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

Mr. Lowman greatly insists upon it, that what is spoken as continuing 1260 Days, is not so much any spiritual Authority or ecclesiastical Power of the Pope, over the Nations of Christendom, as his temporal Government and Dominion in that individual City of Rome; and therefore to determine when these 1260 Days or Years began, and when they will end, we must consider when the Pope first received this his temporal Power over this City of Rome, and the neighbouring Regions, called St. Peter's Patrimony. But I can see no good Reason for this. Indeed it is strange, if it be so. God has been pleased in these Revelations and Prophecies, which he has given for the Benefit of his Church in general, to speak much concerning an antichristian Power that should arise, that should persecute the Saints, and ⟨p. 141⟩scatter the Power of the holy People, and be an Occasion of great Affliction to the Church of Christ; and in these Revelations, in both old Testament and new, has declared, and often repeated it, that his Dominion shall continue so long, and no longer; and for the Comfort of his Church in general, Christ hath sworn with great Solemnity, that the Continuance of this persecuting Power shall be thus limited; Dan. xii.7. Now it would be strange, if in all this the Thing principally intended is not that Dominion of this antichristian Power that chiefly concerns the Church of Christ in general, but merely his temporal Dominion over one Province in Italy, called St. Peter's Patrimony. Doubtless that Dominion of Antichrist which the Prophecies insist upon and describe, is the Dominion whose Duration and Limits those Prophecies declare. But the Dominion of Antichrist which the Prophecies insist upon and describe, is not any Dominion over a particular Province in Italy, but the Dominion by which he succeeds the four great Monarchies of the World; (Dan. vii.) The Dominion by which he succeeds the Dragon in his Power, Throne and great Authority; (Rev. xiii.2.) The Dominion in which he has Power given him over all Kindreds, Tongues and Nations; (Ver. 7.) The Dominion by which the great Whore sits on many Waters; (Chap. xvii.1.) which the Angel explains to be Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues; (Ver. 15.) and the Dominion in which he reigns over the ten Kings, into which the Roman Empire is divided; (