A demonstration of the first principles of the Protestant applications of the apocalypse together with the consent of the ancients concerning the fourth beast in the 7th of Daniel and the beast in the Revelations / by Drue Cressener.

CHAP. V. * 1.1

The 23d Proposition, The Beast some Present Sovereign of Rome. The 24th. The 42 Months of the Beast at least 1260 years. The 1260 Days of the Witnesses the same particular time. The Two Witnesses, the Representatives of the whole Church enslav'd by the Beast.

SInce it has been made unquestionable from the preceding Proposition, That the Sixth King, or Head, has been past for some hundreds of years. From thence it may as assuredly be concluded, That

The Beast called the Eighth King, is a Sovereign Roman * 1.2 Power that is owned for Supream by the Authority of the City of Rome at this present.

For the Sixth King in being at the time of the Vision, was certainly at an end after the ruine of the Western Empire by the Heruli and Goths (Prop. 22.)—And the Seventh King does immediately succeed the Sixth (by Prop. the 18th)—And the Seventh King was to continue but a short space (chap. 17. 10.) Whereas the number of years from the Ruine of the Western Em∣pire to this present, is three times longer than the whole time of the sixth Head from the date of the Vision, and as long as the whole time of the other six Heads before.

Wherefore the Seventh King must needs have been long since past, and the Eighth King (called the Beast) have entred upon his Reign. For the Eighth King did immediately succeed the Seventh (by Prop. 18.)—And the Eighth King, or the Beast, is to continue till the Second coming of Christ (by Corollar. 1. Prop. 12.)—And therefore must the time of the Beast be both begun already, and not yet past; that is, must be at present in being.

Upon the same grounds it appears, That.

The forty two Months of the Reign of the Beast, Revel. 13. 5. are at least 1260 Years. * 1.3

For the Beast is in being at this present (by Prop. 23.)—And he began his Reign soon after the fall of the sixth Head, because the Seventh King was to continue but a short space, Rev. 17. 10.—And the sixth Head was at latest ended at the fall of the Western Empire in Augustulus (by Prop. 22.)—which was above 1200 Years since. It is therefore impossible, that the forty two Months of the Reign of the Beast should have a literal significa∣tion in this place. They must then of necessity be understood in a Mystical Signification (by Rule 2.)—and in such a Mystical Signification also, as must make them contain in them above 1200 Years.

Now there is no Example in Prophecy of any such Mystical Signification of Time, as will make these forty two Months reach to 1200 Years, and make them less exceed that number of Years, than the Mystical use of Weeks and Days in some of the Prophe∣cies. Weeks are by almost the Ʋnanimous Consent of all Interpre∣ters taken for so many Years as they have days in them, in that famous Prophecy about the first coming of the Messias into the World, in the 9th Chapter of Daniel, v. 24. under the name of the seventy Weeks. This is an unexceptionable Instance of the mystical use of days for years.

So also is the Year of Jubilee after 49 years called the end of seven Sabbaths, or weeks of years, Levit. 25. 8.

Days also are made use of to signify Years in Ezekiel twice in one Chapter, Ezek. 4. 4, 6. and in the same manner in the Book of Numbers 14. 34.

Against these two last Examples it is pretended, That Days do not absolutely signify Years, but are only made the Types of Years. But this is no material Objection against this usage of Days. For though in those two places they be used but as Types, yet it is easie to observe, that Types of things are ordinarily used in the New Testament for the things themselves after the Type is fulfilled in them; and in that use of them they signify the things absolutely, and not Typically; for a typical signification of any thing, is the signification of it before it is come to pass, which cannot be, when the Type is used for the real thing it

self then in being. And therefore in such a use of the typical word, it must signify the thing absolutely only.

Thus do we find the names of Temple, Altar, the Holiest of Ho∣lies, the Vail, the Passeover-Lamb, used to signify, the Christian Church, the Communion, Heaven, this Earthly state, Christ Jesus, after these Types were accomplished, and so after their typical time was past.

By the same reason may any other Type be used to signify a thing absolutely, as well as typically. And Days may for that rea∣son be as well supposed to signify Years absolutely in some places, because used to signify them typically in others, if there be any evidence against their literal acceptation, as there is here found to be.

Wherefore according to these Examples, especially that of the 70 weeks, which is by all acknowledged, the 42 Months must be considered, as containing so many years in them as they have days in them; and the least number of days that they can con∣tain in them, is 1260. whatsoever accounts of Months be taken either in the time of Daniel, or of St. John.

If it should be hereupon enquired, What kind of Months these were, and how many days they did precisely contain in them, the relation that this account of the Beast in the Revelations has to the fourth Beast in the 7th Chapter of Daniel, will resolve that difficulty. The 42 Months of the Beast in this place, are the Times of the Little Horn in that 7th Chapter of Daniel (by Co∣roll. 2. Prop. 15.) And the Times of the Little Horn there, are said to be a time, times, and half a time; which therefore must be the same with the 42 Months of the Beast, they being both of them the same time of the same Reign. Now the Time, * 1.4 Times, and an half, are in the 12th Chapter of the Revelations the same time of the Woman's abode in the Wilderness, which is * 1.5 a little before said to be 1260 days. The 42 Months then, which is the same time of the Reign of the Beast with the Time, Times, and an half, must also be but 1260 days.

By this then it appears, That the calculation of these Months must be according to the Babylonian Account, where Daniel lived, when he wrote that Prophecy, to which this of the Beast in the Revelations does every-where refer. The Babylonians had but 30 days in their Months, and they were all of equal length; to which they added an Appendix of five days at the end of the

Year, which the Greeks called the Epagomena, and so made their Year to be 365 days. But without the Epagomena, three Years and an half make but 1260 days, which is the number that these Visions about the Beast do so often inculcate, and is 17 days short of the true Account of three years and an half in the Babylonian way.

And this is the only reason that I could ever find satisfactory, Why, besides the Time, Times, and an half, there, is the mention of 42 Months, and 1260 days in the Prophecy, to express the same number of years. For the Time, Times, and an half, with∣out any thing else to restrain it, would have been understood to be three full years, and an half, according to the Chaldaick Ac∣count, from whence that calculation was fetched, and so would really have been 17 days longer, and have signified 17 years longer than they really were to be; whereas by this particular determination of them in the Prophecy to 1260 days, and 42 Months, they appear to want the Appendix of the five days, or Epagomena, at the end of every Year. And thus are we deli∣vered from that fanciful Shift, that Mr. Mede was fain to fly to in his account of the different ways of expressing the same time here, viz. That the Months were used to signify the works of dark∣ness, and the days the contrary: The Months being regulated by the course of the Moon, and the days by that of the Sun.

The 42 Months then do appear by this to be 15 days short of the full length of Time, Times, and half a time, by being reckoned without the Epagomena; It may hereupon be very reasonably imagined, that the 1260 Years signified by so many days, may each of them also be reckoned without the Epagomena, or five days at the end of them; and then they will also want some such number of Years of their full account, and so prove to be but 1243 Years.

From the former Proposition it may be concluded, That

The 1260 days of the Two Witnesses, Revel. 11. 3. are 1260 [Corollar. 1] Years.

For the 1260 days of the two Witnesses are the same length of time with the 42 Months of the Beast, pag. preced. And are described as the opposite Party to the Beast, v. 7. and so men∣tioned in the same account as Contemporaries with him: And

since they have the same length of time assigned to them for their continuance, it ought to be understood to signify the same thing without any clearer Evidence to the contrary (by Rule the 3d.)—Now by their Characters they appear to be capable of so long a continuance. For they represent a body of Men, and not two single Persons only. It is said, that the Beast should make war with them. And the Beast is already known to signify a great Empire; And how can a great Empire be said to make war with two single Persons, or Peoples, Kindreds, and Nations, as it is said of them, to see them lie dead, and not to suffer them to be bu∣ried?

The 1260 days then of the two Witnesses, do signify the same length of time, that the same number of days in the 42 Months of their Contemporary do signify, that is 1260 Years.

If these days do signify the same number of Years with the 42 Months, Then

The 1260 days of the two Witnesses and the 42 Months of the Beast, do [Corollar. 2] signify the same coincident space of 1260 Years.

For the Beast and the Witnesses have the same length of con∣tinuance (Prop. 24. & Coroll. 1.)—And they are described to be Contemporaries, and the opposite Party to one another, Rev. 11. 7. to 14. And therefore it is extravagant to fancy their time to be different, only because it cannot be proved to be strictly impossible that they should not be the same from the beginning to the end. See Chap. 2. Book I.

From hence it may safely be inferred, That

The two Witnesses in Sackcloth, Rev. 11. 3. do represent the whole [Corollar. 3] True Church in the time of its humiliation under the Beast.

For the two Witnesses must signify a succession of Persons du∣ring the space of 1260 Years, (Coroll. preced.) And they are set out by Characters that are peculiar to the Representations of the True Church in the times of its humiliation under its Adversa∣ries in the Old Testament. As by the peculiar Miracles of Moses and Aaron in the Land of Egypt, v. 6. By those of Elijah, with * 1.6 Elisha, v. 5, 6. And by the Mystical Characters of Joshua, and Zerubbabell, v. 4.

By this it appears, That they must refer to some twofold di∣vision of the whole Catholick Church that must be generally known for 1260 years together; And in this respect the Reason why they are represented by Two, may be either,

1. The natural division of every well constituted People into Civil, and Ecclesiastical Persons, the King, and the High-Priest, especially where the Church of God is, which is the present Case. As this does go along with all well-ordered Societies, so it is exemplified in two of the Instances here referred to out of the Old Testament.

Or, 2. The Church may here be represented by Two, upon the account of the known peculiar Character of the Christian Church, in distinction to that of the Jews, all over the New Testament; where it is every-where represented, as one Church made up of Jews and Gentiles, one Common Society with those two great consti∣tuent Parts in it; upon the account of which it was originally called the Catholick Church.

Thus do we find † St. Paul almost continually insisting upon this Two-fold distinction in the Church; and the chief ground of * 1.7 all his earnest Motives to Unity, and Mutual Communion, for the making the Christian Church but one thing, is, that all the World, both Jews and Gentiles, are but one Church of Christ. As Ephes. 2. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. and Chap. 3. 6. and Chap. 4. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. And this is every-where represented by him, as the great Mystery of God, in the bringing the Gentiles to be one Church with the Jews, Ephes. 1. 9. 3. 3, 9. Colos. 1. 26, 27. This Book of the Apocalypse does also generally run upon that distinction. As Chap. 5. 5. The number of the Jewish Elders gathered out of all Nations. And Chap. 7. 4, 9. The 144000 out of the Jewish Tribes, but figuratively taken; and the Great Multitude of all Nations. So also Chap. 14. 1, 6. The 144000, and all Nations, and Kindreds, and Tongues, and People. And Chap. 19. 4, 6. The 24 Elders represent the Jewish part, and the Voice of the Great Multitude the Gentiles, though both figuratively. And the Church is every-where set forth as the Jewish Temple, or Synagogue, set open to all people.

This also we find every-where foretold in the Old Testament, as the peculiar distinction of the Church of the Messiah from that of the Jews, That it should be the Church of both Jews and Gen∣tiles. And this does our Saviour also make the distinguishing

Badge of his Church. For this reason did he make choice of Bap∣tism to be the Initial Rite of all Nations into his Church, which by the Jews had always before been made the distinguishing Rite * 1.8 betwixt themselves, and the Gentile Proselites. He also upon the same account ordered the Memorial of his own Death to be the Communion-Feast, or the common Union of Jews and Gen∣tiles in his Church, or the Communion of Saints of all kinds, instead of the Paschal Lamb, which was the distinguishing Cere∣mony of the Religion of the Jews from all the rest of the World besides. And thus also does he himself signify his Church to be One Fold made up of two sorts of Sheep, John 10. 16.

But this does most eminently appear in the History of the Actions of the Apostles, after Jesus had committed the sole ma∣nagement of his Church to them. The chief Subject of the Book of their Acts is to set forth this new appearance of the Chri∣stian Church with these Two different kinds of Members in it.

Indeed this twofold distinction of the Members of the Christian Church had its foundation in the known division of the whole World into those two general Parts of it, Jews, and Gentiles, both always before, and at the time of the writing this Prophecy. And this distinction was always preserved in memory by the frame of the Jewish Temple, and its distinction of the two Courts of the Jews, and Gentiles; and so seems to be the most likely to be here referred to, because the most obvious, and commonly known division of the Church of God into Two.

But what strength soever this Account of their being called Two, may seem to have, yet the demonstration of their real na∣ture in general before given, does not at all depend upon it. This is intended only for a probable illustration of that Chara∣cter. And since by the discovery of their Nature, they must re∣present the whole Christian Church for many Ages, there must be some reference in this Character of it to some twofold divi∣sion of the Christian Church, which must distinguish it from the Jewish; and none was better known for such, than that which has been here pitched upon; not that of the Old and New Testa∣ment, nor that of the Churches of the Waldenses and Albigenses, which some would have that number to refer to. * 1.9

Notes

• * 1.1

  Rev. XVII.
• * 1.2

  Proposit. 23.
• * 1.3

  Prop. 24.
• * 1.4

  v. 14.
• * 1.5

  v. 6.
• * 1.6

  Exod. 7. 19. 1 Kings 17. 1. Zechar. 4.
• * 1.7

  Rom. 3. 30. & 4. 16. & 9. 24. & 10. 12. & 11. 17. & 15. 8, 9. 1 Cor. 1. 24. & 7. 18, 19. Gal. 27. 8. & 4. 22, 24. & 6. 15, 16. Ephes. 3. 6, 9.
• * 1.8

  Matth. 8. 11. & 21. 43. & 22. 9. & 24. 14. John 11. 52.
• * 1.9

  ^a THUS does Ribera interpret the three days and an half, in Chap. 11. v. 9.—that they signify that the Tyranny of Anti-christ shall not be continued above three years and an half, according to that of Ezek. 4. I have given thee a day for a year; Though afterwards upon the 20th Chapter of the Apocalypse, he does in express terms contradict this very In∣terpretation; When ever, says he, did Lyranus see a day taken for a year? And though in Ezekiel—God said, I have given thee a day for a year, yet what ground is this to take a day for a year in Scripture?

  Alcasar also upon the 2d verse, Chap. 11. Apocalypse, does determine, That the 42 months, and the 1260 days must necessarily be taken in a mystical, and not in a literal sense. Notatione quarta in vers. 2. And they both agree with Bellarmin, l. 3. de Pont. c. 8. that the 42 months, and three years, and an half, must be understood according to the Caldaick Ac∣count.