And when the Dragon saw that he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child, stirring up a new persecution against her in the reign of Licentius. And to the woman, by the building of Constantinople and equalling it to Rome, were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might flee into the wilderness into her place upon the back of her Beast, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent, upon the death of Constantine the great, cast out of his mouth water as a flood, viz.
the Western Empire under Constantine junior and Constans, after the woman: that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth, the nations of Asia now under Constantinople, helped the woman; and by conquering the Western Empire, now under Magnentius, swallowed up the flood which the Dragon cast out of his mouth. And the Dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, which in that war were sealed out of all the twelve tribes of Israel, and remained upon mount Sion with the Lamb, being in number 144000, and having their father’s name written in their foreheads.
When the earth had swallowed up the flood, and the Dragon was gone to make war with the remnant of the woman’s seed, John stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a Beast rise out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns. And the Beast was like unto a Leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a Bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a Lion. John here names Daniel’s four Beasts in order, putting his Beast in the room of Daniel’s fourth Beast, to show that they are the same. And the Dragon gave this Beast his power and his seat and great authority, by relinquishing the Western Empire to him. And one of his heads, the sixth, was as it were wounded to death, viz. by the sword of the earth, which swallowed up the waters cast out of the mouth of the Dragon; and his deadly wound was healed, by a new division of the Empire between Valentinian and Valens, An. 364. John saw the Beast rise out of the sea, at the division thereof between Gratian and Theodosius, An. 379. The Dragon gave the Beast his power, and his seat and great authority, at the death of Theodosius, when Theodosius gave the Western Empire to his son Honorius. After which the two Empires were no more united: but the Western Empire became presently divided into ten kingdoms, as above; and these kingdoms at length united in religion under the woman, and reign with her forty and two months.
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