A Paraphrase on the New Testament

Its doleful to think what Satan hath gained by corrupting the Church, by wicked Bishops, making that his Game, when Pagan Power fell; partly by tempting in Worldly wicked men by Wealth and Honor, and partly by making Ungodly Princes the choosers of Bishops, (and Ungodly Patrons the choosers of Priests,) and when men ruled by Satan choose them, Satan himself oft chooseth them: Who, by their wickedness, Malignity and Persecuting the best men, have tempted those Christians, who most hate sin, to call almost all the Church Antichristian, and fly from it as worse than Pagan Rome, and to lose much of their Love to all that are called by such abhorred names. Had the Pastors of the Church been all Holy, Humble men of Love, and not men of Wickedness and Blood, their Power and Interest would have been the Joy of Pious men. But enough of that side.

II. On the other side, they that say the contrary, thus express their sense.

1. The first Beast is the Roman Imperial and Military Power, not as such, but as the Grand Power of Idolatry, first, and next, as the Captivator and Persecutor of the Christian Church, of Jews and Gentiles.

2. The Image of the Beast is both the Idol Statues, Images, and Altars of their Idol God's, and of themselves, both which by their Laws were to be worshipped with Sacrifices, and other acts of Idolatry.

3. The second Beast is the Senate with all the Literate Idolaters and Flatterers, Orators, Philosophers, Priests, Poets, Comedians, Augurs, &c. as Learned defenders of Idolatry, and repro • chers, and Enemies of Christianity.

4. The name of the Beast, was the name of the Idol God, whom they were to Worship, and of the Idolized Emperors, as called Divi and Dii, and honored by Altars and Sacrifices.

5. The Mark was a Stigma, or Badge, then usually received by Servants, and Soldiers, and Votaries, as an obliging mark of subjection.

6. The number of the name was some abbreviating Letters, part of the mark, and here proved to be numeral; though, at this distance, we cannot say what they were, nor whether still the same.

7. Receiving the mark is professed consent, and usually by such a Badge.

8. The Woman Whore was the City of Rome, not merely as a City, or as Rome, or as Rich, or as Powerful, but as Idolatrous and captivating the Church.

9. The Witnesses were the Jew and Gentile, Christian Teachers, Prophets, Miracle-workers and Martyrs, that had the spirit, as the first Christians had, for signal Testimony to the Gospel, Miracles long continuing in some degree. These are their expositions.

Their Reasons they begin first of the Whore ; or the seat of the Beast, which they say must needs be Pagan Rome. 1. Because it was expressly said by the Angel, who purposely explained it to be, the great City which ruleth over the Kings of the Earth. 1. Not a Church which is under Princes, but properly a City. 2. Not only pretenders to a Power of Church Keys; but proper Rulers by Power of Arms. 3. Not only over the Church, (oft called Heaven,) but over the Kings of the Earth, (noting those without. ) 4. Not [ shall Rule ] but doth Rule, as a visible note, by which John might know the Whore.

This being so plain, that only violence can obscure it, may be, say they, a Key to all the rest.

2. Ch. 17.2. The Kings of the Earth had at that time committed Fornication with her; and the Inhabitants of the Earth were then drunken with the Wine of her Fornication, else it could not be to John a notifying mark. But the Papacy was not of many hundred years after in being.

3. John was brought into the Wilderness to see it, which was the then Persecuted State of the Church: And it was to comfort him and that Church, in hope of a near Deliverance; for they were things that must shortly be done.

4. Her name notifyeth her [ Babylon the great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth ;] [ Babylon, ] captivating the Christians, as old Babylon did the Jews; [the great ] as then being ; (to whom the Papal Power was small:) The Mother or Nurse, and Upholder of the most Abominable Idolatry and Wickedness, not in the Church, but [ of the Earth, ] by Power and Learning, upholding the Worship of Sun, Moon, Stars, and Men; of Jupiter, Saturn, Sol, Mars, Mercury, Pallas, Venus, Neptune, and numberless Idols, by Paul called Devils; and the wickedness of life, described by Paul Rom. 1. Eph. 4.18, &c.

5. The names of Blasphemy were hers reproaching Jews and Christians with scorn, and ascribing God's names and works to these their Idols, and to Men.

6. The vast Riches and Luxury of her described, punctually agree with Pagan Rome.

7. She was then drunk with the Blood of Prophets, and Martyrs, which the Pope then was not. The Angels undertaking to open the Mystery, must not be thought rather to obscure it.

8. She had been a Persecutor of both Jew and Gentile Christians, who both gave God Thanks for her fall.

9. The Whore sat on seven Mountains, But so did not the Papal Civil Empire.

10. The assistant Kings had not received Regal Power, being but as Servants to the Beast, and the Whore: But Popish Kings are Kings indeed.

11. They were unanimous in upholding the Whore: But Popish Kingdoms long strove against the Papal Power.

12. They fought against Christianity till they were conquered, v. 14. But so did not many Popish Kingdoms.

13. People, multitudes and Nations, more notify Pagan Rome than Papal.

14. C. 18. They were to reward her double, as she had used them. But so we must not do by Papists.

15. The Kings of the Earth lament her fall. But the more the Pope fall the more they rejoice, except the House of Austria, and a few more.

16. Her fall cometh suddenly, as in an hour; but the Pope standeth yet after 150 years, beginning to fall.

Moreover about the Beast, they say.

1. It is said, he was, and is not, and yet is : But the Papacy was not then, nor is, after it was not.

2. The seven Heads of the Beast, had the name of Blasphemy. But if the heads were the seven species of Government, the name of Papal Blasphemy, was not on six of them at least, but only of Pagan Blasphemy: Therefore it was Pagan Rome, or its Empire, that they headed.

3. The seven Pagan sorts of Government, were not seven Heads of the Papacy, or Roman Church; therefore the Papacy, or Roman Church, was not the Beast: For they were the Heads of the Beast. And the wounding of one of the Heads, shows that all the seven were Heads of one, and the same Beast.

4. [ Who is able to make War with the Beast ?] tells us, that it was by Arms that he stood, and not by mere Hypocrisy and deceit. That was the part of the second Beast, and not of the first.

5. It is all that dwell on the Earth, (without that Church,) that worship him: But those that dwell in heaven, and the Tabernacle, and name of Christ, he Blasphemeth, v. 5.6.7.

6. They worship the Dragon for giving Power to the Beast: But by the Dragon the Text saith is meant the Devil; and it is those Devils that Pagans thought did prosper Rome, that is, Mars, Jupiter, Apollo, &c: But Papist: worship not these for setting up the Pope.

7. The Dwellers on the Earth worshipped the first Beast, whose deadly wound was healed, c. 13.12. But it was not the Pope, nor the Papal Rome, or Church, whose deadly wound was healed, in the Judgment of all them, that says, the very erecting of the Papacy was the healing of that Wound: For it was not wounded as a head, before it was in being. And if it was Pagan Rome, or Idolatry, that the Papacy healed, then the healed, and not the healing party, was the first Beast.

8. Its contrary to divers express Texts, that the first and second Beast are the same: Therefore they, that make the Pope the second, must acknowledge another to be the first.

9. The number of a man, received, cannot be found of Papal Rome.

10. All that receive the mark and name of the Beast are (without conversion) to be tormented forever; But we cannot say so of all that own the Papacy: Education and converse, and prejudice against Protestants for their divisions, maketh may think verily, that the Papal▪ Church is the best for its unity, and antiquity, and extent, and duration, &c: When we read the Writings of such Men as Bernard, Gerson, Kempis, Gerhard, Zutphani • nsis, Thaulerus, Sales, &c. And the lives of such as Ph. Nerius, de Renti, Boromeus, &c. Yea the Writings of such as Bonaventure, and divers Schoolmen, we find so much of truth and holiness in them, that forbids that Judgment.

Further that it is Pagan Rome that is the Whore, and its Empire, as Idolatrous and captivating, that is the first Beast, and not the Papacy, they argue thus.

If it be Papal Rome, it is either the City as building and place, or it is the Policy. 1. Not the place called the City; for it is good as such. 2. Not the Place as related to the Policy, For 1. The material City of Pagan Rome, was as much defiled as that of Papal Rome, and yet continued. 2. Else when the Pope dwells elsewhere, the relation would follow him. For above 100 years, much of Italy itself placed the Supremacy in the Patriarchs of Aquileia. Rome may fall, and the Papacy stand: It hath been oft taken, and sackit, and long possessed by Goths and others: Even Charles 5. By Charles of Bourbon, sackit it.

2. If in the Policy, either 1. As related to Rome. 2. Or as elsewhere placed. And what is that Policy, that is the formal constitution of the first Beast?

1. It i • not Empire as such ; for all Power is of God, and was to be obeyed in Heathens: Else all Emperors would be such Beasts, (or, as they say, Antichrists.)

2. It is not Empire merely as Roman : For then both the Heathen Emperors would have been the Beast (or Antichrists,) without respect to their sin, And Constantine, Valentinian, Jovian, Theodosii, Marcian, &c. the great blessings of the Church, would have been Antichrists, or the beast: Or at least those good Emperors that abode at Rome.

3. It is not Empire merely, as found in a person of bad Qualities and Life: For then every wicked Emperor and King would be the Beast, (or their Antichrist,) and a Pope, that were not personally vicious, would be none.

4. It is not every Emperor or King, that is an Usurper or invader: For then many Emperors would be the Beast.

5. It is not everyone that is Ambitious, and st • iveth to be highest and above all others: For then there would be a great many Antichrists in the World.

6. It is not everyone, that in Church Power would be highest, for then James and John would have been Antichrists; and so would many Bishops of Constantinople and Alexandria ; if not many in most other lands among the several parties of Christians.

7. It is not everyone that pretendeth to, and Usurpeth, a sort of Power that God never giveth: For so do many Imposers of most parties.

8. It is not everyone that joineth Civil and Ecclesiastical Power in one person: For so did Melchizedek ; and so did Cyril, and other Alexandrian Bishops, and those of Constantinople, and what Episcopal Countrys have not such? If you say, that this is a Kin to Antichristianity, or preparatory, I say, our question is not What is a Kin, or preparatory, but what is it, that formally constituteth it?

9. It is not everyone that is a Persecutor ; for so alas have been too many in most times and places, nor is it all that promote heresy or Blasphemy by Persecution. For so did Valens, and many Arian Kings (and Councils,) Gensericus, Hunnericus, Theodoricus, Odoacer, &c.

10. It is not all that were Idolaters in any degree, for so is now four sixth parts of the World: Much less all inward Heart-idolaters; as are all that are Covetous, and love the World better than God, and obey man against him. Nor is it all that give Saints or Angels undue or sinful Veneration: for so John twice offered prostration to the Angel: At least, so did the Council of Nice, to the Images of Saints, and especially the Virgin Mary : And so did many of the Eastern Emperors, and Tharasius drew in almost all the Eastern Bishops; yea many were faulty long before Popery came in.

11. It is not the being of any of these at Rome, that constituteth the Beast or Antichrist, which would not do it elsewhere; For Theodorick, Odoacer, and other Arians, Blasphemers of Christ, and Persecutors in Rome, were not the Beast or Antichrist. It must therefore (say these men) be somewhat differing from all these; which we can find in Pagan Rome, but not in Papal. If the same thing will make the Pope, (and all Papists,) to be the beast, that would not make another such, there must be some special reason for it.

12. Lastly, say they, it must be remembered, that it is confessed to be Civil Power, and not Ecclesiastical, that constituteth the first Beast, and Rome is his Seat. Now, 1. The Empire was not settled at Rome, but at Constantinople, when Christianity came in power, 2. The Popes were most Martyrs and Sufferers till Constantine's time; and long after professed subjection to Emperors, yea even to Arians, and to Usurpers: And Alexandria and Constantinople used as much force as they. It was 606 years before Phocas called Boniface the 3. the Universal Bishop; by which he never meant, the Universal Emperor or Civil Governor : (No nor Universal Ecclesiastical any further than the Empire.) It was long after this, that the claim of deposing Kings as Excommunicate, was set on foot by Gregory the seventh; and long after that, before it was determined in the Lateran Council. Most Christian Kingdoms opposed it all along: William the Conqueror, and William Rufus, and others, in England: Philip, and others, in France, where it is denied to this day, and much in Spain: The German Emperors, Henry the fourth and fifth; and Frederick and Otho long fought against it, and some of them took Rome, made and unmade Popes, and used them as their Subjects. The Princes of Italy, themselves, were from age to age almost always in War against the Popes: The Eastern Emperors before mastered them, till Pipin, and the two Charles' used the Papacy to usurp; the Empire, and after were Masters of the Pope themselves: The very Citizens and Laity of Rome, from age to age, strove with them for the chief Power in Rome itself, and oft overtopped them, till they got Foreign Princes to help them. To this day they claim not Imperial Power over other Princes, save indirectly, as nullifying the Title of the Excommunicate, falsely pretending that they may excommunicate them, and that Christians may then reject them as no Kings. Is all this an Universal Empire, and was Rome the Whore for 700 years, or not? It is supposed that Idolatry and Persecution make her the Whore, and her Civil Power, the Beast. Transubstantiation is the grossest part of the first, and that is a Novelty? A few odd men wrote for it a little sooner, but their Church owned it not by Law, till the fourth Lateran Council under Inno. the 3. almost twelve hundred years after Christ. And excess of Veneration to Saints and Angels, most Churches on Earth owned and still own, (the Greek, Armenian, Abassine, &c.) Our Divines have proved Purgatory, and almost all their abuses of that tendency, to be Novelties; (see Moulin de novit. Papism, Blondel de Eccles. Rivets defense of du Pleslis, &c.) Now here we are divided. 1. Some say Rome was the Whore ever since 300: And so all, or near all, the Church of Christ in the Empire was the Beast, or Whore, or both: (except the few poor men in Piedmont and Languedock, for I am of the opinion, that they kept their Simplicity and Integrity ever since Dioclesians Persecution,) and then all the Glory of the b • st Ages of the Church is darkened into shame, and the triumph for its deliverance from Pagan Capti ••• y, turned to our confusion. (I have fully in my History of Councils described the mischiefs of Clergy-Ambition, but never thought that such men's faults so overthrew all Christ's Church in the Empire, as to make it Antichristian: A Holy Humble Ministry upheld it, while some ambitious carnal Prelates troubled it,) As even a Heathen Am. Marcellinus witnesseth, speaking of Damasus 's, case. If Christ had no Church visible so many hundred years, then he was no Christ, or King, of a visible Church, which is a sad conclusion for opposers of Antichrist. Doth he say worse against Christ himself?

2. Others say that Rome began to be Babylon. the 606, under Boniface. the 3. and Phocas, (on the grounds before confuted) 3. Others begin it under Boniface the Eighth. 4. Others begin it with Hildebrands Usurpation over Princes, between 1000. and 1100 years after Christ. 5. Others begin it with Innocent the third, who in the Lateran Council generally first owned that Usurpation and Transubstantiation, and Bloody Persecution for it, which before were owned but by little factious Parties. 6. Others labor to prove that that Council made no Decrees, and so that it was not settled then.

Now, if Rome for 606 years, or for 1000, or for 1100 years was not Babylon, then Pagan Rome was not then, nor Christian Rome ; and no man knoweth when it began to be so: And then almost all our most confident late Expositions are quite overthrown. But doubtless John was told of a Babylon, a Whore, a Beast, which was much ealier than this. The six or seven species of Pagan Government, were not the Heads of a Christian Papal Beast, that was to rise 1000, or 600 years after Christ. See Bishop Barlows Pref. to his Brutum fulmen of their Novelty.

With these Reasons, this sort of Expositors add the answer to the contrary objections. And to the first they say, that the Rising of the Beast out of the Sea, doth but tell the order of the Vision to John, and not that the Beast was not yet in being; and it may mean Domitian or Dioclesian, not yet come. To the second they say, the Objecters beg the Question. 3. And so of the third. 4. To the fourth they say, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth not continuance, but operation, to which some Copies join 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he maketh War: And they say, that neither here, nor cap. 11. of the Witnesses Preaching, is meant a thousand two hundred and sixty years, but Days, as expressed, even three years and a half. 5. To the fifth they say, it had the ten Crowned Heads, which is the same States, which were Crowned Horns, when they became militant and cruel. 6. They say, that the Pagan Empire, as the Beast commanding Idolatry, was not to be obeyed. 7. They say, Pagan Rome is called Mystical, not Literal Babylon ; and their Mysteries of Worship also were Idolatry. 8 They say, that it is not Antichrist sitting in the Temple, but the Beast blaspheming it, that this Text mentioneth. 9. They say, that Pagan Rome, as such, is totally desolate, and forever, but the Papal is not. 10. The faithful came away from Babylon 's Idolatry and Sin before her Fall, and were called on to avoid her most carefully, just when she was falling lest just then the falling Babylon fall on them: But Papal Rome, being not yet fallen, were no Christians these 1300 years under the reasons of that Call? 11. They say, Pagan Rome sold Slave • , and bought them, and sold Souls to Idolatry worse than Popery. 12. They say, that the unmarried Heathens may be guilty of Fornication yea and of Adultery, by reason of God's right to them: And the Fornication here is but Idolatry, and it's sad to conclude that Heathen Rome was so Idolatrous. 13. Lastly, They say, that their Senate, and all the Learned Patrons of Paganism, and Reproachers of Christianity, better answer the Character of the second Beast, and false Prophet, than either the Pop • as pleading for himself, or his Agents pleading for his Civil Power.

I should next have told you the difficulties that pose me about the other Questions; but I fear perplexing the Readers, and must not be so large. I mention what I have done, to tell you why I understand not the Revelations, and cannot help it that I am no wiser than excellent Calvin nor than a • the Ancient Fathers, (though I disown their conceit of a future Antichrist at the end of the World.)

I doubt not but many, in blind zeal, will call this my confessed Ignorance a warping towards Popery (though I have long in my Writings against Popery confessed the very same;) This I must bear from them, that bear more from themselves, and from whom the Church beareth more. It's a small thing for one man to be censured by those persons, that censure hardlier almost all the Church of Christ on Earth: But when I try whether they know anymore than I, I find little more than a believing that to be the sense of the Revelation, which those good men say it is, whom they most value.

Some will desire yet to know more of my own Opinion: And I will freely tell it them.

I. I am much persuaded, by impartial consideration of the Text, that the Roman Imperial Power, as the upholder of Heathen Worship of Devils, Idols, and themselves, and a Captivaters of the Church of Jews and Gentiles, was the first Beast, and that Rome in that respect was Babylon, and the Whore, that made all Nations drunk with her pompous Idolatry. And the whole current of the Book seemeth plainly to drive at this. But many of the subordinate particulars I understand not.

II. Whether the Papacy be another Beast, or Whore, there meant, and the Text mean two first Beast • and two Whores, or the similitude notwithstanding so many diss • militudes, and six hundred, or seven hundred, or a thousand years interruption, make these two one; or whether it be Antichrist that is the Beast, I will neither affirm, nor deny, but see no evidence to prove the Affirmative.

III. What my Judgment is of Popery, the Reader may fully see, 1. In one Sheet enumerating its Errors, 2. In a Book called, The Safe Religion. 3 In another called, A Key for Catholics. 4. In two of the true Catholic Church against Johnson, altas Terrel. 5. In one called, The Christian Religion certain without Popery. 6. In one called, Full and easy Satisfaction, whi • h is the True Religion. 7. One called, Naked Popery. I • these satisfy not the Censurers Zeal him, that is ignorant, be ignorant, and he that is wrathful, be so still.

IV. I do judge of Popery by the knowledge of its particular Errors and Sins, and not by the Revelations, or anything which I understand not. If the Pope be the great Antichrist, which I neither deny, nor affirm, because I know not, (as I have long ago confessed,) I think that it is formally, as he is by claim the Vice-Christ, Vicarius Christi, and claimeth an Universal Sovereignty Ecclesiastical over the whole Church on Earth, (and not over a Nation only;) and that he began with that claim, to which his many corruptions are joined to make up a body of iniquity: Were there no more to be said against that Church, than, 1. This claim of Universal Government. 2. And the cherishing of Ignorance, by forbidding the reading of the Scripture in a known Tongue, without Licence, and Latin Prayers and Service, and an Ignorant Clergy. 3. And the Inhumane Doctrine of Transubstantiation. 4. And the vile corruptions of much of God's Worship. 5. And their horrid Blood-guiltiness, by which they do uphold their Kingdom called a Church. I take those Popes and Papists, who own all this, to be liable, before God, to greater punishment, than the Beast, and false Prophet, mentioned in the Revelations ; it being far worse to sin thus under the name of Christians, and Christ's Vicar, and holy Bishops, than as Infidels and Heathens, to whom (as to Sodom ) it shall be easier in the day of Judgment than for these.

V. Therefore I judge, that a Confederacy or Coalition with the Church of Rome, in any of these sins, or in the very form of a Church headed by a pretended Universal Head or Sovereign, is to be abhorred by all sound Christians: And I am glad that this Kingdom is sworn against all Foreign Jurisdiction, Civil or Ecclesiastical ; though Union and Concord with all Foreign Churches must be as far kept as we are able, not partaking of their sins. But I have long ag • (in my Key for Catholics ) proposed the desirable terms (not for a Coalition, but) for neighborly Peace, that we may live in love and quietness, and not as those that still take themselves bound to destroy each other.

VI. On these grounds I judge of Persons according to their Personal Guilt, and not by the general name of Papists. I abhor those that are wicked, and that own the foresaid wickedness, but not all that are called Roman Catholics, that live in the fear of God, and in Charity. I will try uncertainties by certainties, and not deny Fundamentals in opposition to men's By-Opinions. I am certain that I must love a Christian, as such, and that as much as in me lieth I must live peaceably with all men, and avoid all unnecessary Division, Wrath and Hatred; and I am sure that, Blessed are the Peace-makers, for (whatever Error calleth them) they shall be called the Children of God: I am sure, that I must (unnecessarily) speak evil of no man; and that slandering and false-accusing are diabolical works; and that • he Wisdom is from beneath, which causeth Envy and Strife; and, in a word, that LOVE is Christ's Work and Character, and Hatred the Devils: But I am not sure that the Church of Rome hath these 1000 or 1300 years been the Whore, and Babylon, meant in these Texts; nor that yet all Papists shall be tormented, as worshiping the Beast, or his Image, &c.

I am sure, that the Visible Church will have scandals, and ambitious men; and yet that its deliverance in Constantine 's time, and the following Ages, was a wondrous mercy, which Heaven and Earth did rejoice in, and praise God • or: And it was a great part of Christ's coming to Reign by Christian Princes, and that the Kingdoms of the World were made the Kingdoms of Christ: Therefore I dread the denying Christ these Kingdoms, and reproaching even the best Ages of his Church on Earth as Antichristian, lest I deny him to have any Church Visible at all, or tempt men to Infidelity, by saying that Christ is so little a King, and came to so little a work in the World, as to have no Church, save the persecuted part, till An. 300, and the Reformers since 1560, save a few latent persons. Men will judge of the Workman by his work, and of Physicians by their Cures: And though it be honorable to save one Soul, they will tempt men to dishonor Christ, that call almost all his Church Antichristian. I would not slander one man, but should I mistake, and slander millions for thirteen hundred years together, how great were my guilt!

VII. I dread the turning Religion into a human, hurtful, love-killing Faction. If I abhor millions and millions merely on my uncertain exposition of the Revelations, I cannot do it in Faith. If one ask me why I do it, and I say, because they are of Babylon, or worship the Beast, and you ask me, how I know it, I must say that I know it not; But most here believe it because Mr. A. Mr. B. Mr. C. &c. say so: And so as Papists found their Faith, and their hatred of us as heretics, on the credit of their Teachers, that say so, so shall we ours on the word of our Teachers. And here I dread the effects, viz, abhorring men causelessly, corrupting our Prayers and Sermons and Books, and fathering all on God, condemning all as favoring Popery, who have not contracted this hating disease; crying down many good and many harmless things, merely because they come from the beast and Babylon. Temples themselves, good Prayers, excellent Ministers and Churches, yea Baptism itself, have been cried down and renounced, as Babylonish and Antichristian, and a ground of endless Divisions, and starting at every shadow that Rome hath had to do with, is thus laid; yea the Seekers greatly countenanced that say, Scripture, Church and Ministry, are lost in the wilderness, and the Church feigned to be brought into the wilderness, just when it was brought out of it, (which was the Pagan persecution;) even the Protestant Churches are condemned as being yet Antichristian; And the Martyrs, that suffered by Papists, yea and those that suffered in the 3d 4th and 5th Centuries by Arians and others, are all made by many to be the Children of Babylon ; And a war proclaimed between professed Christians, by which all the Romanists are tempted to hate and destroy us, as those that would do so by them. And all this by the expounding the Revelations of that, which no man, that hath not more knowledge than I, can find that it saith, or meddleth with: And that needlessly, while we have plain texts enough that condemn Popery, and all sin, by which we may abhor bad men, without the danger of hating the Children of God. Christ is in our Creed, but Antichrist is not. All the old Fathers were not Papists that took not the Pope for Antichrist: But more probability of it may be gathered from other Texts than from the Revelations.

VIII. To say, I know not what I would know and cannot, is easier to me, than the dread of being guilty of the sin threatened in the conclusion of this Book, that God will add the plagues in it to them that add to it, and blot his name out of the Book of Life, who taketh from it. (I deny not other men's knowledge, but my own: Ignorance of men's ignorance is the mortal disease of the world:) To add to the sense is to add to the Book: To say, this is the sense, when I know it not, and where five of the wisest are of four minds (and Common Christians take all on trust) this exposeth me to the dread of this heavy curse:

If this account excuse me not to the Reader, it excuseth me to my Conscience, whose censure I must more fear than man's, lest I prefer my interest in the good opinion of partial misled censorious dividers, before the pleasing of God, and my Salvation, and that when I am going from this World to him: And if all this seem too much to any, the diseases and danger of the Churches, the extremes of many and their sad effects, these fifty years, and the confuting of those who falsely interpret my History of Bishops and Councils, do make it seem otherwise to me.

I blame not modest conjectures, if men will but confess their uncertainty, when they are uncertain, and not make an uncertain Opinion an Article of Faith, and sacrifice to it certain Fundamental Truth or Duty, the Churches Peace or Christian Love, nor use it to kindle a partial, hating, dividing Zeal. Good Mr. Brightman did with a Pious Mind, determine many things very confidently, which time hath already confuted: He hath concluded that the Blessed Resurrection, and time of Christ's Thousand years Reign in the New Jerusalem, shall be 1695, eleven years hence. Thomas Rogers, and many others, have been shamed by setting times, which being past have confuted them. This hath frighten'd some others from that boldness, who yet in other uncertainties have been so confident, as that they have drawn many good People thereby to measure their Faith and Charity. I am far from thinking, that deeper Students are as ignorant herein as I: But I would not have all that are as ignorant, looked upon as Aliens. And I confess that I am less able to expound Prophecies than Daniel, who yet thus concludeth, Ch. 12.8, 9. And I heard, but I understood not: Then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the Words are closed up and sealed, till the time of the end.

Yet I say as Calvin, [ I make no doubt, but the Revelation is God's Word, though I understand it not ;] and that it is not useless: Yea so much as I do understand, is of exceeding comfortable use: Though I know not whether the New Jerusalem will come down from Heaven before, or at, the Common Resurrection, it rejoiceth me that it will come: And God having condescended to describe it, as Glorious, by corporeal Similitudes, to us that have no full Idea's of things Spiritual, it is a meet means of our comfort, by such Similitudes, to conceive of that Glory; and even to imprint them on our minds, to further our desires of that Blessed State, and make us Loves and long for Christ's appearing, and cry daily, Come Lord Jesus.

While I was writing this, there came to my hands, Isaac Vossius his Var. Observat. In which he showeth the magnitude of Rome, when it was in its Grandeur, (it being about 60 Miles about) and how it decreased, and that Constantine destroyed Rome far more, and before the Goths, by building Constantinople ; so that within 80 years it was not the fifth part so big, as in Aurelians time: And that when Rufus and Victor wrote, there remained not the 20th part of the old City; and that now, under the Pope, it is so far from containing the seven Hills, that it is almost all contained in the Campus Martius, and containeth not now scarce the two hundredth part of the old City. And that it was fitly called Babylon the great, we read that old Babylon was near as great as Rome at the greatest, and by Herodotus, and some others made greater.

It is answered to this, that it is the same City still, known by the same Name.

But it hath not either the same Situation, Magnitude, Power, Dominion, and Idolatrous Fornication, by which John was to know it, nor would that description agree to it now. By many such reasons I suspect that the Questions, ( who is the Beast? which is Babylon? and who is the Antichrist?) are not the same in the Scripture sense, nor must have the same Solution.

If any, that are Friends to Papal Usurpation, and Church-Corruption; shall think that my confessed ignorance of these Prophecies, is any advantage to their ill Cause, I will further tell them, that it is far more dreadful to the Pope, and all his Flatterers, and Followers, to be plainly condemned by the known Laws of Christ, which all Christians receive as past all doubt, than to be under the Dread of a dark and controverted Prophecy. To them that say, the Pope is the first and second Beast, the Whore of Babylon, the Man of sin, the false Christ or Antichrist, you have the shift of a contempt of his words, as of a controverted uncertain thing; but who knoweth not, that the plain Law of God concludeth, that the Proud, the Worldly, the Malignant, the Idolatrous, Murderers, Persecutors, Liars, the Enemies of Christ's Gospel and serious Godliness, are Satan's Slaves, and shall not enter into the Kingdom of God? Can any man, that readeth but what Baronius, Binius, Genebrard, and the most flattering of your Historians, say of the Popes from An. 700, till 1400, think that God owned and guided so wicked a sort of Men? I again tell those, that are angry at my History of Bishops and Councils, that I doubt not but God had, in all ages, a visible Church of Pious Christians, kept up by the lower sort of Bishops and Pastors, and some of the higher (Patriarchs and Metropolitans,) but it was by these Majorites, and Ambitious Men, that corruption, cruelty and dissention, chiefly entered; and they being uppermost, a few of them, by noise, ostentation and domineering, past for the whole Church with undiscerning Men.

And here to show you how the Pope hath succeeded the most bloody Pagan Persecutors, and outdone them, I will instance in a History not sufficiently understood by most.

Dioclesian murdered more Christians than all the former Pagan Persecutors set together: Among others he dealt so cruelly and inhumanely with them in France, and Savoy, and Retia, as forced many to stand upon their defense to save their Lives; two Commanders, Amandus and Elianus headed them, and raised them, that were but Country Club-men, into Arms: Much of France and Spain favored them. Dioclesian made Herculius Maximianus Caesar, and sent him with an Army against them. In this Army was the Theban Legion, whose Colonel was Maurice ; at the Alps Herculius would try his Soldiers, by Idolatrous Tricks, whether they would fight against these Christians called Rebels, or not: The Theban Legion said they could fight against bad Men, but not against good Men, but would rather submit their lives to his pleasure; (not being able to resist if they would:) So he decimated them, and killed 70, and with the rest of his Army quickly routed the Country-Clubmen, and besieged their very strong Castle, and killed them all, and overthrew their Fortress. Many score thousand are said to be killed, and the name Bagaudae put on them in scorn, (like Tories and Whigs, ) as signifying Thieves and Robbers.

And what's all this to the Roman Pope? Ans. These were the Christians murdered by Dioclesians and Herculius, Pagans ; the Relicks of the Fugitives continued in Languedock, Piedmont, Rhetia, &c. from age to age, till at last reviving to a more free opposition to Popish Tyranny and Corruption, they were murdered by the Popes,) (by Simon Montford, and his Crusado 's, and others after▪) to a far greater number than by Herculius Max. So that some Historians, reckon two Milions killed in all, in those and other parts. And is▪ it not more wicked for a professed Vicar of Christ, to murder Millions of poor Christians, for being against his Tyranny and Corruptions, than for a Pagan Emperor, that had Civil Dominion, to kill not half so many?

I know it will be doubted by some, 1. Whether these Bagaudae were Christians, seeing it is said that they never resisted their Persecuting Princes, but used only Prayers and Tears? And 2. Whether the Albigenses and Waldenses were their Successors? The History is of great Weight. I prove both parts.

I. For the first, set these following Testimonies together.

Hieronymus, in Chro. 2303.

Victor de Caesarib.

Eutripious Li. 9.

Pompon Let us.

Paulus Orosius Li. 7. C. 25.

But Salvian speaketh plainer, lib. 4. de Gubern.

See. du Fresne's Glossary lately printed at Paris, Vol. 2. In the word [ Bagudae, ] showing

In the Life of Abbot Bobolen, published by Chifletius in the end of Bedas works

See also the Life of St. Maurice in Histor. Lombard.

I conclude with Martinius his words hereon,

Out of all this, it is evident. 1. That the horrid oppression and cruelty against Christians in Dioclesians time did drive these Christians, in France, to a rustic self-defense, under the conduct of Amandus and Elianus. 2. That it was for refusing to fight against them, that the Theban Legion was decimated, (and 70 killed say some,) and with all for not swearing and sacrificing to the God's. 3. That it was the great numbers of Christians, (whose multiplication Eusebius describeth in Dioclesians days,) that caused him to destroy them, lest they should grow too strong for him (as Pharaoh did by the Israelites. ) 4. That yet these self-defending Christians sped worse, and suffered more, than they had done if they had fled. 5. That those that the Pagan Emperor called Rebells, and Seditious Rogues, such writers as the Author of the Life of that Babolen doubt not to number with glorified Martyrs: How well let them answer.

II. But what is all this to the Popes of Rome? Ans. It seemeth clearly to be the Successors of these, that the Popes after murdered. For, 1. There is no doubt but though many that took Arms were killed, and their Castle demolished, the far greatest part were not in Arm • , and therefore saved themselves by flight, and hiding, specially Old Men and Women, and Children. 2. No doubt but they fled to the most Mountanous and deserted parts, as safest. 3. No History tells us of their flying so far as the Aged, and Women, and Weak could not go, but to Languedock, Piedmont, Rhetia, and about the Alps. 4. The People murdered by the Popes, were found most in those same Countries, and are of the very like description. That there were some Manichees among them, who disgraced the rest, and made Bernard, Peter Cluniacensis, and Walafr. Strab. and others accuse them hardly, it is no wonder: The Apostles Churches had Heresies, Luther's Reformation was accompanied with many disgraceful Sects; nor is it marvel that we read of no great noise against or about them, for some hundred years after Dioclesian, and that they were not called Albigenses, Waldenses, &c. till of late. For it was many hundred years after, before the Bishops turned to persecute their Fellow-Christians openly: And when they did, these were poor people and harmless, fled (as the Britain's into Wales, ) where they were niether a desirable prey, nor any great annoyance to any: And when some Teachers after more openly cried down the Popes Tyranny and Corruptions, then they began to be more defamed and persecuted. 5. Reynerius, that well knew them, testifieth that they were more dangerous than new risen Sects, because they boasted of their Antiquity, that they were called Apostolicks, and had continued what they then were from the days of Silvester : And Silvester lived in Constantine's time, and was Bishop of Rome about An. 314, and so lived in Dioclesians time; so that either these Albigenses were the Successors of the murdered Bagauds or another sort just▪ like them in the same Country, which no reason can imagine. Of their Antiquity see more in Paul Perin, and Morlands History of them, but especially at large in Bishop Usher de Successione Ecclesiarum.

I think then it is manifest by this History that the bloody Popes and Papists, did murder the same sort of Men, (yea three or four times more in number,) by Sword and Inquisition (not only there but in Germany, Bohemia, Poland, &c. whither they were dispersed,) which Dioclesian and Max. Herculius murdered; (and yet honor St. Maurice, and the Theban Legion, that would not fight against them, as they do St. Martin, that separated from the Bishops that were but for killing a Gnostic Priscilianist: ) And it is not the Name of a Heretic, that will Cloak such hypocritical Cruelty, or deceive Christ, that he shall not know his Flock, it men miscall them. To own Christ and the Gospel, and to murder Thousands, or Millions in his Name, as if he took it for acceptable Service, is incomparably a more aggravated crime, than the most bloody Pagan Persecution was.

Obj. These were Heretics, and deserved death. Ans. 1. And were they worse than Heathen Idolaters and Infidels, and must three or four parts of the World be put to death?

Obj. But they were Baptized, and so are Revolters: Ans. 1. And do they revolt to worse than Paganism? 2. Is Infant Baptism of so dismal consequence, as that the Pap • sts may murder all that revolt from it. Is not this the way to make Antip •• o baptists, or Antibaptists, and keep Men from Christianity? But oportet Mendacem esse Memorem, Why then do your Historians charge them to have been against Infant-Baptism? Did you murder none till they were Baptized?

2. But what was their Heresy, how can we know better than by your bloody Laws against them? The General Council. 4. at the Lat • rane under Innoc. 3. ••• s us, it was denying Transubstantiation, (and disobeying the Pope:) And all Temporal Lord's are to swear, to exterm •• at • all such, and all others, that they w • ll call Heretics, on pain of Excommunication, deposition, and damnation. So that all that renounced not their senses were Heretics, and all such to be destroyed or exterminated, and Subjects • bs • lved from their All • g •• nce to Temporal Lord's 〈◊〉 will not execute it; and many other grievous penalties are ad ••• And seeing General Councils are the Rules of the Religion of the through Papist, be not •• nv • y with them that call both your Pope and Council, and Church, Antichristian, who thus exceeded Dioclesian, and Max. Herculius in their work.

Obj. But how then can you hold that the whole Visible Church was never the Seat, or Society of Antichrist, in any one age ?

Ans. Very well: Christ was Christ, the head of his Church, as visible and invisible, in every age, 1. Three or four parts of the Christian World were then, and are now, from under the Pope: this very bloody Council saith, c. 4.

2. And who may not easily know that a Pope, and such a Council called General, are not the Western Visible Church, real or representative? Its not unlike that forty to one might be against them. King John 's Embassador was one of the consenters, who then was in contest against Stephen Langton, Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, and to conquer his own Lord's and Kingdom, gave his Kingdom to the Pope, and took it as from him. And if such a King had the choice of Bishops, they would no more represent the Church there, than he and his Court represented the Kingdom, when he gave it away, and fought against it; and those Bishops that the Pope chose did as little represent it, being more the Messengers of his will, than of the Churches: And how few Bishops were in such Councils, besides those that the Pope made or consented to? When he, and the Emperors Henry 's were in War, the Emperors Bishops condemned the Popes, and the Popes Bishops condemned the Emperors, and these Servants of two Men in power, were not the representers of the Church. The multitude of lower quiet Bishops, Pastors and People were the Visible Chu • ch, more than England was a Visible Kingdom, distinct from King John 's Court; for the Pope was but an Usurping head, which that King then was not.

Obj. Then you make two Visible Churches in Europe. Ans. Yes; Christ had one diffused over the World; and the Pope made another, by Usurpation and Rebellion, which was Regnum in Regno, as any Rebel might do that could get strength, to set up a party in power, to call him King, in some part of a Kingdom.

Such an Antichristianity as this, I make no doubt but the Papacy did become guilty of; and none that owneth it as such, and receiveth their mark, can be Innocent; but are condemned by plainer Evidence than dark Prophecies; but I will not therefore say the same, of all, from An. 304. (Or any other,) that lived before this contracted guilt, though too many at Rome, and other Countries, prepared the way; nor yet of all called Papists, who own not the crimes, and Characters of such men; and much less of all the Visible Church in any one age: And least of all of all the Visible Church, since 3 • 4, or thereabouts. The World hath already seen a great deal of public Sin and Misery, in and by the Empires of P • gans, Moh • metans and Christians, conquering and being conquered, turning and overturning. Thousands and hundred Thousands murdered, &c. more than I can find mentioned in Daniel, or the Revelations.

In this Judgment I am (in Pain and Languishing) waiting for my Change, and Hope of a World, where all is expounded, and all Wickedness, Malignity, and Divisions shut out, and Holiness, Love and Concord perfected, and all perfectly pleased in pleasing God.

And as I can easily bear the reproach of those that accuse me fo • no better understanding the Revelations, and of all that accuse me, of being either too little against Popery and Antichrist, or too much being shortly to be above the ignorant obloquy of all extremes; so Readers, I earnestly advise you, that you never take Faction for Religion▪ nor lying or betraying truth, for its defense: Let them prove that Popes have not been Antichrists that can: It's none of my work. But if you are never so sure that it is he indeed, pull him not down by calling Truth, Duty or things lawful, Antichristian, nor by telling men that all Protestants are Idolaters or Antichristian, if they forsake not the Communion of all our Parochial Protestant Churches, and of all other Reformed Churches that are as bad as they, that the Papists may re-enter into them as deserted Garrisons, and find no resistance: Nor by telling the World that all our Laws against Popish Recusancy do punish them, for not doing an unlawful thing, which all Protestants should refuse as well as they. This is no likelier a way to pull down Antichrist, than Racking and Tearing the Reformed Churches, by unlawful Snares, and silencing the Faithfulest Ministers of Christ. But above all, begin not the Papal Antichristianity, with the beginning of the Christians deliverance by Constantine, nor too soon; nor feign it to be Universal: Read such Books, as Jewel, Rivet, Blondel, Pet. Moulin, Dalleus, &c. If you are Scholars, which prove the Novelty of Popery, and the confident offer of the present Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. Barlow, (no stranger to Antiquity, or Books,) that he will recant and turn to them.