Works

1.

Mille annorum ligati Draconis, seu Satanae, cum Tuba septima, seu intervallo ab excidio Bestiae.

2.

Mille Annorum Regni Christi Augusti & septima Tubae, seu intervalli ab excidio Bestiae.

3.

Nov • Jerusalem Agni sponsae cum septima Tuba, seu intervallo ab excidio Bestia.

4.

Turbae Palmiferae innumerabilium gaudentium cum Tuba septima, seu intervallo ab excidio Bestiae.

DE quatuor postremis istis Synchronismis ait se prorsus mecum sentire; de quo certe est quod mihi gratuler, cùm sint omnium 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . In reliquorum plerisque, quod à communi interpretum tramite haud ità longe recedant, complures suffragatores habeo; in istis paucissimos: ut omnino jam aequiori animo seram doctissimum virum à me in reliquis dissentientem, quod istis saltem album calculum adjecerit. Deum vero Optimum Maximum veneror, ut utrique nostrûm ad veritatem ejus cernendam oculos, magìs magísque detersis praejudiciis, aperiat.

I.

THE Apocalypse considered only according to the naked Letter, as if it were a History and no Prophecy, hath marks and signs sufficient inserted by the Holy Spirit, whereby the Order, Synchronism and Sequele of all the Visions therein contained may be found out and demonstrated, without supposal of any Interpretation whatsoever.

II.

This Order and Synchronism thus found and demonstrated (as it were) by argumenta intrinseca, is the first thing to be done, and forelaid as a Foundation, Ground, and only safe Rule of Interpretation; and not Interpretation to be made the Ground and Rule of it.

III.

If the Order, Method and Connection of the Visions be framed and grounded upon supposed Interpretation; then must all Proofs out of that Book needs be founded upon begged principles and human conjectures: But on the contrary, if the Order be first fixed and settled out of the indubitate Characters of the letter of the Text, and afterward the Interpretation guided, framed and directed by that Order; then will the variety of Expositions be drawn into a very narrow compass, and Proofs taken from this Book be evident and infallible, and able to convince the Gain-sayers.

IV.

This is that Method which I endeavored to represent in my Scheme, and demonstrate in the Tractate annexed. In which therefore you shall find all Interpretation set apart and (as it were) disclaimed, and all the Reasons founded upon the bare letter of the Text, taking no notice at all of any Event or Interpretation whatsoever, but leaving all at full liberty: only reserved, that the Order and Synchronism which I represent out of the Text be no way violated thereby; and so let the Interpretation be what it may be.

V.

I dare not be confident that this Order and Series, which I have deduced and represented, is in no part thereof faulty and swerving: howsoever for the main I am well persuaded, and think that if not this, yet something like it, ought to be thought on. But he that shall espy the errors of mine, I desire him to show me them by such Arguments only as myself make my grounds, namely, from the Characters which the letter of the Text affordeth, and not from Interpretation; because Interpretation (as I said) is to be fitted unto the Order, and not the Order to follow it.

VI.

But for example sake, yield me a-while that this which I have exhibited is indeed the true Representation of the Order and Connection of the Apocalyptical Visions: See then how admirable the use thereof will be for Interpretation. For if we can once be assured of the meaning of someone principal Vision, how evident then and ruled will the way be from it to find and discover the rest? Will it not be like a Mariner's Card to guide our way in this mystical Sea? For example, Are we assured what the Prophecy of the Whore of Babylon means? (For here, here, I say, we must first pitch; and therefore (mark it) the Angel himself of purpose expounds this Vision only of all the Visions this Book or Scheme representeth:) Do we know then what this meaneth? If we do, then behold the Scheme, and see there what will follow; viz.

• 1. That all the Visions contemporating with Babylon's times must be expounded of such things only as belong to the times of Babylon's whoring.
• 2. All Visions preceding must be interpreted of things foregoing it.
• 3. All Visions following, of things to be after it, &c. Verbum intelligenti sat est. What a number of ambiguities, uncertainties, and varieties of interpretation will this cut off and strike dead at a blow? It would be as fetters and cords to hold in, yea, as a ginn to entangle, our desultorious and shifting Interpreters, especially our Adversaries, who do súsque deque miscere omnia.

The Consideration of these things will make the Apocalypse to appear for the frame and quality thereof the admirablest Prophecy in Scripture: And as much as the divine Revelation of Spiritual Truths in the New Testament surpasses the Old for evidence and clearness; so the Prophetical part of the New for the fabric and sureness of the grounds for Interpretation exceeds all the Prophecies of the Old.

I.

OMitting the Vision of The seven Churches, which is not generally granted to be a Prophecy: The whole Prophetical part of the Apocalypse following consists of Two main Prophecies; both of them beginning their race at the same Epocha or Terminus à quo of time, and concluding together likewise at the same Goal or Terminus ad quem; that is, they begin ab iisdem carceribus, (as we speak) and run ad candem metam. The first of these is Prophetia Sigillorum, The Prophecy of the Seals, reaching from the 4. Chap. until almost the end of the 10. which is represented in the upper-half of the Scheme. The second is Prophetia Libri, The Book-Prophecy, beginning at the 8. verse of the 10. Chap. and reaching to the end of the Book; which is represented in the lower or under-half of the Scheme. So that the Book of The Revelation might fitly have been divided into two Tomes, and the second Tome to have begun at the 8. verse of the 10. Chap. at these words, And the voice which I heard from Heaven (namely chap. 4. 1.) spake unto me again, ( i. e. begun anew) and said, Take the Book—And I took the Book—And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again (that is, begin a new Prophecy ab ovo. ) Consider it.

Certainly such a division would be most easy for interpretation, if also every several Vision in each Tome was cast into a several Chapter or Section. And it cannot be denied but the division of Chapters, especially in the New Testament, being but of human institution, is sometimes so ill ordered, that it doth much prejudice the Reader in understanding the meaning of the Holy Ghost.

II.

Now if this Second or Book-Prophecy do begin ab ovo, from the same Beginning of time whence the Seals began, (and without doubt the Seals begin at the Beginning of the Apocalyptical time) and runs over anew those times which the Seals before traced, till it concludes with them; will not then this reasoning be very reasonable? viz. If the whole Prophecy of the Book comprehends the whole time of the Prophecy of the Seals, then the Beginning of the Prophecy of the Book begins at the Beginning of the Times of the Seals. But the Beginning of the Book-Prophecy, in the Text, is The surveying of the two Courts of the Temple; the first Court measured, the second uncapable of measure: One of these two then must begin at the Beginning where the Seals began. But the Second Court cannot; for it synchroniseth with the Times of the Beast; Ergo the Former must: that is, The Inward Court, (within which the Temple itself stood) being capable of the Divine measure, must note some condition of things and times which forewent and preceded the Rising of the Beast and the Treading down of the Second and Outward Court by the Gentiles. And is there not as much need and use of a measure to distinguish of the different States of the Visible Church in the diverse Times and Ages thereof, as of the differing Members of one and the same time? Consider it. And this granted will open a door for discovery of far more admirable matter than doth the confounding of both Courts into one Time. I confess I was once wonderfully pleased with that Opinion, and Forbes his pretty exposition thereof gave me much contentment: But now at length the Law of Synchronistical necessity hath beat me fromit, and shown me (as I think) a far more evident, unforced and useful Exposition. As for the state of the true Church in the times of Apostasy, we have three Prophecies:

• 1. The Woman in the wilderness.
• 2. The two Witnesses in mourning.
• 3. The Virgin-company of the Sealed ones.

If any part of the Book-prophecy begin at the Beginning of Apocalyptical time, where the Seals began: then certainly the First entrance thereinto (viz. the measuring of the Inward or Temple-Court ) should have a share in this privilege of Firstship. But that some of the sequent Visions of this Second Prophecy do begin at the Beginning of Apocalyptical Time, it is evident; namely (of the Second Vision hereof, Chap. 12.) The Twelve-starry crowned Woman crying in travail, and but then a bringing forth; and the red Seven-headed Dragon watching to devour her Child as soon as it was born. Was not this at the Beginning thereof? Ergo, ut suprá.

III.

The Connection of the Beginning of the Times of the Beast with the Beginning of the Seventh or Trumpet-Seal, from the then Sealing of the 144000, chap 7. and the Connection of the End of the Times of the Beast with the End of the Sixth Trumpet, from the then Finishing of the 1260 days of the Contemporary Prophecy of the Witnesses, chap. 11. These, I say, concern me near, and are the two Hindges whereby the Book-prophecy is hung (as it were a door) upon the Prophecy of the Seals, without which there would be no ground in the Text to connect them. If these therefore be wrung from me, the whole Scheme is dissolved and broken, and (that which is worse) cannot again be restored.

The latter Connection or Hindge I think you grant me, unless your Tenet of the Vials do any way impeach it. Howsoever you deny not the Finishing of the 42 months potestas agendi at the expiring of the Sixth Trumpet, and by consequent you yield according to express Text that the Beast must be well forward in his Downfall and Ruin by that time. The ground of the difference between us is, That I would have the Vials to comprehend all the degrees of the Beast's Ruin, and therefore inevitably begin them before the Seventh Trumpet; You would have the Vials to be but some of the degrees of the Beast's downfall, and therefore have liberty to begin them after the Seventh Trumpet hath founded.

But for the First Hindge of Connection by the Sealing of the 144000, chap. 7. you seem to make most scruple; where nevertheless I observe that you grant the thing I seek for [viz. That the Times of the Beast begin with the Beginning of the Trumpet-Seal. ] But you question my Ground and Character. But unless this be the Character and so intended, there will be none found at all: Which I desire you to consider together with my Grounds, as followeth in brief.

The Sealing of the 144000 follows immediately upon the Sixth Seal, and therefore begins with and is coincident with the Seventh; because the Seals follow one another without interruption of time. But the 144000 Sealed ones are one of the Beast's contemporaries, chap. 14. Therefore the Beast also and all under his times must contemporate with the Seventh Seal.

That the Sealing of the 144000 succeeds upon the expiring of the Sixth Seal; 1. The Transition shows, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , After these things I saw: which I never find used but when that which follows in the Narration, follows also in order of time. 2. No other reason can be given why otherwise the Course of the Seals should be so interrupted and disturbed by an interlaced Vision, and in that place rather than any other. For if this Vision concern all the Seven Seals, why was it not deferred till they were finished, as is the usual method elsewhere? If it concerned only Six Seals, it were something; but the Turba palmifera (the Palm-bearing multitude, chap. 7. 9.) shows it is extended to the End of the Trumpets, &c. Lastly, What need had there been for this Vision to have been at all mentioned among the Seals, were it not intended for a Character of Connection of the two Prophecies, not else possible to be connected, but left in a wandering uncertainty?

IV.

The Seven-headed Dragon in the 3. ver. and the Dragon simply mentioned in the 4. v. are both one: for the words run thus, v. 3. And there appeared a great red Dragon having seven heads and ten horns.—v. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars—And the Dragon stood before the Woman which was ready to be delivered, &c.

The same event succeeds upon the Battle of Michael with the Dragon simply so called, which follows upon the attempt of the Seven-headed Dragon to devour the Woman's Child; to wit, The flight of the Woman into the Wilderness, v. 6, & 14.

What if the one ( the Seven-headed, ) be Satan in concreto, as he possessed the Seven-headed Empire, as it were the Soul of that bloody Body; and the other which fights with Michael, the same Satan still, but in abstracto? The first, Satan visible, persecuting the Church; the second, Satan invisible, fighting with the invisible Michael; and yet the time of both the same, and so the same event consequent to both?

If this Michael in the Revelation be the same with that in Daniel, who should it then be? If Christ be this Michael, why then saith Christ, Dan. 10. 13. Michael one of the chief Princes came to help me? and v. 21. None holdeth with me in these things but Michael your Prince? For that it is Christ which here speaks, will appear by comparing his description in the 5, and 6. verses of the Chap. with Revel. 1. 13. Compare also Dan. 12. 6, & 7. with Rev. 10. ab initio ad v. 7.

Napier would have Michael to be the Holy Ghost; which if it be admitted, then those chief Princes, whereof Michael is said to be one, will be the Persons of the Trinity. May this stand? or will it help the conceit of the ancient Chiliasts for Regnum Spiritûs? But Napier thought not of any such matter.

V.

The Sealing of 144000, Chap. 7. after the sixth Seal was opened, seems not to be Narratio de praeterito, but Cautio de futuro; not a Narration of what had passed under the 6 Seals, but a Caution against a danger to come under the Seventh. For the Seventh Seal coming then to be opened, and being a Seal of destructions; lest the Servants of God might utterly be extinguished in those calamitous ruins and horrible mutations by the Seven Trumpets, they are in this manner secured by the Seal of providence and protection. 'It is true, the Servants of God were in being before this Time; but not sealed with this Seal of protection until those calamities fell upon the world from which they were to be protected. So Ezek. 9. The faithful Israelites there and then sealed and marked in their foreheads, were in Jerusalem before that time of their marking; but not sealed and marked, but when destruction and (as it is there called) the slaughter-weapon came upon the Land, from which the sealing was to secure them. Read the Chapter, where in ver. 6. the words, are, Slay utterly old and young,—but come not near any upon whom is the mark. Just so here, Chap. 7. v. 3. Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the Servants of God in their foreheads.

The words which begin the 7. Chap. confirm this order, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , After these things I saw: which manner of Transition I observe never to be used but when that which follows it is in time after that which went before. After the Vision of the present state of the Seven Churches, the Seals are for the future, Chap. 4. v. 1. After the six Seals, the 144000, Chap. 7. v. 1. After the 144000, the Turba Palmifera, v. 9. After Babylon's riding the Beast, Babylon's ruin, Chap. 18. v. 1. After Babylon's ruin, the Lamb's wedding, Chap. 19. v. 1. By this observation may be understood that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Chap. 15. v. 5. For there ends the General description of the Seven Vials: after whose performance the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony was opened. That which follows in the remainder of that Chapter and the next, is not a continuance, but a return to a Particular description of every Angel's performance, which before was named but in general.

VI.

The Seven Vials appear by the Text to be the seven degrees of the ruin of the Beast • therefore they must begin when the Beast begins to fall. Now the Beast is to be very far spent, yea even desperately gone to ruin, before the seventh Angel soundeth: see Chap. 11. 7. usque ad 15. For the Witnesses by that time shall finish their Sack-cloth-Testimony, and consequently the Beast's potestas agendi expire; because his time and that of the Witnesses is the same.

More particularly: Before the Seventh Angel soundeth, the slain Witnesses revive and stand upon their feet; the party of the Beast is terrified with it: presently the Witnesses are exalted on high. A great Earthquake shakes the Beast's dominion, so that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the City (perhaps the Deanrie or Decarchie of Rome ) falleth thereby. A slaughter is made, and the whole remnant affrighted. By this time, and not till now, the sixth Trumpet expireth, and the Seventh Angel soundeth, v. 14, and 15. This made me place all the Vials save the last within the time of the sixth Trumpet: But the seventh and last Vial I make coincident with the seventh Tr • mpet, as you may see in the Scheme. For the finishing Vial must needs belong to the finishing Trumpet. As for the rest, five of them at least must be poured out before the Beast can be in that desperate case before described: For his Kingdom was not full of darkness, until the fifth Vial was poured out.

For the placing of the Vials all within the seventh Tr • mpet, there can be no Argument drawn from the letter of the Text. The only reason which might seem to persuade it is a supposed conveniency of proportion, That as the seventh Seal contains seven Trumpets, so should the seventh Trumpet contain seven Vials. But it should be considered that the Vision of the Vials is a part of the Book-prophecy, and not of the Prophecy of the Seals: Which two Prophecies are always distinctly carried; so that in the Book-prophecy there is no relation expressed to the Seals, save only for connection-sake in the first Vision, Chap. 11. which the Holy Ghost for that purpose throws like a Weaver's shuttle quite through the warp of the Seals: and therefore in the Scheme I express it throughout in red ink, that it might be distinctly discerned. But after this knitting and jointing them once by the sixth Trumpet's finishing, and the seventh's sounding, there is no relation expressed afterward. So likewise in the Prophecy of the Seals, that of the Book is but once referred to, viz. by the 144000 sealed ones and their consequent in the 7. Chap. and that also of purpose to show the connection of that Vision of the Book with the joint which begins the seven Trumpets.

If the seventh Trumpet must needs contain Sevens, it should be rather the seven Thunders which we read to have roared after the sixth Trumpet was expired, Chap. 10. But these were not to be written, nor like to be known till they be heard.

I. M.

I.

FOR the extending the Physical Analogy observed in the Vials to a suitable exposition in the Trumpets, it follows necessarily. And for mine own part, I had first observed it in the Trumpets; and observing the Event in Story to be answerable there, I transferred the like unto the Vials afterward. For I supposed the Trumpets to import the seven-sold Ruin of the Roman State, as the Vials did the Ruin of the Antichristian Beast which arose out of the Imperial dissolution. That as the Antichristian Beast is an Image of the Caesarean Empire, in the fashion of its power and Regiment: so should also the Ruin thereof in the Vials carry a semblance of the Ruin of that other in the Trumpets; that it might be a true Image not only of the Empire standing when it stands, but of it falling when it was dissolving. And this I took to be the true cause of such agreement between the Vials and Trumpets.

II.

For the fetching of the Prophecy of the Inner Court as high as the Beginning of the Seals, my Argument was not, Some part of the Book-prophecy beginneth there, Ergo, this or that doth. In this largeness I confess it were Sophistical indeed. But I reasoned thus; Some part of the Book-prophecy beginneth there, Ergo, the First doth: yet I grant it follows not by Apodictical necessity, but it may persuade morally as a probability. For why should not the Holy Ghost, beginning a new Prophecy, be deemed to begin first with that Vision thereof which fetcheth his beginning highest? Which will be the more perswasible if you consider, that this is one of the most methodical Books in Scripture. But if the Beginning of the Inner Court be coincident, and no higher than that of the Outward Court, it must then follow even by that little you yield me, That the Vision of the twelfth Chapter fetches his Beginning higher than it. For the Woman's Child-bearing, her Travail, her Delivery, with the Seven-headed Dragon's Attempt and the Battle of Michael, you grant, and the Text evinceth, to be elder and before the Woman's abode in the Wilderness: But the Woman's abode in the Wilderness, the XLII months of the Beast, and the XLII months of the Outer Court begin altogether and at the same time: Therefore that which is elder to any one of them, is elder to everyone of them. Why therefore should not the Book-prophecy have begun rather with this of the eldest beginning, unless that that wherewith it begun did fetch its Beginning as high as it?

All this notwithstanding I confess ingenuously, that your exceptions do so far weaken my Argument, that it appears not to be of so sufficient strength as may force assent. But that which is enough to stagger a man in his own Tenet, is not alone sufficient to cause him to embrace the contrary; unless the Arguments shewn for that part do appear of more force and probability than himself grounded upon. Otherwise a man may reply as he is Terence did to the Lawyers, Probe fecistis, multo sum incertior quàm dudum. Besides, a Probability stands in place of a Demonstration, till a greater Probability can be brought to shoulder it out. Let me therefore acquaint you a little what scruples arise in me when I consider your Argument for the contrary.

You say, S. John surveyed both the Courts together. For the measuring of the one, and leaving the other unmeasured, were at one time: Ergo, the things signified by them both fall also under one time.

Resp. 1. Here I consider first, when a Representation is made not by Motion or Action, but by a standing Type or Picture, (such as is the Fabric of the Temple) though the parts may be viewed all at one time, yet may the thing signified by them be of differing times: for in this case Order of place useth to signify succession of time. For example, The Scheme I sent you may be comprehended at one view; and yet the parts according to their order of place do represent priority and posteriority of times. The Monarchical Image in Daniel was not by piece-meal, but all at once, presented to Nebuchadnezzar's view; and yet the four metalled parts thereof were Types of four (not coincident, but) successive Kingdoms. So the seven Heads of the Whore-ridden Beast in this Prophecy, though seen at once, signified nevertheless Things not at once, but some past, some present, some to come; five Kings fallen, the sixth present, and seventh to come.

In the Temple itself, the First Tabernacle, or Holy Place, was a Type of the Economy of Redemption in the Church Militant; and the Second Tabernacle, or the Holy of Holies, of the Church Triumphant in the Heavens. So S. Paul to the Hebrews makes the first Tabernacle the Type of the Body of Christ, wherein being incarnate he suffered here below, and through which as through a First Tabernacle he entered within the Veil, the Holiest Heavens, there to make intercession for us. Was there not here a priority and posteriority of times? Why may not then the two Courts of the Temple be Types also of successive times, though S. John viewed them at one time?

Indeed where the Representation consists in Motion and Action, I grant the case is otherwise: for here things done together in Vision are to be expounded of things to be performed together in signification. But the example we have in hand is not of that sort: For the essence of the Type here consists not in what S. John himself did, but in that which was presented to S. John in Vision; namely, the Frame of the Temple with his two Courts: the First, such as might be measured with divine measure; the Second, such as could not be measured therewith, being possessed and trodden down by the Gentiles. As for S. John's acts hereabouts, they are no other than such as whereby he was to inform himself concerning that which was shown unto him • Neither is this the only place where S. John is bidden do something for his information and survey of the Vision shown him: Vide cap. 7. v. 13, 14. cap. 10. v. 4. cap. 14. v. 13. cap. 19. v. 9.

Resp. 2. Secondly, Neither were the Acts whereby the Apostle surveyed the two Courts, either one Act or two Acts at one and the same time, but several Acts several and successive times. For first, the Text expresseth no more but what the Angel bade S. John do, and not what S. John did. Now it will not follow that that which was comprehended in one bidding was therefore done at one time: For that may be bidden with one Act of bidding which will require a two or three acts in performing, and those too such as cannot be done at one time. But perhaps you suppose there was but one only Act commanded, to wit, to measure the Inner and not the Outer. Indeed if it were so, then it must needs be of one time: For if there be nothing here but the Doing of a thing in one place, and not doing it in another, it cannot possibly be of diverse times, because every positive implies his negative, and goes together with it. But if the words of the Text be considered, there will be sound more in them than so, howsoever our Translation obscures it.

For first, I conceive not S. John's survey of the two Courts to be an Act of mere Separation, but rather of Examination, as the nature of measuring importeth. Again, there is more to be done to the Second Court than only Not measuring it; that were but doing nothing to it: For the words of the Text are not, Leave out, (if thereby you understand a pre • ermission only) but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , i. e. Cast it out: the Vulgar hath Ejice foràs; and Beza, though himself translates Exclude, yet confesseth it is ad verbum, Ejice forás. So that here we see a positive act commanded, and not a pretermission only; and our Translators when they turned it [ Leave out, ] expressed rather what themselves conceived, than what the words signified.

This considered, I understand it thus; That in this survey S. John was first to examine the Inner Court, which by its conformity to the Divine measure which he was to apply thereto he should find to be Sacred. That done, he was then in the next place to survey the Outer Court; which because he should find possessed by the Gentiles, and therefore not capable of the Divine measure, he was to cast out, that is, excommunicate, and pronounce unsacred and polluted. See Ezek. 44. 6, 7, 8. The sum of all this discourse is in a word, That howsoever I conceive the Object of this Vision to consist indeed in the Representation of the Temple with his Courts, and not in the Acts of S. John informing himself about them; yet will neither of them both infer a Coincidence of time, but rather a Succession of the things signified by them.

III.

Now what material and profitable consequent for the Interpretation would ensue upon this Order, which you say you see not, if you will promise not to object it to me as a breach of mine own Tenet, (as you threaten at the very mention) I will, if I can, tell you: Not to make it the ground of my Order, for which you see I bring other Arguments, but to counterpoise your affection (if it be any) to that other exposition, which may otherwise, though unperceived, secretly make the balance of assent to propend one way more than another. If therefore the foresaid Order may be granted, the Interpretation will be as followeth.

• 1. The Inner Court measured by the Divine Reed is the Visible Church in its primitive purity, whenas yet Christian worship was unprophaned and answerable to the Divine rule revealed from above: which state contains the whole time of Persecution under the Ethnic Emperors; the Altar in this Court most fitly insinuating the continual Sacrifice of Martyrdom during the most part thereof.
• 2. The Second or Outer Court represents the state of Apostasy under the Man of sin, when the Visible Church being possessed by Idolaters, became in the public worship so inconformable and unapt for Divine measure, that it was to be cast out, and accounted not as Christian and Sacred, but profane and polluted.
• 3. By the Time expressed for the profanation of the Outer Court, we may gather the Time implied for the lasting of the purity of the Inner Court; and that in this manner.
• 4. It is demonstrated by Villalpandus out of Ezekiel's measures, That the largeness of the Outer Court was such, that it contained the Inner Court three times and a half in quantity: Ergo, the Time of XLII months, which the Holy Ghost allots to the Outer Court, should likewise contain the Times of the Inner Court thrice and a half: But if this be so, then the Time allotted to the Inner Court is XII months, because the XLII months of the Outer contains it thrice and a half. Or thus, The Time allotted to the profanation of the Outer Court is three years and a half; Ergo, the Time implied for the measured Purity of the Inner or First Court must be One year, if the Times hold the same proportion each to other which the largeness of the Courts did.
• 5. Now a year or twelve months is 360 days, according to the Chaldean count of months; and if you add the 5 dies Embolismales, which they added always to the end of their year, (though they were reckoned in no month) it will be 365 days: which days Prophetically taken will inform us, That the Visible Church continued in the Primitive Purity of Christian Worship, answerable to the Divine measure, the space of 360 or 365 years. And is it not a matter of consequent to know as well how long the Church continued pure and regular in Christian Worship, as how long it was to be profaned afterward by Gentilizing Idolatry? Nay shall I tell you a stranger conceit? Was it not this which the Devil harped upon, when (as S. Austin reports) he made his Oracles to give out, That the Christian Religion should last but 365 years, (for so long, forsooth, Peter had enchanted the world to adore Jesus of Nazareth) but after this time once finished, it should be extirpated by the Gentiles? How think you? doth not somebody else study Prophecies as well as we? But I hope we shall understand them better: For the Devil was deceived in expecting a Total ruin of Christian Religion, and his malice made him forget what Christ said to Peter, That the Gates of Hell should not prevail against his Church. And yet S. Austin tells us that he gained so much by this device, that many of the Gentiles would not be gotten to turn Christians till this time were expired, and that they saw their hopes frustrate.

IV.

But from what Epocha of time should this 360 or 365 years be reckoned?

Resp. There can be but four Epocha's; viz.

• 1. Christ's Birth.
• 2. Christ's Passion, Anno 33.
• 3. The Destruction of Jerusalem, An. 70.
• 4. The Time of the Revelation of this Prophecy to S. John, Anno 94.

Let us try from them all, and see how it will succeed. By the First we have the time when the Christian worship began first to swerve from his wonted correspondency to the Divine measure, viz. An. Christi 360 . All our Divines confess that about this time, and not till this, began the Idolatry of Relics and Saint-worship first to enter. By the two next Periods, An. 393 and 430 , you have the degrees how Apostasy palpably increased. By the last Period (from the time this Prophecy was given) Anno 454 , you shall see the Time when the measured Church together with the Western Empire quite expired, and from that time forward was to be reckoned as profane and polluted.

Observe one thing more. That according to this reckoning the Oecumenical Council of Nice will fall within the compass of the first Period, before the Church yet swerved, the Council of Constantinople within the second, the Council of Ephesus in the end of the third, the Council of Chalcedon in the end of the fourth and last Period. Thus far we profess our subscription to the decisions of Oecumenical Councils; but after this time, Ejice foràs, Cast it out; it is no longer measured, therefore take heed of measuring by it. And all this is as evident in Story as any exposition of this Book whatsoever. I do but briefly point out what I have thought much more of, and could perhaps set forth more accurately, but that I account all this and the rest as vain, if the Order I ground upon appear not well founded upon the Text itself.

Thus have I dilated somewhat largely upon this point, because I desired fully at once to represent my conceit unto you, and will not hereafter say anymore of it pro or contra, but leave that which hath been communicated by us both to be at leisure considered by both, till God shall to either of us reveal what we may resolve to be his Truth.

You see the Ichnography and Platform of the Temple's Fabric. The whole building, Courts and all is called in Scripture 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The Temple itself (which was not open as the Courts, but covered) is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Hence you never read that Christ or his Disciples came into or taught in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , namely in the Outer Court where the multitude assembled to pray. This Outer Court was a most stately Building with Columns and Cloisters round about, and also within divided as it were into Partitions with stately Rows of Pillars.

S. John seems by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to mean the whole Sacrificing-place, and not only the Altar specially so called ( viz. whereon the Sacrifice was laid,) as may appear by the words which follow [ And those that worship therein. ] The Outer Court he calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Court without the Temple; because the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Temple stood not in this, but in the other Court, which was also the Place or Court of Sacrifice.

Enquiry I.

This attendance upon the Throne of God by the 24 Elders and the 4 Animalia or living creatures is a Representation of his pitching in the Wilderness, in the midst of the Levites, and the 4 Standards of the Congregation having for their Ensigns (as the Jews say by ancient Tradition) a Lion, a Bullock, a Man, an Eagle. For the manner of their encamping was this. 1. In the midst was the Tabernacle or Throne of God. 2. Round about the Tabernacle and next unto it pitched the Priests and Levites. Then 3 ^lie. the Body of the Congregation divided into 4 Standards and placed about the Tabernacle, East, West, North and South. Three Tribes went to a Standard, which were called by the name of the chiefest Tribe. The first on the East-side of the Tabernacle was the Standard of Judah, which contained Issachar and Zebulon, and had for the Ensign a Lion. The second on the West was the Standard of Ephraim, containing Manasseh and Benjamin, and had for the Ensign an Ox or Bullock. On the South was the Standard of Reuben, comprehending Gad and Simeon, and had for their Ensign a Man. On the North-side pitched the Standard of Dan, with whom encamped Asher and Naphthali, and had for their Ensign an Eagle. All this you shall find Numb. ch. 1. ch. 2. ch. 3. saving the specification of the Ensigns, which is from the Jews Tradition; the Text only saying they had Ensigns, but expresses not what they were. And marvel not that S. John should here allude unto a Tradition of the Jews; for elsewhere in this Book he alludes to their Customs and borrows their Phrases; as in that of walking in white garments, and in the phrase of the Second death, a speech nowhere else in Scripture, but frequent in the Targum and in the Jewish Doctors.

And that this Tradition hath some warrant, some which I have met withal in my search would prove out of the 68, or, according to the Vulgar, 67 Psalm, verse. 11. Thus the 8. verse begins, O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance when it was weary. Vers. 11. Animalia tua habitabant in ea, Thy living Creatures dwelt therein, namely in thine inheritance. And this is express according to the Hebrew, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies properly, Animal, and sometimes Armentum, whence we borrow that Metaphorical translation, to turn it, Thy Congregation, and by inheritance to understand Canaan; whereas the people of God were usually so called, and that part of the Psalm seems to speak of what God did in the Wilderness, and not in Canaan: Which being not understood, made the Vulgar to be corrupted by turning the Praeter-imperfect-tense into the Future, as verse. 10. Segregabis for Segregabas, and verse. 11. Habitabunt for Habitabant, contrary to the Hebrew, which reads in the Praeter-perfect tense 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 have dwelt.

But above all, those four Faces of the four Cherubims which drew the Chariot of God in Ezekiel seem to have reference to some such matter. I say four Faces, not four Heads, as some take it; for the Cherubims had but one Head each of them, on the four sides of which Head were the likeness of four Faces, to signify that he that rode in the Chariot was the Lord of the four Standards of the Tribes of Israel. Even as Kings horses carry upon them the Arms of their Master, as ours of England, Scotland, France and Ireland. And if you consider to what part of the Heaven Ezekiel looked when he saw this Vision, you will find these Faces turned to such quarters of the Heaven as were assigned to the Ensigns they resemble, as the Lion's face Eastward, the Bullock's Westward, &c.

If all this be true, you see what reason I have to make S. John's 4 Animalia to be the Body of the Congregation, as answering to the 4 Standards of the Congregation of Israel; and the 24 Elders to be the Pastors, as answering to the Levites and Priests divided into 24 Courses; their Crowns and Seats being distinctive, to express their preeminence above the Congregation: For though the Body of the People be a Society of Kings and Priests, yet this is no note distinctive nor comparative, but common both to Pastors and People.

Enquiry II.

The beginning of the Apostatical times was knit to the Beginning of the Seventh or Trumpet-Seal by the Characters of the Text. If therefore the interpretation of the fifth Trumpet of the Rise of the Pope cannot stand with this connection, it must be rejected as untrue, as I verily believe it is. For (as I have heretofore intimated) I could never believe, no not before I thought of any Synchronism, that the Trumpets concerned any rising of the Beast, but that they were Warlike alarms sounding to the Ruin of the Roman state. The first brings forth that terrible bloody and furious storm of the Northern Nations pouring in upon the Empire, and harrying, burning and spoiling it, especially in the West, almost 45 years together without intermission. The Second the bloody rending in pieces of the Roman Jurisdiction in the West, and sharing it among the barbarous Nations, who divided the Lion's skin amongst them, erecting that plurality of Kingdoms fore-prophesied of by Daniel and S. John. The Third Trumpet brings Lapsus Hesperi, the Fall of the Occidental Star, or utter extinction of the Western Caesar. The Fourth the abolishing of the whole Roman Majesty in the West in their Senate, Consuls and Presidents; the Sun and Moon in those parts having no light remaining.

These Four Trumpets (as you well observe) made way for the Rising of Antichrist, but it was by taking that out of the way which hindered (2 Thess. 2.) and by wounding the Beast, that he by the cure thereof might make a new one ( Apocal. 13.) But withal he slowed no time: For as soon as the Empire began to crack he began to advance; and for every degree of the Empire's failing mounted a degree of rising. And his age and time is to be reckoned not from his maturity, but from his birth; as we reckon a man's age not from the time he came to man's estate, but from the time he was first editus in lucem.

The first four Trumpets were smaller ones, and more particularly concerned the West: but the Three remaining are more general and terrible, and therefore called WOES. The Fifth is that darkening cloud of the Saracen Locusts, who out of Arabia not only overwhelmed with their innumerable troops the greatest part of the Empire, even Italy itself, but eclipsed the Light of Christianity with an abominable seduction. The Sixth Trumpet is the inundation of the Turks from Euphrates, who were first mercenaries to the Saracen Empire; which when they had ruined, they overwhelmed and destroyed utterly the Greek Empire and part of the Western Kingdoms, for Idolatry. The Seventh Trumpet is yet to come at the Battle of Armageddon, which shall give an end to the Antichristian Sovereignty, and finish the Roman times.

These Expositions, you see, are homogeneal and fitting the name of Trumpets: But to make some of them Warlike invasions and others to be Heresies, is to bring things of too-differing a nature under one name.

Enquiry III.

I willingly grant that the Slaughter of the Witnesses is not yet accomplished for the main, though perhaps there have been some Praeludiums of it in particular Churches. So you see I did your Opinion no wrong Concerning the not fulfilling of the Vials, though I began them before the Seventh Trumpet soundeth. For if the Witnesses be not yet slain, the Sixth Trumpet is not yet past, and the Vials may yet begin under the times thereof, and be in a great part poured out before it end. I am glad to hear you read the words of the Text ( Apocal. 11. 7.) When they were about to finish their testimony; for so should 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 be turned, whereas our Translation puts it in the Praeter-perfect tense, which cannot stand. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is the first Aorist Subjunctive, and every Grammarian knows that the Aorists Subjunctive supply the place of the Future which the Subjunctive wanteth; and our Translation turned the same tense futurely and the same word, Apocal. 10, verse. 7.

Enquiry IV.

I never thought the Demi-Caesar to be an Horn, but an Head: and Mr. Brightman's exposition of the Ten Horns for so many successive Christian Emperors I could never sufficiently wonder at, it being not only in itself harsh, but offering extreme violence both to the Text and Story, and contrarying without cause a fundamental Exposition received from utmost Antiquity, viz. That those Ten Horns should be a plurality of Kingdoms whereinto the ruined Empire should be divided, and all of them submit themselves under the Authority of Antichrist. I could show that in the beginning these Kingdoms were just Ten, neither more nor less, and I could name the Kings which reigned in them when they first filled that number of Ten. According to the inconstancy of human things they have since changed in their number, sometimes more and sometimes less, by unions and disunions, and yet often jumped in their alterations upon that number.

When I speak of the Demi-Caesar of Rome, you must not understand me of the German Emperor, which I grant to be no other but one of the Ten Horns, which the Pope hath dignified with the Caesarean name, 350 years after the Western Caesar was extinguished: and the Kingdom of the Franks had been a Kingdom 380 years before the Pope honored Charlemain the King thereof with the Imperial title, for his good service against the Lombards in his quarrel. The Demi-Caesar therefore which we have to deal with is the Latin or Western Emperor which reigned after the Division of the Empire into East and West, under which the old Rome was Lady but of one half of the Provinces which she once had, the rest being taken from her, and given to Byzantium together with the title of Nova Roma. This Half-Caesar of Rome after the last Division under Honorius and Arcadius continued about 60 years, or not much more; which is the cause why S. John says, it should continue but a short space, Ch. 17. 10.

Now to understand the Question about the Seventh and Eighth Head of the Beast, &c. these grounds must be laid and granted.

• 1. The Heads of the Beast are to be conceived as climbing one above another, and the Ten Horns to grow upon the last or uppermost Head.
• 2. The Heads of the Beast are indeed but Seven and no more, as appears in the Visions both of the 13. and 17. Chapters; and though S. John speak of an Eighth King in the interpretation, yet he had but Seven Heads in all in the Vision. And therefore that which he calls an Eighth can be indeed but the Seventh, and termed an Eighth for some accidental respect only.
• 3. The Whore rides the Beast under his last Head only, which is the Head which wears the Ten Horns: For whilst the other Heads were in their course, she was Ethnica, not yet adultera.

Enquiry V.

• 1. In respect of the Sixth Head, the Caesar's, which though indeed but One, yet for some accidental respect may be accounted Two, Caesar's and Demi-Caesar's; for essence the same, but for extent and some manner of government differing. Now if the Sixth Head be reckoned for Two, the Seventh will be an Eighth, and yet but one of the Seven.
• 2. The Last Head is for the beginning but a Seventh, because it immediately succeeded the Sixth, viz. of the Caesar's: but for its continuance and ending it is an Eighth, because it outlived a Seventh, namely that of the Demi-Caesar's. For the Papal Sovereignty began with and as soon as the Demi-Caesar's, and so it was a Seventh as well as they: But they continued but a short time, and the Papal outlived and succeeded them, and so was an Eighth à parte post, though but a Seventh à parte ante.

These I take to be the true Reasons why the latmost Head is counted both a Seventh and an Eighth, though in truth it be but the Seventh according to the Vision, and accidentally termed an Eighth in the interpretation. You know Mr. Brightman makes Two States of the Antichristian Beast, the First wherein he was born and presently wounded to death, the Second wherein he revived: in respect of the First he is the Seventh, in respect of the last the Eighth. But this will not agree with Story, the Popedom receiving no such wound as he speaks of: The wound was the Empire's and not the Popedom's, and made for him, not against him. It would have been better to have made the Two States, the one of his Spiritual Sovereignty, and the other of his Temporal joined unto it in ordine ad Spiritualia.

Forbes makes that Kingdom of the Ostrogoths in Italy to be the Seventh, (but the Demi-Caesar's had been better) and the Popedom in respect of it to be the Eighth in order, but in the nature of the government to be one of the Seven, that is like unto the Caesarean or Sixth. But I see not how the Kings of the Goths can be taken for Roman Caesar's or Kings; and besides by this means the Beast would have Eight Heads really differing, whereas the Vision shows us but Seven.

Enquiry VI.

That these Numbers should be taken definitely, there can be no better Arguments brought than those you have in your Tractate. If you desire to hear them in my form, I would order the matter thus.

• 1. That the Numbers are to be taken definitely.
• 2. That those of Months and Days are to be expounded not Literally, but Prophetically.

That these Numbers should be certain and definite, is proved,