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A27590
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The command of God to his people to come out of Babylon, Revel. 18. 4, demonstrated to mean the coming out of the present papal Rome with a most earnest perswasive to all to come out who are in it, ...
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Beverley, Thomas.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing B2132; ESTC R18831
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42,746
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48
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than the Discyphar and Explication he hath given of the Community we are now to treat of and the Recommendation of it to the Minds that have Wisdom to observe For having first given it under the Emblem of a Woman sitting on a Beast of seven Heads and ten Horns he unriddles the Heads to be seven Mountains and seven Kings and the ten Horns to be ten Kings and the Woman to be that City that at that time Reign'd over the Kings of the Earth which is as plain an Interpretation he meant Rome as if any one in these days should first draw London in an Emblem or Device and then say It is the City that is at this time the Capital City of the Nation I doubt not any one that understands common Sense would think it plain enough London was the City and if the Emblem were Treasonable the Innuendo would be thought sufficient to take away his Life And That It is the present Papal Rome the Procedure of the Argument is even as easie For if the Emblem of London were given with the Succession of Kings from the Conquest under which it hath been the Capital City till it came down to our present Soveraign whom God long preserve and let our King live for ever it would be a sure Character the present London was intended even so sure may the present Papal Rome be known to be intended by this Prophecy These two things I look upon as indubitably certain the Discourse of which runs to Pag. 17. And as to the Calculation of Time I fix upon I think it as clear certain and easie as by the Ballance of the Time of the Moon with the Time of the Sun It would be to a skilful Astronomer to tell us how many Lunar Years or Years of the Moon have pass'd from the Conquest when we are agreed how many Years of the Sun it is as is endeavoured to be made out to Pag. 32. However the Two first That Rome and the present Papal Rome are design'd by the Prophecy are as certain as plainest Words of the Prophecy expounded by it self can make them On which I throw down the Glove to all Gainsayers And if so they are sufficient to Found well the ensuing Inferential Corollaries to the End and to build an earnest Persuasive to come out of that * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communion as the very Force of the Prophetical Word implies as well as the Vogue of Language and if we are Come out by no means to look back nor so much as to make any Terms with it For it can give us no Equivalent to incline us to yield it but a Toleration to its re-seating it self into a possibility to make publick Offers of its Golden Cup to the Nation No Indulgence can be a valuable Price for this For The Glory of Christ and of his Kingdom which that Eclipses is of more value than our Liberty and yet God forbid but that all due regards of the most Christian Evangelick Spirit should be born to all the Persons from the highest to the lowest who are of it much more to all Protestant Dissenters But to suffer so far as it is in our Power legally and in our Places to hinder this Prophetess from Seducing whoever reads these Seventeenth and Eighteenth Chapters of the Revelation and what is to follow to the End of the Prophecy which cannot come before the Fall of this Babylon and finds as I am not afraid to say I have proved It is the present Papal Rome that the Prophecy intends will see Argument sufficient against it if he be a Christian and a Protestant and the more zealous he is of Christian Protestancy still the more Reason And as for all Ambidexters Two-handed Achitophelians or Judasses who think to find it in their Account to be on both sides as they are now the private Scorn and Despisal of the Age so in future Records and not long hence they will stand Pillars of Salt. Pag. 27. Line 24. read after Wound During the Christian Emperour lin 27. blot During the Christian Emperour REVEL 18. 4. And I heard another Voice from Heaven saying Come out of her my People that ye be not partaker of her Sins and receive not of her Plagues THIS Voice is Another For it succeeds the mighty Cry of the strong Voice of an Illustrious Angel which had gone just before and proclaim'd Babylon the Great is Fallen is Fallen Now although these Two Voices are prepar'd for a particular Time and that is still to come yet they sound backward from that Time wherein they are to have so perfect an Elevation to the Times before and so consequently to all Time forward from that very Time wherein these Voices were Heard and Recorded by the Apostle John the Apocalyptical Amanuensis or Scribe that so from that very Time the Execution of the Things declar'd may be expected and prepar'd for as in their proper Time to be executed But more especially since the Time of the Reformation and so onwards the nearer we approach the Time for which it is prepar'd the more the Voice with which we have now to do is to be attended as if it sounded louder and louder And it shall most sensibly do so when the Fourty two Months of the Beast are expir'd which we shall find will be at the farthest Nine years hence Let us then consider the Importance of this Voice and it is plainly the Separation of the People of God and so of every Person among us if we are of his People from any Communion with that City or Community concerning which we shall by the Light of this Prophecy duly weigh'd and consider'd be convinc'd that It is the City symboliz'd or set out by this Mystical Woman And our Separation must be proportionable to the danger of being tainted or struck with the Contagion of its Sins or Apprehended and Reachd by the Thunder-shaft of its Plagues For so is the Charge Come out of her my People And so is the Enforcement Lest ye be partaker of her Sins and lest ye Receive of her Plagues Now that we may do this It is highly Expedient at least to use the utmost Enquiry into this Prophecy that we may know by the Characters of it What and what manner of City the Spirit of God in it doth signifie and what or what manner of Time also It hath denoted or else we cannot so well judge what is 1 Pet. 1. 11. our Duty or what our Danger For though I would allow with as much Largeness of mind as can be desir'd that by the General Rules of Universal Scripture we may without the particular Understanding of this Prophecy be secur'd from both the Impurities and from the Judgments of this City by Adhering to the Truth and Purity and Mercy of the Christian Religion in Doctrine Discipline Worship and Practise according to the just measures of the Word of God yet we cannot do it with those
particular Evidences of that Divine Reason nor with those vigorous Emotions of Zeal against such an unclean Communion as this Prophecy rightly apprehended would arm us with For certainly The Pen of this Divine Scribe was not made in vain I will therefore use the highest Diligence of Research and close Enquiry into the Prophecy concerning the City and the Times appointed to it and then concerning the Comming out of it and enforce the Charge here given to come out of it and all this as peculiarly deriv'd from this Holy Oracle in comparison of which all the Streams deriv'd from Antiquity are Low and Flat in shewing the Great Abominations of that City But Blessed is he that Readeth and They who Hear the Words of this Prophecy for now the Time is more at hand as to what we are now to Treat of than when the Oracle was first given although each part of this Prophecy was in its own Time and Order at Hand according to the Line wherein each Thing was to come to pass and which Line began in the Things that were first to come to pass and did come to pass from the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ which are but one Time in the Account of Prophecy as we say in Law The whole of each Term is but one Day and from thence the Revelation is dated as from its Epoch or Beginning-Point First therefore concerning the City there are such Characters as undeniably assure us This City can be no other than the City Rome that is here thus describ'd The City resembled by a Woman a not only Imperious but Charact. 1. Imperial whorish Woman is plainly Expounded by the Angel to be a City And it is usual in Prophecy to Figure Cities by that Embleme of a Woman and not only Cities but Churches as Revel c. 17. c. 18. Zion by a Woman grieved in Spirit the True Church in this Prophecy is often Typ'd by a Woman the New Jerusalem by the Bride the Lambs Wife And Adulterous Churches by Adulterous Women as Aholiab and Aholibah are the Pictures of Samaria Ezek. 23. and Jerusalem both as Adulterous Cities and Churches But this Woman this Imperial and Imperious whorish Woman is affirm'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all the Emphasis and Force of Expression that can be The City The Great That hath now saith the Apostle John that I am in writing it at this very present Time the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth Now a City that had then the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth undeniably imported a Capital City the Seat of an Vniversal Monarchy at that Time. For as a Monarch hath in the very nature of a Monarch all subordinate Magistrates under him and accountable to Him so an Universal Monarchy hath States and Kingdoms under it that however in their particular Kingdoms They may be over and above all others yet still their Power is Limitable and accountable to and may be Appealed from to the Universal Monarchy and Power When therefore This City is said to be The City The Great Having at that Time a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth It is to say the City spoken of was at the Time when the Revelation was given the Seat of an Vniversal Monarchy and that some Supreme Power had its Imperial Residence there took its Title from that City exercis'd its Power under that Title and as the then present Head of that City bore up the City by such Title so that it is said to have a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth because such a Power so related to it had a Kingdom over all other Kingdoms far and near or had such an Universal Monarchy or Kingdom Now what City that was that had then a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth in the sense now declared besides the Notices of Universal History in that matter it is most evident from Scripture that it must be even that very City Rome for Augustus at that time the Emperour of Rome when our Lord was Born made a Decree that All the World viz. the World of the Roman Empire which Aspir'd as it were to equal the very Habitable Earth in Extent should come under a particular Census Luc. 2. 1. or be describ'd that so an Account of the large Bounds of the Dominion the Numerousness Strength and Riches of the Subjects might be render'd to Him. We read in the History of the Acts of the Apostles how great the Honour was for any City to be accounted a Member of that City that its Natives might be the Free-Born of that City It made such a City no mean City The Immunity of being so Free-born was so great that many purchas'd it at an exceeding Rate who had it not by Birth We find the Apostle Paul though he was a Jew and immediately subject to the Jewish Law yet as it were directed by an Impulse of Providence Appeals to Caesar's Tribunal as the Highest upon Earth These and many other Expressions assure us what City it was that at the Acts 22. 28 Time Reigned over the Kings of the Earth And it was very necessary the Scripture that loves most in all weighty matters to be serv'd by its own Records should take this great Notice of the Roman Empire Because as the Fourth Monarchy it was of the Four the most Remarkable For in it Dan. 7. the Kingdom of Messiah that is to be so Universal a Monarchy indeed began to be set up in its Beginning and will in the End of the same Roman Monarchy be a Dominion under the whole Heaven given to the Saints of the most High the first of which is Accounted for in the History of the New Testament and the Last in this Grand Prophecy of it the Revelation But further to carry on the Certainty of this City being the City Rome at the time the Apostle John wrote the Revelation we may observe what is so well known That there was no Change in the State of the Roman Empire except a greater Enlargement of it from the Days of Christ and the Apostles to the Time of the writing the Revelation by the Apostle John. So that when This City is declar'd to be the City that Reign'd over the Kings of the Earth it is most evident Rome was the City intended It is therefore called the Great City according to the manner Charact. 2. of speaking at that Time Roma Sacra Augusta Aeterna Rome the Sacred the Imperial the Everlasting Rome How often therefore doth the Revelation style it the Great City and Babylon the Great and The City and The Great This Woman is said to sit on Seven Mountains And the Holy Charact. 3. Spirit is so Industrious if I may so speak with Reverence to give this Notice of the Famous Seven-Hill'd Rome that it goes out of its way to give it For whereas the Beast only and not the Woman is Entitled to the Seven Heads Besides the