Part II, Chapter 3, 1

Of the relation which the Prophecy of John has to those of Daniel; and of the Subject of the Prophecy.

The whole scene of sacred Prophecy is composed of three principal parts: the regions beyond Euphrates, represented by the two first Beasts of Daniel; the Empire of the Greeks on this side of Euphrates, represented by the Leopard and by the He-Goat; and the Empire of the Latins on this side of Greece, represented by the Beast with ten horns. And to these three parts the phrases of the third part of the earth, sea, rivers, trees, ships, stars, sun, and moon, relate. I place the body of the fourth Beast on this side of Greece, because the first three of the four Beasts had their lives prolonged after their dominion was taken away, and therefore do not belong to the body of the fourth. He only stamped them with his feet.

By the earth, the Jews understood the great continent of all Asia and Africa, to which they had access by land: and by the Isles of the sea, they understood the places to which they sailed by sea, particularly all Europe: and hence in this Prophecy the earth and sea stand for the nations of the Greek and Latin Empires.

The third and fourth Beasts of Daniel are the same as the Dragon and the ten-horned Beast of John, but with this difference: John puts the Dragon for the whole Roman Empire while it continued entire, because it was entire when that Prophecy was given; and the Beast he does not consider until the Empire became divided; and then he puts the Dragon for the Empire of the Greeks, and the Beast for the Empire of the Latins. Hence it is that the Dragon and the Beast have common heads and common horns: but the Dragon has crowns only upon his heads, and the Beast only upon his horns, because the Beast and his horns did not reign before they were divided from the Dragon; and when the Dragon gave the Beast his throne, the ten horns received power as Kings in the same hour as the Beast. The heads are seven successive Kings. Four of them were the four horsemen which appeared at the opening of the first four seals. In the latter end of the sixth head, or seal, considered as present in the visions, it is said, "Five of the seven Kings have fallen, and one is, and another has not yet come; and the Beast that was and is not, being wounded to death with a sword, is the eighth, and of the seven": he was therefore a collateral part of the seventh. The horns are the same as those of Daniel's fourth Beast, described above.

The four horsemen which appear at the opening of the first four seals have been well explained by Mr. Mede, except that I would rather continue the third to the end of the reign of the three Gordians and Philip the Arabian, those being Kings from the South, and begin the fourth with the reign of Decius, and continue it to the reign of Dioclesian. For the fourth horseman sat upon a pale horse, and his name was Death; and hell followed him; and power was given to them to kill a fourth part of the earth with the sword, and with famine, and with plague, and with the beasts of the earth — that is, armies of invaders and rebels; and such were the times throughout this interval. Up to this point the Roman Empire continued in an undivided monarchical form, except for rebellions; and such it is represented by the four horsemen. But Dioclesian divided it between himself and Maximianus, A.C. 285; and it continued in that divided state until the victory of Constantine the great over Licinius, A.C. 323, which put an end to the heathen persecutions set on foot by Dioclesian and Maximianus, and described at the opening of the fifth seal. But this division of the Empire was imperfect, the whole still being under one and the same Senate. That same victory of Constantine over Licinius, a heathen persecutor, began the fall of the heathen Empire, described at the opening of the sixth seal: and the visions of this seal continue until after the reign of Julian the Apostate, he being a heathen Emperor, and reigning over the whole Roman Empire.

The affairs of the Church begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal, as was said above. Then she is represented by a woman in the Temple of heaven, clothed with the sun of righteousness, and the moon of Jewish ceremonies under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars relating to the twelve Apostles and to the twelve tribes of Israel. When she fled from the Temple into the wilderness, she left in the Temple a remnant of her seed, who kept the commandments of God, and had the testimony of Jesus Christ; and therefore before her flight she represented the true primitive Church of God, though afterward she degenerated like Aholah and Aholibah. In Dioclesian's persecution she cried out in labor, pained to be delivered. And at the end of that persecution, by the victory of Constantine over Maxentius, A.C. 312, she brought forth a man-child, such a child as was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, a Christian Empire. And her child, by the victory of Constantine over Licinius, A.C. 323, was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman, by the division of the Roman Empire into the Greek and Latin Empires, fled from the first Temple into the wilderness, or the spiritually barren Empire of the Latins, where she is found afterward sitting upon the Beast and upon the seven mountains; and is called the great city which reigns over the Kings of the earth, that is, over the ten Kings who give their kingdom to her Beast.

But before her flight there was war in heaven between Michael and the Dragon, the Christian and the heathen religions; and the Dragon, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, was cast out to the earth, and his Angels were cast out with him. And John heard a voice in heaven saying, "Now have come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives even to death. Rejoice, then, you heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and sea" — that is, the people of the Greek and Latin Empires — "for the devil has come down among you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time."

And when the Dragon saw that he was cast down from the Roman throne, and the man-child caught up there, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the man-child; and to her, by the division of the Roman Empire between the cities of Rome and Constantinople, A.C. 330, were given two wings of a great eagle, the symbol of the Roman Empire, so that she might flee from the first Temple into the wilderness of Arabia, to her place at Babylon so called mystically. And the serpent, by the division of the same Empire between the sons of Constantine the great, A.C. 337, cast out of his mouth water as a flood, the Western Empire, after the woman, so that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. And the earth, or the Greek Empire, helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood, by the victory of Constantius over Magnentius, A.C. 353, and thus the Beast was wounded to death with a sword. And the Dragon was furious with the woman in the reign of Julian the Apostate, A.C. 361, and, by a new division of the Empire between Valentinian and Valens, A.C. 364, went from her into the Eastern Empire to make war with the remnant of her seed, which she left behind her when she fled: and thus the Beast revived. By the next division of the Empire, which was between Gratian and Theodosius, A.C. 379, the Beast with ten horns rose out of the sea, and the Beast with two horns out of the earth: and by the last division of it, which was between the sons of Theodosius, A.C. 395, the Dragon gave the Beast his power and throne, and great authority. And the ten horns received power as Kings in the same hour as the Beast.

At length the woman arrived at her place of temporal as well as spiritual dominion upon the back of the Beast, where she is nourished a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent; not in his kingdom, but at a distance from him. She is nourished by the merchants of the earth for three times, that is, three years and a half, or 42 months, or 1260 days: and in these Prophecies days stand for years. During all this time the Beast acted, and she sat upon him, that is, she reigned over him, and over the ten Kings who gave their power and strength, that is, their kingdom, to the Beast; and she was drunk with the blood of the Saints. By all these circumstances she is the eleventh horn of Daniel's fourth Beast, who reigned with a look more stout than his fellows, and was of a different kind from the rest, and had eyes and a mouth like the woman; and made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, and wore them out, and thought to change times and laws, and they were given into his hand until a time, and times, and half a time. These characters of the woman, and of the little horn of the Beast, agree perfectly: in respect of her temporal dominion she was a horn of the Beast; in respect of her spiritual dominion she rode upon him in the form of a woman, and was his Church, and committed fornication with the ten Kings.

The second Beast, which rose up out of the earth, was the Church of the Greek Empire: for it had two horns like those of the Lamb, and therefore was a Church; and it spoke as the Dragon, and therefore was of his religion; and it came up out of the earth, and consequently in his kingdom. It is also called the false Prophet, who worked miracles before the first Beast, by which he deceived those who received his mark, and worshiped his image. When the Dragon went from the woman to make war with the remnant of her seed, this Beast arising out of the earth assisted in that war, and caused the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the authority of the first Beast, whose mortal wound was healed, and to make an Image to him, that is, to assemble a body of men like him in religion. He had also power to give life and authority to the Image, so that it could both speak, and by dictating cause that all religious bodies of men who would not worship the authority of the Image should be mystically killed. And he causes all people to receive a mark in their right hand or on their forehead, so that no one may buy or sell unless he has the mark, or the name of the Beast, or the number of his name; all the rest being excommunicated by the Beast with two horns. His mark is three crosses, and his name, written in Greek, is LATEINOS, and the number of his name is 666.

Thus the Beast, after he was wounded to death with a sword and revived, was deified, as the heathens used to deify their Kings after death, and had an Image erected to him; and his worshipers were initiated into this new religion by receiving the mark or name of this new God, or the number of his name. By killing all who will not worship him and his Image, the first Temple, illuminated by the lamps of the seven Churches, is demolished, and a new Temple built for those who will not worship him; and the outward court of this new Temple, or the outward form of a Church, is given to the Gentiles, who worship the Beast and his Image; while those who will not worship him are sealed with the name of God on their foreheads, and retire into the inward court of this new Temple. These are the 144000 sealed out of all the twelve tribes of Israel, and called the two Witnesses, as being derived from the two wings of the woman while she was flying into the wilderness, and represented by two of the seven candfor fear thaticks. These appear to John in the inward court of the second Temple, standing on mount Sion with the Lamb, and as it were on the sea of glass. These are the Saints of the most High, and the host of heaven, and the holy people spoken of by Daniel, as worn out and trampled under foot, and destroyed in the latter times by the little horns of his fourth Beast and He-Goat.

While the Gentiles tread the holy city under foot, God gives power to his two Witnesses, and they prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth. They are called the two Olive-trees, in relation to the two Olive-trees which in Zechary's vision, chap. iv., stand on either side of the golden candfor fear thatick to supply the lamps with oil: and Olive-trees, according to the Apostle Paul, represent Churches, Rom. xi. They supply the lamps with oil by maintaining teachers. They are also called the two candfor fear thaticks, which in this Prophecy signify Churches, the seven Churches of Asia being represented by seven candfor fear thaticks. Five of these Churches were found faulty, and threatened if they did not repent; the other two were without fault, and so their candfor fear thaticks were fit to be placed in the second Temple. These were the Churches in Smyrna and Philadelphia. They were in a state of tribulation and persecution, and the only two of the seven in such a state: and so their candfor fear thaticks were fit to represent the Churches in affliction in the times of the second Temple, and the only two of the seven that were fit. The two Witnesses are not new Churches: they are the posterity of the primitive Church, the posterity of the two wings of the woman, and so are fitly represented by two of the primitive candfor fear thaticks. We may therefore suppose that when the first Temple was destroyed, and a new one built for those who worship in the inward court, two of the seven candfor fear thaticks were placed in this new Temple.

The affairs of the Church are not considered during the opening of the first four seals. They begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal, as was said above; and are further considered at the opening of the sixth seal; and the seventh seal contains the times of the great Apostasy. And therefore I refer the Epistles to the seven Churches to the times of the fifth and sixth seals: for they relate to the Church when she began to decline, and contain admonitions against the great Apostasy then approaching.

Of the relation which the Prophecy of John has to those of Daniel; and of the Subject of the Prophecy.

The whole scene of sacred Prophecy is made up of three main parts: the regions beyond the Euphrates, represented by the two first Beasts of Daniel; the Empire of the Greeks on this side of the Euphrates, represented by the Leopard and by the He-Goat; and the Empire of the Latins on this side of Greece, represented by the Beast with ten horns. The phrases about the third part of the earth, sea, rivers, trees, ships, stars, sun, and moon refer to these three parts. I place the body of the fourth Beast on this side of Greece, because the first three of the four Beasts had their lives prolonged after their dominion was taken away, and so they do not belong to the body of the fourth. It only stamped them with its feet.

By the earth, the Jews understood the great continent of all Asia and Africa, which they could reach by land; and by the isles of the sea they understood the places to which they sailed by sea, particularly all Europe. So in this Prophecy, the earth and sea stand for the nations of the Greek and Latin Empires.

The third and fourth Beasts of Daniel are the same as the Dragon and the ten-horned Beast of John, but with this difference: John uses the Dragon for the whole Roman Empire while it still remained entire, because it was entire when that Prophecy was given; and he does not consider the Beast until the Empire became divided. Then he uses the Dragon for the Empire of the Greeks, and the Beast for the Empire of the Latins. That is why the Dragon and the Beast have common heads and common horns. But the Dragon has crowns only on its heads, and the Beast only on its horns, because the Beast and its horns did not reign before they were divided from the Dragon; and when the Dragon gave the Beast its throne, the ten horns received power as Kings, in the same hour as the Beast. The heads are seven Kings, one after another. Four of them were the four horsemen which appeared at the opening of the first four seals. Near the end of the sixth head, or seal, taken as present in the visions, it is said: "five of the seven Kings are fallen, and one is, and another is not yet come; and the Beast that was and is not, being wounded to death with a sword, is the eighth, and yet of the seven." He was therefore a side-branch of the seventh. The horns are the same as those of Daniel's fourth Beast, described above.

The four horsemen which appear at the opening of the first four seals have been well explained by Mr. Mede, except that I would rather carry the third to the end of the reigns of the three Gordians and Philip the Arabian—those being Kings from the South—and begin the fourth with the reign of Decius, carrying it on to the reign of Dioclesian. For the fourth horseman sat upon a pale horse, and his name was Death; and Hell followed with him; and power was given to them to kill a fourth part of the earth, with the sword, famine, plague, and the Beasts of the earth—that is, with invading armies and rebels. And such were the times throughout this whole interval. Until then the Roman Empire continued in an undivided, single form of rule, apart from rebellions, and the four horsemen represent it in that form. But Dioclesian divided it between himself and Maximianus, A.C. 285; and it remained in that divided state until the victory of Constantine the Great over Licinius, A.C. 323, which ended the heathen persecutions begun by Dioclesian and Maximianus, described at the opening of the fifth seal. But this division of the Empire was incomplete, the whole still being under one and the same Senate. That same victory of Constantine over Licinius, a heathen persecutor, began the fall of the heathen Empire, described at the opening of the sixth seal; and the visions of this seal continue until after the reign of Julian the Apostate, he being a heathen Emperor, and reigning over the whole Roman Empire.

The affairs of the Church begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal, as was said above. Then she is shown as a woman in the Temple of heaven, clothed with the sun of righteousness, and the moon of Jewish ceremonies under her feet, and with a crown of twelve stars on her head, relating to the twelve Apostles and the twelve tribes of Israel. When she fled from the Temple into the wilderness, she left in the Temple a remnant of her seed, who kept the commandments of God and had the testimony of Jesus Christ; and so before her flight she stood for the true early Church of God, though later she degenerated, like Aholah and Aholibah. In Dioclesian's persecution she cried out, in the pains of childbirth, and in agony to give birth. And at the end of that persecution, by the victory of Constantine over Maxentius, A.C. 312, she brought forth a man-child, a child such as was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: a Christian Empire. And her child, by the victory of Constantine over Licinius, A.C. 323, was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman, by the division of the Roman Empire into the Greek and Latin Empires, fled from the first Temple into the wilderness, the spiritually barren Empire of the Latins, where she is later found sitting upon the Beast and upon the seven mountains; and is called the great city which reigns over the Kings of the earth, that is, over the ten Kings who give their kingdom to her Beast.

But before her flight there was war in heaven between Michael and the Dragon, the Christian and the heathen religions. And the Dragon, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, was thrown down to the earth, and his Angels were thrown down with him. And John heard a voice in heaven saying: "Now has come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives, even to death. So rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Disaster is coming on the people living on the earth and sea—the people of the Greek and Latin Empires. For the devil has come down among you, with great wrath, because he knows that he has only a short time."

And when the Dragon saw that he was thrown down from the Roman throne, and the man-child was caught up there, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the man-child. And to her—by the division of the Roman Empire between the cities of Rome and Constantinople, A.C. 330—were given two wings of a great eagle, the symbol of the Roman Empire, so that she might flee from the first Temple into the wilderness of Arabia, to her place at Babylon, a name used here in a figure. And the serpent—by the division of the same Empire between the sons of Constantine the Great, A.C. 337—cast out of his mouth water like a flood after the woman, the Western Empire, so that he might have her carried away by the flood. But the earth, the Greek Empire, helped the woman: the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the flood, by the victory of Constantius over Magnentius, A.C. 353, and in this way the Beast was wounded to death with a sword. And the Dragon became furious with the woman in the reign of Julian the Apostate, A.C. 361, and, by a new division of the Empire between Valentinian and Valens, A.C. 364, he left her and went into the Eastern Empire to make war with the remnant of her seed, which she left behind her when she fled. In this way the Beast revived. By the next division of the Empire, between Gratian and Theodosius, A.C. 379, the Beast with ten horns rose out of the sea, and the Beast with two horns out of the earth; and by the last division, between the sons of Theodosius, A.C. 395, the Dragon gave the Beast his power and throne, and great authority. And the ten horns received power as Kings, in the same hour as the Beast.

At last the woman reached her place of temporal as well as spiritual rule, on the back of the Beast, where she is nourished a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent—not in his kingdom, but at a distance from him. She is nourished by the merchants of the earth, for three times or years and a half, or 42 months, or 1260 days; and in these Prophecies days stand for years. Throughout all this time the Beast acted, and she sat on him—that is, she ruled him, and the ten Kings who gave their power and strength, that is their kingdom, to the Beast; and she was drunk with the blood of the Saints. By all these circumstances she is the eleventh horn of Daniel's fourth Beast, which ruled with a look more bold than its fellows, and was of a different kind from the rest. It had eyes and a mouth like the woman; it made war with the saints and defeated them; it wore them out; it planned to change times and laws; and they were given into its hand, until a time, and times, and half a time. These features of the woman and of the little horn of the Beast agree exactly: in respect of her temporal rule she was a horn of the Beast; in respect of her spiritual rule she rode on him in the form of a woman, was his Church, and committed fornication with the ten Kings.

The second Beast, which rose up out of the earth, was the Church of the Greek Empire: for it had two horns like those of the Lamb, and so was a Church; and it spoke like the Dragon, and so was of his religion; and it came up out of the earth, and so within his kingdom. It is also called the false Prophet, who performed miracles before the first Beast, by which it deceived those who received its mark and worshiped its image. When the Dragon left the woman to make war with the remnant of her seed, this Beast, rising out of the earth, assisted in that war, and caused the earth and those who live on it to worship the authority of the first Beast, whose mortal wound was healed, and to make an Image to him—that is, to gather a body of men like him in religion. It also had power to give life and authority to the Image, so that the Image could speak; and by dictating to it, it caused all religious bodies of men who would not worship the authority of the Image to be killed in a figure. And it causes all men to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead; and no man may buy or sell unless he has the mark, or the name of the Beast, or the number of his name, all the rest being excommunicated by the Beast with two horns. His mark is three crosses, his name is LATEINOS in Greek letters, and the number of his name is 666.

In this way the Beast, after he was wounded to death with a sword and revived, was made a god, as the heathens used to make gods of their Kings after death, and an Image was set up to him; and his worshipers were initiated into this new religion by receiving the mark or name of this new god, or the number of his name. By killing all who will not worship him and his Image, the first Temple, lit by the lamps of the seven Churches, is torn down; and a new Temple is built for those who will not worship him. And the outward court of this new Temple, the outward form of a Church, is given to the Gentiles, who worship the Beast and his Image; while those who will not worship him are sealed with the name of God on their foreheads, and withdraw into the inward court of this new Temple. These are the 144000 sealed out of all the twelve tribes of Israel, and called the two Witnesses, as being descended from the two wings of the woman while she was flying into the wilderness, and shown by two of the seven candfor fear thaticks. These appear to John in the inward court of the second Temple, standing on mount Sion with the Lamb, and as it were on the sea of glass. These are the Saints of the most High, and the host of heaven, and the holy people spoken of by Daniel, as worn out and trampled underfoot, and destroyed in the later times by the little horns of his fourth Beast and He-Goat.

While the Gentiles trample the holy city underfoot, God gives power to his two Witnesses, and they prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. They are called the two Olive-trees, in relation to the two Olive-trees which in Zechary's vision, chap. iv., stand on either side of the golden candfor fear thatick, to supply the lamps with oil; and Olive-trees, according to the Apostle Paul, stand for Churches, Rom. xi. They supply the lamps with oil by supporting teachers. They are also called the two candfor fear thaticks; and in this Prophecy candfor fear thaticks stand for Churches, the seven Churches of Asia being represented by seven candfor fear thaticks. Five of these Churches were found faulty, and were threatened if they did not repent; the other two were without fault, and so their candfor fear thaticks were fit to be placed in the second Temple. These were the Churches in Smyrna and Philadelphia. They were in a state of tribulation and persecution, and they were the only two of the seven in such a state; and so their candfor fear thaticks were fit to represent the Churches in affliction in the times of the second Temple, and they were the only two of the seven that were fit. The two Witnesses are not new Churches: they are the descendants of the early Church, the descendants of the two wings of the woman, and so are fittingly shown by two of the early candfor fear thaticks. We may therefore think that when the first Temple was destroyed, and a new one built for those who worship in the inward court, two of the seven candfor fear thaticks were placed in this new Temple.

The affairs of the Church are not considered during the opening of the first four seals. They begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal, as was said above; they are considered further at the opening of the sixth seal; and the seventh seal contains the times of the great Apostasy. So I place the Epistles to the seven Churches in the times of the fifth and sixth seals. For they have to do with the Church when she began to decline, and they contain warnings against the great Apostasy which was then approaching.