MOREOVER, the _Divine Apostle_ signifies and sets forth there, the _Persecution_ of the _CHURCH_ (under the Tyrants, _Domitian_, _Trajan_, &c. which began in the _Primitive CHURCH_ in his own Days, and continued for three hundred Years, even to the Reign of _Constantine_ the Great) by the _Allegory_ of[118]_SEVEN SEALS_. He figures out the _Heresys_ of the _ARIANS_, &c. (from the Time of _Constantine_ to the Reign of _Theodosius_, being three hundred Years more) by that of[119]_SEVEN TRUMPETS_. And, in fine, he mystically alludes to the future _Plagues_ of _ANTI-CHRIST_ (from the Time of _Pope Bonifacius_, to these our present Days) by[120]_SEVEN VIALS_, according to the Interpretation of that most Learned Divine, _Peter Palladius_ Bishop of _Rochel_. I say, with Submission to wiser Heads, that _These_ and the whole Train of those Sacred _Allegorical Allusions_ used in this _Book_, might have been as pertinently express’d by any _other Number_, as the _SEPTENARY_; were it not that, this _Number_ better implies a certain _FULNESS_ of _Sacred Mysterys_: As I think that _Number_ likewise (in all rational probability) may properly portend here, _PERFECTION_ in _Maturity_, and _COMPLETION_ in _Vitality_ to every _Full Seven-Months_ CHILD. [Illustration] CHAP. XXXIV. _Of an Eight-Months BIRTH._ AS to this Point, the _Case_ indeed differs much in my Judgment from the _Former_: For tho’ I have heard some loquacious _Women_ strenuously aver the _contrary_, because of their own rash _Mistakes_; yet I cannot help being of the same Opinion still, that this MONTH seldom or never produces a _living_, or _lively_ CHILD: And that because, if the INFANT hath _Strength_ enough, it must needs appear about the _Close_ of the _Seventh Month_; but if not, the _Attempts_ are the same, according to its greater or less _Abilitys_; (as most MOTHERS may very sensibly observe in their own Conditions, by its extraordinary _Motions_ and Struggles at that _Time_) whereby it is so _weaken’d_ and _debilitated_, that it requires the _Eighth full Month_, and Part of the _Ninth_, to recover itself, and recollect its _exhausted Strength_ and _Vigour_. ANOTHER Natural _Reason_ besides may be given for _This_; because that this MONTH is peculiar to the _Planet_ SATURN, which is an Enemy to all _Creatures_ that breath LIFE: For he now returns not with the same _Meekness_ and _Lenity_ of Influence that he used in the _First Month_ of the _CONCEPTION_, but with a far greater _Severity_ of Tyranny and Enmity; as by his _Frigidity_, lessening and extinguishing the _Native Heat_ of the _INFANT_, rendering it Unactive and Slow to _Motion_; so by his _Siccity_, constringing the _Passages_ and _Orifice_ of the WOMB: which, if so, must (of necessity) very much endanger both the _MOTHER_ and the _INFANT_.