Works, Book 4 · Extract from letter
An Extract of the above-mentioned Letter of Mr. Potter to Dr. Twisse, necessary for the fuller understanding of some passages in Mr. Mede's Letters, &c.
SIR,
I Should be very glad to hear that my Treatise were translated into Latine either by your self or by any other, (if there be any such that would do it so perspicuously as I believe you would) and I should be glad if your self or Mr. Mede would add his opinion which he mentions in his Letter, why the Number 666 was taken rather than another whose Root might also have been said to be 25.
That the Number 25 is so conspicuous and remarkable in the Roman Calendar is also a thing remarkable and apposite, and a thing which I did … in a great Roman Calendar in the Library at Oxford, but did not then under … of it, nor had time, at that instant, to search the reason why that Number … great red Capital figures. I know there are many other things which it hath … which wise and learned men, and such as are … wi… … may and will observe to the same purpose …
I kindly thank you for the sight of Mr. Mede's … he came to know that I had his judgment of my Book sent unto me, I know … hope it shall be no hurt either to him or me, but an help and furtherance of the Tru….
My Letter to Dr. T. was written to a pro… … hematician, and …tude of matter forced me to write briefly, and therefore … and therefore it i… …o marvel if my unskilful and confused expressions have caused … things to be mist…ken at the first reading. If the Fractions of the Root of 666, being 41/51, be appliable not only to the number of Degrees, but also to the number of Minutes of the Latitude of Rome, 'tis more than I observed, and more than I intended. I thought it a sufficient exactness that 41 is the greatest number of Degrees of Latitude of that place, being there is no City near it that can stand in competition with Rome to be the Seat of Antichrist. And if that Parallel which is 41 Degrees of Latitude, and that Meridian which is 41 Degrees of Longitude, do cross and cut each other in any part of S. Peter's Patrimony, or of those Dominions of Italy which are immediately subjected to the Pope and City of Rome, this seemeth to me to be in this respect a sufficient manifestation of that individual Kingdom and City in which Antichrist was chiefly to reign and reside. And those places and Provinces which were not immediately but mediately ruled by him, were at the time of the Council of Trent chiefly confined within that Parallel which is 51 Degrees of Latitude and that Meridian which is 51 Degrees of Longitude. For these two Numbers 41 and 51, or rather 41/51, being considered the one as Numerator, the other as Denominator of the same Fraction, must not be understood the one of Degrees and the other of Minutes, but both must be applied to divisions of the same denomination, and one be considered as part of the other, and the Numerator as the most principal part which is chiefly intended.
In the second place, Because this Fraction 41/51 supposeth oneIntegrumto be divided into 51 parts or thereabouts, I therefore observed that one Degree of Longitude in that Circle or Parallel under which Rome lieth did contain in Longitude about 51 Italian or Roman miles, and this supposes one Degree in maximo circulo to be about 68 Italian miles and somewhat more; which agrees very well and strangely with that experimental definition of Snellius, lib. 2. Eratosthen. Bat. cap. 12. where he hath with great evidence of truth and probability defined ambitum terrae in maximo circulo to be 123120000 Roman feet, that is 342000 feet to one Degree, which makes 68 Italian miles and somewhat more.
As concerning that which Mr. Mede adds in his Letter about my Book; I do believe that as Daniel understood not many Visions which were shewed unto him; so neither did s. Iohn understand the meaning of the Number of the Beast, nor the Measures of the New Ierusalem, when he wrote the Revelation. And the strange and wonderful Wisdom of God, in discovering so many, so different things concerning Antichrist by one Number only, and in laying a foundation for this discovery by making the Number 12 … able in the Old Testament, in respect of the City Ierusalem and the Patriarchs and Tribes, long before our Saviour came in the flesh, hath been to me a great, if not the greatest of all external Testimonies for the Divinity of the Scriptures; and I doubt not but that it will be so to others that do believe it and understand it.
I should be glad to hear what those Exceptions were which Mr. Mede writeth that some made against some things which he related out of my Book. I am confident that all material Objections may be fully answered. Perhaps that which he mentioneth of the Virgin Company was one thing which was objected against it. To which I answer, That it is most true, that the Beast having two horns like the Lamb is opposed to the Lamb, and that the Followers of the Beast which receive his Mark are foreign to the Followers of the Lamb: But it is also to be observed That the Number 666 is not said to be the Number of the Followers of the Beast, but of the Beast; and it is also to be observed That the Number 144000 is not said to be the Number of the Lamb, or of that Hierarchy which is most appositely opposed to the Beast, but to be the Number of the Followers of the Lamb. Now although the Lamb be properly opposed to the Beast, and the Followers of the Lamb to the Followers of the Beast; yet the Beast is not so properly opposed to the Followers of the Lamb, nor the Lamb to the Followers of the Beast; and therefore the Number of the Beast is not so directly opposed to the Number of the Followers of the Lamb, as it is to that Number which typeth out chiefly that Hierarchy of the Lamb which is most directly and most eminently opposed to the Beast. Now the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of the Church of Christ is chiefly typed out by the Wall of the New Ierusalem and by the Number 144, and therefore I have said in my Book, That the Number 144 is an Idea (not of the Church in general, although that be also true and affirmed in a general sense, but) of the Hierarchy of the Church. Forasmuch therefore as the Number 144 is a type of that which is more properly and directly opposed to the Beast than the Followers of the Lamb are opposed to the Beast; I therefore conceive this Number 144 to be more directly and immediately opposed to the Number of the Beast than the Number 144000, which is a type of the Followers of the Lamb, and therefore must be opposed, not to the Number of the Beast, but rather to the Number of the Followers of the Beast. And although there be no such Number expressed in the Scriptures, yet if there had been occasion to express the Anti-numerus to 144000, I believe it would have been said to be 666000: For as the Number of the Lamb's Followers is derived from 144, so is 666000 from 666. I have more to say of this, but 'tis now time to hasten my Letter.
As for that Copy of my Book which you sent to my L. S. if you have received it, I desire you to keep it still in your hands, that it may be a witness from whence those divers Copies have proceeded which are now abroad in the world. If any Copy of my Book (having come into some malevolent hands) should be corrupted, and have any thing inserted into it which might be offensive to the State; then that Copy which you have would acquit me from it—If you had any Copy which you can spare to return unto me, I had rather it were another than the same I sent you: And of all other I should desire to see one that hath Mr. Mede's Notes upon it: it should be safely returned again unto you, and I should be thankfull to Mr. Mede for any thing which he hath added or illustrated or corrected—
I kindly thank you for the sight of such Papers as I have here returned, and shall still rest
Kilmington, Iune 27. 1638. Yours to be commanded, and for your sincere love and many kindnesses greatly obliged, Francis Potter.