypse and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proper signification of a Beast in Daniel according to the word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is only a great living Creature It is indeed rendered by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to express the terror of it But that according to the general use of it by the Septuagint signifies only a fierce Beast to denote the conquering power of it without the least intimation of Idolatry in it And Grotius himself who will have the notion of a Beast to be nothing else but an Idolatrous Empire yet on St. Matthew 20. 25. observes that therefore are the Empires of the World represented by Beasts upon the account of their Tyrannizing Power but the Reign of Christ by the Figure of a Man And e Malvenda de Antichristo pag. 257. John does therefore call Antichrist a Beast that he might signify that his Persecution will be the fiercest But that under that name is very properly signified terrible and dreadful Empires for their fierceness and cruelty St. Jerome c. all agree Malvenda says that St. Jerome and all besides did agree that formidable Empires were properly signified by that name for their fierceness and cruelty And to the same purpose does f Ribera in v. 7. c. 11. Apocalyps item in v. 1. cap. 13. Bestia Though amongst the Latines it be a general word yet here it does properly signify a fierce and hurtful Beast as the Latins themselves understand Bestiarâ—i that is those that fight with Beasts and that are
Justinian To resolve this Scruple it must be considered That there are two different kinds of Sovereign Power represented in the Beast the one by his Heads and the other by his Horns And the next Change of Sovereignty but one to that which ruled in St. John's time which constitutes the 8th King or the Beast is a succession of an Head of the Beast by Prop. 20 21. And that Head is called the Beast as a thing distinct from the Ten Horns for the Ten Horns are said to give their Kingdom to the Beast who before had been said to be the Eighth King and is one of the Seven Heads by Prop. 5. Coroll It matters not therefore at what time the Ten Horns arose For they were but so many Sovereignties in the Roman Empire distinct from that Eighth King which is the Beast or an Head of the Beast and who were confederated with him And to know the time of that Confederacy it must be enquired first what was the next successive Head but one to the Imperial that was up at the time of the Vision For besides the Ten Kings there was to be an Head amongst them whom they should all join with And the Ten Kings were but so many different Horns which signify a division of the Empire and not a single successive Head of it superior to them all which is here enquired after according to the mark that has already been given to know an Head by 17. This would also be another difficulty against deferring the appearance of the Beast till the Reign of Justinian viz. That the Reign of the Beast and the time of the Woman in the Wilderness do begin and end together and the Woman is said to fly into the Wilderness presently after her delivery of the Man-child that is presently after the Conversion of the Imperial Throne 200 years before Justinian's time But it is by almost all agreed that that first mention of the Woman's flying into the Wilderness is an anticipation because after several great Actions intervening it is repeated again at the 14th verse and there represented but as a preparation to rest in the Wilderness and then the Dragon cast out a flood after her whilst she was flying so that she was not at rest then till after that flood was swallowed up by the Earth which was just before the rising of the Beast out of the Sea chap. 13. 18. In the last place it may be objected That from the fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus to the time of Justinian was no new Roman Government in the West because the Barbarous Kings and their People were not Romans and therefore must if any thing be a new Beast and not a new Head of the Roman Beast and then all the time of their Reign will be but an Interregnum of the Roman Government and Justinian's return there will be but the continuance of the Sixth Head But it is sufficient answer to this that the ten Barbarous Kings which are made to be the Ten Horns of the Beast are thereby represented as Members of the Roman Empire as has been just now observed And moreover it does appear that the Goths who succeeded in the room of the Western Emperors had been long before made the Confederates and Members of the Roman Empire See Note y on Chap. 4. CHAP. IX Rev. XIII A short Account of the several Opinions of Interpreters that differ from the Propositions before demonstrated Their inconsistency with the Analogy of Prophecy The Shifts that they are forced to flye to to maintain them BY the same Light which has cleared up mine own Applications of the Prophecy it may be seen upon what grounds I depart from the Apprehensions of others about it 1. It is much to be admired That there ever should have been any at all much more any of the Ancients that had been conversant Andreas Caesar Aretas Primatius Beda c. in this Study that should apprehend it possible for the whole business of Babylon and the Beast in the Revelations to be nothing but a Mystical and Spiritual state of the Christian Church in relation to the whole World of the Wicked in general and not to any particular Empire of the World more than other For the Angel in the 17th Chapter does so expresly signifie Prop. 1. his design there to be to unfold the Mystery of Babylon and the Beast that had been before mentioned and does thereupon determine the meaning of them to the Roman Empire by such generally known and peculiar marks that the Romanists themselves whose only interest and considerable concern it is to divert the scene of these Visions from the City of Rome do yet almost unanimously in this latter age acknowledg to their Adversaries That there is nothing more certain and unquestionable than That some particular state of the Domination of See Consent of Antiquity c. Rome must be meant by them The ground of this paradoxical Fancy of the Ancients will be afterwards enquired into 2. It is in the next place very near as extravagant to grant That some particular state of Roman Rule must be the great object of these Visions and yet to make the Figure of the Beast in general to signifie the World and the Heads of the Ribera c. Beast either so many successive Ages or so many distinct successive Empires in it For by all the Examples of Beasts and their Ruling parts all Prop. 16. over the Prophecy of Daniel which is generally agreed to be the original pattern of the Prophecy of the Revelations it is acknowledged by these very persons themselves That a Beast does constantly signifie the Rule or Empire of one particular Nation only and therefore must the Heads also signifie so many Supreme Powers in that Nation only But the most inexcusable thing in this opinion is That the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel is granted by these same persons to be nothing but the particular Nation of the Romans which yet is the exact picture Prop. 15. of this Beast in the Revelations But then to grant 3dly That the Beast and his Heads do signifie nothing but Roman Power and after that to make the Seven Heads not to be so many distinct Powers but to be taken Bellarm. c. collectively for All the Rulers of one kind or for All the Emperors is to out-face the plain expressions of the Text which divide the number Seven into Five One Another and an Eighth that is one of the Seven and it is well known that when the number Seven is so expresly divided into parts it is never used collectively or for an indefinite multitude 4. As contrary to the known use of those Mystical Expressions is it to make the Seven Heads of the Beast to be so many single persons only of Rulers Grotius c. For it is evident all over the Book of Daniel That Heads and Horns of Beasts do signify all
Alcasar Grotius Dr. Hammond Two hundred Years after the Empire was turned Christian and was then burnt in the possession of a Christian King by a Christian Emperor Or To make it to be Rome a little before the end of the World grown prodigiously rich by Foreign Traffick Rev. 18 19. and having brought the Kings of the earth under her Subjection v. 3. in the space of Three Years and an Ribera c. half Or To make it to be both Rome Heathen and Rome at the end of the world which should cry I sit as a Queen and shall see no sorrow v. 7. and which should not have the Pagan Power of it abated or ended for above a Thousand Years after it began to be Rome Christian all which are such monstrous Inconsistencies as to make any conclude them to be impossible Those that own Babylon to be Rome and the last Ruling Head of the Beast to be Antichrist about the end of the World and that the whole Seven Heads are so many immediate Successions of Ruling Powers to make the Sixth Head continue from Ribera c. Most Papists Rev. 17 10. the time of St. John when it is by the Text signified to be in Rule to the time of the Seventh King that is in their opinion to a short space before the end of the World they are forced to make the Sixth King to be of a much longer Continuance than the Imperial Government at Rome that was the King in being at the time of the Vision For they own that the Imperial Government was long since at an end at Rome and therefore are they forced to make their Sixth King to be all those persecuting Powers of the World that reach from the time of the Vision to about the end of the World in consequence of which it is necessary for them to make the Beast in general to be the whole World and the rest of the Heads so many Successions of either persecuting Ages or Monarchies of it and this is so contrary to the known acceptation of a Beast and its Heads or Horns for one Ruling Nation only all over the Prophecy of Daniel as it is by these very persons acknowledged that nothing could make it appear to what a forced shift they were fain to flye to avoid the bringing in of Antichrist into the Roman Church many Ages ago if they should have granted the Sixth Head at the time of the Vision to have been the then Ruling Imperial Power of Rome only But a much more apparent shift is it in those who think themselves forced to own the Beast to be but one single Nation only or the Roman Empire and the last ruling Head to be Antichrist Bellarm. c. about the end of the World and the Head in Rule at the time of the Vision to be the Imperial Government but after all this for fear of bringing in Antichrist into the Roman Church too soon to make the Seven Heads to signifie collectively all the Roman Emperors either at Rome or Constantinople or at Vienna whereas the number Seven is apparently here divided into broken numbers which does as certainly determine the Heads to that definite number in an immediate Succession to one another And nothing could have made it appear how so well a versed understanding in the Critical use of words as Bellarmine's was resolved to outface his own Knowledg to avoid a dangerous Consequence for if he had allowed the Seven Heads to have been just so many Successive Changes of the Rule of the Romans he must certainly have made the Sixth Head end at the Succession of the Kingly Government of Rome upon the fall of the Western Empire tho the Imperial Government at Constantinople had been part of the Sixth Head For the change of the other part of it at Rome did make a new Change of the whole Government that is from Imperial to the mixt Form of Kingly and Imperial together as the Tribunes with the Consulary Power were a Change of the Consulary Head of the Government But of all the forced shifts that we meet with the most Paradoxical and absurd are those of the Grotian way they grant Grot. Dr. Hammond the Beast to be the Idolatrous Roman Empire and the Heads to be Successive Changes of Roman Rulers and the time of the Beast to continue at least to the Reign of Justinian and yet make the last Ruling Head of the Beast to be at an end with the Reign of Domitian which is Contrary to all the Representations of the Beast in the 17th chapter as ending with his last Head Prop. 6. Corol. ibid. they do also by this make the Ten Horns to be a long time after the last Head which are said expresly to give their Kingdom to the Eighth King or the Beast under the last Ruling Head They do also make the Seven Heads of the Beast to be but so many single Persons contrary to the known signification of the Heads and Horns of Beasts all over Daniel They do also make the different Shows of the same Beast in the 11th 13th and 17th Chapters to be really distinct Beasts from one another without any ground for it but the different Shows of them contrary to what the exact resemblance of their Characters to one another would make any judg them to be and contrary to the First Book plain demonstration of their being but one and the same thing from the Characters of them and contrary to the sense of almost all kind of Interpreters especially those of the Roman Party who cry out against the main foundations of this Opinion as nothing but the extravagancies of men without any Preface to my former Treatise The Judgments of God c. sense in them tho the whole business of all the pains that is taken by these Contrivances is to remove the charge of Idolatry from the Church of Rome Those that own the Fourth Beast in the Seventh of Daniel and the Beast in the Revelations to be the particular Nation of the Romans and yet will make the little Horn of the one and the last Head or Eighth King in the other to come after the destruction of the Beasts to which they belong Most of the Romanists show that they value not Contradictions to keep off Antichrist from appearing in the Roman Church And those that own the last time of the Beast to be about the end of the world and yet will make Babylon that accompanies the Beast to the last to be Rome Pagan must have much the same contempt The same of the plain intimations of the Prophecy and those also that can think That Babylon is not the same thing but several vastly distant States of Roman Rule in the several mentions of it or both Rome Pagan and Rome near the end of the World Prop. 2 3. Those of the Protestants that make the Change of Religion in the Imperial Head to be a new
Beast here is represented as consisting of these Kingdoms as the parts of his Body which if it has any reference to the Roman State at the particular Rise of the Beast with Justinian must signify That it should be that particular Roman Power which was in possession of Greece Babylon and Persia or that part of Asia which belonged to the Babylonians and Persians And then it does very clearly signify That the Rise of the Beast should be at the advancement of the Eastern Empire to the Government of Rome And does not that suit well enough with Justinian's Conquest of Italy This would tempt one to be very confident That this was designed as a very plain Character to know the Rise of the Beast by since there is no such mention of any of the Parts of these Beasts in the Dragon in the Chapter just before which yet is the same kind of Figure with this and is known to signify the Roman Chap. 12. State a long time after that it had been in possession of Greece and Asia And one would be very apt to judge That what is represented as particular to the Beast in the 13th Chapter and was omitted in the Dragon which yet is known to be the Roman Empire must be added as a mark of distinction of the one from the other But if others will have this mark of the Three Beasts to belong to the general nature of the Beast as it signifies the Roman Conquest at its first appearance after the destruction of the Greek Monarchy it will not prejudice my Opinion It is enough to show That as this Beast does signify the particular state of it under its last Ruling Head So this character of the Parts of it does most exactly agree with that which I make to be the last Ruling Head at its first Rise in distinction to all other states of the Beast The rising of the Beast out of the Sea is known to signify that it Rev. 13. 1. should arise out of great Commotions and by great Wars and Tumults For so are many Waters interpreted by the Angel himself to signify in this Prophecy chap. 17. 15. Multitudes and Peoples Isa 8. 7. 17. 12. Jer. 46. 8. and Tongues and Nations which being added to the nature of those Waters in the Sea do determine it to signify great commotions of those Multitudes and Nations And certainly this does very well suit with that strange bustle which Justinian made in the World by his Wars with the Goths and Vandals and Persians and with his Conquests of those People at his taking possession of the Western Empire The ascending of the Beast out of the Bottomless Pit Rev. 17. 8. is the same thing as the Sea is usually called by the name of the Abyss in Scripture which is the word here used for the Bottomless Pit I could never meet with any satisfactory Account from any other Hypothesis concerning the date of the first appearance of the Beast why the whole time of its continuance both in Daniel Dan. 7. 25. Rev. 13. 5. Chap. 12. 14. and the Revelations should be expressed by a Time Times and half a time or 4â— Months which is the same Coroll 2. Prop. 24. For one would be apt to conclude that a ALcasar Notat 4. ad v. 2. cap. 11. All the Persecutions of the Church are set out by three years and an half Three days and an half refer to a Week And on chap. 12. We have seen that by 1260 days are signified three years and an half according to the Graecian and Jewish Account We have also there seen that the space of three years and an half is to be taken mystically and that by it is signified in the middle of a week of seven years the three and an half in that expression must have a reference to some seven as the whole number of it Three years and an half is in it self so precise and unusual a determination of the whole time of a thing and the whole number seven so commonly used in the Old and New Testament to signify the whole of things of the same kind that it must be thought to be very likely to be here referred to especially when it is also considered That the number seven is very frequently in use all over the Book of the Apocalypse Alcasar has observed that it is made use of there no less than forty times Epist Dedicat. Comment in Apocalyp The three years and an half of the preaching of Christ to which these three years and an half are said to allude are also in the 9th Chapter of Daniel last verse made to be a reference to half a week of years With this it is also to be observed That the other two famous Prophecies concerning the Captivities of the Jewish Church which is every-where made the scheme of the Christian Church The first about the 70 years Captivity by Jeremiah and the other of the 70 weeks Captivity till the time of the Messias which is mentioned with the former in the 9th Chapter of Daniel They both have the number seven for their denominator and common measure And from Jacob's seven years service for Gen. 29. Chap. 21. 2. Leah and Rachel and from the Liberty of an Hebrew Servant at the end of seven years It appears that the space of seven years was the known space of time for servitude amongst the Jews where the Prophecies were delivered And the seven years that we are now enquiring after to fix the half of them to must be some seven years of the Bondage of the Church though with some lightsome intervals As this does make it very likely That the Time Times and an half of the Tyranny of the Little Horn or Beast over the Church of God does certainly refer to some whole number of seven Times so is it now worth the enquiring to what particular seven Prophetical Times they are referred This difficulty in the way that I have found my self determined to by the Prophecy is easily resolved For if the first appearance of the Beast be at Justinian's Conquest of Italy the Time Times and half of the Beast in the Revelations and Little Horn of the Beast in Daniel are just as long a space of time as it was from the first beginning of the Captivity of the Jews under the Assyrians who were much the same Kingdom with the Babylonians in the 9th year of the Reign of Hosea to the time of Justinian For that Captivity of the Ten Tribes by Salmanasar was in Petav. Rat. Temp. part 1. l. 2. cap. 2. in Ezechia Part. 2. l. 1. c. 4. in fine the 3993d year of the Julian Period and 720 years before Christ If to this be added the Year of our Lord when Belisarius carried Vitiges the King of the Italian Goths in triumph with him to Justinian which was Anno Dom. 540 there will be just the same number of 1260 years to the
former A Carved Image is indeed but the dead likeness of some single Person But an Image of a Publick State that is alive as this is must be some Ruling Power in the same State that has a very lively resemblance to it for it is in being at the same time with it the Beast and his Image are ordinarily described to be together And the Image is made in honour of the Beast and so must like the Images of the Emperors be within the bounds of the Authority of the Beast And besides is made by a False Prophet in the exercise of the Power of the Beast This living Image then must necessarily be an Universal Rule of the World like to that of the Imperial Roman State And accordingly we find it speaking and commanding all the World to worship it chap. 13. 15. forcing all men to receive the mark of it and to take the name of it v. 16. which shows the extent of its Power to be as large as that of the Imperial Power its Original It had also power of life and death in it v. 15. which is the peculiar Prerogative of Supream Power Now this was all for nothing else but the enforcing of False Worship which it was inspired with life by a false Prophet to effect And one of the Punishments was Excommunication v. 14. v. 17. That men might not buy or sell which was an usual punishment d Selden de Synod l. 1. cap. 7. De effectibus Excommunicationis He that was excommunicated with either greater or lesser Excommunication was said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the effects of them were Separation from Converse from the Synagogue from the publick Assemblies from all the People and Commonwealth of the Jews And he that was accursed with Cherem was not to have any Commerce with any but just so much as to get Victuals of the Elders of the Synagogues amongst the Jews All which denotes it to be an Ecclesiastical Power equal to the Secular Power for the universality of its Jurisdiction Indeed what kind of Power within the same Bounds and Territories can it possibly be but Ecclesiastical that can be a living Image of the Secular Exercising Supream Authority at the same time with it and in the same places as this is described This Image therefore must be a Church-Rule equal to that of the State And since the Jurisdiction of it is Universal or Catholick and also Roman can it be any thing else but the Roman-Catholick-Church And since all the life that it has is inspired into it by the False Prophet who is already known to be the Papal Power Corol. 3. Prop. 25. what plainer description could we have had of the Roman-Catholick-Church under the Pope Or what can there be that is a e Leo Sermo 1. de Natali Apos Rome has a larger Jurisdiction in its Spiritual Reign than it had formerly in its Worldly Empire Bellarm. l. 5. de Pontif. c. 6. From whence it appears That the Pope is greater than the Emperour c. Stenelius Eugubinus lib. 1. de Donat. Constant By the Exaltation of the Papacy Rome has recovered a Greatness very little different from that of the Ancient Empires since all Nations from the East to the West reverence the Pope of Rome in the same manner as they formerly did the Emperours See the expressions of Pope Gregory VII of his own Authority Greg. 7. Epist 37. The Roman Ceremonial l. 1. c. 2. shews this to be the manner of investing the Pope with his Authority I invest Thee with the Authority of Pope that Thou maist Rule over the City and the World Urbi Orbi more exact living Image of the Roman State under the Imperial Power For the Head of it has a Jurisdiction equal to the Head of the State Both Pope and Emperor have long since had the Title of The Lords of the World They have both a Triple Crown tho for different Jurisdictions They are both called King of Kings The body of the Image is just the same with that of the Beast The Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions are parted out exactly according to the divisions of the Civil Government of the Empire The Patriarchs Archbishops and Bishops had their Ranks and Places every-where according to the Divisions of the Provinces of the State and the name of the Ecclesiastical Diocesses did arise from the distinction of the several Civil Diocesses of the Empire by Constantine And it is established by the Canons of f Concil 6º in Trullo Can. 37. The Canon which was made by the Fathers we do also observe which says thus If any City be or shall be new raised by the Royal Power the Ecclesiastical Dignity shall follow the Publick and Civil state of it two Synods That if any City were newly raised by the Emperor the Ecclesiastical Dignities there should be conformed to it So that the Church and State did run parallel to one another through the whole Body of the Roman Empire just like the Arteries and Veins in the Body of Man and observed the same proportion every-where to one another a MAlvenda de Antichristo pag. 234. de 10 Cornibus The number Ten is very often in Scripture used indefinitely for a great many CHAP. III. Rev. XIII Wherein the Worship of the Beast and of his Image doth consist BY the process of the former Chapter we have all the Confederates in the design of the Beast discovered to us There is the Imperial Roman State for the Beast with his last Head The Image and false Prophet for the Roman Catholick Church and the Pope The ten Kings giving their Kingdoms to the Beast for those Roman Catholick Kings who force their Subjects to submit to the Roman Religion enjoyned by the Papal Power or Imperial Authority And now it is to be examined what is meant by Worshiping the Beast and his Image It is certain in the first place That the words here used to express the Worship of the Beast and his Image are the same with those which were in use at the time of the Vision to signifie the Adoration given to the Emperors and their Images publickly set up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and adorare were the terms in common use amongst the Greeks and Latines of those times to express that profound Reverence which was paid to the Emperor and his Image And then there seems to be nothing more required to make Application of this Phrase but only to show what obedience was given to the Secular and Ecclesiastical Authority of Rome by all the World from the time of Justinian But because we find that the a GRotius in Decal Nor did the first Christians think it contrary to their Religion to fall down before the Emperours Images But when they afterwards joined the Images of false Gods with their own they chose to endure any thing rather than to worship them first Christians did pay that Reverence before-mentioned to the
all Interpreters that is a particular Kingdom only Whereas in this way they make one Beast signify as many as a multitude of Beasts every-where else and for which also they do not alledge any the least warrant from the Text. Whether the Ancients must not according to their other general Query 2 Agreements make the Heads and Horns of the Beast in the Revelations to be so many Sovereign Powers amongst the Romans and the Heads to be so many several kinds of Supream Magistracy over the same Jurisdiction of the Romans For they are described to succeed one another Revelat. 17. 10 11. And the Ten Horns of the Beast to be the Division of the Roman Monarchy into Ten really distinct Kingdoms For they are represented to be in power all at a time Revel 17. 12 13. According to the fifth Consequence of their Agreement about the Figure of CHAP. 3. Daniel Those therefore of the Fathers who make the seven Heads to be either so many Ages of the World or so many distinct Monarchies do contradict their Agreement with the rest about the like Figures in Daniel And when others make the Ten Horns to be the dissolution of the Roman Empire though they were the Ten Horns of that Beast that signifies the Roman Empire to the last end of it they forget how inconsistent they are with themselves Whether by the common Consent of the Fathers in their other Query 3 Agreements the Beast in the Revelations as it is the particular state of the Beast under its last Ruling Head can be any thing but a Roman Sovereign For it is an Head of the Roman Beast By Conseq 4. Chap. 3. and therefore by the former Consequence must be a Sovereign of the Romans It is also the same with the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast in Daniel which by Consequence the second Chapter the 3d is a Roman Sovereign Whether the Agreements of the Fathers do not necessarily Query 4 make the 6th Head of the Beast to be the whole Imperial Government of Rome They agree that the 6th Head 3d Agreement in this Chap. was according to the Text in power at the time of the Vision And it must then be either the Roman Emperor or the Imperial Government but it could not possibly be the single person of any Roman Emperor For then the next single Emperor but one must have been the 8th King called the Beast Whereas the Fathers are found to agree that Antichrist the 4th Agreement Chap. 3. same with the Beast or 8th King was not come into power in their time which was never the succession of many single Emperors from the time of the Vision Besides By the 5th Consequence of their Agreements about the Figures of Daniel Chap. 3. They make every Head and Horn of Beast to contain in it all the single Rulers of the same kind Whether according to the agreeing Judgment of the Ancients Query 5 the Sixth Head of the Beast must not be the Imperial Government of Rome till at least the taking away of that Form of Government in that Jurisdiction For by the 5th Consequence of their Agreements Chap. 3. An Head or Horn of Beast signifies a kind of Supream Power in a Nation to the last end of that kind of Magistracy or Kingdom And therefore those of the Fathers that made the Sixth Head to be at an end at the Change of the Imperial Power from Paganism to Christianity did contradict the Unanimous Consent of all the rest with themselves about the nature of every Head and Horn in Daniel which they made to be one kind of Supream Civil Power to the last end of it without any regard to the different behaviour of some of the single Persons of that kind towards the Church of God in comparison with others The Favour and Protection of the Jews from some of the Babylonian Persian Graecian Kings did not in the Fathers Opinion make different Heads or Horns of the Beasts to which they did belong Whether according to the Opinions of the Ancients in Query 6 which they unanimously agreed The Seventh King or Head must not be that which changed the Imperial Power of Rome at the end of the Western Emperors For the Imperial Government Query 4 of the Romans was certainly the Sixth Head and that must then necessarily be either that Imperial Government only which was particularly owned by the Senate and People and Clergy of Rome or the whole Imperial Government of the Roman Empire over Rome Constantinople Britain c. Now at the Fall of the Western Emperors in Augustulus there was a Change of the Imperial Form of Roman Government whichsoever of these kinds was the Sixth Head For the Barbarous Kings that succeeded were owned as the sole Sovereigns of Rome by the Pope Senate People and Clergy And if it were the whole Imperial Government at Rome and Constantinople which was the Sixth Head then the Change of it into the mixt form of Imperial and Kingly Government of Rome or of the Romans by the owning the Gothish Kings as the Sovereigns of the Western Part must be the Seventh King For they were as much a part of the Supream Power of the Romans as the Western Emperors which they succeeded And it has been found by the 6th and 7th Necessary Chap. 3. Consequences of the Agreeing Opinions of the Fathers That a new Name of the Civil Sovereign Power of a Nation does constitute a new Successive Head or Horn of a Beast So is it in the last Horn of the Ram Chap. 8. which is agreed by the Fathers to be the Change of the name of the King of Media to that of the King of Persia though the King of Persia was also King of Media who was the first Horn. And so was it in the four Horns of the He-goat ibidem Though one of these four be the same with the first Horn. And the Change of the whole pure Imperial Goverment into that of either Kingly alone at Rome or into that of the mixt form of Kingly and Imperial over the whole remaining Empire was as real a new appearance of the Sovereign Power of the Romans as either of those two Instances After this it is not to be questioned but that according to Query 7 the Fathers The Eighth King called the Beast and Antichrist must be that Sovereign Civil Power of the Romans which succeeded Agreements the Barbarous Kings at Rome For that must be the King that was next to the Seventh And this exactly agrees with the Text For the Eighth King called The Beast is said to be of the Seven As the Imperial Government restored by Justinian who subdued the Italian Kings was the Eighth Change of the Sovereign Power of Rome but really nothing but the Sixth Head restored again It does also as necessarily follow from the Agreements of the Query 8 Fathers about the constitutive difference of Heads and Horns from one another That that which is
Prophecy of the Witnesses at the passing away of the Sixth Trumpet nor does it seem to be more necessary that the Forty Two Months of the time of the Beast should end before the Last Ruine of his Kingdom or when it comes only to be broken which yet is the whole strength of what he adds to defend it The Third Synchronism betwixt Babylon and the Healed Beast in the 13th Chap. supposes the Beast to be the same particular time and state of Roman Power without any proof and yet Grotius and others suppose them quite different Dr. More endeavours to show them to be necessarily the same by Eighteen Congruities of Characters which tho I think I am sure that many of them are not true yet are indeed sufficient to make any Man strongly persuaded of the perfect identity of the Two Beasts But they have nothing in them that does necessarily determine them to the same particular state and time of Roman Reign And yet the whole strength of the Demonstrative proof of the Synchronisms depends upon the necessity of these Suppositions The Fourth Synchronism is the total contemporation of the 144000 with the Beast upon the account of their state of mutual opposition from the first time of the Marked followers of the Beast But the utmost that this can prove is That they were Contemporaries from that time where they are mentioned together For the Party of the Beast were marked to be distinguished from the sealed Company But the 144000 were sealed only to escape the Judgments of the Trumpets which are no-where proved necessary nor to begin before the time of the Beast And Dr. More does add nothing to shew it necessary and yet the chief proof of the Connexion of the first part of the Visions with the latter does depend upon this in the first Synchronism of the second Part. I cannot but further add That Mr. Mede's and Dr. More 's Applications of the seventh and eighth King does seem to render the Synchronisms altogether ineffectual for convincing a Papist For after they had made the essential difference betwixt the six first Heads or Kings to be nothing but a different Title of the Civil Sovereign Power of See Judgments of God p. 4. Rome they make the seventh King to be nothing but a change of the Religion of the sixth King retaining still the same Title of the Sovereign Power which was his essential difference from that before him This seems to be contrary to six Examples in the same Figure and to almost six times as many in the Prophecy of Daniel A Papist would therefore hold them to their true Notion of the sixth Head and then pretend That the Imperial Title does continue still as the sixth Head and that the Synchronisms cannot therefore take place till that be changed All this I mention only to shew That there is still wanting a clearer Evidence to make good that excellent Design towards which Mr. Mede did give the first great strokes and for which he is to be acknowledged to have been the first clear Light that God gave the World for the illustration of these dark Mysteries which now appear to be the worthiest Entertainment of the best and the most judicious Vnderstandings This I have endeavoured to perfect But I must still acknowledge That tho I think my self sure enough of the strength of my Method for it yet I do not pretend to that which is strictly called Demonstration It is enough for me if I can proceed but upon such clear grounds and go on in so close a coherence from them as to force the assent of all wary and impartial Examiners of it with as little doubt concerning it tho not with so Absolute a Certainty of it as Mathematical Evidence uses to do I dare however be confident for the encouragement of the Reader That if he has found any satisfaction in the grounds of any Protestant Interpretations that others affirm themselves to be Abundantly and Mathematically certain of he will find them here much more cautiously and strongly secured and that the Elegant Systemes which have of late Monsieur Jurieu Eclaircissemens oü Systeme Nouveau much surprized the generality of those that look into these things have but a very blind and uncertain Foundation without such a proof of the first Principles of them as is here attempted I think I may also safely venture to assure the Friends of the Grotian way That the least degreee of impartiality in them will make them see it here shewn to be MUCH MORE CERTAIN a Preface to the Judgments of God upon the Roman Church That the chief Foundations of that Interpretation are contrary to the clear and obvious sense of the Prophetical Terms as well as to the general Judgment of Interpreters of all Parties in all Ages according to the Censure of the most Judicious of the Romanists than it is b La veritable clef de l' Apocalypse p. 115. That Grotius was Divinely Inspired c Ibid. Preface and that Mr. Baxter is the Greatest Man in England among the Protestants for seconding him d Ibid. p. 115. Or That they have made Mr. Mede's Systeme appear so absurd that it is to be abhorred according to the extravagant and hypocritical expressions of a late Incendiary of that Church to inflame Protestants against one another A TABLE OF PROPOSITIONS To be Inspected when any Proposition or Corollary or Rule is quoted to avoid the trouble of turning to it in the body of the Book BOOK I. Propositions Rules and Corollaries Proposit 1. BAbylon Revelat. 17. is the City of Rome in an Antichristian and Idolatrous Domination From hence are drawn these Rules of Interpretation Rule 1. Words of a plain signification are to be taken in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations in that sense in which they are generally taken in the World unless it be inconsistent with something more clearly known Rule 2. Words of a mystical signification must follow the use of them amongst the Prophets if not inconsistent with something more clearly known Rule 3. The same Words do signify the same things all over the Prophecy unless there be clear grounds against it Rule 4. The different Judgments of Learned Men ought not to weaken our Assent to what appears sufficiently clear after an impartial Examination especially if it be commonly acknowledged Proposit 2. Babylon signifies the same thing immediately before in and after the 17th Chapter Corollary Babylon is the same thing in the 14th Chapter as it is in the rest Proposit 3. The Judgment of Babylon in all Chapters is the desolation of Rome by Fire in the time of its Idolatrous Antichristian Domination Corollary Babylon cannot be Rome-Pagan Proposit 4. Every one of the Eight Kings Revelat. 17. reckoned up in order v. 10 11. is one of those called the Seven Kings in General v. 10. Corollary The Eighth King is one of the Seven Kings who had been in Rule before and was
returned into Power again Proposit 5. Every one of the Eight Kings Rev. 17. 10 11. is represented by one of the Seven Heads of the Beast Coroll 1. The Eighth King is one of the seven Heads that had ruled before and was revived again Coroll 2. The Eighth King called the Beast v. 11. is the Beast with that Head only which is last in Rule Proposit 6. The Beast all over the 17th Chapter is the Beast in the time of its last Ruling Head Coroll 1. The Beast in the 17th Chapter continues no longer than his last Ruling Head Against Grotius's Notion of the Beast after all his Heads Coroll 2 The Ten Horns belong to the Beast no longer than the time of his Last Head Against the same Proposit 7. The Beast all over the 17th Chapter of the Revelations is a particular Sovereign of Rome in the time of its Idolatrous Rule Proposit 8. The Term of The Beast all over the 13th Chapter does signify the First Beast shown v. 1. Corollar 1. By the Image Mark Name and number of the Name of the Beast chap. 13. is to be understood the Image c. of the First Beast Corollar 2. By the Beast with the False Prophet and with the Image Mark c. in all the other Chapters of the Revelations is to be understood the First Beast with all the same Attendants in Chap. 13. Proposit 9. The Beast in the 13th Chapter is a particular state of the Beast under one of its either Ruling Heads or Horns for all the time of the continuance of the Head or Horn. Corollar 1. The False Prophet or Second Beast Image Mark Name c. do in all the mentions of them in the 13th Chapter belong to that particular state of the Beast under either of one of its Heads or Horns Corollar 2. The Beast with the False Prophet Image Mark c. in all other Chapters signifies the same particular state of the Beast that it is signified to be in the 13th Chapter with the like Adjuncts Proposit 10. The Seven Heads and the Ten Horns in the 13th and 17th Chapters are the same things Corollar 1. The Beasts in the 13th and 17th Chapters are one and the same particular Beast in every successive state of the same Heads or Horns Corollar 2. The Beast in the 13th Chapter is the same particular state of the Beast with that in the 17th Chapter for the whole time of its continuance Corollar 3. The wounded and healed Head of the Beast Chap. 13. is the same Last Ruling Head of the Beast with that in the 17th Chapter Proposit 11. The Judgment of the Dead Rev. 11. 18. is the General Judgment at Christ's Second Coming Corollary The Reign of Christ over the Kingdoms of the World Rev. 11. 15. is Christ's Second Coming in glory Proposit 12. The Beast that killed the Witnesses Rev. 11. 7. is the same particular time of Roman Rule with the Beast in the other Chapters Corollar 1. The Beast in the Revelations is to continue till some Vniversal Reign of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World Corollar 2. The Beast and the Two Witnesses Chap. 11. are Contemporaries for the whole time of the continuance of them both BOOK II. PROPOSITIONS Prop. 13. THE Kingdom of the Son of Man Daniel 7. 13 14. is some Kingdom of Christ Jesus Prop. 14. The Kingdom of the Son of Man Dan. 7. is the Second Coming of Christ in glory Corollary The Kingdom of the Son of Man is Christ's Second Coming to Judgment Prop. 15. The Fourth Kingdom in the 7th Chapter of Daniel is the same thing with the Beast in the Revelations Coroll 1. The Last Ruling Head of the Beast in the Revelations is the same thing with the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast Dan. 7. Coroll 2. The Beast in the Revelations signifies the same particular time of Reign with the Fourth Beast in the time of the Little Horn Dan. 7. Coroll 3. The time of the Beast in the Revelations did not begin till after the division of the Roman Empire into Ten Kingdoms Coroll 4. The time of the Beast in the Revelations is not yet past Prop. 16. All over the Prophecy of Daniel By a Beast as the common Subject of its Heads and Horns is meant a Ruling Nation or People Part. 1. Part. 2. By the Heads and Horns of that Beast the several kinds of Supream Government in that Nation Part. 3. And if they be said to come after one another they denote so many Successive Governments in the same place Part. 4. But if they are described as ruling all at the same time then they signify so many divided Sovereignties in that one Ruling People or Nation Part. 5. And in both the kinds of them each particular Head or Horn does signify the whole time of all the several single Governours that reign either in the same form of Government when they signify successive Forms of Government or in the same particular division when they signify divided Kingdoms Observ 1. Every whole Figure signifying Dominion does all over Daniel signify a Ruling People or Nation Observ 2. The parts of whole Figures signifying Dominion do all over Daniel follow the Rule of the Heads and Horns of the Beast Observ 3. An Head and an Horn are indifferently used to signify the same Ruling Power of a Nation Observ 4. The distinguishing Character of a new Succession of an Head or Horn or of a new Succession of a different Government in the same place is a new name of the Sovereign Power publickly established Observ 5. All parts of Figures signifying Dominion do all over Daniel denote the whole successive Line of all the single Persons that reign either in the same form of Government or in the same part of a divided Nation or People BOOK III. PROPOSITIONS Prop. 17. THE Beast in the Revelations when taken for the common Subject of its Heads or Horns does signify the Rule of the Romans in general The Seven Heads of it the Successive Changes of the Government of that Nation The Ten Horns the division of that Empire into so many several Sovereignties Prop. 18. The Three last Kings of the Eight Rev. 17. 10 11. are three Changes of Roman Government coming after one another in an immediate order Prop. 19. The Sixth King Revelat. 17. 10. was the Imperial Government of Rome in the time of St. John Prop. 20. The Beast was that Supream Government of Rome which came next but one after the Imperial Government in St. John's time Prop. 21. An Head of the Beast is that setled Sovereign Power of the Romans whose Authority is owned for Supream by the City of Rome Coroll 1. Every Head of the Beast is at an end when the City of Rome does own another setled Power for Supream in the room of it Coroll 2. The Sixth Head was at an end when the City of Rome owned another setled Authority in the room of the Imperial Government that had continued
the intricate Mazes of these Visions For Babylon and the Beast are represented as inseparable Companions in the 17th Chapter The Beast seems to be confined to that City by his Heads which are said to be the seven Hills upon which the City is seated And since it is already known what City Babylon is it cannot then be doubted but that the Beast who is said to be a King must be the King of that City So that if the Reign of Babylon has been clearly proved to be after the time of Rome-Pagan the Reign of the Beast must also be allowed to be as long after that time Now if any part of the Reign of the Beast was in being so long after the time of the Vision this does plainly determine what kind of Kings the Heads of the Beast must be whose Successions seem to be given on purpose to measure out the time betwixt the date of the Vision and the appearance of the last of them in Rule called The Beast for the Beast is determined by the Prophecy to be the third King in order after Him who reigned at the time of the Vision He is said to be an Eighth to Rev. 17. 11. him that was a Sixth at the time of the Vision From hence would any conclude That since the eighth of these Kings or the Beast is found to be in Rule after the time of Rome-Pagan that is some hundreds of years after the time of the Vision that His Reign and the other two Reigns before him from the time of the Vision in St. John's days could not possibly be the Reign of three single persons only for there were near three hundred years betwixt the time of the Vision and the full end of Rome Pagan before which the Reign of Babylon and The Beast have been proved impossible to be And within that space of time there were above thirty Successions of single Persons in the Roman Throne It would therefore next be necessary to enquire from the Roman History what else the first of these three Kings who is said to Reign at the time of the Vision could possibly be It will appear from thence that there was no other King of Rome at that time but a single Emperour Wherefore since it has been found impossible that it should be the single person of that Emperour who is meant by the King then Reigning there is nothing else that can be meant by it but that form of the Supreme Government which the Emperour's Title gave name to or the Imperial Government then in power And consequently by the same reason must all the three Kings of which The Beast is said to be the 8th or last be so many successive Changes of Roman Government from the time of the Vision Since therefore the first of these three Kings is known to be the Imperial Government in the days of St. John all that seems needful to be done to determine the time and the particular form of Roman Government that is called the Beast is to enquire from History what successive Changes there have been in the Roman Government since the time of the Vision For the next Change but one to the Imperial Government in those days must certainly be the Beast And Bellarmin is so far of the same mind in this That according to him the true state of the difference betwixt them and us in this Affair is whether the Imperial Government at the time of the Vision has ever since that time been cut off which makes him take such pains to prove That the same Imperial Roman Government continues unchanged to this day And thus all the difficulty that remains seems according to him to be no more than to enquire after and rightly judge of the matter of Fact from History For he grants that nothing can be meant by The Beast his Heads and Horns but Roman Power Tho' he takes no notice of the distinction and order of Succession amongst them THE SEEMING evidence of the Conclusions before mentioned even in the judgment of the most Zealous and the most able Defender of the Roman Interest is a very satisfactory proof that the Angel that offered that Explication of the Mystery to the Apostle did really intend to be understood according as one would expect from the promise of an Explication of a Mystery from so Divine a Person And this is a great encouragement to any that is willing to take the pains for it to search after the true means to determine the right sense of this Explication The Angel first promises to unfold a Mystery begins it in very known Expressions goes on in other Characters that seem to be clear Who would not then positively conclude with himself that the main strokes and Mystical Characters in which it is expressed must certainly be intelligible enough by some means in our power especially when we find so many Excitations in this Prophecy to understand it But I saw so many miscarriages in attempts in this way and could find so little clear satisfaction in the most cautious Interpretations that I was afraid of nothing more than of being satisfied about these things too soon There are such fair Appearances and grounds for strong Presumptions That the greatest danger lies in being too ready to close with a seemingly obvious Sense of the Angel's Explication My aim was at assurance in these matters and the best way for that I concluded to be To search for difficulties to counterpoise the too much proneness of my Inclination to hasten to a determination There seemed to be a great variety of shows of the Beast which Grotius makes a great advantage of to the baffling of all the force of the best Demonstrations drawn from the Synchronisms of the several descriptions of it in the several Chapters There seems also to be a great ambiguity in the notion of The Beast There are no distinguishing Characters of the Heads from The Beast himself nor of their Nature in general nor of their Constitutive differences from one another and it seemed but a presumption to make all the rest of the Heads to take their determinate form from what was discovered to be the nature of the sixth Head upon which nevertheless does depend all the hopes of coming to a particular knowledge of the time of the Reign of The Beast and without the knowledge of the particular time of that Reign it is in vain to think of any thing of this nature These Considerations made me conclude That the Angel's Explication did suppose and direct to some other known Key to come to a full understanding of his mind It was obvious thereupon to apprehend that The Beast and his Heads and Horns being very mystical kind of Expressions it was necessary for the clearer knowledge of them to consult the common acceptation of them amongst the Ancient Prophets in like matters to these here before us according to Rule 2. I was soon satisfied in this I found by the unanimous
Beast and of the parts of it signifying Dominion from the frequent use of those Schemes in Daniel The business of the Third Book is to apply these general Notions to The Beast in the Revelations and to the parts of it And from the known signification of that Head of The Beast which in the Prophecy is said to reign at the time of the Vision and from the immediate Succession of the other two Reigns after it to determine the time of that particular state of The Beast which is by way of eminency called The Beast alone by it self and the Eighth King and which is the Great Subject of these Visions And then the Explication of all the Uncouth Characters of The Beast is the last Finishing-work of this Design in the Fourth Book And this may give the Reader a distinct and comprehensive view of my whole Design at once and of the Order of my Method towards it CHAP. V. Rev. XVII The distinct Notion of The Beast enquired into The Fourth Proposition Every one of the Eight Kings is one of those called the Seven in general Rev. 17. 10 11. The Eighth King one of Seven that were past revived The Fifth Proposition Every one of the Eight Kings is one of the Seven Heads The Beast is The Beast under the Last Head The Sixth Proposition with its Corollaries The Seventh Proposition The Beast is a Sovereign Power of Rome in its Idolatrous Antichristian State THE foundation of all satisfaction about the certain time of that Idolatrous Reign of Rome that is signified by Babylon does seem to depend wholly upon the means that are offered from the Angel's Explication to determine the time of the Reign of The Beast which appears all over the Prophecy with that City as its inseparable Companion There seems to be no other means left to fix that particular time but the Succession of the Heads of The Beast the three last Reigns of which seem to be on purpose singled out from the general sum of the other five and to be distinctly mentioned one after another for no other end but to direct us from the knowledge of the first of the three said then to be in Rule when these words were spoken and so might easily be known to determine the particular time of The Beast who is made to be the next Reign but one after that Ruling-Power which was then in present possession But before any thing can be well setled upon this bottom the use of the Term of The Beast must be first sufficiently cleared For it seems to have an ambiguous Signification in it which may defeat all our hopes of fixing it to any determinate meaning Sometimes it seems to signify a thing common to all the Seven Heads when it is represented as the common Subject of them all in their several successive Reigns and sometimes it seems to signify nothing but one of its Heads in distinction to all the rest Wherefore it seems to be the first thing that is to be enquired after Whether there can be any determinate and fixed signification setled upon the use of this Expression And the fear of mistaking in so fundamental a Point made me think it necessary to be very cautious of every step I made in it and to have a distinct comprehension of it before I setled my self upon it For this purpose I found it requisite to begin with this Proposition as the ground of all that was to follow Every one of the Eight Kings reckon'd up in order Rev. 17. Proposit 4. 10 11. is one of those called the Seven Kings in general v. 10. Nothing can well be more plainly signified than this in the Text after this manner They are Seven Kings Five are fallen one Rev. 17. 10 11. is and the other is not yet come and when he cometh must continue a short space and the Eighth is of the Seven What can more plainly signify the parting the whole sum of the Seven Kings mentioned just before into five and one and the other and an Eighth which is one of those Seven For who would ever understand those words otherwise than in this plain sense They are Seven Kings Five of which Seven are fallen One of them is the other of the Seven is not yet come c. And there is an Eighth who yet is one of those Seven before mentioned So that every one of the Eight is one of the Seven and therefore can there be but Seven Kings in all This indeed seems to be so very plain and necessary that it may be wondered why it should not be rather suppos'd than endeavoured to be proved since there seems to be no manner of ground for a doubt about it but only upon the account of the Eighth King who yet to make all clear is said expresly to be an Eighth which was one of the Seven and is so granted to be without dispute But yet it was thought needful to secure this by these Reflexions upon it because there is a considerable Authority against it in defence of a particular Hypothesis That which is alledged from the Text to make it capable of another sense is * Dr. More Vol. 1. p. 647. Brightman in V. 10. c. 17. Apoc. That the 7th King in the Order is called the other and not the 7th and that therefore he may be a King of a different nature from those Seven Kings which are said to be the Seven Heads because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek signifies sometimes a thing of another nature And that to make up the number of those Seven Kings that are the Seven Heads the 8th is said to be one of those Seven But it is plain enough that the other in that place denotes no new quality in the 7th King but only refers to the signification of the number of the King just before him who is called one And that King is called one by a very proper and familiar way of Speech without any ground for the least mystery in it such as this following would now be accounted The Seven Heads are Seven Kings five are past one is at this present after which would very naturally follow and the other is not yet come That is the other of the seven which is an usual and ordinary way of speaking if not more proper than to say five are past the sixth is at present and the seventh is not yet come And certainly the 7th would in the latter Example appear to be nothing but one of the seven Kings who had at first been called the seven Heads When with this we consider there is mention here made of an 8th Can any thing be more manifest than that the other just before it is as certainly the 7th as if it had been expresly so called and that the one before that is the same with the 6th And then of what can they possibly be the Sixth or the Seventh but of those Seven Kings which were just
Beast that was past and revived again by Corol. Prop. 5. and was the eighth after the seven and therefore must be that Head of the Beast that was last in Rule Wherefore since the eighth King is called the Beast and yet is found really to be but one Head of the Beast That term of the Beast can signify nothing but the Beast with that particular Head only And so the Head is said to be the Beast as the actions of Kings are said to be the Actions of that People or Nation where they Reign This Interpretation is confirmed by the agreement of almost all Interpreters of all differing Parties excepting one or two without any Reason for their dissent but only the upholding of a particular Opinion and amongst those is that Opinion of Bellarmin who would have the number Seven in this place to signifie collectively All the Emperours because that Seven is very usually taken in Scripture for a perfect number Lib. 3. de Pontif. c. 5. and then signifies All indefinitely but more frequently in the Revelations than any where else And yet all that know any thing of the difference betwixt the use of Seven when it is a perfect number and when it is a broken number cannot but see that Seven here must necessarily be taken for a definite determinate number by the plain distribution of it into Five One Another and an Eighth which was one of the Seven And this is so common and known a thing that there could not have been a plainer instance of the extravagancy of a Learned Man's imaginations about the most clear and known things And yet after all Bellarmin is so far of Opinion with the rest as to affirm That Antichrist or The Beast is the last King of those who shall rule the Roman Empire Lib. 3. de Pontif. c. 15. Which is an agreement with the rest in the preceding Conclusion From the former Corollary it does very immediately follow That the Beast all over the 17th Chapter of the Revelations Prop. 6. does signifie the Beast with his last Ruling Head For the Beast all over the 17th Chapter is that state of the Beast in which he was seen in the 3d verse as does thus appear After that show of him he is called all over that Chapter by the name of THE Beast in reference to his having been seen before which in common use of Speech determines him to be the same that had been there shewn and therefore by Rule 1. he must be all over the Chapter the Beast that was seen in the 3d verse Now of the Beast which was there seen the Angel says v. 8. That He was and is not And the Beast which was and is not he says at the 11th verse was the eighth King who is known to be the Beast with the last Ruling Head Coroll 2. Prop. 5. The Beast therefore does signifie nothing else all over the 17th Chap. Revel but the state of it under its last Ruling Head And tho' there were Seven Heads seen upon the Beast yet it is expresly said That all the other Heads would be past before the Reign of the Beast or eighth King v. 10. So that the sight of him with the Seven Heads was in effect the seeing him with Six dead Heads and One of the Seven only revived again which is the same with the sight of the Beast under its one last Ruling Head only See then the sum of this Proof in short The Beast all over the 17th Chapter is the Beast that was seen v. 3. The Beast that was there seen had the peculiar Character of Was and is not and the Beast that was and is not is said to be the eighth King and the eighth King has been found to signifie nothing but the Corol. 2. Prop. 5. Beast with its last Ruling Head Wherefore to tye the first part of this Chain to the last The Beast all over the 17th Chapter is the Beast with the last only of his Ruling Heads Besides since the mystical meaning of the term of the Beast is said in one place to be the eighth King that is The Beast under the last Ruling Head by Coroll 2. Prop. 5. it must have the same signification all over the Chapter by Rule 3. Babylon might as well signifie two several Cities in two different places of that Chapter as the Beast several Kings For a Testimony of the great evidence of this Proposition CONSENT we have the Unanimous Agreement of all Interpreters almost of all Ages as well as of all Parties excepting one or two of late against the Judgment of all those whose greatest Interest it seems to be to admit of their new Contrivance who yet will not venture upon it meerly for their reputation One would expect to find some very great necessity alleged for another sense against such a seeming evidence of the Text and the confirmation of it by so considerable a weight of Authority and yet we do not find from Grotius the least offer of a reason against this In cap. 17. Apoc. sense or for any other to make us think that the Beast may continue after his last Head in this Chapter as he does make it to do in the time of its Ten Horns The Light of this Proposition does offer these following Consequences The Beast in the 17th Chapter continues no longer than its last Corollar 1 Head For he lives by that Head all over that Chapter by Coroll 2. Prop. 5. and the Beast goes into perdition with that Head ver 11. The Ten Horns belong to the Beast no longer than his last Head Corollary 2 For as they give their Kingdom to the Beast v. 13. so the Beast it self continues no longer than his last Head Coroll 1. Prop. 6. The knowledge of the Woman does acquaint us with the Countrey or Kingdom of the Beast her constant Confederate and from thence it is manifest That The Beast all over the 17th Chapter is some particular Sovereign Prop. 7. Power of Rome in the time of its Idolatrous Antichristian Reign For the Beast all over the 17th Chapter is in the time of its last Ruling Head and called the eighth King Prop. 6. and therefore a particular Sovereign Power And the Woman or Babylon is represented riding upon it at that time in great Majesty and known to signifie Rome in its Idolatrous Antichristian Reign Prop. 1. And besides is described in confederacy with the Beast in that Chapter v. 16 17. The Beast is also said to be the eighth King or the last Ruling Head of the Seven which signifie the seven Hills of Rome v. 9. This does infallibly shew the Beast to be a Sovereign Power of the seven Hills The Beast then is tied to this City by his seven Heads which are the seven Hills upon which it is built and so they cannot possibly be separated without Either cutting off the Heads from the Beast and by consequence that Head by which he lives
be understood The Image Mark Name and number of the Name of the First Beast And after that it seems as necessarily to follow That By the Beast with the False Prophet or Second Beast and the Image Corollar 2 Mark Name and number of the Name of the Beast in all the other Chapters must be understood The First Beast of the 13th Chapter with the same Attendance of that Beast mentioned in that Chapter The necessity of this does appear from their being the same very peculiar Expressions in those Chapters that they are in the 13th Chapter and therefore by Rule the 3 d. must signify the same First Beast and his Adjuncts unless there were something more clear against it But the grounds upon which a very worthy Person thinks Mr. Mede p. 524. p. 708. otherwise are far from being more clear As 1. That the Second Beast ought to be some-where mentioned in these Chapters by the name of The Beast For is it not enough Object 1 that he is sometimes signified by the name of the False Prophet Nor 2dly is it any thing so clear That the Image of the Object 2 Beast is the same with the First Beast and that therefore in the mentions of the Beast and the Image of the Beast both together by The Beast must be understood the Second Beast or else there must be a tautology as he would have it For there is no appearance that the Image and the First Beast are the same thing On the contrary The Image of the Beast in the very expression of it does signify another thing different from the Beast it self or some other thing that is only like the First Beast Now what small Reasons are these to alledge against the so frequent and constant use of the Term of the Beast to signify the First Beast in the Chapter where these peculiar Characters of it are found with it and where also it is granted by the same Person that the Image of the Beast does really signify the Image of the First Beast The known and frequent use of any peculiar Expressions is the Rule that all Judicious Persons recommend for the interpreting any other places of Scripture and the Angel's Example in his Interpretation of part of these Visions does still further confirm it to be the Right Rule for these things Wherefore for the future to avoid all unnecessary multiplication of words I will make use of only the term of The Beast in or of the 13th Chapter to signify any mention of the First Beast from that Chapter either before or after the 17th Chapter because in those Chapters The Beast is every-where joined with the forementioned Attendants It will not be now very difficult from the former Corollaries to find that The Beast from the 13th Chapter to the end of the mention of that Term in these Visions as well in the 17th Chapter as in the rest is one and the same particular state of its Last Ruling Head In order to which it must be first advanced That The Beast in the 13th Chapter signifies a particular state of the Proposit 9. Beast under one of its either Ruling Heads or Horns in all the time of its continuance The certainty of this is the most necessary to be in the first place secured because the way that others take to confound all the Significations of the Beast in the several mentions of that Term and to keep them from any particular determinate notion by which they might be concluded to be the same particular thing is To understand the Term of the Beast every-where in a general notion which may be allowed to be every-where the same and yet the things with which it is joined may shew it to be meant of quite different states of the Beast But that this Beast in the 13th Chapter is in a particular state of one of its Heads or Horns does thus appear The Beast in the 13th Chapter has a set time of continuance allotted to it viz. the space of 42 months as the Original is v. 5. agreed to signify And it is described as continuing for that time with a very v. 6. haughty commanding Mouth The Mouth is joined with the time of his continuance and is mentioned again in the next words after it and he is described with that Mouth at his first rise also as his peculiar Character and in all those three places it is set out as an over-ruling uncontrolable Mouth And such a Mouth must signify some particular Ruling Power v. 2. when joined with a Beast that is said to have so Universal a Dominion and for this particular Rule of some such particular Power for all the time of the continuance of the 42 Months of the Beast we have the general consent of all those of the Interpreters that are the most concerned against this Proposition Now the Mouth that is said to be the Mouth of a Beast with Heads and Horns as it is here and that so very remarkable a Mouth must belong either to one of the Heads or to one of the Horns as there is much the same description of the Mouth of the little Horn in Daniel Chap. 7. And an Head or Horn of a Beast that represents Dominion as it does here does every-where in Prophecy signify a Ruling Head or Horn and therefore with such a commanding Mouth added to it must certainly signify a very particular commanding Head or Horn by Rule 2. unless it could be made more clear that it is the Mouth of such a Head as signifies one of the Seven Hills which is not pretended by any and seems to be almost absurd but to mention The Beast therefore with that Mouth for all the time of his continuance must be in the particular state of that Head or Horn. And if the Beast be in the particular state of any Ruling Head or Horn then by the Term of the Beast for all the time of his continuance must be understood at every mention of it The Beast with that particular Head or Horn. For so is the Term of the Beast generally used to signify in Prophecy when it is in any particular state of Heads or Horns So all over the 17th Chapter of the Revelations several times Prop. 6. so also Dan. 7. 11. and Dan. 8. 5 6 7 8. and so therefore by Rule the 2 d must it be here for all the time of its continuance in that state Besides that this Beast in the 13th Chapter is described all over the Chapter by one of its Heads wounded to death and healed And A Beast with one or more of its Heads at a time does every-where in Prophecy signify that Beast with that or those particular Ruling Powers at that time even by the consent of those who are most difficult in these things and the particular time is the 42 Months of his continuance And therefore to whatsoever the Mouth of the Beast belongs the Beast there must be in a
particular state of one of its Heads by Rule 2. And to shew the use of the term of The Beast with or without the mention of his Head to signify the same particular state of it under that Head That which is called The Beast with v. 3. the Head wounded to death and healed in one place is in the other place of this Chapter called The Beast whose deadly wound was v. 12. healed and The Beast who had a wound by a Sword and did live without any mention of his Head to which nevertheless that v. 14. Circumstance does unquestionably refer so that by the bare term of The Beast wounded and healed is signified The Beast with that particular Head If any one would pretend after this that the healed Head might signify one of the seven Hills said to be the Heads Chap. 17. 9. He must bring greater evidence for it by Rule the 2 d than the Prophetical use of an Head of a Beast for the Ruling Power of it is which is not pretended by any All that appears for it is that the seven Heads which were crowned in the Dragon chap. 12. have no Crowns upon the Beast in the 13th Chapter immediately after which may seem to shew that the Heads in the 13th Chapter without Crowns are Hills But that would be a reason for making the seven Heads no Kings in the 17th Chapter also where they are shown without Chap. 17. 10. Crowns and yet are certainly so many Kings But from the 17th Chapter it is plain that the time of their Crowns would be past before The Beast would come to be in that state which he appears in in the 17th Chapter and the 13th For even according to Grotius himself the seven Reigns would be past before the time of those two Shows in each Chapter And then was it not proper to represent those seven Heads without Crowns that is as Kings seven of whose Reigns were past for that in being was an 8th that was after the 7th Besides Since the 17th Chapter which is the only ground for making those seven Heads in the 13th Chapter to signify the seven Hills does also make them to be seven Kings The only way to know whether of these two any Character of an Head does mean is to consider the nature of the Character and whether it be the propriety of an Hill or of a King Now of which of these two is it most proper to say whether of an Hill or of a King that it was deadly wounded and healed again And with which of them by reason of that wound might the Beast himself who is described with a very Royal Dominion be most properly said to be wounded and to have his deadly wound healed or to have a wound by a sword and yet to live The very terms of the question does shew that this is properly said of a King who is the life of all the power of the Beast but most improper to be said of the Hill of a City to which a Beast may belong But whatsoever becomes of this wounded and healed Head we are assured by the mouth of the Beast that The Beast in the 13th Chapter for the whole time of its continuance does signify The Beast in a particular state of one of its Heads or Horns And from thence it is plain That the Affairs of the Second Beast the Image Mark Name and Corollar 1 Number of the Name of the Beast do every-where in the 13th Chapter belong to that particular state of the First Beast For the term of the Beast signifies all over that Chapter the First Beast only by Proposit 8. And that Beast does there signify The Beast in one particular state of an Head or Horn for the whole time of his continuance by Proposit 9. Wherefore every thing that is there joined with the term of the Beast the Image Mark c. and the Second Beast acting with him do all belong to that particular state of the Beast And that does also further assure us That the Beast with the False Prophet or Second Beast and Image Corollar 2 and Mark and Name c. in all the other Chapters do signify the same particular state of the Beast with those Attendants in which it is in the 13th Chapter For by Coroll 2. Prop. 8. The Beast with all those same Attendants is the same with that in the 13th Chapter And by Coroll 1. Prop. 9. The Beast with those Attendants in the 13th Chapter is in a particular state of its Heads or Horns Therefore must they all signify the Beast in the same particular state every where else CHAP. VIII Rev. XIII XVII The Tenth Proposition and its Corollaries conclude The Beast of the 13th and 17th Chapters to be one and the same particular state of the Beast WE have now sufficient grounds to conclude That The seven Heads and ten Horns of the Beast in the 13th and Proposit 10. 17th Chapters must signify the same things For since they are in both Chapters the same very peculiar and proper mystical Expressions and since they are explained in the 17th Chapter by Rule the third they must signify the same things But still further to confirm the force of that Rule in the present Case and to make the thing unquestionable it is to be considered That The Beast of the 13th Chapter is one and the same particular state of it both before and after the 17th Chapter by Coroll 1 and 2. Prop. 9. and so the 17th Chapter does stand in the body of the History of that Beast of the 13th Chapter We may also very plainly see that the 17th Chapter is interpreted in that place only to explain the mystical Significations of the same number of Heads and Horns upon a Beast to all appearance every way the same with this and of that Babylon that is the common sharer in the Fortunes of the Beast of the 13th Chapter throughout all the account of him For at the very v. 1. entrance into that Explication it is said by the Angel that he would shew the Apostle the judgment of that Great Whore called Babylon which was but just before it threatened with the Wrath of God in the Story of the other Beast at the conclusion of the 16th Chapter And then the Explication of this same kind and number of things of just so many Heads and Horns as had been mentioned of the other Beast is made by one of those Angels with the seven Vials who had been just before employed about the judgments of the former Beasts all over the Chapter immediatly preceding this Explication Who would not upon this consideration conclude with himself That the Angel's Explication of the same number of Heads and Horns in a new show of a Beast to all appearance the same with this other whose History is on purpose there interrupted to make room for that new show did most certainly refer to the same number of
Heads and Horns of the Beast which had all the way before been discoursed of Especially when he sees that the Person that brings in all this new Scene does expresly say that it was to tell the Apostle what that particular judgment of Babylon was which had but just before been mentioned in the History of the former Beast and every-where made its companion as also that the Interpreter Chap. 16. v. 19. himself had but just before been very busie in the concerns of that Beast which did but just conclude where this new show began and which also this Angel seems concerned to interrupt only to give this Explication of what had been already shewn Wherefore unless it were very plainly inconsistent with something else more clearly known which is not by any pretended the seven Heads and ten Horns of the Beasts in the 13th and 17th Chapters must by this new enforcement of Rule the third most certainly signify the same things Alcasar does very well observe to this purpose upon the 1st Verse of the 13th Chapter of the Revelations The seven Heads and ten Horns of this Beast are the same with those of the Beast in the 17th Chapter which is so unquestionably clear that they themselves who would have these two Beasts to be different from one another do yet agree that the seven Heads and ten Horns have the same signification in both of these Beasts In consequence of which it must be inferred That the Beasts in the 13th and 17th Chapters in every successive state Corollar 1 of the same Heads or Horns are one and the same particular Beast For the general signification of the Term of The Beast as the common Subject of each Head or Horn is the same in both And the Head or Horn is supposed to be the same in both at the time of every such Succession Wherefore the whole Beast in each Chapter can be but one and the same Beast at any such time And from thence it does at last easily follow That Rev. XVII The Beast of the 13th Chapter is every way the same particular state of Corollar 2 the Beast with that of the Beast in the 17th Chapter for the whole time of its continuance For the Beast in the 13th Chapter under every the same successive Head or Horn is the same particular Beast with that in the 17th Chapter in that same state by Coroll praeced And the Beast in the 17th Chapter in the state of its last Ruling Head is destroy'd by Coroll 1. Prop. 6. Wherefore it must also be in the state of its last Ruling Head that the Beast in the 13th Chapter must be destroyed Now the Beast of the 13th Chapter is destroy'd Chap. 19. 18. where it is the same particular state of it that it is in the 13th Chapter by Coroll 2. Prop. 9. That particular state then that the Beast in the 13th Chapter is in is the state of it under its last Head that is the same with that of the Beast in the 17th Chapter by Prop. 6. And that the Beast in the 13th Chapter is in this same state with that in the 17th Chapter for the whole time of its continuance is confirmed by Prop. 9. For it is for its whole time in that one and the same particular state Besides the time of the Beast under any one of his Heads is the whole time of that Head the Beast and his Head make but one whole thing all that time and this cannot be any time apart from one another without ceasing to be that Head in Rule or that Beast Wherefore the two Beasts in the 13th and 17th Chapters being found to be one and the same Beast under its last Ruling Head they must be the same for their whole time And if we consult the Characters of both of them in their several Chapters they will be found to begin both in the same particular circumstances of the last Head as well as to end with it For the One begins at his rising out of the Sea Chap. 13. 1. The Other at his ascent out of the bottomless Pit Chap. 17. 8. which is signified in the Original by the same name of the Abyss which is known to be the usual word for the Sea The One rises up with an Head wounded and healed and yet the last Head ch 13. 1. ch 19. 20. The Other as an eighth King which was one of the seven before Rev. XIII XVII him which is the same thing because the seven Heads signifie seven Kings Coroll 1. Prop. 5. The One rises up with Ten Kings crowned upon him ch 13. 1. The Other with the same Ten Kings receiving Power with him ch 17. 12. Wherefore the Beasts in the 13th and 17th Chapters do begin together and end together in the same state of their last Ruling Head of the Seven and therefore are the same particular state of the Beast in both Chapters for the whole time of their continuance We have then now both a close and a demonstrative proof from the Proprieties of these two Beasts That they must necessarily be one and the same thing and a copious variety also of very peculiar Circumstances exactly the same in both as has been formerly more fully shewn to secure and confirm it It has been also observed That the very Order and Dependance of the Accounts of these two Beasts upon one another as they seem to break into the continued relation of one anothers fortunes would at the first sight satisfie any impartial person of the same thing without any farther scrupulous Examination And withal it is confirmed by the almost unanimous Consent of all kind of CONSENT Interpreters at least for their being one and the same Interest at the same time See References in the 7th Chapter And those two or three only that have of late differed from the general current of the rest in all Ages do not pretend to give any other reason for it than that the Beasts in those two Chapters are two several shows and therefore must be two different states of the Beast And how small a ground is that against so great a variety of convincing Evidences and so universal an Authority There are indeed such a variety of Circumstances to make this Conclusion to appear unquestionable at the first cursory view of the Text that it will appear to most persons to have been too tedious and unnecessary a trouble which has been here taken to secure it But the great use of the Certainty of this Proposition will justifie the care that has been taken to assure it for without it the whole Prophecy will be found to be but a Rope of Sand as it has also been made to be by those who have been of another Opinion in this Point but by the Certainty of it the whole Prophecy is found to be all of one piece and about the same state of things tho' delivered in several Visions and thereby are we furnished
with a greater variety of Circumstances to determine the nature of that which is the great Affair in them all From hence then it does now appear That the wounded and healed Head in the 13th Chapter is so far from being one of the seven Hills of Rome that The wounded and healed Head of the Beast in the 13th Chapter Coroll 3 is the same last Ruling Head of the Beast with that in the 17th Chapter For the Beast in the 13th Chapter is under the same last Ruling Head with that in the 17th Chapter Coroll praeced Prop. 9. And the last Ruling Head of the Beast in the 17th Chapter called The eighth King was an Head that had been one of those seven that were past and gone before it and was now revived again by Coroll 1. Prop. 5. Which is the same with A last Ruling Head of Seven which was wounded to death and healed again The Beast therefore in the 13th Chapter is certainly in the state of an Head wounded to death and healed again After the certainty of which it will be a very extravagant thing to question Whether the wounded and healed Head which the Beast in the 13th Chapter is under be that wounded and healed Head which it is said in the Text to have CHAP. IX Rev. XI The 11th Proposition That the Judgment of the Dead Revel 11. 18. is the Judgment of the Dead at Christ's second Coming The Three Creeds confirm it The extravagance of the Grotian Interpretation of this Judging the Dead The Reign of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World His second Coming in Glory The twelfth Proposition The Beast in the 11th Chapter the same with The Beast in the other Chapters THere is now only the mention of the Beast in the 11th Chapter remaining to be found to be the same state of it with those in the other Chapters After which it will be very easie to look through the whole process of these Visions and to be thereby satisfied of the consistency of all the parts of them and their mutual dependance upon and relation to one another notwithstanding the seeming interfering order of them For this purpose it is to be observed first That the Judgment of the Dead Revel 11. 18. is the Judgment of the Dead at Christ's second Coming Prop. 11. For the phrase of Judging the Dead is always used for the Day of Judgment all over the New Testament And it is a fundamental Article of the Christian Faith expressed by those peculiar words in the Apostles Writings and put into the Apostles Creed in the same words and so was that peculiar expression always used by the first Fathers and for nothing else and in all the Three Creeds is it joined with Christ's second Coming as it is also for the most part found together with it in the New Testament And this shews the constant use of this expression by the whole Church in all times Wherefore to make the phrase of Judging the Dead to signifie here as some do only the Revenging the Cause of the Dead is to change the signification of a very peculiar and generally-known expression into a very uncommon acceptation of it and to do that without some great necessity for it for which there is here no apparent evidence pretended is the way to license men to allegorize all the Articles of our Belief away And besides this acceptation of Judging the Dead for the avenging them is beyond all example Judging and Judgment in general are indeed ambiguously used in Scripture but Judging the Dead is never any where made use of but to signifie the Judgment at Christ's second Coming and so was it always taken by the Christian Church in all Ages and so conveyed down by them in the same words in all the Ancient Creeds for several Ages and joined with the mention of Christ's second Coming So that of all the shifts that Grotius is put to for upholding his Interpretation there seems none to be more monstrous or that does more shew his resolution to cut all the Knots that he cannot unty than this miserable shift of making the Judging of the Dead here to signifie the Revenging of the Dead To assure one still further of this it appears to be the same phrase by which it is granted that the real Judging of the Dead is signified in these very Visions as Rev. 20. 12. See Grot. in 20 Apoc. v. 12. It is also added in this 11th Chapter v. 18. to make it more unquestionable That thou shouldst give the reward to thy servants the Prophets and to the Saints and to them that fear thy Name small and great Which shews that it is a change of the state of the Dead themselves by the reward that is given to their faithfulness and this can be nothing but their reward at the second Coming of Christ to Judgment For betwixt Death and That there is no other reward for the Prophets and Saints small and great at one time as is here expressed The time of the Dead is come that they should be judged and that thou shouldst give the reward c. From hence it cannot but be concluded That the Reign of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World Rev. 11. Corollary 15. is Christ's second Coming in Glory For first it is joined with judging of the Dead at the 18th verse The time is come that the Dead should be judged that is The time is now come now that thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned as just before it is expressed That glorious Reign and the Judging of the Dead are very expresly joined together in the same Doxology of the four and twenty Elders and so ty'd to the same time that if they be not contemporary yet there is nothing comes in betwixt them and therefore must that Reign of Christ be at least at the same time with his Coming in Glory And what can such a glorious Kingdom of Christ be at that time but his glorious Coming or Appearance For since there is but one second Coming of Christ to be expected his glorious Reign and his second Coming fixed as here to one time must certainly be the same thing And that which secures them to be the same without farther ground of scruple is That this Reign of Christ is said to be Universal over all the Kingdoms of this World and also Eternal with his Father for ever and ever v. 15. Which can be nothing but his Kingdom of Glory If it be objected That Christ's Coming in Glory is the beginning only of a Spiritual and Heavenly Kingdom whereas it is here said The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of Christ It is to be considered That the first shew of his Kingdom is agreed by all to be upon Earth at his Coming and for the remaining part of it it is here expressed to be for ever and ever and so also a Kingdom in Heaven with his Father It may
destroying the fourth Beast And therefore seemed it very useful for them to make the fourth Beast to be not the Roman but a part of the Grecian Monarchy It is also against the whole current of all the Learned Christian Fathers at least till St. Jerom's time near a thousand years after the Prophecy was given and above four hundred years after Christ a HIeronyme in c. 7. Daniel Let us therefore say what All Ecclesiastical Writers have delivered That in the end of the World when the Kingdom of the Romans is to be destroyed there shall be Ten Kings who shall divide the Roman World among themselves and that there shall be an Eleventh littleKing that shall arise and overcome three of those Ten Kings c. Ergo dicamus says he quod omnes scriptores Ecclesiastici In cap. 7. Dan. tradiderunt Which is almost as much as to say That it was an Universal Tradition or a Tradition of all the considerable persons of the Catholick Church to his time That the fourth Beast was the Roman Monarchy and so that the third Beast must be the whole time of the Grecian Monarchy from its succession to the Persian which is by all granted to be the second Is not this sufficient to make any man confident That the Prophecy does of its own accord offer this Interpretation to the common sense of men when it thus appears to be the impartial Judgment of all the Learned World b Malvenda de Antichristo p. 222. For All both Jews and Christians look upon it as unquestionable That the Third and Fourth Beasts are plainly distinct from one another so that he must have lost his wits that can think otherwise Maldonal in c. 7. Dan. The fourth Kingdom is the Kingdom of the Romans and so all take it to be Calovius in c. 7. Dan. All agree That the Fourth Kingdom is the Kingdom of the Romans as well the Ancients and the Jewish Church both before and after Christ and the Christian-Church for the first Four hundred years as the Moderns both Jews and See References Christians before there was any particular Interests to be served by it It has also been and is still the Judgment of even c Pererius in c. 7. Dan. This Fourth Beast according as all interpret it to be and as the matter it self does shew it did represent the Figure of the Roman Empire Malvenda in c. 7. Dan. p. 222. That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire is certain and agreed upon by all that profess the name of Christ The Reader then is thus to be set in the Right Road and the King's High-way Ibid. S. Hierom and others do very clearly show that Porphyry's Opinion is a perfect madness Alcasar Sect. 5. in c. 13. Apoc. It cannot be denied but that there is a plain allusion in the Ten Horns of this Beast to the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which does very plainly appear to be the Figure of the Roman Empire Item Sect. 3. in v. 1. The Beast out of the Sea does evidently allude to the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel and 't is most clear and evident That that Fourth Beast of Daniel is the Figure of the Roman Empire in an Idolatrous State the most Eminent of the Church of Rome tho' it be more for their Interest than any others that the fourth Kingdom were any thing rather than the Roman which does sufficiently shew that they are forced to allow it For they can have no manner of advantage from that concession and therefore must it be the impartial sense of their minds but it would save them a great deal of trouble to deny it if they fairly could and that shews the evidence for it to be too clear And this gives as strong a presumption against the possibility of any other sense as can almost be given from Authority It is therefore well worth the enquiry What might be the grounds of so universal and impartial an Agreement amongst all the differing Parties of all sorts about this third and fourth Kingdom The first Reason that may be observed for it d Theodoret in c. 7. Daniel Some would have the Fourth Kingdom to be the Rule of Alexander's Successors But they should have remembred that the Golden-Head was the Babylonians and that the second Kingdom was the Persians the third then must be the Graecians and the fourth the Romans Ibid. But at present I cannot but admire that there should be some pious Men who should take the Fourth Beast to be the Macedonian Kingdom For they should have considered that the Third Beast has four Heads which does openly show the fourfold division of the Greek Empire after Alexander's Death And then that the Fourth Beast has Ten Horns And that they were but Four and not Ten that continued the Reign of the Greek Monarchy after Alexander Ibid. That ought to be observed that the Prophet saw the Third Beast with Four Heads upon him And the He-Goat Chap. 8. after the first Horn was broken to have had Four in the room of it to make it clear and unquestionable That the He-Goat and the Third Beast were but one and the same thing is the plain intimations in the Prophecy That the third Kingdom is the Dan. 7. whole time of the Greeks from the Persians to the Romans 1. As first in the Text it self the third Kingdom has the same name of A Kingdom that hinders all the rest from being possible to be understood of single Kings or of different Sovereignties in the same Empire pag. 106. There is the same ground then against the parting the Reign of Alexander and his Captains into a third and fourth Kingdom which in reality are but one and the same Kingdom of the Greeks 2. It is against all the significations of Kingdoms besides that are represented by any whole Figures in this Book of Daniel and the common usage of Prophetical Terms especially in the same Book is the best Rule to determine their signification by Rule 2. Now by the confession of these men themselves and the unanimous consent of all Interpreters every whole Figure that is said to signifie a Kingdom does signifie the whole time of a Ruling Nation or People In that one constant acceptation we find it in no less than Ten distinct Figures not counting in this third Kingdom There are eight mentioned besides the third in the 2d and 7th Chapters and two in the 8th for the Kingdom of the Stone and of the Son of Man are two of those Schemes So that there is at least Ten to nothing against it That the third Kingdom is the whole time of the Monarchy of the Greeks after the Persians And that which appears to be the constant use of expressions in so wise and judicious a Writer as the Prophet Daniel was may be very securely relied upon as an unquestionable ground to determine his meaning whenever the same expression is
then it must make a new Head because it is one of the first and clearest Propositions that has been advanced That every one of those Eight Kings are one of the Seven Heads of the Beast by Prop. the 5th q Idem l. 10. Ep. 15. CHAP. VIII Rev. XIII The Second Query Whether the Reign of the Beast did not begin with Justinian 's Conquests of the Italian Goths This endeavoured to be demonstrated Eighteen Objections answered AFTER what has been said for the making the Gothish Kings one of the Eight Kings it will easily be granted that Justinian's Conquest of the Goths in Italy must make another new Head because it had the same qualifications that the other before it had for being one of the Two Kings after the Imperial that ruled at the time of the Vision that is It was a very remarkable change of the name of the Civil Sovereign Power of Rome which is the only constant difference betwixt all the Changes in the same Empire that are to be found in Daniel or the Revelations And Examples are the Rules that are to be followed in Interpretations by Rule 2 and 3. Now if this be once granted it seems to be scarce worth the making it a question Whether the first Rise of the Beast were not upon the Conquest of the Query 2 Goths in Italy by Justinian For the Beast is in being at this present by Prop. 23. And he could not arise either before or after Justinian's Conquest 1. Not after it For at that time there had been at least two Changes of the Secular Government of Rome since the time of the Vision by Query 1. And the last of these two Changes is the Beast by Prop. 20. 2. The Beast could not arise before that time For then at Justinian's Conquest there would have been another Change of the Civil Government of Rome and so would the Beast have been put an end to but the time of the Beast is not yet past by Prop. 23. and Coroll 4. Prop. 15. Now if the first Rise of the Beast could be neither before nor after Justinian's Conquest it must necessarily be at the same time with it The whole strength of this proof does lie upon the general Notion of Heads and Horns in Daniel and the Revelations and the constant mark of their distinction from one another And the mark of their distinction from one another in all the known Examples of Figures in both these Prophecies is nothing but either a distinct jurisdiction or a different name of the Civil Government and not any differences from one another in point of Religion or any other accidental qualifications The differences of the Heads or Horns that are described to be in Rule in the same Kingdom all at one time are nothing but distinct civil Jurisdictions in that one Monarchy The differences betwixt Successive Heads or Horns in regard of the Successive Change of the state of the Beast are nothing Observ 4. Prop. 16. but new names of the Civil Sovereign Power of that Monarchy If the change be from one to many then it signifies the divided state of that Monarchy and the change of the Monarchical Form of it into many distinct Principalities ruling in it as may be seen in the Example of the Fourth Beast with the Ten Horns in the 7th Chapter of Daniel and in the He-Goat of the 8th Chapter with the first Horn and the other four after him If the Change be represented by single Heads or Horns coming after one another then every Head or Horn signifies a new name of the Ruling Power of that Monarchy without any divisions in it So as has been shown does the Second Horn of the Ram of the 8th Chapter of Daniel signify the Succession of the Sovereign Power over the same Nation of the Medes and Persians by the name of the King of Persia in the place of the King of Media And the six first Heads of the Beast in the Revelations that are described as succeeding in order do all signify the several changes of the name of the chief Ruling Power of the Romans By these Examples it appears That the only Constitutive or Essential difference of an Head of the Beast is a new different name of the Civil Power that rules in chief And therefore there seems to be no ground from the known Examples of the signification of Successive Heads or Horns to make the rise of the Christian Religion in the Imperial Head by Constantine to be a new King of the Seven whenas the same civil Form of Government continued under the same name of the Imperial Government or the Government of Emperors If the many instances of this kind in Daniel and the Revelations which counting the three shows of the Seven Heads and Ten Horns in the Revelations are more than seventy be of any force then the Imperial Government cannot be said to be changed by the Succession of a new King till there be another different Form of Civil Government set up at Rome in its place under another name And then the Imperial Form which is said to be in being at the time of the Vision will continue the same till the Western Empire was cut off by the Heruli and Goths of Italy which will shew it to be necessary for the return of the Imperial Rule again over Rome by Justinian to be the Eighth which was one of the Seven that is the sixth returned into being again The Rise of the Beast with Justinian may be thus further confirmed The Beast is the Eighth King and was of the Seven Rev. 17. 11. and therefore was one of the Seven Kings who had been in Rule before and was returned into it again by Coroll Prop. 4. But he could not have been the Seventh King that was in Rule before because then he would have been the Seventh still continued and not a new King with the name of an Eighth See Coroll Prop. 18. The Beast therefore must have been either the Sixth King that is the Imperial Government returned into Rule again or one of the other five before it But before the time of Justinian there was neither any restauration of the Imperial Government of Rome that was fallen from it before nor any new reviving of any of the other five Governments of Rome which were before the Imperial 1. It will be objected That this would make the Imperial Head Objections to continue unchanged from the time of the Vision to the fall of the Western Empire whereas the Sixth Head seems plainly to be represented to have its deadly wound upon the Dragon at Constantine's Rev. 12. Conversion of the Imperial Head to Christianity For immediately after that in the 13th Chapter is the Beast shown with his Head wounded to death and yet healed again after the Dragon had been said in the 12th Chapter to have been thrown down from Heaven All that can be made appear from the fall of the Dragon supposing Answer
about the year 1820 for their Last End But by the same reason that they are made to be but 1260 years or 17 years short of the full account of the three Times and an half N. B. every of those 1260 years as has been observed may be judged to want five days in them and then they would reach but to just the year 1800. And this I account to be the true way of determining the number of the years in both the halves of the Week of Times here referred to For the industrious care that the Prophecy seems to take in three Chapters of the Revelations to limit the number of years contained in the latter half of that great week is sufficient ground to conclude that the former half of it before the Times of the Beast which has no such limitation in it is to be accounted according to the received Custom of the Babylonian Nation for their number of days in a year to which all this peculiar calculation of the Times does refer For the Exception expresly put in to the one half is a confirmation of the common way of account in the other half where there is none Thus may we observe That this great Tribulation of the domination of the Beast does in that resemble the time of the greatest Tribulation that ever befel the Jews as it is characterized by our Saviour The days that this should have in it in proportion to the other half of the seven before it are shortned for the Elects sake And all the grounds that there are for the shortning of the length of 1260 years by the Chaldaick and Greek Account without the additional five days expresly referred to in the Prophecy do also prove that the Rise of the Beast whose time is measured out by these years could not be about the Year 450. for then his time would now have been almost just run out For 1260 Chaldaick years would be but 1242 which added to 450 would make but 1692 for the end of the Beast And yet that is the time to which the first Rise of the Beast is fixed by the most Judicious of the Protestants that take other ways for the succession of the Eighth King called The Beast But in the shortest account of these years they appear however to be so prodigious a length of time for the Reign of One Tyrannical Kingdom over the Church of God in comparison with any other of the Four Monarchies by which the whole N. B. time of the Captivity of the Church of God is measured out in the 7th of Daniel That that is a very sufficient Reason for the particular mention of them as the half of some week of years For by that this Antichristian Tyranny is set out by that which is the most remarkable Circumstance in it viz. The continuance of it in the last Monarchy of the Four as long as all the rest of the time of the slavery of the Church under all the other Three Monarchies and that also in but the one part of the Fourth Monarchy CHAP. II. Rev. XIII The Character of an Eighth which was one of the Seven explained of was and is not yet is Of coming after a Seventh which should continue but a short space Of the changing of Times and Laws Of the Ten Kings reigning one hour with the Beast Of the Image of the Beast TO go on with the rest of the Characters of the Beast in the Revelations The Imperial Head cut off by the Goths and restored by Justinian does very naturally agree with the Character of its being an Eighth King which was one of the Seven Because Rev. 17. 11. it was the Sixth of those Seven Kings at the time of the Prophecy and an Eighth in the time of its Restauration by Justinian And it is a strange thing to see how others are forced to make either their Eighth King to be the same with their Seventh or their Seventh King to be none of the seven Heads to uphold their Interpretation And that also shows How the Imperial Head restored by Justinian was the Head wounded to death and healed again ch 13. 3. And the Beast that was and is not and yet is ch 17. 8. which do but signify the same thing with its being the Eighth which was one of the Seven that had been once past before For all those Expressions signify no more than that the Imperial Head was before it was deadly wounded by the Goths then ceased to be while the Gothish Kings were the Kings of Rome and Italy and afterwards was healed again by the return of the Imperial Rule over Rome in Justinian Where by the way may be observed how justly the continuance of the Roman Imperial Power in the East after the ruine of the Western Empire does answer the Character of and yet is at the time when it had but a small share in the Authority of the City of Rome together with the Gothish Kings See the Account of their Note 20 21. on Chap. 18. Union in the choice of their Consuls c. But whereas the first of these Expressions seems to belong only to an Head of the Beast and the other is said of the Beast indefinitely It is to be considered that the notion of the Beast is the Beast in the particular state of its last Head Prop. 6. which is the healed Head Coroll 3. Prop. 10. As for the Riddle of was and is not and yet is The Learned Vol. 1. p. 642. Dr. More has shown that that is to be understood of the Beast as it was subject to those several changes of one and the same state of it and not to be tied to any one set particular time when those inconsistent Characters were really verified of it altogether as several compounded Names of things are found to be in the Old Testament For to understand it literally of the substance of the Beast is an open contradiction or to understand those Characters about the same qualification of it in the same respect at the same time And yet it cannot but be seen that in the time of the Gothish Kings it was very near being verified to the greatest nicety about the Imperial Government It was Supream at Rome before them it was not so in their time and yet it was owned for its share with them in the Authority of it But to make out this difficulty by applying these Expressions only to a quality of the Beast that was and was not and yet was as Dr. More does to the Idolatry of the Romans is contrary to that which has been proved to be the constant acceptation of the Beast Prop. 6 that is The particular state of it under the Eighth King which therefore must be the thing of which was is not and yet is must be verified The Character of his being an Eighth after a Seventh King which should continue but a short space agrees very well with the Ch. 17.
of an Vniversal Arbitrary Jurisdiction over the Consciences of all Men in the Governing-Power of the Roman State and Church I need add nothing else to make the Character of it comprehensive enough of all the particulars included in it For this unbounded Power especially when secured by the Plea of Infallibility does comprehend in it all the Tyrannical impositions that can enslave the Souls of Men to give an Absolute and Divine Reverence to the Supreme Power An ungrounded belief of an Infallible Spirit in Men in the exercise of their Jurisdiction over the Conscience does oblige a Man to a blind Faith in them for every the most absurd and extravagant thing that they affirm and to a blind obedience to all their most Unreasonable and Arbitrary Injunctions It binds him to renounce all use of his Understanding that should enable him to discover a falshood and to stifle all the Light of Conscience in him which would make him discern betwixt good and evil And by this means does it not only lay a Man open to the inspirations and illusions of the Devil but to take them also for the Oracles of God and makes him uncapable of the Grace of Repentance This does make it easie to understand how the Worshippers of the Beast do also Worship the Dragon who gives Power to him For this Power being not of God but of the Dragon and for his service as it is expresly said to be the Worship that is paid to it is the Worshipping of that e Ribera on 16 B. cap. 13. moves a Doubt How Antichrist that is to deceive the World with a false shew can perswade them to worship the Devil or Dragon And thereupon says The Interpreters do thus answer Men shall worship Antichrist But because he shall have his Power from the Devil by worshipping of Him they shall worship the Devil So Aretas Primatius Ausbertus Haymo Ambrosius Anselmus Dragon or of the Devil for whose service it is Besides that the Devil or Dragon is represented as the constant companion of the Beast to the last and so must be the Inspirer and Manager of the Beast in all he does And then the Devil may be said to be as really in the Throne again as he was in the Red Dragon so that the Dragon by that does become the Life and Soul of the Beast and both together make one and the same Body of Sovereign Power that is worshipped And this does very well express the Tyrannical Persecutions of the Faithful Members of Christ by the Roman Powers which is almost the whole Character of the Red Dragon in the Rev. 12. 3. Chapter before this and for which he wears those bloody Colours CHAP. IV. Rev. XIII An Essay to apply the Idolatrous Worship of the Beast to the Imperial Power The Church no Monarchy before Constantine With him came in the Monarchical Form of Church-Government with an Ecclesiastical Senate The Resemblance of the Imperial Power in the Church both as to the Legislative and Executive part of the Government with the Civil Power in conjunction with the Roman Senate The first Ground of the Authority of the Bishops of Rome THE Charge of the Idolatrous Worship before-mentioned may seem at the very first sight to be just enough for the Worship of the Image or of the Church of Rome and of the Papal Authority which is the Head and life of it But it may not appear to be so easie to apply the Worship of the Beast to the Secular Imperial Power For a clear satisfaction in this It will be convenient to take a view of the different states of the Church when under Persecution and when advanced to the Imperial Throne It is very evident that the Catholick Church however united it might be yet was certainly no Monarchy in the times before Constantine The Bishop of Rome who is the only pretender to the Sovereignty at that time is sufficiently known to have had then but a very limited Jurisdiction and nothing did pass for a Law of the Church but what was decreed by the Common Assembly of the Governours of it The Church did much resemble the Union and Government of the States of the United Provinces The Bishop and his Clergy were the standing Authority of every particular Jurisdiction and the People and inferior Clergy were generally the Electors of the Bishops into their particular places and the general Assembly of them all in Council was the Supream Authority of the Church By them were Laws made and they were accounted the last Appeal for the determination of all material Controversies about Jurisdiction Upon Constantine's Conversion a THe Jesuit Pererius Disp 5. in Apocalypsin De Constantino Then was the Imperial Majesty first brought into the Church and the Church came to be armed against its Enemies with two Swords The one the Temporal Sword in the hands of Seculars or Laics and of Christian Princes the other Spiritual in the hands of the Church-Prelates but chiefly that in the Papal Power there appeared a new form of Government in the Church That which before was but an Aristocracy comes now to be a Monarchy under an Emperor and an Ecclesiastical Senate but yet with so much deference to the Emperor as he might evidently be perceived to be the Supream Governour of the whole Church It was b Constantine summoned the Council of Nice and presided there Euseb vit Constantin l. 1. c. 37. l. 3. c. 6. And before had commanded and enjoyned the meeting of the Synod of Arles Euseb l. 10. c. 5. The Council of Sardica was summoned by the Order of the two Emperours Constantius and Constans Sozomen l. 3. c. 10. The Synodical Epistle of that Council in Theodoret. l. 2. c. 8. says The Emperours well-beloved of God gathered us together from divers Cities and Provinces and have ordered us to hold a Synod in the Town of Sardica So also Athanasius Apol. 2. of the same thing By the Edict of the most religious Emperours Constans and Constantius The Second General Council at Constantinople was summoned by the command of the Emperor Theodosius as Socrates expresly says l. 5. c. 8. Theodoret. l. 5. c. 9. that they were assembled by the Letters of the Emperor The Synodical Epistle of the Council 1 Tom. Concil expresses their being assembled at the Emperor's Command and desire him to confirm their Decrees by his Judgment and Seal The Third General Council at Ephesus Epist Synodal ad Theodos apud Cyrill Tom. 4. Concil We present our Persons in the Synod that you have commanded c. And they desire leave of the Emperor with all humility to go to their several homes till the business was determined And the Emperor in his confirmation of it says The Emperor duly informed of all is well satisfied that the Holy Synod has done all things Canonically Soon after this does Theodosius call another Council at Ephesus and says of Dioscorus to that Council We
necessary to the Emperors for upholding their Power in the midst of the Invasions of the Barbarous Nations the Emperors were willing to enlarge their Authority to make use of it for the management of their own Affairs And after that the Divisions of the Roman Empire were setled in so many Sovereign Princes that Church-Authority which they themselves had now lost in those several Kingdoms they were not unwilling to bestow upon the Chief Bishop of their City and so by small advances he came at last to get the Title of Occumenical Bishop and Vniversal Head of the Church of Christ upon Earth But yet still did the Emperors retain their Power of the setting up of every new Bishop of Rome The Emperors m This is thus well expressed by John Wex de Antichristo p. 119. And so the Ten Kings delivered to the Beast their Kingdoms which they had got at the dissolution of the Western Empire according to Apoc. 17. 12. For after that the Western Empire was broken in pieces all the Kingdoms of the West did join again together in one body that by the bonds and tye of the Babylonish Superstition of the Bishop of Rome they might fight against the Lamb. Consent was still held necessary for the confirmation of the Election as the Chief Power upon Earth that gave him his Authority And upon this account he was set up as the Emperor's Deputy and Creature to be the Universal Head of the Roman Church in all the divided Kingdoms of the Roman Empire which now would own no other Secular Head of the Churches in them but those Sovereigns which ruled them And thus came the divided Roman Empire to be n one entire thing again and the several Kings in it to own one Roman Head again set up by the Imperial Authority Things continued not long in this mere spiritual and Ecclesiastical State The new Ecclesiastical Head used all ways to make himself universally acknowledged for such And to that end as Head of the Church he assumes a power of executing the Canons of Councils upon Sovereign Princes to the depriving them of their Kingdoms if they refused to execute the Orders of the Church upon all those that were disobedient to it and that even to the punishment of death From hence then we have a perfect Idea of the worship of the Beast and of his Image from the first Rise of the last Ruling Head or of the Imperial Power restored by Justinian The Imperial Authority was at first the sole Head of the Roman Catholick Church Afterwards the Submission of the divided States of the Empire to one Ecclesiastical Sovereign who was set up by the Emperor made this new Empire the exact Image of the first in respect of the Church-Government of it And the Manager and Contriver of this new Model is in History the Bishop of Rome and is in the Prophecy called the False Prophet CHAP. V. Rev. XIII Four Grounds for the applying of the Worship of the Beast to the Imperial Power How the False Prophet does Exercise all the Power of the First Beast causes all the World to Worship him makes them make an Image to him Gives Life to that Image and makes All receive its Mark c. BY the Observations in the preceding Discourse it is easie to see How justly the Worship of the Beast may be applied to the Imperial Authority after the degeneracy of the Christian Religion 1. For the Imperial Authority as has been observed p. 221. was 〈…〉 a long while the only commanding Head of the Roman Religion and the a SOcrates Proam in l. 5. We have therefore in the whole course of out History given an account of the Emperor's interest in it because that since they began to embrace the Christian Religion Ecclesiastical Affairs did seem very much to depend upon them so that the most eminent Councils were in times past and are at this day summoned by their consent and procurement See Notes on the third Chapter b c d e f g i k The Emperours had always the Right of Investing Church-Governours in their several jurisdictions till the Council of Worms in the year 1122. And then the Emperour Henry the 3d. wearied with the vexations occasioned him by the Popes gave up his Right of the Staff and the Ring the Ceremonies of the investiture to Pope Calixtus the 2d Aventin Histor Boior l. 6. The Abbot of Ursperg in his Chronicle gives the form of this Concordat betwixt the Emperour and the Pope And the Pope in return agrees for the future That the Elections of the Bishops and Abbots c. should be performed in his presence c. And that He that was Elected should receive the Regalia of the Emperour by the Scepter And this was called the Uniting of the Royal Power with the Priesthood and long endeavoured after under that Name Cardinal Cusan Concordia Catholic c. 6 7 8 9. Affirms That every Emperour and Prince in their several Jurisdictions are of God alone and that it belongs to the Emperours to summon General Councils and to regulate the Procedures in them and to every Prince to do the same in his respective Territory for National and Provincial Councils And that if the Pope be negligent in these things the Emperour ought to make use of his Authority in all such Cases That the Emperour always presided in the Councils assisted with fifteen or twenty of the Nobles of his Court whom he made to take place before all And He and his Legats propounded the matters that were to be considered Pererius in Apoc. Disp 5. de Constantino Then came the Imperial Majesty first into the Church which was then Armed with both the Swords c. For though from the first The Church had that Sword viz. the Secular Sword yet then first began the facility and conveniency of exercising it against whomsoever it pleased only Soveraign Authority upon Earth that was acknowledged in all Ecclesiastical Affairs so that all obedience given to the erroneous Acts of those Councels was really an obedience to the Emperors will only For those things had no obliging power in them to overrule the Conscience upon the account of the Councels Authority And therefore since it had been long before that time received as a maxime by those who owned that Councel That all was there done by the b Socrates l. 1. c. 6. Ep. 4. Constantine unto the Churches He there tells them That whatsoever is decreed in the Holy Councils of Bishops is to be attributed to the Will of God And of the Sentence of the Council of Nice in particular Ibid. Ep. 2. to the Church of Alexandria For that which has been agreed upon by the 300 Bishops is to be taken for nothing but the determination of God himself The Holy Ghost residing in the minds of such worthy persons and inspiring them with the Divine Will of God himself Concil Constantinop Universal 6. Action 17. sub finem The
Laws and their Sanctions of Councils as the Will of God about the way to Salvation or make them receive the Roman Religion it self as the Gospel of Christ only upon the account of its being the Doctrine of the Roman Church which has all the Authority that it lays claim to from the will of the Emperors only in veneration to the Majesty of that Empire and the Supream Ruler of it or when the Pope does make the Emperors to be owned for the r Gregor 7. Ep. poll 18. l. 6. Richard Prince of Capua takes this as part of his Oath to the Pope I will acknowledg the Emperour Henry for every thing else and will Swear fealty to him when I shall be exhorted to it by thee or thy Successours always with the exception of the Holy Church c. And it is the general practice of that Church in case of the Emperor's failure of this Defence of the Church or in case of Heresie contrary to it He is to be deposed defenders of the Faith of that Church by a Divine Commission to them from his hands at their confirmation in the Imperial Dignity and thus recommends them under that Sacred Character as the immediate and special Ordinance of God in the Roman Church whose will must be submitted to in their commands for the owning of the Infallibility of the Roman Church or the Divine inspiration of it in all things The next exercise of the False Prophets power is by all the deceitful Arts of persuasion to get the World to make an Image to Rev. 13 14. the Beast which does set out the great industry of the Papal Power upon its exaltation to the Supremacy over the Church to make the Church of Rome to be as Universal an Empire over the World as the Civil state of it was and so to be the Image of the Roman Empire When this was obtained it is said That he had power also to V. 15. give life to this Image and questionless all will own the Church of Rome to have almost all its life from s This appears from the Oath that all the dignified Clergy of the Church of Rome take at their Creation the form of which is thus set down Lib. 2. Decret Tit. 24. I N. N. by the Grace of God and of the Apostolick See Bishop of c. will assist for the retaining of the Roman Pacy and the Regalia of St. Peter and to the maintaining them against every Man I will take care to preserve encrease defend and further the Rights Honours Priviledges and Authority of the Roman Church of our Lord the Pope and his Successors I will prosecute and suppress to my power all Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels against our Lord the Pope Add to this the Oath that the Emperour and Kings take at their Coronation to defend the Rights of the Apostolick See and then the Papal Authority seems to be the sole Head of the Image and the inspirer of it the Papal Authority in it Of which there could be no more lively a proof than to Ibid. make the Image speak and cause all to be killed that would not worship it And does not this very exactly agree with the Decrees and Canons of that Church put in execution by its own Courts of Judicature and by the concurrence of the Secular Arm which it makes its Officers and Executioners It is known That any dissent from the Faith of that Church is judged by them to be Herefie and that the punishment of Heresie is death And since all the Government of the Church is made a Papal Monarchy and the Pope the Supream Head of it it is very properly said that he does cause the Church to do all these things The last mentioned exercise of the False-Prophet's power is to make all men receive a mark in their hand or forehead or to Rev. 13 16 17. have the name of the Beast or the number of his name This seems to be very mystical at the first sight of it But the custom of all the Eastern parts to give their Soldiers and Slaves a mark to know them for their own does make it plain that it is to be understood of some t Malvenda de Antichristo Pag. 434. Let it therefore be taken for clear and undoubted which all the Fathers did unquestionably teach That this number of the name of the Beast 666 does not relate to either the birth or death of Christ or to any kind of duration or space of time but that it is to be the real name of Antichrist And he there mentions Romanists and Latines Alcasar in c. 13. Apoc. de Charactere Bestiae The Mark says he is not here any thing distinct from the number and the name 1. because it is said the Mark or the Name or the Number of the Name which does not intimate three distinct things but only three distinct Names of the same things 2. Because Chap. 20. Apoc. it is said That all that had not received the Mark of the Beast did Reign with Christ where the Mark includes in it the Name and Number 3. Because Chap. 14. 9. It is said also of the punishment of the followers of the Beast That it was to those who should receive the Mark where all that had the name and the number are also comprehended He there also adds That it was the Custom for Soldiers to receive the name of their Prince in their Skin So Vegelius l. 1. c. 8. and l. 2. c. 5. Soldiers are Listed by being pricked in the Skin with the name of the Prince or General So Lipsius l. 1. c. 9. Quotes Justinian's Code for it St. Augustine Chrysostom and Prudentius The Society of Bacchus were thus marked with an Ivy-leaf peculiar mark and name which does distinguish those of the Roman Church from all other Christians But that which does the best open the mystery of these expressions is that observation of Grotius upon this place That it was a common fashion in St. John 's time for every Heathen God to have a particular Society or Fraternity belonging to him and the way of admitting any into these fraternities was 1. By giving them some Hieroglyphick mark in their Hands or Forehead which was accounted Sacred to that particular God as that of an Ivy-leaf to own themselves of the fraternity of Bacchus 2. By Sealing them with the Letters of the name of that God And 3. with that number which the Greek Letters of their name did make up for the Numeral Cyphers of the Greeks were the Letters of the Alphabet Thus the Greek Letters of the Name of the Sun did in all make up 608. And therefore his fraternity were marked with XH A very great confirmation of this way of interpreting the Name and Number of the Name is Irenaeus's Testimony from Irenaeus l. 5. c. 24. the mouth of those who had received it from St. John That the Number of the Name of
Faustus the Manichee The occasion of this Idolatry not enforced by effectual Laws till Justinian 's Reign I Have been the more particular in the Explication of the worship of the Beast because that is made in the Prophecy to be the chief malignity of his Power For the exercise of his Tyranny over the Consciences of Men is that which gives life and spirit to all the Corruptions of the True Religion which the Roman Church sets up for the indispensable Laws of the Christian Faith The Idolatry of the Church of Rome alone by it self would want the greatest part of the frightful Appearance in which the Beast is described and which the enforcing it upon the Consciences of all men by the secular Arm has set it forth into the sense and feeling of the World But besides the Characters of the Malignity of the Beast which are generally summ'd up in the Worship of him there is also a particular description in the 17th Chapter of the Idolatrous state of the Roman Church under the name of Babylon the Great Whore which is a known term amongst the Prophets to express the Idolatry of a Nation which had been the True Church of God And this charge of Idolatry is brought against the Church by the Prophets not only when they worshipped strange Gods but also when they worshipped the True God by corporeal Representations as it has been sufficiently made out of late by the disputes about Aaron's and Jeroboam's Calves and may be sufficiently shown from that one place in Hosea chap. 4. 15. Though thou Israel play the Harlot yet let not Judah offend and come ye not See the Dean of St. Paul's Discourse of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome and Papists not misrepresented to Gilgal neither go ye up to Bethaven nor swear the Lord liveth where their Idolatry is made to consist in a Religious Oath to Jehovah or to the true God in the places where the Calves were placed And that they did really intend all that worship to the True God appears further from Chap. 8. v. 13. They sacrifice flesh for the Sacrifices of my Offerings and eat it but the Lord accepteth them not And that they applied themselves to the Calves in those Sacrifices appears from Chap. 13. 2. They say of them Let the men that sacrifice kiss the Calves which does all belong to Ephraim and to Samaria who had just before been mentioned for their Calves so that their swearing by the Lord and their sacrificing of his Offerings which are said before to be done at Gilgal and Bethaven the places of the worship of the Calves cannot possibly be understood of any other intention of worship than to the True God in the presence of those Calves So again Chap. 8. v. 5. Thy Calf O Samaria hath cast thee off mine Anger is kindled against thee where the kindling God's wrath against them is called their being cast off by their Calf as they had represented the presence of God in his House by that figure Now for this kind of Idolatry we need not be long in seeking after the recovery of the Western Empire by Justinian We find that in the Second Council of Nice about 200 years after that they insisted Act. 7. upon the old Tradition and practice An. Dom. 787. Petav. of the Universal Church for the use of Images which though it cannot be verified of so long a practice of the Church as they pretend nor it may be of that degree of honour which they defined for any time before yet we cannot think such an Assembly of men from all parts of the World so impudent as to plead ancient Tradition and long practice for that to which there had been nothing like in use of the Church before their time But the proof of it which they alledge out of the 82d Canon of the Sixth Council in Trullo which was near an hundred years before that time is a very clear instance of such practices in the An. Dom. 707. Petav. Church so little a while after Justinian That Canon ordains That the Image of Christ as the Lamb of God should be received amongst the rest of the Venerable Images which gives us to understand that Images were then frequent in Churches And the 73d Canon of that Council does intimate to us what use was made of the Images that were made to represent the Person of Christ For it ordains That Adoration should be given to Christ by the figure of the Cross and to shew their reverence to it that it should never be engraven upon the Church-floor lest it should seem to be trampled under foot and triumphed over By both these Canons it did appear that Images were then commonly used with great veneration if not adoration in the service of God So common a practice as this not much above 100 years after the Reign of Justinian may very safely be concluded to have been begun in his days And indeed it is evident to have been then in use by that celebrated Act of * Baronius Anno 591. Screnus Bishop of Marseils in breaking the Images that he found to be adored in his Churches And this was but about 40 years after the death of Justinian and must be supposed to have been some while in use before it came to be so grosly abused as to stir up the zeal of Serenus to break them which Pope Gregory the First tells him never any Bishop before him ever did And Hospinian's Account of the first occasion of Images in the Church Histor Monachatus pag. 49. does agree well with this He makes the Irruption of the Barbarians upon all the Roman Empire to have been the occasion of introducing the custome of Images which they had been always used to in their Paganism and were indulged in it upon their conversion in a new way and their Irruption was long before the time of Justinian There also he affirms that Gregory himself was the Establisher of the Invocation of Saints and of the use of Images which might well be looked upon as the earnest of spiritual fornication in the Church before they came to be openly adored and therefore might denominate the Church an Harlot as that name may well enough be given to an Adulteress from her first entertaining of the sollicitations of her Paramour But even in the days of Justinian according to Caranza's Explication of the second Canon of the Second Synod of Tours it appears that Images were so commonly received in the Church that there was a place set a part for them upon the Altar called by the name of the Armarium Caranza Annotat. on 2d Canon Synod the Second And it appears from the 26th Law of Justinian's Code Tit. de Episcop Clero that the Image of the Cross and the Reliques of the Saints were looked upon to be so holy as to be thought fit to have an Imperial Law made that they should not be set up in any Prophane or Common
these New Interpreters does still prejudice any that are otherwise curious against these kind of Enquiries here is all this to make them very uneasie under it viz. That they rely upon such for it as the best Judges amongst those whose Cause they most befriend by it do impartially cry out against as Men void of common Sense for the grounds that they go upon for it and that they prefer the Judgment of these men in opposition to the Doctrine of the Church of England it self and of the best Learned and the most impartial Defenders of it almost ever since the Reformation and also in opposition to the Judgment of all Reformed Churches besides I do moreover here pretend to lay a surer and deeper foundation for the demonstration of the Protestant Applications than has yet been offered which may make my endeavours for it at least worth the examining And for the better apprehending of the force of all I will here give a general Idea of my whole process in it The chief foundation of my Design is the constant usage of Figures of the like kind in the Prophecy of Daniel For there is this great advantage from Daniel's Figures That they are both the Original Copy of that in the Revelations and have also a great variety of like Schemes and were almost all of them fulfilled before the writing of the Apocalypse as it has been by the Consent of the Learned See Consent of the Ancients at the end of almost all Parties and Ages agreed upon This makes the signification of the Schemes of Daniel to be certainly determined and to be so many Data and Rules for the determination of the like but less known Phrases in the Revelations I have therefore taken some pains to make sure of the Interpretation of the Figures of Daniel in such a way of proof as I hope may bear the most critical Examination which was never before clearly done but is the most requisite of any thing for a full satisfaction about the sense of the Apocalypse For by this means I have reduced all the kinds of Schemes signifying Dominion to certain and uniform Definitions which is a much larger Basis to establish the Interpretation of these Mysteries upon and which I found much wanting in Mr. Mede's and Dr. More 's Method The Prophetical Terms in the Revelations do by this appear to have been well known to the Apostle before and the signification of the chief of them to contain in them so large a space of time as determines their accomplishment to many Ages after his time which is a great confirmation of the Divine Authority of the Prophecy This is the whole business of the Second Book which ought to be the most nicely and attentively examined But to make the demonstration of this the more secure I thought it most convenient to make use of some of the most undoubted and acknowledged things about Babylon and the Figure of the Beast in the Revelations which do the most openly and unquestionably determine the scene of these things to one certain Empire Whereby the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which is proved necessarily to be the same with that in the Apocalypse is more certainly made known and all the rest of the Kingdoms there mentioned more unavoidably confined in their particular significations This therefore was thought fit to be premised in the First Book In the doing of this I had another aim which I apprehended to be of very useful importance and that was to make sure of the foundation of Mr. Mede's Syncronisms that is That the Term of the Beast all over the Revelations does denote but one and the same particular state of it the want of a close proof of which gives a great advantage to the Grotian Interpretation to evade the force of his Demonstrations by taking that Term in various acceptations Dr. Moor has indeed taken great pains for this purpose but I could not be satisfied till I found it more absolutely necessary for that term to be every-where but the same particular state than his Eighteen Congruities or Likenesses do seem to make it The Third Book does apply the general Notions in the Two former to the Beast in the Revelations Thus far I have generally endeavoured to carry on my whole Process upon Principles common to all the several ways of Protestant Interpreters and have therefore offered mine own particular Apprehensions about the Application and first date of the Reign of the Beast by way of Queries only that I might lay the stress of the business upon a foundation large enough to fit almost all the different Judgments of Protestant Interpreters and not venture it upon the narrow bottom of one particular man's Fancy and Method And I have made use of no Authorities to confirm any thing of moment but the Consent of Papists themselves And their Consent about almost all the Propositions in the First and Second Book which are the Principles and foundation of the Design was a very great confirmation to me of the strength and certainty of all that follows But yet I am so throughly sensible of the strange and violent heats that the study of these things do generally possess all men with that engage in it that I must desire that Justice of the Reader not to be deterred from the perusal of this performance by the confident Censures of any that may observe some small Conclusions here not so agreeable to their own Fancies For the most eminent and admired in other parts of Learning have been found to be the most absurd and gross in their Confident Mistakes about these matters Nothing indeed does make men so obnoxious to mistakes here as a more than ordinary measure of quickness of Parts and of assurance from great improvements in other ways If I have at all succeeded in this Attempt I must wholly attribute it under God's assistance to the peculiar scepticalness of my nature and the continual distrust of my own Apprehensions and Performances which would not suffer me to fix upon scarce any thing before I had by often repeated corrections of my first thoughts about it made it appear not only clear but necessary to me It is enough to revive the Curiosity of the present Age for the examination of this Attempt to reflect but upon the peculiar advantages of it if performed My Design The Usefulness of the Design is to give a clear and necessary proof That the Church of Rome is that Great Enemy of God's Church which is much the business of the Revelations And one very great advantage of this would be That it would cut off many voluminous and intricate Disputes which take up so much of the choicest time of the Best Men. If it were once made sure That God had here so openly exposed the distinguishing marks of that Church almost every one of Bellarmin's Notes of his Church ought without any dispute to be granted him Nay If that alone be
but yielded which the Jesuit Alcasar * In v. 2. c. 11. Apocalyps Notat 4. item ante Notation See Preface to the Judgments of God upon the R. C. affirms to be necessary and the contrary of it to be not at all agreeable to the Enigmatical style of the Revelations that is That the 1260 days are to be taken in a Mystical and not in the literal sense Those Notes would be the surest confirmation that that Church must be the Great Babylon For as the Mystical acceptation of a Day in Scripture is a Year so is it impossible to apply the Characters answering to those Marks in the Revelations to any Ruling Power besides for the space of 1260 together since the writing of the Prophecy Ex. gr Where-ever was there an Empire since the writing of the Prophecy but that of the Roman Church that Note 1 was so Universal for 1260 years together as to have all that dwell upon Earth Peoples and Multitudes and Rev. 13. 8. c. 17. 15. Nations and Tongues to worship it What Ruling Power but that so Ancient as to have the Blood of Prophets and Saints and of all that were slain upon Earth of Note 2 that kind for that space of time to be found in it What Rev. 18. 24. Rule but that had ever so long a duration in the World as to continue set upon an Hill much less upon seven Hills Note 3 for so great a space of time or so as to answer the whole length of the time of the Saracen and Turkish Empires Rev. 9. 1 13. in the Two first Woes Never had any other Church Note 4 such an Amplitude or variety of Believers as to have all Nations drink of the Wine of her Fornication or so Rev. 18. 3 c. 13. 7. as to have a blasphemous power over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations None but that was ever so eminently conspicuous for so long a time for the Succession Note 5 of its Bishops under one Supreme Patriarch as to be the Living Image of all the Civil Dignities of the Empire where Rev. 13. 12 14 15. it was under one Supreme Church-Head exercising all the power of the Civil Head or with Imperium in Imperio Nor did ever any Enemy of God's Church act for so long a time like the Red Dragon in its bloody Laws against the Note 6 Followers of the Lamb And yet so far agree with the Primitive Church in fundamental Doctrines as to answer the Character of a False Prophet with the Horns of Rev. 13. 11. the Lamb Christ but speaking like the Red Dragon to his Followers as the Church of Rome has done Whereever but there has there been such an union of Head and Note 7 Members for that length of time to apply the one mind Rev. 17. 13 17. of the Ten Kings to for their agreement together to give their power and strength and their whole Kingdoms to the Beast Never did any but that Church appear so long together with such a medly of Sanctity in some Doctrines Note 8 10. and outward appearances of a strict holiness of life joined with other abominable Doctrines and Practises to qualify it for the Horns of the Lamb and the Speech of the Dragon for the Idolatrous and cruel Commands of the Rev. 13. 12 15. Image Or for having the Form of Godliness in the latter 2 Tim. 3. 1 7. times and yet denying the power thereof Or for forbidding 1 Tim. 4. 3. to marry and commanding to abstain from Meats and yet maintaining Doctrines of Devils What Deceiving Power but that did ever shew so wonderful an efficacy Note 9 of its Doctrine as to make the Kings of the Earth and Rev. 17. 2. all Nations drunk with the Wine of its Fornication Or where did God ever send such an efficacious Delusion as to make men so strongly to believe a lye things clear contrary 2 Thess 2. 11. to the common Sense and Reason of all Mankind Note 11 The Glory of Miracles never appeared any where so long Rev. 13. 14. to make good the False Prophet's lying Wonders and his Matth. 7. 22. deceiving all that dwell upon Earth by the means of them And never was there but in the Roman Church so long a Reign of those that prophesied in the name of Note 12 Christ with Signs and Wonders to assure the Gift of Prophecy to them and so to answer the Character of the False Rev. 13. 14. Mat. 24. 24. Prophet working Miracles to deceive the World and even if it were possible the very Elect. Nor ever had any Power upon Earth so numerous Confessions of its Note 13 Adversaries for the application of these Notes of his Church in the Revelations to verify the Testimony of the Witnesses Rev. 11. 3. no Church or State in the World beside has made such an unhappy end of any thing near so many of its Enemies Note 14 as the Roman to assure us That it can be nowhere but there that the Image caused all to be killed Rev. 13. 15 16 17. that would not worship it nor receive its mark and name Nor did Temporal Felicity ever attend any other Note 15 Religion for half the time of the Roman Reign to make it possible to understand the Riches and Glory of Babylon to Rev. 18. 16 17. her last hour of any thing else If it should here be said That these 1260 years are to be verified of some Empire yet to come It must however be allowed That the present Roman Church is as like that Antichristian Empire for all the time that it is to continue and that for 1260 years as one thing can well be like another This would make one apprehend That Bellarmin was perfectly infatuated to make choice of such things for the marks of his Church as make it the very picture of Babylon the Great in the Revelations and shews the Use and great moment of the Notes of the Church as delivered by Cardinal Bellarmin So also for other Intricate Controversies E. G. If this Application of the Apocalypse were once secured who would much trouble himself to prove the formal Idolatry of the Church of Rome when it appears here to be the Mother of Harlots that has made all Nations Rev. 18. 3. drink of the Wine of her Fornication Or to defend any Reformed Church from the imputation of Schism when there is such an express Command to the People of v. 4. God to come out of her any ways with or without the countenance of Authority that they be not partakers of her Sins and so receive of her Plagues Or to contend much for the perpetual visibility of the true People of God when the Prophecy does so expresly distinguish betwixt them as unknown and a False Idolatrous and Apostate Church Ibidem Rev. 18. 4. c. 7. wherein they sojourn and does set them forth as persons
to uphold it that all have thought that the General Peace on that side must have been precipitated And yet we have seen it deserred to this time And the Order of the Prophecy for the end of the Second Woe after the Resurrection Rev. 11. 14. of the Witnesses thereby observed and fulfilled against all human appearance 3. From my proof of the time of the full death of the Witnesses I did determine That there would be no suppression P. 92 106. Letter to H. P. of the Protestant Profession either in England or in the Palatinate which how miraculously it has been verified amongst us we are all the joyful Witnesses of Nor does it appear That the French in all their Devastations of the Palatinate ever carried on the Dragoon work of Abjuration amongst them And yet how contrary to all outward appearance of things here was this Conjecture when it was declared and some-while after it The Project of getting a Complying Parliament to put the strength of the Nation into Popish Hands by nulling the Laws against it was then in a fair likelihood of taking But upon the continual change of Corporations soon after it seemed to be out of all question And the fury with which the Bishops Constancy was entertained and the Severities of the Ecclesiastical Commission were sufficient Testimonies of the Resolution that was then taken to bring the Ruling Religion to that state of Toleration which might qualify them to be the Witnesses in Sackcloth And who could ever have thought that the most Refined Politicians in the Church of Rome should have been so unaccountably infatuated as to chuse such Methods as tended the most apparently to the ruine of all the fair hopes that their Cause was then in Or that the French would be so unready to oppose His Present Majesty's Expedition here when they foresaw it and long before had publickly threatned by their Ambassador to revenge all Attempts of that nature And then for the Palatinate There was no reason to imagine that the French Zeal for their new way of Conversions should not have been as hot as the Flames that they put the whole Country into 4. It was necessary for me in my way of applying the Vials to make the mortifications of the Imperial and truly Papal Party by the Reign of the present French King to P. 207. 241. be the Plague of the Fourth Vial upon the Beast and the time of every Vial being found by those that are past to be about the space of Forty years I have judged from thence that the present King there would not be longer a Plague of any moment to that Party His Reign having continued for P. 244. more than Forty years since the end of the Suedish-War And what considerable Plague has he been of late but to the Protestant Palatinate And he has already begun to be a spectator only of the Imperial and Papal Triumphs over him And yet how contrary to all appearance of things was it That the French King should not think of taking his advantage sooner against the Spanish Imperial and Papal Dominions OR That he should be willing to stand at gaze only for a whole Campagne while his new Conquests were forced from him 5. I have only this further to add That it is a most surprizing instance of Divine Providence to croud so many strange and unusual Revolutions together into one point of the time of a Prophecy of near 2000 years concern and to fulfil the Predictions of them by such new and unexpected means By the number of years assigned to the continuance of Judgments of God chap. 8 9. Rev. 11. 9. Ibid. p. 253 260. the second Woe And by the Three days and an half of the death of the Witnesses and by the time of the beginning of the fifth Vial Here are all these great Changes confined to the compass of less than Ten years viz. The perfect silencing of all the Reformed Churches in All Popish Territories The Revival of them The Advancement of one of them into a Popish Throne The Revolt of the whole Kingdom there from the Roman Church The last end of all Turkish Wars The General Mortification of the Roman Interest in all its own Territories And these we have seen begun to be accomplished by as strange means such as the forcing a whole Nation to that which they really account Idolatry by unheard of Artifices The Change of the Supream Power of a Kingdom the greatest Confederacy of Protestant and Popish Princes that was ever known The Pope's Excommunications of the fiercest Zealot of his Church that ever appeared The breaking of an handful of Men through the opposition of a prepared and powerful Enemy The sudden Conquest of several Eastern Countries and a new Revolution in their Government This wonderful Accomplishment of Predictions that were particularly foretold and confined to so short a time after and that also contrary to the appearing disposition of affairs may be a very reasonable presumption for the truth of the Principles upon which they rely But I have every where taken care upon the mention of these things to forewarn N. B. all That whatever becomes of these conjectures yet it will not affect the proof that I here offer for the Principles of the Protestant Applications For loose things may be built upon a very strong foundation But I hope these will be found not to have been rashly applied And then they will be a confirmation of the Demonstration à priori here attempted As Effects are usually instanced in to demonstrate the true Causes Indeed the chief end of publishing the other part first was to engage the curiosity of the World to enquire after this which was always the chief aim of my Studies about this Subject For as I was extreamly surprized and pleased with Mr. Mede's Method in the Demonstrative way so could I not think his precess altogether close enough for it as it has before been observed by others And tho the Learned Dr. More has very sufficiently shown that notwithstanding the strongest of the Objections against them they may nevertheless be most of them true yet I do not see that he has proved some of them upon which the main stress of the whole Application does lye to be necessary to be so which is the whole design of the Synchronism e. g. The Synchronisms suppose for their foundation that the Beast in the 13th Chap. and that in the Eleventh are the same particular state of the Seven Headed Beast which yet Grotius supposes to be quite different things and by that undermines the force of the Demonstration Dr. More endeavours to strengthen it by finding a likeness betwixt the Beasts in one Character of each which is far from a Cogent necessity Dr. More himself allows not the proof of the Synchronism betwixt the Beast and the Two Witnesses in the Eleventh Chapter from the end of the Kingdom of the Beast and of the Sackcloth
people that are given up to a reprobate mind for denying Babylon in the 2 Peter 5. 13. to be Rome and then shew us the almost unanimous Consent of the Fathers concerning it And Grotius who has used all the dexterity of his Wit to remove the Scene of these Visions from the Church of Rome yet does upon the 9th and 18th Verses of this Chapter affirm That there could not have been given more illustrious Marks of the City of Rome than those that are there expressed of it This positive Testimony for the unquestionable Evidence of this Proposition against the doubts and waverings of others is a great encouragement to expect as sufficient a proof of it from the grounds that are laid down for it in the Prophecy which are now therefore to be considered 1. And first The Angel's promise at the 7th Verse of this Chapter to explain to the Prophet the mystical expressions of the Woman and the Beast which he had invited him to the shew of in the beginning of the Chapter would make any judge he might with very good reason expect to see it performed by him in so clear a manner as might tolerably answer the promise that he had before made of it 2. The Angel may be found thereupon describing Babylon by such Characters as were the individual and peculiar Characters of the City of Rome v. 9 18. by its seven Hills and its Reign over the Kings of the Earth for there was no City in the World that ruled over the Kings of the Earth and that was seated upon seven Hills but that City only But Rome was very eminent for this It commanded the East the West the South and some of the parts of the North to the end of the then civiliz'd World And e Varro lib. 4. de LL. Dies septimontium nominatus ab his septem montibus in queis sita urbs est Varro informs us of a yearly Festival at Rome that was called Dies Septimontium to celebrate the memory of the seven Hills upon which the City was built 3. Rome was also at the time of this Explication generally known by the appellatives of The seven-hill'd City The Queen and Lady of the World It was not better known by the Letters of its own proper Name by persons of any fashion than by these Appellatives as may be seen amongst all the famous Poets especially of that Age and who were generally esteemed and read all over the Roman Empire as f Virgil Georg. lib. 2. Aeneid lib. 6. Septemque una sive muro circumdedit arces And all The seven-tow'r'd Hills has compass'd with one Wall Virgil g Horace in carmine saeculari Diis quibus septem placuere colles Dicere carmen To sing unto the Gods who love the place Which the sev'n Hills do grace Horace h Ovid. Fastor lib. 1. Sed quae de septem totum circumspicis orbem Montibus Imperii Roma Deûmque locus But Thou who from thy sev'n-hill'd Seat Seest the World crouching at thy feet Rome in thy Gods and Empire Great Ovid i Propertius Septem urbs alta juges toti quae praesidet orbi The Town that rules the World advanc'd upon The sev'n Hills for its Throne Propertius k Martial lib. 12. Epigr. 8. Terrarum Dea gentiumque Roma Cui par est nihil nihil secundum Rome the Worlds Godess by all Nations fear'd To whom no thing is like no thing to be compar'd Martial l Lucan Atque omnis Latio servit quae purpura ferro And every Crowned Head and State Who to the Roman Arms submit their Fate Lucan c. 4. And these Characters we find also expresly fixed to a certain time when they could not be understood of any other Place as The seven Hills where the Woman sitteth that is at this present time The City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth that is at Ver. 9 18. this moment or at that time when the Angel spoke to the Apostle all along that Chapter to unfold the Mystery to him From these plain Circumstances I could not think it would be any dangerous venture to be confident That Babylon must be Rome For who can think it possible for an Angel of God to promise in the first place to explain the mystical terms of a Prophecy to an Apostle of Christ then to go on immediately to perform it by Characters of them which were very peculiar and individual Properties of things that were alone known to have them and by which they were generally known and understood to be meant in the common conversation of the world and to fix them also to a certain time when they were so generally used and yet after all this that the Angel might understand them in a much different sense How then is it possible to know the meaning of the plainest words in Scripture if in such circumstances as these an Angel of God could have given such an invincible temptation to the world to deceive themselves without any possibility to prevent it I could not therefore judge it possible that Babylon here should be any thing else but Rome This I was still the more free in because I saw it the confidence CONSENT of those who tho' they make the outward Testimony of a Church their ordinary Rule to judge of any divine infallible Truth yet here speak with all imaginable assurance about a thing which their Church never defined upon the account of the over-bearing evidence of the Text for it and this also freed me from all fear of any partial prejudice against their Church that might make me too ready to join with the rest in this great assurance As for the wavering Opinions of others about it I knew it to be no strange thing to find Learned and Worthy Persons of different Judgments about the most certain and even the most undeniable Truths either upon the account of former prejudices or want of sufficient consideration or from an unaccountable indifference for some things or from some peculiar propension to others so as sometimes to maintain very plain Contradictions to the common sense of men as it was of old observed of the subtilest Reasoners in the world That there was nothing so absurd which was not maintained by some or other of the Philosophers I had read of very learned Scepticks that doubted of the Certainty of Mathematical Demonstrations had known many Judicious and Worthy Persons that could not see any absolute Contradiction in the most difficult Notion of Transubstantiation and much more easie is it for the best men to apprehend That in the clearest Explication of a Mystery as this is there may possibly be a further Mystery Let the reason of the indifference of others have been what it will we are sure That if any mystical Figure should be now said by an Angel to signifie the most Christian King with the Flower-de-Luces or the most Catholick
found to signify the City of Rome in its Antichristian Domination by Prop. 1. 3. And the desolation of Babylon in the Prophets for which the same Expressions with these here are used does signify the last end of that Monarchy or Ruling Power 4. And besides It is the general usage of the Prophetical Writings to set out the last Ruine of a Ruling People by the desolation of the chief City of that Nation at the same time Thus is the Ruine of the Kingdom of Israel Judah Egypt and of the Babylonians represented by the Desolations of Samaria Jerusalem Noph and Babylon 5. But more particularly is it set forth in this Prophecy that the desolation of Babylon is not after the end of that Monarchy which it here represents For The Beast whose Heads do represent this City and is himself called the King of it is not dethroned till after the desolation of Babylon in the 18th Chapter as appears Chapters 19 20. And Chap. 16. 14 19. The Judgment upon Babylon is betwixt the meeting of the Strength of that Monarchy in Harmageddon and the last end of it in the 19th Chapter From hence it appears That Babylon in none of the mentions of it in the Revelations can be Rome Corollar Pagan This may safely be concluded from the name of The Whore here given to Babylon For when a Nation or City is said in Scripture to commit Fornication or to be an Harlot It signifies that Nation or City to have apostatized from the True Religion to Idolatry see the three first Chapters of Hosea And therefore must Babylon here signify Rome Christian turned Idolatrous which was not till after the time of Rome Pagan The name of Harlot is indeed given to Nineveh Nahum 3. 4. But that Prophecy was after that of Jonah in whose time the people of Niniveh are said to have believed in God and to have repented Jonah 3. 5 10. And so the Idolatry of Nineveh after that time was her Apostacy from the true Faith But it is much more confirmed from the preceding Propositions For Babylon is in all the mentions of it the same Antichristian state of the Reign of Rome by Prop. 2. And in that state of it it is desolated by Fire by Propos praeced But this was never known to have been done in the time of the Reign of Rome-Heathen There was nothing that had the least appearance of the desolation of Rome or of the dissolution of the Roman Government at Constantine's Triumphs over Paganism much less was there any thing like the least part of the description of the desolation of Babylon by fire as it is here most remarkably signified But Grotius and Dr. Hammond to uphold their applications of these things to Rome-Heathen will have Rome to be Babylon two hundred years after it was come under the Christian Emperors because there were a part of the Senate and now and then a Consul that were Pagans for that space of time after Constantine's Triumph over Paganism and therefore that the last desolation of Babylon by fire was at the burning of Rome by Totila An. 546. where the storm of the Enemies fury lay almost wholly upon the Pagan Party and the Christians were most saved by flying to the Churches In the first place it may here by the way be observed what becomes of the ground of Dr. Hammond's confidence That the things in the Revelations were all to be fulfilled in the Times next to the Age in which they were seen from what is said Chap. 1. 1. Things that must shortly come to pass For here are near five hundred years time allowed by the Doctor for the fulfilling them And then he makes the Turks also to be foretold in them besides by Gog and Magog which requires some hundreds Chap. 20. 8. of years more and yet the Doctor speaks with a great confidence and assurance of the fulfilling of all soon after the time that the Prophecy was given But without further concern about that let us now observe the strange absurdities of this Explication 1. According to this Rome must be Babylon or Rome for 200 years after that the Baylonish Throne in it had been pulled down and when its conquering Enemy the Christian Church had been for all that time triumphing in its room in the Imperial Throne in the publick Laws in all parts of the Government and in the publick places of Divine Worship 2. And then Rome Christian whilst it was the possession of a Rev. 18. 20. Christian Prince must be supposed to be burnt to bear the vengeance of Rome Heathen for shedding the Blood of Christian Saints and Martyrs so many years after that Heathenism had been there publickly triumph'd over 3. The Christians also who did then defend their City against Rev. 18. 4. another Christian Prince must be supposed to be called upon from Heaven to come out of it and so to give up their Masters Right to the Enemy lest they should be made to partake of the punishment of Rome for its Heathenism 200 years before to which they were the greatest Enemies for none was more zealous against Paganism than Justinian who was at that time Lord of Rome as appears by the severity of his Laws against it 4. Of the same extravagant nature must it be to make the Rev. 18. 20. Heavens the Apostles and Prophets and all the faithful Christians in the City at that time to triumph with joy at the burning of the Houses and Goods of most Christians and a few Pagans together and at the taking of a City by the Christian Goths from the Christian Romans 5. And the burning not a third part of Rome as Grotius confesses of this Exploit of Totila's and the slaughter of a few Pagans in it must be made to be the giving Rome-Pagan double revenge for the Blood of the Prophets and Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth by the Pagan Power of Rome Rev. 8. 6. all over the Empire It must be the giving Rome-Pagan the Cup of the Wine of the fierceness of the Wrath of God Chap. 16. 19 6. The Pagan Kings also of the Roman Empire which had committed Fornication with Rome-Pagan some hundreds of years before that is had complied with the Roman Idolatry must in this way be supposed to be alive to lament the sad condition Rev. 18. 9. of a Christian City at the taking it by a Christian Prince or at best the Heathen Kings then in the World no body knows when within many hundred miles of that City must grievously lament for the slaughter of some Pagan Romans with whom they had been used to comply in the Pagan Way Nothing indeed does make Grotius more to be suspected of intending only to play with this Prophecy or only to vex some hot Apocalyptical Men amongst his Adversaries than the seemingly-wilful Application of the Kings of the Earth that had committed Fornication with Babylon in the 18th Chapter
a BIshop Andrews p. 234. Respons ad Bellarm. Apolog. speaking of Saint John in the Revelations He borrows that way of speaking from Daniel of whom he is almost every-where an Imitator And immediately after Vix enim reperias apud Joannem c. You shall scarce find a Phrase in the Revelations of St. John that is not taken out of Daniel or some other Prophet Bellarmin l. 3. de Pontif. c. 5. Jum vero Daniel c. Now Daniel in the 7th Chapter of that Prophecy does very clearly describe the same Four Kingdoms by Four Beasts that is the same with those Four in his 2d Chapter and which are the same Four Beasts that are mentioned in the Description of The Beast of the Revelations Blas Viega in cap. 13. Apoc. v. 1 2. Sciendum est Danieli cap. 7 c. It is to be considered that there was a Vision like to this shown to Daniel in the 7th Chapter of that Prophecy where the business is about Antichrist upon the Explication of which this Vision of ours here does depend See Mr. Medes Discourse Regnum quartum Danielis est Regnum Romanorum Alcasar sect 3. cap. 13. Apoc. v. 1. Marina Bestia cap. 13. Apoc. Evidenter respicit quartam Bestiam Danielis cap. 7. c. The Beast that arose out of the Sea cap. 13. Revel does evidently relate to the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel Quae etiam quatuor Regna sive Imperia sc in 7o. cap. Dan. dubium non est in statuà illâ Danielis cap. 2. 31. praefigurata fuisse Bestiam Apocalypticam continere in se tres priores Monarchias quas dicitur apud Danielem devorasse Which Four Kingdoms or Empires viz. in the 7th Chapter of Daniel are unquestionably foretold in the Statue cap. 2. 31. And The Beast in the Revalations does contain in it or is there described to be made up of these three Monarchies which it is said in Daniel to have devoured Idem in cap. 12. Apoc. v. 3. de 10. Cornibus Non aliud fundamentum c. There needs no other foundation for the Interpretation but only to look out a conformable Explication of it with that of the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel by which it is evident that it signifies the Roman Empire See the References to the Third Chapter Lib. 2. Note a. especially Malvenda and Ribera consent of Interpreters of all Parties That the Terms of the Beast and his Heads and Horns and most of his Characters had a very unquestionable reference to the frequent use of them about the same kind of Subject in the Prophet Daniel But I was extremely surprized to find also That by the same Unanimous agreement of all the Considerable Interpreters of all Ages excepting only some few of this last Age it was granted That the Terms of Beasts and their Heads or Horns and indeed all other Figures and their parts signifying Dominion as it is here in these Visions had but one constant uniform Signification in general all over the Prophecy of Daniel and that also in great variety of Instances And withal That by the concurrent agreement of those few also that differed from the rest there needed nothing more to prove such a constant uniform Signification of these Figures but only this viz. That The Fourth Beast or Kingdom in the 7th Chapter of Daniel was the Roman Monarchy This gave me very confident hopes of fixing the same kind of mystical Terms in the Visions of the Apocalyps to setled Notions and certain Definitions and thereby of coming to some assurance about those things notwithstanding all the ambiguous and various acceptations of the Expressions in which they were conveyed which I accounted well worth all the closest application of my thoughts as a thing of the most useful importance to the World for the clear determination of the aim of this Prophecy as well as for mine own particular satisfaction and benefit I have therefore for this end endeavoured to demonstrate the constant uniform acceptation of the Schemes of A Beast and its parts all over Daniel And this requiring the certain knowledge of the Interpretation of the Fourth Beast or Kingdom in the Seventh Chapter of Daniel and the determinate application of that relying chiefly upon the determination of the undoubted signification of the Kingdom of the Son of Man that succeeds that Fourth Kingdom These make up the Demonstration of the design of the Second Book from the Intrinsick Arguments of the Prophecy of Daniel it self But the clearest proof of the signification of the Fourth Beast in Daniel is the exact agreement of it with The Beast in the Revelations And that also in some such peculiar Characters amongst the rest as are impossible to belong to more than one and the same Kingdom and to the same time of that Kingdom This therefore is added to the other Evidences that are drawn from the Prophecy of Daniel it self as a most undoubted confirmation That the Fourth Beast or Kingdom in Daniel is the Kingdom of the Romans Who indeed would not be ready to conclude with himself before ever he comes to examine the grounds that there is for it That so general an agreement of all the differing Parties of Interpreters for so many Ages as has been observed about Mystical Expressions where there is so great a scope for Fancy to expatiate in must certainly have very plain and express grounds for it in the Prophetical Writings and very obvious to common observation And this is another considerable thing to fortify the assurance that the strength of the Proof it self does offer But the Characters in which The Beast in the Revelations does so exactly agree with those of the Fourth Beast in Daniel and which are the surest Proof That that Beast in Daniel must be the Kingdom of the Romans are fetched from several distinct Shews of the Apocalyptick Beast in several Chapters And these several Shows are by some Learned Men judged to be the Shows of different Beasts whereas the proof of the exact agreement of The Beast in Daniel with that in the Revelations from the several Characters of those different Shows does suppose it to be but one and the same Beast in all those Chapters This made it necessary to settle the notion of The Beast in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations and to shew that all the mentions of that which is called The Beast in all the other Chapters are but so many Accounts of that one and the same particular state of The Beast that it is found in in the 17th Chapter And that therefore all the several Characters of The Beast in those several Chapters are but the Characters of one and the same thing And this it was requisite to prefix in the First Book before all other reasonings that are fetched from the nature of that Beast in the following Discourses After the determination of the constant and setled signification of a
Prop. 6. Or removing the City from the seven Hills upon which it is built and therefore is it plainly impossible for the Beast not to be the Sovereign Power of Rome all over the 17th Chapter 2. And that also shews That the Beast exercises this Power over Rome in its Idolatrous Antichristian state because Babylon is but in that one state all over that Chapter Prop. 1. and Rule 3. And the first shew of the Beast to which all the mentions of the Feast afterward do relate by a Note of reference to that has a Woman riding upon him in all that Antichristian state which is her Character every-where else This is so plainly signified that it is as unanimously consented to b Alcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 5. Auctores omnes qui Romam Ethnicam c. All Authors who judge Rome-Heathen to be meant by the name of Babylon make the Beast every-where to be the Roman Empire And even those who interpret the Beast to signifie the whole multitude of wicked Men understand it of the wicked Romans not of those in America or out of the bounds of the Roman Empire by all sorts of Interpreters as to almost any thing that is said of these things CONSENT a ALL the Maintainers of the second Opinion which are the generality of the Church of Rome with the Fathers do all make the Beast to be the times of Antichrist as the last Head Alcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 5. Ii qui Bestiam Antichristum esse volunt eum constituunt ultimum esse Romanorum Imperatorum Those who make the Beast to be Antichrist affirm him to be the last of the Roman Emperours CHAP. VI. Rev. XVII Manifest Grounds for a strong presumption That the Term of The Beast does signifie the same particular state of the Beast all over the Revelations The mentions of it in the 13th and 17th Chapters every way parallel FOR a more full and determinate knowledge of the Nature and Characters of the Beast so often mentioned in these Visions it is very necessary to examine Whether every shew of it be one and the same state of the Beast For without some assurance of that all our knowledge of this kind will be confined to the bounds of the 17th Chapter 'T is true that by Rule 3. the Term of the Beast being the same peculiar mystical expression there is great reason to judge That it signifies every-where the same thing But there seems to be plain grounds given us to suspect the contrary for there are several different shews of it as if it were purposely designed to warn us thereby that they were so many new states of the Beast according to the variety of the successions of his Heads Wherefore in search of a more large and comprehensive knowledge of the Beast in the 17th Chapter one would be extremely desirous to find that every mention of the same Term in all the other Chapters did really signifie the same thing for thereby we should have a great many more Properties and Circumstances to judge of him and to determine his particular signification The more Marks that one has of a Beast the more easie will it be to find him and to distinguish him from all others that may resemble him The places where it would be judged to be the most likely to find the Term of the Beast to signifie the same thing with the Beast in the 17th Chapter are the Chapters just before and after the 17th and to them are we therefore directed for our first beginning in this search And first The mention of the Beast after the 17th Chapter would be concluded could be nothing else but the continuation of the History of the same Beast that is mentioned in the 17th Chapter for we find no mention made of any other Beast or of any new shew of a Beast betwixt the 17th Chapter and the 19th where we see the Beast brought upon the Stage again And who would not thereupon conclude That the Beast in the 19th Chapter with that Note of reference before it did certainly signifie the Beast that had been last discoursed of in the 17th Chapter before it And therefore is this unanimously agreed on amongst all Interpreters That it is the same Beast in both places as to the general Notion of the Beast And in that sense also is it granted to be the same Beast in the Chapters before the 17th For it does indeed necessarily follow from the former because the Beast before the 17th must be the same with that after it for they have both the same peculiar Attendants the false Prophet with the Image of the Beast and the Mark of it And therefore does Grotius with one or two more give general and comprehensive Notions of the Beast and false Prophet c. which are the same in all kind of states of the Beast and the one he calls Idolatry and the other Magick but withal applies these general Notions to very different things in particular in those several mentions of the Beast before and after the 17th Chapter So that in effect he still makes the Beast and false Prophet in one place quite different things in particular than they are in the other and the Beast in the 17th Chapter to be as different a thing from either of them He would have these several mentions of the Beast to be so many several states of it sometimes under Ten Kings and Seven Emperours signified by so many Heads and Horns sometimes to be but One Emperour and then to be the Beast with One Head only and sometimes to be the Beast with Ten Horns only without any of its Seven Heads But since there is little reason given for the proof of this but only the divers shews of the Beast it must be very hard for any that is the least impartial to shut his eyes against so many instances of an exact likeness and uniformity in very particular Characters in each of the several mentions of these Beasts that would strongly persuade a man that it was impossible but that they should signifie one and the same particular state of one and the same Beast Especially when he considers That the Angel did very manifestly intend that these Visions should be understood and after such a manner as the generality of the World would conclude from the expressions in them where there is any plain ground for it For example It has been already agreed Rev. XIII XVII That the term of the Beast must signify the same thing at least in general before in and after the 17th Chapter And in every of those Places he is certainly in a particular state by the Pag. praeced particular Actions and Characters that are given him Now would any one question whether the Beast were in one particular state of his Heads and Horns in these several places when there are these particular Circumstances and Characters that follow which are the same in
here be suggested That this would make the Coming of Christ in Glory and his Kingdom of Glory here upon Earth to be but a momentary thing only during the time of the Day of Judgment whereas he is represented in several places as reigning here in Glory with his Saints for a considerable time after the end of Antichrist But Mr. Mede has given this Answer to that That according to the Notion of the Day of Judgment among the Jews from whom the New Testament did borrow it it was taken for a continuance of time for 1000 years together But all that need be regarded for the present purpose in hand is That it is agreed by All Parties That the beginning of the Judgment of the Dead properly so called is not till the second Coming of Christ in Glory By this are we assured now at last That The Beast which killed the two Witnesses Rev. 11. 7. is the same time of Roman Rule with the Beast in the other Chapters Prop. 12. For first This Beast in the 11th Chapter hath one of the most peculiar distinguishing Characters of that Beast viz. The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit which is the very same Character with that of the Beast in the 17th Chapter v. 8. in just the same peculiar phrase And the same Character has that Beast in the 13th Chapter in another different expression indeed but of the same signification viz. That it did rise out of the Sea for the Sea is very ordinarily called in the Septuagint which the Greek of the New Testament does generally conform to by the same name of the Abyss which is here rendred the bottomless pit When therefore we see in the Chapters after this 11th Chapter the mention of a Beast that is to ascend out of the bottomless pit which is made his peculiar Character to distinguish him from other states of him under the succession of his Heads and that here there is the same peculiar description of such a Beast with the name of THE Beast that ascendeth c. which plainly refers us to the same Character of a Beast somewhere else mentioned It must certainly be the same with that Beast or else there is no ground to believe a thing to be the same at two several mentions of it tho' it has the same peculiar Character in both places and a Note of reference in one of them to confine it to the same thing that had been before mentioned which in this case would be a violation of all the first Three Rules which have been judged to be the surest ground for any Interrpetation 2. Besides they both end at the expiration of the same space of time of 42 months or the 1260 days of the Witnesses in Sackcloth which is the same state in both because it is the last state of them both The Beast in the 11th Chapter is also described to end just before a glorious Reign of Christ in the 7th Trumpet which is accompanied with a Judgment of the Dead So also does the Beast in the 19th Chapter come to an end just before a Reign of Christ which is accompanied with the Judgment of the Dead chap. 20. And is not this a very good ground to be confident that they are both the same Beast when they are said to end at the expiration of the same peculiar space of time and at the beginning of just the same kind of peculiar Reign of Christ over all the world and for ever and ever and that is accompanied with the Judgment of the Dead For since they are thus found from these Circumstances to be contemporary how can a Beast with so peculiar Characters that are the same in the other and at the same time be supposed to be quite another thing In both the mentions of the Beasts we also find them warring against the same Martyrs or Witnesses of God and Christ and in both overcoming them and being overcome by them c. From hence may very safely be determined That The Beast is to continue till the beginning of an Vniversal and Eternal Corollary Reign of Christ over the Kingdoms of this World These four last Conclusions have also the Consent of many of the most eminent Interpreters a RIbera about the 15th verse of the 11th Chapter in his Discourse upon Chap. 10. num 20. Caecus est qui non videt c. He is blind that does not see that these things cannot be but after the ruin of Antichrist and at the time of the Judgment Malvenda de Antichristo pag. 226. No man of sense can doubt but that the Beast in the 11th and 13th Chapters is the same Beast of the Church of Rome Thus then do we find at last That the term of the Beast does signifie one and the same particular state of his Reign in all the several Chapters where it is mentioned And from the last proof of this in the 11th Chapter it appears That the Account of the last end of the Beast there is before the Account of his first rise in the 13th Chapter and so mentioned in the 11th Chapter as a thing that was afterwards to appear Which does sufficiently assure us THAT the Order of the things in this Prophecy is many times transposed The Second BOOK THE Constant Uniform Signification OF A BEAST And its PARTS All over DANIEL CHAP. I. The Prophecy of Daniel the clearest Rule for the signification of A Beast and its Ruling Parts Porphyry's Objection against the Authority of it The greatest Confirmation of the plainness of the Predictions in it The Authority of the Book Daniel proved The 13th Proposition The Kingdom of the Son of Man in the 7th of Daniel a Kingdom of Christ Jesus The singularity of Grotius 's Notion of the Son of Man in that place judged to be Blasphemy by the Sanhedrim WE have now our prospect very much enlarged Dan. VII by a multitude of known Marks of the Beast which is found to be the same particular state of one of its Heads from the first mention of him in Chap. 11. to the last end of his History in Chapter 20. by which he is described to us in all his lineaments with his Rise his Mark his Actions and his End and with a great many of his Assistants and Dependants And I think I could make unquestionable to any that were impartial and considerate enough that one may come to a very satisfactory determination from hence about the particular knowledge of him But because I would continue firm to my first design of carrying on the proof all along in so full and convincing a manner as should be able to satisfie the most sceptical scruples it will be much more useful to consult the Prophecy of Daniel for the constant signification of the mystical Phrases that are made use of all over these Visions in the Revelations for there is a great deal more evidence of the determinate signification of a Beast
or Kingdoms of one and the same Ruling People if they be described to be in Rule all at the same time And in both these kinds do the several Heads or Horns signify the continuance of that Government or divided Kingdom to their last End To this whole Discourse about the Sixteenth Proposition do the generality of the Roman Interpreters agree which all must CONSENT necessarily do who grant as they do that the Fourth Kingdom in the 7th of Daniel is the Roman Monarchy The only difference of some of them from the rest is that the Ten Kings and the 11th after them shall be after the whole Roman Monarchy is ruined and has lost the name a GRotius de jure B. P. L. 2. c. 9. Art 3. Populus est ex eo corporum genere quod ex distantibus constat c. The people are a Body of the kind of those which are made up of things distant from one another Item Art 8. It matters not which way they are Governed either by Monarchs or by many or by the multitude For it is the same Roman people under Kings Consuls and Emperors The Third BOOK THE Particular Signification OF THE BEAST And its Heads and Horns In the REVELATIONS CHAP. I. The Interpretation of The Beast in the Revelations and Rev. XVII of its Heads and Horns in the 17th Proposition Three Objections answered The inconsistency of the Roman Interpreters with themselves Bellarmin more Ingenuous but forced thereby to give up the Cause Grotius to mend the matter runs into greater Absurdities than any of them Conjectures about the first Five Heads AFTER the knowledge of the Constant Vniform Signification of a Beast and of the Heads or Horns of a Beast all over the Prophecy of Daniel any one would be ready to conclude with himself That it was no hard matter now to determine the signification of the Heads and Horns and of the Beast it self which is the Subject of all the latter part of the Revelations since it has been already found that all those peculiar Figures of Empire and Sovereignty and the particular Phrases and Style belonging to them in the Revelations are just the same with those of the like kind in Daniel and are not so distinctly to be found in any other of the Prophets besides But the undoubted confirmation of this is the assurance that we have of the 15th Proposition For by that it appears That the Beast in the Revelations is the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel and that it has the same and that a very great many most peculiar Characters and Expressions attributed to it by which that Beast in Daniel is described Wherefore according to all the Examples that are to be found in that Prophecy from whence it appears that these Figures in the Revelations and the most peculiar Expressions about them are taken it is unquestionable That The Beast in the Revelations in its general notion as the common Prop. 17. subject of its Heads and Horns does signify the Rule of the Romans in general The Seven Heads of it successive Changes of the Sovereign Power of that Nation The Ten Horns the division of that Empire into so many distinct Sovereignties There need no more be said for the proof of this than that the Seven Heads are said to succeed in this order Five one another c. to shew them to be successive Revel 17. and that the Ten Kings are described as acting all together with the Beast For according to the signification of a Beast and its Heads and Horns with these Characters in Daniel they must signify so many successive Sovereign Powers and so many divided distinct Kingdoms of one and the same Nation by Prop. 16. And the Prophecy of Daniel is the chief Example of the mystical use of Beasts and their Parts and to which all the Expressions about the Beast in the Revelations are found to refer Proposition 15. And the Beast in the Revelations is certainly some Roman Rule by Prop. 6. Therefore by Rule the 2 d The Beast its Heads and Horns do signify the Rule of the Romans under so many successive Changes of the Sovereign Power and divided into so many distinct Sovereignties as are represented by its Seven Heads and Ten Horns But it may possibly be pretended that there are clear grounds in the Revelations against the making the Prophecy of Daniel a Rule of Interpretation for the Figures in the Revelations For the Figures in the Revelations have a different use from those in Daniel For example 1. There are three several shows of one and the same Roman Monarchy and following immediately one after another from the 12th to the 18th Chapter of the Revelations which according to the use of such succession of Figures in Daniel must signify three several Ruling Nations Prop. 16. Besides that one of these three Beasts is expresly described in succession to the other Chap. 13. 2. But it must be remembred That it is according to the use of the Figures in Daniel to represent the same Kingdoms by different Figures in different Visions as in the 2d and 7th Chapters And in the 8th Chapter two of those same Kingdoms by two new Beasts and it is certain that the two Shows in the 13th and 17th Chapters are in two several Visions and that they are one and the same particular state of the Beast by Coroll 2. Prop. 10. And though the Beast in the 13th Chapter be described to be in succession to that in the 12th Chapter yet 1. it is described as a new Vision of a Beast with the same proper marks upon it which the other had before it viz. the Seven Heads and Ten Horns And next it must be considered That though they be two different Beasts yet it is plainly said That the one is Satan Chap. 12. 9. or the Devil and so does signify only a spiritual Rule of the Devil in the Roman Empire and no different Temporal Empire from the other and then it signifies no more to the making two different Monarchies than Nebuchadnezzar's Image to the constituting of a new Monarchy of the Babylonians distinct from that which was represented by the Head of the other Image Chap. 2. 2. It will be further urged that in the 13th Chapter There are Two Beasts represented as rising up after one another which according to Prop. 16. Part. 1. must signify in Daniel's way two different Ruling Nations This would signify very much by Rule the 2 d if the Text did not make it appear that they were not successive to one another But it is expresly said That the Second Beast did exercise all the power of the First Beast before him and that all Chap. 13. 12. for his Service as appears v. 12. The Text does therefore expresly affirm that the power of them both is but one and the same power or Ruling Nation And yet to show that the signification of a Beast in Daniel
does hold good in this use of it also it will be explained how this First Beast does also signify the a ALcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 6. By the Beast out of the Earth is signified a multitude of Persons as well as by the Beast that came out of the Sea Ibid. As well the one Beast as the other are taken not for single Persons but for a great Multitude as the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel Ibid. As the Beast out of the Sea does contain in it all the Nations of the Roman Empire so also does the Beast that came out of the Earth Rule of the Romans but in another manner of Kingdom than that Chap. 18. See References of the first Beast is so as that they are both in being at the same time For this second will be found to signify their Church-Rule as the first does the Rule of the State Prop. 24 25. 3. It may also be objected That the two Horns of the second v. 11. Beast Chap. 13. according to Daniel must signify distinct Sovereignties Prop. 16. Observat 2 4. But since these Horns have no mark of Rule or Dominion joined with them and are particularly said to signify the likeness of that Beast to a Lamb that does sufficiently shew a particular exception of them from the general Rule in Daniel And yet they may also signify the two distinct Kingdoms or Jurisdictions of that Beast over the Temporal and Spiritual Affairs of that Nation After this how manifestly does it appear to be but a Contrivance only to serve a turn in b Alcasar in Apoc. c. 12. de 10 Corn. It is most evident that the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel do signify the Roman Empire But those which are not Roman Commanders cannot be the Horns of that Beast Ibid. Ribera understands by the Beast the whole World which does easily fall to the ground of it self For it is evident that Daniel did prophesie of the Roman Empire only viz. in the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast chap. 7. Ibid. Another Opinion of his is that the Roman Empire shall be Idolatrous which Conjecture is very vain and empty For then it would be another Empire as the Empire that is now in Greece is quite different from that which is represented by the Third Beast in the 7th of Daniel Idem in cap. 17. v. 11. But any one may easily see how forced all that Interpretation is à Lapide Ribera and a number of other See References eminent Persons of the Church of Rome to make the general notion of the Beast in the Revelations to signify the World in general and the seven Heads to be seven Ages of it with the several Tyrannical Powers which persecuted the Church of God in each of them notwithstanding that they are agreed with all other Interpreters about the Constant Uniform Signification of a Beast and of its Heads and Horns all over the Prophecy of Daniel and that the fourth Beast there in the 7th Chapter of Daniel is the particular Monarchy of the Romans and that the Little Horn of that Beast is the same with the last Head of this Beast in the Revelations And yet c Alcasar in cap. 12. Apoc. de 10 Cornibus Quod autem Romanorum Imperium sit extinctum prorsus videtur certum It seems to be altogether certain that the Roman Empire is destroyed Again It is evident that the Roman Empire is destroyed although the Provinces of it be in the possession of other Kings and Emperours Ribera in cap. 12. Apoc. num 14. de 10 Cornibus That which the forementioned Writers apply to the Kingdom of the Romans because that is now altogether annihilated we understand of the whole World over which the Romans reigned do they not shew the least intimation from the Text to countenance this Contradiction to their own Judgments about the same Words and Phrases nor offer to give any Example from the Figures of the like kind to ground their fancy upon Bellarmin indeed is more ingenuous he owns the known Signification of Beasts in Daniel and that the fourth of the 7th Chapter is in particular the same with that in the Revelations and from the certainty of both does acknowledge that the Beast in the Revelations does signify in general the Roman Empire and that the Heads of the Beast must be all Heads of the Romans and that the time of that called the Beast is not yet past And what more convincing proof can there be for the irresistible Light that there is for these things than to see so able a Judge of the concern of his Church in this Affair to be forced thereby to yield to it without any the least shew of advantage from it to serve the Cause that he is so zealous for But especially when we see him thereby forced to desert all the other Defences of his Brethren and to reduce the whole merit of the Cause about the Charge laid against his Church to this only issue viz. Whether the Imperial Roman Government that was in Rule at the time of the Vision has been since that time cut off and succeeded by another form of Government which is to reduce the whole Dispute about the matter of so great importance in the consequence of it to a question about the truth of a matter of fact only in History and which is given against him d Tacitus just about the time that the Revelations were wrote reckons them up in this order in the beginning of his first Book of Annals Kings were at first the Governours of Rome L. Brutus brought in the Consulary Government and Liberty Dictators were set up upon occasion The Decemvirs continued not above two years The Consulary Power of the Tribunes of the Soldiers lasted not long The Domination of Cinna and Sylla was soon ended and Pompey and Crassus yielded to Caesar and Lepidus and Anthony to Augustus who took all into his hands under the name of a Prince or Emperour Livy before him had given much the same account for all those Governments which had been up in his time in his 6th Book I have says he in the five former Books given an account of all the Wars abroad and the Seditions at home which the Romans have had from the first building of the City to the taking of it under Kings Consuls Decemvirs Dictators and Consulary Tribunes So Onuphrius Panvicinus in his Preface to his Fasti Consulares For the City was first under Kings Then succeeded Consuls and sometimes under Decemvirs and sometimes under Tribunes of the Soldiers with Consulary Power and sometimes under Dictators Cassiodorus in his Chronicon gives the same account of the Change of the Roman Government from Kings to Consuls and from them to the Decemvirs and the Consulary Government again interrupted by the Military Tribunes and during all these spaces of time the intermixture of Dictators upon
immediatly succeed one another then it is certain that The Eighth King is one of the first Six returned into Rule again Corollary For the Eighth King is one of the Seven that were past before returned into Rule again Coroll Prop. 4. And it cannot be the Seventh because the three last Kings and therefore the Seventh and Eighth do immediatly succeed one another Prop. 18. so that if the Eighth were the Seventh and with the Seventh King it would be but the Seventh continued in being and therefore not an Eighth The Eighth King must therefore be one of the Six that were past before it It cannot therefore now be doubted but that The Sixth King of the Eight in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations Proposit 19. was the Imperial Government of Rome at the time of the Vision For the Sixth King is the Sixth Head of the Beast Prop. 5. And an Head or Horn of a Beast does in Prophecy signify a form of Supream Power in a Nation And the continuance of that Form under all the single Persons that reign in it till it be changed by another Prop. 16. Now there was no other Government over Rome when the Sixth King is said to be in Rule there but only that of the Roman Emperours The Sixth King then must be the Government of the Roman Emperours till that was cut off by a Form of Government of another name Observ 4. Prop. 16. If it should be objected That by the Sixth Head or King may be meant but one part of the Imperial Government or those only that were of the same Line or Family or of the same Countrey or of the same Religion or the like It may be replied that there is no warrant for any other signification of a new Successive Head or Horn in the same Jurisdiction than that of a new name of the Governing Power There were many other differences in the Successions of the several Kings of the Persian and Graecian Monarchies viz. several Lines and Families several different Countries but yet they were all comprehended under one and the same Horn. The only plain Example that we have of the change of a single Horn in the same Beast which is the same with the change of an Head Observ 3. Prop. 16. is that of the Two Horns of the Ram Dan. 8. where all the difference betwixt the latter Horn and the first is that the Last was known by the name of the King of Persia whereas the other was called the King of Media in the same one Kingdom of the Medes and Persians There is therefore no warrant for making the Sixth King any thing else but the whole time of the Imperial Government till it was changed for a Roman Government of another name There is no kind of scruple to be made against this upon the account of the name of King which is common to all the Eight Kings For that is known to be very dubiously used in Scripture but especially in Prophecy to signify either a Kingdom or a Government in a Nation of another kind than the Kingly Government The most certain Example of it is this present use of the word King where it must at least signify an Emperour which is a Government of another denomination and so different from that of Kings that the Romans which permitted the one are said to have †Hieron Balbus de Coronatione c. 13. Julius Caesar c. Julius Caesar who when he had engrossed the Dictatorian and Regal Power to himself because he knew that the name of King was hated by the Romans and even execrable to them to decline the envy of it instead of King chose rather to be called Emperour When Mark Anthony the Consul offered him the Diadem he cried out aloud that he was Caesar and not a King and threw away the Diadem an hatred for the other Grotius's Answer to this is That an Emperour had really the same power that a King had But if that be sufficient to qualify a Supream Power for the Name or Title of King Then all the several different Rulers of the Roman State might as well have See References that name and so be comprehended under the Five first Kings here mentioned For the Consuls are said to have succeeded into all the Power and the Authority of the Kings that were before them And all the other kinds of Government had the same Authority And though there should be some small difference in the degree of their Authority yet that is no more than is to be found betwixt c Ribera in cap. 17. Apoc. v. 10. numer 15. But if any one should think it hard and forced that many Kings should be signified by the name of one King and should think that these seven are but seven single Kings let him know in the first place that all Expositors have understood that in every one of these seven are comprehended a great many and that never did any take them to be seven single persons only but Victorinus whose Opinion all do deservedly cry out against And then next let him understand that it is not unusual in Scripture by one King to signify many of the like sort and as it were of one and the same Body which is especially to be observed So in Daniel 8. The Ram with the two Horns does signify all the Kings of Persia succeeding one another in order and making as it were but one body who are therefore accounted but as one King So that in Jeremiah chap. 25. And they shall serve the King of Babylon 70 years which it is impossible to understand of one single King different sorts of Kings As for the Plea that the Name of a King denotes a single Person almost d Ribera in cap. 1. Apocal. v. 3. numer 5. citat We may say that which is begun is now done or doing Wherefore since those things were shortly to begin he might well say the things which shall shortly be done although they were not shortly to be ended This is the common use of speech and the use of Scripture all the Examples in Daniel of that name do show See References that it does signify a Succession of many single Persons in a Kingdom Prop. 16. Part the Last This Grotius takes no notice of but thinks it argument sufficient against it to call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and quis unquam ita loquitur To which Ribera does best answer on cap. 17. Apoc. pag. 528. That all Expositors have said so and never any but Victorinus said otherwise But in the 7th of Daniel it is evident That by the Four Beasts called Four Kings is meant four Kingdoms and by the Fourth of these Kings the Roman Commonwealth For it is described in that state in which it conquered the Graecian Monarchy which was in the state of its Commonwealth And Deut. 33. 5. and Judges 9. 16 18. chap. 17. 6. ch 18. 1. ch 19. 1. ch 21. 25. the
be Heads of the Beast the latter of which must continue to the second coming of Christ Wherefore to be able to know from the account of these Changes of the Roman Government whether we are now in the times of the Beast which is our chief concern It is now to be enquired Whether it can be assured from thence that the Sixth Imperial Head has been at an end since the time of the Vision Now leaving all the rest of the Changes to the particular defenders of them one may upon most undoubted grounds for it resolve himself That At the ruine of the Western Empire by Odoacer and the Gothish Proposit 22. Kings of Italy The Sixth Head was at latest at an End For the Sixth Head was to be at an end when another setled Government should be owned at Rome instead of the Imperial Government by Coroll 2. Prop. 22. And at the ruine of the Western Empire by those Kings their Authority was k Cassiodor Variar Lib. 5. Epist 3. de Praefecturâ Praetorianâ No Dignity is equal in power to it And although other Dignities have their set bounds yet under that jurisdiction does almost every thing come that is done in our whole Empire And in the Comment there by Brossius Ammianus Marcellimus lib. 21. affirms That the Praefectura Praetoriana is much above all other Dignities as Valentinian Valens and Gratian have decreed l. 1. c. de Officio Vicarii And that with good reason For the Praetorian Praefecture was a kind of Sovereignty of Command but without the Purple and that was the distinction betwixt the Sovereign and the Praefectus Praetorio that he had not the sacred Purple nor the Imperial Badge of Authority owned for supream at Rome as has been already made appear from the publick reception of those Conquerors at Rome by the whole Authority of that City the Pope the Senate and People of Rome and their acclamations to them under the name of the King of Rome And what other Authority does Bellarmin himself make necessary for such an end Bellarm. de Translat Imp. Occid but that of the Pope And the Exercise of this Power is manifest from the whole Book of Cassiodorus Variarum who was the Chancellor and chief Minister of State to two or three of the Gothish Kings For that whole Book is nothing but the several forms of the Letters Patents as one may say of the Gothish Kings for all the great Offices of the Roman Government such as those of Consul Praefectus Praetorio c. Prefect of the City c. And the Office of the l Cassiodor Variar l. 1. Epist 4. l. 11. Ep. 1. 8 10. l. 12. Ep. 3. 56. Praefectus praetorio was immediately depending upon the supream Imperial Power and Commanding all under him with an Imperial Authority But the most assured evidence of it is the Commands that we find from the Gothish Kings to the Senate by the same name m Cuspinian in Sextum Rufum p. 8. De Imperatoribus Appian writes in the Proem of his History That Emperor was the name of the Generals of Armies of old From whence he that Governed the Commonwealth at his own pleasure like a King was called an Emperor And they took that name upon them because the name of Emperor was more acceptable at Rome than any other Title which had a show of Absolute Government And Julius Caesar as Dion says did take the name of Emperor upon him as omnium Rerum Dominus from whom the Emperors after him took the name Thus were the Gothish Kings really Emperors of Rome under the name of Kings They had the same Power and differed only in Name of Rerum Dominus n Cassiodor Variar Lib. 1. Epist 29 31 32 33 44. Lib. 4. Ep. 45 c. that the Emperors had in distinction from all other Sovereigns and in such terms as these By these o Cassiodor Variar Lib. 8. Ep. 2 3 4. Lib. 10. Ep. 18. Lib. 11. Ep. 1. pag. 658. Cassiodor Lib. 8. Epist 24. Clero Ecclesiae Romanae Athalaricus Rex We decree by our Authority at this present That if any one has an Action against any belonging to the Roman Clergy That he Cite him to the Court of the Most Blessed Pope And if the Plaintiff has not right done him there then he may go to the Secular Courts presents we do ordain By our Proclamation we do enjoyn And know ye lest any one incur the severity of our displeasure Give ye your Suffrages according to our Command And know ye that we have given our special Order But Especially n when we see them minding the Senate and People of Rome that not only by the general consent of all Goths and Romans THEY were chosen their Kings and Governors but that also they had taken an Oath of Allegiance to them And if there should be any scruple of a Superiour Authority in the Pope at that time We find an Ordinance of the Kings That o Clergy-men should indeed go first to the Bishops-Court But if they apprehended themselves not righted there they should from thence appeal to the Civil Courts of Judicature which shows which of the Courts was then accounted the Superiour Jurisdiction even amongst the Clergy themselves And this will not be much wondred at as any strange thing when it appeaas That those Kings made Edicts to Regulate the Ordinations p Cassiodor Variar Lib 8. Epist 15. King Athalaricus to the Senate of Rome concerning their Agreement in the choice of that Pope which his Father had named to them after the Imprisonment of Pope John by him He calls it their Obeying his Command in it Idem Lib. 9. Epist 15. To Pope John of the Popes themselves and directed them to the Popes in such terms as these to publish May your Holiness know that we have at present decreed which we will have to extend to all Patriarchs and Metropolitans And in the substance of the Edict We allow no voice to any Clergy-man that shall be found to have been bribed for it And then commands that a former decree of the Senate about it be observed And with the desire of the Bishops Prayers bids him take care to observe his Edicts and commands him to intimate this to the Senate and People by the Praefect of the City and to make it known himself to all the Bishops under him And to intimate a thing was the Law-term to signify the making a publick Act of it Panciroll notit Imp. Orient p. 33. q Anastasius Bibliothecarius records this of Pope John the first in the time of Theordoric and of Pope Agapetus in the time of Theodahat It was also an ordinary thing for the Gothish Kings to send the Popes in Ambassy to the Greek Emperors If now it be replied That the Imperial Government was still in being in the Constantinopolitan Emperor because he had a part of the Senate of Rome and one of the Consuls with
by which he is every-where owned for the Chief Head of all Christian Princes For this reason is it That m Bellarmin l. 1. c. 5. de Translat Imp. Rom. proves That the Western Emperours Title to that part of the Roman Empire was acknowledged by all Princes and particularly by the Emperour of Constantinople after the confirming that Title upon Charlemagne And chap. 12. shews the same to have been owned to the German Emperours by all Christian Princes ever since the year 800. And cap. 5. lib. 3. de Pontifice gives this proof of it That for this cause the German Emperour has the precedence of all other Kings tho far more considerable and powerful than himself And next That he has the Consent of the Representatives of the People of Rome for it Ludovic à Bebenburg de Jurib Reg. Imp. cap. 11. does first shew That the Imperial Coronation must certainly give the Emperours more than a Name and that therefore it does give them a Title of Superiority over all the Territories that were under the Jurisdiction of the Roman Empire tho they be not now de facto or actually under the Emperour's Power as that he can legitimate Bastards in them in order to Inheritance restore those that have been publickly disgraced to their Reputation again make Laws and such-like things which of right are only reserved to the Imperial Power to do And unless the King of the Romans got something which he had not before by being made Emperour he could not be said to be advanced to the Imperial Dignity which is the word in the Election Rex Romanorum in Caesarem promovendus Imperator futurus and then the Law would be for words only and not for things contrary to C. Communia de Leg. 2. extr de elect C. Commissa and the difference of the Names would intimate no difference betwixt the Things contrary to Jura 21. distinct C. Clerus c. de Codicel l. si idem he and his Ambassadors have the precedence given them in all publick Appearances And upon this account also is he in n See Ludovic à Bebenburg Not. praecedent Idem cap. 15. shews how the Emperour has the mediate Power in all Kingdoms under the Jurisdiction of the Roman Empire and the Kings the immediate Power To the same purpose is that p. 191 200. S. Rom. Imp. Jus Publicum The Emperour alone has the Power of Legitimating of Bastards of restoring the Disgraced and prescription beyond the Memory of Man against Imperial Rights is of no validity An Order of the Imperial Chamber is an Universal Jurisdiction over all the Subjects of the Roman Empire as well those that are its immediate as those that are it s more remote Subjects the exercise of some Right reserved to him over the Subjects of other Princes in case of the denial of Justice to them or of the neglect of it and in cases of Appeal though not with any power over the persons of Princes Whether this be fit and allowable I will not dispute It is certain that these Rights he has a long time been in actual possession of which usually confirms a Right and are acknowledged to be his due by the Authority of the City of Rome at this present and not allowed to any other Prince beside So that there is none else that has the least appearance of being the one Secular Head of Rome in the midst of Ten Horns or the division of the Roman Empire into Ten Kings If it should be further urged That those dreadful Acts of Antichristian Tyranny over the whole World which are attributed to the Beast do very little suit with the Power of the Imperial Government at present It must be considered That there is a plain description of two different States of the Power of the Beast in the Prophecy it self The first before the Rise of the Second Beast or False Prophet and there he is described as acting upon his own bottom and it is said that all the World did worship him and that he had power over all Tongues and Nations c. And that Rev. 13. 8. does very well answer any time of the Imperial enforcement of the Roman Religion by their Laws and their Execution of the Acts of Councils before the Popes had got the whole Superiority into their Hands For then the Imperial Power was the only Roman Power that was worshipped or whose Will and Law about Religion was set up for the Laws of God to the World But then there is another State of the Power of the Beast after the Rise of the Second Beast or False Prophet where all his v. 12. Power is exercised before his face by another and in that state the charge of Anti-christian Tyranny over the whole World does belong to the Beast as he is confederated with those who act all these things and it is attributed to the Beast only upon the account of his continuing still the Secular Head of that Confederacy As any Cruelty done by the Officers of any Army against the Enemy is said to be all done by the General But to shew us that all this mischief was chiefly chargeable upon his Confederates and Instruments only We see all that Tragical part acted by the Image of the Beast which was inspired by the False Prophet who is described as the principal Actor in all the Bloodshed and Murther of those who would not worship the Beast or his Image And that this Image is a thing quite distinct v. 15 16 17. from the Beast will be made afterwards to appear as also how both the Beast and his Image are the Objects of the false Worship enjoined But yet after all It cannot but be acknowledged that it is every way more certain and unquestionable that the present Papal Power must be the False Prophet how dubious soever his real distinction from that which is called the Beast may seem to be For the Character of the False Prophet cannot possibly fit any other Church-Head of Rome at this time in being but o See Note the first upon the fifth Chapter only that Power And the False Prophet must necessarily be now in being because the Beast his individual Companion whoever he is to the last end of them both is certainly now in being Rev. 19. Propos 23. CHAP. VII Rev. XIII The first Query Whether at Justinian 's Recovery of Italy from the Goths there had not been Two Changes of Roman Government since the time of the Vision THus far there seems to be a general agreement amongst almost all kind of considerable Interpreters who make The Beast to be a Roman Power in being at this present time and this seems sufficient for the main use that is to be made of this kind of knowledg But because Mens minds are usually very uneasy under such a general assurance of the main foundation without a more particular determination of the first rise of
the Western Empire was in the time of Zeno Emperor of the East and Zeno could not be less a part of the Supream Government of Rome after the fall of the Western Empire than he was before the fall of it because he had his part of the Senate of Rome and the choice of one of the Consuls still continued to him all the the time of Odoacer the Conqueror's Reign and c Jornandes who was the Gothish Bishop of Ravenna in the time of the Reign of the Goths in Italy gives this account of King Theodoric in his Book De Rebus Geticis sect 86. Zeno upon the report that he heard of Theodoric then chosen King of the Goths invites him into the City and receiving him with Honour placed him amongst the Nobles of his Palace And after that to shew him greater Honour he adopts him his Son for the Wars and gave a Triumph in the City at his own Costs then made him Consul in Ordinary which is the highest Honour in the Empire But Theodoric weary of living idle begs of Zeno that he would give him leave to try his Fortunes for the recovery of Italy which had been a part of the Roman Empire and contained in it that City which was Head and Lady of the World For it is better says he that I who am your Son should possess that Kingdom by your Gift than one that tyrannizes over your Senate and Commonwealth for if I be Conquerour I shall hold it as your Gift and Favour Which Zeno hearing did yield to his desire and sent him away with Honour recommending the Senate and People of Rome to his Care Blondus Decad. l. 3. pag. 32. speaking of Theodoric 's Petition to Zeno When Zeno had reported this to the Senate they voted That it was not only very reasonable but that it ought freely to be offered him of their own motion wherefore Zeno when he had honoured Theodoric with a consecrated Veil which was then the surest Confirmation of the Emperour's Grant for any thing sent him away with a recommendation of Italy and the Senate and People of Rome to his Care Carolus Sigonius de Occid Imp. lib. 15. concerning this Grant to Theodoric Zeno thereupon gives him a Grant of Italy by a publick Instrument per Pragmaticum putting a consecrated Veil upon his Head De Translat Imp. Rom. in German Amongst the rest of the proofs that he gives of the Translation of the Western Empire upon Odoacer and the Goths brings this for one That Theodorick had the Grant of it by the Consent of the whole Imperial Senate for which he quotes Sigebert Abbas Urspergensis c. And that he was the Emperour's adopted Son and made Consul which was next in Dignity to the Emperour and had a consecrated Veil from him which he says was the Imperial Purple And that Pope Symmachus was subject to him and that he governed all the Bishops of Italy Ibid. As for the Name of King he proves from Baldus Examp. Col. fin de probat in lib. penultim C. de donat inter Vir. Uxor That a King in his Kingdom is the same with an Emperour the Emperours ordinarily called themselves Kings as well as Caesars Augusti Emperours by his own Authority did Zeno first make Theodorick who Conquered Odoacer one of the Roman Consuls Adopted him for his Son like a new Caesar then gave him a formal Commission for the Government of Rome and Italy as the Emperor used to See References create another Emperor to share with him in the Government and from that time was there much the same Union in the Publick Acts of the Government betwixt the Gothish Kings and the Eastern Emperors that there had been before betwixt the Eastern and Western Emperors Accordingly do we find the dates of the Decretals of the Popes of those days to have the mention of the years of the Gothish Kings as well as those of the Eastern Emperors As for their occasional differences That was no more than what used to be sometimes betwixt the two Emperors and must necessarily be sometimes betwixt the most united Soveraigns as it is expresly intimated by Sigonius as the Case between Zeno and Odoacer Lib. 15. de Imperio Occid Zeno says he took Odoacer's Invasion of Italy so ill that he would have no Society of the Empire with him which shows by the way That the Agreement of the Emperors with the following Kings of Italy was the same kind of sociable Government of the Roman Empire that had been before used amongst the Eastern and Western Emperors Thus was Theodorick d See Not. praeced And Sigonius de Occid Imp. l. 16. says of Theodoric That he conformed himself to the Purple of the Roman Princes and laid away the Habit of his own Country because he was made King of Italy by the Roman Emperour and Senate And Blondus says pag. 37. Decad. l. 3. That Theodoric was received at Rome with the applause of the Senate and all the people Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat pag. 122. says That Zeno and the Senate conducted Theodoric out of the City in his Robes of State chosen King of Italy and of Rome by Zeno and the whole Senate and with pomp accompanied by them out of the City in his Robes of State He is received at Rome for their King with the Applauses and Acclamations of the People and the Honours of the Senate After a small difference with Anastasius the next Emperor in e Cassiodor Variar l. 1. Ep. 1. Theodoric to Anastasius wherein those mentioned expressions are found and amongst them an Acknowledgment of frequent Messages from Anastasius To love the Senate To observe the Roman Laws To take care of all the Members of Italy which shews how much the Western Empire was still accounted by the Eastern Emperours to be a part of the Roman State as it had been before in Union with the Eastern the beginning of his Reign Theodoric begs Peace of him with an acknowledgment of his Superiority over all the World and moves him to it by this consideration That these two Common-wealths of the East and West were always one body under the former Princes And there ought to be but one Will and one Judgment in the Kingdom of the Romans And Onuphrius Pauvinius observes Fastor pag. 308. That Theodoric enjoyed the Government of Italy by the consent of Anastasius and the very difference betwixt them at the beginning of Anastasius his Reign does show what opinion Theodoric had of his being the Emperor's partner in the Government of the West For upon Anastasius's conferring the honour of Consul and Augustus upon Chlodoreus King of the Franks Theodoric is Pomponius Laetus said to have declared War against him for the Provinces of the Western Empire A manifest instance does he give of his owning the same conjunction with the Eastern Empire that the Western Emperors before him did testify by their joynt Suffrages in chusing of each
sent to the Beasts Which also the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does make appear which our Apostle always makes use of and is properly applied to those Animals that do mischief by poyson or by biting Upon this account is it that c. 11. number 19. we said out of Arethas c. And St. Jerome interprets Daniel's Four Beasts to be Four Kingdoms And says And this is to he noted that the Fierceness and Cruelty of Kingdoms is signified by the name of Beasts Arethas does also so interpret it and shows the holy Methodius and St. Hippolitus to be of the same mind Ribera quote St. Jerome and Arethas It is also worth the observing that in those very days when these Visions were wrote The Roman People and Empire were called by the name of Great Beast by their own Heathen Authors who meant no more by that Expression than the self-willed commanding nature of the Body of a People or Empire Thus does Suetonius represent Tiberius his Censure of his Friends for persuading him to take the Government upon him as Men that were ignorant what a Great Beast an Empire was Quanta Bellua esset Imperium In Tiberio Art 24. And Horace Ep. 1. Lib. 1. calls the Roman People Bellua multorum Capitum A great many-headed Beast As for the common use of the Heads and Horns of a Beast there are near 60 Instances against nothing that is plain to the contrary That they signify only differences of the Civil Form of the Government without any reference to Idolatrous Worship that is any where expresly mentioned Thus in the first Six Heads of the Dragon and Beast thrice in the Revelations in the Ten Horns of the Fourth Kingdom of the 7th of Daniel in the Four Heads of the Leopard there in the Horns of the two Beasts in the 8th Chapter 5. But it may be urged That there was a change of the Civil Form of the Imperial Government before the times of the Goths in Italy There was a division of the Empire into East and West by Constantine and two distinct Jurisdictions seated at Rome and Constantinople This division came to be perfectly setled at the death of the first Theodosius and continued in that estate for near 80 years And this also not as two divided Kingdoms which must have been represented by two Heads or two Horns according to all the Examples of divisions of Sovereignty in Daniel or the Revelations but as two halves of one and the same Roman Empire by a joint and common concern of both those parts for the Government and Administration of the whole Roman Empire as has been before observed much after the manner of the Two Consuls of the same Roman Commonwealth This then seems to be a new face of the Imperial Power as different from the first as the Consuls seemed to be from the Regal Power But the encrease of the number of the Ruling Persons that have the same name and title is known by several Instances not to be a change of that kind of Government The Consuls were sometimes g Cuspinian in Chronic. Cassiodori pag. 264. The Triumvirate gave the Consulship to as many of the Princes as they pleas'd more than two sometimes h In Cassiodorus Chronicon it may be observed that Pompey in the disturbances of the Commonwealth continued alone the only Consul and there was no other Choice at the usual time And so was Lepidus in the time of the Triumvirat Cuspinian in Chronic. Cassiodor pag. 250. pag. 262. but one The military Tribunes with the power of Consuls were sometimes more sometimes fewer i Fenestilla de Magistrat Romanis c. 16. There were therefore Three Military Tribunes created with the power of Consuls and were continued with great variety for their number sometimes they were Twenty sometimes more sometimes fewer Or as this is corrected by Cuspinian as wrongly printed in the Pandects F. de Orig. juris At first Six afterwards Eight or somewhat more As Livy writes in his Fifth Book Cuspinian in Cassiodori Chronicon p. 95. in a very great variety And the Imperial Power it self before this establishment of the Two Empires was in the hands of sometime two sometimes three and once of four and yet were not these changes in the same form of Government ever accounted any other than the same Consulary Tribunal and Imperial Government Nor were the two Czars of Muscovy of late accounted any thing more than the same Government by Emperors that it was before nor was the encreasing or diminishing the setled number of Senators at several times the making a new Senate and the having two different Seats of Supream Authority is not much more than the two Provinces of the two Consuls of Rome 6. If the distance betwixt the end of the Imperial Head and the rise of the Beast should seem to be too far asunder for the description of the rise of the Man of Sin 2 Thess 2. 7 8. Which seems to intimate that it should be immediatly after the end of the Imperial Power It may be answered That the Particle then in that expression And then shall be revealed is very often in Scripture used where there is a great distance of time betwixt that which went before and that which it introduceth Grotius does upon this verse acquaint us that the Partitle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or then does very ordinarily in Scripture connect very distant times together of which he there gives many Examples Besides by the Seventh King that is described to come betwixt Rev. 17. 10. the Imperial Government and the Beast must be meant another form of Government of some short continuance after the fall of the Imperial Head And the time that is assigned here for it is but seventy years which is but the Age of one single person Isa 23. 15. whereas those that do the most oppose this way do make the Seventh King to continue near twice as long But that which does the most clearly shew the little weight there is in the Particle then in this place to signify the immediate Succession of the Man of Sin upon the fall of the Western Empire is the Opinion of almost all Interpreters concerning the first rise and appearance of the Man of Sin For they generally agree that it was either a good while before the ruine of that Empire or some while after and any one that considers in what a state of humiliation the Bishops of Rome were under the Arrian Kings of the Heruli and Goths in Italy immediately upon the fall of the Western Empire must conclude that that was a very improper posture of the Roman Affairs to fix the revealing of the Man of Sin to But that which does the most fully answer this Objection is that the Man of Sin and the Beast in the Revelations may not be exactly the same thing the Man of Sin may be the False Prophet and then why may he not be thought to make some
Mr. Mede supposes the rooting out of the Goths and Lombards and the Power of the Greek Emperors out of Italy may answer this Character the Pope's Excommunications and deprivations of some See References three remarkable Sovereign Powers 15. A great objection against this Opinion about the time of the Rise of the Beast is this following esteemed to be viz. That the Rise of the Beast was at the same time with that of the Ten Kings For Rev. 17. 12. it is said That those Ten Kings should receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast And that the term of one hour does signify in the Original at the same time Now it is known that the Roman Empire was divided into Ten setled Kingdoms at the fall of the Western Empire the Beast therefore must arise about the same time and this was almost a whole Age before the Conquest of Justinian 1. There is no clear grounds for any necessity of such a signification of the word in the Original that is rendred one hour On the contrary To render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the same time is at best but a very rare and unusual acceptation of it if it should be ever found to be used at all in that signification which is much to be questioned And therefore is it that we find not this Interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have been thought on till this present Age And even now the greatest number of Translations have nothing of this sense in them The proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Accusative Case is as it is rendered for one hours space which in a Prophetical Style signifies a short space of time And then it may be easily understood to signify that those Kings should Reign like Kings with the Beast for a little time but as it follows that they should give their Kingdoms to the Beast after it and so appear to be like the Slaves of the Beast for his use and service 2. Or if it should signify about the same time yet it might be understood only of the Reigns of these Kings together with the Beast at any the same time of both For to receive power as Kings at the same time with the Beast may be understood of any time of their Reign together in conjunction with the Beast and not necessarily of their beginning to reign at the same time with it On the contrary it is certain by the consent of all that most of these Ten Kings had begun to receive power as Kings long before others and so could not possibly be said to begin their power all together at the same time with the Beast If the Rise of the Beast should be counted from the first appearance of Ten Kingdoms in the Roman Empire the Reign of the Beast must be already past For it will be found that there were Ten Kingdoms erected there before the Year 420. As 1. The Almans who had been long a Roman Province had a King in Julian's time and after the conquest of him z Cuspinian de Casar pag. 102. mentions Julian's League with the Almains and p. 112. the Huns invading Epirus in Valens's Reign Julian See References made a League with that People aa Petav. Ration Temp. Part. I. lib 6. cap. 10. does particularly reckon up the chief Divisions of these Invasions of the Barbarians 2. The Ostro-Goths 3. The West Goths 4. The Hunns who were all three up about the Year 378. 5. The Suevi 6. The Allans 7. The Vandalls 8. The Burgundians 9. The Franks and besides these were the Vandals in Africa and Silingii another sort of Vandals in that part of Spain that is called Baetica besides other Divisions of Principalities amongst these People 3. Again In the signification of at the same time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might denote the Reign of these Ten Kings bb Alcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 3. For what I pray does one hour signify but that these Kings do Reign all together at one and the same time Theodoret. in cap. 7. Dan. de 10. Regibus It is therefore manifest that there shall Ten Kings arise up all together altogether at See References the same time with one another which the order of the words does make far more natural For whereas it had been just before said that they had not any of them any Kingdom as yet it here follows in this order in the Original but power as Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they receive with the Beast where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more naturally joined with the Kings than with the Beast And then it signifies That nevertheless these Kings should all reign together At the same time in the Reign of the Beast to denote the strange Division of the Roman Empire at that time And this was very proper and convenient to be signified because the Seven Kings just before had been described to succeed or to come after one another to distinguish which from these Ten Kings it might be on purpose made their Character that these did reign all together But this is only upon the supposition of this signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which after all there is no necessity 4. But however That it cannot signify the rise of these Ten Kings at the same time witb the first appearance of the Beast is determined by the description of the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel which is said there should arise cc Blasius Viega in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 2. shews That it was the Opinion of all the Ancients according to St. Jerom that Antichrist the Little Horn should arise after the Division of the Roman Empire amongst Ten Kings Theodoret. in cap. 7. Dan. It is therefore says he manifest that the Prophet does here foretell that about the end Ten Kings shall arise up all together And that Antichrist should be the last after them So Irenaeus l. 5. contra Haer. c. 24. Aretas in c. 13. Apoc. Ausburtus in cap. 17. after the Ten Kings And v. 24. the Beast in the Revelations and the Little Horn are unquestionably the same particular Roman Rule Coroll 2. Prop. 15. and therefore has it been already concluded that the Beast cannot arise till after the Ten Kings Coroll 3. Prop. 15. 16. But it will be then demanded How Justinian's restauration of the Imperial Head can be the next Change but one of the Roman Sovereignty after the time of the Vision For the Division of the Empire into Ten Sovereignties before him would be accounted at least one Change of the Sovereign Power of that Empire as the four Horns of the He Goat in the 8th of Daniel was a new state of the Graecian Monarchy If so then the fall of the Western Empire must unquestionably be another Change of the Roman Rule and thus would there have been an 8th King from the Sixth that ruled in St. John's time before
whole Church which shows the Emperor's share in the Legislative Power of the Church to be near a-kin to his Power in the Senate about Civil Affairs but at least very near as great in the Councils as the Papal Authority was afterwards before it came to its full height And then in the Execution of the Laws and Canons of the Church the Imperial Authority appears every-where to be the last resort and the last Power that they k Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat p. 180. The Archbishops of Ravenna do there contend with the Popes of Rome for the Superiority John the Archbishop had many of the Italian Bishops of his Party in it And Sigonius de Regno Ital. l. 2. Blondus Decad. 1. l. 9. Ann. 608. gives an account of this Contest of Ravenna with Rome all the days of Pope Martin the First Eugenius the First Vitalian and Adeodat They would have no Pallium nor Consecration from Rome in acknowledgment of any dependance upon them S. Hierom. ad Evagre If you dispute about the Authority of the whole World Orbis major est Urbe Wheresoever there is a Bishop whether at Rome or Eugubium at Constantinople or Rhegium he is of the same Dignity and of the same Priesthood Cardinal Cusan l. 2. c. 12. shews that all Bishops are equal But the execution of their Office is bounded by Human Laws and Orders which if they come to cease those Differences of Greater and Less return again to their natural Right that is to an Equality Aeneas Sylvius Comment l. 2. Before the Council of Nice every Bishop lived independent in his own Jurisdiction appeal to for redress Dr. Barrow p. 324. to p. 372. Grot. in Decal Praecep 2. Note the 3d. or for correction of Church-Governours which shews it to have had also the full possession of the Executive Power And accordingly do we find the Title of the Vniversal Bishop of the Church in respect of the External Government of it assumed by Constantine In this state did the Imperial Authority continue in the Church when the exercise of its power was the most unblameable So that here was a Roman Catholick Church established from the very first appearance of the Imperial Throne in the Church and no other Political Vnity was there then of the Roman Church but only this Imperial Headship The particular Jurisdiction of the l Ludovic Bebenberg de jurib R. Imp. Romanor pag. 142. In Commentar M. Freherus When the Emperor Henry had objected to the Romans why against the custom of their Ancestors they had chosen them a Pope without the leave of the King The Pope excused himself that he was chosen by force but that he would not be consecrated till he did perfectly understand by an Embassy that both the Emperor and the Princes had consented to his Election Hieron Balbus de Coronatione cap. 14. It had been an ancient Custom that the Clergy and People of Rome should nominate the Pope After which it was in the Emperor's power to confirm or invalidate the Election and as he pleased either to admit him or to substitute another in his room c. Agatho 63. distinct And this Custom continued to the time of Pope Adrian Anno 815. who would have changed it But the old Custom obtained again of expecting the Pope's Confirmation from the Emperor as Platina observes in Gregor 9. in the Year 1072. Gregory was reconciled to the Emperor Henry who confirmed him Pope as it was then the custom Caronza Concil summa pag. 437. Severinus Papa in locum Honorii subrogatus ab Isaacio Hexarcho in Pontificatu confirmatur c. Severinus was confirmed Pope by Isaac the Hexarch of Italy For the Election by the People and Clergy was not accounted valid in those days unless the Emperors or their Exarchs had confirmed them Platina says the same in Severinus And Blondus the same with this of Caranza l. 9. Decad. 1. and adds That the Confirmation was put off for a year and an half because Isaac did not go from Ravenna to Rome before Sigebert in his Chronicle mentions a Council held by Charlemaigne at Rome before he was crowned Emperor by virtue of his being made Defender of the Church by Adrian And there Adrian and 150 Bishops did confer the Right of chusing the Pope upon Charles and of ordering the Apostolick See and the Dignity of the Prince The same is mentioned by Gratian D. 69. c. Hadrianus 22. And by Sigonius de Regno Ital. l. 4. In the time of the Emperor Ludovicus the Son of Charlemaigne upon Pope Stephen's being elected contrary to the Order without the Emperor's Command Stephen to mend the matter makes this Order in the Canon Quia Sancta D. 52. Because the Roman Church suffers great Violences at the Death of the Pope when the Election is made without the Emperor's knowledge We ordain That when the Bishop of Rome is to be chosen that he be elected in a full Assembly of the Bishops and Clergy and in the presence of the Senate and People and so being chosen in the presence of the Legate of the Emperor that he be consecrated Baronius Anno 827. says of the Election of Pope Valentinus That his Consecration was deferred till the Emperour should be consulted about it Pope Leo the Eighth Anno 963. makes this Order in behalf of the Emperor Otho That according to the Example of Adrian Bishop of the Apostolick See who granted unto the Emperor Charles the ordering the Apostolick See That he likewise with all the Clergy did constitute and by his Authority corroborate to his Lord Otho first King of the Theutons and to his Successors in the Kingdom of Italy The power of chusing a Successor and of disposing of the Bishop of the Sovereign Apostolick See and for that purpose that the Archbishops and Bishops should take investiture from him And that none for the future should take upon them the power of electing or consecrating the Bishop of Rome or of any other See without the Consent of the said Emperor D. 63. in Synodo 23. The Title of the Canon in Gratian is The Election of the Bishop of Rome does of right appertain to the Emperor Bishoprick of the City of Rome was in no other account for Supremacy than the rest of the Episcopal Jurisdictions and all of them were confined to their own particular Territories But it was reputed just and fitting at the coming in of the Emperors into the Church that the Bishop of their Ruling City should have a mark of distinction from the rest as an honour due to the Emperor's Court and Residence And thus came the Bishop of Rome to have the precedence of all other Bishops in the Church And upon the same account had Constanstinople the second place to that of Rome when that City became the Seat of a new Empire This Primacy gave the Bishops of Rome a great advantage over the Interests of their Fellow-Bishops And being become very
in the 2d Chapter of Daniel the same with that of the Son of Man in the 7th Chapter must also judge the Fourth Kingdom before it in each to be the same And the Fourth Kingdom in the 2d Chapter is said to be the same Kingdom in substance when it was entire and when divided verse 40 41. Lactantius applies the whole account of the Fourth Beast to the Roman Empire Victorinus doth certainly seat Antichrist or the Little Horn amongst the Roman Rulers Those indeed that came after the time of Augustine did many of them think that Antichrist was to destroy all the Power of Rome The only ground that they alledge for it is That in the Second Epistle of the Thessalonians chap. 2. where it is said That that did withhold at the present time must be taken away and then should the Man of Sin be Revealed This that did with-hold they Interpreted to be the Roman Empire And yet since they afterwards Interpret Babylon in the Revelations to be Rome which is openly described to be the City of Antichrist the same with the little Horn whom they agreed to continue till about the end of the World they did thereby plainly shew that they meant nothing else by the taking away of the Roman Empire in the forecited place but only the change of the Monarchical Imperial form of it not the last end of all Roman Rule According as Tertullian says that they prayed for the Lives of the Emperors to put off the coming of Antichrist in the end of the World As for those amongst them that did not understand Rome by Babylon See the References to the 1st Chap. Book 1. we see that the Jesuits themselves look upon them as extravagant in it Wherefore the Ten Horns and the Little one after them may now be counted by the express Consent of the Fathers as conformable to the General Rule for all the rest of their kind 6. It does also now appear from this Agreement of the Fathers concerning Beasts and their parts signifying Dominion That they had no other mark for their difference betwixt either Successive or Contemporary Horns but only the different Changes of the Supream Civil Power of Monarchies 7. Nor any other constitutive difference betwixt Successive Heads or Horns but a different name or title of the Supream Power The second Horn of the Ram was distinguished from the first only by the name of the King of Persia instead of that of Media over the same Nation Dan. 8. 3 20. 8. And by their Agreement that the four Heads of the Leopard in the 7th Chapter was the same time of Graecian Empire with the four Horns of the He-goat in the 8th Chapter it appeared That they made Heads and Horns to be promiscuously used for the same thing in different Schemes of the same Monarchy CHAP. IV. The Agreements of the Ancients about the Beast in the Revelations Eight Queries about the Necessary Consequences of the Ancients Consent concerning the Fourth Beast in Daniel and the Beast in tbe Revelations for the more particular determination of the Characters of the Beast in the Revelations The Reason of the Contrariety of some of the Opinions of the Fathers to their general Agreements about the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel and the Beast in the Revelations The Application of the Beast to the Roman Church in all Ages THE Consent of the Ancients about the nature of the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel and the necessary Consequences of what they expresly consent in do discover what they must agree in concerning the Beast in the Revelations For 1. The Fathers are well enough known to make that which from the 13th to the end of the 19th Chapter of the Revelations is peculiarly called The Beast as one particular state of it only in the latter time of it to be that to which they give the name of Antichrist See Andreas Caesariensis 2. They do upon this account make that particular Reign of the Beast in the Revelations to be the same with the Reign of the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast in Daniel the same with the Man of Sin in the 2d Chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians the same also with the Bustling King in Daniel 11. 36. For as they called all these by the name of Antichrist so Bellarmin assures us lib. 3. de Pontif. cap. 1. That by the common consent of all Christians by Antichrist is understood but one certain Eminent False Christ In the Testimony also of Andreas Caesariensis may be seen the Agreement of the Ancient Doctors That The Beast in the Revelations and the Little Horn in the 7th of Daniel were the same thing because they accounted them both to be Antichrist 3. The Fathers do also own with the Text the seven Heads of Rev. 17. 10 11. the Beast to be successive Ruling Powers five of which were past at the time of the Vision one of them at that time in being and two Kings more which were to come to make up the whole Seven the latter of which Two was to be such an Eighth as should be one of the Seven 4. They did also agree that Babylon that went along with the Beast in the Revelations was the City of Rome This appears from Andreas Caesariensis's Testimony and Bellarmin's Quotations of the Fathers for this Exposition Lib. 2. de Pontif. cap. 2. where he concludes it to be the Opinion of the Fathers That John in the Apocalypse did every-where call Rome Babylon Now from the forementioned Particulars in which the Ancients are found generally to agree about the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel and the Beast in the Revelations and from the immediate and necessary Consequences before deduced from them I would propound it to the Impartial Consideration of all the World whether to make the Ancients constant to themselves they ought not to be judged to agree also in those unavoidable Consequences of the Conclusions in which they are so unanimous That the general Notion of the Beast in the Revelations as it Query 1 is the common subject of its Heads and Horns must signify the Particular Monarchy of the Romans till the last ruine of it This does necessarily follow 1st From the fourth Consequence of Chap. 3. their Agreements about the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel For by that the general Notion of every Beast is to be some Particular Monarchy to the last end of it And 2dly From their See 4th Agreement in this Chap. Unanimous Agreement about Babylon in the Apocalypse before-mentioned which does necessarily determine it to be the Roman Monarchy Wherefore if some of the Fathers have interpreted the Beast in the Revelations to signify a great Multitude of Kingdoms tyrannizing over the Church of God They do plainly contradict that which before they had agreed to be the natural and obvious signification of A Beast in Prophecy by the almost Unanimous Consent of
Head seem to be so wholly intent upon the Charge of Antichristianism upon the Church Most Protestants of Rome that they neglect all known and acknowledged Examples of the difference of the Heads of Beasts to fix their Charge And to hold to it they are forced to wrest the natural and plain sense of the 10th verse of the 17th Chapter of the Revelations and to find out some far fetched Criticisms to make it good As the making of the 7th of those Seven Kings that are said to be the seven Heads to be none of those Heads And Dr. More 648. as the making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to denote the Seventh King to be quite different from the rest does appear to be See Prop. 4. They are also forced to make the wounded and the healed Mr. Mede Head to be two distinct Heads of the seven which is contrary to the plain Expressions of the Prophecy which mention it to be seen but as one and the same Head wounded and healed and is also contrary to the common acceptation of a Head wounded and healed which can be but one Head Others of them are forced to make the Seventh King and the Eighth to be the same thing and for that end to transpose the latter end of the 10th verse and to make it come after the Monsieur Jurieu Accomp des Prophecies pag. 190. 2d Edit Most Protestants beginning of the 11th contrary to the natural order of the Text. Those that would fix all the Charge of the Beast and the False Prophet upon the Papal Power only are forced to make nothing of the plain Characters by which they are distinguished from one another when named together nor of the Change of the name of the Civil Government of the Romans at the fall of the Western Empire though that was the only difference betwixt the first six Heads of the Beast according to their own Opinion For the first six Heads were all of the same Religion that is Pagans And upon this account is it that most of them are forced to make the first appearance of the Beast to be of a very uncertain date that is according to their fancy about the first great appearance of the Papal Power which cannot well be fixed Whereas the first Rise of the Beast must have been a very visible and remarkable Change of the Supream Power of Rome from that which was the 7th Ruling Power of it to the 8th called the Beast It is upon this account that some of those who incline to the former Opinion and yet do plainly see that the Beast must be a Change of the form of the Civil Power of the Empire do therefore make the Ten Kings with the Papal Power to be the Beast that is the Eighth King or last Ruling Head But what Prop. 6. an absurdity do they fly to in this when it is manifest that the Ten Kings were the Ten Horns and none of the Seven Heads Others of them indeed defer the Rise of this Papal Beast to that manifest Change of the Imperial Power at the fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus as the end of the true Christian Emperors who are their Seventh King but then they are forced to make nothing of the succeeding Sovereign Power of the Italian Kings of Rome who were as Absolute Sovereigns of it notwithstanding their Royal Seat at Ravenna as any of the Western Emperors had been from the time of Honorius who first made Ravenna the Imperial Seat They are also forced to pass over the Change of the Regal and Imperial Power of Rome to the pure Imperial Government at the recovery of Rome by Justinian as of no account for a new Head though they must own the Eastern Emperors to have been as much Sovereigns of Rome at this Re-conquest of it as the Western were before the loss of it and when they were the acknowledged Sixth Head This appears from the Power of the Eastern Emperors Exarchs after the recovery of the West The Fourth BOOK THE Application of the Characters OF THE BEAST In the REVELATIONS CHAP. I. The force of the Applications of the Characters of the Rev. XIII Beast to confirm the first date of his Reign A Caution to those who have taken up with a former Hypothesis The uncouth Composition of the Beast of the Parts of a Lyon of a Leopard and of a Bear applied to an absolute exactness The Rising of the Beast out of the Sea The Continuance of his Reign for 42 Months AFTER the more close and demonstrative way of proof that has been made use of to determine the particular nature and first Rise of the Beast It will much confirm the knowledge that is now had of him to see how easie and natural the Application of all the other Circumstances of his History will appear to be upon this foundation And this may serve for an additional proof à posteriori as the Demonstrations of the principles of natural things by their causes are much strengthned by their perfect agreement with all the effects that we can apply them to or with all that experience does teach us of them But yet it must always be remembred That though the Application of an Instance or two should seem to be something harsh or forced That no man ought for that to question the former Conclusions unless upon a new examination he can find them less necessary than they did at first appear No man ought to doubt of a plain and manifest truth because he sees it to be seemingly inconsistent with some other Conclusions that are deduced from it which are not so plain and necessary I know not of any such harshness in any of the Applications that I am now going to make but rather think them so well agreeing with the Characters of the Text that they are enough to surprize one into an admiration of the Congruity of them But I interpose this as a convenient Caution to those who may find a convincing evidence in the proof of the maint Point to which the Applications are fixed but by reason of some prejudices and long use of a former Hypothesis may not think some of the Applications so well fitted to the Prophecy as they will imagine their own to be For this will be apt to make them judge many things which to all others would appear very tolerable at least to be harsh and uncouth to them To begin then with the figure and composition of the Beast It is said to be in the several parts of it like a Lyon a Leopard Rev. 13. 2. and a Bear which do manifestly refer to its being the Fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel which is there represented immediately after the account of the Three Kingdoms shown by v. 7 23. those Three Beasts and is said to have devoured them And those Three Beasts are agreed to be the Babylonian Persian and Book the IId Graecian Monarchies The
mentions the Emperour Henry's Charge against Pope Paschal Ann. 1107 He says there of the Papal Power That they take an Oath of every Bishop to own all that for Law that they shall say This Oath is described lib. 2. Decret Tit. 24. where they swear to obey all the Popes Commands and to assist him against all that shall oppose themselves Papal Authority and the Church of Rome as necessary to Salvation and as dictated by an Infallible Authority with the claim of Infallibility as an inseparable Prerogative of their Authority Of the same Nature is the exercise of the power of the Keys in that Church by which they confine all Divine Favour and all Right to the Kingdom of Heaven to the Communion of the Roman Church and only as Roman and by which they pretend to have the Power of the Curses of God and of Eternal Damnation in their Hands to pronounce against all those who own not that Divine Authority and Infallible Spirit in them by which they appear as in the place of God in the Church For by this does the Church of Rome appear manifestly to sit as a Goddess in the Church Catholick to which all must submit with all the outward Worship of their Bodies and the inward Veneration of their Souls as the only Oracle of God in all its Decisions and Definitions of Faith and Worship and as the immediate Voice and Thunder of God from Heaven in all its Anathema's and Excommunications And all this about matters which either were never made to be the Will of God by any other Authority but the meer Will of the Roman Church Or which are known to be absolutely contrary to the revealed Will of God the Light of Natural Conscience and to the common Sense and Reason of mankind which is the Candle of the Lord and the most fundamental Prov. 20. 27. Criterion of the Truth or Falshood of Revelations or Inspirations But some will question whether all this can amount to the charge of commanding Men to Worship the Beast and his Image with Divine Honours tho these things should be done without any warrant from God for them because God himself is intended for the only Object of all that Worship that is thus enjoyned This doubt may soon be resolved by what Men would judge of the Worship of Nebuchadnezzar's Image tho he should have pretended that it was the peculiar Presence of the God of Israel as well as his own Image and that it was to be Worshipped upon the account of that immediate Union of the True God with himself and his Image Or by what Men can think of the Worship given to Simon Magus under the supposition of his being the Father Son and Holy Ghost at several appearances Whether would the Adoration be excused for being intended to the True God I would but demand of any sorts of Christians what they would think of such an unbounded Power as has been mentioned in any Party of Men from whom they differ which should now arise with these Claims of Superiority and Jurisdiction over the Universal Church of Christ upon Earth and should force Mens Consciences to acknowledge these Claims to be due by Divine Right and should really think them to be so upon as slight Grounds as the Church of Rome does now believe its own pretences upon and should exercise these new powers with as zealous designs for God's Service as they of that Church seem to do It would be hardly possible for any of a differing Party to forbear the charging of this new Pretender with the Character of sitting like a God in the Temple of God or in the Christian Church For he that requires meer human Laws to be accounted Divine Inspiration which yet are nothing but his own will he plainly makes his own will a Divine Law And if he forces it upon all the World for such he makes his own will the Universal Lord of the Consciences of Men which is the peculiar Prerogative of God alone Without all question if the King of France and the Assembly of his Clergy should use the same methods and pretences that they have done to the Protestants to force the Consciences of the Papal Party all over the World to the Opinions of the Gallican Church they would not stick to charge him with the Character of usurping upon the peculiar Prerogative of God in his Church I do take it all this while for granted That the Claim for this Universal Power in the Church of Rome and to the Title of Infallibility is unwarrantable and that is so easie a thing to be satisfied about that I think it not needful here to dilate upon it There needs no better satisfaction to be had about it than what the slightness of the grounds that are alledged for this Authority compared with the vast importance of the thing that they are to prove does at the first sight offer to any that are impartial But others have made it their business and to them I remit it The unwarrantableness of this Claim is supposed in the Objection And if that be once granted let the intention of the Church of Rome be never so fair in its Exercise of this Power the instance above-mentioned will make it sufficiently clear how just the charge of the Worship of the Image is due to it tho it should exercise this power over the whole Church of God within much more moderate bounds than it is known to do The reality of their intention may without any difficulty be believed For it was long since foretold that the time would come that whosoever killed the true Members of Christ should John 16. 2 4. think that he did God service in it And it is said to be foretold on purpose that when the time should come we should remember that it had been told us of them St. Paul does give the example of it Acts 22. 3 4. Acts 26. 9 10 11. in himself he verily thought with himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth and accordingly did them For he shut up the Saints in Prison when they were put to Death he gave his Voice against them He even compelled them to blaspheme and was exceeding mad against them and yet was zealous towards God while he was Persecuting that way unto the death And yet surely none would ever maintain that the zealous intention of these cruel Actions would excuse them from the guilt of Inhumanity and Murder The sincerity of the Intention in all these Diabolical acts of Antichristian Tyranny does only denote how absolute the power of the Devil is in them by the power he has over them to make them believe that it is the doing God service all the while that they are acted by the Rage of the Devil Wherefore it may now be safely concluded That the great malignity of the Worship of the Beast and his Image does lie in the Acknowledgment