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. VI.

Manifest Grounds for a strong presumption, That the Term of The Beast does signifie the same particular state of the Beast, all over the Revelations. The mentions of it in the 13th and 17th Chapters every way parallel.

FOR a more full and determinate knowledge of the Nature and Characters of the Beast, so often mentioned in these Vi∣sions, it is very necessary to examine, Whether every shew of it be one and the same state of the Beast? For without some assu∣rance of that, all our knowledge of this kind will be confined to the bounds of the 17th Chapter.

'Tis true, that by Rule 3. the Term of the Beast being the same peculiar mystical expression, there is great reason to judge, That it signifies every-where the same thing. But there seems to be plain grounds given us to suspect the contrary; for there are several different shews of it, as if it were purposely designed to warn us thereby, that they were so many new states of the Beast, according to the variety of the successions of his Heads. Wherefore, in search of a more large and comprehensive know∣ledge of the Beast in the 17th Chapter, one would be extreme∣ly desirous to find, that every mention of the same Term in all the other Chapters, did really signifie the same thing: for there∣by we should have a great many more Properties and Circum∣stances to judge of him, and to determine his particular signifi∣cation. The more Marks that one has of a Beast, the more easie will it be to find him, and to distinguish him from all others that may resemble him.

The places where it would be judged to be the most likely to find the Term of the Beast to signifie the same thing with the Beast in the 17th Chapter, are the Chapters just before and after the 17th; and to them are we therefore directed for our first beginning in this search.

And first, The mention of the Beast, after the 17th Chapter, would be concluded could be nothing else but the continuation of the History of the same Beast that is mentioned in the 17th

Chapter: for we find no mention made of any other Beast, or of any new shew of a Beast, betwixt the 17th Chapter and the 19th, where we see the Beast brought upon the Stage again: And who would not thereupon conclude, That the Beast in the 19th Chap∣ter, with that Note of reference before it, did certainly signifie the Beast that had been last discoursed of in the 17th Chapter be∣fore it? And therefore is this unanimously agreed on amongst all Interpreters, That it is the same Beast in both places, as to the general Notion of the Beast.

And in that sense also is it granted to be the same Beast in the Chapters before the 17th: For it does indeed necessarily follow from the former; because the Beast before the 17th, must be the same with that after it; for they have both the same peculiar Attendants, the false Prophet, with the Image of the Beast, and the Mark of it. And therefore does Grotius, with one or two more, give general and comprehensive Notions of the Beast, and false Prophet, &c. which are the same in all kind of states of the Beast; and the one he calls Idolatry, and the other Magick; but withal, applies these general Notions to very different things in particular, in those several mentions of the Beast before and after the 17th Chapter. So that, in effect, he still makes the Beast and false Prophet in one place, quite different things in particular, than they are in the other; and the Beast in the 17th Chapter, to be as different a thing from either of them: He would have these seve∣ral mentions of the Beast to be so many several states of it; sometimes under Ten Kings and Seven Emperours, signified by so many Heads and Horns; sometimes to be but One Emperour, and then to be the Beast with One Head only; and sometimes to be the Beast with Ten Horns only, without any of its Seven Heads.

But since there is little reason given for the proof of this, but only the divers shews of the Beast, it must be very hard for any that is the least impartial to shut his eyes against so many in∣stances of an exact likeness and uniformity, in very particular Characters, in each of the several mentions of these Beasts, that would strongly persuade a man, that it was impossible but that they should signifie one and the same particular state of one and the same Beast. Especially, when he considers, That the Angel did very manifestly intend that these Visions should be under∣stood, and after such a manner as the generality of the World would conclude from the expressions in them, where there is

any plain ground for it. For example, It has been already a∣greed, That the term of the Beast must signify the same thing at least in general, before, in, and after the 17th Chapter. And in every of those Places he is certainly in a particular state, by the particular Actions, and Characters, that are given him. Now would any one question whether the Beast were in one particular state of his Heads and Horns in these several places, when there are these particular Circumstances and Characters that follow, which are the same in each particular description?

1. As they are in the 13th and 17th Chapters both described with seven Heads, and ten Horns, so are they also characterized more peculiarly by one Head only of the seven. The one by his healed Head, and the Mouth of it; The other by the 8th King, or Head, which was one of the seven Heads.

2. The peculiar Head that the one is described by, is an Head wounded to death, and healed again; and under which The Beast, with the same False Prophet that he is found with in the 13th Chapter, does in all appearance come to his end; and that Head therefore must be is Last Head; and yet it cannot be distinct from the other Seven, because it is but one of them healed, and it comes after them all, as the last of all, and so must necessarily be an Eighth, which was one of the Seven.

Now the Head of the other is expresly said to be an Eighth, which was one of the Seven.

3. It is said of the one, that the World wondred at the Head deadly wounded, and healed; And of the other, that the World should wonder at The Beast, which was, and is not, and yet is, who is said to be the Eighth King, or Head; Which seems to be the same.

4. The one is said to arise out of the Sea, with the former Chara∣cter of its Head wounded and healed again.

And the other to ascend out of the Bottomless Pit, with the latter Character of Was, and Is not, and yet is, which signifies the same. And the word in the Greek for the bottomless Pit, The Abyss, is the common term in the Septuagint to signify the Sea; and the Septuagint was the Copy that our Saviour and his Apo∣stles referred to in all their Discourses and Writings.

5. The one had Ten Kings in power with it, signified by its Ten Horns, who gave their power to it, which they had not at the time of the Vision; the other arose up with Ten Horns upon

it all crowned, which had no Crowns upon the Dragon in the Chapter before.

6. The one is described by one particular mouth speaking Blas∣phemies.

The other with one Head, who is that Beast all over the 17th Chapter, who is said to be full of Blasphemies; Prop. 6.

[ 7] 7. The City of the one, and the other, was the same Babylon in one particular state of Idolatrous and Antichristian Tyranny (Prop. 2.) and which is said to be fallen, in both, which one would judge should signify one and the same particular time of that City. Other the same Characters in both I omit here to mention, because they may be accounted not such particular Characters; As, that they have the same Enemies, the same kind of Friends, and make the same kind of Wars, and have the same variety of Success and Loss in Battel.

To make them then signify two different states of The Beast, (or of Roman Rule, as the Beast is here agreed to signify) there must at least these unlikelihoods be digested, (viz.) That all these Characters together, which are the same in both, must be twice verified of the Roman Government, viz. That it had twice a Su∣preme Government over it, which came after Seven before it, and yet was one of the Seven; and Ten Kings twice confede∣rated with such a Power at two several Changes of Roman Power, in two several states of the same kind of Idolatry, and Antichristian Tyranny of Rome, and that Rome must have two eminent Ruines in the midst of all these same Circumstances twice repeated: For these, and many other very peculiar Characters must have been all at a time in conjunction, or have belonged alto∣gether at the same time to each of these same repeated States of the Beast; Which would have been much like a Story of the throwing so many Dice out of a Box at two several times into just the same Order and Chances without any contrivance. For all the credit of this way of Interpretation lies wholly upon the affirmation of the Interpreters themselves.

Would not this be to lay the plainest ground for an almost unavoidable delusion about the sense of a Prophecy? For who would ever take such a representation of Two Beasts with so exact a likeness to one another in so many peculiar Characters, with the same peculiar way of rise, marks, actions, make and cir∣cumstances, for two different States of that Beast, and only be∣cause

they are Two several Shows of it? Can any one believe this of a Vision, that men are exhorted to understand; and which an Angel of God comes on purpose so to explain, as to make an Apostle of Christ apprehend, it was to tell him the mystery of these things for the edification of the Christian Church: And the Rules for interpreting of which, according to the common Apprehensions of Men in other Cases, he him∣self gave an earnest of in his own Explication? Certainly, un∣less it can be proved to be impossible for two Shows of a Beast to signify but one and the same state of it; one would be very apt from hence to be confident, That they are in these Chap∣ters but Two Shows only of one and the same state of the Beast.

After all this particular Examination, If we would be con∣tent with ordinary proof, and such as makes men sure of almost all other places of Scripture; that is, what the Context does, as it were of its own accord force one to be confident of; The Consideration of the Histories of these Two Beasts, and of their order and dependance upon one another, would appear to be a sufficient ground for a full conviction of the certainty of this Truth.

For it is very obvious to observe, That the 17th Chapter comes in about the conclusion of the History of The Beast of the 13th Chapter, for nothing, but to tell the Prophet, (as the In∣terpreting Angel himself does seem to intimate) what was meant by the Beast, and his Seven Heads, and Ten Horns, and by Great Babylon, which had been the Subject of all the four Chap∣ters before it.

To secure us in this Persuasion, we see that the business of the 17th Chapter is brought in immediately after the 16th by one of those Seven Angels, with the Seven Vials, who had been just before employed about the Seven last Plagues that were poured out upon the other Beast in the former Chapter: And the Introduction to all that this Angel had to communicate in the 17th Chapter, is an offer from him to shew the Apostle the Judgment of that Great Whore, called Babylon the Great, which had been just mentioned before by that very name of Babylon the Great in the History of the other Beast at the end of the 16th Chapter. And then again, after the interposing of the Inter∣pretation of Babylon, and The Beast in the 17th Chapter, comes in the continuation of the History of the same Babylon, and Beast,

that had been broken off at the end of the 16th Chapter, and is carried on to the last end of them both in the 18th and 19th Chapters.

This does very plainly shew, That the 17th Chapter comes in only to interpret those Mystical Expressions in the Chapter be∣fore it, by a new Representation of the same Beast, and of the same Babylon, that had been the great Subject just before dis∣coursed of.

Now it is already assured, That The Beast in the 17th Chap∣ter signifies but one particular state of it under its last Ruling Head, Prop. 6.—And therefore if it be the same with that mentioned in the other Chapter, that Beast also must be the same particular state of it under its last Head.

To secure us also still further in the assurance of this, there is a the general Consent of all those, whose greatest interest it may be to confound all the Significations of The Beast, but who can have no manner of interest to affirm it, Almost unanimously agree∣ing, That The Beast is all over these Visions but one and the same particular time of the Reign of the 8th King, b though they join the 7th with him; which is a very considerable Testimony of the Evidence that there is for it in the Text.

Notes

• Rev. XVII.
• Rev. XIII. & XVII.
• Pag. praeced.
• Chap. 13. 3. Chap. 17. 11.
• Ibid.
• Chap. 13. 3.
• Chap 17. 8.
• Chap. 13. 1.
• Chap. 17. 8.
• Chap. 17. 12.
• Chap. 13. 1. Chap. 13. 5. v. 3.
• Chap. 14. 8. Chap. 18. 2.
• Rev. XIII. & XVII.
• See CHAP. 2.
• CONSENT.
• a

  Certum nam∣que est Maris Bestiam, de quâ in hoc, cap. (sc. cap. 13.)—Et Bestiam illam cui Babylon insidet. cap. 17. unam eandemque esse, ut disere Hieronymus. For it is certain, That the Beast that is said to arise out of the Sea in this Chapter (that is the 13th Chapter) and that Beast, upon which Babylon sit∣teth, in the 17th Chapter, are but one and the same Beast.
• b

  Those of the second Opinion, who take the Beast in the 13th Chapter for Antichrist, and that in the 17th for the Devil; yet they interpret it to be the Devil inspiring Antichrist, which is much the same thing.
• ALcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect. 5. & postea in cap. 17.