0 of tbe REVELATION. Holy Gho!l: affixeth this Empire to the City of Rome as the Seat.of it, which he (;~~ calleth Se'llen-headcd, in refpe/1: of her Seven Htlls, and fo meanerh not that Ea- ~ fiern.Empire, whereof Conjlaniinople wa~ the Seat. Now this Wd!ern Empire; whole Seat was Rome, began then to be taken away, and the fir!l: foundation of its Ruin laid, when the Goths and Vandals (of whom you heard under the Trumpets) began to break that Empire into thefe Ten Kingdoms; and the beginning of the firft Kingdombroken off from the Empire,, was m, the Year 410, the Emperor by Covenant allowing the Goths to (et rip a Kingdom in .Fr.<mrf •. Then was RomeaJro fir!l: f.tck'd and iaken by thole Barbarops Nations, and flrft loll: her Virginity; and Honoriut the Emperor, to recove\.Rome_again, and refiore it to her former flourilhtng E!l:ate, was forced to part wtth one ptece of the Empire, namely France, which was the firft of all the Ten Kingdoms that were broken ofE And in the Year 4 I 2, he was forced to grant to the Ht,mnes to do the like. And Anno 4 I 5, he was forced to grant the like to theGoths in See SigoniUI ,Spain. And by the Year 456, all the Ten ~ere up, who gave thei~ Power to de lmpm•. the Bea!t. And this punll:ually agrees with what the Holy Ghoft lays more ex- Occu!in~•lt, prefly of the very hour of Antichrill's Riling, Chap. 1 7· I2. That the Ten Kin!ls bb.to,u. Jhould begin to receive Power a< Kings, one ho11r with the '13eajl, and the Beait on~. hour with th.em; the Holy Ghofi reckoning from . the b,eginning of the firfi of thefe Ten Kingdoms, the Riling of the Beafr, becaufe therein was laid the firft Foundation of his Empire over thefe Ten KiQgdoms, for tliey were to fet hini up. And (which is fl:range) :Jerome, who lived in the Times .of thi; firfr Incurlion of thcfe Barbarous Nations, and wrote fo complainingly of it, (who died about theYear 42o.)when he lawRome taken,and the Goths obtain pieces of the Weftern Empire, faid, (then in ibofe Times when it was a doing) in his Epiflle, ad GerO!ltium, f(!!i tenebat de medio fit, & non intelligimus Anti-chriJiu":' appropinq11are. He Ceeing the Empire begin tdbreak, (aid, Antichrifi mufl needs be at hand. Some read, [,.Amn ~e)ov J as importing the Rife of the(e Tc11 Kingdoms, to be after the Beaft fir!l: rifen ·; which if meant of the Time, when thefe Ten Horns were compleat!y grown up, is true;, for, in Nature the Horns grow up afrer the Birth of the Bean that beareth them.But wliethet it beafter the Beajl, or with the Beajl,it was but1ne ho11r after the Beajl, or one ho11r with the Beaji; frill implying, that both the Rife of the one, and of the other; were near in Time, and in the fame Age. And if the Time be reckonrd frorri the very fir£\: Rife of that firft Kingdom in Fra.ce, granted unto the Goths, Auno410. it will appear, that it fell out together, or not an hour after the Rife of that Be1f, from wholeTime the CemuriHs and others have made the Birth of the Beafr to have been, though his Conception were before. And indeed, it Co happened, through God's Providence (who made all things concur in this one ho11r) that he_ who was as then Pope, .(namely lnnocenti11s the Firfl; created Pope (as Come fay) Anno 404, (Come 406) began to ufitrp and challenge Jurifdiction over ~ll Churches, (as l could out of many Authorities lhew, out you may fee it in Simpfon's HiHory of the Church, in Englilh, 2. Book, 5· Cent.ury) and did fet OQ foot that famous FaHification of the Canons of theNicene Council, as pre" tending that they gave thefe Bilhops of Rome that Power; for which, there is . an Epi(\Je of ihis'lmiocentius among the* Epi(\Jes of Ang•ifline, where he Writing* F.pi}i.<ji; to Augufline, .and the ~efl of the AfricanBi(hops affembled, challengeth Power · over all, ex Patrmn illorulii lnjlitutis, from the Decrees of thole Fathers of Nice, ~hich his Succeifors afterwards profecuted: fo that a Copy out of the Autbentick Records of that Council, !ield in the Time of Confl•ntine, was Cent for, by which this Fallificatibn wasdetell:ed. This Man alfo began firfr to arr<;Jgate a Power_ over Princes ; for be Excommunicated the Eaftern Emperor Arcadius (who y.et. was .out of his Jurifdill:ion) for baniH1ing Cbtyfojlon'; which no Bilhop of Rome.before him had ever adventured to do ; and this in the Year 407, (the Copy of whole Bull of Excoriununication is" extant to this Day). In his * l B . Time alfo, the Er)lperor Honorius granted the Clergy an Exemption from Secu- {; 4'0~10 iar Power, and Ciyil Tribunals; fo making them a diftin/1: Body for the Pope ;:;.;."m ·~ the1r Head. ~ee here the firft and (econd Beafl (in this Chapter) riling both aogether, firft m this Pope's proud ufurping over Church" and Princes, and then
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