Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews

in loco ubi poste• condita est Roma) duo tiguria aedificata esse dicunt. So He; who alone hath conjectured at the intendment of this enigmatical story, and that to good purpose; I shall therefore make it more fully to appear. Rome they have learned to call Babylon out of the Revelation as was declared; and thence conclude that upon the destruction of Rome they shall be delivered. Two things were eminent in Babylon; First, that it was its self the beginning of all false Worship and Idolatry in the World; and therein the Mother of Harlots; the other, that God made use of it to punish the Idolatries of the Jews. Hence they say that Rome this New Babylon had its foundation when Solomon married Pharaohs Daughter; and that it began to be built when Jeroboam set up his Calves: which they look upon as the two first fatal instances of the declension of Israel into false Worship and Idolatry. And hereby they intimate, partly that Rome should set up Idolatry, as Solomon and Jeroboam did, and partly that God had then provided a New Babylon to punish and destroy them. The Abba Kolon is a Monster, whom no man hath as yet set upon. But it is no other but Capitolium, as they will easily grant, who know how usual it is with them strangely to Metamorphose things and words; instances whereof I shall elsewhere give. Thence is the Proverb they speak of; no Abba Kolon, no Capitol, or Temple of Idolatry, no City; the Capitol answering the Tower of Babel which was a Temple of Belus. Neither is that Proverb any thing but an allusion to that in the Roman History; Capitolium est ubi quondam Capite humano invento, responsum est eo loco caput rerum, summamque imperii sore: Tit. Liv. lib. 5. And the tempering of the clay of Rome with the water of Euphrates by the help of Abba Kolon, is nothing but an expression of the succession of Rome into the stead of Babylon which was built on that River, by the means of the Capitol that great Seat of Idolatry. Nor do they at all distinguish between the present Idolatry of Rome and that of old. So that although all things are confounded by them with monstrous Fictions and Expressions, which it may be they invented on purpose to obscure their intention, yet their aim in the whole is manifest.

in loco ubi poste• condita est Roma) duo tiguria aedificata esse dicunt. So He; who alone hath conjectared at the intendment of this aenigmaticall story, and that to good purpose; I shall therefore make it more fully to appear. Rome they have learned to call Babylon out of the Revelation as was declared; and thence conclude that upon the destruction of Rome they shall be delivered. Two things were eminent in Babylon; First, that it was its self the beginning of all false Worship and Idolatry in the World; and therein the Mother of Harlots; the other, that God made use of it to punish the Idolatries of the Jews. Hence they say that Rome this New Babylon had its foundation when Solomon married Pharaohs Daughter; and that it began to be built when Jeroboam set up his Calves: which they look upon as the two first fatal instances of the declension of Israel into false Worship and Idolatry. And hereby they intimate, partly that Rome should set up Idolatry, as Solomon and Jeroboam did, and partly that God had then provided a New Babylon to punish and destroy them. The Abba Kolon is a Monster, whom no man hath as yet set upon. But it is no other but Capitolium, as they will easily grant, who know how usual it is with them strangely to Metamorphise things and words; instances whereof I shall elsewhere give. Thence is the Proverb they speak of; no Abba Kolon, no Capitol, or Temple of Idolatry, no City; the Capitol answering the Tower of Babel which was a Temple of Belus. Neither is that Proverb any thing but an allusion to that in the Roman History; Capitolium est ubi quondam Capite humano invento, responsum est eo loco caput rerum, summamque imperii sore: Tit. Liv. lib. 5. And the tempering of the clay of Rome with the water of Euphrates by the help of Abba Kolon, is nothing but an expression of the succession of Rome into the stead of Babylon whic was built on that River, by the means of the Capitol that great Seat of Idolatry. Nor do they at all distinguish between the present Idolatry of Rome and that of old. So that although all things are confounded by them with monstrous Fictions and Expressions, which it may be they invented on purpose to obscure their intention, yet their aim in the whole is manifest.