An humble attempt to promote explicit agreement and visible union of God's people in…

xii.—For the seven Heads and ten Horns of that Dragon, are plainly the same with the seven Heads and ten Horns of this Beast. So that this makes Constantine a visible Member of the Devil: For we are told expressly of that Dragon, Ver. 9. that he was that old Serpent, called the Devil and Satan. And to suppose that Constantine is reckoned as belonging to one of the Heads of that Dragon, is to make these Prophecies inconsistent with themselves. For here in this 12th Chap. we have represented a War between the Dragon and the Woman clothed in the Sun; which Woman, as all agree, is the Church: but Constantine, as all do also agree, belonged to the Woman, was a Member of the Christian Church, and was on that Side in the War against the Dragon, yea, was the main Instrument of that great Victory that was obtained over the Dragon there spoken of, Ver. 9,—12. What an Inconsistency therefore is it, to suppose that he was at the same Time a Member and Head of that very Dragon, which fought with the Woman, and yet which Constantine himself fought with, overcame, and gloriously triumphed over! 'Tis not therefore to be wondered at, that God was careful to distinguish Constantine from the proper Heads of the Beast: It would have been a Wonder if he had not. God seems to have been careful to distinguish him, not only in his Word, but in his Providence, by so ordering it that this Christian Emperor ⟨p. 137⟩should be removed from Rome, the City that God had given up to be the Seat of the Power of the Beast and of its Heads, and that he should have the Seat of his Empire elsewhere.

xii.—For the seven Heads and ten Horns of that Dragon, are plainly the same with the seven Heads and ten Horns of this Beast. So that this makes Constantine a visible Member of the Devil: For we are told expresly of that Dragon, Ver. 9. that he was that old Serpent, called the Devil and Satan. And to suppose that Constantine is reckon'd as belonging to one of the Heads of that Dragon, is to make these Prophecies inconsistent with themselves. For here in this 12th Chap. we have represented a War between the Dragon and the Woman clothed in the Sun; which Woman, as all agree, is the Church: but Constantine, as all do also agree, belong'd to the Woman, was a Member of the Christian Church, and was on that Side in the War against the Dragon, yea, was the main Instrument of that great Victory that was obtain'd over the Dragon there spoken of, Ver. 9,—12. What an Inconsistency therefore is it, to suppose that he was at the same Time a Member and Head of that very Dragon, which fought with the Woman, and yet which Constantine himself fought with, overcame, and gloriously triumphed over! 'Tis not therefore to be wondered at, that God was careful to distinguish Constantine from the proper Heads of the Beast: It would have been a Wonder if he had not. God seems to have been careful to distinguish him, not only in his Word, but in his Providence, by so ordering it that this Christian Emperor