thereupon into the Church And thus comes the Roman Empire to appear with Ten Kingdoms in it shown by the Ten Horns and this was the helping of the Woman because the Church by this got her freedom and peace and gained these Barbarians to her But the Dragon is said to be still in great fury against the Woman and therefore went to make War with the remnant of her seed which Rev. 12. 17. keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ where we may observe a plain distinction made betwixt the Seed of the Woman The Warr that the Dragon makes is with that part of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony or are the Witnesses or Martyrs of Jesus Christ which intimates that the Rest of her Seed should depart from the Commandments of God and from the truth of the Gospel of Christ By this we have a new scene opened about the enmity of the Dragon against the Church The Time of it is after the Settlement of the Divisions of the Empire in those Kings of the Barbarians signified by the swallowing up of the great flood by the earth That is after the rise of the Ten Kings in the Roman Empire and the party against whom this War is carried on are the Godly Seed of the Woman not against all her Seed but against those only who keep God's Commandments and are the Witnesses or the Martyrs of Jesus or as they are elsewhere called The Witnesses in Sackcloth How this was brought to pass That which does immediately follow this design of the Dragon does inform us For immediately upon it appears a Beast with all the same Emblems of the Roman Empire that the Dragon had and to him the Dragon Rev. 13. 1. is said to give his Power and his Seat and great Authority v. 2. And thus does the Dragon fulfill the intention that he had just before to War with the chosen Remnant of the Womans Seed He does not appear himself in it but inspires another set up in his place to do it By which it is evidently signified That this new war with the dutiful part of the Womans Seed is not managed by any Roman Power which is openly known to be the professed Enemy of God and of the Christian Religion as that Government of the Empire was which had the open appearance of the Devil's management in it And if it were not such a Power that should appear like an open professed Enemy of the Christian Religion it must be such as must profess that Religion and out of a pretended zeal to it exercise all the Tyranny of the Devil or Dragon against the true professors of it For all the great business of the Beast is Religious worship and if that Religion be not professed enmity to the Christian because that would make it the open show of the Dragon as it was before his fall It must then be a zealous outward profession of the Christian Religion to persecute and to destroy the true maintainers of it This does determine the time of the first settlement of the Woman in the Wilderness for the space of a Time Times and an half For thô it be said Chap. 12. 6. That She fled into the Wilderness yet it is not there said that she was setled there but only that she had a place prepared for her there to be fed for One Thousand two Hundred and Sixty days And besides after many great Actions intervening she is said at the 14th Verse to be but then in a condition to fly into the Wilderness and after she was flying thither the Dragon cast out a flood after her and hindred her settlement there till that was swallowed up and therefore did her Time Times and Half-time begin but just at the same time with the Dragon 's persecuting the remnant of her Seed which was just at the first rise of the Beast and so confirms the Synchronism of the Woman and the Beast for their whole time We are therefore now to enquire from the History of the Christian Church how it can be said that from the time of Justinian all the true Professors of the Christian Faith were forced by Tyrannical usage to worship the Will of the Christian Roman Emperors about matters of Religion thereby to fit the Characters here given to the Beast to the Imperial Head restored in the West And thus we find that at the Time that the Christian Church The Woman was secured in the Two Imperial Seats of the East and West the two Wings of a great Eagle from all the inundations of Pagan people or from the face of the Serpent The Devil did then set up persecution in the Roman Throne against the true and faithful Members of the Christian Church The Remnant of the Seed of the Woman which keep the Commandments of God while she her self was in the Wilderness or in a place of security CHAP. VII Rev. XIII The particular point of the first date of the Rise of the Beast enquired after in order The first conception and progress of the chief Malignity of the Beast It entred with Theodosius and was setled by Justinian And appears to have been the enforcing of Vniversal Conformity by Penalties able to make the generality of the World to comply against their Consciences Justinian 's peculiar Talent in the setling this Method for Conformity FRom the former Account of the over-ruling Authority of the Christian Emperors in all Church-Affairs and of the great veneration which they had for the Councils assembled under them it is obvious for any one to conclude That they lay very open to the danger of requiring Divine Honours to be given them For this must needs make them very apt to command many things which God has left free and undetermined to be received for Points of Faith necessary to Salvation as inspired by the Holy Ghost in Council And it is evident that in such a case the will of him that enjoins such things is taken for the Will of God and so he may very well be said to require the Honour of God to be given to his own will One cannot but think it very probable upon this account that such a kind of Worship as is called the Worship of the Beast was sometimes enjoined before the Rise of the Beast since there were many Erroneous Councils before that time And it may be many things in Orthodox Councils made to be Inspirations of the Holy Ghost and pressed upon the Consciences of men as Divine Oracles necessarily to be obeyed which were but the mere Arbitrary Injunctions of men But yet though the same kind of Worship might have been commanded before his appearance yet it could not be the worship of the Beast till it was the owning of the Roman Authority for the Will of God in those particular Circumstances of Antichristian Idolatry and Tyranny in which it is described to be all over the
By the same reason may any other Type be used to signify a thing absolutely as well as typically And Days may for that reason be as well supposed to signify Years absolutely in some places because used to signify them typically in others if there be any evidence against their literal acceptation as there is here found to be Wherefore according to these Examples especially that of the 70 weeks which is by all acknowledged the 42 Months must be considered as containing so many years in them as they have days in them and the least number of days that they can contain in them is 1260. whatsoever accounts of Months be taken either in the time of Daniel or of St. John If it should be hereupon enquired What kind of Months these were and how many days they did precisely contain in them the relation that this account of the Beast in the Revelations has to the fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel will resolve that difficulty The 42 Months of the Beast in this place are the Times of the Little Horn in that 7th Chapter of Daniel by Coroll 2. Prop. 15. And the Times of the Little Horn there are said to be a time times and half a time which therefore must be the same with the 42 Months of the Beast they being both of them the same time of the same Reign Now the Time v. 14. Times and an half are in the 12th Chapter of the Revelations the same time of the Woman's abode in the Wilderness which is v. 6. a little before said to be 1260 days The 42 Months then which is the same time of the Reign of the Beast with the Time Times and an half must also be but 1260 days By this then it appears That the calculation of these Months must be according to the Babylonian Account where Daniel lived when he wrote that Prophecy to which this of the Beast in the Revelations does every-where refer The Babylonians had but 30 days in their Months and they were all of equal length to which they added an Appendix of five days at the end of the Year which the Greeks called the Epagomena and so made their Year to be 365 days But without the Epagomena three Years and an half make but 1260 days which is the number that these Visions about the Beast do so often inculcate and is 17 days short of the true Account of three years and an half in the Babylonian way And this is the only reason that I could ever find satisfactory Why besides the Time Times and an half there is the mention of 42 Months and 1260 days in the Prophecy to express the same number of years For the Time Times and an half without any thing else to restrain it would have been understood to be three full years and an half according to the Chaldaick Account from whence that calculation was fetched and so would really have been 17 days longer and have signified 17 years longer than they really were to be whereas by this particular determination of them in the Prophecy to 1260 days and 42 Months they appear to want the Appendix of the five days or Epagomena at the end of every Year And thus are we delivered from that fanciful Shift that Mr. Mede was fain to fly to in his account of the different ways of expressing the same time here viz. That the Months were used to signify the works of darkness and the days the contrary The Months being regulated by the course of the Moon and the days by that of the Sun The 42 Months then do appear by this to be 15 days short of the full length of Time Times and half a time by being reckoned without the Epagomena It may hereupon be very reasonably imagined that the 1260 Years signified by so many days may each of them also be reckoned without the Epagomena or five days at the end of them and then they will also want some such number of Years of their full account and so prove to be but 1243 Years From the former Proposition it may be concluded That The 1260 days of the Two Witnesses Revel 11. 3. are 1260 Corollar 1 Years For the 1260 days of the two Witnesses are the same length of time with the 42 Months of the Beast pag. preced And are described as the opposite Party to the Beast v. 7. and so mentioned in the same account as Contemporaries with him And since they have the same length of time assigned to them for their continuance it ought to be understood to signify the same thing without any clearer Evidence to the contrary by Rule the 3 d. Now by their Characters they appear to be capable of so long a continuance For they represent a body of Men and not two single Persons only It is said that the Beast should make war with them And the Beast is already known to signify a great Empire And how can a great Empire be said to make war with two single Persons or Peoples Kindreds and Nations as it is said of them to see them lie dead and not to suffer them to be buried The 1260 days then of the two Witnesses do signify the same length of time that the same number of days in the 42 Months of their Contemporary do signify that is 1260 Years If these days do signify the same number of Years with the 42 Months Then The 1260 days of the two Witnesses and the 42 Months of the Beast do Corollar 2 signify the same coincident space of 1260 Years For the Beast and the Witnesses have the same length of continuance Prop. 24. Coroll 1. And they are described to be Contemporaries and the opposite Party to one another Rev. 11. 7. to 14. And therefore it is extravagant to fancy their time to be different only because it cannot be proved to be strictly impossible that they should not be the same from the beginning to the end See Chap. 2. Book I. From hence it may safely be inferred That The two Witnesses in Sackcloth Rev. 11. 3. do represent the whole Corollar 3 True Church in the time of its humiliation under the Beast For the two Witnesses must signify a succession of Persons during the space of 1260 Years Coroll preced And they are set out by Characters that are peculiar to the Representations of the True Church in the times of its humiliation under its Adversaries in the Old Testament As by the peculiar Miracles of Moses and Aaron in the Land of Egypt v. 6. By those of Elijah with Exod. 7. 19. 1 Kings 17. 1. Zechar. 4. Elisha v. 5 6. And by the Mystical Characters of Joshua and Zerubbabell v. 4. By this it appears That they must refer to some twofold division of the whole Catholick Church that must be generally known for 1260 years together And in this respect the Reason why they are represented by Two may be either 1. The natural division of every well constituted
Justinian To resolve this Scruple it must be considered That there are two different kinds of Sovereign Power represented in the Beast the one by his Heads and the other by his Horns And the next Change of Sovereignty but one to that which ruled in St. John's time which constitutes the 8th King or the Beast is a succession of an Head of the Beast by Prop. 20 21. And that Head is called the Beast as a thing distinct from the Ten Horns for the Ten Horns are said to give their Kingdom to the Beast who before had been said to be the Eighth King and is one of the Seven Heads by Prop. 5. Coroll It matters not therefore at what time the Ten Horns arose For they were but so many Sovereignties in the Roman Empire distinct from that Eighth King which is the Beast or an Head of the Beast and who were confederated with him And to know the time of that Confederacy it must be enquired first what was the next successive Head but one to the Imperial that was up at the time of the Vision For besides the Ten Kings there was to be an Head amongst them whom they should all join with And the Ten Kings were but so many different Horns which signify a division of the Empire and not a single successive Head of it superior to them all which is here enquired after according to the mark that has already been given to know an Head by 17. This would also be another difficulty against deferring the appearance of the Beast till the Reign of Justinian viz. That the Reign of the Beast and the time of the Woman in the Wilderness do begin and end together and the Woman is said to fly into the Wilderness presently after her delivery of the Man-child that is presently after the Conversion of the Imperial Throne 200 years before Justinian's time But it is by almost all agreed that that first mention of the Woman's flying into the Wilderness is an anticipation because after several great Actions intervening it is repeated again at the 14th verse and there represented but as a preparation to rest in the Wilderness and then the Dragon cast out a flood after her whilst she was flying so that she was not at rest then till after that flood was swallowed up by the Earth which was just before the rising of the Beast out of the Sea chap. 13. 18. In the last place it may be objected That from the fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus to the time of Justinian was no new Roman Government in the West because the Barbarous Kings and their People were not Romans and therefore must if any thing be a new Beast and not a new Head of the Roman Beast and then all the time of their Reign will be but an Interregnum of the Roman Government and Justinian's return there will be but the continuance of the Sixth Head But it is sufficient answer to this that the ten Barbarous Kings which are made to be the Ten Horns of the Beast are thereby represented as Members of the Roman Empire as has been just now observed And moreover it does appear that the Goths who succeeded in the room of the Western Emperors had been long before made the Confederates and Members of the Roman Empire See Note y on Chap. 4. CHAP. IX Rev. XIII A short Account of the several Opinions of Interpreters that differ from the Propositions before demonstrated Their inconsistency with the Analogy of Prophecy The Shifts that they are forced to flye to to maintain them BY the same Light which has cleared up mine own Applications of the Prophecy it may be seen upon what grounds I depart from the Apprehensions of others about it 1. It is much to be admired That there ever should have been any at all much more any of the Ancients that had been conversant Andreas Caesar Aretas Primatius Beda c. in this Study that should apprehend it possible for the whole business of Babylon and the Beast in the Revelations to be nothing but a Mystical and Spiritual state of the Christian Church in relation to the whole World of the Wicked in general and not to any particular Empire of the World more than other For the Angel in the 17th Chapter does so expresly signifie Prop. 1. his design there to be to unfold the Mystery of Babylon and the Beast that had been before mentioned and does thereupon determine the meaning of them to the Roman Empire by such generally known and peculiar marks that the Romanists themselves whose only interest and considerable concern it is to divert the scene of these Visions from the City of Rome do yet almost unanimously in this latter age acknowledg to their Adversaries That there is nothing more certain and unquestionable than That some particular state of the Domination of See Consent of Antiquity c. Rome must be meant by them The ground of this paradoxical Fancy of the Ancients will be afterwards enquired into 2. It is in the next place very near as extravagant to grant That some particular state of Roman Rule must be the great object of these Visions and yet to make the Figure of the Beast in general to signifie the World and the Heads of the Ribera c. Beast either so many successive Ages or so many distinct successive Empires in it For by all the Examples of Beasts and their Ruling parts all Prop. 16. over the Prophecy of Daniel which is generally agreed to be the original pattern of the Prophecy of the Revelations it is acknowledged by these very persons themselves That a Beast does constantly signifie the Rule or Empire of one particular Nation only and therefore must the Heads also signifie so many Supreme Powers in that Nation only But the most inexcusable thing in this opinion is That the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel is granted by these same persons to be nothing but the particular Nation of the Romans which yet is the exact picture Prop. 15. of this Beast in the Revelations But then to grant 3dly That the Beast and his Heads do signifie nothing but Roman Power and after that to make the Seven Heads not to be so many distinct Powers but to be taken Bellarm. c. collectively for All the Rulers of one kind or for All the Emperors is to out-face the plain expressions of the Text which divide the number Seven into Five One Another and an Eighth that is one of the Seven and it is well known that when the number Seven is so expresly divided into parts it is never used collectively or for an indefinite multitude 4. As contrary to the known use of those Mystical Expressions is it to make the Seven Heads of the Beast to be so many single persons only of Rulers Grotius c. For it is evident all over the Book of Daniel That Heads and Horns of Beasts do signify all