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after the Destruction of the Popedom and Turk, and before the Conflagration; whereas fome ingenious Men make it a defcription of the Heavenly state. In fhort, the Oracles defcribe the chief Hiftories to which the Visions in the Revelations belong, and by understanding thefe, we can determine to what Hiftories they relate, and thereby avoid applying improper Hiftories to them. Thefe Oracles will teach us to diftinguish the different Fates of the Eaft and Weft parts of the Roman Empire; the Turk oppreffes the Greek Church in the Eaft, at the fame time the Pope corrupts the Western.

Sixthly, The things we are now to expect in the Popedom are, a great Defolation by Famine and Civil Wars, and then the Agyptian King fhall inveft Rome, and burn it, but the Jews must first return, many Changes happening in the Turkish Empire before it.

Thefe Things are next to come to pass in the Turkish Empire:

First, Greece fhall be plunder'd by a Barbarian, after which, Sedition will fucceed, and then a Peace; after this, a Plague, and when Perfia fhall be at Peace, the Jews fhall return to their own Country, and live in Peace and Plenty, and Thunder from Heaven shall destroy their Enemies: Leffer Afia fhall be destroy'd by Earthquakes, and many other Cities, Smyrna, Cuma, Tripolis, Corcyra, Miletus. The Affyrians fhall invade Hellefpont, and conquer the Thracians; the King of Egypt invade Macedonia, and a civil War in Pifidia, betwixt the Lydians,

Galatians,

Galatians, and Pamphylians; then Italy fhall become a Defart, and about the end of the Moon, or Turkish Empire, the Eastern War (or from the North) fhall be, and Wars in the Weft, and in Macedonia, alfo a destruction of those Princes by Fire from Heaven: At this juncnre, fhall Rome be destroy'd by an ignoble and wicked Prince, who had before invaded Judea, after which Chrift fhall come, and destroy the Wicked, and reign in new Ferufalem; then Babylon ihall fall by an Earthquake, the Sea be dry'd up, and (the Rivers being frozen up) the Tartars Thall invade the Borders of Afia, and destroy the Turk in Thrace; then fhall be a general Darkness: There fhall be a Reformation of Religion in Ægypt, and a Temple built, which the Athiopians will deftroy; and God will flay them by Fire from Heaven.

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Some reject these Oracles bécaufe of the Poetical Dress the Grecian Poets have given them; others find true Prophefies in them; I will proceed in a middle moderate way betwixt the contrary Opinions, allowing all Objections as to its Phrafes, new Words, Derivations, numeral Obfervations; thefe are the Poets Paraphrafe, Notes, Histories of Fables, and Remarks, not very pertinent. I may allow many mistakes, and yet affert, that the Subftance of the Prophefies is true, and the Doctrin deliver'd with 'em because they agree with the Revelations.

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I will next explain the Symbolical Characters us'd in thefe Oracles: Nero is the Turk, who will tyrannize in the Eaft; his

Name

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Name is not mention'd, but his Character: The Church is call'd a pure Virgin: The Woman, or Widow, is the Roman corrupt Church, or Whore.

Nero was a Prince of great Cruelty, who flew his Mother. The Ottoman Cruelty to their own Family, and to others, is reprefented by Nero.

Suetonius fays, after Nero's Death there was a vulgar Report, that he was fled beyond Euphrates, and that he would return again with the fame Cruelty; and this Report might be occafion'd by this description of Nero in the Sibyls. This Story is a Fable, or feign'd Allegory, and must not be taken as a History. The Turk is call'd Crudelis homo, in the third Book, where his Conquefts of Afia minor, Thrace, and Greece, are defcrib'd.

Nero is also a general Name for other cruel Princes, because when the Eastern War is defcrib'd, it says, Matris & occifor quidam de finibus orbis, vir fugiens veniet. The Popes are alfo call'd Matrum Cafores; the Turk, the little Horn, when he came into Afia. The Turk fled from the Tartars in Perfia. The Inundation of Euphrates, in the fifth Book, represents the Turks Invafion of Afia; and the Inundation of Peneus, their Invasion of Thrace. The alteration in the fmall Kingdoms of Italy are describ'd by Eridanus, the Po, which produces divers forms of wild Beafts, i. e. divers forts of Governments; for the Empire is call'd a Beast in Prophetic Terms or Stile.

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In the fifth Book the Pope is call'd the great King of great Rome, who equals himfelf to God, (i. e. by affuming to himself the Title of Chrift's Vicar); he is faid to be produc'd by Jupiter and Juno, (i. e. has his Commiffion from God, and is elected by the Church); he fings melodious Hymns, as in a Theatre, (i.e. ufes Songs and Anthems in the Church); he fhall deftroy many, (viz. the Reformers) with his miferable Mother (the Chriftian Church.) This cannot be Nero, because he is thus defcrib'd after the Turk came over Euphrates. Conftantinople is call'd the Offspring of Latin Rome.

The Saracens are Ishmaelites, begot by Abraham on Hagar, and they are call'd the Bastard Stock of Saturn, who must invade both Europe and Asia.

The Idolatry of the Chriftian Church, both in the East and Weft, is reprefented by the old Gentile Worship of Beasts, Demons, &c. and the Names of the old Hero Gods are us'd to exprefs the Chriftian Saints.

The true worship of God is reprefented by the Jewish Sacrifices to him, which are Types of the Christian Adulteries. Theft, Sodomy, Murder, and Idolatry, are the causes of Wars, Plagues, Famine, and Antichrift's Cruelty; the fame is mention'd in the Revelations. Where the Books are entire, they begin with fome defcription of Go D, and end with the Destruction of the World; and thus the eighth Book ends; therefore I reject the Acroftics, and the History of Christ's Birth and Passion, that are added in

the

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the end of it, for there is enough of these Subjects in the first, and other Books. Eufebius imputes the Acroftics to the Erythrean Sibyl, and fays, he found thefe Verfes quoted by Cicero. But both Dionyfius in his Roman Antiquities, and Varro, as he quotes him, declare the Acroftics to be fuppofititious, and added to the Sibylline Verfes. I think thefe Reasons are fufficient for rejecting of them. Tho' Eufebius seems to believe, that Cicero tranflated them into Latin, none of the Ancients mentions them, but he and St. Auftin; there is no mention made of thefe Acroftics by Juftin Martyr, Theophilus, Antiochenus, Athenagoras, Cl. Alexandrinus, Firmianus, or Lactantius, who greatly admire the Sibyls.

The Sibyls divide the time of the World into ten Generations, but Efdras into twelve. The first Book makes five Ages or Generations before the Flood; the Golden Age follows it, and is reckon'd the fixth Generation. The tenth Age will begin with the Conquest of Perfia by Alexander. The deftruction of Rome fhall begin in the tenth Generation, when Idolatry shall decay: And in the fourth Book the Judgment and Millennium must be in the tenth Age, and then all muft end. The Affyrians and Medes held their Empire 670 Years, of which the Medes held it 150, the Perfians (till Alexander) 230; in all thefe Empires were 900 Years, but fince Alexander's Time: the tenth Age has been twice as long. The Erythraan Sibyl reckons the ten Generations from Adam; the Sibyl, in the fourth Book, reckons them from the Flood.

THE

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