Untitled Treatise on Revelation (section 1.2)

Position 1.
The Seales & with in the seventh Seale the Trumpets are distributions of time which succeed one another orderly without any interruption or interfering.

This Position follows from the     Rule because in the Vision as it appeared to Saint Iohn the Seales were opened & the Trumpets sounded one after another in order & the contents of every Seale & Trumpet are in this book of the Apocalyps described in the same order without any interfering or real interruption. And further, as an indication of orderly succession of all the rest, the succession of the four last is described in express words. ffor between the 4^th & 5^t Trumpet an Angel proclaimed Wo becaus of the three angels which were yet to sound. And the fift & sixt Trumpet are succesively joyned by this expression between them, One wo is past & behold there come two more woes hereafter And so the sixt & seventh are joyned by this, The second Wo is past & behold the third wo cometh quickly.

And as for the subordination of the Trumpets to the seventh seale, that I suppose is plain enough, since they are the immediate consequences of opening that Seale. ffor as soon as it is opened the Trumpets are given to the seven Angels in order to their sounding.

I said that the seales & Trumpets are described after one {another} without any reall interruption, but this is to be <2r> understood with this limitation that the seventh chapter be esteemed as a Parenthesis between the sixt & seventh Seale; & the tenth chapter & 13 first verses of the eleventh also a Parenthesis between the sixt & seventh Trumpet. ffor these were inserted into the continued narration of the Seals & Trumpets for a singular reason to be explained hereafter & make no more then a verbal interruption of their continuity. For it is manifest that the things declared from chap 10.1 to chap 11.13 end together with the sixt Trumpet becaus at the end of them is added: The second wo is past & behold the third wo cometh quickly. And so the seventh Seal manifestly begins together with those things described in the seventh chapter becaus the hurting of the Earth & the Sea & the Trees which was immediately to follow the sealing of the saints ch: 7.3, was put in execution at the sounding of the Trumpets; the earth & the trees being hurt in the first Trumpet & the Sea in the second: & therefore the sealing of the Saints must immediately precede the first Trumpet & so be coincident with the time of incense. And indeed the stilness of the winds during the sealing, & the silence in heaven during the incense what else should they signify by their mutual resemblance but the coincidence of these times? For by the silence is to be understood a suspension of those noises which followed the time of incense, that is of the voices & Thundrings & Trumpets, which is as much as to say a suspension of wars (see Posit 2.2) & the stilness of the winds signify the same thing Fig 52. But these things I shall have occasion to explain more largely in the 10^th 11^th & 12^th Positions to which I refer you.

These two Parentheses are therefore collaterally coincident with the series of the seales & Trumpets & so make no real interruption.

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Position 2.
The seven Trumpets Thunders & Vials of wrath are the same & signify so many courses of war.

Artic: 1. That the plagues of the Trumpets are the same with the seven Vials of wrath will appear by the following comparison of each Vial with each Trumpet.

Here the hail & fire mingled with blood which were cast upon the earth answer to the Vial poured out upon the Earth. And & the burning up the trees & herbs (that is the consumption of men by war Fig 11 & 48) has some affinity with the noisome & grievous sore which fell upon men.

<4r>

The parallelism of the second third & fourth Trumpet & Vial is manifest. And in this fift there is darknes in both cases; & the kingdom of the Beast corresponds to the men which had not the seal of God in their foreheads; & the pains & sores to the stingings of serpents with which men were exceedingly tormented but not killed.

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Here the four Angels bound at Euphrates with their Army manifestly answer to the Kings of the East at the same river.

I have here put a parallelism between the falling of the tenth part of the City & the falling of the Cities of the nations not as if they were the same, but becaus I take <6r> the former which concludes the sixt Trumpet to be an immediate fore-runner of the latter wherewith the seventh Vial begins.

And thus you see the agreement between the plagues of the seven Vials & Trumpets is throughout very punctual so that I think there can be no doubting of their coincidence. I may add that their Introductions also resemble one another. For the sealed Saints with which the Prophesy of the Trumpets is introduced (chap 7.3) correspond to them that get the victory over the Beast & over his Image &c with which the other Prophesy of the Vials is introduced Ch 15.2. For the sealed Saints were contemporary with the Beast as shall be shewed hereafter, & consequently were the same with those that get the victory over him. Also the vision of offering incense at the Altar before the Angels began to sound corresponds to the Vision of the Temple appearing opened in heaven & filled with smoke from the glory of God, out of which the seven Angels came to pour out the Vials. And so the subsequent loud voices with which the Trumpets & Vials are ushered in correspond. And lastly in that the Vials are called the seven last Plagues, they suit well with the Trumpets which are the Plagues of the last Seale & inflicted on those wicked ages which the Prophets & Apostles considered as the last times.

Artic 3.^[2] Hence it may be collected that the seven Thunders are the same with the Trumpets & Vials seeing they also by Fig    ) denote seven wars or courses of war: but for fuller manifestation of this particular, I shall lay down the following observations. ffirst that the Prophesies of the Thunders & little Book are two distinct Prophesies whereof that of the book begins to be described in the eighth vers of chap 10, & therefore the first seven verses of that Chapter belong to that of the Thunders.

Secondly that although the description of the prophesy of the litle book be deferred till after that other of the Thunders, yet the book it self is mentioned in the hand of the Angel at the beginning of that other, & this interweaving them denotes that they are contemporary. ffor when two contemporary things are to be described one after another it is the method of the holy Ghost to interweave them by mentioning that in the first place which is last described, <7r> least otherwise they should be taken for successive things. Thus in chap 7.1, 2 the vision of the four Angels which were in the Trumpets to hurt the Earth & the Sea is interwoven with that of the other Angel sealing the saints, & in chap 11 the Witnesses are interwoven with the Beast by mentioning in the first place the Gentiles which are the Beast, & so in chap 15 the Victors over the Beast are interwoven with the Vision of the Vials; & much after the same manner in chap 12 the birth of the manchild is made contemporary to the Victory of Michael by subjoyning to both the flight of the Woman into the Wilderness. Seeing therefore the seven Thunders & the vision of the little book are in like manner interwoven it argues that they also are contemporary.

In the third place we are to consider that these two contemporary visions are not a part of the sixt Trumpet succeeding the Euphratean horsmen but a new prophesy deduced from a higher Epocha, the Prophet returning back (after the manner of an Historian) to describe new things collateral to what he had described before. And this I gather from these considerations. ffirst becaus the Euphratean horsmen are the proper plague of the Sixt Trumpet & this plague is strook through the Vision of the Thunder & little Book by the Angel's saying at the end of their description, The second Wo is past & behold the third Wo cometh quickly.. 2^dly Becaus the Prophesy of the little Book exprest in the 13 first verses of the 11^th chapter is of things of a very different kind from the plagues of the Trumpets, so that it cannot be supposed any one or part of one of them, but rather something collateral 3^dly Becaus this Prophesy is represented by another Book & so no part of the sealed one, for thence also it must be some thing collateral. 4^thly Becaus the whole prophesy of the Thunders & little book is omitted in the Vials where all the plagues of the Trumpets are repeated. 5^thly Because the Angel with the little book in his hand is described exceeding majestic & glorious. ffor this argues the subject he appears about to be very considerable & spacious, such as may require more room then a part of one of the Trumpets. 6^tly Because the prophesy of the little Book is introduced by a voice from heaven speaking to Saint Iohn chap: 10.8. ffor as first the prophetique epistles to the seven churches chap 1.10, & then the prophesy of the seales chap 4.1 was introduced by such a voice speaking to Saint Iohn, so by the analogy the new voice introducing this prophesy of the Book argues it to be, not a continuation of things described before but the beginning <8r> of a new prophesy, & consequently collateral both to the Thunders & to the Trumpets. 7^thly Yea this is exprest in vers 11 where so soon as Saint Iohn had eaten the book the Angel told him he must prophesy again before many peoples & nations & tongues & kings, & then immediately follows the 11^th chapter which conteins severall things (viz: the measuring of the Temple & altar, the treading under foot the holy City by the Gentiles 42 months, & the prophesying of the Witnesses) of an earlier epocha than the beginning of the sixt Trumpet.

ffourthly the Epocha of the Thunders therefore since it transcends the 6^t Trumpet must be the same with that of the Trumpets, & that ffirst becaus that is the most remarkable Epocha to which it can be referred in regard that the seventh Seal is as it were cut off from the former six by the interposition of the 7^th chapter & so made of it's self a complete & wholly independent course of time, & accordingly repeated by it's self in the Prophesy of the Vials. Secondly because the Angel when he descended & began to cry, set one foot on the Sea & the other on the earth. ffor this we are not to think an impertinent circumstance, & if it signify any thing it must be that the Sea & Earth, that is the people signified by them, are the subjects of the Prophesies of the Thunders & Book which he appeares to reveale, & consequently that these prophesies begin with those that concern the Sea & earth, that is with the Trumpets chap 7.1, 3, & 8.7, 8. or with the Dragon's coming down to the inhabitants of the Earth & Sea chap 12.12, which as we shal show in the next Position falls in with the beginning of the Trumpets. As for the circumstance of his setting his right foot on the Sea & left on the earth, I suppose that only denotes the inhabitants of the Sea to be the more honourable or considerable people. In the third place I may argue the Epocha of the Thunders from that of the contemporary prophesy of the little book, that is from the Epoch of the Vision of measuring the Temple & Altar & them that worship therein chap 11.1. For the Epocha of this Vision as I shall prove in Posit 10.7 is the beginning of the seventh Seal. And therfore the first appearance of the Angel with the little book cannot be of a later date, & consequently the Thunders not much later, for the Angel so soon as he was descended upon the sea & earth cried with a loud voice & so soon as he had done crying the Thunders uttered their voices.

ffiftly, The Vision (if I may so call it) of the Thunders <9r> extends downward to the end of the Trumpets. ffor it's being inserted into the end of the sixt Trumpet is argument enough that it extends so far downward & besides the words of the Angel which conclude this prophesy of the Thunders [viz: That there should be time no longer but in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound the mystery of God should be finished,] are a sufficient insinuation that the Thunders end {in}the sounding of that Angel.

These things being premised I argue thus. ffirst the Thunders according to what we have now proved are coextended to the Trumpets, & being so there is no reason why each Thunder should not fall in with its respective Trumpet, for their very being inserted into the Prophesy of the Trumpets argues that they concern the same subject. Secondly, Thunder denotes war by Fig    . & therefore the seven Thunders must denote seven great successive wars or courses of war & consequently must be allotted to the seven main courses of war within the times of the Trumpets: But the seven Trumpets & Vials themselves are (as we shewed above) the very seven main courses of war to happen in their times; & therefore the seven Thunders must be the same with these. If you suspect the Thunders may be subordinate courses of war, that cannot be becaus the seven Vials are called the seven last Plagues. Thirdly as the Trumpets were ushered in by loud noises chap 8.5, & the Vials by a loud voice chap 16.1, so the Thunders are ushered in by the loud voice of the Angel roaring like a Lyon chap 10.3: All which previous voices & noises denote a cours of war immediately to precede the seven main courses of war Fig     but yet of a different kind so as not to be recconned one of them, Fig     . You may further compare the short appearance of the Angel before he began to roar, to the half hower's silence wherein the 7 Angels first appeared with their Trumpets ch 8.1, & Vials ch 15. And so the analogy between the vision of the Trumpets Thunders & Vials will be full. Wherefore since these visions have so perfect a harmony & nothing in them that argues their diversity, they ought to be adjusted to one another by Rule       Lastly by thus adjusting them two difficult Questions will be resolved. Quest: 1. Why were the voices of the Thunders sealed up & not written? Resp: It was not necessary to write them becaus they are sufficiently described in the Trumpets & Vials. Had they been no where els described it is not so likely they would have been here past over. Quest: 2. Why then was not the whole Vision of the Thunders omitted? Resp: They were introduced to make up a ternary number with the Trumpets & Vials, that by the six intervals of each which the Beasts reign takes up they might represent the same mystery with the number of the Beast 666, & explicate the mystery of that number by representing it. And therefore least it should be thought that they were introduced for any other end then to make up a ternary number of those six spaces for representing & explicating that mystery, their voices were left unwritten & not only so but forbidden to be written to assure us that there was a mystery in the omission.

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Artic 2. The Calamities which follow upon sounding the Trumpets & pouring out the Vials are all by war. For this the very soundings of the Trumpets imply as being so many Al-arms to war. But I shall run over the particulars.

At the first Trumpet the Blood mingled with the hail & fire, at the second Vial the Sea becoming blood as of a dead man & every thing dying in it, & at the third Vial the fountain's becoming blood & god's giving them blood to drink becaus they had shed the blood of his saints, are manifest indications of war. For none of this bloodshed can be by persecution of the saints because these Plagues are termed the Vials of the wrath of God & so to be inflicted upon evil men, as is also manifest in the pouring out of the first & third.

Also at the fourth Trumpet & Vial the smiting of the Sun Moon & stars signifies the overthrow of some King or Kingdom by Fig 44 & 45, & so implies war.

And in all these four Trumpets there is also an expression of war by fire & burning. In the first there is fire mixed with hail & blood, in the second a mountain burning with fire, in the third a star burning as it were a Lamp, & in the fourth power is given to the Sun to scorch men with fire: & this fire & burning signifies war by Fig 48 & 49.

The wars of these four Trumpets are also signified by the four winds in Chap 7.1, of which we shal have occasion to speak in Posit 9

Moreover at the fift Trumpet there arose Locusts – like horses prepared to battel with faces like men (i.e. Horsmen) & Breastplates as of Iron. And the sound of their wings was as of Chariots & Horses running to battel

At the sixt there were let loos four kings with an Army of horsmen with breastplates & licence to kill men.

And at the seventh the Beast with the kings of the earth were gathered together against him that sate on the hors & against his Army. And there followed a great Hail with thundrings & lightnings & a great shaking: which are the singular expressions of a great battel by Fig 51 & 53.

3. Hence it may be collected that the seven Thunders are the same with the Trumpets & Vials, seing they also (by Fig    ) denote —.

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Position 3
The Woman in travail is the Church of Christ, & the Dragon a great Heathen Kingdome & both together the subject of the seven Seales.

1. That the woman is the Church is plain by her habit: she is crowned with 12 stars the 12 Apostles & cloathed with the Sun the righteousnes of Christ, & supported by the moon her own righteousness, which receives it splendor from the Sun of righteousness as it were by reflexion. Its plain also from her being the mother of believers ch 12.17, & Spouse of Christ ch 19.8, 9. But this is so trite a figure that all acknowledge it.

2 The Dragon has a double signification: he is taken for the Devil with his worship Gen 3 & for a kingdome Fig 32 & in this Vision for both together with mutual respect; that is for Heathenism as it is in that kingdome & for that kingdome as it is heathen: the first in that he is called that old Serpent the Devil & Satan which deceiveth the whole world vers 12; the last in that he is said to have seven crowns upon his heads & to draw the 3^d part of the stars of heaven with his tail, (that is, the 3^d part of the Princes of the world with his armies Fig 2 & 39,) & to give his power & seat & great authority to the Beast, ch 13.2.

3. That the woman & Dragon are the subject of the Seales will appear by comparing the two prophesies. And first – concerning the war which the Dragon made with Michael & his Angels it is said that they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb & by the word of their testimony & they loved not their lives unto the death ch 12.11. Whereby it appears that the Angels or soldiers that warred with them were the saints, & their weapons the blood of the Lamb & word of their testimony, & their courage <12r> {that} they loved not their lives unto the death or that they exposed their lives freely for the sake of the Gospel. And so this war was managed on the saints part by testifying the truth of the gospel & on the Dragons part by persecuting & killing them for their testimony: whence he is called the accused of the brethren which accused them before God day & night vers 10. And that this war no slight skirmish but a very earnest conflict is further exprest by the emphatical repetition that Michael & his Angels fought against the Dragon & the Dragon fought & his Angels. Now this action preceding the rise of the Beast, & consequently the first Vial to which the first Trumpet is coincident, must fall in with some of the first six Seales: & if we take a view of them to see where it is described we shall not find any such persecution before the fift seale; but there it is exprest most lively by the soules under the Altar of them that were slain for the word of God & for the testimony which they held, who cried with a loud voice saying: How long, O Lord, holy & true dost thou not judge & avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth &c.

The next thing is the event of the war, which was that the Dragon & his Angels were not able to withstand, neither was their place found any more in heaven; but the great Dragon was cast out that old Serpent called the Devil & Satan which deceived the whole world, he was cast out into the earth & his Angels were cast out with him. Now by this victory we are not to understand the subversion of any temporall dominion but a victory of Christianity over Heathenism, as is manifest becaus it was obteined by the blood of the Lamb & by the testimony of his martyrs; & also becaus the Dragon which was cast out is called that old Serpent the Devil & Satan which deceiveth the whole world; & immediately after his being cast out a voice was heard in heaven saying: Now <13r> is come salvation & strength & the kingdome of our God & the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day & night.

And this agrees to the next Seal where this great overthrow of the kingdom of Satan is represented by the smiting of the Sun Moon & Stars, the great shaking & the departure of the heavens. For these expressions universally signify the overthrow of kingdomes Fig 44, 45, 51, & 3. And least this should seem to respect the overthrow of any other kingdome then that of Satan, the whole Seal is spent in describing the ruin of Idolatry. For the Stars of heaven falling unto the earth as figgs from a ffigtree signify Idols falling down by Fig 65. The heavens departing as a scroll when it is rolled together signify the roofs & glory of their Temples or the whole structure of them cast down by Fig 65. The moving of mountains & Islands out of their places signify the demolishing of their Altars high & low by Def 8 & 19. And the kings of the earth & great men & rich men & chief captains & mighty men & every bond man & every free man hiding themselves in Dens & in the Rocks of the mountains & saying to the mountains & rocks: Fall on us & hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne ; these signify Idols of every degree & sort (whether they be worshipped by Kings or great men or rich men or Captains or mighty men or bond or free) to be first hid or shut up in their Temples & then sentenced to have their temples thrown down upon them. Fig 63 & 64. And lastly as a further indication that this seal is to be interpreted of a victory of Christianity over the Kingdom of Satan it is added that they said: Hide us from the face of *^[3] Him that sitteth on the Throne & from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come & who [i.e. what Idols] shal be able to stand. Which expressions seem borrowed <14r> from Isa 2.21 where in like manner speaking of Idols; he saith that they shall cast them to the Moles & to the Bats to go into the clefts of the rocks & into the holes of the ragged rocks for fear of the Lord, & for the glory of his majesty when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

But that the analogy between the contents of this Seal & the overthrow of the kingdom of the Dragon may appear more fully, let the Dragon be compared to the Sun which became black as sackcloth of hair Fig 2, & his Angels which together with him were cast out of heaven into the earth, to the stars which fell from heaven to the earth as figgs from a figtree Fig 2, & the Heathen Church (if I may so call Heathens) to the Moon which became as blood Fig 45. For the Dragon & his Church are related to one another as the Church of Christ to Christ, that is as a woman to her husband, & so may be signified by the Sun & Moon like Iacob & Rachel Gen 37.10.

The next action is the persecution of the woman by the Dragon & her flight into the Wilderness. And this must begin with the next seale. For it cannot begin sooner becaus the sixt Seal is wholly taken up in casting down the Dragon & it begins not till after his casting down be fully accomplished. ch 12.13. Nor can it begin later: for the Wo which in chap 12.12 was proclaimed against the inhabitants of the Earth & of the Sea becaus the Devil was come down unto them to persecute the Woman, began to be executed on the earth in the first Trumpet & on the Sea in the second: & therefore since God's judgments follow the sins of men the persecution of the woman which caused these judgments must begin some little time at least before the Trumpets & so fall in with the time of incense. And with that it suits most punctually: for the prayers of the Saints offered up together with the incense <15r> to God & the contemporary sealing of the servants of God & the commission of the four Angels to hurt the earth & the Sea so soon as they were sealed are all arguments of evil times then beginning wherein the saints are oppressed & God's judgments shortly to ensue upon their enemies for opressing them.

And hence we may understand why the narration of the seals is interrupted between the sixt & seventh seal by the interposition of the seventh Chapter. For the design of such an interruption must be to signify an end of the former state of things & the beginning of a new one by some grand revolution, & so it will most fitly agree to that cardinall period of time which concluded the reign of the Dragon in heaven & began the flight of the Woman into the Wilderness. But of this more hereafter.

The next action is that as the Woman fled into the Wilderness the Dragon cast out of his mouth water as a flood, & the Earth helped her & swallowed up the waters. Now for understanding this it must be considered: ffirst that by the earth is meant inhabitants of the Earth Fig 4; namely of that Earth which was mentioned a little before with the sea to whome the Devil came down vers 12. Secondly that by the waters are meant multitudes of people Fig 5. & those inhabitants of the Sea afforesaid. ffor since they are cast out of the Dragon's mouth they must be of his Kingdom & consequently of the inhabitants of the Earth & Sea to whom he came down. But not of the Earth since that swallowed up these waters, & besides it is inconsistent with the analogy of the Vision where two sorts of people are distinguisht by the names of Earth & Sea, to represent those of the Earth by water. These waters are therefore of the Sea. They are indeed compared only to a flood but that is in respect of their being cast out of the Dragon's mouth & hinder's not that they should be inhabitants of the sea since all waters <16r> originally proceed from thence. Thirdly, whereas the Woman was persecuted by the waters, & the Earth helped her & swallowed them up, there is opposition & war signified between the earth & waters with victory to the Earth.

Now compare all this with the Trumpets & you will find the analogy very full. For by Posit: 4, the Trumpets are so many successive wars or degrees of war which break out after the short peace during the stilness of the winds in the time of incense, & these wars falling heavy upon the Earth in the first Trumpet & upon the waters in the second & third, the earth & waters will therefore be the parties concerned in these wars & so may well be supposed the two enemies at war with one another whereof the Earth is worsted in the first attempt but afterwards in the second & third Trumpet prevails over the waters & as it were swallows them up in victory drying them up so much that although they were compared to a sea in the second Trumpet, they remained only comparable to rivers in the third.

The last action of the Dragon mentioned in this 12^th chapter is that after this he was wrath with the woman & went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God & have the testimony of Iesus Christ. And this being when there was left but a remnant of the seed of the woman it must be understood of the times of greatest desolation, that is of the 42 months when the Woman was fully arived into the Wilderness & the witnesses prophesied in sackcloth: which in Posit 11 I shall show to be in the fift & sixt Trumpets.

And lastly at the end of this time it is written of the Dragon in chap 16, that out of his mouth & out of the mouth of the Beast & fals Prophet there went three unclean spirits like ffroggs unto the kings of the Earth & of the whole world to gather them to the battel of the great day of God <17r> Almighty. And this is that great battel at the seventh Vial or Trumpet at which the Beast & fals Prophet are taken & cast into the Lake of fire & the rest, (that is the people of the Dragon / or kings of the Earth which were gathered together with the Beast) slain with the sword of him that sate on the horse & the Dragon or Devil bound & cast into the bottomless pit. ch 19.20, 21 & 20.2.

Thus we have deduced the reign of the Dragon through the three last Seales: & I suppose it will not now be doubted whether he be also synchronall to the four first, since it is not likely that the wars & other things there described (especially in the 2^d & 4^th Seale) should relate to any other kingdome then that which before the battel with Michael & consequently before the fift Seal, drew the third part of the stars of heaven with his tail & cast them to the earth, that is which (by Fig 2 & 39) had then subdued the third part of the Kings & Princes of the world with his Armies. He is indeed represented as if he had but newly done casting them down when he began that battel but he is not introduced rising out of the Earth or Sea like the two Beasts, but as preexistent with the Woman & Michael: which is intimation enough that he as well as the woman & Michael was in being even before the writing of this Prophesy.

Position 4
The wounded Beast is a great heathenizing Christian Kingdome derived out of the Dragon, & rose in the sixt Seale first out of the Sea & then after a deliquium out of the bottomles pit, & became the subject of the seven Trumpets: being the same with the Whore's Beast, & with the fourth Beast in Daniel, & with the legs of Nebuchadnezzar's Image, & with the apostate Church of the latter times prophesied of by Saint Paul.

1. That this & the Whores Beast are the same is evident <18r> by the agreement of their descriptions. For both of them have seven heads & ten horns. On the horns of one are ten crowns to denote that they are ten Kings, ch 13.1: & the ten horns of the other are also ten Kings, ch 17.12. The one is said to have upon his heads the name of Blasphemy, ch 13.1: & the other to be full of the names of Blasphemy, ch 17.3. The one was ^a[4] slain with a sword & ^b[5] revived, the wound of his ^c[6] death being healed, ch 13.3, 12, 14: & the other is called the Beast which was & is not & shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, ch. 17.8. The one succeeds the Dragon in his seat which persecuted the woman in the wilderness ch 13.2, & consequently is also in the wilderness: & so is the other in the wilderness, ch 17.3. Of one it is said that power was given him over all kindreds & tongues & nations ch 13.7: & of the other that the ten Kings give their power & strength to the Beast, & that the waters where the Whore sitteth are peoples & multitudes & nations & tongues, ch 17.13, 15. Of one that all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, ch 13.8: & of the other that they that dwell on the earth whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world shal wonder when they behold him ch 17.8. Of one that he with the kings of the earth & their armies shall be gathered together to make war against him that sate on the hors (i.e. the king of righteousnes whose name is the word of God, ch 19.11, 12, 13) & against his army; & that he with the fals Prophet shal be taken, <19r> that is he whose mark was received & image worshipped ch 19.19, 20: & of the other that the kings of the earth which give their strength to the Beast shall make war with the Lamb, & he shal overcome them, ch 17.13. And lastly the destruction of both these Beasts is at the same time namely at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet. For by comparing ch 19.19, 20 with ch 16.13, 14, 15, 16, it appears that the agents of the Dragon Beast & fals Prophet gathered the nations to the battel of the great day of God against that time when the seventh Vial (which by Posit 2 is contemporary with the seventh Trumpet) was ready to be poured out, & that at the pouring of it out they were overthrown, as is exprest by the falling of the cities of the nations ch 16.19, & by the taking of the Beast & fals Prophet & slaying the rest of the nations, ch 19.20. And so the Beast which ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, ch 11.7 that is the other Beast on which the Whore sitteth, ch 17.8, this Babylonian Beast shall war against the two Witnesses at the end of their prophesying & kill them, & consequently rejoyce with the nations till their resurrection, that is till about the end of the second Wo, ch 11.12, 13, 14; & so continue till the sounding of the seventh Trumpet when (after the ruins of the great city ch 11.13) their kingdoms must become the kingdomes of God & his Christ ch 11.15, & great Babylon come in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath ch 16.19. Both these beasts therefore perish together at the sounding of the 7^th Trumpet; & so being contemporary, universal & alike in all their actions & qualities must needs be the same. Yea Babylon that great city (that is the Whore of Babylon ch 17.5, 18, & 18.2) is in chap 14.8, 9 joyned to that Beast whose Image is worshipped & mark received. <20r> And so again in chap 16.13, 19: on which the 17^th Chapter is but a Comment.

2 Out of the foregoing passages it is manifest not only that these beasts are the same but also that they signify a Kingdom, I mean an universal one consisting perhaps of many subordinate kingdomes.

3. The Beast is a Kingdome derived out of the Dragon For the Dragon gave power to the Beast ch 13.4. He gave him his power & his seat & great Authority, vers 2. And hence it is that their Heads & Horns are in common as we shal show hereafter. But yet the Dragon did not give all away so as to cease himself: for immediately before it is said that he went to make war with the remnant of the seed of the woman ch 12.17; the unlimitedness of which expression may extend him much farther downward. And accordingly he & the Beast are afterwards worshipped together ch 13.4, & coexist at the end of the Beast ch 16.13.

4. Although the Dragon continue to the end a kingdome distinct from the Beast in respect of civil dominion, yet even his subjects imbrace the religion which the Beast brought out of the bottomless pit & worship him & his Image. For all the world wondred after him & worshipped him & the Dragon together, ch 13.3, 4. And power was given him over all kindreds & tongues & nations: And all that dwell upon the earth were to worship him whose names were not written in the book of life, vers: 7, 8; that is all nations within the compass of this Prophesy: .

5 The Beast with his worshippers are the universal subject on which the plagues of the Trumpets & Vials are inflicted. For thus much is exprest in the first Vial where there fell <21r> a grievous sore on the men which had the mark of the Beast & worshipped his Image; & in the fift Vial which was poured upon the seat of the Beast so that his kingdome became full of darkness; & in the sixt & seventh Vial where there came out of the mouth of the Beast & Dragon & fals Prophet three unclean spirits to gather the world to the battel of the great day wherein the Beast perished & great Babylon (the Whore which sate upon him) came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Also in the preface to the Vials the Prophet first introduces the seven Angels having these seven plagues ch 15.1, & then the Victors over the Beast vers 2, 3, 4, & then returns to the description of the plagues: as if by thus interweaving them he intended to point at the Beast as the subject thereof. So in the Preface to the Trumpets the Angels are forbid to hurt the earth & the Sea until the servants of God be sealed, as if it were to signify that those hurts were to be inflicted on the men which have not the seale of God in their foreheads. For so it is exprest in the fift Trumpet: And who those are you may learn by comparing that Trumpet with the fift Vial; namely them that have the mark of the Beast. In a word the wickedness & universality of the Beast with his worshippers is so great as leaves no room for these plagues to fall beside them.

6. The Beast rose out of the Sea (that is out of the dition of the Dragons Kingdom sect 3) either at or a little after the opening of the sixt seal. For according to the tenour & order of the Visions, that rise must be after the war of the Dragon with Michael, the Dragon <22r> himself being introduced but newly before & in that war represented with his full power which he gave (some of it at least) to the Beast at his rise. This rise therefore could not be before the opening of the sixt seale. Nor could it be long after becaus

7. His wound was healed before the end of this Seale. For when the two hornd Beast caused the earth to worship him & make an Image to him, he is not called the Beast which rose out of the Sea, but the Beast whose mortal wound was healed vers 12, & the wounded Beast which lived or revived vers 14. And therefore the healing of his wound precedes the earth's worshipping him & making an Image to him, & consequently not only the first Vial, ch 16.2, but also the opening of the seventh Seal at which, as I shall show in the two next sections, the earth & they that dwell therein began to worship him & his Image. Moreover the sixt seale, as I shall show in the next Position, is the head of the beast in which he was wounded, & therefore the gaping of the wound cannot continue further then to the end of this seale; no nor so far, for if it do it will not be a wound made in the head, but one side <23r> of the head chopt of.

8 The Beast when he rose from death by the healing of his wound, brought up with him (as it were out of Ἁδης the infernal regions of the dead or bottomles pit), a new fals religion. For the worshipping him, & making & worshipping his Image, & receiving his mark & the number of his name, are a figurative description of his new religion set up & propagated by the fals miracles of the two hornd beast: & all this according to what I newly signified followed not immediately upon his rise out of the sea but upon the healing of his wound. Hence he is called in ch 17.8, the Beast which was & is not & shall ascend out of the bottomles pit He was & is not; this respects not the time present in which the Apocalyps was wrote, but that from which considered as present in the vision the Angel showed Saint Iohn a prospect of the Whore. He was from his rise out of the sea until he received his mortal wound, & ceased to be while he lay dead, & ascended out of the bottomless pit at his resurrection; for ascention out of the bottomles pit signifies not only the rise of a temporal kingdom but moreover the bringing up some fals infernal religion with that thing which ascends Fig     & therefore must here be applied to the setting up the Beast's religion & so agree to his resurrection which introduced it.

9. The religion of the Beast began visibly to be set up at the opening of the seventh Seale: as may appear by these reasons. ffirst it could not begin later becaus the plague of the first Vial was inflicted on men for it & therefore it must begin before that time, & the Beast's ascention out of the pit requires that it presently follow his resurrection because that ascention comprehends both as one continued action. Nor could it begin much sooner becaus it followed the interval between the Beast's rise out of the sea & resurrection, all which fell within the sixt seal & could not but take up some considerable time. Secondly although the rising of the Beast out of the sea, becaus it expresses only the rise of a temporal kingdom without respect to religion be not inconsistent with the things described in the sixt Seale nor with those in chap 12.10 coincident to it; yet his ascention

<24r>

— to one another by Rule    

I should now proceed to show that the Religion of the Beast is Christianity corrupted, but in order thereto it will be convenient to prove first that

< insertion from f 23v >

10. The setting up the Beast's religion took up the time from the opening of the seventh seale to the sounding of the first Trumpet. For the holy rites performed in this interval do plainly refer it to matters of religion, & the offering up the saints prayers to God argue their affliction by the evil times coming on. And the sealing of the saints, which takes up this interval, is by its opposite relation to the mark of the beast, a mystical indication of the time when the rest of the world by degrees received that mark of the beast till they had all received it; & expresses also the distinguishing them from the wicked by the standing of one & falling away of the other. Also the hurting of the earth & sea seems to have been suspended till the end of this time, that the world might not be punished universally before the saints & Apostates were thus universally distinguished lest they should both suffer alike therein; for this punishment was provided for & inflicted on those that fell away to the Beasts religion as is exprest in the first Vial: whence it is manifest that the world had then received that religion. And lastly as the setting up the Beasts religion exprest by his ascention out of the bottomles pit was of all others before his ruin the most singular revolution, so the interval here assigned to it is the most singular one being bounded by the two most cardinal periods between the beginning of the seales & last Trumpet: & therefore these must be adjusted by Rule    ; so that the whole seventh seale may be the time of the Beast from his first apparent beginning to ascend out of the pit, & the Trumpets the time of his reign after he was ascended.

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11 There was to be a general Apostacy in the visible Church. This you have plainly described by Saint Paul in his second Epistle to Timothy chap 3 & 4 where first declaring how it should be from grace he saith: This know also that in the last days perillous times shall come, for men shal be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, fals accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traytors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godlines but denying the power thereof. And then by comparing them to the corrupt Christians of his own time he shows how this Apostacy should be from the faith also: For of this sort, saith he, are they which creep into houses & lead captive silly weomen laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning & never able to come to the knowledge of the truth — men of corrupt minds, ^{a [7]} insincere concerning the faith. And then proceeding to exhort Timothy to diligence over his flock; I charge thee therefore saith he, – preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering & doctrine; for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: & they shall turn away their ears from the truth & shall be turned unto fables.

Now it is manifest that the men here spoken of are Professors of Christianity though corrupt ones, because they are said to have a form of godliness, & to be of that sort of men which in Saint Paul's time crept into houses & led captive silly weomen & were men of corrupt minds & (αδόχιμοι) insincere concerning the faith that is like the first hereticks & their followers which having departed from the faith yet retained the name & outward profession of Christianity, & through a form of godliness led after them many others of the weaker Christians; as Saint Iohn saith of them They went out <24v> from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us. Nor were these corrupt Christians to be few in respect of the true believers, for so Saint Paul's words would have agreed as well to the Apostles times as to to after ages, there being even then a great many lukewarm Christians & a great many more that were turned away after the doctrines of hereticks, as is to be learnt here & every where in Saint Paul's Epistles. They were not a few persons such as dayly revolted, but the visible flock of Timothy (that is their posterity) which Saint Paul spake of when he said: The time will come (viz the perillous times of the last days) when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts heap to themselves teachers &c. And by the Apostacy of his flock you may guess at the rest.

To this I may subjoyn that other noted place of Saint Paul in 2 Thes 2 where tis said that ^[8] the day of the Lord shal not come except the Apostacy come first & that man of sin be revealed the Son of perdition. &c. But here for the better understanding the nature of this Apostacy, I shal lay down these observations.

ffirst that it was to be a very durable one; for it began to work in Saint Paul's time vers 7 & was to last till our Lord should destroy the man of Sin by the breath of his mouth & the brightness of his coming vers 8. This coming & the brightnes of it & consumption of the man of Sin thereby respects the words before: God shal recompense to you rest with us when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God & that obey not the Gospel —— But concerning the coming of our Lord — we beseech you brethren that ye be not troubled — as that the day of Christ is at hand: Let no men deceive you by any meanes for that day shall not come except the Apostacy come first, &c. Whence you may perceive that the discourse of the Man of Sin took occasion from & so is related to a former discours of our Lords coming to judgment. so that putting all together the sense will be: God shal recompense to you rest with us when the Lord Iesus shal be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on his enemies; but be ye not troubled concerning the coming of our Lord as if it were at hand for the Apostacy must come first & the man of sin be revealed whom the Lord is to destroy with the breath of his mouth & brightness of that his coming in flaming fire to take vengeance on these his enemies.      This brightness of his coming is in Matt 24 compared to lightning which cometh out of the east & shineth into the west: Of which in Acts 9, you have a specimen by the glorious appearance of our Saviour to Saint Paul. And that which is here called the breath of his mouth is in the Apocalyps compared to a sharp sword which goeth out of his mouth that with it he should smite the nations Apoc 19.15, that is those nations which with the Beast & fals Prophet are gathered together to the final war against the saints, vers 18, 19, 21. This is the diluvium ignis whereby the earth is to be refined, Mal: 3.2. the day that shall burn as an oven & all the wicked shall be as stubble & the day shall burn them up, Mal 4.1.

In the next place we may observe the consent of this Apostacy with the other Prophesies of the last days & particularly with the perillous times mentioned above & Saint Iohn's Antichrist 1 Iohn 2.18. ffor those must needs fall in with this Apostacy because this from its first working strikes through all ages; & as here the Apostacy was to begin after a season & last till the coming of our Saviour, so the perillous times there spoken of were those to come in the last days . They are also represented of the same nature & original, the Man of Sin being the accomplishment of that mystery of inquity which began to work in Saint Paul's days, & the perillous times to consist of such as those were that then crept into houses & led captive silly weomen, men of cor <25r> rupt minds, insincere concerning the faith, seducers which were to grow wors & wors deceiving & being deceived till the perillous times should be come in. And the like is to be observed of Saint Iohn's Antichrist compared with the many Antichrists before him.

Some are apt to think that the Apostles imagined the world would be at an end in their age or soon after, but these must so much the rather grant that the meaning of Saint Paul was that this Apostacy & these last times were to continue to the end of the world & that both Prophesies were meant by the Apostle of the same times there being no room for 'em to disagree. But if any one shall be so bold as to say further that these prophesies concerned therefore only the age next after the Apostles, they should rather consider that whatsoever were the Apostles private opinion the revelation was of the last days & God might reveal to 'em that the perillous times should be in the last days without revealing to 'em the distance or length of those days. But further, it does not appear by any thing in Scripture that the Apostles expected a sudden end of the world any more then that our Saviour did when he said Behold I come quickly & my reward is with me, – surely I come quickly. Apoc 22.7, 12, 20, & threatned the Church of Sardis then in being: If thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a Thief & thou shalt not know what hower I will come upon thee, Apoc 3.3 & admonisht his Apostles: When ye see these things come to pass know that it (my coming) is nigh even at the doors Mat 24.33. Yea that the Apostles thought the contrary is plain: for Saint Peter although in his first Epistle ch 4.7 he tell us; The end of all things is approaches yet in his 2^d Epistle ch 3.3 he expresses that it would be so long that there should come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts & saying where is the promis of his coming, for since the ffathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. – the Lord is not slack concerning his promis (as some men count slackness) but is long suffering to us-ward – But the day of the Lord will come as a Thief in the night. And so Saint Paul his designe in his discours about the man of Sin is to diswade the Thessalonians from interpreting his words or Epistles so as to think the day of the Lord was at hand, & to that end uses this argument that there must come first these two great revolutions, the taking away that which letted & the rise & reign of the man of Sin. He knew also that the Iews were to be led away captive into all nations & Ierusalem to be troden down of the Gentiles untill the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled, Luke 21.24, & that afterwards all Israel (to whom blindness should happen in part till the fulness of the Gentiles were come in) should be received again to mercy, Rom: 11.26. And though the Apostles were shy of speaking expresly in this point least they should diminish the expectation of the Saints & fear of backsliders, yet they of understanding may easily gather from Saint Paul's discours of the Rest of God, Hebr. 4, that the world has not yet run out the years of his computation.

<26r>

✝ < insertion from f 25v > ✝ Saint Iohn indeed calls his own the last time 1 Iohn 2.18, but I suppose he speaks there to the Iews of the end of their state, whereof the first Antichrists & Pseudochrists Simon Menandar, Basilides &c were (according to our Saviour's prophesy Luke 21.8) forerunners. In other places the times of Apostacy are called ὕστεροι καιρὸι & ἐσχαται ἡμέραι the last times or days in the plural number to express their greater length, here tis said ἐσχάτη ὥρα the last time or as it were the last hower to express some sudden end: In those the last times are spoken of the Apostacy it self, in this of the first working of the mystery of iniquity: the Antichrist being then not come, but only many Antichrists that is many of his forerunners: And therefore This ἐσχάτη ὥρα is not the same with the last times spoken of in other places, but an admonition to the Iews only of the end of their state at hand.

There is a place of Saint Iude also (vers 17, 18) where he may seem to apply the last times to his own days, but I suppose it is only comparatively; as if he had said Beloved remember ye how the Apostles of our Lord told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts; Of this sort are they that separate themselves &c.

< text from f 26r resumes >

In the third place we are to observe that the Apostates were to be Christians, & this I gather, ffirst from the name Apostacy which is as much as to say a falling away from the truth. Secondly from God's sending them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie: for hence it follows that before this delusion they believed the truth. Thirdly from Saint Paul's exhorting the Thessalonians to stand fast therefore & hold the Traditions which they had been taught whether by word or Epistle, for thence it follows that the Apostacy was to come by the falling away of such as they were, & that not from the name of Christianity but from the purity of it by corrupting the Traditions of the Church whether written in the Scriptures or delivered down by word of mouth. ffourthly from the Mystery of iniquity's working when Saint Paul wrote, for thence it follows that the Apostacy was to be of the same nature with the Heresies of Saint Paul's time, in all which the name & form of Christianity was retained but the truth of it corrupted. Compare this with 2 Tim 3.6 <26v> & 1 Iohn 2.18. ffiftly from the Man of Sin's sitting in the Temple of God as a God, that is in the Church as a King or Monarch over it. Sixtly from the care which the Apostles took to give warning of these times, for it is not likely that they would have concerned themselves so much about a generation extrinsic to the Church. Lastly from that plain description of these times in 2 Tim 3 & 4 where the Apostates are said to be such as have a form of godliness (that is in appearance Christians,) – of the same sort with the first seducers which crept into houses & led captive silly weomen – ever learning & never able to come to the knowledge of the truth – men of corrupt minds, insincere concerning the faith (that is Hereticks) – Seducers waxing wors & wors, deceiving & being deceived – such as will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears & turning away their ears from the truth unto fables. This (besides a large catalogue of other vices which the Apostle would not have busied himself to reprehend in any but Christians), is the description of those whereof the great Apostacy was to consist. To the same purpose are our Saviours words: Then shall many be offended & shal betray one another & shall hate one another, & many fals Prophets shall rise & shall deceive many, & becaus iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold. Matt 24.10, 11, 12.

In the last place it is to be observed that this Apostacy was to be general & this I gather ffirst from the distinction that is put between it & the working of iniquity in Saint Paul's time set on foot by Simon Magus Menander Saturninus Basilides, Carpocrates Corinthus & other Heretiques like these between the perillous times of the last days & the seducers which in the first ages crept into houses 2 Tim 3. between the Antichrist & the many Antichrists 1 Iohn 2 Those heresies were but the seeds of this, this the complement of those; those were such as not to be letted by that which letted this; those in & for a good while after Saint Paul's time were many in number, this but one in its degree those are all long since ceased, this was to continue to the end of the world those were too small to be called ἡ ἀποστασία an Apostacy or the Apostacy in Saint Paul's sense or to be made the sign of the Lord's coming, for so long as the Church persevered without any further working of iniquity then by those partial Apostacies, they were to take it for a sign that the day of the Lord was not at hand, & therefore this must be such an one as is manifestly distinguishable from them by its greatness. Ἡ ἀποστασία must here signify such an Apostacy as either does or does not obscure the Church, not the latter because in Saint Paul's sense it agrees not to the working of iniquity then begun.

A second reason for the universality of it may be from its caus so far as by the powerfulness of the cause we may judge of the greatness of the effect. The caus was the coming of the man of Sin after the working of Satan with all power & signes & lying wonders & with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, God sending them a strong delusion that they should believe a lye. Tis well known that Simon Magus came with as much infernal power & lying wonders as any of the first Hereticks or as any single Heretic could well do, & thereby seduced many, & yet Saint Paul makes no recconning of him in compa <27r> {rison} of the strong delusion by which the man of Sin was to rise.

A third reason may be from the man of Sin's sitting in the Temple of God as a God that is from the supreme person of that body called the Man of Sin his presiding in the Church as an earthly God, or a Monarch in & over the Church. It is not said in this or the other part of the Temple of God but in the Temple of God without restriction.

We might here also repeat what was said above concerning the prophesy of the perillous times, where Saint Paul exhorting Timothy about his flock said, The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine &c: .

The Apostacy therefore was to overspread the general visible body of the Church, & hence is that promis of our Saviour to the Church of Philadelphia: Becaus thou hast kept the word of my patience I will keep thee from the hower of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the Earth, Apoc 3.10. Yea so generall was it to be that our Saviour puts the Question: When the Son of Man cometh shall he find faith on the earth, Luke 18.8.

And hence we may learn in what sense to take the word τινὲς in 1 Tim 4.1, which we translate: In the latter times some shal depart from the faith. The greek is of a larger signification then the English will beare, for τινὲς is sometimes put for the greater part, or all but a few. Thus of our Saviours disciples those incredulous & offended ones who are comparatively called many in Iohn 6.60, 66, our Saviour in vers 64 calls τινὲς some of them. So Rom 11.17 Saint Paul saith of the rejected Iews, who were by many degrees the greater part of the Nation, τινὲς some of the branches were broken off. Again 1 Cor. 10.7, 8, 9, 10. Neither be ye Idolaters as τινὲς some of them were – Neither let us commit fornication as τινες some of them committed – Neither let us tempt Christ as τινες some of them also tempted – Neither murmur ye as τινες some of them murmured –. Here are four great somes; for of the first tis said: And all the people brake of the golden ear-rings which were in their ears & brought them unto Aaron, Exod 32.3. Of the second: And Israel joyned himself to Baal-Peor — & the Lord said unto Moses take all the heads of the people & hang them up – that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel, Num 25.3, 4. Of the third: The people spake against God & against Moses Num 21.5. And of the fourth: All the children of Israel murmured <27v> against Moses & against Aaron, & the whole Congregation said unto them would God we had died in Egypt – And Moses said unto the Lord if thou kill all this people as one man — And the Lord said they shall not come into the Land save Caleb & Ioshua, but their carcasses shall fall in the Wilderness Num 14. Its plain therefore that the Apostle uses τινὲς for any some that's less then all: which being so, the analogy of this Prophesy of the Apostacy with the rest that concern the latter times, requires that it be here understood of the generality.

I have hitherto considered only the Prophesies of the new Testament out of the Apocalyps; but if you now compare all with the Apocalyptic Visions, & particularly with the flight of the Woman into the Wilderness & the reign of the Whore of Babylon, they will very much illustrate one another: for these visions are as plain as if it had been expresly said that the true Church shall disappear & in her stead an Idolatrous Church reign in the world. And of the same nature are the treading under foot the unmeasured holy City by the Gentiles, the prophesying of the witnesses in sackcloth, & the ascention of the Beast out of the bottomles pit whom all the world whose names were not written in the book of life (& consequently Heretiques & Hypocrites) were to wonder after & worship.

Lastly if to all this be added the most universal & constant tradition of the Church from the first ages, that there was to happen in the last times of the world such a general Apostacy as we have described; & also the instances that have been of such Apostacies of the Church both under the Law (as in Ahabs reign when the true worship so far disappeared that Elijah thought himself the only untainted person) & under the Gospel either in the Arian age (as they call it) or in the ages ever since: this tradition & these instances joyned with the foregoing evidences out of scripture may suffice to check the most prejudic't & obstinate doters on the Churches external grandeur & perpetual visibility & make 'em confess that it either hath been or shall be notably obscured.     And this foundation being laid I now proceed.

12. The religion of the Beast & consequently of the Dragon also after his being cast down is heathenising Christianity: as I gather by these reasons. ffirst because the Beast <28r> {arose} out of the bottomles pit implying the rise of a new infernal religion must needs, so soon at least as that religion arrives to any considerable pitch, put an end to those things & with them to that Seal & so begin the next. Thirdly the interweaving the vision of the Victors over the Beast with the first appearance of the seven Angels of the Vials ch 15.1, 2, 6, is intimation enough that those victors begin then to get the victory & consequently that the Beast's religion begins then to be set up. ffor it is necessary that that religion be adequately synchronal to those that get the victory over him because there is no cessation of the Church militant. Now the first appearance of these Angels, according to the analogy of this Vision of the Vials with that of the Trumpets, must be at the same time with the first appearance of the seven Angels of the Trumpets: that is at the opening of the seventh Seal. ffourthly by the opposite relation of the Seale of God to the mark of the Beast it is most natural to suppose that the vision of sealing the saints is but a mystical indication of the time when men began to receive the mark of the Beast; that is of the time when the Beast's religion arose which therefore must be immediately after the sixt Seal. Lastly the rise of the Beast's religion is one of the most cardinal revolutions in all the Prophesy, & so the beginning of it can fall in with no time so well as with that cardinal period between the sixt & seventh seale where both by the beginning of the Trumpets & by the interposition of the 7^th chapter is signified an end of the former state of things & the beginning of a new one. These two periods must therefore be adjusted to one another by Rule.

12. The religion of the Beast & a^[9] consequently of the Dragon also after his being cast down, is heathenising Christianity: as I gather by these reasons. ffirst because the beast <29r> arose not till after the Dragon was vanquished by Michael & his kingdom (out of which the Beast afterwards arose sect 3.) possessed by the victors, that is by Christians. Whence it may be presumed that he derived a form of Christianity, & his heathenising is manifest by his blasphemy, Fig.      & by what is said of the subject of the 6^t Trumpet, that is of his worshippers: viz that they worshipped Dæmons & Idols of gold & silver & Brass & stone & wood: which neither can see nor hear nor walk, ch: 9.20. Secondly the Beast arose out of the Sea & therefore the inhabitants of the Sea are they which at his rise became his subjects. Now these inhabitants untill the Devil came down among them ch 12.12, that is untill about the opening of the seventh Seal Posit 5.3, & consequently untill the Beast's religion was setting up, were no Heathens but Christians because the Devil untill then was not among them; but his coming then among them is a direct expression that they began then to heathenize. For as his casting out was immediately before used to signify the extirpation of Idolatry so his coming again among men must signify the restitution of it, though perhaps in a different form the first being represented above in Heaven, the last below on earth. Thirdly because the two hornd Beast is represented the Author & promoter of the other Beast's religion by his fals miracles, we may conclude that they are both of the same religion. Which being so, their outward form of Christianity is evident by the likeness of the two horns of that Beast to the Lamb, ch: 13.11; & their heathenizing by his speaking as the Dragon, that is dictating or preaching up such kind of things as the Dragon used to speake or dictate. Lastly because the Whore sits upon this Beast & rules over him ch 17 Fig      & commits fornication with the Kings & makes drunk & deceives all nations of which he consists, we may conclude that they are also of the same religion. But the Whore by her very name is the Church of God lapst into Idolatry, Fig    

< insertion from f 28v >

To these r < text from f 29r resumes > To these reasons I might add another taken from the vision of the Gentiles treading down the holy City chap 11. For these Gentiles are the Beast vers 7. & their heathenising is implied by their name Gentiles, & their profession of Christianity by calling their habitation the outward Court & holy City. The temple with its Court & the < insertion from f 29v > holy City is the whole Church & it's here distinguished into two parts; the one (the Temple) measured & not given to the gentiles, & this is therefore the elect part of the Church; the other (the outward Court & holy City) left unmeasured that is neglected, left out of the measure or compas of God's regard, not measured compassed or bounded by God's laws but left to transgression, & therefore the reprobate part of the Church. And this is given to the Gentiles to possess, that is to those that should gentilize to be the inhabitants or Citizens which it should contein or consist of: & they tread it under foot, that is, contaminate corrupt & overwhelm the truth of their Christian profession by Gentile practises.

Some I know will be apt to say that the Beast is represented one of the most detestable States that ever was & therefore it is more likely that he should be purely heathen then have his wickedness allayed with a profession of Christianity: but he that considers will rather conclude that because he is represented the most wicked state therefore he ought to be Christianity corrupted, the worst things requiring the corruption of the best to generate them. Sins are the greatest where they are against the greatest light, & if Hypocrisy or a corruption of the meaning of the Law be added to the sin, it is yet a further aggravation & still a further if any shall without commission pretend a power to make lawfull what he acknowledges to be prohibited by God: And hence a Christian is capable of being wors then any other sort of men. Did it diminish the Idolatry of the Iews that they were God's peculiar people, or the wickedness of the first Heretiques that they profest Christianity? Certainly no: ffor God never so frequently & severely reproved & punished any nation for their transgressions as the Iews, nor did the Apostles & first Christians aggravate the iniquity of any so much as of the Heretiques. Let no man therefore be deceived with the specious name of Christians, for a secret enemy is the worst & most carefully to be shund, & such are they that put the best colour of Christianity upon the worst corruptions of it. If they be corrupt & live not according to the Gospel, it had been better they had never heard of the name of Christ: for the profession of that name shall be so far from profitting the ungodly that it shall aggravate their damnation, in as much as the disobedience of a Son or Servant is more heinous then that of a stranger, & he that knows his masters will & does it not shall be beaten with many stripes.

13. The Beast is the universal visible Church in that state of Apostacy which was to happen in the latter times. ffor that he is a Church is manifest by his outward form of Christianity newly proved & the universality of that Church is manifest by these expressions: All the world (that is the Christian world) wondred after the Beast — & power was given him over all kindreds & tongues & nations, & all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life, Apoc 13.3, 7, 8. Moreover his religion agrees with that of the Apostacy, for as he was to Heathenize & worship Dæmons & Idols Apoc 9.27, so in the Apostacy they were to give heed to doctrines of Dæmons 1 Tim 4.1, That is to attend to doctrines concerning Dæmons or Ghosts of men such as were the doctrines of the heathens about their Divi, or of those ancient Heretics that <30v> worshipt the Virgin Mary as Queen of heaven to whome Epiphanius applies this place of Saint Paul, quoting it thus πληρουται γὰρ καὶ ἐπὶ τούτους τὸ, Ἀποστήσονταί τινες της ὑγιέος διδασκαλίας, προσέχοντες μύθοις καὶ διδασκαλιαις Δαιμονίων ἔσονται γὰρ νεκροις λατρεύοντες, ὡς καὶ ἐν τω Ισραὴλ ἐσεβάσθησαν. That also of the Apostle is fulfilled of these: Some shall apostatise from the sound doctrine, giving heed to fables & doctrines of Dæmons; for they shall be worshippers of dead men as they were worshipped in Israel. Epiphan: Hæres:78. The Beast & that Apostacy agree also in the likeness of the relation which the one has to the Whore which sits upon him & the other to the Man of sin which sits in it, the apostate Church being the polluted temple of God in which the man of Sin sits. And further as the Apostacy rose by lying wonders & a strong delusion 2 Thes 2.9, 10, 11 so did the Beasts religion Apoc 13. And lastly they agree in time, for the Apostacy was to be in the last times & the Man of Sin to rise with or soon after it & continue to the end of the world: & so the Beast ascended out of the bottomles pit at the opening of the seventh seale (Sect     supra) & consequently when the woman began to fly into the wilderness (Posit     ) & continues to the 7^th Trumpet at which time ceases & the mystery of God is finished (Apoc 10.6, 7) & the Kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of Christ for ever & the dead here judged & saints rewarded (chap 11.15, 18) & the Word of God comes to destroy the wicked with the sword of his mouth & cast the Beast & fals Prophet into the Lake of fire (chap 19) which time is the great day of God Almighty even the day wherein our Saviour comes as a Thief (chap 16.14, 15.)

14 This Beast is the same with the 4^th Beast in Daniel. For both — < text from f 29r resumes > 14. This Beast is the same with the fourth Beast in Daniel, For both Kingdoms have one common period, ending at the day of judgment into the Kingdom of the saints which shall never be destroyed Dan 7. Rev 11.15, 18, & so at least they are synchronal. Also both are strange nameles monsters & have ten horns & the <30r> one has an animated horn answering to the Whore on the other's back, & the destruction of both is alike, which is to be cast into the fire Dan 7.11. Rev 19.20, & that before the rest of the nations Dan 7.12. Rev 19.21 & 20.3, 10. Besides all this Saint Iohn hath very elegantly expressed their sameness by describing the Beast which he saw to be like a Leopard & his feet as the feet of a Bear & his mouth as the mouth of a Lyon ch 13.2. ffor these three being the Beasts by which the three first kingdoms were represented in Daniel, the naming of them all in this description of the Beast by Saint Iohn, seems to be on purpose to point at the vision of Daniel & insinuate the correspondence between the two Prophesies. And that only thre of those Beasts the Leopard Beare & Lyon are named, it implies that the Beast described must supply the place of the fourth to make up the quaternary: which he doth the more fitly becaus they are set down in order backward & he is put in the first place.

15. This beast therefore being the same with Daniel's must be also the same with the leggs of Nebuchadnezzar's Image since both those do most apparently, by the consent of all men, denote the same fourth Kingdome.

But yet this is not so to be understood as if this Beast was adequately the same with Daniel's fourth kingdom. ffor that kingdom immediately succeeding the Greek Empire must have begun before the writing of the Apocalyps & consequently before the rise of the Apocalyptic Beast, & so must comprehend the Dragon & Beast together, the Dragon being considered as conteining the Beast virtually in him untill his rise out of the Sea. Whence it is that although Saint Iohn prophesying more articulately of the fourth kingdom then Daniel, distinguishes Daniel's Beast into two, yet he describes them with heads & horns in common to insinuate that they are but one fundamentally. Yea Daniel's Beast (as will hereafter appear) is a combination of both the Apocalyptic Beasts & Dragon in one: Saint Iohn distinguishing & describing articulately what Daniel considers in general.

Position 5.
The seven Heads of the Dragon & Beast are distributions of them into so many succesive parts by the opening of the seales in order: every part or head being continued from the opening of one seale to the opening of the next & the seventh head first through the time of silence & holy rites & then through all the Trumpets.

1. The heads are so many sucesive parts of the Kingdome. For in ch 17.10 they are called seven Kings & represented successive: where by kings you must not understand so many single persons, for the Beast which is said to be but one of the Kings or rather but a part of one being called the eighth & of the seven, is yet described to have ten horns & ten crowns upon his horns to denote so many kings at once comprehended in that part of one. And besides what single king's reign could be long enough for the seventh under which is comprehended all that variety of events during the sounding of the seven Trumpets which we shall hereafter show to be above a thousand yeares. By a king therefore is to be understood an aggregate of kings whether collaterall or successive unto some determinate period; & not only of Kings but the whole kingdomes also during that intervall: for the Beast which is said to be the eighth King & of the seven, signifies the whole Kingdome. See Dan. 7.17.

2 The heads of the Beast are coextended to those of the Dragon . ffor Saint Iohn in counting them plainly refers the first six of them & part of the seventh to the Dragon when he calls the Beast that was & is not, the eighth & of the seven ch 17.10. And therefore we are to reccon these heads of the Beast not as he is considered in the Apocalyps distinct from the Dragon but as he was virtually in the Dragon before he became divided from him so that the first six heads <32r> may be recconned single ones in common to the Beast & Dragon & the seventh a double one whereof one branch is the seventh head of the Dragon & the other the Beast that was & is not.

** < insertion from f 31v > < text from f 32r resumes >

And hence it is that the Dragon hath seven crowns upon his heads to denote his actuall reign in all the seven but the heads of the beast are without crowns becaus his reign takes up no more than the last head. But yet to discriminate his last head from the rest the ten horns on which are ten crowns must be imagined to stand upon that. For in ch. 17.12 in the time of the sixt head (defined in vers 10) it is said: The ten kings have received no kingdom as yet but receive power as kings the same hower with the beast. And therefore the kings with the Beast begin not their actual reign untill the next or last head, & by consequence the ten horns with the crowns upon them must all stand upon that: for the better conception of which it may be convenient to imagin <33r> the heads in order one above another & the crouned horns upon the uppermost head.

3. The saying of the heads, ffive are fallen & one is & the other is not yet come ch 17.10, respects not the real time it was wrote in by Saint Iohn, but the time of the non-existence of the Beast mentioned a little before & considered as present in the vision. It's the tenour of all the visions to represent future time as present. You may see it done in all the seales Trumpets & Vials, & in the description of the Dragon & two Beasts, & the rest of the visions. And least you should say these are visions but ffive are fallen is an interpretation, you may see it done also in interpretations & explicating discourses. Thus in chap 7.14 To the question What are these arrayed in white robes, it is answered These are they which came out of great tribulation, & have washed their robes & made them white in the blood of the Lamb. So in chap 18 the angel, without setting before Saint Iohns eyes a vision of what he spake, cried out in the present tense Babylon is fallen is fallen & is become the habitation of Devils &c, & thereupon most of that chapter is spent in describing Babylon & her fall in such a manner as if her fall was present. Now tell me, why should ffive are fallen be necessarily understood of Saint Iohn's time any more then Babylon is fallen. Or rather seing it is the tenour of the Prophesy to accommodate discourses to any future time as present in the vision, what privilege should ffive are fallen have to be necessarily excepted? why may not this be understood after the manner of the rest?

<33v>

You may observe that in the parts divers of the Visions so long as the same or synchronal things continue to be insisted on, whatever time the first sentences or expression agrees to, the rest usually hold on to respect as present. This you may see done in the descriptions of the Palmbearing multitude of the battel between Michael & the Dragon, of the 7^th Trumpet, of the third Viol, & some others. & so in the description of the whore, the Angel first pitches on the time a little before the Beasts ascention out of the bottomles pit, & accommodates all his following discourse in chap 17 to that time as present in the vision & then in chap 18 another angel pitches on the time of Babylon's fall, & to that time is most of that chapter accommodated, & then follows the vision of a great multitude accommodated to the time immediately following that. In the first of these cases the Angel begins thus: The Beast which thou sawest was & is not & shall ascend out of the bottomles pit. To express the succesion of these three things he assumes the middle for the time present in the vision & then goes on accommodating all his discours to that time: in respect of which he expresses as future the 10 Kings receiving their kingdom & giving their power to the beast & making war with the Lamb, & burning the whore, but of the heads he expresses five past the sixt present & the 7^th to come, to denote the coincidence of the sixt head with the time considered as present in which the Beast was not. And to make the stronger impression of this synchronism, he immediately repeats his first saying, and the beast that was & is not he is the eighth: which is as much as to <34r> say, the Beast of which I told you that he was before this time to which as present I accommodate these sayings, & is not at this time, he when he ascends out of the bottomles pit is the eighth. ffirst, he says expresly The Beast was & is not & shall ascend. Then to make the stronger impression of this, he draws a character or title of the Beast from hence, calling him the Beast that was & is not, & in his saying of the heads, ffive are fallen &c he mentions the Beast by this character to inculcate the relation of the expressions.

If you should say the Beast's being called the Beast that was & is not, is but a character or title & denotes only the succession of his parts without regard to any particular time: yet you must grant that the first sentence, viz: The Beast which thou sawest was & is not & shall ascend out of the bottomless pit is as positive & expresly related to time as the other sentence ffive are fallen &c. And therefore if you will understand the latter of Saint Iohn's time you must understand the former so too. Thus they must be synchronal, apply 'em to what time you will. But yet had they been intended of Saint Iohn's time & not rather compare & adjust things of some unknown future time to a synchronism, the characterizing the Beast by the words was & is not would have been a superfluous repetition, the name Beast without any further epithite being sufficient to express & denote him without ambiguity. And therefore that the repetition of those words may be significant I <34v> cannot but suppose it done to inculcate a synchronism of things then future.

This I have premised to make way for the next assertion where you will see the truth of this more fully made out by the coincidence of this Synchronism with the sixt Seale.

I said that all the Angels discourse in the latter part of ch 17 respected future time considered as present, but I would have this understood of those sentences only which respect time. ffor part of his discours are only definitions which respect no particular time: as where he says The heads are 7 mountans on which the whore sitteth. Also they are 7 Kings. The Horns are 10 Kings. The waters where the whore sitteth are peoples & multitudes & nations & tongues. The woman which thou sawest is the great city reigning over the Kings of the earth. All these are definitions which have an indefinite relation to time their sense being as if he had said The heads signify 7 mountains on which the whore sitteth when she reigns, &c. The only scruple is in the last, some understanding that of Rome as it reigned over the kings of the earth in Saint Iohn's time. But whence do they gather this. Is it from the Citie's being called great? I grant that Epithite was taken from it's greatness while it flourished, as was also the name Babylon. But you may see the same epithite continued to it till the time of it's final destruction. Rev 18.2, 10, 16, 18, 19, 21. & ch 14.18. & ch 16.19. Is it from the tense of the verb ἐστι Then must Rome have been the Whore in Saint Iohn's time. Is it from the tense of the Phrase ἔχουσα βασιλείαν reigning.? Then by the same reason if one should say Hæc effigies est Socrates disputans it might be inferred, Ergo Socrates jam disputat. Or if the war of Alexander with Darius was represented in a scene or comedy, & an Interpreter should say ὁ ἔστιν ὁ Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ μέγας ὁ νικων τὸν Δαρειον it might be inferred: Ergo Alexander jam vincit Darium. There is nothing therefore to limit it to any particular time. But something there is to make it indefinite: for the Kings of the earth which the whore or great City reigneth over, cannot without straining be understood of any other Kings then those all along spoken of in the Prophesy, viz: the ten horns of the Beast which the Whore sat on, that is, reigned over, <35r> the heads in order one above another & the crowned horns upon the uppermost head. < insertion from the left margin of f 34v > (ffig.    ) & which in the words immediately before those we write of were said to give their Kingdom to her beast that is to submit themselves to her reign; & are again & again expresly called the Kings of the earth v. 2, & ch 18. v.3, 9.

4. The seventh head – < text from f 35r resumes > 4. The seventh head is coextended to the seventh Seale, the first part of it to so much of that seale as precedes the Trumpets, & the last part or 8^th head to the Trumpets. For the Beast when five heads were faln & the sixt was in being was called the Beast which was & is not ch 17.10 & therefore his non-existence or wound to death happened in the sixt head & consequently since the beast was wounded but in one head & not on one side chopt of but in it, the head must extend further then the gaping of the wound, that is, beyond the healing of it, & so the wound being in the sixt seale (Posit 4.6, 7) the wound cannot end sooner then at the openning of the seventh Seale there being no sooner remarkable period for it to end at. And on the other hand the eighth head or latter part of the 7^th being the beast which was & is not cannot begin later then with the first Trumpet becaus (as I shewed above in Posit 4.10) he was then fully ascended out of the bottomless pit. And therefore for the 7^th head (or first part of it) there remains only that little intervall between the opening of the seventh seale & sounding of the first Trumpet.

I have sometimes thought whither the two parts of the 7^th head might not be collaterall: but the calling one part the eighth argues its succession of the seventh as that succeeded the sixt. And besides the 7^th agrees best with the said little intervall at the beginning of the 7^th seale, in that it is said to continue but a short space, that is to continue before the eighth begin but a short space comparatively to the continuance of the other heads.

5. The heads of the Dragon & Beast are the distributions of the kingdom according to the seven seales. For the heads are as much as to say, the capital parts or capital distributions of the kingdom into successive parts, & Saint Iohn no where distributes it into such parts but by the seales & Trumpets, & the coincidence of the 7^th head with the 7^th seale & of the parts of one with the parts of the other, is an instance of the coincidence of the other six. The best reason why the Beast that was & is not is called the eighth is that the Trumpets with which he is coincident are an eighth portion of time at the end of the seven which the seales make. And the best reason why he is notwithstanding said to be of the seven & the Beast to have but seven heads is that the Trumpets are conteined within the seventh Seale. <36r> {} besides what els should be meant by calling these heads Kings in ch 17.10, but to point at the four horsmen in the four first Seals as being the four first of the Kings introduced there as a specimen of the rest. Successive kings are as much as to say Courses or changes of the reign of a kingdom, in a litteral sense by the deaths of single persons, in a < insertion from the right margin of f 36r > figurative by any other notable alterations: & therefore since these kings are here figurative & the seales & Trumpets such & the only such courses in the Apocalyps; it is necessary that they be applyed to one another.

< text from f 36r resumes >

Position 6.
The horns of the Dragon & Beast are ten contemporary kingdoms springing out of their seventh head at or soon after the beginning of the Trumpets, & voluntarily uniting & conspiring into one body politique called the Beast.

1. That the 10 horns are so many kings is implyed by the crowns upon them & also expresly affirmed ch 17.12. And not only kings but successions of them with their kingdoms; for so a horn is used to signify, Fig    

3. The horns are contemporary & not successive kings: For this the horns of a Beast imply when they appear together, as is evident by Daniel's vision of the Ram & Goat. And much more ought it to be so in this Beast becaus the 7 other kings which are successive have a different representation, being signified each by one crown upon a head. For as one crown upon a head is made the emblem of Monarchical government in the Dragon, so the 10 crowns upon one head must according to the analogy signify so many kings at once in the Beast. And if it were not so, the little horn in Daniel which rose up after the other ten could not well be said to rise up among them בֵיגֵיחֵו Dan 7.8, nor to root up three of them vers 8, 20, & much less after that to have fellows חַבְךָתָחּ vers 20. The 10 toes also of Nebuchadnezzar's image imply so many collaterall kingdoms into which the 4^th kingdom was in the end to be rent. Yea Daniel expresly affirms that it should be divided & its parts should not stick to one another. And the same may be collected from severall expressions in the Apocalyps: as that those kings are said to receive power as kings the same hower with the Beast & to agree & give their kingdome to the Beast untill the words of God shall be fulfilled, which cannot be understood of <37r> successive kings. Again the Whore is said to sit upon peoples & multitudes & nations & tongues & to reign over the kings of the earth ch 17.1, 15, 18; And that all nations have drunk of the wine of the *^[10] poison of her fornication, & the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her ch 18.3: where by kings of the earth must be understood kings of the several nations which she sits upon & makes drunk. So ch 18.9, 10 it is said that the kngs of the earth who have committed fornication & lived deliciously with her shall bewail her & lament her when they shal see the smoak of her burning — saying, Alas, alas, that great City Babylon, — for in one hower is thy judgment come. And in ch 17.16, 17, that the ten horns (after the time is fulfilled that God shall put in their hearts to agree & give their kingdom to the Beast) shall hate the Whore & shall make her desolate & naked, & shal eat her flesh & burn her with fire. Which places must necessarily be interpreted of several kings at once.

2. These kings sprang out of the seventh head: as was proved above Posit 7.2. And to speake more strictly they sprang out of the 8^th or latter part of the 7^th For though all the heads, in generall speaking are common to the Dragon & Beast, whence the Dragon is represented with the horns as well as the Beast: yet strictly the eighth head is the Beast's that was & is not, & the other seven the Dragon's, ch. 17.10, 11. And accordingly the Dragon's heads but not his horns & the Beast's horns but not his heads are crowned to signify that the reign of the heads (all but the 8^th) belongs to the Dragon & of the horns to the Beast that is that the Dragon properly so called reigns without actuall horns till the beginning of the Trumpets & then the Beast or eighth head, on which the horns must therefore stand, begins his power .

<37v>

4. These Kings rose at or soon after the beginning of the Trumpets: not before because the horns sprang out of the eighth head, nor long after becaus they received power as kings the ^a[11] same hower with the Beast.

5. These Kings give — <38r>

5. These Kings give their power & strength & kingdom to the Beast voluntarily, & not by compulsion. ffor it is said that they have one mind & that God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will & to agree & give their kingdom unto the Beast. And the Whore is said to commit fornication with them, & make all nations drunk with the wine of her fornication & to deceive them with her sorceries, ch 18.3, 24. And so the two hornd Beast is said to deceive them by his miracles & by making fire come down from heaven. They are therefore perswaded into unanimous subjection by Sophistry & subtile delusions, but not conquered by the sword.

6. These kings thus conspiring into one body politique are the very Beast. ffor the horns of a Beast are used to signify the number of particular kingdoms or Dynasties of which the universal kingdom represented by the whole Beast is composed: as may be seen in Daniel where the two horns of the Ram were the kings or kingdoms of the Medes & Persians which composed that general kingdom; & the four horns of the Goat were the four principal kingdoms of which the Grecian universal kingdom after the death of Alexander consisted. And in like manner the ten horns of this Beast must denote so many Kings or kingdoms all which together make up the universal kingdom signified by the whole Beast. For these kings which began actually but in the eighth head, whence should they receive their kingdoms but by dividing among them the nations of which the Dragon formerly consisted? (Dan 7.24.) Which if it be supposed yet the universal kingdom will be still continued in the aggregate of those kingdoms as well as the Greecian kingdom after the death of Alexander was, according to Daniel's representation of it by one beast with four horns, continued in the aggregate of his successors; & on this account more properly, that they have one mind & that God shall put in their <39r> hearts — to agree & give their kingdom unto the Beast, that is, to constitute the Beast, or so to agree & combine together that their kingdoms shall be as it were but one kingdom, & by consequence the very Beast. For in the expression of giving their kingdom to the Beast it is to be observed that all their kingdoms together are called their Kingdome in the singular number & so esteemed as if but one kingdome, which may therefore well be represented by one Beast notwithstanding the subdivisions.

And unless this be allowed, the Beast must have more horns then ten. ffor there are ten horns in the Kingdome which the kings give unto him & if he have any other kingdome distinct from the Whore or little horn, there must be one more horn at least in that.

But for further confirmation of this particular it is to be observed that the Whore in one place is said to sit upon the Beast, in another place to sit upon many waters which are peoples & multitudes & nations & tongues, & in another place to be the great City which ruleth over the Kings of the earth, ch 17.1, 3, 15, 18: & by consequence, the Beast, the many waters or nations, & the kings of the earth must signify the same thing since they are indifferently used for one another.

. 7. The kingdom therefore signified by the Dragon & Beast continued in a monarchical form untill the beginning of the Trumpets & then brake into a multitude: its monarchical form in the reign of the first seven heads being typified by their having but one crown upon each head & the division of it in the 8^th by the 10 horns of that head with 10 crowns upon them. But yet there must have been in some degree a dissolution of the monarchical form at the two rises of the Beast in the sixt Head, but either not absolute or not final or neither. ffor in that the 8^th Head only is attributed to the Beast that was & is not it argues that he began but with that Head to be a completely distinct Kingdom, being till then in some respect or other a member of the Dragon, as the standing of the crowns upon the Dragon's seven heads & not upon his denotes.

8. Although the 10 horns denote so many kingdoms, yet we are not to suppose they continue that number constantly to the end no more than the 4 principal kingdoms, which rose in the 3^d Empire after the death of Alexander & were represented by the Goat's 4 horns (Dan 8) continued all together till the end of that Empire. Yea the contrary is here exprest: for the little horn at its rise rooted up three of the 10 first horns before him Dan 7; & the mixture of iron & clay in the feet & toes of Nebuchadnezzar's Image denotes (as Daniel himself hath interpreted) that the kingdome shall in the end be broken not only into the 10 kingdoms represented by the toes, but otherwise very variously. And yet the posterity of <41r> two horns of the Beast which resemble the Lamb's must be two dynasties resembling those churches, that is two ecclesiasticall dynasties subordinate to two supreme Bishops.

The Lamb indeed primarily signifies the person of Christ, but yet it's members do at second hand represent his mystical members. ffor its seven eyes are interpreted the seven spirits of God mentioned in the beginning of the Prophesy ch: 1.4, & by the analogy his horns must signify the seven churches mentioned a little after, there being nothing els in all the Prophesy which they can signify.

4. The two hornd Beast rose & grew up with the nations which afterwards worshipped the other Beast: for he is an aggregate of Episcopal Dynasties & the other Beast of temporall Kingdoms & it is of the nature of these to be coincident & diffused through one another. Here at least they must be so because what ever this Beast did was done to the other's worshippers & they are the universal kingdom beyond which nothing is here considered.

5. The two hornd beast by deluding the world administred to the ascention of the other Beast out of the bottomles pit. For he by his fals miracles & deceiving men was the Author that they worshipped the other Beast & made & worshipped his Image & received his mark & the number of his name, that is that the other Beast ascended out of the bottomless pit; for all this being done before the first Viall & so falling in with the time of that ascention is a mysticall description thereof. Yea he made or prepared all the power of the other Beast before him. Τὴν ἐξουσίαν του πρώτου θηρίου πασαν ποιει ἐνώπιον ἀυτου, vers 12. That is, to the temporal power which the Dragon gave that Beast, he added all his authority in spirituall matters whereby that Beast in his ascention out of the pit brought up with him, propagated, & conserved his infernal religion. This I take to be the meaning of the expression ἐξουσίαν ποιει, considering that it is the tenour of this place to the end of the Chapter to describe what the two hornd Beast did for the other. He made or created him his authority, he made that the earth should worship him, he made or effected great wonders before him, he (or the Image) made that all the world that would not worship his Image should be killed, he made <42r> that his mark should be given to all, & that none should buy or sell which had not his mark or name or the number thereof. The same word ποιει runs through all, & the latter passages seem to be a comment on the first by enumerating the particulars wherein this beast made the other's Authority, & in all things ministred to him: the other Beast of himself doing none of those things that were done.

As for the words ἐνώπιον ἀυτου he made his Authority before him & did miracles before him, the meaning may be that he did this as a fore-runner preparing the way before him for his ascention out of the pit. See Luke 1.17 & Mark 1.2 where ἐνώπιον ἀυτου & πρὸ προσώπου σου & ἔμπροσθέν σου are in like manner used to express the Baptists fore-running & preparing the way before our Saviour.

6. The two hornd Beast by reason of this his seducing men into errors is also called the fals Prophet. For that these are the same is evident by the agreement of their descriptions. The two hornd Beast in ch 13.14, is said to deceive them that dwell on the earth by means of the miracles which he had power to do before the Beast saying that they should make an image to him — & causing them to receive his mark. And so in ch 19.20 the fals Prophet is said to have wrought miracles before the Beast with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the Beast & worshipped his Image.

But further, as in ch 12 & 13 the two hornd Beast is described together with the Dragon & ten hornd Beast; so in ch 16.13, instead of the two hornd Beast the fals Prophet is recconned with the Dragon & ten hornd Beast. Which argues it to be but another name of the same thing given upon the account of its lying wonders & seductions to distinguish it from the ten hornd Beast which in the 14^th & following chapters is eminently called the Beast. And hence it appears why Saint Iohn never speaks of Beasts in the plural number, as in some places he should have done had not one of the Beasts been signified by the name of the fals Prophet.

7. The two hornd Beast by reason of his heathenising or committing spirituall fornication is also called the Whore of Babylon. ffor they are the same by the agreement of their descriptions. The one is a fals Prophet deceiving them that dwell on the earth by means of pretended miracles: & the other Mystery – making the inhabitants of the earth a^[12] drunk. ch 17.5, 2, & deceiving all nations with her sorceries ch 18.23, & corrupting the earth with <43r> her fornication, ch: 19.2. The one makes the Image cause that as many as would not worship the Image should be killed, ch 13.15 that is in a politicall sense at least & consequently persecuted:: & the other is drunken with the blood of the Saints & with the blood of the martyrs of Iesus ch 17.6, & in her was found the blood of Prophets & saints & of all that were slain upon the earth ch 18.4. They are both of the same religion the religion of the ten hornd Beast which is heathenising Christianity, Posit       Both denote Ecclesiastical states: the two hornd beast by his being two Episcopal Dynasties & called also a fals Prophet; & the Whore by her opposite relation to the Woman in the Wilderness, & diversity from her Beast which is a temporal state. Both are alike conjoyned to the ten hornd Beast: the two hornd Beast being conteined in him & conspiring with him & doing all things for him & over his subjects; & the Whore riding upon him that is ruling him & reigning over him Fig    , & that not by the power of the sword but consent & agreement, ch 17.13, 17. Both are finally destroyed together: the two hornd Beast or fals Prophet at the same time with the 10 hornd Beast ch 19.20, which was shown to be at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet; & Babylon at the pouring out of the seventh Viall. ch: 16.19. By the agreement of their qualities these two therefore must be the same.

But further, as the 13^th chapter is spent in describing the rise of the two beasts & the making the Image & setting up their worship, so the next chapter conteins the fall & ceasing of all these things: only there the two hornd Beast is called Babylon that great city which made all nations drink of the wine of the poison of her fornication, that is the Whore of Babylon, ch: 18.2, 3. Now that the two hornd Beast is here meant by Babylon is evident partly because otherwise the ruin of that Beast will be omitted where it ought to have been mentioned with the rest, but chiefly becaus the proclamation Babylon is faln implies that she was described in being before & consequently that the two hornd beast is she, there being nothing els like her mentioned before.

Again in the 16^th chapter the agents of the Dragon Beast & fals Prophet gather the nations to battel against the 7^th Vial, & immediatly after in describing their overthrow it is said that Babylon came <44r> in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Wherefore Babylon must be one of the three states that perished in this battel, & consequently none other than the fals Prophet which together with the Beast was at this time cast into the Lake of fire ch 19.20. It's the two hornd Beast therefore which is called Babylon in the 14 & 16 chapters; on which the 17^th Chapter is but a Comment. And indeed what name could be fitter for him. His being a heathenizing christian Ecclesiastical State makes him ipso facto a Whore in the strictest sense, & we have no reason to suppose more Apocalyptic Whores then one.

8. The Whore of Babylon is the same with the little horn of Daniel's fourth Beast. ffor they are like members of the same fourth Kingdom. The little horn's growing upon the Beast's head among the other ten argues that it as well as the rest was a Dynasty internal to the Beast: & so was the Whore or two hornd Beast, sect     supra. The little horn was of a different kind from the other ten Dan: 7.24: & so was the Whore, she being an ecclesiastical, they temporal states. The little horn's look was stouter than his fellows Dan 7.20, , & he had eyes & a mouth to represent him as a head set over them: & so the Whore sat upon the Beast that is, ruled over him Fig      . As the Whore is distinct Animal presiding over her Beast: so the eyes & mouth of the horn show that he is indeed with life & sense & so equipollent to a distinct Animal presiding over his Beast. The horn thought to change times & laws Dan 7.25 & had eyes to show that he should reign by sharp sighted policy: & the Whore is called a fals Prophet, a corrupter of the earth, an intoxicator & deceiver of all nations, & had mystery written in her forehead, Rev: 19.2, & 17.2 & 18.23. The horn spake great words against the most high, Dan 7.25: & the two hornd Beast spake as the Dragon, Rev 13.11. The horn made war with the saints & prevailed against them & wore them out, Dan 7.21, 25: & the whore was drunken with the blood of the Saints & with the blood of the martyrs of Iesus; & in her was found the blood of Prophets & of saints & of all that were <45r> slain upon the earth. The Dominion of both lasted untill the time that the saints possessed the kingdom (Dan. 7.21, 22. Rev 16.19 compared with ch 11.15) & was of equal continuance, the little horn reigning a time times & a half or 3½ yeares Dan 7.25, & the Whore's beast prospering 42 months, Rev 13.5. And the end of both was to be cast with their Beast into the burning flame Dan 7.11, 21, 22. Rev 19.20.

These therefore being members of the same general kingdom & alike related to that kingdome & to their fellow members, & synchronal & agreeing in their other qualities & fate must necessarily be allowed the same.

And hence, by the way, is manifest what we said above of Daniel's 4^th Beast, viz: that it is a combined representation of the Apocalyptic Dragon & two Beasts in one Body, this only excepted, that the two hord beast (as we shall presently show) begins not his Whorish reign upon the other Beast till some time after his first rise, & consequently begins but at a second rise to be represented by the horn in Daniel.

9. It is the Whore of Babylon which is prophesied of in Ezek: 23.15, 16, 17, 18: where it is thus written

"And it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years according to the days of one King: & after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an Harlot. Take an Harp, go about the City thou Harlot that hast been forgotten, make sweet melody, sing many songs that thou mayst be remembred.     And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre & she shall turn to her hire, & shall commit fornication with all the Kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. And her merchandise & her hire shall be holiness to the Lord. It shall not be treasured nor laid up: for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently & for durable cloathing."

The circumstances of this Prophesy do in all respects suit with the Whore of Babylon but not with the City of Tyre, & therefore I shall not doubt here by Tyre to understand this Whore.

In the name there can be no difficulty becaus the holy Ghost altogether calls the Whore by names borrowed from forreign places, as Babylon, Sodom, Egypt, & (as some think) Idumea <46r> Isa 34, & there is no reason why he may not as well call her Tyre, especially if Tyre in any respects besides wickedness (as in bordering upon the Sea & marchandising. See Rev 18.15, 17, 19) do more advantageously then other places typify her. Yea, if I am not mistaken, the holy Ghost has confirmed this name to her in Ezek 28. But at least that this place of Isaiah is to be understood of her may appear by the following considerations.

ffirst whereas Tyre is here called a Harlot & said to commit fornication with all the Kingdoms of the world upon the face of the Earth: this is the exact description of the Whore of Babylon but can in no wise agree to the City Tyre. For none but the Church of God can be an Harlot & commit fornication. This is a crime peculiar to God's people when they forsake him & go a whoring after other Gods or Idols. And therefore although Heathens were universally Idolaters yet the holy Ghost never reproves any Nation under the notion of committing fornication besides the revolting Iews in the old Testament & revolting Christians in the new. But were it otherwise so that Tyre be called a Harlot for her Idolatry, yet I see not how she should be accused for committing fornication with other nations since her dealing with other nations was only in matters of trade & merchandise. Nor does the Universality of the expression, that Tyre should commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth agree so well to that city as to the Whore.

Secondly I see not how the seventy years of desolation can be accommodated to the City of Tyre. For from Isaiah's days to Nebuchadnezzar's it continued in prosperity <47r> excepting only five or six year's Siege & that in vain by Salmanasser, & by Nebuchadnezzar it was not only ruined for seventy years but for ever as was prophesied by Ezekiel ch 26. Yet not far from this city there was another incompassed by the sea & called by the same name. But this was not laid desolate with the other but from that very time governed first by a^[13] Baal their King for about 10 years & then by Iudges for about 7 years & 3 months & then again by Kings, the three first of which Balator, Merbal & Hirom extended to the reign of Cyrus, & from thence it flourished till the reign of Alexander the great who utterly destroyed it under b^[14] Azelmicus its last king.

Thirdly in that these seventy years are said to be according to the days of one king, it is plainly signified that this prophesy is not to be interpreted litterally of Tyre but hath some mysticall meaning in it. For what King since Isaiah's days hath reigned 70 years? But if we refer it to the Apocalyps, supposing God by his foreknowledg hath accommodated it thereto, the interpretation will be obvious For the successive kings described there are the heads of the Beast, that is the portions or divisions of his reign, not by the death of single persons but by the periods of the seales: & by the same reason the divisions of his reign by the Trumpets may be also called heads or kings, & these we shall find of sufficient duration Wherefore since Isaiah's king must be a mystical one, what if it be one of these?

ffourthly whereas it is said that her merchandise & her hire shall be holiness to the Lord — & that her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord: it is here in so many words declared that by Tyre is meant a people whose merchandise & hire, that is whose possessions are holiness unto the Lord, & that the people for whom this merchandise is, that is the people of Tyre, are they that dwell <48r> before the Lord. And this is as much as to say that by Tyre is meant a people whose possessions are consecrate & set apart to the true God so that they cannot be alienated without sacrilege, & a people also that are themselves set apart & consecrate to the service of that God. That is in plain words, a people whose possessions are the revenues of the Church, & which themselves are ecclesiasticall persons like the Tribe of Levi. And this can be in no wise understood of the City of Tyre; but of the Whore of Babylon it is a most apposite description according to what we have proved of the two hornd Beast (sect    ) & the character which Saint Paul gives of the man of Sin that he should sit in the Temple of God.

And whereas it is further added that her Merchandise shall not be treasured nor laid up – but shall be for them that dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently, & for durable cloathing, that is they shall spend it upon their backs & bellies in pride & luxury: this also suits justly with the description of the Whore. For of her it is said that the merchants of the earth (i.e. figurative ones) waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies Rev 18.3. And that she glorified her self & lived deliciously with the kings of the earth vers 7, 9, & lusted after fruits & things that were dainty & goodly. vers. 14 & was clothed in fine linnen & purple & scarlet & decked with gold & precious stones & Pearles vers 16 & inriched the merchants by reason of her costliness vers 19.

10 The two hornd Beast rose a little before the opening of the seventh Seale. He rose before, because he ministred to the ascention of the other Beast which began then not to be hatched but to work visibly. And yet he rose not much <49r> before becaus he rose after the other Beast as is apparent both by the order of the narration & by the other's being called the first Beast, ch 13.12.

11. It was some considerable time before the two hornd Beast became the Whore upon the other Beast's back. ffor it would require some time for him to arrive to that height of Idolatrous wickedness & dominion with which the Whore is represented His rise out of the earth argues his low estate at first & slow growth. And though he did even then great things for the other Beast yet he did 'em not by power but by sophistry & deceipt, & before he became the great Whore suffered an Eclips of 70 years, as is manifest out of the newly cited Prophesy of Isaiah concerning Tyre. Moreover the Beast is represented rising with two horns, & yet the Whore is but one City & accordingly represented in Daniel by one horn: which implies that the Whore ascended not upon her Beast till one of those horns (or some new one) had got the preeminence. Also the ten horns are called the first horns Dan 7.8 & the little horn said to rise up after them vers 24, so as to root up three of them before it vers 8, 20. And therefore since the ten horns rose up at or after the beginning of the Trumpets, much more must the little horn rise up after that period & still much more after the two Beasts.

As for the exact beginning of the Whore's reign we shall show hereafter that it was with the Wo Trumpets: in the meane time let thus much suffice of this particular.

12. The little horn of Daniel's 4^th Beast was one of the horns of the two horned Beast growing up after a seventy years depression. ffor by what we have proved it is manifest that the Whore & consequently the little horn sprang immediately out of the two hornd Beast, & was represented on Daniels beast among the 10 horns only becaus there both Saint Iohn's Beasts are combined in one. Wherefore <50r> it must be either one of the two first horns of the pseudoprophetique Beast or a new one. But not a new one, for it is manifest also out of the afforesaid prophesy of Tyre that this horn before it became the little horn in Daniel, suffered a deliquium for 70 years, & therefore was an old one re-resuscitated & exalted to a so much greater degree of dignity & wickedness that in comparison thereof it deserved not in its first state to be recconned among the ten horns in Daniel's vision.

If it be said that this horn might rise after the two notwithstanding that it was in being before the 70 years: I answer that it's much more probable that one of the two horns should overtop the other then that a new one should rise & overtop 'em both; & that the first rise of this so famous horn should be somwhere taken notice of in the Apocalyps then wholly omitted, as it is if different from the two. But further, this horn (in being the Whore) was that great City which in the sixt head or seale (defined ch 17.10) & consequently at the rise of the two hornd Beast, reigned over the kings of the earth ch 17.18: & such a City could not but have been even then one of the principal Episcopal seats in the world, & consequently a horn of the two hornd Beast.

13. The Whore exalted her self above all earthly powers. For this is exprest by the 10 kings giving their power strength & kingdom to her Beast ch 17.13, 17; & by her sitting upon (that is by Fig     reigning over) him & the many waters (vers 1) which are peoples & multitudes & nations & tongues (vers 15.) & by the look of Daniel's horn which was stouter then his fellows & by its having eyes & a mouth to represent it as a head set over them. Agreable to this it is that the Whore is said to glorify her self & sit a Queen ch 18.7 & called Babylon that is a sovereign Imperial City; & arayed in fine arayed in fine linnen & purple & scarlet colour & decked with gold & precious stones & pearls ch 17.4 & 18.16. For this is a badg of her imperial dignity as if it were said that she was invested with royal ornaments such <51r> as kings & Emperors used as an argument of their quality. For it was the custom of nations to express honour & dominion by wearing Gold Iewels & rich apparel. Thus Daniel was arayed at his exaltation over the third part of the kingdom, Dan 5.29; & Mordecai, Esther 8.15; & Simon 1 Mac. 4.43, 44. And Andronicus 2 Mac. 4.38. And of the Roman Senators tis said in 1 Mac 8.14 None of them wore a Crown or was cloathed in purple to be magnified thereby. So Iosephus Antiqu. l 10. c 12 Publicavit daturum se Danieli torquem aureum & purpureæ vestis usum quali Chaldæorum Reges utuntur. So the Persian kings had a peculiar royal apparell & crown royall Esther 6.8, much the same I guess with Mordecai's ch 8.15 viz: An apparel of blew & white with a great crown of gold & with a garment of fine linnen & purple. And who knows not that the Roman Emperors also distinguisht themselves by a purple Robe?

Supposing therefore the Whore's apparel a badge of her dominion: she must so far transcend her Beast therein as her ornament transcends his simple scarlet colour.

14 The Imperial seat of the Whore is the same City with that which was before the Dragon's. ffor the Dragon gave the Beast his seat & the Beast gave it to the Whore in yeilding her the Monarchy over him. The Angel taking from the time of the sixt head as from the nearest distance, a prospect of the wicked times ready to begin, told Saint Iohn that the Whore is that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the earth, ch 17.18: which is as much as to say that the great city which then reigned over the world should become the seat of the Whore, & consequently that the Imperial seat of the Whore should be that same City which was the Imperial seat of the world before the Whore was in being, that is of so much of the world as is considered in this Prophesy & so represented by the Dragon & Beast, & at that time by the Dragon, the sixt Seale belonging properly to the Dragon's reign, & the Beast not being when this was <52r> spoken ch 17.11. Or if you will say it was then become the Imperial City of the Beast because the Dragon had newly given the Beast his seat; yet in saying so it is confest to be the Imperial seat of the whole kingdom represented by the Dragon & Beast in common.

The seat of the Empire therefore from the Dragon's to the end of the Whore's reign is one & the same City. And this I take to be the main grownd why the whole Empire from the beginning of the Dragon's to the end of the Whore's reign is accounted but one & the same Empire & accordingly represented in Daniel by but one Beast, notwithstanding that the Whore's reign is otherwise of a very different kind from the Dragon's. And yet this will not be a sufficient ground for that unity unless the Whore be supposed an inbred Dominion. ffor if she had risen out of a forreign nation invading this City, her dominion ought to have been accounted as much a different Empire from the Dragon's as the two first of the four Empires though seated both at Babylon were different from one another, & so should have been represented not by a horn upon the 4^th Beast but by a different or 5^t Beast.

There is another Prophesy in Daniel very pertinent to our purpose, viz: that of the Ram & Goat where the Goats last horn (notwithstanding what men dream of Antiochus Epiphanes) signifys the fourth Empire from the beginning to the end of it as I shal prove when I come to consider that & the rest of Daniel's Prophesies. And if the whole Empire be but that one horn, it is certain evidence that the dominion thereof from the beginning to the end was seated both in the same <53r> people & in the same head City.

15. The Whore is Saint Paul's Man of Sin. For he like the fals Prophet came with signes & with lying wonders & with all deceivableness 2 Thes 2.9, 10. He like the Whore exalteth himself above all that is called God & that is worshipped vers 4: Above all that is called God, that is his head person above all Kings & earthly potentates, for it is not said above God himself but above all that is called by his name: Above all that is worshipped, that is with civile worship, for σέβασμα seems to relate to Σιβαστος the common name of the Roman Emperors mentioned sometimes in the Acts.      He like the Whore sits as a God in the Temple of God, shewing himself to be a God: As a God, that is as a King or Monarch: In the temple of God, that is in or over the polluted Church represented by the Beast or (as is exprest in Rev 11.2) in the outward court of the temple & in the holy City which were given to the Gentiles.: Shewing himself to be a God, that is proving or demonstrating to the world as it were by apodictical arguments that he is no counterfeit, no Vsurper, but de jure as well as de facto the Ecclesiastical Monarch; for ἀποδεικνὺν signifies properly such a prooving as this.      He like the Whore succeeded the temporal Empire of the world in its seat: for he was not to be revealed till that which letted were taken out of the way vers 6, 7; that is, as all the Ancients interpret, till the civil Empire then in being were taken out of the way to make room for a successor. And lastly he like the fals Prophet is to be destroyed by our Lord at his coming to judgment; for as the Word of God with the Armies of heaven came against the Beast & fals Prophet & they were taken & cast into the Lake of fire, Rev 19; so the Lord shall consume the Man of sin with the breath of his mouth & with the brightness of his coming 2 Thes. 2.8.

Position 8.
The Image of the Beast is an Ecclesiasticall Assembly of men representing the ten hornd Beast & deriving its authority from the two hornd Beast <54r> and was made between the beginnings of the seventh Seale & first Trumpet.

1. The Beast whose Image this is, is the ten hornd, & not the two hornd Beast. For it is said to be made to the Beast which had the wound by a sword, that is to the ten hornd Beast. And the same thing is implied in the often repeated expression of worshipping the Beast & his Image, that is the ten hornd Beast & his Image to both which the two hornd Beast did injoyn that worship, ch 13.12, 15, & both which in ch 19.20 are mentioned together with the fals Prophet; & therefore since the fals Prophet is the two hornd Beast, this Beast whose is the Image must be that with ten horns: especially since the name of Beast is only given to the two hornd Beast in ch 13, & afterwards appropriate to that with ten horns, the other's name being changed to that of Whore & fals Prophet.

2. This Image represents the ten hornd Beast. For els it could not be his Image nor would men worship it as they worship the Beast. For as the reason why Idolaters worship Idols is becaus they look upon them as the representatives of their Gods, so the reason why the worshippers of the Beast do also worship his Image should be that they account it his representative. It cannot be called his Image without respect to likeness, as the Statue set up by Nebuchadnezzar was called Nebuchadnezzar's Image: for so it ought rather to have been called the Image of the two hornd Beast that caused it to be made & receive life & be worshipt; & therefore it must be granted his representative.

3. It is some kind of Authority & not an Image of wood or stone or metal, because it received life from the two hornd Beast so that it could both speak & caus that as <55r> many as would not worship it should be killed, & becaus it was not only worshipped but made by them that dwel on the earth, that is not by an Artificer but a multitude. Nor is it so likely that a material Image should be made to represent a body politique whose form consists not in any external shape but in Authority & Dominion.

4. This Authority is derived from the two hornd Beast ffor it was this Beast that injoyned men to make the Image & had power to give life unto it, & inable it to speake & to cause that as many as would not worship it should be killed.

5. It is distinct from the Authority of either Beast, being neither the authority of the tenhornd Beast becaus but his Image; nor of the two hornd Beast becaus derived from him, & enlivend by his power; nor of both together becaus mentioned together with them both as a third thing distinct from both ch 13 & 19.

6 Its placed rather in a body of men then in a single person: for so it will more truly represent the Beast who is not a single person but the most universal Body politique.

7. The Image is not a forreign Kingdom or Body politique but a body of men made or constituted within those nations which worshipped the Beast. For it is made by his worshippers as may appear by comparing ch 13. vers 8 & 12 with vers 14: & these worshippers are the universall kingdom beyond whose bounds nothing is considered in this part of the prophesy. Were the Image a forreign kingdom it would not be so much an Image of the Beast as a distinct Beast it self having its proper subjects.

8 Ioyning all these considerations, it must necessarily be some Assembly of men (as a Senate, Parliament, or Council) selected & convened out of the Subjects of the Beast to be his representative. ffor such & none but such a Body politique can significantly be called the Image or <56r> representative of a Kingdom.

< insertion from above the line >

9 It is an Ecclesiastical Assembly. For it was convened by Christians, Christianity being (as I have shewn) the profession of both Beasts from the truth of which they were now degenerating: And by these it was convened not for politique designes but for setting up new things in religion: And its Authority was spiritual & not temporal; for it must be of the same kind with the two hornd Beast's Authority from whence it sprang. Had it been temporal it must have sprang from the ten hornd Beast he being the fountain of all temporal power as the two hornd Beast was of all spirituall.

10. To worship the Beast & his Image is to receive & trust in their Authority, to beleive & rely on their decrees statutes or opinions upon the account of their Authority, to have that faith in them which is dew only to God that is to divine revelation manifested either immediately or by the mediation of such men as give sufficient evidence that they have the spirit of prophesy. To have this faith & trust in the Beast & his Image is to worship 'em even in a litteral sense, faith & trust in God or Idols or any thing els being the highest worship we can give them: & this is the only worship that a Kingdom & a Council are capable of. Of a Council its plain becaus its Authority is spiritual & so the proper object of religious worship. Of a Kingdome there might be some difficulty were its Authority only in temporal matters, but the Beast signifies a Kingdom not mearely as temporal but also as Christian. He is the Whole visible body of Christians, the Catholic visible Church during his reign, & accordingly has a double authority: temporall from the Dragon ch 13.2, & spiritual from the two hornd Beast vers 12. And that the worshipping of him is nothing els then the receiving this authority confiding in it is plain in that

< text from f 56r resumes >

10. It was made between the opening of the seventh Seal & beginning of the first Trumpet to sound: not later because the plague of the first Viall was inflicted upon men for worshipping it; nor sooner becaus it was made by the two hornd Beast to the ten hornd Beast after the healing of his wound ch: 13.14, & (as is plain) in the time of his ascention out of the bottomles pit.

It is manifest therefore that this Image was an erroneous Council, & that a general one becaus the representative of the Beast that is of the universal visible body of Christians usually called the Church; & that it was made at the very ascention of the Beast out of the bottomles pit for setting up & establishing the new religion which he brought up with him; & that by the influence of the two hornd Beast it was made authoritative that is received believed on & trusted in by the world, or (to use the Apocalyptic language) worshipped by them, as they also worshipt the Beast, that is believed & trusted in the vogue of the Christian world then called the Church.

Position 9
The two & forty months of the Beast's making war, the like reign of the Whore, the stay of the Woman in the Wildernes, the treading under foot of the holy City, & the prophesying of the two Witnesses in sackcloth, are throughout synchronal & extend from the beginning of the Wo-Trumpets to the killing of the Witnesses.

1. They are of equal duration. The Beast 42 Months ch 13.5; the Whore or little Horn a time & times & the dividing of time Dan 7.25; the Woman in the Wilderness a time times & half a time Rev 12.14, or 1260 days ch 12.6; the Gentiles 42 months, & the Witnesses 1260 days ch 11.2, 3. All which are equall since the holy Ghost in ch 12.6, 14 hath interpreted a time & times & the dividing of time to be 1260 days, that is three Chaldaic years & a half or 42 months.

2. They are synchronal & end with the killing of the Witnesses. Of their Synchronism severally there are divers characters: As of the Witnesses in Sackcloth & the Woman in the Wilderness becaus both express the like desolate estate of the Church. Of the Woman & Whore by way of opposition & becaus the Wilderness wherein the Woman is is also inhabited by the Whore ch 17.13, & made to be a Wilderness by her abominations Fig.      Of the Whore & her Beast becaus Daniel's little horn grows upon his head & shee sits upon him during her reign ch. 17.16, 17, 18, & he reigns with proportional prosperity so long as she sits upon him, & rises & perishes together with the two hornd Beast or fals Prophet of whose continuance the Whore's reign is the principal middle portion. Of the Woman & Beast becaus the saints with which he warred all the time must be in the same Wilderness with him & so no other then that Woman. Of the Beast & Gentiles by their identity See <58r> Posit     Of the Gentiles & Witnesses because they are introduced together ch 11.2, 3. And of the Beast & Witnesses becaus he makes war with them & kills them. And indeed such is the affinity of all these things that their Synchronism was never yet that I know doubted of, the equality of their duration being alone thought a sufficient indication thereof.

But to comprehend them all together: they are all necessarily implyed in the times immediately before the death of the witnesses because till then the enemies of the Church prevailed more & more over her; & they are inconsistent with the times after their resurrection becaus from that time she prevails over her enemies untill first the great City & soon after the whole Kingdom of the Beast be overthrown. For at the very resurrection of the Witnesses she frighted her enemies & was no longer hid in the wilderness but became visible to all the world who beheld her as a cloud for multitude ch 11.11, 12 Fig    . The numbers therefore since they all express the time of the Churches desolation & her enemies prevailing over her, must end between these two periods. And of these two I prefer the first: ffor then the witnesses have done prophesying & by consequence the Woman is ceased out of the Wilderness & the Temple out of the City so that it is no longer a holy City which the Gentiles tread under foot; & the Beast & with him the Whore for want of enemies have done ^{a [15]} making war, & begin to send triumphal gifts to one another . The killing of the Witnesses therefore puts an end to all things to which the 1260 days are applied & so must be the common period of those days.

I say an end: for if any one tell me that Christ has promised that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church & therefore she cannot be interrupted, I return that other saying of his; When the Son of man cometh shall he <59r> find faith on the earth. As there was an intermission of the Iewish Kingdom for seventy years in the Babylonian captivity, notwithstanding the promis that the Scepter should not depart from Iudah till Shiloh came, so in our Saviour's Promis a short intermission of the Church may not be accounted a prevailing against her – becaus not a final nor durable prevailing, nor yet so absolute but that her roots may continue in the earth, some men remaining well disposed to receive the truth though for a time carried away with the streame, others seeking & perhaps discerning & believing it but yet imperfectly like those Pharisees that feared to confes it least they should be put out of the Synagogue, or at least some believing one truth, others another so as among them to retain the Whole, & if you will go further & suppose some few believers of all that's necessary, I shall not gainsay it so you will but suppose 'em so few as here not to come into compute.

Some I know will say that the witnesses are two single persons, & so their killing infers not any such deliquium of the Church. And to these I might answer that the Witnesses prophesy in sackcloth all the 1260 days & therefore this number of days & consequently all things that are concluded in it (among which is the Woman's stay in the Wilderness) have an end at the death of the Witnesses. Wherefore it is necessary that the Woman at that time begin either to come out of the Wildernes or suffer a deliquium there. But she begins not to come out before their resurrection & consequently must suffer a deliquium during their death, & therefore these Witnesses expres the fate not of two single persons only but of the whole Church. But further he that considers may easily —— But further he that considers may easily discern that they are something diffused through the whole Beast's dominion since it was not a few men but the Beast that made war with them & killed them, not a single City or nation but peoples kindreds tongues & nations that rejoyced over them & saw them rise again & ascend to heaven in a cloud. And the City in whose street their dead bodies lay was not a bare City but the whole dition thereof extending as far as where our Lord was crucified. Also they are called two Candlesticks which is an emblem not of persons but of Churches Rev 1.20. And if there were nothing els but this, that it is the tenour of the Prophesy to represent every thing by figures, it would be ground enough for us to suppose the same done in these Prophets.

<60r>

3. The 1260 days begin after the beginning of the Trumpets. For they are the duration of the little horn, & that begins after the ten horns & consequently after the beginning of the Trumpets See Posit      The Beast indeed (to whom the same length of time is assigned ch 13.5) began with the Trumpets but it is not said that this time was his whole reign but that he should make war so long, that is prosperously as the words before imply where his worshippers cry: Who is able to make war with him? His whole reign it cannot be because he is coextended to all the Trumpets, whereas this Synchronism ends with the death of the Witnesses. It must therefore be but a part of his reign, & there is as much reason why it should want at the beginning as at the end & so be the principal middle part; the times before the total obscuring of the truth (viz: those in which the earth helped the woman & swallowed up the advers waters) being excluded as well as those after it began to revive. Much after the same manner we shall find also that the other numbers in 5^t & 6^t Trumpets agree to the principal middle parts of the two kingdoms exprest there by the Locusts & Euphratean horsmen.

4 The 1260 days begin with the Wo-Trumpets. For the manifestation of this it is to be observed that as the four first seales in chap 6 were ushered in by the four Beasts, so the first four Trumpets are ushered in apart by their four Angels standing on the corners of the Earth chap 7.1. For that these were the Angels, not which sounded but which executed the consequent effects is manifest becaus to them it was given to hurt the earth & the Sea, & another Angel cryed saying Hurt not the earth neither the Sea nor the Trees till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. These are they therefore which after the saints are sealed hurt the earth & Trees at the first Trumpet & the Sea at the second: & their number will extend them to the third & fourth also, but no further; for the winds wherewith the Angels hurt the earth & the Sea &c: are so many wars by Fig     & therefore we are to suppose that the Angels let go these winds successively as being the four first of the seven <61r> succesive wars of the Trumpets. And from this combination of these four Trumpets may be argued that they relate to things of the same nature with one another & of a different nature from the contents of the three last which by the want of Angels are distinguisht from them: For otherwise the introduction of the four Angels & their limitation to that number would be an insignificant circumstance. But to put the matter out of doubt, the holy Ghost has again signified the combination of the four first Trumpets by parting them as it were from the three last by the interposition of an Angel flying through the midst of heaven & saying with a loud voice; Wo, wo, wo to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the Trumpet of the three Angels which are yet to sound. The care therefore taken by the holy Ghost to separate the three last Trumpets from the four first both by the interposition of an Angel crying Wo, & by adumbrating the four Trumpets first apart by their four Angels must needs imply some considerable difference in the nature of the things which they relate to, & so that the Wo Trumpets begin with a new scene of things. Yea & the descriptions of their plagues do evidence as much, those of the first four being exprest by smiting the severall parts of the world, & of the two last by the rise of numerous monsters.

In like manner it is to be considered that since the reign of the Whore or little horn began later then the Trumpets the things which fall in with these Trumpets & precede the death of the witnesses must consist of two successive revolutions of a kind manifestly different from one another: the first before the rise of the horn, the second in its reign: the first untill the fall of the temporal Empire, the second after the rise of the spiritual; the first while the Apostates heathenised more moderately, the second when their heathenising was grown to maturity so as fully to deserve the name of whoredom. And these things premised afford us the following arguments for our assertion.

Arg 1. The eighth Head or King is coextended to the Trumpets, Posit       & therefore their principal divisions must fall in with one another by Rule     But the principal division of the eighth head so far as it precedes the death of the Witnesses is into the times before & in the reign of the Whore, & the principal division of the Trumpets so far as they precede the same death of the witnesses is into the four first & two last. These are their two principal parts the most uniform in themselves & diversified from one another by the greatest interceding revolutions <62r> & therefore must be adjusted to one another.

Arg 2. The 1260 days are of all times the most wicked as is notoriously manifest by the description of the Whore of Babylon in chap 17 & 18, & of the little horn in Daniel so many ages before. In like manner the Wo-trumpets are represented as conteining the greatest judgments of God for wickedness as is manifest by the proclamation of Wo at the beginning of them: And therefore since it is usual with God to proportion his judgments to wickedness this synchronism will best agree to these Trumpets. The denunciation of Wo at the beginning of them is a declaration of God's anger at the aggravation of the wickednes commencing at that time, & I see not what wickedness that can be besides the begining of this Synchronism.

Something it may conduce to this argument to consider that (as we shewed in Posit 3.3) the Earth in helping the Woman was in the second & third Trumpets opening her mouth & swallowing up the waters & therefore wickedness was not then arived to the hight.

Arg: 3. I have shown that the Ecclesiastical Empire was to succeed the temporal in the same Imperial City, & that City to ly desolate seventy yeares between the fall of one & the rise of the other: Search now the Series of the Trumpets from one end to the other & you will find nothing that can signify this change & desolation beside the fourth Trumpet. ffor in that only is the smiling of the Luminaries which is the proper & <63r> full Emblem of the ruin or deliquium of a kingdom, Fig    

The first three Trumpets express the smiting of the earth sea & Rivers with the things therein, & the fourth of the heavenly bodies to the third part of them, & so all four together express the smiting of the third part of the Vnivers that is of the Kingdom signified by the third part of the Vnivers, which is the Beast, he being the Subject of the Trumpets. These Trumpets therefore express the gradual smiting the Bestial Vnivers or World in all its parts successively untill the whole be smitten & so an end put to it for a time, the smiting of the luminaries & stars being reserved to the last becaus the full Emblem of the Eclips or deliquium of a Kingdom. But yet least the Kingdom should be thought for ever abolished it is said only that the day shone not for a third part of it & the night likewise, which is as much as to say that the smiting of the Bestial world being accomplished at the begining of the fourth Trumpet, the kingdom continued in darkness for a third part of its day & night & then recovered it's light again. Compare this with the Prophesy of Isaiah chap 23, & I believe you will easily think this Trumpet to be the king according to whose days Tyre was to be forgotten seventy years, & the time of darkness to be the seventy years, seing that darknes is not momentary but puts a considerable distance between the fall of the temporal & rise of the spiritual Empire.

Something like this deliquium is the w{ound} of the Beast with a sword; but we have shown that to be made & healed in the sixt seale & consequently long before the reign of the whore {illeg} besides, At the same time that it was said; The Beast that was & is not, it was also said; the Whore is that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the earth: which is as much as to say that in the time of the wound the great City which should become the Whore ruled over the Kings of the earth & consequently was not laid desolate till afterward.

Position 10.
The Temple within the holy City troden under foot by the Gentiles, denotes the same thing with the Woman in the Wilderness persecuted by the Dragon & Beast: the Temple answering to the Woman, the City to the Wilderness, & the Gentiles to the Beast that was & is not.