Saracen Mahomatan Locusts Cap. 9.4 and so it is to be noted which I also adde that the blasts of the first four Trumpets being the milder miseries on the Empire were stayed Rev. 8.1 2. until much Incense was offered by Christ with the prayers of the Saints that they might be accepted where those four Trumpets took effect namely upon the Western part from the time the barbarous Nations came in there for the most part till he that letted as the Apostle speaks 2 Thes 2. should be taken away in the West as he was there first to make room for Antichrist to whom the Dragon by degrees gave his Seat and Power and great Authority And that the 14400 were to arise out of the Greek Church viz. which were sealed Cap. 7. Some of the said Authors grounds are farther namely That the Angel that would have the four Winds stayed till they were sealed is said to arise out of the East and the evil of the Woe-Trumpets was to fall upon the East chiefly and that if those sealed ones Cap. 7. be not of Christians in the East Church in the times of the Woe-Trnmpets there is nothing spoken of them in all the Book of Revelation remarkable which have been so long under such sad tribulation and their being said to come out of great tribulation doth more fitly seem to decypher out the Christians of the Greek Church than any others under those Trumpets To which I may adde as being of the same Judgment That they are farther described to have specially washed their Robes in the Blood of the Lamb whom they would not leave for Mahomatan impostures at the highest Price of Fears or Favours and seem to differ from what is set down of those 144000 Cap. 14. with the Lamb in Mount Sion having their Fathers Name in the Forehead which seems to be in the Western Church preserved in the darkness of Popery from spiritual ruine by Antichrist who are called there The Followers of the Lamb wheresoever he goeth keeping close to him and not turning into the Beasts by-ways and thickets though he pretended never so much to be the Lambs Deputy and Vicar-General on Earth and they are said to be Virgins which denotes their avoiding of Anttichrists Idolatry and have no guile in their mouths to pretend for Christ and follow Antichrist with other particulars observable Cap. 14. which seem to set them forth to be the sealed ones in Antichrists Dominion rather than in the East parts where Mahonetism prevails c. and therefore the four Augels stayed their four Winds while the former 144000 Cap. 7. were sealed which seems to signifie they were to be within the reach of their four first Trumpets that for the most part fell upon the Western Empire till that Seat of the former Beast was taken away and preparation should be made for the new Beast the Dragons next Substitute to whom he gave after his Seat and Power and great Authority Cap. 13. For by the first Trumpet Rev. 8. seems to have been weakened the Dominion of the Western Empire by the incursion of the barbarous Nations by the second the great City or Mountain sacked or burnt by the third the Emperour in the person of Agustulus the last of that Order there utterly taken away being plucked out of his Throne and in the fourth the light and glory of all that Kingdom formerly by taking away their antient Senate by means whereof Rome had so long shined so glorious with all her Lights in that Orb before was wholy extinct but in the fifth or first Wo-Trumpet Rev. 9. to vers 11. Gods Dispensation seemed very evident not in respect of Antichrist as the fore-mentioned Author conceived for all the particulars Chap. 9. to the 11th verse seem better to agree to the Sardcens than to him Vide Notes of the Bible on that chapter the Sober Guess c. with others But against the spiritual hurt falling on the one part of the Eastern Empire by the Incursion and Conquest made by the Saracens some of those before sealed chap. 7. were preserved as by means of the two Wings of an Eagle spoken of chap. 12. on that part where the Saracens setled and after on the other part which the Turks took away besides what the Saracens formerly had as likewise that Woman the Church had her other Eagles Wing in the West that Eagle denoting the Roman Empire after Constantine had built Constantinople in the East dividing the Empire into two parts in East and West and the Eagle with her two sade-Wings being the Ensign thereof upon which advantage the Woman the true Church fled into the Wilderness chap. 12. about the end of the second Trumpet or beginning of the third when probably Antichrist had his rise with his ten Kings or Crowned Horns soon after the beginning of the fourth Century from which time the said Woman the Church hath been fed by her true Pastors the two sackcloth-Prophets in her Wilderness-condition which she is shortly to come out of But on the other part that said Woman the Church brought into the East by the other Eagles wing of the Eastern Empire before into her Wilderness condition or rather miserable bondage and great tribulation being cast under the stroke of Mahometan Tyranny by the prevailing of the Saracens at the beginning of the fifth or first Wo Trumpet about the year of our Lord 600 or not long after who then I say began to bring her into her great tribulation in the East on one part wherein she so continued until the second Wo-Trumpet under the Turk about the year of the Lord 1300 by whow the other part of the Eastern Empire was subdued utterly and Mahometism likewise prevailed wholly over the formerly famous visible Greek-Church c. only the said 144000 of sealed ones have been and are still wonderfully preserved amongst them and even of late an 1629. or thereabouts an excellent Confession of Faith was sent from Constantinople by Cyril late Patriarch there well approved by judicious men amongst us as an evidence of the abiding still of such poor persecuted oppressed souls in those parts whose great tribulation spoken of chap 7. for about a thousand years now past and still are like to be under the Turk for his day and weck and month and year as Mr. Mede computes them or until his 396 years be expired Now when the Spirit of God as seems probable having set forth the Wrath and Judgment upon the very seat of the former Beast in the season of the six first Trumpets both East and West where in their order they fell the greatest part contemporating with Antichrists Tyranny both which shall be finished at the beginning of the seventh Trumpet whereby the same spirit of God seems to lead us by the hand as it were to the borders of Christs glorious Kingdom upon Earth approaching upon the beginning of the seventh Angels sounding chap. 11. 2d General Prophesie Rev. 10. He then
observed until the Empire and Church become one under Christ's Kingdome in the time or haply after the time of the seventh Trumpet Therefore after the Lamb Christ Jesus had received the Book at the Hand of him that sat upon the Throne chap. 5. in the Chapter following John heard the thundring Voice of one of the Beasts saying Come and see when the Lamb opened the first Seal where he beheld a white Horse and he that sat on him had a Bow and a Crown was given to him and he went conquering and to conquer denoting the dispensations of God's Grace in the world through Jesus Christ who received of the Father this Book of Revelation of the things concerning the Church and her Enemies and hath all power to fulfil and execute them accordingly here first set forth by the white-horse so tendering Peace by the Preaching of the Gospel which like a Bow shoots out Arrows as Psal 45. piercing the hearts of all sorts it is sent unto and by which Christ will be Victorious and Glorious c. and therefore in the sending abroad of his Gospel he goes conquering of all sorts thereby and to conquer and subdue all such as shall oppose and persecute it This hath been his design ever since this white horse was sent abroad guided by that Rider and this is and will be pursued till he fully have the Crown of Victory when his Enemies shall become his Foot-stool Psalm 110. at the day of the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Titus 2.13 to begin at or about the destruction of Antichrist 2 Thess 2.8 when he will come with Clouds Rev. 1.7 and when all Families of the Earth shall mourn seeing the Son of man coming in the Clouds with Power and great Glory Mat. 24.30 and 26.64 of which design the Spirit of God by the holy Prophet speaketh eminently Psal 45.4 saying Ride on in thy Majesty because of the Word of Truth of Meekness and Righteousness viz. to subdue unto his Obedience by conquering and his right Hand will teach him terrible things by conquering and subduing his Enemies and such as withstand him And this in all parts of the Revelation will be evident for persecution will follow the Gospel as the Shadow the Substance so long as the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman have their aboad together in the world and therefore in this Book in the following Seals God seems thereby to manifest what dispensations he would shew towards such persecuting Enemies in all the following Seals and Trumpets till that time of eminent victory and conquest begin to be manifest unto men in the World at the foresaid Period for the great comfort of his Church to be believed from his Word and which should be applyed daily for the warning of wicked men if they will be admonished Mr. Mede doth very appositely apply the Red Black and Pale Horses to such purposes in the three following Seals observing from the Histories of the Primitive times how they were accomplished as likewise Mr. Fox observes remarkably that after the Roman Governors had rejected the offer of receiving Christ and that Satan had engaged them in Persecutions above thirty of their Emperors successively came to untimely deaths but how such Judgments of Sword Famine Pestilence followed one another upon the Empire and sometimes altogether besides as may be observed from the first second and third Seals but especially from the fourth as more particularly is set down by the aforesaid Mr. Mede I would therefore have observed in the fifth Seal the remarkable different dispensation of God when most of the ten Persecutions had reged and sent home such multitudes of believing Christians to blessedness by their sufferings that by the opening of the fifth Seal is signified to the Church how God was mindful of the Blood of the Martyrs by the crying of the Souls under the Altar for revenge not that they in Happiness then did complain or so did really cry for Vengeance but that God looked upon what had been done to them as an occasion whereupon he would revenge them but yet not presently but after their Brethren which should soon after suffer as they had done had been likewise killed which seemed to have been fulfilled in the Tenth Persecution under Dioclesian and others which continued ten years to gether which probably was the ten days Tryal and Tribulation formerly spoken of Rev. 2.10 but the sufferers under the Beast are included also And accordingly in the sixth Seal came the great Earthquake when the Sun became like Sackloth of Hair and the Moon like Blood and the Stars fell and the mighty men hid themselves in the Caves of the Earth when the wrath of the Lamb was two ways manifest first In dethroneing the Dragon and casting him down to the Earth in abandoning the Heathenish Idolatry and secondly By curting off his Instruments the then wicked Rulers of the World by the means of that Reforming Victorious Conqueror the Emperour Constantine the Great when God's hand was so heavy upon Dioclesian Maximinianus Galerius Maximinus Maxentius Licinius and many Governours under their Command with their Armies and particularly on Pontitius Culianus Theotimus with many others as Stories testifie And afterward by taking away by degrees the Seat and Throne of the former Beast who received afterward the deadly wound upon which the Dragon had so prevailed before to persecute the Saints as appears in the Trumpets following which proceeded out of that seventh Seal all of which sounded their several Wrath and Judgments against it till it went into utter perdition under every form both East and West But before the execution of that Wrath God would Chap. 7. and 14. have both his 144000's of the Faithful sealed where those Trumpets Blasts should come who should be saved from the spiritual mischief of them and after the sealing of those 144000 Cap. 7. are an innumerable company of Palm-bearers of all Nations and Tongues which the said Author rightly conceives to be the great confluence of Christians when the Jews with the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in which will I doubt not be in the time of Christs powerful Reign for this is the course observable in this Book as may hereafter be more manifest that the spirit of God first setteth down what blessedness shall ensue the sufferings of his People before those sufferings come Now I conceive with a Learned Author that these 144000. sealed Ones Cap. 7. are another from those 144000 Cap. 14. for which he gives divers Reasons shewing those in Cap. 7. were to be preserved in the Greek Church in the Eastern Empire and that from the fifth and sixth and the part of the seventh Wo. Trumpet that might fall there as towhat evil might there fall at the begining of the sounding thereof which said sealed Ones are specially to be preserved and secured at the entrance of the fifth or first Woe-Trumpet by the
is described Dan. 7. And in this Book chap. 14. is conceived by judicious men upon considerable grounds to be contemporary with the two Beasts setting out the opposite state of the true Church in the same time not successive as this Author takes it though the Beasts ruine is therein more fully described yet he hath many considerable things against and concerning Antichrist in this Chapter and likewise he is very excellent upon the seventeenth and eighteenth being a like subject to prove the Pope to be Antichrist But for the particular Vision concerning the Vials Rev. 15 16. which appears to be a larger explication of what was spoken of Antichrists downfal and ruine in the latter part of chap. 14. As the seventeenth was an explication of divers things concerning the Antichristian Church of Rome and the eighteenth a special Vision of the terrible suddain irresistable and cursed destruction and desolation of Rome about the sixth Vial after which probably will succeed the conversion of the Jews and the Armageddon Battel upon which he hath many profitable notes upon chap. 19. But for the beginning of the seventh Trumpet at the beginning of the pouring out of the seven Vials and placing so many of the Vials after the time wherein the thousand years chap. 20. is begun and making the casting of Satan into the Lake after the Battel of Gog and Magog chap. 20. to be the seventh Vial I conceive to be much differing from the sense of the Scripture and for that the seven Vials are called the seven last Plagues which Phrase is the same in sence with the end of the days Dan. 12. both setting forth the period of wicked Monarcy when the Feet and Toes of the Image he saw before are wearing out toward the expiring of the Roman Monarchy and are both spoken of the Beasts ruine and poured out to accomplish it by degrees which the last Vial finisheth and reach no farther and in this sense learned men understand the Oath of the Angel of the Covenant chap. 10. That Time should be no longer viz. to that wicked Dominion for thenceforth was to begin a new World as after Noahs Flood wherein Christs glorious Reign on Earth should take place in an eminent manner for then the Scene of the World will be visibly changed the old being ended and the new begun wherein a King shall Rule in Righteousness whose Officers shall be Peace and his Exactors Righteousness as the Prophet foretold c. then will come in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that world to come Heb. 2.5 but the Vials are the last Plagues because they at last dispatch and rid Antichrist and all his supportors out of the Earth neither are any such Plagues suitable to or seasonable in the state of things in the said thousand years while that happy World remains and the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ which this Author applies to the time of Luther which he judges to be the beginning of the Vials I conceive unwarrantably when he thinks the Witnesses were slain chap. 11. not dinstinguishing of the former and last flaying as we observed Grounds of the Doctrine of Christs Kingdom on Earth throughout the whole Book of the Revelations ANd here I shall take occasion to hint what I have all along observed this Learned and Religious Author to have been defective in namely as one not owning the Doctrine of the Glorious Kingdome of Christ to come one Earth in the thousand years Rev. 20. That he passeth over many things in the Book of Revelation which evidently respect that time without observation as first in the Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia wherein those promises are set down again repeated c. 21 22. concerning the New Jerusalem many of which are evidently incompetible to any other state of affairs but of that time as to have power over the Nations chap. 2.26 to receive the Morning Star and to eat of that Tree whose Leaves shall be for the healing of the Nations to sit on a Throne of Christ distinct from his Fathers Throne chap. 3.21 and to have a Name written of the New Jerusalem which comes down from Heaven which are inconsistent with the state of the Church Triumphant in Heaven with divers others which the Primitive Christians were so well resolved of in the best times to belong to those that obtained a better Resurrection as the Spirit of God expresseth it Heb. 11.35 which Saint Paul seems to aim at the attaining to by the fellowship of Christs Sufferings Phil. 3.10 11. whence the Faithful are called the Children of the Resurrection Luke 20.36 Yea observe farther they are called by our Saviour Such as are accounted worthy to attain that World and the Resurrection of the dead And to this purpose it is storied of the Primitive Christians such was their Faith in this particular that out of an holy ambition as it were to have a share amongst the raised Martyrs they were forward to suffer upon that account for the Name of Christ But in the next place likewise he passeth over what evidently refers to that state chap. 5.10 though he spake of what the representative Church are said there to obtain from Christ to be Kings and Priests spiritually unto God but he altogether passeth over what the Holy Ghost teacheth them there to praise God for for the time to come and which they greatly exult in and rejoyce in aforehand for the time to come as a duty belonging to all Saints in that happy priviledge upon Earth till then and say they We shall reign upon Earth which is joyned to the other as an other part of their joy and matter of praise foreseen by the eye of Faith as if they had said For so we all Ministers and People shall their reign not only as we did spiritually in our former condition in the world but as will be suitable to that world to come in Christ's Kingdom on Earth We shall reign with him there a thousand years as chap. 20. is farther explained and to make it clear it must not be taken for Celestial Eternal Glory the place is set down where that Reignishall be namely on Earth and for the time future noting that it was not their present spiritual Reign but they shall so reign there viz. on Earth What can be spoken more clearly yet by him all together over-look'd So usual it is for prejudice to blind the eyes even of otherwise judicious and good men though some mysteries of God are discovered in their seasons only to whom and when and so far only as he is pleased to reveal them as Mr. Mede recordeth of a Tradition that the Apocalyps should be little understood in Antichrists time till about the twelfth Century and suitable in some things afterwards in such times as God sees good c. Again he takes notice of another innumerable company cloathed in white besides the 144000 sealed ones chap. 7. which