we would understand them of natural Angels as few or none do But the meaning is The seven Churches contain a very great Mystery throughout the Vision of the Churches Even as upon the forehead of the Woman Rev. 17. 5. was a Title written Mystery Babylon the Great c. that is Understand that whole Inscription in a mystical Sense or to carry the Mystery of the Apostate Church in all Successions so Understand the seven Churches carrying the Mystery of the Christian Church throughout And it is observable the word Mystery is expresly applyed to the True and False Church As it is said here The Mystery of the seven Churches and their Stars or Angels So there I will tell thee the Mystery of the Woman and of the Beast the Fallen Star with the Key of the bottomless Pit that carries her And proportionably this whole Prophecy of the Kingdom draws down into it self the Great Mystery of that Kingdom spoken of by all the Prophets since the World began viz. THE TRUE CHURCH IN GLORY The particularizing upon the Churches the so Apocalyptick Argu. 2 number Seven assures us It will bear its proportion to all the other Sevens And seeing there are no sevens to introduce them nor to receive them and carry them on They must themselves by their own Time Sevens and Symbols embrace the whole Apocalyptical Time and its Sevens For the Book of it is the Book of the Kingdom the Kingdom is the Mystery of God The Churches are the true Kingdoms when they come to their Glory and so a Mystery The Apostate Church is a Mock Kingdom the Kingdom of Antichrist foisted into the place of Christs Kingdom and so a Mystery but a Mystery of Iniquity The Kingdom of Christ and his universal Monarchy is an Empire in a Church of which He is the Head The last State of the Roman Monarchy is an Imperialism by vertue of an Ecclesiastical Image made to it which is a false Christship that is an Empire in an Apostate Church of which Antichrist is the Head How fitly therefore are these Things displayed in the Symbolisms of Churches It is certain There hath been a Christian Church in all Argu. 3 Ages from the Resurrection of Christ to this Day and shall be to the New Jerusalem and to the End of the World This is grounded upon those two Places Matt. 16. 18. Vpon this Rock will I build my Church and the Gates of Hell either of Hell as it signifies the Grave Mortality and Death or the Powers of Darkness shall not prevail against it and Matt. 28. ult Lo I am with you always unto the end of the World Nor is this controverted among any Christians From hence it follows we cannot be Time-bound or straitned in space of Time to place these Successions in For there must necessarily be a Succession of this Christian Church in several Ages and States and so must continue till the End which must as necessarily run a long Apocalyptical Time and so give a bottom to found such Symbols upon if it pleas'd as we suppose it did the Prophetick Spirit to give them As there must necessarily have been a Variety of States of Arg. 4 this one Church so the first of them must needs have been settled and founded in Doctrine Worship Rules of Life Order and Discipline by immediate Inspiration divine Authority and Institution through the Ministry of the Apostles This is most evident from that Book of Scripture written to that purpose The Acts of the Apostles as also from all the Apostolical Epistles From hence it follows the Apostolical Church in its Apostolical State was first in order whether therefore we will allow it to be symbollically represented or not in that first Church of Ephesus it is certain that Labour and Patience twice repeated that trying them which said they were Apostles and were not and finding them Lyars importing the exact consigning all Apostolical Truths and Rules into an authentick Canon of Scripture does most admirably represent that truly Primitive Apostolical State Besides the daily or every days Miscarriages from this excellent Arg. 5 State by Heresies Errors and bad Practises to which degenerate and deeply corrupted Humane Nature is so subject and of which Apostolical Writings take so continual notice there was foretold an eminent visible and notorious Apostacy fix'd and settled upon its own Base out of which Antichrist was to come and so very fit to be taken notice of in this Book of the Kingdom Now this Apostacy was declar'd expresly by the Apostle Paul to be at work in a mystery of Iniquity and the Spirit saith expresly that in the latter Times which latter Times as we have before affirm'd were then begun though every day more and more latter Some that is not a few but a certain sort of men that should make a Body or Species of Men should depart from the Faith If then it had begun so 1 Tim. 4. 1. Written to Timothy as then at Ephesus early in some Lineaments of it although not in that of Nicolaitanism and that it daily proceeded and grew much higher after the Apostles Departure or Death ravening Wolves and Men teaching perverse things arising from Christians themselves Act. 20. 28. c. remonstrated also to this very Church of Ephesus Their leaving their first Love the removing this Candlestick out of the Superiority and Excellency of Primo-geniture and conferring it on Smyrna in the Crown of Life and Philadelphia in the Scepter of the New Jerusalem are most lively Symbols to such a purpose though yet the Overcomers of this protoplast Church are assur'd to eat of the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God This Apostacy being to become so grand an Apostacy it Arg. 6 must needs proceed and work on by degrees so as that some Church and its Bishop deriving it self from the Apostles should very elderly vere towards a Synagogue of Satan and there should be such an Assumption by it and Deference of Advantages to it by many in the whole Christian Church tending towards and preparing for such an Apostacy that it gain'd Pretensions undesign'd yet to it particularly to intitle it self to such a blooming Antichristian Power as was foretold to come out of the Apostacy for if it could not derive high from Antiquity it could not rise to that Grandeur of Apostacy under the Profession of Christianity And yet in the mean time the Vniversal publick Christian Church may not only remain pure but be first in deep Sufferings for Christ and so fill up the Number of Martyrs dying under the Pagan Draconick Empire but also receive the Crown of Life and of the Glory of the New Jerusalem in a Figure by the Empire becoming Christian as it did in Constantine Now what Type of such a State of the Church could be more express in all this than the Church of Smyrna For whether it was so design'd by the Spirit or not it is certain in
upon that and other the Visions of Ezekiel relating to Time I have at large treated in that afore promis'd Discourse only I cannot omit the Prophetical Cypher of Time translated from the 40 Days for forty years in the Wilderness is here solemnly given with its Key as of perpetual Scripture use from thence I can with great Truth and Sincerity make Protestation It was no part of my Design to enter a Dispute with any Perswasion of Christians but only to pursue the Line of Time as it reaches that illustrious Sabbatism for which I find Eminent Persons of all Perswasions have very great Favour But doing this I could not avoid but that the Antichristian Apostacy as seated in the City that in the Time of the Revelation given and its Prince are so fathally enwrap'd in all parts of Prophecy that they must be every where attack'd yet I have taken care to do it only in the Terms and Phrases of Prophecy and as the necessary Explication of it and its Times enforc'd Notwithstanding I had no such Intention I find no Discourses upon or against that Apostasie in any degree comparable either in clearness or assurance if disjoyn'd from Prophecy as when conjoyn'd with it either for determination of Theological Doctrinal Controversies or Differences in History or Chronology as when such corrupt Doctrines superstitious Innovations in Christian Worship Usages and Usurpations in Christian Discipline entred the World and at what rate of Detestation they ought to be Had All these are more certainly and more briefly resolv'd when Prophecy hath the umpirage for little Intimations either deriv'd from Grounds of Scripture or Reason or from History and General Opinion when Prophecy inclines with them or supposes things agreeably with them will weigh against vast Volumes on the other side with which Prophecy propends not Thus I am much more assur'd by observing what is after fully discours'd from Prophecy concerning Image-worship however palliated that it is that so much detested Idolatry forbidden in the second Commandment then from all Rational Discourses with Prophecy however grounded on Scripture but not compar'd without Prophecy for a fuller Interpretation of it I am much more assur'd in what Class of Religions and Churches that Religion and Church is to be repos'd that on such Terms calls it self Catholick by laying them into the Prophetical Scales then by the most considerable Moments of Discourse without Prophecy I know better when a Church-Supremacy entred by the Prophetical Era joyn'd with that however it may be by any controverted Agreement of History that Phocas gave it Anno 606 then I can know by some very learned Tracts concerning it I better understand of what small avail that Distinction betwixt the Court and the Church of c. in Vogue with some great Names can be by offering it to the Prophetical Test then by any other way of Exploration although I look upon the Distinction as a Confession extorted by Divine Judgment upon both from Prophets of their own that that Court is the Court of the Beast and that he ought to have such a Court that the Prophecy might be fulfill'd And what a Church it is I learn from the Prophetical System of the Churches of which I have given a brief survey though it does not so expresly concern Time yet as most admirably illustrating as well as concurring with other Prophetical Iconisms and Characters of Time And to every part I have added Brief Remarques directing to that Faith and Patience of the Saints to that keeping the Commands of God and the Testimony of Jesus which are the use of all the Discourse that at that Glorious Resurrection It may be said of us Here are they that have so done Revel 14. 12. Thus I have given Account of what is now drawn in full and whole and what only in little in short Calendary Proportions which I intend if God please to give in more proper Dimensions as also to make compleat concerning the Churches concerning the Voices and Vials concerning the thousand years what is rather in Perspective then in just Figures of Discourse I have only to add that notwithstanding speaking or writing the Word of God I must obey the heavenly Visions throughout yet as that teaches me I yield all the Regards Deferences of Honour and esteem due to the Character Learning Vertue general Profession of Christianity that I can render to every Person and much more to Princes and all in Authority however of a Communion I could for this Prophesies sake most earnestly pray and even offer my Life in the Service they might not be of But nothing can be more effectual against Rebellion Sedition or any Irregularity towards Government and supream Power then the Right Vnderstanding of this Prophecy For while Holy Prophecy styles them Kings who yet give their Kingdoms to the Beast the plain Doctrinal and Preceptive part of Scripture obliges as to fear God so to Honour those whom It so styles Kings and then Prayers Supplications Intercessions giving of Thanks should be made for them and for all in Authority Nor is it possible any Pretence of setting up or advancing Christs Kingdom can justifie any Rebellions mutinous or seditious Commotions seeing hitherto It is most evident they have proceeded upon mistakes of Time And when ever that Kingdom shall Appear The manner of Appearance is mistaken also for it is not as from Earth but as from Heaven Heavenly Spiritual Pure Peaceable yet Efficacious and Almighty Regular Orderly conducted by lawful Sovereigns even those who till the Words of God are fulfill'd have so given their Power so that as well may the Doctrine of the Day of Judgment which no created Power can produce or oppose be made a pretence for Rebellion as the Doctrine and Prophecy of Christs Kingdom or be complain'd as dangerous to Government or destructive to Humane Society That therefore we may be Aright guided by this sure Word of Prophecy that shines as a Light in a dark place is my Grand Design in this publication even till it be wholly Unriddled and Unveil'd as it shall be when it Turns to the Lord just then Appearing however it be now Veil'd when it looks from Him as at a distance 2 Cor. 4. 3. v. 13. 16. from that Appearance and towards us for our Instruction and as inviting our Diligent search first and then our Expectation Prayer and earnest Desire for the Quick Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ especially now his Appearance grows so near And that we may be thus guided is also the most Humble and Incessant Prayer of My very Honoured Your most Faithful Servant in this Work Beverley If any Person either Friendly and from desire of further satisfaction in this Point or Unfriendly and from Prejudgment please to make any notice of it to me I doubt not by the Evidence of this Prophecy and the Gracious Assistance of the Spirit of it to satisfie their Doubts and remove their Prejudice upon fair Allowances
come But now the next Vision of the Four Beasts gives us in Prophetick Cypher the very measure of the Beast's Duration as that Beast is symboll'd by the little Horn viz. Time Times and half a Time But because this does not assure us when those Days begin nor consequently where they end the Vision we are now entring upon will teach us that And it hath a threefold Aspect upon Time to this end 1. It continues the principal Line of Time from Creation which because there will not be Scripture History to maintain it and also because and especially because the Times of the Gentiles in whose History Scripture little concerns it self are drawn by it without lesser Periods but as the Accounts of the Churches Case in relation to them after requires it they are given in one entire Line or Sum 2300 Days beginning contiguously from Ezekiel's 430 Days and continuously also to so many Days for Years uniting with the former parcel-lines and with the 430 as the last given Line and so one whole Line from the Creation is constituted by uniting these several Parcels by a divine Certainty 2. It determines the particular Time from the beginning of the Persian Monarchy at literal Babylon fallen to mystical Babylon falling as also at literal Jerusalem restor'd to new Jerusalem appearing for Antichrist broken intends the former and the Sanctuary cleans'd the latter 3. It is a measure of the length of particular Lines given after this from Time to Time as they are given in Scripture that as it self is distinguish'd into several Periods by them so it is a Boundary to them when to begin and end that together they may be symmetral to this whole Line neither longer nor shorter and therein be justly proportion'd to one another even till this Line call'd most emphatically by our Lord the Times of the Gentiles Luc. 21. 24. be fulfill'd That the Vision then and the Line of Time it carries away be rightly understood these things are necessary to be premised 1. That the principal thing in these Visions of Daniel except that single Vision next in order to that we are upon that centers in Messiah's Coming and Death is the glorious Kingdom of Christ and of his Saints having the Dominion throughout the Earth and the Destruction of that peculiar Enemy of his Kingdom who is justly call'd Antichrist immediately preceeding his Kingdom and before which it could not appear Upon the Account of this Kingdom of Christ having its way made by the Destruction of Antichrist there are so many Representations of the other Monarchies of which else we may conceive the Holy Spirit had no more touch'd their Prophecy than it does their History which it never does but in relation to the Church or to set out God's Government Universal over the World and his Judgment on sinful Nations We find therefore in these Visions of the Monarchies Antichrist next to the Kingdom of Christ is the greatest Subject and more Words laid out upon him than upon all the rest so it is in Nebuchadnezzar's Dream The Feet and Toes Dan. 2. v. 34. 41. c. take up a greater Proportion of the Dream and Exposition than all the rest and then the Kingdom of Christ flows out upon the Image broken in the Feet So in the Vision of the four Beasts the fourth Beast and in that the little Horn imploys the greatest part of the whole Vision in its Description and Judgment and the Kingdom of Christ then breaks out upon it so proportionably in this Vision He then that would understand it must be arm'd with this Rule as preparatory 2. It must be worthy our Advertency that the Antichristian State in these Prophecies and in the Revelation is rank'd with Heathenism and Gentilism and treated with much less regard than even Idolatrous Israel or Judah God not taking any notice of them as his People but as mere Gentiles so that I do not remember any Parallelism of them with the People of Israel even in their Apostacy but altogether with those that were Aliens as Balaam Jezebel the Daughter of Elth Baal King of the Sydonians with Sodom Egypt and most notoriously Babylon and so is represented by the Gentiles treading the outward Court And thus the Corruptions of Divine Worship among the Jews were express'd by entertaining the manners of the Gentiles defiling themselves with them falling in love with them bringing them into the Sanctuary The Beast united with the heathen idolatrous Monarchy coming into the Seat of the Dragon is the grand Apocalyptick Figure for Antichrist and nothing of Christ allow'd him except to the other Beast having borns as a Lamb while he spake as a Dragon nor of the Jews to the Antichristian Rev. 13. 11. Gentiles but that in the Beginning of the Apostacy within the prophetical Church of Smyrna Rev. 2. 9. They said They were Jews but were not but lyed and were the Synagogue of Sathan nor any thing of Jerusalem to the Seat of Antichrist except one only allusion to the City where Our Lord was crucified where a Heathen Power presided in Revel 11. 8. his Condemnation and that a Roman too to signifie its extream Hate to the True Christ It s deep dye in Blood and its irrecoverable Destruction for which Jerusalem was so infamous and for which the Roman Church like the Jewish Church was broken off from the true Olive and all consider'd as a Church in Conjunction with it as the Apostle had foretold Rom. 11. 6. make the Allusion On the other side The True Christianity and Worship of it are symboliz'd by the pure Jewish Worship The Temple its Measures Ordinances as they stood in Israels best Estate are the Ichnography of the Perfect Pure Christian Church But the drawing men from True Christianity to Antichristianism the Persecution of Men for it the last Deliverance from Anti-Christianism and its Persecutions are continually given out in Parallellismes betwixt the same Things heretofore between the Jews and the Gentiles and unite with the Jews great Deliverance and the New Jerusalem at last These two things are most necessary to be premonish'd for the true Interpretation of this Vision and other Visions also as we shall see as we pass along to preserve all clear and free from Confusion And upon this Premonition I say this Vision beginning with the Persian Reign goes on through the Grecian and so passes through the whole Roman Monarchy first and last and describes a Line running parallel with the whole Times of the Gentiles after the Babylonish Empire at the end of which Ezekiels 430 Days ended as hath been made to appear And they being the last Joynt of the Line from Creation this Line of 230 Days joyns with it and continues the whole Acts. 3. 21. Line from Creation to the Restitution of all Things Upon this Premonition I say further That Antiochus as the most Infamous Heathen Prince for treading down the holy and pure Jewish Worship from
at an Hour this Splendid secure Symbolical Church thinks not of except the few undefiled Names and they of it that overcome who have Promises of greater Glory with Christ then this outward but this Church in its own Name hath the Honour to make a Line of Time from the Reformation to this Day and shall till that sudden coming of Christ upon it when such a State will be at an End There have been Societies of Christians that since the Reformation Arg. 10 have subsisted only upon the Principles of brotherly Love whose Door hath been attempted to be shut upon them as not allowed Churches of Christ or not in such a way of Worship who have had little outward strength who have yet kept the word of Christ and not denyed his Name in a strict adherence to his word only who have Enemies even of the Reformed who are relaps'd down to the same Pitch the Apostacy was at when styl'd the Synagogue of Sathan in the Church of Smyrna not receiving indeed the Beasts Number of 666. but too far link'd with the Corruptions of Antiquity after the Empire becoming Christian soon Antichristianis'd who though for the present at least seem irreconcileable with the Apostacy advanc'd to its Number yet have great Indignation against Philadelphia and its Members These shall at the Kingdom of Christ appearing come and worship at this Churches Feet and be forc'd to acknowledge Christ lov'd it whose Crown of Honour it is that it hath kept the Word of Christ's patience embrac'd the Purity of Christianity in a low and mean State and therefore the Glory the Kingdom the New Jerusalem shall crown it when the Hour of Temptation comes upon all the rest of the Earth and detects the Vanity of their Religion even of their false or defiled Christianity and the Church-state of those who have not overcome the Impurities of them who call'd themselves Churches Christians Reform'd and were not so but did lye This Church is not yet come to its proper space upon the Line of Time nor can do till the Witnesses rise out of their Sackcloth and the Kingdom of Christ be proclaim'd at the seventh Trumpet And how excellent a Type of all this is the Church Philadelphia There shall be a most perfect happy and glorious State Arg. 11 of the Church before the Resignation of the Kingdom to God and the Father during the thousand years the very first Recidivations from which shall be spew'd out of Christ's Mouth and the whole of Church-States drawn up into Eternity of which Loadicea is a clear Emblem viz. of the Recidivation and spewing out in that last State Now from All this it is most evident The Church of Ephesus may have place from the first preaching the Gospel till the cruel Persecution of Dioclesian into which last and most cruel One All the Christian Blood shed from the Resurrection sunk down as the Blood from Abel to Zacharias upon the Generation of the Jews in the Time of our Saviour and was requir'd of it therefore here Smyrna began to compleat the Churches Sufferings in being faithful unto Death and receiv'd the Crown of Life in the Symbol of Constantine's Christian Empire and so down to Theodosius the Great all which Time the Church continued pure although it began to be check'd by a Synagogue of Sathan Thus these two Churches contemporiz'd with the Seals Pergamus and Thyatyra ran along with the six first Trumpets under the Apostasie and Bestian Tyranny till in the latter part of the sixth Trumpet Thyatyra eluctated into the Reformation then several of the reform'd Churches settled into the Sardian state and draw the Line of Time with the last 180 of the 1260 Years in Conjunction with Thyatyra still existent tho' not intitled any longer to bear this Line and with Philadelphia not yet come to bear the Line of Time which last shall bear the last 75 Years from the Witnesses Rising and the Kingdom of Christ proclaim'd till the New Jerusalem and its thousand Years settle upon it and that new Cube of Time begin at the End of which the Laodicean Church no sooner begins but ends and an Amen is set to all Time by Eternity receiving it All which makes apparent There is no Inconsistency but a high Condecency in these seven representative Churches bearing a Line of Time contemporary with all Apocalyptical Time which ought to be shewn Hereby we see The Excellency of the Christian Church Remark and of our Union with it and Freedom from Schism depends not upon the Greatness the Antiquity the Primitiveness of Churches but upon the Divine Apostolickness of the Doctrine Worship Rules of Holy Life truly Christian Discipline wherein we unite with them The overcoming that evil of leaving the first Love that Christ had against the very first Church of Ephesus not made diminutive as in Pergamus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 small or few things Thyatyra was more as to the Excellency of true Christianity than being of that Church The not mingling with the Synagogue of Sathan in the Church of Smyrna gave the Inculpableness and Honour to it and its Members The not being of the Apostate Church when it call'd its self Catholick in Pergamus and Thyatyra but keeping to the Truth of the Gospel constituted the true Church when the Proselites and Disciples of that Apostacy were the Proselites and Disciples of Balaam and the Children of Jezebel The few undefiled Names and Overcomers in Sardis tho' a Reform'd Church were of greater Estimation with Christ than the whole Church besides some of whose rigid Zealots of its Splendour and Power Uniformity of Rites it is to be fear'd made the Synagogue of Sathan and Philadelphia tho' of little outward Power or Splendour yet holding fast the Word of Christ and not denying his Name and keeping the Word of Christ's Patience is preferr'd much before it and honour'd with the New Jerusalem from which Blessed State Laodicea abating and growing cool All Church-states in this World are so distasted by Christ that He spews them out of his Mouth and receives only the Overcomers to his Throne and his whole Church into Eternity SECT X. Of the Third Line of Time in the Grand Line of 2300 Even Morn or of the Seven Seals from the Resurrection shewing it extends to a space of 400 Years Apoc. Cap. 4. cap. 5. cap. 6. cap. 7. cap. 8. I Have now finish'd the first Real and General Line of Time that runs from Stem to Stern from the Beginning to the End of Apocalyptical Time I come now to the second giving of the same Lines which is not uniform and entire as the former of the Churches but made up not only of various Parts as that was of seven Churches but of various Representations of each part as Seals Trumpets Voices and Vials and each of these comprehends its following Order viz. the Seals the Trumpets the Voices the Vials under the Seventh of each former as hath been already clear'd
by which they are all kept in a close successional Connexion one with another and the seventh Seal hath its Hold upon the whole even to the last Day of Judgment when the whole Book of the Kingdom is resign'd back into the Hand of God out of whose Hand it was received by Christ seal'd 1 Cor. 15. 24. c. I am therefore now and in the first place to speak of the first part of this second giving of the Line of Time and that as in the Seals before it came to the Trumpets 1. And because there is one general Preface to this whole Repetition of the Line of Time I shall first consider how adequate it is to the whole Line and to the great Administrations of it in a brief or summary Survey of it For to assure us The Preface was to the whole Apocalyptical Book or Time adorn'd with new Figures and Sculptures John heard the first Voice that spake to him and it was as it were of a Trumpet saying to him I will shew thee Things that must be hereafter Rev. 4. v. 1 2. and immediately he was the second time in the Spirit where the Distinction of things hereafter from the things that are as Rev. 1. 19. was made only as the Types of the Churches had a real Existence at that Time as Types in the then begun Christian Church but the following were deriv'd from things to come And after this there was no more any such Voice of a Trumpet speaking to John no more being in the Spirit except a being carried in the Spirit into the Wilderness to see the Apostate Church and then to a Mountain to behold the Holy City The Voice speaking again c. 10. v. 8. evidently relates to the first Voice in that chap. saying seal and write not v. 4. and then take the Book and eat c. and c. 1. 10. c. 4. 1 2. not to these Trumpet-Voices 2. At this second Apocalyptical Volume we have the great Theatre of the Throne and the whole Grandeur of it and adorn'd every way suitable to the Doctrine of the Gospel and as it were in the first Apostolical Church settled first in God as the Doctrine of the One God made known in the Father the Son and the Spirit is the Foundation of Christianity For the Father the Word and the Spirit bear Record of it in Heaven and these three are one in that Record as they are in themselves ONE 3. About this Throne at each Angle or at each of the four Points of it are four Living Creatures so I choose to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Beasts properly and distinguishingly in this Prophecy call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and these four Living Creatures represent the Apostolical Church of the New Testament as in four Ternaries or Threes of the twelve Apostles in perpetual Action and therein as it were encircling the twenty four Elders of the pure Israelitish Church The Elders are upon Seats round about the Throne and with Crowns on their Heads as being of old a Kingdom of Priests and they are in this Prophecy introduc'd in Service to the Kingdom of Christ that shall be at the New Jerusalem together with and as by the Apostolick Church who shall be Kings and Priests together with them represented by these four and twenty Elders Heads of the priestly Courses who are first plac'd as leading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom by Prophecy but yet in the very first Action the Order is revers'd and the living Creatures are first in giving Glory First there is the particular Song to the Divine Nature on the Throne as the absolute Creator and Lord of all ending in this For thy Pleasure all things are and were created and so are absolutely under his Dominion and Dispose before whom they cast their Crowns 4. The grand Symbol of the whole Apocalyptical Time and its Events and of the supreme Conduct and Government till they issue into the Kingdom of Christ is the seal'd Book in the Hand of Him that sat on the Throne seal d with the seven Seals which Seals have under them the whole Course of preparatory Events to this Kingdom and the Kingdom it self till it be resign'd back to God Thus Daniel saw Prophecy and Vision seal'd up Dan. 9. and the Book seal'd Chap. 12. 5. There is Proclamation made by the loud Voice of a strong Angel for the finding out a worthy Person to open the Book and loose its Seals And none in Heaven or Earth was found worthy to open the Seals or so much as look thereon All which is certainly as Divine a Symbol to set out the supream and sole Excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ as far above all Principalities and Powers and every Name in Heaven or Earth as could be found out and surpassing all Understanding or Invention finite and is in surprize of any Admissions of Angels or Saints into any parts of his Mediatory Office the very least so much as an Ability to look thereon as also to foreclose that grand Antichristian Assumption of the man of Sin for his very Supremacy is hereby plainly declar'd to be Antichristianism who undertakes not only to look upon this Book but to open the Seals and herein he shews himself in the Temple of God as God 6. The much weeping of John that none was found worthy to open the Book does most exactly and critically point to the time of the Death of Christ or his lying in the Grave when there seem'd a Despair upon all the Creation in that dark Interval and a suspension of the Consolation of Israel and when all the Apostles had given up as it were the hopes of it of which the Apostle John was here a Symbol and represented all the Apostles 7. The same Article of Time is farther assur'd and confirm'd by the one of the Elders as a Representative of the whole Israelitish Church who lead to Christ Thus Christ open'd the Scriptures of the Old Testament especially of Daniel That Christ was thus to suffer and to enter into his Glory viz. of sitting first at the Right-hand of God till his Foes should be made his Footstool He sate down on his Fathers Throne in his Father's Kingdom He shall have a Throne and Kingdom properly his own 8. Christ hereupon exactly as in the Time according to the History of the Gospel appears as on the sudden and unexpectedly in the midst of the Throne of the Elders and the living Creatures a Lamb as it had been newly slain and now risen and ascended and so the Epoch of the Apocalyptical Time is most strictly defin'd and fully assur'd And at this Point of Time he receives the Book which is the very same with sitting on God's Right-hand till his Foes shall be made his Footstool for when the Book is unseal'd and the thousand Years begin Then there is a putting down all Rule and Authority At the End of the thousand Year and the Day of
and this Time is fairly resolved into 75 years and then the 490 years of the 70 Weeks agreed by all Christians after which the 1335 must needs be and they must be the last of the 2300. So there is onely space for 400 necessary which during the Seals opening until the Trumpets sounding viz. from three years and a half or the last half week so long after the Resurrection to the Vulgar Year of our Lord 437. when the Western Empire under Valentinian the Son of Placidia began to be violently shaken by the Wind of the Trumpets and its Flourish blasted by the Fire and Hail of the first Trumpet mingled with Blood by the agreement of all History was four hundred years By all which Account we must needs be in or about the Twelve hundred and fiftieth year of those dark Twelve hundred and sixty and no more of them then about Ten remain when Christianity shall grow much brighter and clearer till the full cleansing of the Sanctuary or the New Jerusalem at 1772. Let us now then proceed to the Apocalyptical Account of this Line and the first Note of the Time is the Forty two Months and that is first given that it might exactly touch the taking away the Daily For whereas the Priests of Jesus Christ even all his pure Worshippers were to come into the Outward Court the Type of Publick Evangelical Worship or Spiritual Sacrifice and to fill it and his Kings under his Universal Kingdom or Monarchy were to Reign They were all seal'd up into a Beginning Retirement immediately after the Christian Empire of Constantine and the desolation of Heathenism by him in signification that that perfectly cleans'd Sanctuary nor that Kingdom should not yet appear in Glory but at the first Trumpet the Paganiz'd Antichristians crowded in under the very Title of Christs Priests or Servants and so took away the Daily and prepar'd the way to the Beasts surprisal of the Kingdom upon which the Witnesses put on Sack-cloth and the Woman or Church fled into the wilderness so that the Forty two months and the twelve hundred sixty dayes began together at the daily taking away as that Divine Person Jesus Christ the man in linnen had declared to the Prophet Daniel Dan. 12. and Apoc. 11. 2 3. And whereas there is in Daniel no mention of the Forty two months of the Gentiles nor of the Beasts forty two months which we shall be to consider in this Line also it is with admirable contrivance of the Divine Prophetick Spirit For in as much as the Time Times Semi-Time are so appropriated to the Beast as that they are never alienated from his Action and the Servants of God suffering under him and are as descriptive of him as the very Name Beast for Times in some cases are as descriptive of Persons and Things as Names as we all know what is meant by our last 41 or 71 apply'd either to Persons or Things Further in that Season Seasons Half-Season are absolutely proper to the Beast and that yet they respect principally the intimate part Time of which hath been spoken therefore Time Times Half Time could not be attributed to the Gentiles or the other Beast Rev. 13. For that had been an Entrenchment upon the Grand Beast And yet because the Beasts time of duration much more of his Regnancy was not so early as the Twelve hundred sixty dayes begun in the Sufferings of the Servants of God and that the Daily Service is no where said to be taken away by him but rather from him or before him and as in preparation to Dan. 8. 11. Marg. his rising there is of necessity some additional Character of Time to coextend the Time Times Semi Time as at large and equal to the 1260 dayes when the Line comes into so distinct a Fixation and none so fit as taken out of the 2300 Even and so declaring their Linage as these Forty two months of the Gentiles under the Influence of him whom the Scripture calls the other Beast both of the Eastern and Western Empire of which two Horns for the sake of that so notorious Dicholomy or Division of the Roman Empire into those two parts and of a Lamb for the pretensions they made to Christ are the Embleme of which Beast more is after to be spoken and whereof the Beast himself was no small part before from the first till his Regnancy Ap◠13. 10. Now these Gentiles and this other Beast which were to be Subjects of the Grand Beast have these Forty two months assign'd to them to prepare for this Grand Beast till his Rising to cause an Image to be made to him and to give Life to the Image that so the Beast that had been wounded in its sixth head might recover and live in its seventh head although it did not appear in his Infancy nor till He came to his Number or manly Age viz. at 666. when He took upon him as Prince and Lord of the intimate part of Time which is most precisely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Season Seasons Half Season All which is a full Answer to any Objection that the Universal Monarchy of the Beast cannot be trac'd so early as the Prophecy supposes Thus therefore the Gentiles tread the Court and Holy City the first Forty two months that is so long of them as till the Beasts Existence especially and indeed till his Time of Regnancy and that as Principals in the Apostacy After that their Forty two months are merg'd in the Beasts forty two months although for the Decorum or Grace of the Type they are given intire Forty two months And because the Beasts intimate Time or Season will be spent and exhausted and the Gentiles forty two months also expired before the 1260 dayes be expir'd He the Beast hath therefore full Forty two months power of duration Revel 13. 5. into which as was said the Gentiles forty two months fall and subside at the Beasts Regnant Time And by these is the Time at large furnished out for his Action to keep the Witnesses in Sack-cloth and the Woman in the Wilderness and also to continue the Gentiles treading the Holy Court and that the Daily Service may remain Taken away and to do many great Acts of Cruelty upon the Servants of God even after his intimate Time and possibly to give in little and as in Epitome a Recollection of the 1260 years in the last three years and half or some such proportion of Time when the Time of the Witnesses Testimony is so near finished and all this by vertue of his large permissory Commission given to him by God above that given to his Gentiles though He cannot expand or spread nor culminate or rise any more to the height of his intimate Time when it is once past And if there be such a Prince whom the Scripture calls a Beast that is a Paganiz'd Idolatrous Monarch the Gentiles must needs be his People and in his Service else he must
be a Prince without a People so that though the Gentiles forty two months are necessary before the Beasts forty two months yet they are not necessary to be a distinct time after for the Beasts Power necessarily supposes them they serve therefore not only the Grace of the Type as was said but the Secresie of the Prophesie both which require these numbers should be given entire and parallel even as Adams years of Life ran along to his Death with the common Line of Time to the Flood though it was necessary only until the Time of his Begetting and after that the Line was set upon a succeeding Patriarke and so in the whole Roll every ones Life though it did not support the Line yet corroborated it after the Paidogony or Begetting and so concurred with it to the last even thus the Gentiles Fourty two months support the Bestial Line till the Beasts rising and concurr in it with the Beast while they last and when they are ended there is no alteration because the Bestian Times include to the very last of them the gross Gentilisme of them that dwell on the Earth and the false Prophetisme into which the other Beast sunk down as into a proper Character after the Beasts 666 as Apoc. 19. v. 20. He is called and c. 20. v. 10. But further than this the Beasts forty two months have a certain Epoch viz. at the Year of our Lord 475 in the cessation of the Christian Empire in Augustulus Compare 2 Thess 2. with Revel 17. 10 11. For the Christian Emperours being the sixth King but none of the seven Heads was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or he that letted or with-held as the Empire was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the thing that letted or with-held that the eighth King that was yet of the seven Heads could not succeed for an after King cannot succeed till the former is gone off the Stage especially where God holds the Line of Succession firm so that by adjusting the forty two Months of the Beast as lunar Time to the 1260 Days of solar Time we find thirty eight Years difference and seeing All the whole Line must end with the 1260 the Time of the Beasts forty two Months beginning exactly agrees with 475 thirty eight Years after the 1260 Years of the Witnesses Sackcloath at 437 and All end at 1697. And because we have spoke much of the Intimate Time of the Beast or of his Season Seasons Half-season within time times half a time we have the Pillar of that Time erected Revel 13. 17 18. when his first Season was well or about eighteen Years enter'd viz. at 666 when his Name or Nature was come to his Number and when he was come to his Age of 666 from his Conception which by searching the Root and as the Vnderstanding and Reason of a Man searches Number we find to be Twenty Five by the consent of all Arithmetick as the Time of his Conception when the Mystery of Iniquity like a Womb was at work for him who as a man of those Characters 2 Thess 2. was indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Beast and from Twenty Five after the Resurrection or Apocalyptical Epoch the first visible Variation from the Apostolical Twelve both in Time and Nature when it became the Base of another Doctrine Kingdom the Root of another Name the Apostacy conceiv'd and wrought within the Mystery of Iniquity not openly but secretly and as in the lower parts of the Abyss out of which the Beast comes as a Womb at 725 when the War concerning Images began and continued till all that refus'd that Worship were anathematiz'd by the second Council of Nice I say to that 725 when Leo Conon the Grecian Emperour was struck by the Thunderbolt of Excommunication interceeded just 666 Years from twenty five Years after the Resurrection and if by the three days and a half by themselves as also by many other Circumstances leading us to the three days of our Lord's Death we ballance Time we shall find the Proportions for as Christ died in the last fourth part of the first day and rose in the first fourth of the third day so was the Condition of the Witnesses Begin their 1260 days at 437 and at 707 began the last fourth part of the first Day or Time viz. the last 90 of the first 360 as Christ's Death began at the sixth Hour or at twelve the last fourth part of the Nycthemer and was perfected by the end of it to his Burial so the Witnesses from 707 to 797 the end of the first day lay dead in the Street of the great City But it did not become the Type they should be buried and so to 1517 then their first motion to a Resurrection began and their compleat Resurrection at 1697 even to admiration answering the last half day And lastly because Imperial Revolutions as being under the eye of all History most livelily represented by their Emblems and fixed upon their just Rests of Time must needs strengthen Prophecy concerning the Church of God when one joyn Hand in Hand with the other there is therefore the Fall of the Western Empire given by the Divine Apocalyptical Prophecy to the Fall of the Eastern Empire or the taking of Constantinople by such wonderful Types and Figures of the gradual Impressions on the Western Empire Apoc. 8. v. 7. to the end by such Images of the Mahometan Saracens as Locusts c. 9. to v. 13. and of the Turkish Horsemen to the end of the Chap. and with such a Relation to the Antichristian Idolatries and their Impenitency therein adorn'd with such Notes of Time as the five months and five months to the Locusts and the hour the day the month and the year to the Horse-men call'd for by the Voice from the Golden Altar of Incense within the measur'd Temple when the Daily of publick Worship was taken away as makes the Line out of measure excellent and adorable as given by the Holy Spirit to the killing the third part of men or taking Constantinople 1453. Behold then as at a Review the admirable Structure of it and the great Instructions arising from its order of Repetitions upon these short Particulars 1. The intimate Time of this Line is especially most solemnly appointed and design'd and the whole as united with it for it is made and constituted not without an Oath Dan. 12. 7. to be Time Times half a Time and therein Season Seasons half a Season and it is cut off not without an Oath at the end of intimate Time though the whole of the Time Times half time be first supposed to run out at large and the whole both of Time at large and intimate Time also cut off for ever at that end Apoc. 10. 6. 2. The whole of this Line and of the last seventy five Years is measured by even Indictions or Fifteens of Years the use of which Rising in the Reign of Constantine became well known by
now the Church was indeed out of view by the Apostasie introduc'd by the Gentiles the Beasts people under the other Beast so that the False Church hid the True as in a wilderness The Gentiles crowded the True worshippers into a clos'd Temple The Daily was taken away The witnesses were in Sackcloth where then could the True Church be seen All was scatter'd no Body of a Church appear'd but the Antichristian to this state things grew more and more under the Regnancy of the Beast till the Woman was fled from the Serpent himself All this is then to be accounted to the Beast serving the True Church by Gods overruling Hand so far as that it was out of the Dragons reach who was deceived thinking to strike the True but the False lay bleeding In the mean time Satan however in his Serpentine and draconick Nature jealous of any thing of Christ even in his own Kingdom first persecutes the Empire by the Barbarians where He knew the woman very lately was by her bringing forth the Manly Birth He struck at it by way of distinction in his own Aym but finding He could not reach it by the rude strokes of the Barbarians but the Eagles wings had convey'd it away and finding that those Barbarous Nations setled by degrees into the Antichristian Christianity and so help'd it forward into the wilderness He then resolved to be sure of it attempted to swallow it by the Mahometan Flood But This neither distinguishing it nor succeeding because the Bestian Earth drunk up the Flood not only receiving it upon it self but maintaining the name Doctrine Profession and Church state of Christianity so far as is necessary absolutely to Antichristianisme and its Kingdom so drunk up the Flood by setting it self against the blasphemous monstrous Mahometan Imposture and with a deadly hate because Mahometanism is no less against Antichristianity than Christianity so the Serpent disappointed is wroth and as so necessitated determines now to sift for his Ends by Draconism refin'd into Beastianism Heathenism guilded with Christianity but pointed and edg'd with Antichristianisme which is a compound of the Dragon and the Beast And because this Antichristian state allowed such a thing as a Christian Church tho but it self only He can make war only with the womans seed And to the purpose and as we say with a Vengeance He makes War with the womans seed who keep the Commandments God and hold as witnesses the Martyry of Jesus that is by the Beast whose History immediately follows cap. 13. and to whom the Dragon deputed his power and seat even Great Authority which Delegation the other Beast that spake as a Dragon viz. the False Prophecy received and managed for him the Grand Beast until He came to his Image and Number and so the Dragon and the Beast continue together till the Beast is taken and cast into the Lake and the Dragon and all his Draconism bound Chain'd and Seal'd up by the Kingdom of Christ appearing Rev. c. 19. c. 20. v. 1. And this is the True History of Draconism as entred into Bestianism by which it plainly appears the scattering of the Power of the Holy People or the state of the Woman in the Wilderness is wholly owing to the Beast and his Bestianism whose are Time Times Half Time and that the Dragon and his Persecution were wholly defeated by the Bestian Apostacy conveying the Church from the Serpent till He wrought by the Beast and made over his Power to Him in revenge upon the Womans Seed it self being still safe Now how admirable is all this according to the Symbols the Beast still in all appearance and semblance secures Christ on the Throne while it supplants his true Kingdom and Power for how could Antichrist's Kingdom stand if Christ were not in Title upon the Throne But how could it stand if Christ did indeed reign No it presently falls then or rather vanisheth away Again the Wings of the Apostatiz'd Empire while they convey the true Church out of all ordinary Visibility yet secure it in the Name and Notion of a Church the Beast's Earth thus helps it for a Christian Church is his Claim and Title to his Kingdom but it must be hidden for a true Christian Church visible destroys his Kingdom Thus all things even to Astonishment at the divine Prophetick Wisdom have a Harmony in Truth greater than that of the Spheres in Imagination Mahometans and Pagan Infidels by subverting Christianity necessarily overthrow Antichrist's Kingdom also it is in indispensable need of Christianity so far as a Pretence goes but the Brightness and native Glory consumes it while Christianity under a false mask supports it true Christianity scorches it to nothing as will be seen at the Vial pour'd into the Sun true Christianity and the Church therefore must be hidden and in the Wilderness and its Seed persecuted as if not of the Church that false Christianity and the false Church may reign in its Absence under its Name and Appearance Thus while the Dragon persecutes in his Aim and Intention the Christian Church the Apostacy pretending it self the Vniversal Church conveys the true Church into a Wilderness and so befriends the Notion of a Church while it conveys it out of sight the Dragon by the Beast makes War with the Seed and scatters them that they could not possibly be found in the Body of a Church not but that the Church was truly visible in the single Witnesses however anathematiz'd but it could not be reach'd in a Body even by the Serpent himself for it was not in a Body and yet the Notion of a Church was dear to the Antichristians for They and the Beast usurp'd it At this Time therefore according to this Prophecy it could be no Argument against the Church Where was it or It was not visible in a Body for it was not to be visible in a Body but in the Suffering scatter'd Seed So that it was hid from the very Serpent And yet even to the end of the 1260 Days there is a Mahometan Draconism levelling at Christ Christianity and the true Church but falling almost wholly upon the false Church and the Antichristian King and his Subjects who is therefore always principally concern'd to drink up this Flood and so helps the true Church by his Earth There is nothing at the present I can think necessary to add to this Explication of the Apocalyptical Dragon but that the whole Vision Rev. 12. to v. 13. is presented as in Heaven so that the Assumption of the manly Birth the Joy upon the Dragon 's casting down upon the Kingdom of our God being come c. is given as in Heaven and is reserved also in Heaven till the glorious Appearance of Christ and there is no more but such an imperfect cognisance of those great Things upon Earth as was given by the Christian short Empire to be expected till that glorious Kingdom of Christ at the end of the Beast's Reign which may
as we shall see presently Now that it so began at Twenty five or six we have a threefold Testimony Of the Apostle Paul that the Mystery of Iniquity viz. the Apostacy as a Womb in which the Man of Sin was curiously form'd as in the lower parts of 2 Thess 2. 7. 1 John 4. 3. Revel 2. 4. the Earth was then at work that it might bring forth the Man at his full growth at 666. The Apostle John assures us Antichrist was then in the World and the supreme Apocalyptes Christ tells us Ephesus the Image of the Apostolical Church had even in the Apostles Times left its first Love when therefore Apostolical Time had doubled it self from Twelve to Twenty Four and was moving onward as at a precise Time from Conception the Mystery of Iniquity began to work at 25 or 26. And it is no wonder the Man of Sin beheld by the Apostle in Spirit when no Eye saw him in this his Embrional Condition in his first Principles was thus remark'd by him For then every thing receives its nature Even as Jacob in the Womb as John the Baptist as our Lord in his Conception is celebrated so this Man of Sin is dated from the conceiving of Sin as well as from the manly State from the Conception as well as from the grown Man till then Iniquity fully accomplishing its Time brings forth Death This Psendo Abrahamite this spiritual Edom and Esau struggled as another Nation in the Womb of the Apostacy while the pure Israelitism without guile lay in the Womb of true Christianity to both which the outward Profession was a common Womb. This prophane Esau is he that sold the Birth-right of the Gospel for a Mess os Pottage and the Heavenly Kingdom for an Earthly Dukedom and wherein he got the start Thus the Number of the Name of the Beast and the number of the Beast or the time of his adult and man-like Bestianism so closely related so closely joyn'd as not possible they should lead two several ways both being the Time of worshipping the Image receiving the Mark the Name and the Number of the Name assure beyond all doubt that they are both one Nature appearing manifestly at one and the same Time and by both mathematical and prophetical Certainty if the Top of the Number be 666 Twenty five must be the Root and Bottom and if the Root be Twenty five from the Resurrection the top must be 666 from that twenty five viz. 725 or 726 and so both from the nature counter-Apostolical under the pretence of Apostolical as also the Root and the top of Time being compar'd It can neither be Mahometan not so early up as twenty five nor Pagan that did not live so long as 725 but must be Antichristian or the Beast And by this wonderful Hieroglyphick of Number God hath surpris'd all defence from Antiquity out of the hand of Antichrist that is not built upon his Word Truth and solid Reason for seeing the Mystery of Iniquity wrought so soon as 25 from the Resurrection all Proof from Antiquity only is but proof for Antichrist taken from the Mystery of Iniquity beginning to work and so not to be for that cause allowed I come therefore now to the second point viz. To see Head 2 where this Pillar of intimate Time this six hundred sixty six can be only duely and proportionably plac'd And we shall find evidently where it is thus to be plac'd That we may then understand this we must consider that there is in Time Times Half Time an intimate Time or Season signified to us 3 ways 1. By the force of the Words us'd in the Chalde in the Dan. 7. 25. Dan. 12. 7. Rev. 12. 14. Hebrew and in the Greek Originals to express this Line It is indicted appointed Time or Season Seasons half Season Now Season is the most virtual lively point of Time for though all Season must have Time to support it yet Time is only Season to those things whereunto it is especially appointed and gives advantage the very words therefore import Season within Time and thus the Apostle says The Man of Sin is reveal'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were in the same Words with that of the three Seasons and half in his own Season 2. The intending and elevation of the Events speak the same for as much as Prophecying in Sackcloth is transcended by lying dead as much as being in the Wilderness so as to be hid from the face of the Serpent exceeds being in the Wilderness only in general as much as changing Times and Laws and wearing out the Saints and scattering the holy People by the Antichristian Prince himself exceed the rude Gentiles trampling the holy Court or the Beasts mere Power of Continuance so does the intimate Time or season of seasons seasons half season transcend the Time at large and in general and therefore all these Notes of Time are first given and then Inward time with this Exaltation of the Effects 3. The Three times and a half pointing and propending towards though not rigidly denoting three years and a half even as twelve hundred sixty days do and as forty two months of Lunar years do they have two great Paralels one of Years the other of Days and both fitted to the very 1260 days of the Witnesses The first of years is that of Elijah declaring that there 1 Kings 17. 1. should not be these years Rain nor Dew but according to his Word Now the Time of this Drought is most expresly affirmed twice that we might take the more notice of it to be three years and six months once by Christ himself a second Luc. 4. 25. Jam. 5. 17. Time by the Apostle James And yet by the History we cannot find that the Drought was any longer than a part of the three years and a part of 1 King 18. 1. the six months for it is said in the third year Elijah appeared to Ahab and Rain ensued accounting then from the latter end of the first year to the beginning of the six months after two years there might be no Rain a part of the first year the whole of the two years nor till the six months began and yet it might be in the third year according to precise account of years as may be easily understood For there may be three full years within a part of the first of the three years and of the six months viz. the latter part of the first year and the beginning of the last six Months comprehending two whole years in the middle That of Days is the instance of our Lords three days in the heart of the Earth which by the full evidence of the Evangelists we know was but a part of the first day the whole of the second and a part or the first part only of the third Now these three days both lay as an intimate part of Time within the three full years and half of our
motion and zealous of finishing the Mystery of God and that within so short a Time as 75 Years so that as the Voices and Vials cannot have yet been since the Reformation so they cannot take up above 75 Years after it For to shew them quick they are styl'd Voices soon given and Vials suddenly pour'd out and what is quicker than the Voice of God's Thunder than the Spouts and Cataracts of Heaven 5. If there be seven Voices or Thunders they must needs unite with the seventh Trumpet and the seven Vials must issue from the seventh Voice or else the admirable Contexture of this Prophecy its Symmetry and Harmony must needs be lost as therefore the seventh Seal comprehends the seven Trumpets during which the Kingdom remains seal'd even so must the seventh Trumpet the Voices and to shew the Voices are seven Voices the seven Vials are fill'd from the Blood of the Wine-press of the seventh Voice 6. It is most impossible the Bestian or Antichristian Power should be in such a State as at this day it is If the seventh Trumpet with its Voices and Vials had made their Impressions on it it must needs have been torn and rent in pieces thereby But because that so illustrious End of the sixth Trumpet and the seventh Trumpet are to come and that the seventh Trumpet is so expresly styl'd Mystery I shall with all Humility Modesty and Brevity undertake not any thing in their Explication as to the very manner or precise sense of Particulars but only in the general demonstrate their Order and Sequence and observe their necessary main Importance but whether even that Fall of the Tenth of the City and the concomitant mighty Works do not with a great notice of themselves only given at the end of the sixth issue into the seventh Trumpet and so are gradually fulfill'd in the Voices and the Vials and how the Bestian Power or the spiritual Pharaoh and his Egypt is so much as kept in a State of Being or Existence at all and survives as Pharaoh and Egypt of old under such Voices and Vials to the last or as the City where our Lord was crucified did under such a Ministry and a course of Miracles and Prophecies fulfilling upon it till destroy'd by Titus I confess my self unable to account but must leave it to that Time it self that will be so full of Light to explain it But that the Prophecy gives us an orderly course of seven Voices although in reverence as it were of the Prophecy it self to its own Type of the Thunders once seal'd they and their Order is so much cover'd I shall thus argue There are in this Apocal. Prophecy ch 14. seven distinct Issues Arg. 1 or Emanations following in a Connexion and yet to v. 1. v. 13. v. 6. v. 14 15. each is annex'd its signal Note of Distinction so that while they are in a Connexion they are also under a Distinction v. 8. v. 18. v. 9. and they are just seven and most undeniably so From hence it appears they concert with all the Apocalyptick Sevens in which Number the whole Prophecy is all along conveyed To each of these there is applied either a Voice from Heaven Arg. 2 a loud Voice or a loud Cry according to the Note of the seventh Trumpet There were great Voices in Heaven Every one of these Sevens hath therefore this Note except the Third concerning the Fall of Babylon omitted then as it were on purpose to distinguish it and that it might not be mistaken for the Execution of this Voice by the seventh Vial c. 18. else it cannot but be thought That Angel discharg'd his Office and Trust with the same Zeal the other Angels did and that a Point of so great Concernment to the Kingdom of Christ as Babylon's Fall was neither whisper'd in a low Accent nor coolley or so much as calmly pronounced To shew there is a Connexion of the Seven when there had been no mention of any Angel in the first Voice yet it is Arg. 3 said in the second Voice Another Angel Now seeing he cannot be call'd Another with respect to any precedent Angel it must undoubtedly be with Relation to the first Voice and thus as there is a Connexion so there is an Order in the fourth Voice therefore the Angel is call'd the third Angel to shew there is a design'd Order And as to shew the same Order also the first Angel was called not the first but another and if Another there must be a former another can't be without a first other for Another is a second other So it appears again there is an order of Voices signified in this third Angel but fourth Voice for the Order is again express'd by Third a most express Note of Order The very Importance of each Voice carries a Succession to Arg. 4 the Kingdom of Christ which that we may better understand we must consider Voice and Voices and Thunder in their general Notation in Scripture signifie Doctrine and an Emanation of Doctrine so John Baptist is called a Voice and those two Apostles Boanerges or Sons of Thunder and especially in this Prophecy Thunders and Voices are always big with some Appearance of Christ's Kingdom This course of Voices must therefore be a course of Doctrines very productive of Christ's Kingdom and in the two last of earnest Prayers for it that were returned to as Christ's Prayer Glorifie Joh. 12. 28. thy Name by a Voice of Thunder I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again and as the Place where the Apostles prayed was shaken so these Petitions will be to the Acts 4. 31. World as a Thunder and Earthquake and yet the Kingdom it self after these Preparations is in a still Voice of Grace and Peace We must then enquire from whence these Voices rise and spring and we may find three Origins of them 1. They rise from the Church of Philadelphia whose proper Interval or Support of the Line of Time is at the seventh Trumpet as hath been affirmed And it is said Christ set it an open door viz. of divine Doctrine reaching to Christ's Kingdom So the Apostle calls the Propagation of the Gospel 1 Cor. 16. 9. Col. 4. 3. by his Ministry the opening to him a door wide and effectual and the very Publication it self a door of Vtterance 2. They spring from the seven Thunders that uttered their Voices but as not in due time to proceed nor in the order of the Apocal. Sevens were then sealed but are now written The first Voice therefore as the Voice of Thunder allies the whole Course of them to the Thunders and the Persons from whom the Voice of the first Thunder proceeds had the Name of the Lambs Father Written which Number was first under Seal at the Apostacy beginning then they shewed themselves at the Thunders but immediately were seal'd again and now unseal'd and written at the Thunders unseal'd and written in these Voices So in