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to say, Rome. Now how will the ten Kings, that must not come till the end of the World, according to them, be able to make defolate and burn Rome Pagan, which hath no longer been in being for above 1300. years? The ten Kings affociated with Antichrift only three years and a half before the end of the World will be able to make defolate no other Rome, than what will then be in being. Now Pagan Rome will be no more; it will be Rome Chriftian, whofe Empire he supposes muft fubfift to the end of the World, and to the reign of Antichrift. Men must have loft their understanding, and be given up to a reprobate fenfe, fo to contradict both themselves and the Truth with fo much dishonesty,

Laftly, it is clear by the following Chapter, which is the 18th, that the great City which reigneth over the kings of the earth, cannot be Rome Pagan, but Rome Antichriftian. In the 18th Chap. he calls her Babylon, whom juft before he called the great city; and even the popish Interpreters agree alfo, that that Babylon is Rome. Now he defcribes the fall of that Babylon, i. c. of Rome, in fuch a manner as cannot agree to any other but Rome Antichriftian. First, He faith, that all Na2 V. 3. tions have drank of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. We have already feen, that this fignifies that Idolatry, to which Babylon hath drawn the Nations by her Charms and Enchantments, which doth not agree to Rome Pagan. Secondly, V.A He faith, come out of Babylon my people, that ye be not partakers of her fins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 'Tis plain, this cannot be underftood of any thing but of an Idolatrous Church, whence God would draw forth his Elect. God never commanded his faithful Servants to go out

of

18. v.21.

The confeffion of

Papifts,

that Rome

of Rome Pagan, they always remained in it. Thirdly, and laftly; the manner in which the ruin of this Babylon is described, can by no means agree to Rome Pagan. The Holy Spirit reprefents it as a City burnt, and entirely reduced to afhes; the Merchants whereof, and they that gained by her, behold her defolation and her burning afar off. And to conclude, he fignifies, that it must be fuch a fall, from which the hall never rise again. And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great Mill-ftone and caft it into the fea, faying, Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. Now this is not yet happened to Rome, the hath been taken, and retaken, and pillaged feveral times; but yet fhe fubfifts ftill; fo that this can't be understood, but of the last ruin, that must happen to Rome Antichriftian.

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And thus you have the proofs that fhew, that that Rome, which all the popish Interpreters as well as we, do find in the 17th and 18 th Chap. of the. Revelation, cannot be Rome Pagan: proofs which. I call a demonftration; for I maintain, there is no man, that can refift the force of them.

And the modern popish Interpreters have felt the the modern force of them. At this day they do confefs, that it is not Rome Pagan. But fee what they fay, must be the viz. that that Rome that now is, towards the end feat of An- of the World, fhall be corrupted, become idolaRibera. trous, debauched; that the fhall shake off the yoke Viega. Cor- of Jefus Chrift, and carry her disorders as far as

Bichrift.

melíus à

Lapide.

Rome Pagan. But yet however, that it must not be the feat of Antichrift; who must be accompanied with his ten Kings, have his habitation at Jerufalem, and come to Rome when it is turn'd Idolatrous and Pagan, to deftroy and ruin it; as

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he will alfo do. See the words of Viega on the eighteenth of the Revelation. One may plainly gather from the infinite number of precious merchan difes, and of all forts that are here noted, that Rome in the last times after her Apoftacy, shall attain to foveraign power, and great riches, and that her Empire shall extend it felf throughout the World upon the ten Kings fo often named. For that these mighty riches do not belong to Rome Pagan; it is clear by these words, Comé forth of Babylon, my people. For this shews, that 'tis not ancient Rome that is here fpoken of, in which there were no faitbfull ones; but that Rome that shall flourish in the laft times. Then therefore the City of Rome shall greatly flourish, and its Empire shall be very large. She shall live in pleasures, and have great abundance of all things. And at the fame time, she shall be enflaved to Idolatry, be full of Superftitions, facrifice to Daemons and falfe Deities. And by reason of the vast quantity of the blood of the Saints, that shall be shed by her under the Emperours of Rome, by a terrible but a very righteous judgement of God, she shall at last be made defolate, and burnt by ten Kings. See what the force and evidence of the truth hath drawn from the mouth of the worshippers of Rome.

What prodigious whimfies are these? To what extremity muit these men have been reduced? The Scripture fpeaks of but one Antichriftian Empire; The Church never imagin'd there was more than one, and lo here are men that make a couple. The first fhall be in Rome corrupted; for according to them, Rome in the last days muft have a great Empire, muft fubdue Kingdoms, and draw them together with her felf into a revolt from fefus Chrift. Lo therefore, there's one

Antichriftian Empire at Rome: what need have we of another Antichrift fitting at Jerufalem? Moreover, this Chimera is founded on this principle, that the Beast in the 13th Chapt. which according to them represents Antichrift, is not the fame with the Beast in the 17th Chap. with the great City that ruleth over the Kings of the Earth, and with Babylon fpoken of in the 14th and the 18th Chapt. Now we have confuted this ridiculous imagination, and have demonstrated that Babylon, the great City, the Beast of the 13th and the 18th Chapter are the fame thing.

This Chimara is fo ill to be defended, that the more modern Papists have abandon'd it, and at laft have been forced to acknowledge, that Rome must be the feat of Antichrift; that the great City fpoken of in the 11th Chapter, where Jefus Chrift was crucified, is not ferufalem, but spiritual Babylon,fpoken of afterwards: and Bernard de Montreuil that hath write fince the reft, though he retains that ancient dream, that Antichrift muft come out of ferufalem; yet he confeffes however, that the Babylonish Empire and the Antichriftian are not two Empires, that muft fucceed one another, and the one destroy the other, according to the fuppofition of those we were just now fpeaking of. He confeffeth that Rome shall be the chief City of Antichrift's party, that Antichrift must defend it, and that the ten Kings of the Beast are the fubjects of its grandeure, and that of Antichrift, the head of the League, the Monarch of the time. He calls Antichrift the Prince of the Apocalyptical Babylon. And he confeffeth, that this Babylon is Rome; therefore he acknowledgeth, that Rome must be Antichriftian, and the capital City of Antichrift. Babylon, faith he,

On the

is the Mistress, the Queen, the Empress of the kingdom of Antichrift. Not daring to call Rome Babylon, he defines it however by Western Babylon 24. Chapt who being perverted, instead of obeying the Laws of the piety of the first age, shall in her pride caufe her felf to be called the great and the independant, and shall become much worfe under the reign of Antichrift, than ever Eastern Babylon was. After thefe confeffions, there remains no other help for the popish Doctors, to hinder their Rome from being acknowledged to be Rome Antichriftian, but the Chimara of the three years and a half's duration of Antichrifts kingdom..

It is true, fay they, that Rome must be poffeffed by Antichrift, that he must establish Idolatry there, that Rome muft become worse than Rome Pagan was in the time of St. John, and than Eastern Babylon in the time of the Prophets; but this must laft but three years and a half. When therefore we have destroyed this ridiculous dream of three natural years and a half, we shall have demonstrated, that Rome at this day is the true Seat of Antichrift, and then I fhall make them this Argument.

Babylon in the Revelation is the feat of the Antichrifiian Empire, the fame thing with the proftitute Woman, with the Beast with feven heads and ten horns. All this is Rome become Antichriftian, and the feat of Antichrift. Which is plain, either by what hath been invincibly proved, or what the Papifts themselves have confeffed. Now this Antichriftian Roman Empire muft endure, not 1260. natural days, but 1260. prophetical days, i. e. 1260. years.

Therefore it is evident, that the Antichriftian Empire, which must be at Rome, cannot be that chimerical Empire of Antichrift of three years and

a half,

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