Truth of the Gospel for then their Power and Credit would fail in the world But it were the Interest of the Church of God they did so and therefore they are the worst enemies that can be doing more mischief under the colour of friendship then any declared enemy can Besides that there are pregnant proofs in the Scripture that Antichrist is to be a Christian in external Profession not a Pagan or any other Alien from the Church To the second That their not killing all that are called Christians shews that their Malice and Cruelty is more exquisitely opposed and directed against Christ in that their spight is onely against his true and sincere Members For those that are spared are not truly Christ's Servants but this High-priest's vassals or at least are taken to be so by him else they could not escape his sury so that his opposition to Christ is onely more judicious and adequate not less fierce nor malicious And to the last that they worship the Images or Persons not of Venus or Neptune or Mars but of the Blessed Virgin S. Peter S. Paul c. Suppose a mighty Potentate and as vertuous as mighty should put out severe Edicts against Adultery and carnal Fornication and that some guilty of the fact should apologize for themselves to their Prince on this wise It is true indeed Great Sir that we have committed Fornication but beseech you to take notice of the excusableness or justifiableness of the circumstances For we are not such gross and course-grain'd Fornicators as defile themselves with any Flesh but onely such as we have and that upon high desert a very great respect for and entire love to and that the rather for their near Relation to your Highness namely your Daughters Sisters and Neeces and others that are more near then ordinary Would not such an Apologie as this enrage the Prince with the greater wrath against their wicked Leudness How odious then and ridiculous would such a Plea be touching this Spiritual Fornication with the nearest Relations and Friends of our Blessed Saviour Can Spiritual Adultery which is Idolatry committed upon the Blessed Virgin upon S. John and others be more tolerable then upon Diana Apollo and other Mortals canonized by the Heathen Nay indeed would not this latter be but onely simple Fornication or Adultery there being no aversation in such unsanctified persons from the receiving of Divine honours but the former an execrable Rape they committing Idolatry or Spiritual Fornication against the wills of these Holy Saints they thus blaspheme and abuse So that I see not the least reason left to doubt but that I have decyphered the Idea of the most perfect and most detestable Antichristianism that can be 10. And thus having fully perfected the Draught of the Idea of Antichristianism I might according to the method I intimated make Application thereof to the state of the Church apostatized thereinto But because some men are so very hardly brought off to believe that any degeneracy of the Christian Church so long as they do still formally profess Jesus to be the Christ can amount to the production of that famous and signal Antichrist the Prophecies seem to point at whom they with all peremptoriness contend to be an open Denier of Jesus and as express an Assertor of himself to be the expected Messias no pretended Successor nor Disciple of the true Christ I think it very convenient before I proceed to the Application of my Idea of Antichristianism to make a more exquisite search into the Prophecies and thence to demonstrate as I hope with unexceptionable evidence That such an Antichrist for the main as is represented in that Idea is also prefigured or fore-told by the Holy Prophets that is to say such an one as doing such abominable villainies as I have instanced in yet professes himself to be Part nay Chief of the Body of Christ which is his Church For unless I doe this I know that such is the shuffling disposition of Ignorance and Falshood that they will think they can evade all by saying That I have indeed made an operose Description of A true Idea but not of The true Idea of Antichristianism such as my Title pretends to that is to say That the Church does indeed very naughtily and in some sense Antichristianly in these miscarriages but it will not amount to the making up the Antichrist properly and signally so called and pointed unto by the Predictions of the Prophets Which therefore we are necessitated to search into before we goe any further and are the more easily induced so to doe the Method being indifferently natural either way For the first intended Method was After this Description of the Idea of Antichristianism to make punctual Application thereof to the Apostatized condition of the Church to discover who is de facto that grand Antichrist and then to apply the Prophecies to the Events to shew that they also do indigitate the same that my Idea does discover My present purposed Method is After this Description of the Idea of Antichristianism to make search into the Prophecies to find out that their prefigurations of Antichrist are in the main strokes for neither are the Prophecies concerning Christ predictions of all his particular actions most manifestly answerable to the Idea we have given and that the Antichristianism which they foretell of is a Degeneracy or Apostasy of the Church still formally professing Christianity accordingly as we have described things in our Idea and then in the last place to make a more punctual Application of our Idea of Antichristianism thus justified by the agreeableness it hath with the Prophetick Predictions unto the Apostatized state of the Church for so many Ages to our own times Which will be a more plenarie eviction of the stupendious veracity of the Prophecies And it is as good and natural a method to prove the Truth of the Prophecies by the Fulness of the Events as to illustrate the Nature of the Events by the Application of the Prophecies But in the mean time there will be a necessity in this present search to have recourse unto Events in some sort or other for who can explain a Prophecie without any recourse to Events But all the History we need to have recourse to being either such as is distinct from any part of this Idea we have delineated and therefore to be brought into view in the interpreting of such passages as require it or else being but a general knowledge of those Limbs of Antichristianism I have described of which scarce any are ignorant or unpersuaded of for the main we may without the least confusion or obscurity partly by referring to this Idea in things that want no proof and partly by producing History where occasion requires apply our selves to our intended search into the Prophecies for a more full demonstration of the truth of our Idea of Antichristianism Which having finished we shall make a more punctual Application thereof
wealth honour and sensual pleasures 9. This is a competent Draught of the second Limb of Antichristianism which consists In the heaping together a number of trouble some and unwarrantable Superstitious conceits and observances whereby the yoke of Christ would be made far more grievous then the dispensation of Moses yea whereby the Servitude of Christians would be little inferiour if not greater then the slavery of the Israelites in the Land of Aegypt and in that house of bondage as it is styled peculiarly in the Scripture And therefore I think this particular constitution of things which I have described may very well goe for a confiderable Member of Antichristianism BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. The Positive Ends of the Gospel which the rest of the Limbs of Antichristianism do oppose 2. That to lay claim to a Right of Infallible Interpretation of the Laws of Christ is a supplanting of his Kingly Office 3. An instance of that danger in the Glosses of the Pharisees 4. Several places of Scripture alledged to prove the Church Infallible 5. The first general Answer to these Allegations by demanding whether the Promise of Infallibility be to the Whole Church or to Part. 6. The second by demanding whether the Promise be Absolute or Conditional 7. A third That the Promise cannot be Universal touching all Objects that may be considered 8. A particular Answer to the first place of Scripture 9. An Answer to the second and third 10. Infallibility a Promise onely to the first Founders of the Christian Church 11. What the meaning of The pillar and ground of truth 12. A further exposition of that passage of Paul to Timothy 13. That if understood of the Universal Church it may be meant onely of it in the Apostles times 14. And that the like may be said of the last allegation 1. WE have now done with those Members of Antichristianism that oppose the Privative Ends of the Gospel of Christ which were The removing of Idolatry and the Burthen of Superstition out of the world we come now to the Positive End thereof which in general is The Advancement of the Divine Life and this either Personally in Christ or by way of propagation in his Members the Church Those Divine Honours and Offices the Person of Christ is advanced to and are most obvious to take notice of are those of King Priest and Prophet the opposing or supplanting of which cannot but be so many abhorred parts of this wicked Antichristianism whose Image we are now setting out in its genuine colours 2. As concerning the first therefore of these Suppose any man or company of men under pretence of being the true Visible Church successively descending from Christ and his Apostles should take upon them to be the Infallible Interpreters of the Law of Christ and teach that all men were to embrace and to submit to their Glosses seem they never so harsh never so improbable nay if you will never so impossible and declare it a mortal sin for any to doubt of their determinations in this kind This surely were a plain opposing or utter supplanting of the Kingly Office of Christ and the quite taking away His exercise of Sovereignty which cannot otherwise be exercised then by Commands and Decrees which when a King has published if another have power to interpret them any way as he pleases the Kingly power will really be in the Interpreter and not in the King I say this pretended right and power of Infallibly interpreting does in very truth make the Interpreter King and the King a Shadow or Cypher Assuredly no Earthly Prince would think himself truly Sovereign over his people if all the Injunctions and Edicts he made were not to bear the easie natural sense which he intends them in but to be drawn to some other meaning by any exception or evasion or any forcible interpretation that some forein Potentate should put upon them Wherefore whosoever pretends a Right and Infallibility in the interpreting the Law of Christ does in effect make Christ no Law-giver and consequently no King nor Governour in his Church then which what can be more grossly Antichristian 3. Cui jus est interpretandi hujus Sententia pondus habet legis Divinae is a saying which although * In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Erasmus has put into the mouth of a mean person yet is a great Truth And our Saviour knew and has noted the mischievous abuse of this presumption so plainly in that instance of the Pharisees who could interpret away the force of that Command Honour thy Father and thy Mother by saying it was Corban that it is impossible he should allow of any visible Interpreter with such an unlimited Right as some contend for to the abuse of his Church and the taking his Kingly Office out of his own hands For he has there observed That the Matth. 15. 6. Pharisees had made the word of God of none effect through their Traditions that is to say through their Exceptions Qualifications and Interpretations of it 4. I but they will pretend that Christ will make his Church Infallible and if they be so he himself will really reign in them they interpreting alway according to his mind And that he has made his Church Infallible they will pretend to appear plainly out of such places of Scripture as these * Matth. 16. That the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her and again * Joh. 14. I will ask the Father and he will give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth which the World cannot receive c. again * Joh. 16. When he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth To which adde that of S. Paul to * 1 Tim. 3. 15. Timothy where he seems to call the Church the Pillar and Ground of Truth And lastly that to the * chap. 4. Ephesians where Christ is said to have given some Apostles and some Prophets and other some Evangelists and other some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ till all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ. Let these passages then be their Letters patent their grand pretended Commission of Infallibly interpreting and never erring in any Determinations or Conclusions and we shall easily discover that it is a mere pretence 5. For I demand whether this Promise of Infallibility be to the Whole visible Church in succession or
signifie certain performance but the duty what they ought to perform As when the Apostles are called the Light of the world and the Matth. 5. 13 14. Salt of the earth which onely signifies what they ought to be not what they were necessitated to be For those that ought to be thus may notwithstanding hide their Talent or grow unsavoury through their own fault as it fared in Judas and in all his succession of false Apostles which call themselves the Servants but are the betrayers of the Lord Jesus 13. But lastly Suppose that the Church then in general were here understood it does not follow That because that Primaeval and Apostolical Church should by a peremptory design of Providence have engraven upon it or exhibit to the world as Articles of belief nothing but what was true that the Church in succession should always doe the like For there was a prime care taken that the first establishment of the Church should be in truth and solidity but that being done which was sufficient for the after-carrying on the affairs of the Church in a right way by free Agents the success should afterwards lie upon their industry and fidelity at least so far as that by no miraculous and supernatural force they should be assisted or driven on to keep things pure and intemerate And that was sufficient for the Church I think which is thought sufficient for every particular man namely That the Christian Doctrines and Precepts being faithfully laid down in the Evangelists and other Writings of the Apostles they might that usual Grace of God which is not irresistible assisting them frame their lives and beliefs accordingly in those things that are plain And all are so that are necessary to Salvation Which Rule if it had been kept to no Error had crept into the Church to this very day 14. Which last Answer will contribute something towards an Answer to the last place alledged for it seems onely to contain a description of a special provision of God for the rightly settling his Truth in the first Ages of the Church To which purpose he appointed not onely Pastours and Teachers which Functions continue still but Apostles having a particular mission from Christ himself who breathed into them the Spirit of Truth as also Prophets and Evangelists men in a special manner inspired and assisted to erect the Fabrick of the Church according to the will and purpose of Christ who then in an extraordinary manner did supervise all by a miraculous assistence of his Spirit And therefore what-ever was wrote for the publick use of the Church while any of those unto whom our Saviour Christ said that the Spirit should abide with them for ever which should lead them into all Truth were alive or was approved by them is really of certain and infallible authority but what-ever after-Inventions or Super-additions there were in the Church they are to be measured by this unerring Rule These unerring Pastors therefore and Teachers Apostles Prophets Evangelists were not a promise to all Successions but an extraordinary gift as the Text it self imports which Christ at that time namely at his solemn Coronation or Triumph ascending above all Heavens that he Eph. 4. 10. might fill all things cast down as a Royal Largess upon his Church for the speedy completement of her for her growing up into the unity of the Faith and Knowledge of Christ and that she might not be carried about with every wind of Doctrine but adhere to that onely that was delivered by those Heavenly-inspired and miraculously-assisted Ministers of the Gospel The acknowledgement whereof I conceive had been the onely sure means to keep the Church in Unity for ever whenas the pretending to an Infallibility in the succeeding Church where indeed it was not and the taking upon them thereupon to impose things with equal authority to the Apostles themselves would naturally prove the fountain of all Error Schism and Confusion CHAP. II. 1. That the safe conveyance of the Apostolick Writings down to us by the Church does not infer her Infallibility 2. That the Plainness of Scripture in points necessary to Salvation takes away the want of an Infallible Judge 3. That the Scripture not pointing to any Infallible Judge nor any faithful Keeper of Traditions does ipso facto declare her self the onely sufficient Guide 4. That there is not onely no want of an Infallible Judge but better there should be none 5. That the want of Infallibility does not take away the Authority of the Church it being the duty of every person in things really disputable to compromise with her 6. That though a Visible Judge be necessary in Civil causes yet it is nothing so in Points of Religion 7. That every private man has not onely a liberty but a command to judge for himself in matters of Faith 8. The said Right or Privilege demonstrated also by Reason 9. That the Reason or Judgment of every private man is not a private Spirit in that reproachful sense that some speak it 10. That the claim to a right of judging for ones self in points of Faith does not make a man superiour to his Church 11. Nor yet equal 12. Nor implies that he thinks himself wiser then his Church but rather more careful of his own eternal Concerns 13. That it is not his private Wisdom he sticks to but the Wisdom of God known to all that are not wilfully blind 14. That the Church is not Infallible proved from the Example of the Jewish Church 15. That there is the same reason of the Christian. 16. That the want of an Infallible Interpreter is no such loss to the common people 17. That their assurance of the truth of the Scriptures by the Spirit is a Tenet not so superciliously to be exploded as some make shew of 18. That this Spirit is properly the Spirit of Faith distinguishable from that of Knowledge and Wisdom 19. The notorious Fraud and excessive Mischief of this pretence of Infallibility 1. BUT being worsted thus in Scripture they will pretend Demonstrations in Reason upon the presumption they are the true visible Church successively descended from Christ and his Apostles that Infallibility is for ever intailed upon them As first That unless the Church were successively Infallible we could have no certain and Infallible belief of the Holy Scriptures which are avouched to be such by the Church But I briefly answer That supposing this successive Church were a trusty undoubted Conveyer of the Copies of the Holy Scriptures uncorrupted yet it doth not follow that they must be Infallible Interpreters of these Scriptures no more then the faithful conveyance of Plato's and Aristotle's Writings to all posterity implies that the Conveyers thereof are Infallible Interpreters of them For they might preserve the Writings of either by a diligent comparing of Copies upon every transcription besides that there might be a special watchfulness of Providence over these Holy Writings for the conservation of
the Cunning and Industry of Secular Princes and if all those Doctrines and Duties which were most urged and most frequently came into practice were of such a nature as did plainly tend to the either Honour Power or Profit of the Priesthood This I say would strike very far towards the making the World Infidels or believers of nothing but this That the Summe of our Religion is but a witty Invention of so many fictitious Stories Doctrines Precepts and Ceremonies which would serve to hamper the Consciences of men and make the World more Governable but so shaped out by the Priests as made most for their worldly advantage And such we have already described the Tenents and Doctrines of this Church to be continuedly displaying the Frauds and Self-endedness of all their Errours and Mispractices and need not here again repeat them 4. Thirdly This also would oppose the Christian Faith To make the nature of it such that it must be always doubtfull Of which I must confess I know not what may be the fetch unless it be to keep mens Minds as some deceitfull Physicians and Surgeons do their Bodies in such an unsound and valetudinarious condition that they may have the more frequent recourse to them and depend the more upon them or because they mixe some things in Religion necessarily to be believed which it is impossible they should be firmly believed by any but fools And thus the true and solid points of Christianity such as have sufficient evidence to convince any maâ—… of Reason must be reputed obscure and uncertain for being found in the company of such gross Falsities or Uncertainties which yet pretend to an equal right of entire reception with the clearest Truths And further It is no wonder that such a Church as places whatever certainty there is of Faith upon her own Infallibility as if that were the ground of it should derive both an opinion and profession of the Uncertainty of Belief upon her Nurselings they having no better ground then what we have so plainly demonstrated already to be hollow and ruinous But it is their onely Shift and Refuge to make their Infallibility the ground of Belief the matters they propose to be believed having no recommendation either from Scripture or their own nature to be embraced And therefore things being thus uncertain at the bottom upon their Principles they must instead of a firm and solid Faith be content with an obscure and uncertain one Which is indeed the destroying of Christian Faith and the substituting of a more vertiginous fluctuation of mind in lieu thereof 5. Fourthly That Principle also tends to the ruining of Faith which supposes That without right Succession of Bishops and Priests there is no true Church and therefore no true Faith and that this Succession may be interrupted by the misordination or misconsecration of a Priest or Bishop the persons thus ordained or consecrated being Atheists or Jews or ordained by them that are so or do out of malice not intend what they ought in the Sacrament of Orders as some call it Which were a conceit able to turn all men Scepticks concerning their state in Religion but is a Position absolutely against inward sense and Reason As if a man could not feel in his own conscience whether he believed or not the Truths of Holy Scripture without he were first assured that he was a member of that Church that had an uninterrupted lawfull Succession of the Priesthood from the Apostles times till his own Whenas there is nothing more immediate to a man then inward sense which it is not in the power of any Sophistry ever to confute 6. Wherefore though this Position may be spightfully levelled against the Certainty of Faith yet the execution it can doe upon the considerate is very inconsiderable and small much like that peevish Supposition of the necessity of Unity of Opinion as if those Churches that did differ in any thing had the certainty of nothing An excellent Hypothesis indeed were it but true and such as would effectually recommend the usefulness of an Infallible Judge of Controversies if he could be had for love or mony by whom they might closely compact the parts of the Church Catholick together as with cramps of Iron But there is no such force in the Theorem which will of it self fall asunder into dust if we consider it can stand upon no other terms then what will supplant the truth of all Reason and Religion in the world the whole world being divided in their judgments and conclusions concerning both Whence it is plain that the Attempt though weak tends to the bringing in universal Scepticism in all things In which deluge the Christian Faith would be also drowned and perish with all other Truths there being no Ark left to take Sanctuary in and to be safe from the working and absorptive waves of this reciprocating Euripus 7. But sixthly and I shall now instance in what is not onely ill-meant but must needs have a successfull efficacy for making the World Atheists or Infidels and that is The glutting of them with lying Miracles and gulling of them with delusions and cousening devices call them pious Frauds or by what other fine names you please For the Falsehood being once discovered in such a Church as requires to be believed more upon their own Authority and Infallibility then upon the credibility of the matters which they propound I say if they once be taken tardy in Forgeries and guilefull Fictions in any points especially such as tend to their own profit how can this fail of shaking or rather ruining the whole Frame of belief to the very Foundations How ruinous then must the Christian Faith be where such Lies and Figments are frequent and almost as frequently discovered by those that are more nasute Certainly Atheism and Infidelity must break in upon such a Church as the Sea upon the cutting of the Banks 8. That I may the better be understood I will give you some brief Instances of these impudent Figments As for example If they should have the face to tell the people that such a Saint when his Head was struck off walked four or five mile with it in his hand onely resting himself every mile's end to take breath at his open weasen-pipe That another Saint being hospitably entertained at the expence of the lives of a Cow and a Calf restored them again to life and that they were both of them found the next day in their Master's Meadows That by another Saint the Devil was seen behind the Altar busily writing down mens sins in a parchment which being something too scant he stretched with his teeth and his hold slipping knocked his head against the wall That a certain She-Saint being swallowed by a Dragon she making a Crosse in the Dragon's belly burst him in pieces and so was delivered That a Bishop having cut off his own hand upon its being polluted by the kiss of some over-affectionate female it
Various ways of the improving this gainful persuasion 6. The unspeakable honour that seems to accrue to the Priest from this stupendious miracle 7. That it seems to give him a just claim to exemption from Civil jurisdiction and saves him the labour of endeavouring after Truth and Sanctity 8. That their Pretences for Idolatry though they be weak yet their Self-ends therein are palpable 51 CHAP. XVI 1. That Idolatry is the highest and most peculiar injury that can be committed against God 2. That giving Religious honour to Saints or Angels is really a reproaching them and blaspheming them 3. The exceeding great Mischief done to the Soul of man by Idolatry 4. That Idolatry turns men into bloudy Wolves and Bears 5. And is the Mother and Nurse of the foulest impurities 6. That it is the source of all manner of wickedness and eternal death to the Idolater 7. The great Mischiefs it doth to the Church of Christ. 8. How the Church is lessened by Idolatry at home 9. And the spreading thereof hindred abroad 10. And consequently the whole World injured thereby 55 CHAP. XVII 1. That a multitude of slight Observances may amount to an intolerable burthen 2. That no Religious observance can be slight while it has an obligation upon the Conscience 3. Though this general estimate of the burthen of Superstition from obligation of Conscience and multitude of Observances might suffice yet he will adde a more particular Draught of this Limme of Antichristianism 4. Of Anointings and of the Multiplicity of Sacerdotal Ornaments 5. The pretence and Self-endedness in these Ornaments and Anointings 6. The Mischief arising from these kind of Ceremonies to Priest and People 7. A more full description of their publick Service 8. That respect to the Priest is better sought and more certainly found in the Power of Life and Doctrine then in any Histrionical Pomp 9. Which is so unsatisfactory to the serious that it may hazard their departure 10. The Opinion of a miraculous power in Religious Vestments 11. The Falseness and Fraud of this Opinion 12. The ill consequence thereof 59 CHAP. XVIII 1. Of the Enchanting or Exorcizing of Water Oil Salt Wax-candles c. with a general intimation of the Mischief thereof 2. Of the Exorcizing of a Golden Rose and Lamb of Wax 3. That the using of the Name of the true God in these Exorcisms does not hinder but that they may be properly termed Enchantments 4. Other Instances of their being Charmers and Magicians With an Anticipation of an Objection 5. The Falshood Fraud and Mischief of these Exorcisms 6. The derivation or distribution of these Exorcized Elements into several Superstitious uses 7. Of the supposal of the Infant 's being possess'd and of Baptismal Spittle 8. Of Extreme Unction and other Superstitious practices upon the dying man 9. As also upon his Corps laid out 10. The Fraud and Mischief of these practices .. 65 CHAP. XIX 1. The burthen of Spiritual Cognation and excessive Numerosity of Holy-days 2. Perpetual abstinence from Flesh in some Religious Orders The Fraud and Mischief thereof 3. The burthen of vowed Coelibate 4. The more dangerous purposes thereof 5. The ordinary services done by the Monasticks to this Antichristian power we describe 6. That its establishment is much corroborated by the Interest of Monasteries 7. And enriched by being Heir to all professours of Coelibate 8. The great Mischiefs of Coelibate 9. Of Flagellation 10. The ineffectualness thereof Hypocrisie of the Penitent salvage Pride of his Church and the Mischiefs resulting therefrom 11. Of Pilgrimages and Jubilees 12. An enumeration of several other Antichristian Austerities 70 CHAP. XX. 1. The Burthen of afflictive Opinions 2. The distracting puzzles of a Soul intangled with multifarious Superstitions and Conceits 3. The illaqueations of Religious Vows 4. Intanglements arising from a Superstitious trust in certain surmised virtues in the Mass. 5. Vexatious Scrupulosities concerning the Intention of the Priest in administring the Sacraments 75 CHAP. XXI 1. Of the necessity of Anniversary Confession 2. Of Sacerdotal Absolution 3. What is meant by Binding and Loosing and to what manner of persons Remission of sins is committed 4. Erasmus his gloss upon that Text of S. John 5. As also Hugo Grotius his whence Auricular Confession and Absolution prove groundless 6. A voluntary Confession and in general useful in the Church in some circumstances and in order to particular Absolution from the Priest 7. As also a more particular Confession if voluntary 8. The Self-ends of this Church in exacting so punctual a Confession from men 9 10. The slavery and Mischief of such kind of Confessions 11. The infinite vexation to the consciencious and ingenuous from the obtruding upon them incredible and impossible Opinions 78 CHAP. XXII 1. The dreadful Figment of Purgatory 2. That by this affrightful Fable the whole Moles of Superstition hitherto described is made infinitely more weighty and burthensome 3. The Antichristian Doctrine of Christ his Satisfaction reaching onely to the freeing us from the Guilt of sin not the Punishment 4. The multifarious drudgery and slavery this Doctrine and that Figment of Purgatory casts men into 5. A confutation of the said Doctrine and Figment 6. That it is impossible that the sincerely-minded in this life should find either Hell or Purgatory in the other 7. That there is no ground for this Antichristian Purgatory in either Scripture or Fathers 8 The gross Fraud and grand Mischief of this Fiction 9. The conclusion of the description of this second Limme of Antichristianism 82 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. The Positive Ends of the Gospel which the rest of the Limms of Antichristianism do oppose 2. That to lay claim to a Right of Infallible Interpretation of the Laws of Christ is a supplanting of his Kingly Office 3. An instance of that danger in the Glosses of the Pharisees 4. Several places of Scripture alledged to prove the Church Infallible 5. The first general Answer to these Allegations by demanding whether the Promise of Infallibility be to the Whole Church or to Part. 6. The second by demanding whether the Promise be Absolute or Conditional 7. A third That the Promise cannot be Universal touching all Objects that may be considered 8. A particular Answer to the first place of Scripture 9. An Answer to the second and third 10. Infallibility a Promise onely to the first Founders of the Christian Church 11. What the meaning of The pillar and ground of truth 12. A farther exposition of that passage of Paul to Timothy 13. That if understood of the Universal Church it may be meant onely of it in the Apostles times 14. And that the like may be said of the last Allegation 87 CHAP. II. 1. That the safe conveyance of the Apostolick Writings down to us by the Church does not infer her Infallibility 2. That the Plainness of Scripture in points necessary to Salvation takes away the want of an Infallible Judge 3. That the Scripture not pointing to
that Grace which was not afforded by the Law namely the Quickning Spirit of God the peculiar promise of the Gospel Wherefore the Truth it self the body of the Sun of Righteousness being now risen with healing in his wings it is time for obscure Shadows and dark Types to fly away 2. And hence it is that S. Paul so stoutly exhorts the Galatians not to be held in bondage any longer within these shady coverts Nevertheless Gal. 4. 30. what saith the Scripture Cast out out the Bond-woman and her son For the son of the Bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the Free-woman So then Brethren we are not children of the Bond-woman but of the Free Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoak of bondage that is to say neither with Circumcision nor any other useless and burthensome ceremony And again upon the same subject he speaks very triumphantly in the above-mentioned Epistle to the Colossians in the same Chapter from the 8 verse to the verse before recited In which paragraph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coloss. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hand-writing of Ordinances seems most naturally to be understood of Ceremonial ordinances that these were nailed to his Cross and nulled by his death but for that Law which is purely Moral and Eternal and the observation whereof is the perfection of Humane nature he came not to destroy it but to rescue it and perfect it by clearer glosses Which interpretation agrees the best both with the matter in hand which are Ceremonial ordinances which the Apostle speaks of Traditions of men and Rudiments of the World and also with the signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in verse 20. If you be then dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why as living in the world are ye subjected to ordinances to the decrees and ceremonial impositions of men As it follows immediately Tast not touch not handle not which he calls the Commandments and doctrines of men and not unlike those he mentions in his first Epistle to Timothy Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which in one sense of the Text he seems to term the seducing Chap. 4. v. 3. doctrines of Devils as suggested by them over whom Christ is said to triumph here under the name of Principalities and Powers by virtue of his Cross and so treading them down is supposed to trample upon their ordinances those Doctrines of Devils which they enviously and insultingly entangled poor mankind withall And little better then such would the Judaical Ceremonies themselves be accounted when having been once abrogated by God through Christ they are again re-inforced by new imposers For that zeal that is inspired into men for the driving on superstitious ordinances and practices contrary to the command of Christ and the honour of the Gospel may be rationally conceived to come from Satan the active enemy of the Church of Christ. 3. Like to this of the Colossians is that of the Ephesians For he Chap. 2. 14. is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us having abolished in his flesh that is by his flesh crucified on the Cross as before the law of commandments contained in ordinances which answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hand-writing of ordinances in the former And by both these places it is evident That the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross was the solution of all the Ceremonies of Moses Law according as the Prophet Daniel had Dan. 9. predicted and That the everlasting Righteousness should take place a Religion that would instruct us to worship God in spirit and in truth and therefore should stand for ever there being none more perfect to succeed 4. And according to this tenour of the Gospel S. Peter as well as S. Paul is very earnest upon the point in that debate at Jerusalem whether Act. 15. 10. the converted Gentiles should be circumcised where he concludes his speech in this manner Now therefore saith he why tempt ye God to put a yoak upon the neck of the disciples which neither our Fathers nor we were able to bear namely ob ingentem illum numerum praeceptorum ritualium as Grotius has noted and superadded And S. Paul is so zealous for the casting out the Bond-woman and her child that he tells the Galatians roundly Behold I Paul say unto you that if you be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing So industriously did the Apostles of Gal. 5. 2. Christ fling off from the Church that wearisome burthen of the Rites and Ordinances of the Mosaical Law And thus we are sufficiently assured of the Privative End of the Gospel namely That it was to eradicate Idolatry from amongst the Nations and to null the Law of Moses in all the Ritual or Ceremonial ordinances thereof as a troublesome and useless incumberment upon Christianity and the Churches of God CHAP. IV. 1. The Positive End of the Gospel summarily proposed 2. The several grounds of honour due to Christ and particularly of his Paternal Title 3. Both God the Father and Christ the Authours of our Regeneration and how the First Hypostasis being called Father does not exclude the Second from that Title in respect of his Church 4. The other Titles of Christ plain of themselves 5. The Divine life with its Root and Branches the Second part of the Positive scope of the Gospel 6. That such a Mysterie as upon Religious pretences does really supplant all the grand Ends of the Gospel whether Privative or Positive is Mathematically manifest to be that notorious Mystery of Iniquity 7. The method of pursuing the particulars of this Mystery more largely 8. The Falsness Fraud and Mischief of every member of Antichristianism to be enquired into 9. The Authour 's serious desire that the Truth of the Description may be perused without Prejudice and acknowledged without Tergiversation by them that are convinced 1. THE Positive Scope of the Gospel as I said and have elsewhere proved is The exaltation of the Divine life which is either by giving all due honour and obedience to Christ in whom this life did so eminently reside or by promoting the increase thereof both intensively and extensively in his members that it may rise to a due height where it is and get footing amongst those where it is not that the whole Mass of Mankind if it were possible might be leavened not with the leaven of Hypocrisie but with the sincere doctrine and enlivening spirit of the Gospel of Christ. 2. That Honour and Homage we owe to the Person of Christ is to be considered chiefly in these five respects As he is our King As he is our Priest As he is our Prophet As he is God Blessed for ever and As he is in a particular manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
not only there where an Idol is worshipped but where any thing is worshipped which is not God whether that thing be visible or no. In which sense * In Orat. Panegyr in Natal Christi Gregory Nazianzene defines Idolatry to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And * De Idololatris cap. 15. Tertullian pronounces that whatsoever is exalted ultra humani honoris modum with more then civil worship does ipso facto become an Idol When they are not truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they become by being worshipped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non-Dii as some would have the notation of the word not Gods but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idols as it is often rendred by the Seventy and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in the first of the * Ch. 16. 26. Chronicles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shews plainly that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be referred also to those things that are not carved Images For the Nations worshipped the Sun and Moon and the Souls of men departed which are not Imagery but Natural things And therefore sometimes they render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter whereof must refer to those invisible Daemons themselves who being but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture-account their worship must also be Idolatry and will without any scruple be acknowledged so by any one that either the sense of things or the force of words has left any impress upon 7. This might also make the Seventy careless of translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when spoke of the Heathen Gods but sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those Deities themselves to whom Idols were consecrated being but Idols in this sense And whereas they understood by Baalim those false Deities distinct from their Images as appears from the second of the * Chap. 28. vers 2. Chronicles where they translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ahaz made Statues or Images for Baalim yet for the same reason they several times translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Baalim themselves whether the Sun or the Souls of men deceased being but Idols in this sense we speak of For which reason lastly I conceive they also translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above a dozen times and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once whenas a learned Doctor of our Church conceives the word according to its original meaning it signifying any cause of anxiety grief or frightfull passion to note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 themselves chiefly whose hard usages and affrightfull appearances to dismaied mankind brought in that kind of pusillanimity which the Greeks call properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the superstitious fear and disquieting dread of Daemons which is so far from being supposed to proceed from the Images themselves that Grotius has noted it as the complaint of Varro against those that had corrupted that purer kind of worship instituted by Numa by their bringing in of Images Eos utique civitatibus suis metum dempsisse errorem addidisse But every thing Grot. in Decalog that has Religious worship done to it that is not God becoming thereby an Idol the Seventy may very well be excused for their proneness of rendring these words by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which had been more properly and expresly in such and such circumstances rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As their proneness in so doing is also again an argument as I have already intimated of the warrantableness of their both notion and expression who call the worshipping of any thing that is not God Idolatry 8. To which God himself also witnesses that it is such by declaring himself so affected at worshipping that which is not God as he does at the bowing towards Images which he forbids giving this reason For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God Exod. 20. The original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Deuteronomie the 32. he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have moved me to jealousy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in non Deo by that which is not God Whereby we seem to be admonished wherein the nature of Idolatry does immediately consist and that the worshipping of an Image is not Idolatry as it is an Image but as that Image is not God no Image being God but that true and living Image of the Father Jesus Christ. That therefore is the true and general notion of Idolatry To worship any thing that is not God whereby we forsake God himself and devotionally prostitute our selves to every evanid representation or far-cast shadow of him such as are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shadows of shadows in infinite myriads of degenerations from him and so provoke his jealousy by these multiplied Baalim whenas He alone is to be our Lord and Husband But this is a Truth so plain and acknowledged that I need not have spent so much time in the verbal allusions to adde any countenance thereto CHAP. VI. 1. That the Israelites worshipped Jehovah in the Golden Calf proved out of Exodus 2. That Elohim though joyned with a verb of the plural number is understood of the true God with further testimony out of the 106 Psalm that God was worshipped in that Calf and what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies 3. That the Golden Calf was no figure of the Aegyptian Apis but a Cherub 4. Aaron's case of making the Golden Calf compendiously opened as also the ground of Tacitus his ridiculous errour discovered 5. That the Golden Calves in Dan and Bethel were two Cherubim set up for the worship of the God of Israel proved from Jeroboam's Politicks 6. Also from Jehu and Elias his zeal and the instruction of the Assyrian Colonies by an Israelitish Priest 7. That Micah's Ephod and Teraphim were also meant to the true God 8. And yet both he and the Israelites in the Wilderness Idolaters in their use of the Teraphim and Cherub in Divine worship 9. That Jeroboam was also an Idolater in setting up the Calves in Dan and Bethel proved out of Scripture 10. Other Testimonies to the same purpose and of the Idolatry committed in the Brasen Serpent 1. THat which seems more seasonable to inquire into is this Whether as there is Idolatry without the worshipping of Images so there may not be the worshipping of Images without Idolatry the Images being worshipped in reference to the true God That to worship the true God by an Image is Idolatry I conceive is very plain from the children of Israel's worshipping him by the Golden Calf which Aaron made For first that they worshipped God by this Calf is evident from what is written Exod. 32. 4. where it is proclaimed These be thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the Land of Aegypt And verse 8. God there telling Moses what was done They have saith he made them a molten Calf and have worshipped it and have sacrificed thereunto and
Vestments would vie in number with the Vestments of Aaron the High-priest and imitate also his in Analogie his Breast-plate his Ephod his Robe his broidered Coat his Mitre and Girdle and the Bishops not content with these should adde for the further adorning themselves as if they had a mind to out-doe the Ceremonial Habiliments of Aaron himself six more holy Ornaments nay I will suppose nine more besides the consecrating of these Priests with holy oyl on their shaven Crowns and in their hands which become thereby so sanctified that the more devout would eagerly and zealously kiss the hand of the Priest strait after his Ordination hoping thereby to partake more fully of his devotedness and sanctity What were this I say but to Judaize under Christianity and to illaqueate the minds of men with such Superstitions as our Saviour Christ came to set them free from Which intimation is sufficient to shew the Falsness and groundlesness of such an Oeconomy in the Church 5. But as for the pretence for such kind of Aaronical Ornaments I can imagine none unless it be the imitation of the Levitical Laws which is a very bad one those Laws being to be abolished by Christ. Besides that the Robes of Aaron were of a more * Appendix to the Defence of the Philosophick Cabbala Ch. 5. Sect. 2 3 4. profound and important signification then to be imitated upon any slight or superficial design as well they as other Mosaical figures being prescribed according to a certain Pattern exhibited by God in the Mount which being the shadows of things to come do naturally vanish in this Meridian and Vertical Sun-shine of the Gospel And therefore to bring in so many New shadows is to reenvelop the Church with darkness and divert us from the rightly understanding of the meaning of the Old which assuredly were all Types of that more full knowledge of Jesus Christ and of that inward and Spirituall Sanctity we have in him But that advantage which this erroneous Priesthood might seek to it self herein is this That by these Histrionical disguises and peculiar adornings they may become more honourable in the eyes of the People who are much struck with outward shews I mean the simpler sort of them and that their Persons may be accounted very holy whose Ordination is with such pompous Ceremonie and whose sacred Unction makes it in some sort to vie with the Coronation of Princes Could they be more through-paced in the imitation of that great high-Priest of the Jews and adorn themselves with what in analogie should answer to his * See the Preface General to the Collection of my Philosophicall Writings Sect. 3. Urim and Thummim that is Illumination of mind and Sincerity of heart that indeed would be an happy emulation and would absolve them from an over-rigorous pursuance of the rest 6. But so it is according to our Hypothesis that instead of so great a good there follow these Inconveniences That this Sacerdotal Pomp and Gayness to those Priests that understand the nature of Christianity is both a Scandal and a Burthen to those that do not rellish Christianity in the right sense of it it is to them an occasion of insufferable pride and conceitedness and of great security and neglect of those true and indispensable endowments of the Christian Priesthood of that Anointing 1 John 2. 27 which will teach them all things even that of the Holy Spirit of God which is not lodged in consecrated Garments but in those purer habits of the Mind in the Inward man wholy and throughly dedicated to God by perfect and real abrenunciation of himself and of the flesh the world and the Devil by entirely giving up ones self to the sincere Love of God and of his Neighbour to Purity and Sobriety of life and to unfeigned Humility and Self-denial Which real Accomplishments should be the Foundation of respect to the Christian Priesthood not those exteriour Ornaments that may be the covers of a Beast or Devil And lastly for the People themselves As some are liable to be miserably deceived by those external Pomps so others to be much offended I mean those who are more seriously set upon the real duties of Christianity and find their wholesome appetite mock'd not fed with those outward shews in the publick Service of God 7. Which we shall better understand if we make a more plenary representation of their Publick worship and adde to the Consecrated Garments of the Priest the dedicating of an unknown Tongue to their Publick Prayers and Offices to the great disedification of the People What spectacle could one behold more Antichristian To see a man in those Sacerdotal disguises all of them consecrated and dedicated to the purpose himself having had both Head and Hands anointed with holy oyl standing in an anointed Church and at anointed Altar with his anointed Chalice and other anointed Utensils whose Church-yard is holy by the consecration and benediction of sprinkled Holy-water for the frighting the Devils from hanting that consecrate ground and molesting the sleep of the bodies of the Dead nay whose very Bells of his Steeple are Christned and Chrismatized for the chasing away the foul fiends out of the Aire at the departure of a Soul by their tolling or ringing To see him in his holy postures now at the one end of the Altar now at another now turning his face toward the people now his back-side one while holding up his hands another while holding them down another while a-cross at his breast now making with his hand a single Cross now two or three Crosses together now sitting then standing and another while stooping and kissing the holy Altar now speaking aloud then muttering to himself in a lower tone but always in a tongue that is not at all understood by the People To see I say such a Sight as this and to compare it with that of our Saviour The hour cometh when the true worshippers John 4. shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him It would necessarily extort from the Spectatour this just Censure That these are either false-worshippers or our Saviour's prediction not true or else the completion thereof past in the simplicity of the Primitive times or rather that if he would find these true Christian worshippers he must seek them somewhere else for here is neither Spirit nor Truth nor intelligible language but all more dark and blind and dumb then in the very Midnight-shadows of the Mosaical Dispensation 8. And therefore as I was a-going to conclude as the more sottish people will be liable to be even brutishly amazed and amused by this unintelligible and unedifying pomp and spectacle and be made the more obnoxious to all the Frauds and Tyrannies of this Unchristian though over-much Anointed Priesthood so the more nasute will be tempted to look upon it but as a kind of circumforaneous Masking or Mumming nor easily be persuaded that
for the more undeniably convincing the guilty and for the clearing the innocent from all such unjust Aspersions The End of the First Part. SYNOPSIS PROPHETICA OR THE SECOND PART OF THE ENQUIRY INTO The Mystery of Iniquity CONTAINING A Compendious Prospect into those PROPHECIES of the Holy Scripture wherein The Reign of Antichrist or The notorious Lapse or Degeneracy of the Church in all those Points comprised in The Idea of Antichristianism is prefigured or foretold Theognis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 DANIEL 4. This matter is by the decree of the Watchers and the demand by the word of the Holy ones LONDON Printed by James Flesher for William Morden Book-seller in Cambridge M DC LXIV The PREFACE to the Reader READER I Am not ignorant under what manifold Prejudice The main Prejudices against this present Discourse this Performance I present thee with may lie it being a Treatise wholy spent upon the Interpretation of Prophecies and chiefly of Daniel and the Apocalyps For it is over-true that some men look upon such Attempts as very vain and frivolous having concluded with themselves aforehand that all Prophecies are inextricable Aenigms and Riddles utterly uncapable of any certain Solution Others whose Exception were more material if it were true have a conceit that the searching into Prophecies especially those of the Apocalyps and of Daniel tends to nothing else but Faction and Confusion to the trouble and dissettlement of the affairs of Christendome and to the hazard of the subversion of States and Kingdoms and the ruine and destruction of the Church of Christ. And haply there may be others who though they neither deem the obscurity of these Prophecies invincible nor the search into them dangerous nay rather of good use and great consequence yet are so well satisfied already concerning these things by those worthily-magnified Elucubrations of Mr Joseph Mede that they may in all likelihood judge any new Essays herein needless and superfluous With these three grand Prejudices I phansy my self incumbred in regard of the Nature of the Subject I write of besides what particular Exceptions men may be prone to make against any parts of the Performance it self But I do not despair of more then fully quitting my self of them all 2. For as touching the first I think there is no man that has the That the Divine Prophecies are not invincibly obscure and that it smells of Blasphemie and Prophaneness to pronounce them so fear of God before his eyes but he would be ashamed to stand to any such Assertion it verging so near upon Prophaneness and Impiety nay upon open Blasphemie against the Spirit of God as if he dictated such things to the holy Prophets as are not sense nor ever to be understood by any reader of them Can there be any thing more Scoptical against Divine Inspiration then this or more undermining the very foundations of Christian Religion But we need not labour very solicitously in confuting an Errour so universally condemned by all parties that are any thing serious in their Religion For the obscurest Books of Prophecy I mean those of the Apocalyps and Daniel are commented upon by Papists Protestants and Neuters whereby they have all set to their hands that the Visions are intelligible But whatsoever Obscurity there may be in them I think my present pains ought to be the more acceptable in that I have contributed so much to a clear and certain way of interpreting them laying down such assured Grounds and Rudiments as if a man carefully observe and find History applicable within the compass of these Laws he can no more fail of the right meaning of a Prophecy then he will of the rendring the true sense of a Latine or Greek Author keeping to the Rules of Grammar and the known Interpretations of Dictionaries Which Laws I having kept to my self so strictly and carefully I dare appeal to all the world if I have not demonstratively made out the sense of such Visions as I have undertaken to expound And for my own part I must freely profess that I found it no such hard thing to understand those Prophecies I have interpreted and am certainly persuaded that neither any such greatness of Parts nor Exuberancy of Learning as Integrity of heart and Unprejudicedness of mind is requisite to the understanding of these things For if that Spirit of life be once revived in a man he will by virtue of his Regeneration or new Birth not onely see with his eyes but feel with his hands the truth of these Mysteries None of the wicked shall understand but the wise Dan. 12. 10. shall understand namely as many as apply themselves to the search of such things who will also in the mean time be so prudent as not to prejudge what they never had yet opportunity carefully to examine 3. Now touching the second Surmise That the search into That the greater danger there is from false unskilful Interpretations of them the greater value there ought to be upon their labour that search out such as are exact and true these Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalyps tends to nothing but tumult and sedition in Christendom it is very rashly and unskilfully spoken I do not deny but that as it is said of Philosophy that a more superficial smattering therein may hazard a mans plunge into Atheism before he be aware so a slighter inspection into these Prophecies may incline some to a Fanatical unsettledness and a dream of a Fifth Monarchy sutable to the carnal Conceitedness of their own temerarious phancy But as a more full draught of Philosophical knowledge will again wash away that Atheistical foulness out of the Soul so I doubt not but a more through search into the meaning of these Divine Predictions will make a man of a more sober mind and root out of his spirit all those vain pretences to Innovation and Schism And therefore the pains that I have spent in a more full and through scrutiny into the meaning of these Prophetick Visions may I hope at least deserve mens Pardon if not challenge their Approbation as their due Reward sith what tends so much to peace and soberness can not unrightfully seem to challenge the reward of a due Approbation from men I say then if by a more careless search there has been framed such meanings of those Prophecies as bear any danger or inconvenience with them there was the greater necessity that some or other upon a more diligent perusal should dive into the true and genuine sense of them that that Divine truth which was revealed for the good of the Church might not by any mistake tend to her detriment and ruine As certainly such a conceit of the manner of introducing a Fifth Monarchy as some have imagined and entertain'd might cause much trouble and mischief in the affairs of Christendome The Foundation of which Errour with the evil Sequels thereof the Seventh Consectary of my Joint-Exposition does
perpetual Confutation of Hugo Grotius in all his Expositions wherein he would undermine and elude the orthodox Protestant sense of the Prophecies we make use of in this Treatise And lastly Though I am very loath to have any difference with so excellent an Interpreter as Mr. Mede yet I must ingenuously confess that I cannot but dissent from him in several things which I deem not a little material 7. As first for example in his Exposition of the Beast that was The Author's dissent from Mr. Mede in his Exposition of the Beast that was and is not and is not For of this Beast he saith it might be said in S. John 's time Et jam olim eam fuisse necdum tamen natam esse With this short account would Mr. Mede turn off that Description of him But I must confess it seems to me impossible that those words should be used with any truth if restrained or tied to the time when the Vision was exhibited as if it spoke of his existing or not existing then and not only of the order of succession of Existence and Non-existence For the Beast that was to be again under the last Head was in actual being in S. John 's time Wherefore how harsh must it be to say of it while it is in being that it was But how plain a contradiction to say it is not while it is or that it is not yet born when it has continued so many ages and does and is to continue uninterruptedly so many after Apply this to any particular person still alive and in health and to live many years will it not grate against common sense to say of him he was and is not while he is alive and in being Besides that necdum tamen natam esse does not at all specifie his succession under the eighth King more then the seventh that being left out in this Interpretation which is the most plainly and most materially signified in the Prophecy namely That the Beast was to cease to be for a time Which Intervall of Non-existence immediately was to precede the succession of the Beast under the last Head 8. The oversight whereof seems to me to put Mr. Mede to the As also of the seventh King plunge also in his Exposition of the eight Kings where he glosses upon Unus est alius nondum venit after this manner Unus Regum seu Dynastarum ordo putà Caesarum adhuc superest sed is quoque sub Caesaribus Christianis ità mutaturus ut quasi alius sed brevis admodum aevi dynastes videretur reverâ tamen non alius Where quasi alius and reverâ tamen non alius I must ingenuously confess seem to me to fall short off or rather to be quite contrary to the scope of the Text this Seventh King being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on purpose to indicate his extreme difference from all that went before him that he did toto genere differre as being purely Christian and that the Eighth and six first have a greater cognation one with another then he with any of them which is according to truth Nor can the shortness of his Reign for was not that of the Decemviri and Dictatours far shorter nor his being still Caesar make him not an express and distinct King from the rest For upon this account the Beast that was and is not will want a proper and distinct Head at least till the Pope perk't up into the Caesareate which will be for some hundreds of years For the Head of the Empire till Hildebrand 's time or at least Pope Constantine and the two succeeding Gregories were the Caesars 9. And lastly Therefore the said oversight put Mr. Mede to the The unaccountableness of there being but seven Heads though eight Kings in Mr. Mede's way puzzle how to make but seven Kings of eight and upon committing this Paralogism There are but seven Heads of the Beast therefore there must be but seven Kings Whereas if he had considered according to the plain Indication of the Prophecy that there was a time when the Beast was for a while to cease to be which was the Intervall when pure Christianity was the Religion of the Empire and that the seven Heads of the Beast were Heads of Blasphemie or Idolatry he might have easily discerned not onely that there might be eight Kings though but seven Heads of the Beast but also that it was necessary it should be so For when the Beast was not in being his Head was gone also But the Empire never yet ceased to be no not in the Intervall of the Beast's not being nor could it be then without a Sovereignty Wherefore there is a necessity that there should be eight Kings though but seven Heads of the Beast For the Beast in his Non-existence could neither want nor have an Head The great serviceableness of the Authour's Interpretation of the Perdition of the Beast and of the burning of the Whore for the peace and security of Christendom 10. This is true as I have fully and it may be over-fully demonstrated in the ensuing Discourse But if it had not been also mainly usefull as well as true I should not have made it my business so carefully and copiously to have evinced it Nor take I any pleasure in having different opinions from others much less in divulging them were it not for a common good as this certainly is it tending so naturally to the peace and safety of all the Secular Powers of the Empire and to the vindicating of this holy Book of Visions it self from that contempt or hatred that some bear to it as seeming a Countenancer or Exciter of Fanatical persons to tumultuate against their lawfull Sovereigns whenas on the contrary as I have elsewhere intimated there is not any Book more faithfull and more friendly to the Prerogative of Secular Princes then this Volume of Prophecies the Prediction of the Perdition of this fourth Beast being rather a mercifull Promise then a Commination Which is this That as it ceased to be for a time so after a certain Period of time it should cease to be for ever Now the temporary ceasing of the Beast to be was onely the Empire 's entertaining and maintaining the pure and Apostolick Christianity as yet uncontaminate with any Pagan-like Idolatries Wherefore the ceasing of it to be for ever is nothing else but the being cleansed for ever from all Idolatry and Antichristianism Which can be no ill news to the Emperour and Secular Kings or Princes of the Empire they being quit of Idolatry which makes the Empire a Beast and of the imposturous Tyranny and Usurpations of the Pope of Rome over them at once But for that Hierarchical Power of the Pope and his Clergie and truly it will analogically touch such a Presbytery as hath not learn'd the lesson of due Subjection to the Secular Sovereignty in things indifferent that Papal Hierarchy I say which as * Praefat.
History of Christ and his Apostles but introducing thereupon such a face of Idolatry and Heathenish Superstition and barbarous Cruelty against the true Servants of Christ that by those whose judgments are more free and piercing such a state of the Church cannot but be deemed rather a Revival of Paganism then an uninterrupted Succession of true Christianity in the world or to use the softest language that the truth of the thing will admit of it cannot be judged pure and unadulterate Christianity but a kind of Pagano-Christianism the Pagan Rites Idolatries and Superstitions being practised upon Christian Objects and this Paganism in this pretended Christianity being maintained with as ferine cruelty as Paganism it self was in the time of the Heathen Emperours It remains now according to our proposed Method to search into the holy Oracles to find out Whether such a kind of Antichristianism as I have described be not prefigured therein and Whether so horrible a Mutation in the Church of Christ which for the general it is apparent even in the judgements of all that are not wilfully blind has for these many Ages seized upon the Church was not predicted of old by the Prophets or Apostles or by both 2. For it seems to me a wonderfull thing and incredible That God who was so carefull and watchfull over the Church of the Jews foretelling their Captivities and Returns out of Captivity and fore-advertising them in a manner of all their affairs of Importance by the mouths of his Prophets sometimes many hundred years before should leave the Church of Christ for so great a number of Ages without Ephod and without Teraphim without Prophets or timely Predictions what things would betide her in the decursion of so long a space as twelve or thirteen hundred years together to let her be bewildred thus in so endless a Night and leave her floating upon the waves without any Cynosura to stear by Wherefore I do not doubt but Christ has been so faithfull to his Spouse that he has left some Oracular Records wherein a man may reade if he come with unprejudiced eyes in a very legible Character the state and condition of the Church and this grand Apostasy of it with the most notorious circumstances thereunto appertaining that is to say He shall find in a manner all those Heads of Antichristianism which I have insisted upon intimated some way or other and charged upon that Church especially which History has found so guilty thereof 3. Which thing I being so fully persuaded of in my own judgement cannot without a great measure of grief or indignation reflect upon the misspent pains of some learned Pens who have endeavoured to pervert all those illustrious Prophecies whether in Daniel the Apocalyps or other places that do forewarn the people of God of this grand Degeneracy of the Church unto some other sense and meaning though never so forced and frivolous though never so strained and inconsiderable thereby obscuring both the glorious Providence of God of whose watchfulness over his Church the true and easy sense of these Prophecies is a most ample witness as also hindering that benefit which was to accrue to us by the right understanding of these holy Prefigurations and Predictions which if rightly interpreted would be of wonderfull great virtue for the reclaiming of the world and converting of Christendom to that ancient and Apostolick purity as well in Practice as Doctrines from which they have so long time swerved Wherefore out of a due sense of the Honour of God and the Interest of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus I hold it fit to bring into view all those Prophecies as well of the Old as New Testament that have been by the Ancients understood of this Antichristian Apostasy and with an unprejudiced freedom and impartiality to unfold the meaning of them Which I hope I shall doe with that plainness and simplicity of evidence offering so unforced so easy and so natural a sense of things and so coherent with undubitable Principles that there is no man that is not grosly prejudiced but will receive full satisfaction concerning the true meaning of these Divine Oracles 4. I must confess that it is hard to produce any Text of Scripture wherein this Apostatized state of the Church is undoubtedly foretold under the very Name of Antichrist though that Name be found more then once in the Epistles of S. John But though some do yet I dare not contend that this Antichrist or Antichristianism which I have hitherto described is so clearly pointed at in every one of those places Not onely Grotius but Mr. Mede himself understands those Antichrists of the Pseudo-christs that our Saviour foretells of in Matthew which should start up before and after the destruction of Jerusalem which was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last hour of the Jewish Commonwealth But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is indifferently rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel being the last the time of that Kingdom may be also intimated by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence that in S. John * 1 Ep. 2. 18. My little children it is the last hour and as you heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that that famous Antichrist will come even now there are many Antichrists whereby we know it is the last hour may bear this sense upon supposition the Prediction is somewhat Elliptically set down That the last time in Daniel's Kalendar of his Four Kingdoms that is to say the last Kingdom was then a running on which is the Roman during which Kingdom the Little horn which here is called Antichrist shall come upon the stage This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he that famous Antichrist whom you may have heard of out of Daniel but this is a greater distance off Wherefore to speak what more pressly concerns you Even now there are many Antichrists which not Daniel but our Saviour foretold of whereby again we know it is the last hour but I mean not of the Four Kingdoms of Daniel but of the Jewish Commonwealth according as our Lord has predicted Or more briefly thus My little children it is the last hour that is to say the last Kingdom of the Four namely the Roman and as you have heard that that famous Antichrist will then come viz. in that last hour so also now in the last hour of the Jewish Polity there are many Antichrists whence we may gather it is the last hour thereof these many Antichrists according to prediction attending this last hour as that one famous Antichrist that In some such sense as this I do confess that that Antichrist or Antichristianism which I have hitherto treated of may be by very Name intimated in this Text of Scripture though I shall quarrel with no man that would interpret it otherwise Grotius expounds this famous Antichrist of whom they
by their recourse to the Bloud of Christ by which they are justifi'd and freed from that blind bondage they were held in under those hard Task-masters that the Concinnity is marvellous to consider the Type being so clear a Prophecy of what has happened within these last Ages in breaking from that Tyrannicall bondage of the Italian Pharaoh But such Instances as these are infinite 6. The next obscuring Scheme is Ellipsis which is an omission of some word or words which are requisite to determine the sense Examples of Ellipses occurre every-where in the Old Testament in the Psalms Job and other Books But by an Ellipsis here I understand not merely the defect of something to make up the full sense but such an artificial defect as shall make the sense seem compleat without the supplement understood For that seems to be the Genius of these Apocalyptick Visions especially that they are made so as to seem very trim and express very complete and articulate in the very outward Cortex as a Book that has some pleasing Embellishments on the back-side as well as the History of truth within 7. Which I little doubt but may be alluded to in that expression concerning this Volume of Visions that it was * Revel 5. 1. written within and without according to the ancient manner of the Cabbalistick Mysteries Touching which Traditions Parmenides had got that Principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is a twofold traditionary Knowledge the one Truth it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Daniel in counterdistinction to his Aenigmatical Visions the other Types or Parables accommodate to the conceit and gust of the Vulgar S. Hierom also Rupertus and several others understand this being written within and on the back-side of a Literal and Mystical sense Grotius pretends the Text is not rightly comma'd but reads it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Written within and sealed on the back-side As if there were any Books written on the back-side and sealed within So unfortunate an Interpreter of the Apocalyps is the great Hugo even in lesser matters But to return to the matter in hand 8. The difference of those two kinds of Ellipses we have described may be seen in these Examples Exod. 3. where Moses asking God his Name he returns this answer I am that I am which is an Elliptical speech and fully supplied is My Name is I am that I am Something like this is that also in the * Chap. 1. 4. Apocalyps Grace to you and peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were more full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But these Ellipses are such that they discover the defect of what is to be supplied But sometimes it is not so as Apocal. 17. 8. The Beast which thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and goe into perdition And a little after When they behold the Beast that was and is not and yet is Which seems a smooth entire sense in the exteriour Cortex of the Prophecy whenas no good sense at all can be made of it unless there be conceived some such Ellipsis as before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to have been thus express had laid this Mystery over-open which ought to be in a greater measure concealed and therefore it was thus carefully lock'd up in this Prophetick Ellipsis Of which Text more fully in its proper place 9. Homonymia is the Diversity of significations in one and the same Symbol whereof one alone is to be understood else it were coincident with an Henopoeia of the second kind Which Homonymia may fall out ex accidenti and is of no greater difficulty then that ordinary Homonymia of words whose sense the consideration of the contexture of things will determine or else it may be intended of set purpose to make up a more gracefull insculpture upon the external Cortex of a Vision As in the Vision of the Witnesses I suspect that the three days and an half that they lie dead in the street do not signify as in the beginning of that Vision three years and an half but three times and an half that is 1260 years Nay that they do signify so I do confess I do more then suspect am indeed well assured in my own judgement of the truth thereof But whether there be any likelihood of their signifying also three years and an half Events will better determine Which if they did there would not be a simple Homonymia in this Symbol of three days and an half but an Henopoeia of the second kind 10. Metalepsis is a Prophetick Scheme whereby an Effect or Event is transferred or communicated to some eminent Person merely or at least mainly because the place and time is coincident with his and there is the same reason of Things This Scheme I must confess is very Poetical but not unelegant nor unusuall Like to this is that of Virgil Candidus auratis aperit cùm cornibus annum Taurus and again Libra dies somnique pares ubi fecerat horas Where Taurus and Libra because they are then in conjunction with the Sun have attributed to them or transferred upon them those Effects which really are the Sun 's onely and not theirs But that there is such a Metalepsis as I have described in the Prophetick style that one example of the Rider of the red Horse in the * Chap. 6. 4. Apocalyps will make good who is armed with a great sword in his hand and is said to take peace from the Earth Whenas nothing else is signified but that in this Emperour's time there would be very furious killing and slaying in the Empire though by no fault of his For it is said they should kill one another as if the Text on purpose did cast in that key for the opening the meaning of the Vision as Mr. Mede has judiciously observed Whose interpretation of the First six Seals is so solid that it is impossible I think taking all things together for any unprejudiced Reader not to be assured of the truth of them Whence it is that I am so well assured of this present Prophetick Figure I have set down 11. Antichronismus is an obscurative Scheme in Prophecy which sets down one measure of time for another as a Week for Seven years as in Daniel a Month for Thirty years a Day for a Year Which Figure seems to be used in the Apocalyptick Visions not onely for concealment sake but for proportion and Decorum that the external Cortex of the Prophecies may not want their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that winning and pleasing Credibility of Story Wherefore these Antichronismi are a necessary Consequence of that Prophetick Henopoeia that contracts vast Empires and other Bodies Politick with their long Successions into the figure or shape of Beasts or single Persons whence that the duration of their lives may not be over-proportionated to their nature it was necessary to declare their
continuance also under a disguise putting Days for Tears For their living may be shorten'd by several accidents but to tell of a Beast or a Woman or of two Witnesses that should live 1260 years would not keep the Decorum of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but would look like an incredible Narration 12. As it would also that the dead bodies of the two Witnesses should lie unburied in the open streets of the City for three years and an half whenas they would stink in the space of four days as is noted in the body of Lazarus How harsh then had it been to have represented the bodies of the Witnesses lying dead in the streets for 1260 years together Wherefore though their lying thus slain and unburied was the fittest and the most lively Representation of that condition that those that are represented under the figure of the two Witnesses were to be in for 1260 years together yet that the laws of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Story might be observed it was requisite that these 1260 years should be disguised under the Symbol of three days and an half Which signifying the same that three times and an half for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are promiscuously used the one for the other and these three times and an half signifying 1260 years both the truth which the Prophecy aims at is faithfully conveyed and that decorous embellishment in the external Cortex of the Prophecy punctually observed And that not onely by contracting the time but also by annexing it to the end of the 1260 days by a Lemmatosynechia which is in Latine as much as Corticis Continuatio And that this Prophetick Figure which I call Antichronismus is not a mere Supposition of mine but a solid Truth I have already made good in my Mystery of Godliness and shall further demonstrate even with Mathematical Certitude out of my Joint Exposition of the 17 and 13 Chapters of the Apocalyps 13. Icasmus is a Prophetick Scheme that bears by far the greatest part in all the Visions of Daniel and S. John and is nothing else but the Representation of things and events by such Symbols as bear some similitude with the things and events they stand for Which Symbols being many make the skill of interpreting Prophecy the more difficult but not at all desperate as some delicate Wits would phansy to themselves and pretend an horrour and affrightment at the uncouth mention of such variouslyshaped Beasts and at the clatter of their Horns whenas if they would be pleased to lay aside their niceness they might understand that these Hieroglyphicks of Prophecy might with far more ease be made familiar to them then the knowledge of Heraldry or Blazonry which is no such profound and unconquerable study CHAP. V. 1. The great Usefulness of an Alphabet of Prophetick Iconisms 2. What the best way of attaining to the right sense of them 3. What weight the Onirocriticks of the Ancients may cast in toward the determining their meaning 4. That there is the same reason of the Signification and Interpretation of Dreams as there is of Visions provided they be merely Typical and not Complexional 5. Angels Their Ministery in all affairs of Providence a noted Supposition in the ancient Cabbala and in the Apocalyps 6. Ascension into Heaven 7. Air the special Region of Devils 8. Balances 9. Beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idolatrous Kingdoms 10. The reason of the Lamb 's signifying one single Person and of wild Beasts noting Idolatry as well as Cruelty 11. Blasphemy That it signifies Idolatry made out both upon the account of Reason use of Scripture and Authority of Interpreters 12. Bloud 13. Bow and Arrows Buildings Burial 1. WE have shewn wherein the Obscurity of Prophecy does mainly consist and by the explication of the foregoing Figures have already done something toward the making of the skill of Interpreting easy to us But there being so many and so various Examples of the last Scheme we hold it needfull to bring the most considerable of them into one Alphabet and to set down the signification of them Which being taken notice of will much conduce to the easy spelling out the true meaning of all Aenigmatical Prophecies in Scripture For what * In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 2. Aristotle says of Aenigmatical Dreams is true also of these kind of Visions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he is the most artificial Interpreter of Dreams that is best at discerning Similitudes and Resemblances but for such Dreams as exhibit to the Phancy the things themselves every one can judge of them Now the Visions of Daniel and Apocalyps are not of the nature of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 representing things under Symbols or Similitudes And therefore to have a settled and determinate meaning and that upon solid and rational grounds of such Symbols and Iconisms must needs contribute much to the inabling us with ease and success to interpret these Prophecies or to make us understand and approve or with judgment disapprove of the Interpretations of other men 2. And for my own part I know no solider method of settling and securing to our selves the true sense of these Symbols then by attending what the Scripture it self declares of them and by strictly observing what Reason will unforcedly suggest or spy out concerning their significancy and representativeness of things To which if we adde the Suffrages of them that have wrote of Onirocriticks whether most-what out of their own reason and observation as Artemidorus professes or which is more to our purpose have made a Collection of the most ancient Writings of that kind such as Achmetes the son of Seirim has provided us it cannot but strengthen our assurance of the meaning of such Iconisms 3. And these of Achmetes more especially they being the Onirocriticks of three famous Interpreters of the Kings of India Persia and Aegypt and therefore being so ancient and so Eastern the more probable to have a greater cognation with the Prophetick Schemes of the Holy Writ The first of these is Syrbacham Interpreter to the King of India but he does Christianize so frequently and so palpably that his Antiquity may be much suspected and necessarily concluded since the coming of Christ. The second is Baram Interpreter to Saanisan King of Persia and the last Tarphan Interpreter to Pharao King of Aegypt The use of whose Interpretations is approved even by Expositors of quite different ways Grotius I mean and Mr. Mede who has the honour of first breaking the ice in this business 4. Nor is there any scruple for that these are the Interpretations of Dreams and not of Visions For besides that there is a great affinity betwixt Visions and Dreams they being both Phantasms impressed on the Imagination not by any free act or excitation of our selves but in a way merely passive the external Senses also being in a manner
over the Beast revived that is over the Empire Idolatrizing again all that Succession pitch upon it where you will be it Pope be it Emperour is look'd upon as the Eighth King or last Head of the Beast For this is that which this Vision onely concerns it self in and not useless discriminations and niceties Which supposition is agreeable to our third Rule of interpreting Prophecy And what was said in the behalf of the Distinction of the two first Members of my last Subdivision is so easily applicable to the last compared with the second that is to say Pagano-Christian with Christian that I need onely advertise so much and pass to other things The Proof of the truth of my first Subdivision into Consules Tribuni militum Decemviri and Kings Dictators and Emperours or Caesars I will deferre till after I have finished my Joint-Exposition 6. Five are fallen one is The five fallen in S. John's time were Kings Consuls Decemviri Dictators and Tribuni militum the one that then was was the continued Succession of the Pagan Caesars And here it will be seasonable to note That S. John so plainly asserting that one of the seven Heads of the Beast was alive and not slain as yet when he had this Vision that the Beast it self was still alive and in being and that therefore the Beast then was not come to the state of was and is not Which is a demonstration no less then Mathematical that was and is not do not signifie fixt or determined Existence or Non-existence but onely the order of them accordingly as I have declared and that consequently there is such an Ellipsis as I have supposed in The Beast that thou sawest was and is not c. So demonstratively evident in every point is our Interpretation But I proceed 7. And the other is not yet come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He does not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because this Seventh is not of the line properly of the predecessors they being all Pagans And therefore he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that excessive difference he had or distinction from them that went before as if it were plainly specifick according as Porphyrius has defined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And then he addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those Differences that make a thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are called Specifick differences which are the greatest Differences that can be So just a ground is there of our last Subdivision Out of which is also discoverable that the Beast was wounded in the Par. 2. Agr. 10. sixth Head For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being so perfectly opposite and contrary to him outed him out of Being it being impossible that the Head of the Empire should be purely Christian and yet Pagan at once Which is agreeable to what we have in the Thirteenth Chapter where there are numbered Seven Heads of the Beast with the Inscription of Blasphemy upon them that is of Idolatry Now there being but Seven Idolatrous Heads whereof Five were gone in S. John's time and the Seventh or last appertained to the Beast restored which is here called the Beast that was and is not and yet is it necessarily falls to the share of the Sixth Head there to be the wounded or slain Head as it is the Head exterminated out of Being in this Seventeenth Chapter From whence appears the tenth Agreement of our second Parallelism 8. And when he cometh he must continue a short space Short and Long are terms of comparison and must respect some other teâ—…m with which they are compared And assuredly the nearest and most freshly mentioned is the most naturally glanced at namely the duration of the Sixth Head or King The stay of this Seventh King will be short in comparison of the Sixth And that his stay will be short seems also to be prefigured in that expression in the Thirteenth Chapter And his deadly wound was healed For though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies him at length really dead yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his deadly wound was healed seems to inferre that his stay in death was not long but more like a deep and profound trance or deadly stound For such a wound as transmits a man into the state of death for a long time is a wound not to be cured as here it is said to be Wherefore this state of death in this deadly-wounded Beast was but for a short space as the reign of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is described to be the one necessarily Paral. 2. Agr. 4. implying the other For just so long as the Caesars were purely Christian did the Sixth Head that was slain which were the Idolatrous Caesars lie dead upon the spot and no longer Which makes good the fourth Agreement of our second Parallelism That the time of the Death or Non-existence of the Beast is not long in either Description of his fate Ver. XI And the Beast that was and is not even he is the Eighth It is observable that as in Exodus 3. after God had declared his Name to be I AM THAT I AM afterwards he takes but part of it Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel I AM hath sent me unto you so here whenas this Beast was thus defined Was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and goe into perdition and afterwards Was and is not and yet is yet here a short portion of the Title is made use of The Beast that was and is not Whereby I conceive is intimated accordingly as I have above noted that this Description of him is look'd upon as his Name so as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the Name of God And that in all these places there is an Ellipsis or defect of that intimation But is to be understood as firmly as if it had been thus supplied v. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and in the same verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in this 11. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 2. Even he is the Eighth So our English but this sense is not so even and so adequate The Greek has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is most easily and naturally rendred Et ipsissimus ille octavus est tamen è septem or more briefly Et ipse octavus est de septem That this Beast that was and is not namely his Head for it is manifestly a Synecdoche is both the Eighth King and also of the Seven to wit of those seven Kings that are understood by the Heads of Blasphemie or Idolatrous Heads Where it is remarkable with what caution and circumspection things are penned down in this holy and mysterious Book of the Apocalyps For first when he came to the Sixth Head he did not say the Sixth is but One is to make way for the reckoning the next under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is so significant as I have already
Inhabitants of the Earth with the cup of her Fornication This Inscription on the Pope's Crown and the chusing of a Woman-Pope who besides other feats betrai'd herself to be a Whore by falling into labour in the streets of Rome at a solemn Procession and did therein by a palpable Hieroglyphick insinuate to the world that Rome was indeed the Seat of that great Apocalyptick Strumpet are two notorious Specimens of that Jocantry and Festivity as I may so speak that is sometimes observable in Divine Providence answerable to that Ludibundness in Nature in her Gamaieu's and such like sportful and ludicrous Productions And verily this Accident of a Woman-Pope is as assured a truth as that of the Inscription if the Testimonies of above threescore Authors and that of the Romish Party may be thought sufficient to assure it All which are produced by Gabriel Powel in his Theological Disputations De Antichristo Lib. 1. cap. 28. Thes 7. But these things I was not hasty to interweave in my Exposition of these Chapters the contexture of things being abundantly clear and full and firm without them CHAP. XVI 1. What remains for the making up the fullest assurance that can be desired of the truth of our Joint-Exposition 2. That the Roman State from the beginning to the end is to be look'd upon as One Kingdom or Empire appears out of Florus 3. That there had been Five sorts of Supreme Magistrates in S. John's time in the Roman State Reges Consules Tribuni Consulares Decemviri Dictatores and that the Tribuni Plebis were no Supreme Power 4. Nor the Tribuni Militum simply so styled 5. But that the Decemviri and Tribuni Consulares were 6. As also the Dictators 7. That there had been no more then Five sorts of Supreme Governours in S. John's time and that the Interreges were not nor were at all reckoned by Historians a Supreme Government distinct from that of Kings 8. That the Triumviri Reipublicae constituendae was either a Scuffle and Confusion in the Roman State 9. Or else a formal Caesareate exercised by Augustus Lepidus and Antonius 10. That there is full and sufficient ground from Reason and History not to reckon the Triumvirate of constituting the Commonwealth a Sixth Form of Government distinct from Emperours and the Five fore-going Forms 11. That though there had been some other Forms truly distinct but yet of a near affinity with some of the other it had not been so harsh to have accounted them one with those they had that nearness with 12. But that there is a greater Exactness then this in the Application of this Vision and such as Scepticism it self can hardly doubt of 13. The Conclusion of the whole drift of the Chapter with a fuller enforcement of the truth thereof 1. I Have now finished my Joint-Exposition of these 17 th and 13 th Chapters of the Apocalyps saving that I am more fully to confirm that part concerning the Seven Heads being Seven sorts of Supreme Governours succeeding one another in the Empire as also more particularly to indigitate How exact an Image of the Beast that was slain the Revived Beast became in points of Superstition and Idolatry To which if I adde a solid confutation of Ribera's Interpretation of the Seven-headed Beast as also of Grotius his I think there will be nothing wanting to the greatest assurance of the truth of our Interpretation that any one can desire 2. In the first the Controversie is onely concerning the Six first Heads Whether from the Kings to the Pagan Emperours speaking inclusively there were Six Forms of Government and no more or if you will Whether there were just Five before the Roman Caesars That the Roman Kingdom or Empire is to be reckoned from their first Kings downwards I think no man will scruple nor that it is all along the same Beast as well as Florus considers it as one Man and distinguishes his Ages allotting the first 250 years from Romulus to the Infancy of the Roman People or Empire and then 200 years more to its Youth and then 250 years more which reached to Augustus his time to the Manly Age of the Empire but the next 200 years he calls Senectutem Imperii Which shews plainly that he looks upon the whole Succession as one and the same Empire though under several growths which yet was longer-lived a great deal then to be accounted old in Trajan's time Wherefore History it self looking upon the whole Succession of the Roman People as one Body Politick there can be no harshness at all in describing this Body by such a number of Heads as reached from the first beginning of this Succession to the last Period of the Empire 3. Five whereof had passed away in S. John's time and no more nor no fewer then Five as I come now to make good namely Kings Consuls Tribunes Decemviri and Dictators For the People of Rome had never any other Supreme Powers over them but these before their Caesars viz. Reges Consules Tribuni Consulares Decemviri Dictatores Of Kings and Consuls there is no controversy at all Now for these Tribuni Consulares they are so called to distinguish them from the Tribuni Plebis and the Tribuni Militum ordinarily so styled neither of which were the Supreme Powers of the Roman State or Empire For the Tribuni Plebis were rather Plebis then Populi Romani Magistratus And for those few years wherein they hindered the chusing of other Magistrates the City was look'd upon to have no Magistracy at all Quatuor annis sine Magistratibus Roma fuit saith Sextus Rufus of that time Which condition of the City Diodorus Siculus also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that likewise of Marcus Varro in Gellius plainly shews that they could be no Supreme A. Gell. Noct. Attic. lib. 13. cap. 12. Power In Magistratu habent alii Vocationem alii Prensionem alii neutrum Vocationem ut Consules alii qui habent Imperium Prensionem ut Tribuni Plebis alii qui habent Viatorem Neque Vocationem neque Prensionem ut Quaestores caeteri qui neque Lictorem habent neque Viatorem Where it is plain that the Tribuni Plebis are reckoned amongst them qui non habent imperium and therefore are no Supreme Powers 4. No more are the Tribuni Militum simply so styled as appears out of that of Livy Disciplinâ enim militari miles Centurionis Centurio Liv. lib. 8. Tribuni Tribunus Legati Legatus Consulis paret imperio But the Tribuni Militum Consulari potestate are those Tribuni Consulares which I have already named Of which Fenestella Penes quem sanè Magistratum De Magistr Roman c. 16. ut ipsum nomen indicat eadem quae apud Consules potestas erat collata est nominibus tantùm immutatis ac Plebis ratione haberi â—…oeptâ 5. That the Decemviri was a Supreme Power is plain out of Livy Anno trecentesimo altero quà m condita
eventus rerum ostendit omnes res simul divinas humanásque commiscens Wherefore things being thus understood such a transient Scamble as this can be no legitimate Form of Government but the present Confusion of the Roman State let these Usurpers call themselves what they will or what-ever others out of fear or Courtship might call them 9. But if we take this Affair by the other ear and will look upon Octavius Augustus as he was Heir to Julius Caesar in whom was the Supreme Power of the Empire and also as upon one to whom the Senate had given a Precedency before the Consuls themselves and a Power unbounded by Law insomuch that he might rationally be deemed the Prince of the Commonwealth and that onely upon design he invited and permitted Antony and Lepidus to partake of his Principate for the better suppressing of Brutus and Cassius and then of his Partners one by the other these Triumviri will be found really three Emperours as there have been two and three and four at a time in other occurrences of affairs of the Empire as is well known to any one that knows any thing in History and not any Species of Government distinct from the Sixth kind which is that of the Emperours For they being three Generals of the Imperial Forces Antony of the Eastern Octavius of the Western and Lepidus of the African and of power unaccountable or unsubordinate to any other Magistracy what were they indeed but Three Emperours at once in that Notion that the Roman Monarchs were after called Emperours And accordingly in History Augustus is reckoned to have reigned as Emperour from the decease of his Father Julius To which sense Suetonius speaks Atque ab eo tempore exercitibus comparatis primùm cum Marco Antonio Marcóque Lepido dein tantùm cum Antonio per duodecim ferè annos novissime per quatuor quadraginta solus Rempublicam tenuit Upon which Nauclerus thus comments Regnavit annis quinquaginta sex duodecim cum Antonio Lepido solus verò quadraginta quatuor And Chronologers as well of the Pontifician as Protestant Party fix the beginning of his Reign ab U. C. Anno 710. 10. Wherefore these Triumviri Reipublicae constituendae being either no Magistracy at all of the Roman State or coincident with that of their Emperours and being also declined in the enumeration of the Forms of Government by the Roman Historians or else acknowledged of the Line of the Sixth Head that is to say of the Order of Emperors it is plain that there was sufficient if not a necessary ground of not reckoning this Triumvirate amongst the Heads that had passed in S. John's time and that therefore the truth of History agrees exactly with the Vision that saith Five are fallen not Six nor Seven For no Historians reckon otherwise and what can be more satisfactory then that Prophecie speaks in the very language of History Or what Harshness or Indecorum is it to conceive the Vision to number onely so many distinct Heads as are plainly and confessedly both Heads and distinct and are taken notice of up and down in History for the remarkable Governments of the Roman State whenas those that are omitted in the Vision are also pretermitted in Historical Narrations as either not agreed upon for distinct Heads or disclaimed to be so 11. And truly if there had been any other Forms of Government that might have seemed to disturb this solemn Number of Seven provided they had had a very near affinity with some or other of the chief Seven they might have been reckoned as one with such as they had so near agreement to and so the Beast be still Seven-headed as Nilus Seven mouthed those distinct Rivolets that flow near the main Streams of this Septemfluous River being reckoned as one with those principal ones and Nilus never the less celebrated by the Epithets of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up and down in Authentick Writers Which liberty had been very tolerable nay indeed unexceptionable in those Five Heads that already had passed the account for the future on which all the weight lies being so certainly fixed in the Sixth whose course was in the Apostle's time that it could breed no disorder nor confusion 12. And yet we find a greater exactness then so Whence it is manifest that we have the greatest assurance we can desire of the true sense of this Vision as to this point forasmuch as we have above demonstrated that the Seven Heads of the Beast must be so understood as may reach through the whole Succession of Heads from the beginning to the end and therefore must be the several Successions of so many Sorts of Supreme Governours not Seven single Persons and then find also de facto that Five of these Successions do so exquisitely fit the number of those Five Forms of Government which according to History were past in S. John's time and that the Sixth Government in succession which is that of the Pagan Emperours was that very Head then in Being Which things fall out so accurately that a man would think that Scepticism it self could scarce refrain giving assent to so plain a Truth 13. We have therefore made good that there are just Six sorts of Supreme Powers from the beginning of the Roman Kingdom to the Apostle's time namely Regal Consular Tribunitial Decemviral Dictatorial and Imperatorial For that of the Interreges was a Regal Power if considerable at all and therefore does naturally fall under the Type of one single Head as that also of the Triumviri of constituting the Common-wealth if it was not a state of war and confusion was also an Imperatorial Power though disguised under that other name and therefore falls under the Sixth Head as must needs seem very easie and natural to him that considers how Collective and Henopoetical as I may so speak the Prophetick Types are The consideration of the Collectiveness and Unitiveness of which Types on the one side and of the express and explicit enumeration in History of Five distinct sorts of Government before the Emperours on the other side must necessarily cast a man into an unshaken security that the Spirit of Prophecy would reckon neither more nor fewer kinds of Governours before the Emperours then Five Which point being cleared I pass to the second which is the more fully declaring how fitly and rightly that degenerate estate of the Empire which is prefigured by the Beast that was and is not and yet is is also styled the Image of the Beast CHAP. XVII 1. That a Relapse of the Empire into Idolatry in general were sufficient to make it the Image of the old Pagan Empire and yet that the Resemblance is more exquisite and particular 2. That there was an intended imitation of the Pagan Rites in the Church degenerating 3. The Pope compared with the Pagan Caesars and his Cardinals with the Roman Senate 4. The Tutelar Saints compared with their Tutelar Deities
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For if they say there was not a Church at Thyatira in being at that instant when S. John wrote they plainly declare that S. John did prophesie and intimated afore-hand that there would be one Wherefore Epiphanius found little reason why he should from the state of the present Controversie chuse the ordinary opinion rather then that which is accounted his own 8. The other place of Epiphanius is Haeres 51. Sect. 12. where he tells us how S. John was impelled and constrained to write the Gospel by the instigation of the Holy Ghost though he very much declined it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet he was forced by that impulse and that in his old age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he was more then ninety years old after his return out of Patmos which happened in Claudius his time Where there is this adjection of the mention of his return from Patmos as a confirmation of the grandevity of the Apostle at that time Now let us see what service this Magnus testis Historiarum diligentissimus Inquisitor as Grotius calls him as well as he does Petavius who so plainly contradicts him in this very point can doe this learned Interpreter in the present case For this passage if there had been any force in the former does quite obtund it it shewing Epiphanius not at all diligent in Chronologie as Alcazar has also well observed in making S. John above ninety years old in Claudius his time whenas the common Tradition of the Church is that he was very young when he entred upon his Apostleship S. Jerom saith that Christ chose him when he was but a youth or child Baronius makes him just twenty five years old at the Passion of our Saviour The Scripture it self implies also that he was but young in that Christ says to his Mother concerning John Woman behold thy son which should imply that he was at least as young as our Saviour Christ he being himself born of the Virgin when she was but of the age of fifteen as Nicephorus relates out of an Epistle of Euodius Bishop of Antioch But by Epiphanius his Chronologie S. John would be at least twenty years older then the Blessed Virgin concerning whom notwithstanding Christ says to John Behold thy Mother And which is still worse if S. John was ninety years old when he came out of Patmos under the reign of Claudius it will run the Nativity of Christ near fourty years back and place it long before Cyrenius was Governour of Syria forasmuch as all men conceive S. John to be at least as young as our Saviour if not much younger Which Absurdities detect Epiphanius not to be so great and unexceptionable a Witness in History as Grotius would make him And therefore Petavius again peremptorily sets down in the Margin over against Epiphanius his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sub Cocceio Nerva Joannes revocatur ab exilio Which certainly is the truth and agrees with that time of S. John's age which Epiphanius allots to him when he wrote the Gospel For supposing him to be born about the same time our Saviour was or a little later this writing of the Gospel will fall into the years of Nerva or at least some few years after Domitian according as you shall finde it set down in Chronologies 9. But supposing Epiphanius his Testimony of value in this case the same Epiphanius that witnesses John in Patmos under the reign of Claudius witnesses him out again in the same reign which as I have * Sect. 4. already noted spoils Grotius his Project who would have S. John prophesy in Vespasian's time else all the fat is in the fire as touching the Interpretation of the Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalyps But I think I have plainly proved that there can be nothing gained out of Epiphanius for establishing Grotius his conceit these Passages of the Father being either but Conjectures or Inadvertencies or else some lapses of the Scribe who wrote it seems more glibly the name of Claudius then of the other two Emperours as it might appear in that second Citation S. John being indeed about that age when he came out of Patmos in Cocceius Nerva his time but not in Claudius's 10. So that Grotius has not so much as one Witness to countenance his new Invention and if he had had this one what is one to the whole stream of Antiquity and of the Churches Nay what is Epiphanius his Testimony compared with the Testimony of that one single Father Irenaeus he living two hundred years nearer S. John's time then Epiphanius and who expresly asserts in Eusebius that the Apocalyps was imparted to S. John at the end of Domitian's reign For speaking of the Name of the Beast he writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the name of the Beast had been openly to be divulged at this time it would have been told by him that saw those Visions which under one collective Title are called The Apocalyps For they were seen not long since at the end of Domitian 's reign 11. This I doubt not but is the genuine sense of these words and that he speaks not of the Vision of the Beast alone under that name of the Apocalyps but of the whole body of Visions so called Otherwise for distinctness sake he would have said not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially considering Apocalypsis had then passed into a known Title of this volume of Visions Besides that the Name of the Beast was not seen by S. John but the Number of his Name And therefore whereas the Latine has it Antichristi nomen per ipsum utique editum fuisset qui Apocalypsin videret neque enim ante multum temporis visum est I should easily believe that visum got in for visa by the oscitancy of the Scribe For unless the Interpreter of Irenaeus had understood qui Apocalypsin videret of the whole Collection of Visions and not of the Beast onely and his Name he would have rather said Revelationem and for sureness have added ejus to make the sense more distinct and determinate qui Revelationem ejus videret And lastly suppose this Testimony proved onely that the Vision of the Thirteenth Chapter of the Revelation was seen at the end of Domitian's reign which I have not the least conceit of it will not serve Grotius his turn since this of the Seventeenth Chapter is later both by order of situation in the Apocalyps and also by nature For it being the plainest Vision concerning the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns that was exhibited to S. John and containing in it a Key for the right understanding the other it ought to come last the Comment being naturally later then the Text according to common sense and reason 12. Wherefore seeing there is no proof at all that Claudius persecuted the Christians much less that he exiled John into Patmos but that Domitian was a notorious Persecuter and
truth of the Consectary appears thus The Seventh King which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which I have proved to be the Emperours purely Christian it is said of him that he must * Apoc. 17. 10. continue a short space which unless the Prophecy speaks altogether undeterminately and defines nothing thereby must in reason be thought to be about a third part of that space which this Expression intimates to be long For Short and Long are not absolute terms but relative or comparative and are two Extremes which imply a Middle Wherefore we cannot better settle the determinate Idea of them then by supposing a Line divided into three equal parts and to look upon the whole Line as the Subject of Longness two thirds of the Line as the Subject of Mediocrity and one third of Shortness From whence we may gather universally what proportion to speak accurately and Mathematically Short and Long must bear the one to the other That in strictness of Notion that which is just the third part of the other is short in comparison of it but in common use of speech though it be something more or less it will break no squares There must either be some such way as this to settle this Notion or else Short and Long will signify nothing but be words spoke at random unless it be in such cases as there is a known measure of Mediocrity as when we say a tall man or a low man where it is taken for granted that a middle stature is so many foot and no more Having seriously considered the necessity of some determinate Notion of these two terms and how naturally they fall into this proportion I could not but consent to so plain a Conviction though I might justly seem prejudiced against it by what I have wrote elsewhere concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I had not then so accurately Mystery of Godliness Book 5. Ch. 16. Sect. 9. weighed the matter 4. Admitting therefore that to be the genuine sense of these terms of Short and Long which I have propounded and comparing the continuance of the Seventh King with the continuance of the Sixth that is to say of the Pagan Caesars which from Julius to Constantine is about 360 years it is plain that the continuance of the Seventh King that is of the Christian Caesars must be 120 years or thereabout which added to Ann. Christi 312 when Constantine was converted to Christianity make 432 years Which I would not pronounce to be so defined as to understand a Mathematical accuracy in the proportion of Short and Long but with some latitude such as befits the use of common speech in such Expressions though it be necessary to have recourse to this Mathematical Idea that we may judge whether the use of these terms be tolerable or extravagant But what I leave more laxe here will be more particularly bounded in the Proportion of the Inward and Outward Court of the Temple which will gird in this time a little within 400 years but so as this present way of Compute will be very flexible and obedient to it For supposing the Short term viz. 120 subdivided into three degrees or parts any thing above two thirds thereof may rationally be deemed Short in the first degree of Comparison And we are to remember that the Duration of the Beast restored is computed by Months of years which as I have above noted intimates a latitude no less then any thing within thirty in the computation of these Epocha's the pinching of things to a year's coincidence being of no usefulness in these long Periods nor in the nature of the things that are predicted and therefore not affected nor intended by that Spirit that dictated these Prophecies Which I doubt not but is a very solid and true Observation Wherefore it is plain enough that the Churche's lapse into Antichristianism was not till about four hundred years after Christ the reign of the Seventh King not expiring till then Consect III. That the Reign of Antichrist is comprised within the compass of 1260 years or thereabout 5. For thus long is the Empire to continue Idolatrous as is evident out of our Joint-Exposition and the first Consectary thereof But it is in a manner impossible for the Empire to continue Idolatrous any longer then the Idolatrous Clergy thereof rides it and guides it which is the Whore or the Two-horned Beast and these Types the Types or Symbols of Antichrist Which we shall farther prove to synchronize with the Ten-horned Beast that is with the Pagano-Christian Empire in the following Chapter Consect IV. That Antichrist is long since entred into the World and has reigned about twelve hundred years already The truth of this Consectary is evident from the second wherein is shewn that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the succession of the purely Christian Caesars was not above 120 years or thereabout Which added to the year of Constantine's Conversion 312 make up 432. From about that time Antichrist began his reign and therefore has reigned at least twelve hundred years already Consect V. That according to Prophetical Compute the Ruine of Antichrist is near and that nothing can retard it but the Sinfulness Hypocrisy and Factiousness of the Reformed Churches and that therefore that voice of Him that cried in the Wilderness Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand is again very seasonable in this our Age. This Consectary is exceeding plain from the three Consectaries immediately going before nor is it needfull to adde any thing to the farther clearing it Onely see if you will my Mystery of Godliness Book 5. Chap. 17. Sect. 10. Consect VI. That the Roman Empire divided into Ten Kingdoms is the Seat of Antichrist This is directly contained in our Joint-Exposition the Beast with ten Horns being there proved to be the Roman Empire thus divided And the Whore which is Antichrist is said to sit upon this Beast and the Two-horned Beast to be the Idolatrizing Clergy of the Empire under those two Imperial Patriarchates of Rome and Constantinople as also the Whore and the Two-horned Beast are proved to be all one Which fully make good this sixth Consectary Consect VII That the Ruine of the Fourth Monarchy and the Introducing of the Fifth which is the Kingdome of the Saints of the most High as Daniel calls it does not imply warrs and spoil and the invading of the rights of any Prince or People according to the tenour of the Prophetick style but merely the renewing of the Empire into an Evangelical Purity in Doctrine and Worship and in Christian Life 6. This plainly appears out of our Joint-Exposition where it is manifest that the Beast which is the Roman Monarchy is said to be slain and not to be in rerum natura merely because the Pagan Idolatry was expelled out of it or ceased to be the Religion of the Empire and that the Beast was revived from the dead and brought into Being again merely
and the punishments thereof Consect XI That the Authority of neither Fathers nor Councils after 400 years from Christ or thereabout is of any validity to determine Controversies against the Protestant Churches touching those things which the Church of Rome and they disagree in 10. This naturally follows from the Epocha of Antichristianism falling about that time we mention After which the Church being supposed in some measure lapsed into that great Apostasy neither the Fathers Doctrines nor her Councils can have right to decide the Controversies betwixt the Papists and us so as authoritatively to testifie against us But it is observable that their Testimony will hold good against the Papists in such Points as they contradict them in because they are in that witnesses of the successive minde of the Church as yet unaltered by this growing Corruption or at least testify matter of fact against the false Pretences of the Popish Traditions Consect XII That all Visions that are Synchronal to this of the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns which is said to continue fourty two moneths have necessarily the extent of one thousand two hundred and sixty years 11. To be Synchronal is as much as to begin continue and end together Whence it is plain that that which is Synchronal to what continueth 1260 years must it self continue so many years But the 42 moneths of the Beast are 1260 years by the first Consectary Which is a plain Demonstration of the truth of this last The use of which Consectary is of very great moment for the detection of the falshood of such petty Expositions as some put upon those Visions which are Synchronal to this of the restored Beast For extend them but upon this measure of time and they will all crack and break into fitters and thereby which I would have thus timely taken notice of excuse me from any farther Confutation of them Wherefore it will be worth the while to take notice of all those Visions that are Synchronal to this of the restored Beast it being so necessary a Method to be assured of the right sense of them and to discern more certainly in what Prophecies of the Apocalyps those Lineaments of Antichristianism which I have noted in my foregoing Treatise are prefigured 12. In the mean time I need not I think re-minde my Reader that the Visions of these two Chapters which I have thus carefully interpreted do plainly foretel that grand part of Antichristianism which consists in Idolatrous worship how it should over-run the Empire by the seduction and activity of an Imposturous Clergy figured out in the Type of the Beast with two Lamb-like Horns but that would speak like the Dragon and re-introduce the Image of old Paganism again under the colour of a more heightned Devotion and Affection toward Christ the Blessed Virgin and the rest of the Saints and Martyrs As also in the Type of the Whore of Babylon who is called the Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth that is of Idolatry and Pagan-like Worship who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Kings of the Earth and all the Inhabitants thereof with the Cup of the filthiness of her Fornications that is seduces them to Idolatry Hoc enim est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idololatriae calicem as Grotius himself has interpreted it Wherefore these are two notable Predictions of the Apostasy of the Church into Heathenish and Idolatrous worship But I shall also produce others out of the same Book after I have prepared the way by making good certain Synchronisms thereunto appertaining CHAP. VI. 1. The Synchronism of the Whore the Two-horned Beast the restored Beast or the Beast that was and is not and yet is demonstrated out of our Joint-Exposition 2. To which the False-Prophet is also proved Synchronal the Virgin-Company the Two Witnesses the Woman in the Wilderness and the Outward Court as being either the fame Antistoechal or necessarily connected all along with them 3. Again in a more abstract way That the restored Beast the Woman in the Wilderness the Outward Court the Two Witnesses are of equal time 4. That the Woman in the Wilderness and the restored Beast begin together and therefore are Synchronal 5. That the restored Beast and Two Witnesses are Synchronal as ending together 6. That the Two Witnesses and Outward Court are Synchronal as both beginning and ending together And all these four Synchronal to the Whore and Two-horned Beast because the Two-horned Beast and the Whore are Synchronal to the restored Beast to which the other three are Synchronal 7. That the Virgin-Company and the Sealed out of the twelve Tribes are all one Company and therefore both Synchronal to the Whore by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently with the rest of the fix with whom She is Synchronal 8. That the said Sealed Virgin-Company is Synchronal to the Series of the first six Trumpets as being sealed immediately before the blast of the first Trumpet and as being Synchronal to the Mourning of the Witnesses which ceases at the end of the sixth Trumpet 9. The six first Seals the Fight of Michael and the Dragon and the Inward Court proved Synchronal 10. That the Vision of * Apocal. 11. measuring the Temple begins from the first Epocha indicated from the quality of the Person that holds in his hand the opened Book 11. From his supplying the place of the seventh Angel and the space of the seventh Trumpet with seven Thunders 12. From the suspending of the sound of the seventh Trumpet to make a Regression 13. From the newness or new condition of the Book in the Angel's hand 14. From the voice communing or talking with John from Heaven as in the beginning of the Prophecies of the Seals 15. From the bitterness of the Book in his belly From his being bid again to prophesy and that before many Kings and Peoples and Nations 16. From the Epocha of the Vision of the * Apocal. 12. ensuing Chapter 17. The Synchronism of the first six Seals with the Inward Court of weighty concernment 18. The Millennial Empire of Christ the Palm-bearing Company the New Jerusalem and the Ligation of Satan that they are all in some sense Synchronal to the Seventh Trumpet 1. THat the Beast with seven Heads in the Thirteenth Chapter is Synchronal with the Beast that carries the Whore in the Seventeenth is plain in that they are the very self-same Beast in every Respect as appears out of my Joint-Exposition That the Whore of Babylon also and the Two-horned Beast are the self-same Thing is made evident in the same Exposition and therefore they must be Synchronal unless one and the same thing can begin to be after it has continued in Being and continue after it ceases to be That the Whore or the Two-horned Beast is Synchronal to the Seven-headed with ten Horns in these two Chapters is evident in that the Two-horned Beast is the Reviver and Healer of this Seven-headed Beast or Restorer
followers For it is too dilute and frigid a Gloss to make no more of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then to turn it off with a Posthac or Hereafter as if the term of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had not passed into a phrase of Art already and had not been defined long since by the Angel in Daniel or at least was not a necessary Consectary from Chap. 12. his Definition who being asked how long to the end of these wonders he held up his right hand and his left hand unto Heaven and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time and times and half a time And being again asked by Daniel to declare more plainly when the end of those things should be he gives this Answer That the words are sealed till the time of the End which is so called as being that notable section of time that lies next to the end of the Fourth or Last Monarchy but presently after addes this hint to point him to this time of the End That from the time that the daily Sacrifice should be taken away and the Abomination that makes desolate set up should be 1290 days but that blessed he should be that came to the 1335 days 9. Now the end of those things Daniel enquired after reached as appears from the Text and general consent of Expositors even to the Day of Judgment however that phrase is to be understood Whence it is rational to conceive that Daniel's Prophecies reach through those four famous Monarchies or Kingdoms the Babylonian Persian Greek and Roman and that the Roman Kingdom conterminates or synchronizes with the fulness of time or the end of Times and Ages and being the Fourth and last division of this Sacred Kalendar of Prophecies as Mr. Mede calls it may rightly be termed the last times or last days in which the Messias was expected and came But after Christ's coming seeing there would be a very marvellous and notorious reign of Antichrist during this Fourth Monarchy or last time who is figured out in the Two-horned Beast and the Whore of Babylon which are of the Middle Synchronals of the Book-prophecie and which I have already demonstrated to begin about 400 years after Christ and that the time of their continuance is the same with a Time and Times and half a Time and that this is 1260 years it is evident that this share of time is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter times of these last or the time of the End as lying next thereto and the very times the Angel speaks of in this Chapter where he asserts with an Oath that those Wonders that is that prodigious Reign of Antichrist should continue for a time and times and half a time but that when he shall have accomplished to scatter Dan. 12. 7. the power of the holy people namely the Jews then all things spoken of shall be finished Which is the very same with that in the Apocalyps where the Angel swears by him that lives for ever that there should be no more time saving in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel Apoc. 10. 7. when he shall sound and the Mystery of God be finished as he has declared to his servants the Prophets alluding particularly to this of Daniel This is the right meaning of this passage of the Revelation according to common sense and Grammatical construction Which plainly shews that the Time and Times and half a Time end with the sixth Trumpet From which considerations it is evident to any one that is unprejudiced that this term of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a term of the Prophetick style the same with the Time of the End with an allusion to that Sacred Kalendar of Daniel consisting of the four Monarchies as being the latter section of the continuance of the last running on along with the Reign of Antichrist For so does the Church generally interpret that Time and Times and half a Time in Daniel 10. And that they do belong to the Reign of Antichrist even in our sense Mr. Mede has in my judgment most convincingly made good even from those numbers of 1290 days and 1335 days in his little Treatise of those Numbers which he calls Revelatio Antichristi Which were certainly given as a Key to open the truth of Daniel's Prophecies concerning the reign of that Man of sin and the time of his Discovery The words Dan. 12. 9. are closed up and sealed till the time of the End that is till these latter times but the wicked shall not then understand them but the wise shall and may be assured of them by this Key of Numbers of years from the Epocha of Antiochus his prophaning the Temple compared with the Event the first notable Instances of Revealing of this Man of sin The first of these Numbers from that Epocha ends in the year of our Lord 1120 the latter in the year 1165. For I have already so undeniably demonstrated that Days stylo Prophetico do signifie Years both in this Treatise and in my * Book 5. Ch. 15. Sect. 2. Mystery of Godliness that I think no man will doubt of it and that they cannot signifie Days here Mr. Mede has with no less evidence evinced Now the Event is exact to Admiration For in the year 1120 a true and perfect detection or description of Antichrist came forth and not till then as you may see by that compendious account which Mr. Mede has given thereof The ending of the other Period is also notable for the Waldenses and Albigenses in whose times the Mystery of Iniquity was more fully detected and by more numerous Companies protested against Whence they are said to be blessed that reach to those times by reason of the great clearness of the Light of the Gospel that shined forth nor less happy they that then also suffered for witnessing to it but certainly much more blessed by reason that their Reward should be greater and more singular For the Prophecie declares how things are in truth and reality and not according to the judgment or sentiments of the soft and false carnal mind See that judicious Author Mr. Mede for I cannot dwell upon these things I will onely adde for a farther assurance of Mr. Mede's Exposition that no other will hold water For it is not likely that these Numbers of Days should be any Interpretation of the Extent of the above-mentioned Time and Times and half a Time they both of them varying from the just measure of that Period and the sense also of that Aenigmatical expression being not so hard but that all hit on it and agree in it To which you may adde that the Epocha from Antiochus will not comply with this design and it is hard to make that Epocha signifie otherwise then literally with any credibility of meaning As also that this way the main difficulty about which Daniel was so solicitous will not be satisfi'd which was When this
were made rich by reason of her costliness so the English Translation and accommodately enough to the literal sense But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may as well signifie out of that treasure of honours dignities preferments and offices wherewith she was able to enrich these Merchants 20. Rejoyce over her thou Heaven and ye holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you on her That is to say Rejoyce ye heavenly-minded over these Merchants of the Earth and ye that are Teachers of the pure and Apostolick doctrine and declare the naked truth of things unto the world be ye glad that the Lord has avenged the bloud of your Predecessours upon her the bloud of the Waldenses and Albigenses and of those that suffered in Queen Mary's time with the rest of the holy Martyrs of Jesus Ver. 21. And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great Mil-stone and cast it into the Sea saying Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all The sense is That at last there will be an utter ruine and dissipation of this Idolatrous City or Polity namely at the pouring out of the seventh Vial. But in the mean time I cannot omit to note how unlikely a thing it is that this great Triumph and rejoycing and that so perfect and final destruction figured out by the plunging of a Mil-stone by a mighty Angel to the bottom of the Sea should signify nothing else but Totilas his sacking of Rome which presently recovered again and the spirits of the Apostles and Prophets their looking down through the windows of Heaven and making merry at that Spectacle which could not but be very sad and Tragical to many a good Christian. 22. And the voice of Harpers and Musicians and of Pipers and Trumpeters shall be heard no â—…re at all in thee and no Crafts-man of whatsoever craft he be shall be found any more in thee and the sound of a Mil-stone shall be heard no more at all in thee 23. And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee and the voice of the Bridegroom and the Bride shall be heard no more at all in thee For thy Merchants were the great men of the Earth for by thy Sorceries were all Nations deceived 24. And in her was found the bloud of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth The twenty second and part of the twenty third verse comprise the sad silence and desolation of this City the rest the reason of her destruction And the voice of Harpers and Musicians c. All this first part may be either nothing else but a Prophetick Hylasmus setting out one single thing the destruction silence and vast solitude of this Idolatrous Hierarchy by the privation or absence of such gross and palpable Objects as occur in a City inhabited as the noise of Musicians the hammering and knocking of Artificers the grinding of Mills the light of Candles in the night and the singing and dancing at Weddings and the like Or else there may be a more particularly contrived Allegory in reference to this Mystical City here meant As if we should understand rather the Musick at their Idolatrous worship by these here specified which were onely a Diorismus by these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as do technas consuere sophisticas politicas in Theology and Church-Administration for the Interest of their Hierarchy these Artifices Imperii in Imperio and those also that work curious work in the Scholastick Divinity by the sound of the Mil-stones their fraudulent Profit for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you may see in Achmetes by the light of a Candle Honour and Prosperity as you may reade in the same Author and lastly by the Bridegroom and the Bride not the spiritual Marriages betwixt Christ and a Nun or the Virgin Mary and a Monk in the Monasteries but the propagation of this Pseudo-Catholick Religion that it shall be no longer propagated for the end of Marriage is Propagation For thy Merchants were the great men c. Now follows the reason of this great Desolation which is threefold The first The Riot and Lordliness of these Mystical Merchants they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Great men of the world and greatly worldly ambitious covetous and sensual which is the very essence of an Earthly minde Which how much it has been amongst the Popes Cardinals Abbots and other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primates or Maximates if you will of the Roman Church History and the mouths of all men are full of it The second is The debauching the world with Idolatry accompanied and countenanced with the pretence of a power plainly Magical of changing the Elements in such a sort as all the Magicians of Pharaoh could never do nor had the face to attempt the like it being so beyond all credibility besides other Magical feats of an inseriour Rank and Necromantick Stories of the Apparitions of dead Saints Whence Idolatry is indigitated here by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also that Cup in the hand of the Whore is look'd upon as a Philtrum and likewise their being said to be deceived by these Sorceries implies their being seduced to Idolatry to which they tend as appears plainly from what is written of the Miracles of the Two-horned Beast ch 13. 13 14. The third and last Reason is The bloudy Cruelty of this Roman Hierarchy In her was found the bloud of Prophets and of Saints c. namely of such as out of conscience to the Law of God and Christ could not submit to their Idolatrous Profession and Practice but witness against them And not their bloud onely is laid to her charge but the common bloudshed in Christendom by wars and tumults which they for the better rooting themselves in Countries and Kingdomes ingage the world in and abet and assist when begun by the Secular Powers whenas if they were the true Successours of the Apostles as they boast themselves to be they would make it their business that Christians should not spill one anothers bloud nor conscientious men lose their liberties or lives for being the faithful Professours of the pure Apostolick doctrine nor suffer the Turk to over-run Christendome rather then they will forsake their Idols and Daemon-worship or Apoc. 9. 20 21. repent of their Prophet-murthering Fornications Sorceries and thievish Impostures CHAP. XVI 1. This mystical sense of the burning of Babylon confirmed out of his Joint-Exposition and from Alcazar's Interpretation and that the same is prefigured in the destruction of Tyre 2. How lively the Patriarch of Rome is typified in Ezekiel by the King of Tyre 3. Another Vision to the same purpose in the same Prophet 4. A third Vision in Esay concerning Tyre typifying Rome Pagan Christian and then Esay 23. Pagano-Christian Ver. 18. That Tyre that is Rome will be reformed from her Pagano-Christianism and become purely
the Book of Articles Trans substantiation cannot be proved Article 28. by Holy Writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many Superstitions Whence she rightly and demonstratively concludes that the Sacrament is not to be carried about lifted up nor worshipped For there is none that can worship the Host upon presumption that it is Christ to whom Divine worship is due but he is ipso facto an Idolater as I have proved elsewhere more at large And again in the same Book she does expresly declare That the Sacrifices of Masses in the which it is commonly Article 31. said that the Priest does offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt are blasphemous Fables and dangerous Deceits The truth of which is easy to be understood out of what we have written in our Idea of Antichristianism touching Idolatry and the Abuse of Christ's Person and Office in this enormous Errour And in the Homily concerning the Sacrament she expresly taxes the Popish Masses with Idolatry imputing it to the ignorance of the nature of the Lord's Supper What hath been the cause of this gross Idolatry but the Ignorance thereof what has been the cause of this mummish Massing but the Ignorance thereof And a little after Let us therefore so travail to understand the Lord's Supper that we be no cause of the decay of God's worship of no Idolatry of no dumb Massing of no hate and malice c. To all which you may adde what is annexed in our Liturgie at the end of the Communion viz. That the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very natural substances and therefore may not be adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithfull Christians And the natural Body and Bloud of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven and not here it being against the truth of Christ's natural Body to be at one time in more places then one Which Rubrick is interserted in our Liturgie with unexceptionable Judgment and Fidelity and does fully reach the end of its Intersertion For no man I think can be so grosly ignorant or so openly malicious as to pretend that after this so plain Declaration of our Church either himself or any one else can become guilty of Idolatry by that humble posture of Kneeling at the receiving of the Sacrament 4. And lastly touching the Adoration of Images there can be nothing more seriously protested against by any Church then this enormous wickedness is by ours To omit how she has perstringed them in the Book of Articles she does expresly bind the worshippers of them under a curse in her Liturgie in the Form of Commination Cursed is the man that maketh any carv'd or molten Image to worship it And in her Homily against the Peril of Idolatry with a passionate but unexceptionable and judicious zeal she does copiously inveigh against the very having of Images in Churches I mean such as are in any capacity of being worshipped nay against the very making of the Image of God or any of the Persons of the Holy Trinity yea of Christ himself forasmuch as he is truly God contending that no Image can be made of Christ but a lying Image as the Scripture peculiarly Homily against the Peril of Idolatry Part 3. calls Images Lies for Christ is God and Man Seeing therefore for the Godhead which is the most excellent part no Image can be made it is falsly called the Image of Christ. Wherefore Images of Christ be not onely Defects but also Lies Nor does she stick here but urges the argument and truly not without judgement against the Images of Saints whose Souls the most excellent part of them can saith she by no Images be represented and expressed But concerning the having such Images in Temples she doth with an holy Jealousy peremptorily contend and inculcate that it is plainly against the Second Commandment adding this reason For they being set up have been be and ever will be worshipped and thereupon become abominable Idols nothing different from those of the Heathen they being made of the same matter with them and men having the same conceits of the Saints they are made to and of their offices as the Heathen had of their Deities they worshipping them also with the same Rites and Ceremonies And to shew they have the same opinion of their Saints that the Pagans had of their several Gods she compares such Saints as are made Guardians of Kingdoms to their Dii Tutelares such as Belus was to the Babylonians Osiris and Isis to the Aegyptians Vulcan to the Lemnians the Guardian Saints of Cities to their Dii Praesides such as Apollo was to Delphos Minerva to Athens Juno to Carthage and Quirinus to Rome and lastly their Templed Saints to Jupiter in the Capitol and Diana in the famous Temple of Ephesus And touching one and the same Saints having Images in several places she parallels our Lady of Walsingham our Lady of Ipswich and our Lady of Wilsdon to Venus Cypria Venus Paphia and Venus Gnidia to their Sea-Gods Neptune Triton Nereus and Venus S. Christopher S. Clement and the Blessed Virgin to Vulcan and Vesta Gods of the Fire S. Agatha And then intimating that as in ancient Paganism the Affairs of Love of War of Diseases in men and beasts were assigned to several Deities so to several Saints in the Popish Religion she at last breaks out into this zealous Exclamation Where is God's Providence and due honour in the mean time who saith The Heavens be mine and the Earth is mine the whole world and all that in it is I give victory and I put to flight Except I keep the City the Watch-man waketh but in vain that keepeth it Thou Lord shalt save both man and beast But we have left him neither Heaven nor Earth nor Water nor Countrey nor City Peace nor War to rule and govern neither men nor beasts nor their diseases to cure That a godly man might justly for zealous Indignation cry out O Heaven and Earth and Seas what madness and wickedness against God are men fallen into What dishonour doe the Creatures to their Creatour and Maker namely in reposing a religious trust in those Saints they invoke to these purposes which can belong to none other but God himself 5. And as touching the manner of their worshipping these Images and Saints What meaneth it saith she that they after the manner of the Gentile Idolaters burn Incense offer up gold to Images hang up crutches chains and ships legs arms and whole men and women of wax before Images as though by them or Saints as they say they were delivered from Lameness Sickness Captivity or Shipwreck Is not this COLERE IMAGINES to worship Images so earnestly forbidden in God's Word And a little after more fully and vehemently Wherefore when we see men and women on heaps to goe on Pilgrimages to
the Pope's Crown and of a Woman-Pope 305 CHAP. XVI 1. What remains for the making up the fullest assurance that can be desired of the truth of our Joint-Exposition 2. That the Roman State from the beginning to the end is to be look'd upon as One Kingdom or Empire appears out of Florus 3. That there had been Five sorts of Supreme Magistrates in S. John's time in the Roman State Reges Consules Tribuni Consulares Decemviri Dictatores and that the Tribuni Plebis were no Supreme Power 4. Nor the Tribuni Militum simply so styled 5. But that the Decemviri and Tribuni Consulares were 6. As also the Dictators 7. That there had been no more then Five sorts of Supreme Governours in S. John's time and that the Interreges were not nor were at all reckoned by Historians a Supreme Government distinct from that of Kings 8. That the Triumviri Reipublicae constituendae was either a Scuffle and Confusion in the Roman State 9. Or else a formal Caesareate exercised by Augustus Lepidus and Antonius 10. That there is full and sufficient ground from Reason and History not to reckon the Triumvirate of constituting the Commonwealth a Sixth Form of Government distinct from Emperours and the Five fore-going Forms 11. That though there had been some other Forms truly distinct but yet of a near affinity with some of the other it had not been so harsh to have accounted them one with those they had that nearness with 12. But that there is a greater Exactness then this in the Application of this Vision and such as Scepticism it self can hardly doubt of 13. The Conclusion of the whole drift of the Chapter with a fuller enforcement of the truth thereof 317 CHAP. XVII 1. That a Relapse of the Empire into Idolatry in general were sufficient to make it the Image of the old Pagan Empire and yet that the Resemblance is more exquisite and particular 2. That there was an intended imitation of the Pagan Rites in the Church degenerating 3. The Pope compared with the Pagan Caesars and his Cardinals with the Roman Senate 4. The Tutelar Saints compared with their Tutelar Deities as also of adoring of what they eat 5. The minute multiplication of the Pagan Deities compared with and found to be out-gone by this Pagano-Christian Church in the Presidents of Physick and Rural Affairs 6. As also in the Presidents of Trades or Courses of Living 7. The Saints and Heathen Deities compared in their Offices and how punctually they have surrogated the Blessed Virgin into the place of Venus and the Moon 8. Most lively Lineaments of Restored Paganism in dedicating the Pantheon to the Virgin and all the Saints as also the Seven Hills to seven several Saints in erecting Altars and Images thereon in adorning these Images in appointing Festivals in Adoration and Prayers in Oblations of Wax-candles and Incense in carrying their Images in Procession and hiding them in Lent 9. In Vows Oathes Deifying dead men Pilgrimages Miraculous Cures with the Monuments of them hung up in the Temples 10. In Aspersions and Purifications by Holy Water 11. In the driving away the Devil by the jangling of baptized Bells 12. In their Jubilees general manner of celebrating their Festivals 13. In fetching in May in running about the fields with light Torches in their hands in sprinkling their Beasts with Holy Water by the Friars of S. Antony in leaping over S. John's Fires in Baptismal Spittle in their Master of Misrule at Christmas in their Carnavals and other Festivals 14. That the Image of the Beast is also in some sort revived in their Funerals 15. But more considerably in their Religious Fraternities under this or that Saint 16. As also in their shorn Crowns in their Vows of Virginity and in their Ninevites or Flagellants 17. In their pretence of bringing down Christ bodily and personally at the Mass 18 19. As also in their more pompous Processions 20. The great Usefulness of the Observation of the punctual correspondency of the Events hitherto to the Predictions touching the state of the Church 21. His amazement and astonishment at Grotius that he should decline so clear and easie a meaning of the Image of the Beast and take up with one so impossible and so unprofitable 323 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. The great Usefulness of shewing the folly of Ribera's and Grotius his Expositions of these two Chapters of the Apocalyps 2. That according to Ribera the Beast is the Devil 3. The seven Kings the wicked Kings of the seven Ages of the world 4. That five of these Ages were gone over in S. John's time and that the Reign of Antichrist is the seventh and Rome Heathen the Whore 5. The general Usefulness of our Joint-Exposition 6. That the Beast is not the Devil proved there-from by several circumstances Nor the seven Heads seven such Ages by the deadly wound in the sixth Head 7. Nor the Whore Rome Heathen more then the Two-horned Beast 8. That the Devil cannot be the Beast that was and is not c. proved by arguments not leaning on our Joint Exposition 9. Farther proof from that part of his Name and yet is with a Vindication of that reading 10. A confutation of Ribera's Exposition of the seven Heads from the groundlesness and exceptionableness of his division of the duration of the world into seven Ages 11. From the Ununitableness of the Kings of the Age into one Head 12. From the Devil's eminency and superiority over these Heads 13. From the leaving neither room nor time for an eighth King 14. From the disproportionableness of the seventh Age of the world to the rest and especially to the strange Feats they say Antichrist is then to atchieve 15. And lastly from the seven Hills necessarily appropriating those seven Heads to the Roman Empire 16. That these Expositions of Ribera as also of the rest of the Roman Interpreters were very weak even in Grotius his own judgment which set him upon minting new ones 336 CHAP. II. 1. What the meaning of the Scarlet Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns and of the Woman riding him is according to Grotius 2. A Confutation of Grotius his Interpretation out of our Joint-Exposition 3. Two main Grounds or necessary Supporters of Grotius his Interpretation The one That S. John reckons the Seven Heads beginning at Claudius with the Confutation thereof 4. The other That this Vision was wrote in Vespasian's time with a Discovery of the weakness and falseness of that Opinion 5. That Claudius his banishing the Jews from Rome falls many degrees short of a proof that John was then exiled into Patmos And that Impulsore Christo in Suetonius does not so much as evince that any Christians were then expelled the City 6. And if the Decree reached Christians it does not strait follow that S. John was concerned therein 7. An Answer to a Passage in Epiphanius alledged for S. John's Exile then 8. An Answer to another alledged to the