and Son.) This is a publick Profession against the Father and Son, and the most evident Character of Antichrift, and not of the Pope. See the Turkish Liturgy, by Albert Babovius, with the Notes. Some REMARK S on the feveral Interpretations of the Revela tions. Every Age has attempted to expound the Revelations according to the Circumstances of the Hiftories of their own times. 1. The first Interpretation was traditional from the Difciples of St. John, and their Succeffors in the first three hundred Years, and this concern'd chiefly the coming of Antichrift, Jefus Chrift's fecond coming, and the Millennium. 2. At the end of the fourth Century, St. Auftin and St. Ferom allegorically interpreted the Revelations, and all Prophefies, as chiefly relating to Chrift's first planting of Christianity; and this Notion has been improv'd by Grotius and Dr. Hammond, but they deny'd the Millennium. 3. At the beginning of the Reformation the Albigenfes, about the 12th Century, call'd the Pope Antichrift, and thought the Wo Woman crown'd with twelve Stars reprefented him. 4. Luther, in the fixteenth Century, believ'd the Turk was the little Horn in Daniel, and confequently the Antichrift in the Eaft. 5. The Calvinists Opinion, that the Pope is Antichrift, was defended by Napier, who indeed gives a good Account of the Prophetical Day for a Year, but he mistakes the rife of the Popedom, anno 316, and in his Time (1588) the History of the Turks was imperfect, he did not distinguish the Saracens and Turks; and he makes the World to end in 1700. 6. Mr. Mede follow'd Napier, but has better explain'd the beginning of the Revelations, the deftruction of the Jews and Heathen Emperors, and Rife of the ten Horns; but he afterwards deferts the History, makes no diftinction of the Eastern and Western Churches, is misled by his Synchronisms, and makes all the rest of the Prophefie relate to the Pope, as the Calvinifts do. All Expofitors have follow'd the fame confufion of the Prophefies. The Reason why the Proteftants mistook the Pope for the great Antichrift, was, his Cruelty to them by burning, and the Wars he excited against them: The Turk then, by his frequent Invafions of Hungary, diverted the German Emperor from his defign'd Perfecutions of them. Y 4 I have I have here accommodated the Prophefies to the past History of the Roman Empire, and the Chriftian Churches both in the East and Weft, and must leave it to be corrected by future Ages, my design being to fhew, that the Sibylline Oracles defcribe the Rife, Conqueft, and Destruction of the Ottoman Empire, and alfo the Roman State in the Weft; and they make the Saracen and Ottoman Princes the great Antichrift. A Collection of fome farther Teftimonies concerning the Sibyls. HE TE firft relates the burning of the firft Sibylline Oracles 80 Years before Chrift; and, that the Romans collected them again 76 Years before Christ, from Samos, Ilium, Erythris, Afric, Sicily, Italy: Datog, facerdotibus negotio, quantum humana ope potuiffent, vera difcernere. This History is attefted by Tacitus, Ann. lib. 6. Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus delivers the fame, and quotes it from Varro. Feneftella and Lactantius confirm it. Whether they were infpir'd, or taken from the Jews, he does not determine, but allows that the Chriftians often quoted 'en', and the Roman Authors; and these he admits of, but none of those added in future Ages. Bishop Beveridge quotes thefe Teftimonies for the Cracles: 1. Juftin's Apology, publish'd A. D. 141, or 142, in which the Sibyls are quoted, (which Blondel believes to be forg❜d A. D. 138.) If they had been then forg'd, the Chriftians would not have ventur'd their Lives in reading 'em; and Hyftafpis never would have quoted them to the Romans, who collected 'em,if they had been fpurious. Juftin fays, the Sibylline Oracles were then known to all the World; therefore we must now have the fame Copy, and not a fpurious one: Viri Græci, credite antiquiffima & prifca admodum Sibylla, cujus libri in toto extant orbe, de futuro fervatoris noftri Fefu Chrifti adventu, ac de rebus ab eo gerendis, liquidé & apertè vaticinanti. 2. Celfus liv'd in the time of Justin, and yet he never pretended that the Oracles were forg'd, but interpolated by the Chriftians; but that Origen deny'd, and challeng'd him to produce a more correct Copy. 3. Many in the second Century had the fame Opinion, as Fuftin, Athenagoras, Clem. Alexandrinus, Origen. Clemens quotes these words from St. Paul, Libros Gracos fumite, agnofcite Sibyllam quo-. modo unum Deum indicet, & ea que funt fu tura. St. Clement quotes the Sibyls in his Epiftle to the Corinthians, as Justin Martyr quotes him in his Answer to the 74th Question. 4. Fofephus cites the Sibylline Oracles as they are now, concerning the Tower of Babel. Babel. This place in Jofephus is quoted by Eufebius, de Preparatione Evangelica, lib. 9, cap. 15. and the fame Sibylline Verfes are commended by Theophilus Antiochenus, in his fecond Book to Autolycus. 5. Strabo mentions this Oracle which is now extant: Ifthac evenient, vaftis quo Pyramus undis 6. Plato, Ariftotle, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, Paufanias, Dionyf. Halicarnaffeus, Dion Caffius, Cicero, Livy, Tacitus, Ovid, Virgil, (Eclog. 4.) quote the Sibyls. 7. The Sibylline Oracles are commended by Conftantine, Non mirum effe, quod Conftantinus tam magnificè de libris Sibyllinis locutus fit, cum eminentiffima Ecclefie lumina eos toties ante ipfum teftimonio fuo comprobaffent. These Testimonies fufficiently confute Blondel that they were lately invented, and I will here annex the learned Bishop's Cenfure on his Adverfary: Sed longè fallitur opinione vir doctus, fi grande illud quod de Sibyllis volumen contexuit Blondellus, tanti apud emnes effe opinetur, quanti apud fe fit: ipfe nihil in eo invenire poffum, quod quenquam nulla prejudicarà Opinione corruptum in fuam de carminibus Sibyllinis antiquitus laudatis fen tentiam inducat. This is the Opinion of the learned Bishop Bull, in his Sermon on the Vanity of this Life, pag. 334, concerning thefe Oracles: That |