The ruin of Rome, or, An exposition upon the whole Revelation wherein is plainly…The ruine of Rome, or, An exposition upon the whole Revelation wherein is plainly…

The time when Satan was thus taken and bound, was when Christ first preached the Gospel, and his Apostles after him, to all nations.

The cause why he was bound and chained up, was for that he had a long time seduced all nations, and reigned as king and lord over the Gentiles, and greatly seduced the Jews also.

The cause why he was bound and chained up, was for that he had a long time seduced all nations, and reigned as king and lord over the Gentiles, and greatly seduced the Jewes also.

The time of his imprisonment is set down to be a thousand years; that is, all the time from the preaching of Christ and his Apostles, until Gregory the seventh, and other monstrous Popes, which did let Satan loose again. Which space of time is guessed by the learned, to be a thousand years, or thereabouts. But here it is to be observed, that this binding of Satan is not to be taken simply and absolutely, as though Satan was so bound and chained up for this thousand years, that he could not seduce at all, or do no mischief at all after the preaching of the Gospel by Christ and his Apostles, I say, this is not to be taken simply, but after a ⟨p. 362⟩sort; that is, that he could not so generally and universally seduce all nations, as he had in former time, before the coming of Christ. For otherwise, it is well known, that even after Christs time, he did greatly persecute the Church, bring in many errors and heresies, and harden and blind many mens hearts: but yet all this was nothing, in comparison of that which he had wrought in former ages, when he was even as it were the god of the world, and the Gentiles worshipped him as god, as the Apostle teacheth,¹