publick, and fevere * taxing of the Vices of the Corrupt Clergy of the Romish Church, was the main thing which made him taken notice of, and hated: fo we find in his works that his most Remarkable Sermon on that Subject in publick before a Synod of the Clergy at Prague, was preach'd that † very year we enquire about A. D. 1405. And this preaching of Wickliffs Doctrine at Prague, and in Bohernia, had fuch fuccefs that it foon + fpread over that Country, and into Germany also: and if the Wars had not crush'd it, a Reformation in all those parts had immediately followed. However, it was certainly a main preparation and prelude to the great Reformation in Germany afterward, in the next Century. And these prepatory fpreadings of the Proteftant Doctrines in England, and in Bohemia, which fo effectually began to difcover the frauds and characters of Antichrift in the Church of Rome, to which P. 882. &c. difcovery, as Mr. Mede has well fhewn, this Prophecy in Daniel does particularly relate, feem to me confiderable enough to be aimed at by these Numbers before us. VISIO N. V. The Second Beast with two Horns like a Lamb. Apoc. xiij. 11 AND I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. and he Magifter Johannes Hus quam diu in fcelera ordinum fecularium hominum acriter prædicando invehebatur, omnes dicebant fpiritum fanctum ex co loqui; at cum in Clerum convertit fermonem & ftilum, tum ulcus tetigit, & male audire cœpit. In initio Operum Hussi. + Oper. Huf. Vol. 2. p. 28. A. D. 1403. Luxus immodicus, & fuperbia Clericorum faciunt ut Huffus Prage in Bohemia & alii inquirerent de principatu in Ecclefia: unde hujuf modi difputationes ortæ quibus irritati Romanenfes Articulos Wiclefi 45 publice condemnarunt. Calvis & Hift. Bohem. A. D. 1409. Invalefcente Huffi tica doctrina Praga apud Bohemos, reliquæ nationes Pontifici Romano addi&tæ Praga difcedunt magno numero. Calvis. Quod Engelbertus Hiftoricusfadum refert A. D. 1406. Ut ex Pauli Langii Chronico Citizenfi difcimus. 12. And 12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him ; and caufeth the earth, and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whofe deadly wound was healed. 13. And he doth great wonders, fo that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the fight of men. 14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of thofe miracles which he had power to do in the fight of the beast; Jaying to them that dwell on earth, that they should make an Image to the beast which had a wound by a sword, and did live. 15. And he had power to give life to the Image of the beast ; that the Image of the beast should both Speak; and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the beast should be killed. 16. And he caufeth all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. 17. And that no man might buy or sell fave he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beaft; for it is the number of a man; and his number is fix hundred threefcore and fix. In this fifth Vifion; (which includes the fixth alfo, of the Image of the Beaft, of which hereafter;) we have a plain account of the Rife of Antichrift himself, ftrictly fo called; or of the Pope of Rome, and his fubordinate Hierarchy: having indeed the appearance of a Lamb; profeffing to be the Vicar of Chrift, who is the Lamb of God; Servant of the Servants of God; Succeffor of the bleffed Apoftle St. Peter; the great Paftor of the Church, to feed the flock of Chrift: but speaking like a Dragon; exaiting himself above all that is called God; Excommunicating and Destroying Princes; Abfolving Subjects from their allegiance; Introducing new, falfe, and pernicious doctrines and practices; Commanding Idolatry in the worship of Angels, Saints, Images, and Reliques; Tyrannizing over the Confciencies of Men; and Anathematizing all who will not fubmit to his ungodly doings. He exercifes all the power of the first Beast before him; maintains Imperium in Imperio; requires the like or greater fubmiffion to his decrees as the Supream Temporal Power expects; and gives out all his Hh2 Laws Laws in the fight, and by the permiffion of the feveral Kings by which the diftin&t Kingdoms of the Roman Empire are govern'd. He causes all to worship the first Beast, whofe deadly wound was heal'd, i. e. He is the common Center and Cement which unites all thofe otherwife diftin& Kingdoms; and by joining with them procures them a blind obedience from their Subjects: and fo He is the occafion of the prefervation of the Old Roman Empire in fome kind of Unity, and Name, and Strength which otherwife had been quite diffolv'd, by the Inundations and Wars fucceeding the fettlement of the Barbarous Nations in that Empire. He alfo does,or feems to do a multitude of ftrange Miracles; and pretends to abundance of lying Wonders; by which he strangely prevails with, and amuzes, and enflaves the World; and fo deceives them into an implicit obedience to his Dictates. All which characters are fo peculiar to, and notorious in the Pope and his Subordinate Ecclefiaftical Hierarchy, that I need fpend no more words about them. What is here chiefly to be confider'd is the time of his rife, and his Pe. 1. Lemma. duration; both of them to be taken from Daniel, where, as we have prov'd, he is defcrib'd under the Name of the Little Horn; and therefore, according to what has been there 'already advanc'd, ought to begin fome time after the Rife of the Ten Horns or Ten Kings of the Roman Empire; and to continue till their Destruction in being, but in Power no longer than they do fo, viz. till the end of his 1110 and of their 1260, years. Now as to the Epocha of the Exaltation of the Papal Power, I take it to be plainly A. D. 606.11 50 years after the Epocha when the Ten Kings were first risen A.D. 456. And certainly this date agrees fo well with Hiftory that nothing can do more fo. Thus fays one very truly, "Concerning the Emer "fion of the two horn'd beaft out of the Earth, I find a great Mr. Stephens « confent in the Commentaries, Controverfies, and Stories of of the Number 666. P. 36. "the Church that the two horned Beast began in the Uni"verfal Head bip under the Emperor Phocas. Crakanthorp in his "Treatife againstSpalato calleth it theCorner-Stone of the Build"ing. And in very deed many Authors,if you put them upon it "to ftate the original of the Beasts Kingdom, they do generally 10. "in a manner pitch upon the year 606. And to be fure Pope Boniface the third in that year receiving first from the Tyrant Phocas; and the Popes, his Succeffors ever after claiming the Stile of Head of the Church, and Univerfal Bishop of the fame, and accordingly ever after pretending to, and upon all occafions exercifing an ufurped Power agreeable to fo prefumptuous a title; this Epocha of the Pope's Ecclefiaftical Tyranny is fo Eminent and Remarkable in Hiftory, and has occafion'd fuch mighty difputes between the Romanists and Proteftants, and has been fo often pitch'd upon by thofe who have attempted this Prophecy, tho' they could find fo little direct Foundation in Scripture for it, that I need not use many words to fhew the exactness of its correfpondence with Daniel's Prophecy, and that from hence began that famous Period when Times, and Laws, should be given into the hands of this Little Horn for a Time, and Times, and a Divifion of Time, or for 1110 Prophetick Days. Dr. Heylin, a Learned Man who seems not much to have concern'd himself with the Apocalypfe,from the great difference there was in Hiftory between the Bishops Cofmog p.105. of Rome before, and the Popes of Rome after this Epocha, in his 106. Catalogue intirely diftinguishes the one from the other: and having given us a Lift of the 65 firft Bishops of Rome till A. D. 605 and noted that Sabinianus I. was the last of the Roman Bishops, not having that arrogant Title of Univerfal Bishop, or Head of the Church, He finishes that branch of the intire Catalogue: and then beginning the fecond with this Title,The Popes of Rome chalenging a Supremacy over all the Church, From, A. D. 606 and Boniface III. He gives us the Catalogue of the Popes till his own time, being in number 179. And it is very well worth our obfervation that when just before that time the Bishop of Conftantinople had obtain'd the Title of Universal Bishop, the then Popes, Pelagius and Gregory the great vehemently oppos'd it; and downright affirm'd that whofoever took the Title of Univerfal Bishop upon him was a Fore-runner of Antichrift ; equal to Lucifer in Pride, and had the name of Blafphemy upon him. So that when immediately after, St. Gregory's next Succeffor but one, Boniface the third accepted of that very Title; and what was more, both himfelf and his Succeffors exercis'd that Ty rannical rannical Power therein imply'd; it is plain by Pope Pelagius's and St. Gregory's Opinion that either Antichrift himself, or at least his Forerunner, who was equal to Lucifer in pride, and had the name of Blafphemy upon him, began to fit in the See of Rome. This whole Hiftory I fhall first give you in the words of that great Man, A. B. Laud in his excellent P. 116. 117. Book against Fiber the Jefuit; and then in the forenamed Popes own words. The A. B. then giving an account of the gradual Rife of the Popes to their greatnefs under the Chriftian Emperors; and being come towards the end of the fixth Century, He thus proceeds. About this time brake out the ambition of John Patriarch of Conftantinople affecting to be Univerfal Bishop. He was countenanc'd in this by Mauritius the Emperor; but fourly oppos'd by Pelagius and St. Gregory; in fo much that St. Gregory plainly fays this pride of his fhews that the times of Antichrift were 'near. So as yet; (and this was near upon the point of fix hun dred years after Chrift;) there was no Univerfal Bishop, no one Monarch over the whole Militant Church. But Man"ritius being depos'd and murdered by Phocas, Phocas confer'd upon Boniface the third that very Honour that two of his Predeceffors had declaim'd againft, as Monftrous and Blafphe'mous, if not Antichriftian. Where, by the way, either thefe "two Popes Pelagius and St. Gregory err'd in this weighty bufinefs about an Univerfal Bifhop over the whole Church; or if they did not erre, Boniface and the reft which after him took it upon them, were in their very Predecessors judgment Antichriftian. I fhall now produce Pope Pelagius's and St Gregory's fenfe in their own words. See also Bp. 2. chap. 6. Sciat fe tamen & ipfe Joannes, nifi errorem fuum cito correxerit, a nobis excommunicandum fore:-Univerfalitatis quoque nomen, quod fibi illicite ufurpavit, nolite attendere: - Nullus enim Patriarcharum hoc tam profano vocabulo unquam utatur :— Perpenditis, Fratres Chariffimi, quid e vicino fubfequatur, cum &in Sacerdotibus erumpunt tam perverfa primordia. Quia enim juxta eft illi de quo fcriptum eft, ipfe eft Rex fuper univerfos filios fuperbia. Ep. 8. Pelag. II. Apud. Concil. Tom. 4. p. 476. Confacerdos meus Joannes vocari Univerfalis Epifcopus Conatur: Exclamare compellor ac dicere O Tempora! O Mores! Sacer |