and Introducing False Religion as Jeroboam of old 1 Kings c. 12. 32. 38. In the Revelation He is Full of the Names of Blasphemy that is of Idolatry For so the Idolatry of such as make a Profession of the True God is styled Isa 65. 7. by the Judgment of the most Learned Interpreters And indeed it can be no other For to acknowledge a Beeing so Holy Wise Jehovah the Eternal Infinite Spirit and then to put upon him the Folly and Nothing as the Apostle styles it of an Idol is perfect Blasphemy And so it is to arrogate to be worshipp'd with him And it is most observable the Revelation frequently Joyns this Beast Worshipp'd and his Image Worshipp'd plainly importing his Idolatrousness Aholah and Aholibah those Idolatrous Churches of Israel and Judah are a most Graphical Description of this City or False Church in the same Kind of Style Aholah and Aholibah were set out Ezek. c. 23. in all the Lewdness of Infamous Women Those False Churches of Israel and Judah if it be Lawful at all to use the Name of Churches in their Case and particularly Judah have the Title of an Imperious or as it may be render'd exactly to the present Case Imperial Whorish Woman Ezek. 16. 33. So Rome is Pictur'd having in her Hand a Golden Cup full of the Wine of her Fornication Charact. 4. That which is so Generally to be observ'd in the Papacy is the very Height of a most Bold Blasphemous Arrogancy The very Supremacy he usurps in the Christian Church shews his Luciferian Pride The Title HIS HOLINESS is most Sacrilegious Seeing God Only Holy is much more Alone Holiness it self His Claim of Infallibility above Councels is a small Thing for he exalts it above Scripture it self That in the Sense of the very Pharisees Blasphemous taking upon him to Pardon Sin his Indulgences Pretended Deliverances from Purgatory his Counterseit Miracles his Anathematising and Cursing down All to Hell who detest his Idolatries shews him that Proud and Haughty Scorner who Deals in Proud Wrath His setting his Throne and Lifting his Scepter above the Thrones and Scepters of Princes is most Horrid and Intolerable Insolency In All this the City is one with him sitting alought upon him and Born upon him in all this Babylonish Lucifertanism Esay 14. 12. Let us observe how Scripture-Predictions shew this his Sathanic Presumption Daniel calls it his speaking Words High Great Words against the Most High c. 7. 25. Standing up against the Prince of Princes c. 8. 25. Speaking marvellous things against the God of Gods and He shall magnify Himself above every God or Supreme c. 11. 36. He sitteth in the Temple of God as God shewing himself he is God He exalts himself above All that is called God the Scripture Expression for Princes or that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is styled August taken from the Name of Augustus the Greatest of Rome's Emperors and become at that Time the Imperial Title Thus the Apostle describes the Beast calling him the Man of Sin in the Antichristian Apostacy he was describing and that we may know him to be the Beast he is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Lawless Prince that does what he will Dan. 11. 36. and the Son of Perdition as Revel 17. In the Prophecy of the Revelation he is thus set out To him was given a Mouth speaking Great Things He opened his Mouth in Blasphemies against God to blaspheme his Name The World wonder'd after him They who dwell upon the Earth shall worship him whose Names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life He comes as Sathan with All Deceivableness of Vurighteousness in them who perish on whom God sends strong Delusion to believe so great a Lie as the Papacy in its whole Frame makes up Compare herein 2 Thes 2. 10 c. Rev. 13. 3. 8 c. The City that Sodom and Great Whore tbat corrupteth the Earth with her Fornications Rev. 11. c. 17. That Woman Jezebel which calleth her self a Prophetess which Teacheth and Seduceth the People of Christ Christians by Profession to commit Fornication to have Communion with Idols Rev. 2. 20. She hath on her Forehead a Name written Mystery as if she were indeed the Church of the Living God the Pillar and Foundation of Truth the Catholick Church out of which none can be saved But it is the Mystery of Iniquity For the Inscription goes on Mother of Harlots So that a most Unintelligible Composition of Wickedness makes up this Mystery I Appeal now to All whether such Insolencies of Arrogation ate to be found in the whole World as in the Papacy and its Church of Rome or whether such Known Matter of Fact in All these Things could be more plainly set out than they are by these Prophecies Charact. 5. The Great Fraud Dissimulation Worldly Policy and Intrigue we know in the Papacy and the Pseudo Catholick Roman Church all its Cheats and Impostures make up such a Character of it that we find that Great Swedish Statesman Puffendor spends the whole Chapter forementioned in the Discourse of it who the he does not appear to have the least Relation to Prophecy yet writes so according to it on that Subject That it is very wonderful even as if he had aim'd to Justify Prophecy by so notorious matter of Fact Let us then Review Prophecy on this Head first in Daniel The Little Horn had the Eyes of a Man a Look or Aspect more Great Rabbi-Like of more Perspicacity than his Fellow Horns He had Eyes and a Mouth that spoke Great Things the Mouth as of a Man of Eyes Dan. 7. 20. He understood Dark Sentences Through his Policy He causes Craft to prosper in his Hand c. 8. 25. In the Revelation c. 2. 14. In the Church of Pergamus the Prophetic Symbol of the Church of Christ Under the Antichristian Throne of Sathan the Papal Supremacy we read of that Politician Prophet Balam who taught Balac to cast a Stumbling-block before the Children of Israel by drawing them into Idolatrous Practices In the Church of Thyatyra the Symbol of the Protestant Churches under Popish Persecuting Princes stirred up by the Papal Antichristian Church as it will be call'd which is Represented by Ahabs Queen Jezebel then which none more apt in the whole History of Scripture could be found as might by a Compare be made apparent But her Whoredoms and Witchcrafts cannot be passed by with which Jehu upbraided her so reproachfully as the Protestant Princes have done Rome Oh that so many of them had not fallen into Jehu's great Evil not to have made a perfect Reformation But That which is most to the present Purpose is That she had together with her assumed Propheticness the Depths of Sathan as the Arcana Regni her deep Maxims of Sathanic State by both which she enchants be witches intoxicates Princes and Nations Charact. 6. There is nothing more notorious than the dreadful Persecutions and Storms of Violence the Papacy
look for it as at a proper Season God hath forescen and singled out for the Execution of his Judgment on Babylon even this her Enchanting Jubilee when she says I sit a Queen I am now on a Throne giving out my Pardons and Indulgences I am no Widow nor shall know the lofs of Children Behold from all Parts how they gather about me at this very time And at the time of so violent a Persecution upon the Servants of God making the same Protestation with our selves against the Papal Idolatry Superstitions and Tyranny If we are not concern'd at such a time as this we have only a Name to live as Protestants and the Reformed but are dead as God Charges upon the Church of Sardis the Prophetical Emblem of the Churches stiled the Reformed We have forgotten how we Received and Heard in that so great Appearance of God by the Rev. 3. 1 2. first Reformers and Princes will too sadly seem to have lost that first Protestant Spirit c. which acted those Princes in the Transactions at Spire Am. 1529. Oh that therefore we might Remember Hold fast and Repent And if there were a Spirit pour'd out from on high upon us a Spirit of Prayer who knows but that in the midst of this false Jubilee These two things Widowhood and loss of Children Alienation of Princes and People might come on this Mystic Babel in one Day in one Moment If we could wrestle with God as Jacob these Two Things would certainly come upon Her in their Perfection as on Esay 47. 8. that Babylon of Old for the Multitude of her Sorceries and Enchantments in this very day of her Jubilee To this very purpose I will draw out from the Text as it stands in connexion with This the Former the Following Chapters Six great Propositions and then argue further upon them in compare with other Scripture Prophecies Proposition 1. There is undeniably a great Judgment denounced by God and largely described upon some City Figured by Babylon the Great that must most certainly be Executed in its own Time and upon the City designed according to the sure word of Prophecy Cap. 1. 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave to him to shew to his Servants things shortly that is with great speed from that very time it was given to come to pass successively till the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in comparison of which all time is short Now because this Judgment cannot yet as will appear be possibly supposed to have come to 1 Cor. 7. pass it must yet come to pass And because so much hath all along and for so very long time been coming to pass according to this Prophecy and yet this Judgment hath not been Executed the Execution of it must needs therefore be very near Prop. 2. There are Infallible Characters fixed by the Prophecy in these Chapters before us on the the City so denounced upon assuring this City is the present Papal Rome For if Rome be the City Characteriz'd as it is now Papal it is that City so threatned by this Judgment For the Characters and the Judgment are inseparable Now Rome will appear to be the City Characteriz'd and therefore on it must the Judgment here written be Executed Prop. 3. It is one of the great Glories of this Judgment that the first coming of it into Execution shall be with great suddenness and surprizal and when very Few stiled by Christ the Few Names in Sardis have a Thought or Apprehension of any such thing One Day one Hour one Moment as of Ancient Babylon speak the very great Velocity of the Judgment Prop. 4. The Princes that at this time Bear up the Grandeur and the Haughtiness of Papal Rome by giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast called therefore His Horns shall be by the Lamb King of Kings and Lord of Lords so overcome as to be made Instruments in the Execution of the Judgment in such Parts and Degrees as the strong Lord who Judgeth shall Commission them unto which shall highly Exalt and make Illustrious the Judgment As an Indication of this it is said C. 17. 16. The Kings shall hate the Whore shall make her Desolate and shell eat her Flesh and shall burn her with Fire and in this Text her Plagues are Death and one concurring with the other Mourning Famine and burning with Fire Prop. 5. The Greatness and the sudden Invasion of this Judgment as denounced by God are uncontroulably to be demonstrated not only as to the possibility but the certainty of both as from the Truth of the Lord who hath so long ago denounced it so from the Wisdom and Omnipotency of the strong Lord that judgeth Prop. 6. The Divine Prescience and Wisdom hath chosen out a Time and decreed it for the Execution of this Judgment when Babylon shall shew it self in its Pride its Pomp its Presumption Security For it is when she shall say I sit a Queen and shall see no Sorrow and 't is most undeniable its Jubilee is such a Time and when Great Princes shall so be at her Devotion as for her sake with such a violence to persecute and Protestant Princes stand by and have nothing to say against it Prop. 1. I begin with the first Proposition that the Judgment here forewritten must most certainly be executed That there is a great Judgment here described and denounced on some City Figur'd by Babylon the Great is most uncontestable every word in the Foregoing and this Chapter assures it and in the following Chapter we have most solemn Doxologies and Thanksgivings upon it In Cap. 17. 1. The Vision begins thus John is called to come to the Angel who would shew him the Judgment of the Great Whore In this C. 18. 1. Another Angel having Great Power and with whose Glory the Earth shone Appears and he cry'd mightily with a loud Voice Babylon the great is fallen is fallen certainly and irrecoverably Fallen and so the Vision goes on in the most dreadful Expressions and Pourtraies of a Judgment most stupendious The Kings of the Earth bewail and stand afar off for fear of her Torment her Merchants throw Dust on their Heads and cry out in their Lamentings Alas Alas and at last her Irrecoverable Ruin is set out by a Millstone cast into the bottom of the Sea by a mighty Angel pronouncing So shall Babylon be thrown down and found no more at all ver 15. 19. 21. If this Judgment then be Prophetically denounced by the Holy the True the Mighty God It must and shall certainly come to pass in the Time and upon the City designed This is a Principle of Natural Light and Intellectual Reason so clear I shall no further insist upon it What then can be levied by way of Objection I can possibly suppose but two Things Either the Authority of the Book of the Revelation must be called into question as not from God or it must be said
the Judgment hath been already Executed Object 1. As to the first I shall say these three Things Answ 1. That this Book hath such a Majesty of Truth in the most awfull Representations of the Divine Being of the Redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Beauty of Holiness and of the Abominableness and dreadful end of Sin That whoever hath any Fear of God arising from the light of Natural Conscience or any Gust of the Excellency of Sacred Writings cannot but acknowledge it from God Add hereunto those bright Rays that shining from it every where enlighten the Purity of Divine Worship in detestation of all Idolatry and Superstition and Illustrate the Glory of Martyrdom for keeping the Commandments of God and for holding the Testimony of Jesus In all The Glory of it is as of the Revelation of Jesus Christ given to him by God and who then will dare to set himself as a mark for that Commination If any Man take from the Words of the Prophecy of this Book God will take away his Part from all the great Promises of it and will add to him the Plagues written in it which both are most dreadful C. 22. 18 19. Answ 2. Let any one consider the Curious and Admirable Iconisms Images and Figures found in this Book and if he haue a Mind that hath Vnderstanding to apply them to the Events foretold from their first beginning shortly that is to begin from the time of giving it immediately to come to pass and reaching down to this very time he will find them so exactly to answer the prophetical and predictory Types as to justifie this Book of the Revelation to be from God by that very demonstration of Divinity God appeals to Esay 41 23. Shew us things to come that we may know ye are Gods Hence therefore we may be assur'd of the Divinity of this Prophecy even from the prescience of God in it Answ 3. The Prophecies of the Old Testament in Isa C. 47. and Jerem. 51. and in Daniel throughout are such an Exemplar of Judgment on whatever shall come under the Name of Babylon the great as Nebuchadnezzar memorializ'd it for after Ages that if we are duly perswaded of the Divine Authority of the one we have all the just Inducements of the same perswasion of this Apochaliptic Prophecy and that the Spirit who breathed the one breathed the other also who foresaw Mystical Babylon in litteral and prepar'd the Shades of the Destruction of it the Latter in the Former which highly aggrandizes the Evidence of the Divine Authority of the Revelation For none but the Divine Understanding could ever have excogitated such an Admirable Agreement Object 2. As to the second Objection That the Judgment hath been already Executed and the Prophecy fulfilled it shall be answer'd under the second Position that the City which is here denounced upon is Papal Rome from whence it will necessarily follow It is not nor can can yet have been Executed because the City Rome is yet in Being and Greatness but by this Judgment is utterly to be destroyed But in the mean time it may be envinc'd from the glorious Consequences drawn out C. 19. C. 20. C. 21. C. 22. which are so close connexed with this Judgment which have not yet come into effect that therefore not the Judgment itself for who can apprehend such Glorious Appearances as the Heavens opening Christ's coming forth Attended with the Armies of Heaven such an Universal Conquest of Enemies and such a New Jerusalem and Illustrious state of it have ever enlightned a World continuing yet so dark He that can perswade himself to believe that may believe any thing most unreasonable I come therefore to the second Position Posit 2. There are Infallible Characters fixed by this Prophecy by which we may be most assur'd It is the present Papal Rome to be Judg'd For the making out this Position Two things are to be prov'd 1. That Rome it self is the City intended 2. That though Rome Pagan be intended yet Rome Papal is the Babylon on which the Judgment is to be Executed so fully here describ'd That it is Rome There are two undeniable even Litteral Affirmations that even the Popish Expositors who have so great Reason to ward off the Blow from Rome yet they have not the face to deny the City must needs be Rome and therefore some of them fix on Pagan Rome But Rome take it Pagan take it Papal Rome it self is the City to be thus Judg'd as the Divine Spirit hath made known to us by saying the Seven Hâ—ads are Seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth Now the Seven Headed City was as plain a Character of Rome when the Apocalyptick Apostle writ as if we described London by the City whose Shore the Thames washes or Constantinople by the Bosphorus coming up to it Again the same Divine Spirit hath told us the City is she that hath the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kingdom at this very present time over the Kings of the Earth which is as plain a Distinction of Rome as at the time of the Revelation given as if we describ'd London by the City where the Courts of the King of Judicature and the Councils of the Nation are and the chief Seat of Trade is or Constantinople by the Ottoman Port Who that knows the History of the World at that time knows not That Rome was the Seate of the Empire of the World at that very Time This being so plain though other Proofs may be given I pass off from it and come to the second part of the Position That though Pagan Rome is to be taken in yet Papal Rome is the City to be Judg'd especially Ultimately Finally That this may be made out I must lay in the Foundation That as the City Rome is Evidently shewn to be the Babylon to be Judg'd So the Supremacy meant here by the Beast must be a Supremacy closely Related to the City Rome and Bearing up that City in Glory and Grandeur as Pope of Rome in the place of Emperor of Rome or any other of the Supreme Magistracys of it For the City and the Beast that Carryes it are Inseparable If it be therefore made out that the Supremacy is Papal on which the City is Born up when it is Judged It will most certainly follow that the City to be Judg'd is Rome Papal Even as if it be prov'd that the Rome to be Judg'd is Rome Papal It is therein prov'd that the Supremacy Judg'd is Papal Supremacy For as is said They are Inseparable and Proportion'd one to another I will therefore draw out several Characters of Papal Supremacy and of Papal Rome that are most Plain Matters of Fact upon both in Relation to and Compare one with another and that are given in Prophecy upon each as the most plain and easy to be understood waving what is more Critical and Curious and yet most Argumentative and most Conclusive as laid one to