Part 21

[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. VITRINGA, _Apocalyps: Exp. & Illustr._ p. 762.

[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, 12^{o}.

[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_ [4^{eme} _disc. sur l’hist. ecclesiastique_, p. 173. Par. 1747, 12^{o}.]

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, 12^{o}.

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, 12^{o}.—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.

M. BOSSUET, _Exposition de la doctrine de l’Eglise Catholique_, p. 17, 18. Paris, 1671.

[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.” _Mede, Works_, p. 662.

[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. _Lactant. Div. Inst._ l. v. p. 417. _ed. Sparke_.

[251] Ἐγελᾶτο δὲ τὰ θεῖα, καὶ τοὺς τῶν προφητῶν θεσμοὺς ὥσπερ ἀγυρτικὰς λογοποιΐας, ἐχλεύαζον· Fl. Joseph. B. J. l. iv. 6.

[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.

[Transcriber’s Note:

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.

Greek words beginning with ϖ have had the character replaced with π.]