186 I am not ignorant that many interpreters have thought otherwise. But possibly they have not enough attended to the advice, which Mr. Mede used to give to such of his friends as did not enter into his ideas—Expende. My meaning is, that, if they had possessed the patience, or the sagacity, to understand this great Inventor, before they objected to him, they would perhaps have seen cause to acquiesce in the Method, pointed out by him, instead of attempting in various ways, and to little purpose, to improve upon it.
187 Dan. vii. 7, 8.—I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast—had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another little horn—Compare with ver. 24.—The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings (or kingdoms) that shall arise: and another shall arise after them.
188 Mede, p. 712.
189 Sir Isaac Newton, p. 31.
190 Dan. vii. 11, 12.—Concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
191 Rev. xvii. 3, 4. 9. 12. 18.
192 Martial. l. iv. ep. 64.
193 Propert. l. III. ix. 57.
194 Georg. l. ii. ver. 532.
195 Compare Æn. vi. ver. 776. &c.
196 Rev. xvii. 1.
197 Ibid. ver. 15.
198 Septem Bestiæ capita, duplex typus: primò, septem montes seu colles sunt, super quos urbs Bestiæ metropolis sita est; deinde, septem quoque, idque in iisdem (quod unitas typi denotat) Collibus, Regum seu Dynastarum successivorum ordines. Works, p. 524.
199 The whole passage in the original stands thus—αἱ ἑπτὰ κεφαλαὶ, ὄρη εἰσὶν ἑπτὰ, ὅπου ἡ γυνὴ κάθηται ἐπ’ αὐτῶν, καὶ βασιλεῖς ἑπτά εἰσιν—of which the following is the literal translation—The SEVEN HEADS are seven hills, where the woman sitteth upon them, AND are seven kings—Every one sees that the connective particle, AND, refers to heads, and not to hills.
200 Dan. vii. 24.—The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall arise after them, and He shall be diverse from the first—
201 2 Thess. ii. 4.
202 See Grotius, on the place: who applies this prophecy to Caius Cæsar, and thinks it was fulfilled when that Emperor commanded his statue to be placed in the temple of Jerusalem. A strange conjecture! which many writers, and very lately an excellent prelate, has well confuted. Bishop Newton’s Diss. on the Prophecies, Vol. ii. p. 375.
203
Hierosolyma in scriptis prophetarum occurrit ut emblema
alterius cujusdam Hierosolymæ, mysticè sic dicendæ;
quæ Hierosolyma non potest esse urbs quædam in montibus
Zione & Acra constructa, qualis fuit antiqua illa; sed
oportet esse rem spiritualem, in quâ attributa antiquæ
Hierosolymæ mysticè demonstrentur.
204 Rev. xiii. 11.
205 John i. 29.
206 Dan. vii. 8. 20. Rev. xvii. 1. 16, 17.
207 Dan. vii. 21. Rev. xvii. 14. xiii. 7. 16.
208 Rev. xvii. 5.
209 Le saint apôtre a bien pris garde de ne pas nommer la prostituée, dont il parle, une adultere, μοιχάδα, μοιχαλίδα, mais une femme publique—sans jamais avoir employé le mot d’adultere; tant il étoit attentif à éviter l’idée d’une épouse infidelle.—Loin de marquer la Prostituée, comme une Eglize corrompuë, nous avons montré clairement qu’il a pris des idées toutes contraires à celles-là, puis qu’au lieu de produire une Jerusalem infidelle, ou du moins une Samarie, autrefois partie du peuple saint, commee il auroit fait s’il avoit voulu nous représenter une eglise corrompuë, il nous propose une Babylone, qui jamais n’a eté nommée dans l’alliance de Dieu. Nous avons aussi remarqué qu’il n’avoit jamais donné à la Prostituée le titre d’épouse infidelle ou repudiée; mais que par tout il s’étoit servi du terme de fornication, et de tous ceux qui revenoient au même sens. Je sçais que ces mots se confondent quelquefois avec celui d’adultere, mais le fort du raisonnement consiste en ce que de propos deliberé Saint Jean evite toujours ce dernier mot qui marqueroit la foi violée, le mariage souillé, et l’alliance rompuë, &c.—L’ Apocalypse avec une Explication; par Messire Jaques Benigne Bossuet, Evéque de Meaux. Pref. 26, 29. Avertisement, p. 321-323. Par. 1690, 12o.
210 The reason I take to be, That fornication, that is, vague lust, and general prostitution, served best to express the unbridled and indiscriminate passion of the Jews for the dæmon-worship of their neighbours: Whereas the crime of adultery, though of a blacker dye, and, in that view, more proper to expose the malignity of their offence, does not convey the same ideas of universal pollution, being usually committed, because it is so criminal, with more distinction and restraint.
211 Isaiah xxiii. 16, 17. Nahum iii. 4.
212 —for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols. Jer. l. 38. Again: Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine, therefore the nations are mad. Jer. li. 7. Compare Rev. xvii.—the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
213 Mr. Mede. Works, p. 49.
214 Deut. xxiii. 17.
215 Rev. xvii. 6 ἐθαύμασα θαῦμα μέγα.
216 Not held of the civil power, or acknowledged to be so held, but usurped upon it, and insolently directed against it; as is well known from ecclesiastical history. The Pope is not Antichrist: God forbid! (says the good Abbé Fleury, with a zeal becoming a member of the Papal communion.) But neither is he impeccable, nor has he an absolute authority in the church over all things both temporal and spiritual—Le pape n’est pas l’Antichrist; à Dieu ne plaise; mais il n’est pas impeccable, ni monarque absolu dans l’eglise pour le temporel et pour le spirituel [4eme disc. sur l’hist. ecclesiastique, p. 173. Par. 1747, 12o.]
The Pope, he says, is not an absolute monarch in the church over all things temporal and spiritual: That is, he ought not to arrogate to himself the power of an absolute monarch; for that the pope assumes to be such a monarch, and, in fact, exercised this supreme monarchical power in the church, through many ages, the learned and candid writer had indisputably shewn, in the discourse, whence these words are quoted. But now this monarchical sovereignty in all things temporal, as well us spiritual, is certainly one prophetical note or character, by which the person or power, styled Antichristian, is distinguished. Let the Pope, then, be what he will, we are warranted by M. Fleury himself to conclude, that he hath, at least, this mark of Antichrist.
217 In the persecution of heretics; which M. Bossuet regards as so little dishonourable to his communion, that he thinks it a point not to be called in question—calls the use of the sword in matters of religion, an undoubted right—and concludes, that there is no illusion more dangerous than to consider TOLERATION, as a mark of the true Church—l’exercise de la puissance du glaive dans les matieres de la religion & de la conscience; chose, que ne peût être revoquée en doute—le droit est certain—il n’y a point d’illusion plus dangereuse que de donner LA SOUFFRANCE pour un caractere le vraye Eglise. Hist. des Var. l. x. p. 51. Par. 1740, 12o.
Thus, this great doctor of the Catholic church, towards the close of the last century. And just now, another eminent writer of that communion very roundly defends the murder of the Bohemian martyrs at Constance, and (what is more provoking still) the fraud and ill-faith, through which the pious and tender-hearted Fathers of that council rushed to the perpetration of it. M. Crevier, Hist. de l’Université de Paris, t. iii. l. vi. p. 435, &c. Par. 1761, 12o.—Can it be worth while to spend words in fixing this charge of intolerance on the church of Rome, when her ablest advocates, as we see, even in our days, openly triumph in it? But, then, hath she forgotten who it was that the prophet saw, drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus—Rev. xvii; 6?. Alas, no: But she wonders, by what figure of speech heretics are called Saints; and rebels to the Pope, Martyrs of Jesus.
218 See Vitringa Apocalyps. Exp. p. 603, and the authors cited by him: But, above all, see Mr. Mede’s exquisite and unanswerable discourse, entitled, The Apostacy of the latter times.
’Tis true, the Bishop of Meaux is pleased to divert himself with one part of this discourse; I mean, that part, which contains [ch. xvi. and xvii.] the learned writer’s interpretation of Daniel’s prophecy, concerning the Gods Mahuzzim. He finds something pleasant in this idea, or rather in this hard word, which he repeats so often, and in such a way, as if he thought the very sound of Mahuzzim, was enough to expose the comment and Commentator to contempt. Hist. des Var. l. xiii. p. 260, 261. But, after all, the ingenious Prelate would have done himself no discredit by being a little more serious in discussing an interpretation, which Sir Isaac Newton adopts without scruple [Obs. on the prophecies of Daniel, &c. p. 192]; and which, in mere respect to the prophet, he should, at least, have condescended to replace by some other and more reasonable interpretation. But it is the infirmity of this lively man, to be jocular out of season. Thus, again, he raillies Luther, for an assertion of his, delivered, it seems, with some assurance, and, in the form, as he pretends, of a prediction, That the Papal power would speedily decline and come to nothing, in consequence of the Reformation. The event, he says, has belied the prophet; the Pope still keeps his ground; and then (in an unlucky parenthesis) laughs to think, how many others, besides Luther, will be dashed to pieces against this STONE—bien d’autres, que Luther, se briseront contre cette PIERRE [Var. l. xiii. p. 244]. Now, if the glory of saying a good thing had not infatuated this Catholic Bishop, could he have helped starting at his own comparison of a stone, as applied to Luther and the Reformation, when it might so naturally have put him in mind of that prophetical STONE, which shall one day become a great mountain, and break in pieces a certain IMAGE, and stand for ever [Dan. ii. 35, 44.]?
219
L’Eglise, en nous enseignant qu’il est utile de prier
les Saints, nous enseigne à les prier dans ce même esprit
de charité, & selon cet ordre de société fraternelle qui
nous porte à demander le secours de nos freres vivans sur
la terre; & le Catechisme du Concile de Trente conclut de
cette doctrine, que si la qualité de Mediateur, que l’ecriture
donne à Jesus Christ, recevoit quelque préjudice de
l’intercession des Saints qui regnent avec Dieu, elle n’eu
recevroit pas moins de l’intercession des fideles qui vivent
avec nous.
220 Vitringa, p. 603, 604.
221 Heb. x. 24.
222 1 Thess. v. 25. 1 Tim. ii. 1. and elsewhere, passim.
223 Coloss. ii. 18.
224 Heb. vii. 25.
225 Page 228-231, and p. 255.
226 “Whatsoever time of Messiah’s appearing Almighty God pointed out by Daniel’s LXX Weeks, yet I believe not that any Jew before the event, could infallibly design the time without some latitude; because they could not know infallibly where to pitch the head of their accounts, until the event discovered it: yet in some latitude they might.” Mede, Works, p. 757.
And so in other instances. “I do not believe that the
Jews themselves could certainly tell from which of their
three captivities to begin that reckoning of LXX years,
whose end should bring their return from Babylon, until
the event assured them thereof.”
227 Dan. vii.
228 2 Thess. ii. 6, 7.
229 P. 182-184. But see especially Mede’s Works, p. 657.
230 Rev. xvii. 7.
231 Rev. i. 1.
232 Rev. ii. 8. xxi. 6.
233 Heb. ii. 3.
234 Hab. ii. 14. Is. xxvi. 9.
235 Rev. v. 10.
236 Ibid. xix. 6.
237 Rev. xviii. 6.
238 Rev. xviii. 4.
239 M. de Meaux: L’Apocalypse avec une explication. Avertisement aux Protestants, p. 303, &c. Par. 1690.
240 Sermon VIII.
241 M. Daillé.
242 Lord Falkland, Lord Digby, Dr. Jer. Taylor, &c.
243 Serm. I. II. III.
244 Serm. IV.
245 Serm. V. VI.
246 Serm. VII. VIII.
247 Serm. IX. X.
248 Serm. XI.
249 Sermon XII.
250
Verum non est desperandum. Fortasse, non canimus
surdis. Nec enim tam in malo statu res est, ut desint sanæ
mentes, quibus et veritas placeat, et monstratum sibi rectum
iter et videant et sequantur.
251
Ἐγελᾶτο δὲ τὰ θεῖα, καὶ τοὺς τῶν προφητῶν θεσμοὺς ὥσπερ
ἀγυρτικὰς λογοποιΐας, ἐχλεύαζον·
252 Gal. v. 1.
253 2 Tim. iii. 16.
254 Acts xiii. 40, 41.
255 Judith iii. 8.
256 See his Posthumous Works, published by Lord Sheffield, 2 vols. in 4to. Lond. 1796. Vol. I. p. 463.