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Out of Mr Garret's discourse concerning Antichrist.

Est et alia major necessitas nobis orandi pro Imperatoribus, etiam pro omni statu Imperij, rebusque Romanis quod vim maximam universo orbi imminentem, ipsamque clausulam sæculi acerbitates horrendas comminantem, Romani Imperij commeatu scimus retardari. Itaque nolumus experiri, & dum precamur differri, Romanæ diuturnitati favemus. Tertullian. Apolog. cap: 32. Thus the christians of the first ages understood St Paul 2 Thess. 2 of him that withheld the man of sin. But afterward in St Austins time the meaning of the place became disputable yet not so far but that St Austin thought it probable to interpret him that withholdeth of the Roman Empire. De Civit. Dei l 2. c 19.

Sed quæ de septem, totum circumspicit orbem,

    Montibus, Imperij Roma Deûmque locus. Ovid. Trist. lib: 1 Eleg: 4.

Thou art this head of gold Dan 2.38. This is not spoken of Nebuchadnezzar's person only but also of his Kingdom as appears by vers 39 After thee shall arise another kingdom, inferior to thee, that is not to his person but to his kingdom

The number ten is often used indefinitely in scripture as in 1 Sam. 1.8 Nehem 4.12. Iob 19.3. Dan 1.20. Amos 6.9. Zech 8.23.

Leo who presided in the Roman See Anno 456 circiter wherein the Roman Emperors ceased, boasted in his sermon de Apostolis that the temporal government of the Roman Emperors was changed into the power of the Roman See as Bishop Morton in his catholick appeal for protestants Lib 2, cap 5 sect 10 thus mentions In cujus (viz. Romanæ) sedis potestatem fuit temporale illud imperium (speaking of the whole imperial authority) commutatum, ut auctor est Leo Papa, sermone de Apostolis. And the general Councel of Chalcedon (in which Martianus the Greek Emperor was present in person) in an <1v> epistle to the said Leo called him caput ecclesiarum: if Bellarmin say true De Rom. Pont. lib 3 cap 3. § Hæc sententia, who there tells us that Phocas was not the first that called the Pope head of the Churches, but Iustinian did it before him & the Councel of Caledon before him.

In the contention about Images with Leo Isaurus Gregory the second (saith Sigonius) not only excommunicated the Emperor but absolved all the people of Italy from their allegiance & forbad the payment of any tribute to him: whereupon the inhabitants of Rome Campania Ravenna & Pentapolis (i.e. the region about Ancona immediately rebelled & rose up in opposition to their magistrates whom they destroyed. At Ravenna Paulus the Exarch was killed. At Rome Peter the governour had his eyes put out &c Vnde Petavius l 7. c 8 p 372 part pri Ratio. Temp. speaking of the contest of Leo Is. & Gregory 2d saith of the latter, Romæ et quicquid Italiæ reliquum erat a Græcorum abstraxit imperio, tributaque ijs ultra impendere prohibuit. The same is affirmed by Theophanes & Zonaras Sigebert, Otto Trisingensis, Conradus Vspergensis, Hieronymus Rubeus &c. Sigonius saith the people not only cast of the Emperor but sware to be faithful to the Pope.

The Ægyptian Dragon waited to devour the Hebrew children as soon as they were born, Then the Hebrew woman fled into the wildernes from the Dragon, & her child Moses was caught up to God & to his throne. And as soon as they came into the wildnesse they fell into Idolatry.

Caught up to God & to his throne (by an Hendiadis) for caught up to the throne of God

Remnant of her seed. When any general defection or calamity is described in scripture, those whom it pleases God to save out of it are seldome otherwise expressed then by a remnant See 2 King. 19.4, 31. Nehem. 1.3 & many other places there are to the like purpose.

When St Iohn fell down to worship the Angel, he answers: I am thy fellow servant & of thy bretheren that have the testimony of Iesus Christ for the testimony of Iesus is the spirit of prophesy. Which answer is thus worded with relation to the two witnesses, to insinuate that he with the rest is a type thereof.

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I have appointed thee a day for a year Ezek 4.4, 5, 6 that is, a day to signify to the Iews a year. In Daniels weeks, Schabuahh, according to the etimology of the word signifies indeed seven in general & may as well signify seven years as seven days & so does ἑβδομὰς in greek. But according to the use of the word it signifies a week of days as ἑβδομὰς does when ever it is put absolutely with out any other expressions or circumstances to determin it to signify otherwise. In such circumstances it may signify a week of years as in Gen 29.27. Levit 25.8. Otherwise of it self it signifies in common speaking seven days & cannot be understood of years no more then ἑβδομὰς And this is the case of Daniel. The word there literally signifys days, typically years, a day being put for a year. See Luke 13.32, 33

Satan knoweth he hath but a short time Apoc 12.12 Ergo the 1260 days are natural days. Resp. Behold I come quickly Apoc 3.11 & 22.7, 12, 20 Four times repeated & the last time thus Surely I come quickly, to make the stronger impression, & yet that quickly is not yet arrived. In respect of God Christ & Angels good & bad a thousand years is but a short time, especially to bad angels whose torments come too quickly in their apprehension.

Idolatry is every where in the Apocalyps charged on that Apostacy: & no other kind of blasphemy. And therefore blasphemy must signify Idolatry. Yet if you will: Blaspheming the name of God & his tabernacle & those that dwell in heaven may be speaking evill of the true God & true Christ (his tabernacle Colos. 2.9 so are the saints Ephes 3.19 1 Cor. 3.17) & of the true saints as if they were fals ones.

Aventinus Annal. lib: 7, relates these words of Everhardus: Romani majestas populi, qua olim orbis regebatur, sublata est e terris: Imperator vana appellatio est et sola umbra est. So Salmeron the Iesuite (comment on 2 Thes. 2) Imperium Romanum jam diu eversum est, nam qui nunc est Imperator Romanus levissima est umbra Imperij antiqui; us adeo ut ne quidem urbem Romæ possideat, & jam per multos annos Romani Imperatores defecerunt. Hence Mr. Garret thinks the German Empire to be the Image of the Beast.

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It was an ancient custome among the Romans to set a mark upon their souldiers & servants, that it might be known to what Master the servants & to what General the souldiers belonged. The servants usually received this mark in their foreheads & the souldiers in their hands. To this custome the Apocalyps alludes in the sealed saints & those that receive the mark of the Beast, & Chiefly in the latter because they were subjects of the Romans there spoken of.

That no man should buy or sell save that he had the mark or name of the Beast Apoc 13. In the councel of Lateral held against the Waldenses & Albigenses under Pope Alexander there is this canon Nequis eos in domo vel in terra sua tenere vel fovere, vel Negotiationem cum ijs exercere præsumat. Tom 4 Concil. Edit. Rom. pag. 37. And in another Synod of France held under the same Pope Alexander: – Ne ubi cogniti fuerint illius Hæreseos sectatores, receptaculum quisquam eis in terra præbere aut præsidium impertiri præsumat: sed nec in venditione et emptione aliqua cum ijs communio habeatur. Apud Rev. Armachan. De success. Eccles. p. 239.

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