A Fruitful Meditation... of Rev. 20, the Second Part
By His Majesty King James One of England; Six of Scotland
THE SECOND PART
Now follows the interpretation of the sentence according to the order used in the first part. And first we must know what time these thousand or many years was in, and when, and how Satan was loosed. This time is to be found in the sixth Chapter, in the opening of the first three seals of the secret book of God his providence by the Lamb, to wit, the time when the white, red, and black horses had their course in the world: And to speak more plainly, the Devil his power did lurk (1), which is called his binding, and the Gospel did flourish in a reasonable purity hundreds of years after Christ, as the Ecclesiastical histories bear witness: For in great purity the Gospel did continue long, which is signified by the course of the white horse, albeit the professors were under the cross signified by the red horse, and troubled wonderfully by heretics, signified by the black horse, by wormwood that fell in the Fountains of waters in the third trumpet, and by waters that the dragon spewed out of his mouth, in the vision of the Dragon and the woman, Chapter 12. This time did endure from Christ a space after Augustine his days, when the bloody Sword of persecution ceasing, the whole Church began to be defiled with divers heresies, which coming unto a mature and ripe heap, did produce or bring forth the Antichrist, signified by the pale horse in the fourth seal, by the king of the Locusts in the fifth trumpet, by Babylon in the 11th and 18th Chapter, by the second Beast rising out of the sea in the 13th Chapter, and by the woman clad with scarlet in the 17th chapter. The arisings of the heresies, and the Antichrist breeding of their smoke, is in this place called the loosing of Satan.
Now following after this his loosing, what he doth: He deceives the nations universally: he gatherers Gog and Magog with untellable armies to fight, he climes upon the plain of the earth, he encompasses the tents of the Saints, and the beloved City about: These are his doings.
Now because these actions are most lively declared in other places of the same book, I will shortly allege them to make the matter clear by conference of places, expounding every one another. It is said in the ninth chapter, that the Antichrist shall send out his locusts or Ecclesiastical orders, by fair allurements to entice the world, to yield to his and their abominable heresies, and shall prevail over the most part. It is said in the 11th chapter, that he shall persecute the Saints, kill the two witnesses and shall rejoice with the kings of the earth, for their killing, as having been the only lets to his full glory (2). It is said in the 13th chapter, that he shall blaspheme God in usurping his power, that by the advice and assistance of the false Prophet, or false Church, he shall send out his Images or Ambassadors through the world, persecuting and destroying them that will not obey him and them, and acknowledge his supremacy; yea, none shall be suffered to buy or sell, or use civil society, who fails to acknowledge, his supreme power and dignity. It is said in the 16th chapter, that God plaguing him for these aforesaid abuses, he shall be so far from repentance, as by the contrary he shall find out a new sort of vermin, that is, a new Ecclesiastical order, which are called their frogs (3), who shall move and entice the Princes of the earth to join with him, and make war against the faithful, pressing utterly to destroy them: and of that battle, and the end thereof doth this place make mention.
Now shortly join all these together, and so obtain the meaning. There shall arise an Antichrist and enemy to God and his Church: he shall be head of a false and hypocritical Church: he shall claim a supreme power on earth: he shall usurp the power of God: he shall deceive men with abusing locusts; he shall persecute the faithful; none shall be found that dare openly resist him: In the end, feeling his kingdom decay, and the true Church beginning to prosper, he shall by a new sort of deceiving spirits, gather together the Kings of the earth in great multitudes like the sands of the Sea, and by joining or at least suffering of that other great open enemy, he shall with these numbers encompass the camps of the faithful, besiege the beloved City, make war against the Saints: but victory shall he not have, and shame and confusion shall be his, and all his partakers end.
Now whether the Pope bears these marks or not, let any indifferent man judge; I think surely it expound itself: Doth he not usurp Christ his office, calling himself universal Bishop and head of the Church? Plays he not the part of Apollyon, and Abaddon the king of the Locusts and destroyer, or son of perdition, in chopping and changing of souls betwixt heaven, hell, and his fantastic or imagined purgatory at his pleasure? Blaspheme he not, in denying us to be saved by the imputation of Christ his righteousness? Moreover, hath he not sent forth and abused the world with innumerable orders of locusts and shavelings? Hath he not so fully ruled over the world these many hundreds of years, as to the fire went he, whosoever he was, that durst deny any part of his usurped supremacy? And hath he not of late days, seeing his kingdom gong to decay, sent out the Jesuits (4), his last and most pernicious vermin, to stir up the Princes of the earth his slaves, to gather and league themselves together for his defense, and rooting out of all them that profess Christ truly? And whereas the open enemy of God, the Turk was under bloody wars with him ever before, is there not of late a truce among them, that the faithful may be the more easily rooted out? And are not the armies presently assembled, yea upon the very point of their execution in France against the Saints there? In Flanders for the like; and in Germany, by whom already the Bishops of Collein are displaced? And what is prepared and come forward against this Lie (5)? Do we not daily hear, and by all appearance and likelihood shall shortly see? Now may we judge if this be not the time, whereof this place that I have made choice doth mean, and so the due time for the revealing of this Prophecy. Thus far for the interpretation of the sentence or meaning.
Notes:
(1) Here the king spells out his argument for why, in his view, the formation of the popedom (around the beginning of the fifth century (the century of Augustine)), is the fulfillment of that part of the prophecy where Satan is loosed.
(2) “…the only lets to…” means “… the only path to…”.
(3) This is a very apt description of the three-letter federal agencies. Especially the ones spelled CIA and FBI. Where does the story of Kek the frog originate? Have they adopted the symbol of the frog to mean government (or Papal) agent? This strikes an even deeper chord: Are these agents actually priests? Or warlocks? Have they been initiated into a priesthood? Did these frogs have to fuck a goat blindfolded, or go ass-up in the proverbial casket the way the Templars were said to have done? This Skull and Bones type of thing is not just for basketball referees anymore. (joke) This is a link to my creative writing archive: https://theveilapoem.blogspot.com/2019/10/wolfbane.html Wolfbane Chapter 2 is the next later post.
(4) Yes, those Jesuits. This is my favorite part. This is the most openly anticlerical passage I’ve come across in this book.
(5) The original says Ile and not Lie. I think it’s just a typo, but maybe not. One reader has suggested there could be a capitalization code in this text, which is why I try to preserve the weird capitalizations. There are tons of other stylistic issues as I hope you can see from the photos included.
Fascinating. I'm wondering about the role of Luther and Calvin in this progression of events. But I've just discovered your blog so you may have covered this elsewhere.