will afford us very evident Instances thereof By the cunning of which two prevailing Factions the Light of the Gospel was for many Ages together since the Reign of Constantine almost extinguished but that now in latter times God taking pity on the miserable condition of his Church hath raised up sundry Reformers who have detected many of those Errours wherewith the Truth had before been obscured and so given a good Essay to the restoring of our holy Faith to its primitive lustre The reason why Satan is cast by the Angel into the bottomless Pit rather than into another place is because many of the evil Spirits have ever since their Fall lain there bound in Chains of Darkness as both the words of Peter Epist 2. Chap. 2.4 where it is said God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgement And also of Jude Verse 6. where it is said The Angels which kept not their first Estate but left their own Habitation he hath reserved in everlasting Chains under Darkness unto the Judgement of the great Day do perspicuously intimate And therefore certain of them who were permitted to range up and down the Earth for the executing of Gods Judgements having entred into a Man of Gadara and being commanded by Christ to come out of him besought Christ that he would not send him into the bottomless Pit for so the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by Luke in the Relation of this Story and which is translated in English the Deep ought to be rendred as it is in this 20. Chapter of the Revelation Vers 4. And I saw Thrones and they sat upon them and Judgement was given unto them and I saw the Souls of them that were beheaded for the Witness of Jesus and for the Word of God and which had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image neither had received his Mark upon their Foreheads or in their Hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand Years 5. But the rest of the Dead lived not again until the thousand Years were finished This is the first Resurrection 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand Years That Thrones are the Seats of Kings is evident enough but who they are that shall sit upon the Thrones here mentioned and have Judgement given into their hands is neither of it self evident nor here expressed so that we should be at a great loss to finde it out were it not that Daniel speaking of this matter as I have before in the Exposition of the 17. Chapter of this Prophecy evinced saith that Judgement was given to the Saints of the most High Chap. 7.22 It is the Saints therefore that are invested with the Right of Judicature and placed on the Thrones after the Defeat of the Beast and the Binding of Satan Neither ought this Kingdom to be expected till these two miraculous Events have made way for it Wherefore as they are exceedingly mistaken and fear not to gainsay the plain Words of the Scripture who hold that there shall be no fifth Kingdom or Kingdom of the Saints here on Earth when in the mean time an Angel expresly telleth Daniel Chap. 7.27 that the Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the People of the Saints of the most High So are they no less out of the way who dream of any humane Force to be used in the Erection of this Kingdom For this would be to transform the People of the Saints into a Company of Thieves and Robbers But as the rise and fall of the Beast the binding of Satan and setting up of the Kingdom of the Saints here on Earth are great and marvellous Works falling out in the Age here spoken of so also is the first Resurrection whereof all they shall be Partakers and so reign with Christ in heaven who being either Prophets for none but such have the Testimony of Jesus or meer Saints do suffer Death for refusing to worship the Beast For John plainly testifieth that onely such are raised up from the Dead to reign with Christ the thousand Years as were for their Piety in the Reign of the Beast beheaded or smitten with the Ax as the Greek word signifieth Which Expression doth either intimate that the Beast shall both in Judicature as the Romans his Ancestors were wont to do also in War make use of such a Weapon as an Ax to kill the Saints as we find in the Scripture that Nebuchadnezzar did to slay the Egyptians Jer. 40.22 where it is said The voice thereof that is of Egypt shall go like a Serpent for they shall march with an Army and come against her with Axes as Hewers of Wood or else under the most frequent and noted kinde of slaughter that shall be in use at that time all other ways of inflicting Death upon the Saints are comprehended For what reason can be imagined why those Saints that are put to Death with the Ax should share in the first Resurrection rather than such as are dispatched with some other Instrument of cruelty But lest any one should think this Doctrine of the first Resurrection taken according to the Letter of the holy Text to be strange though to me it seemeth more strange that Christians should scruple at a thing so plainly and punctually set down in the Scripture for they may as well call into question whatsoever is here spoken concerning the Resurrection that is to be afterwards at the last Day and to which this Resurrection is opposed go to let us confirm this precious Truth so much encouraging Christians to lay down their Lives for the Gospel by other passages taken out of this Book of the Revelation where such an anticipated Resurrection is held forth as belonging both to those Saints that suffer Death under the Reign of the Beast and also to those that dy for Christ and the Gospel at any time whatsoever First therefore it is in the 11. Chapter said of the two Witnesses who are expresly there called Prophets and so must needs be two Men since none but Men are in the Scripture termed Prophets that after they had been slain by the Beast and their dead Bodyes lyen unburied three Days and an half in the Streets of Jerusalem for not Rome but Jerusalem is the great City where Christ was slain The Spirit of Life from God entred into them and they stood upon their feet From which words it is undeniably manifest that the two Witnesses are raised from the Dead whilest the Beast reigneth What hinders then but that the other Prophets and Saints put to Death by him may likewise be restored to Life presently after his Defeat as this 20. Chapter doth in
be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy Angels and before the Lamb and that to all eternity for if the smoke of their torment shall ascend for ever and ever as the Angel plainly affirmeth it is necessary that the torment it self from whence the smoke ariseth should also continue as long and if the torment then also the tormented So that it ought at no hand to be denyed that the worshippers of the Beast shall live for ever in the torments of hell fire Neither is it to be feared least any one should thence argue that by this account they may be truly said to have Eternal life For Eternal life according to the true and usual notion of the Scripture doth not signifie a bare living for ever but a living for ever in joy and in the favour of God And therefore Eternal life Matth. 25.46 is opposed to Eternal punishment when it is said These shall go away into everlasting punishment which implyeth that they remain alive for ever otherwise how are they capable of being punished for ever all punishment supposing the existence of the subject that is punished But the righteous into life eternal And to the abiding of Gods wrath upon men John 3.36 When it is said He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him and to damnation John 5.29 when it is said They that have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life but they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation These things being so such interpreters are not to be heard as go about to impose a figurative sense upon what is here in the Revelation clearly spoken concerning the everlasting torment prepared for the worshippers of the Beast for they not onely weaken the force of the Angels commination which all must needs confess to be far more efficacious to deterr men from committing so great wickedness if the words be plainly and properly taken but also open a way to evacuate all other passages of the Scripture where mention is made of the everlasting torment of Hell fire But perhaps some one will object that these tormented ones are said to have no rest day and night and consequently their torment is to be restrained to such a duration where there is a vicissitude of day and night which ceaseth together with the world and so is not properly and truly everlasting To which I answer that this expression of having no rest day and night inasmuch as it followeth those words wherein it is said that the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever is used to shew that they shall at no time have any respiration from their torment and not that there shall be an end thereof namely when day and night shall cease For seeing all the time of men in this world is part either of the day or of the night that which cometh not to pass in either of them is not at all hence it is that the Angel intending to shew that the worshippers of the Beast shall be tormented without intermission saith that they have no rest day and night Thus is it said of the four living creatures in Heaven with six wings apeice Chap. 4.8 That they have no rest day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty though there be no vicissitude of day and night in Heaven namely to signifie that they never cease at any time whatsoever to praise God in that maner To conclude therefore As those words He shall be tormented for ever and ever import that there shall be no end of their torment so these They have no rest day and night imply that there shall be no intermission of them Vers 12. Here is the patience of the saints here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus This acclamation of the Angel doth intimate that during the tyranny of the Beast the patience of the Saints will have a most ample occasion to shew it self there having never been before so furious a monster that did so openly set his mouth against the Heavens and bend all his forces to extirpate the Religion of Christ So that then it will appear more then in any former age how admirable the constancy of the Saints is who notwithstanding all the Machinations whether of force or fraud that Satan and his instruments can contrive to wrest the crown of piety out of their hands do in the midst of a general Apostacy still adhere to the Commandments of God and firmly believe in Jesus Christ Vers 13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Here John relates a certain voice which he heard out of Heaven pronouncing them happy in particular that should from thenceforth die namely under the tyranny of the Beast which particular happiness of them as we are taught Chap. 20.4 consists herein that they shall be partakers of the first Resurrection For that resurrection is there appropriated to them that suffer death for the testimony of Christ and for the word of God in the time of the Beast And the more to incourage the Saints to die for the truth of Christ in those perillous times the holy spirit doth second that voice from Heaven and render the reason thereof namely because they rest from their labors and their works follow them and therefore since their works have been more eminent then those of former times no marvel if their reward be so also Vers 14. And I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man having on his head a golden crown and in his hand a sharp sickle This vision together with that other in the 17 18. verses do like the two dreams of Pharaoh Gen. 41.25 26. tend to the same effect and so are indeed but one intimating that the time was now at hand when Christ should execute judgement on the inhabitants of the earth because their sins denoted by the ripe fruits of the earth were come to maturity And that this interpretation is true and certain appeareth from that passage Joel 3.12 13. from whence these two visions of John seem to be modelled where it is said Let the Heathen be wakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat For there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe come get you down for the press is full the fats overflow for their wickedness is great Now forasmuch as Christ is to be a principal agent in the execution of this judgement he is therefore brought in sitting upon a cloud as God in like cases was wont to be in the Old Testament See Isay 19.1 Behold the Lord
Domitiano consulare imperium that is to him namely Vespasian with Titus his son the consulship was voted to Domitian the pretorship and consular authority ib. cap. 16. Mox ejurante Frontino Caesar Domitianus praeturam cepit Ejus nomen epistolis edictisque proponebatur Vis penes Mucianum nisi quod pleraque Domitianus instigantibus amicis aut propria lubidine agebat that is Not long after upon the resignation of Frontinus Caesar Domitian took the pretorship his name was prefixt to all Letters and Edicts The power and sway of affairs was in Mucianus save that Domitian either at the instigation of his friends or upon his own pleasure transacted very many things ib. cap. 20. Vespasianus in Italiam resque urbis intentus adversam de Domitiano famam accipit tanquam terminos aetatis concessa filio egrederetur that is Vespasian being intent upon Italy and the affairs of the City heareth an ill report of Domitian as if he had passed the bounds of his age and carried himself with more state then became an Emperours son Suetonius also saith of him in the description of his life Cap. 1. Post victoriam demum progressus Caesar consalutatus honorem praeturae urbanae cum consulari potestate suscepit titulo tenus quam jusdictionem ad collegam proximum transtulit Caeterum omnem vim dominationis tam licenter exercuit ut jam tum qualis futurus esset oslenderet Nec exequar singula contrectatis multorum uxoribus Domitiam Longinam Aelio Lamiae nuptam etiam in matrimonium abduxit atque uno die super viginti urbana officia atque peregrina distribuit mirari se Vespasiano dictitante quod successorem non sibi mitteret that is Domitian after the victory going out and being saluted by the name of Cesar assumed the honour of the City Pretorship with consular authority as to the Title transferring all the jurisdiction to the next Colleague howbeit he did so licenciously exercise all the power of Sovereignty as that he even then shewed what manner of Prince he would afterwards prove For to omit the rest of his actions having abused the wives of many Citizens he took away Domitia Longina that was maried to Aelius Lamia and made her his own wife and distributed in one day above twenty offices belonging either to the City or to foreign parts Vespasian in the mean time ever and anon crying out that he wondred that his son did not also send him a successor ib. chap. 13. Principatum vero adeptus neque in senatu jactare dubitavit patri se fratri imperium dedisse illos sibi reddidisse Pari arrogantiacum procuratorum suorum nomine formalem dictaret epistolam sic coepit Dominus deus noster sic fieri jubet Unde institutum post hac ut ne scripto quidem ac sermone cujusquam appellaretur aliter that is Domitian having obtained the Empire doubted not to boast in the very Senate that he had given the Empire both to his Father and to his Brother whereas they had only restored it unto him with like arrogancy as he endited a formal Letter in the name of his procurators he began thus Our Lord and God commandeth it so to be done whence it was afterwards injoyned that none should either in writing or in speech give him any other Titles This shifting of the Kingly power in Domitian seemeth to be a proof or essay of what shall hereafter happen to him in the same kind For as he was sometimes recalled from a private condition to the Empire so shall he in future ages arise from the dead to be a King as I have before evinced By what the Angel hath here spoken to declare the Mystery of the Beast it is manifest that by the Beast is meant a Man who was alive when this Vision happened to John For the Angel saith expresly Verse 8. that he is It is also manifest that the Beast had already been a King at Rome and should after the decease of his two immediate Predecessours reign there again But who was there in the time of this Vision to whom such a thing doth agree save Domitian about the end of whose Empire Irenaeus saith lib. 5. cap. 3. that this Book of the Revelation was seen Neque enim ante multum temporis so are his words visum est sed paenè sub nostro saeculo ad finem Domitiani imperii Which may be so far true as that perhaps it was not published and commonly known before that time Nevertheless it appeareth from those words of the Angel Five are fallen and one is that it was written in the Reign of Vespasian These things being so I rightly reckon the Kings from Claudius for if you begin either before or after him the words of the Angel will not suit with the truth of the History as it is delivered by sundry grave Writers that lived in or about those times And it is likely that the Angel so ordered the Vision that the computation should begin from Claudius inclusively because he was the first Roman Emperour that imployed his Authority to molest the Christians For Suetonius in the History of his Life cap. 25. telleth us that he expelled the Jews out of Rome as making continual Tumults by the impulsion of Christ whom he as it seemeth doth out of an heathenish malignity call in Latin Chrestus and not Christus as doth also the Authour of that profane Dialogue called Philopatris which is found among the Works of Lucian see Page 1003. of the Salmurian Edition However certain it is out of the sacred story that Claudius expelled the Jews out of Rome by which means Aquila and Priscilla his Wife both believing Jews being forced to quit Rome betook themselves to Corinth Acts 18.2 It is further manifest from what hath been before discoursed that the Beast Domitian is aptly represented with seven Heads because of his relation both to the seven Mountains and also to the seven Kings that were signified by them For he had not onely sometimes reigned in Rome the seven-hilled City but was also born there for so saith Suetonius in the beginning of his Life Domitianus natus est regione urbis sexta ad Malum Punicum that is Domitian was born in the sixth Ward of the City at the Sign of the Pomegranate He was also Son to one of the seven Kings and Brother to another as hath before been shewed Vers 12. And the ten Horns which thou sawest are ten Kings which have received no Kingdom as yet but receive Power as Kings one hour with the Beast 13. These have one minde and shall give their Power and Strength unto the Beast 14. These shall make War with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them for he is Lord of lords and King of kings and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful Hitherto the Angel hath spoken concerning the Beast and his seven Heads now he cometh to the