ease in their Possessions and had rather things should run on in the old corrupt Account than to have a New and Just Reckoning But since these things must of necessity come to pass for Gods Prophecies are not Poets Fables they may as well fend off the Blow by a due Provision as to encrease their Misery by an unexpected stroke The Ark is open and they may enter in if they please and prevent being destroyed by the Deluge This Prophecy now no more remains a sealed Book God has opened a door and no man shall shut it This Mystery which has been hid from Ages is no more a Mystery being now clearly revealed and so it will stand to all Generations Great and Marvellous are thy Works Lord God Almighty Just and True are they Ways thou King of Saints Who shall not fear and glorifie they Name for Thou only art Holy All Men shall come and worship before Thee for they Works are made manifest Of the Death and Resurrection of the WITNESSES THe Death and Resurrection of the Witnesses is a Truth almost of as great Importance as the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour They being the Counter-part of that Great Scene All the Empires in the World are interessed in this Great Truth 'T is the Pole-Star by which they ought to steer and in not observing it they run great hazard of splitting their Vessels I therefore take the liberty of addressing my Enquiry into this weighty Affair to our present Powers as before which may give them much Light in all their Counsels and Consultations 'T is well known what Alterations and Changes the Birth of our Saviour made throughout the World how it overthrew all the then-existing Powers upon Earth and what Method there was used to do it This is but the same thing acted over again in another part of the World That by a simple Birth and This by a complex Birth The same Methods of Conquest will be used viz. Nothing but Predication and Vociferation And we that live at so great a distance for us to have the same Scenes renewed and the same Actions re-acted amongst us is a singular kindness from Heaven Hitherto we have taken things upon Credit and Hearsay But now we our selves shall see with our Eyes and hear with our Ears the wonderful things of God To have things brought to our own Home is a wonderful Condescention for which we cannot be too thankful to Heaven And since we know on what Rock the Eastern Nations split This is a Blazing Beacon for us and we shall be doubly guilty if we split on the same I cannot err in my Enquiry so long as I take Christ along with me for my Guide For He is the Way the Truth and the Life The Grand Pattern of all things in Heaven and in Earth These Witnesses are his Body which ought to be conformable to their Head in all things Christ saith Except a Man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Now Christ is a Man and to fulfil all Righteousness He ought to be born again But our Nicodemus's will say How can that be He is in Heaven and cannot enter a second time into the Womb of Mary 'T is true but He has a Body here below his Church which is himself and this may be renewed or born again and ought to be so before it can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven or the Millennium which is a Shadow of it We are to come from strength to strength from an imperfect Dispensation to a more perfect until we come to God in Zion Christ Racks off his Truth from Vessel to Vessel till it be perfect Spirits till Man becomes an Angel whose place he is to supply Now what reason his Church has to be purified and made clean is plain The Sun is coming to the Tropick her Lord is to make her a Visit and she is but in a filthy pickle to recive Him In her long Voyage from the East she has contracted a great many Pollutions passing through many polluted Cities and Countreys over-whelmed with Superstion and Idolatry There is the greatest reason imaginable that she should wash her self in the Waters of Purification that being found without Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing her Lord may take delight to dwell with her In the Scriptures there is mention made of The Times of Refreshing from the presence os the Lord and of the Time of Restitution of all things which can only be meant of an Accidental Change and not a Substantial as some would have it The Times of Restitution are Accomplished by Changing all things chengeable by making every thing New which can be Renewed or in the Scripture-phrase by SHAKING those things which can be SHAKEN that those things which cannot be shaken may REMAIN Now before I can well proceed further I ought to divide the things of this World into Two Classes viz. of Changeable and Vnchangeable and this will tell me not only When God has renewed all things according to his Promise but How For his Work will of necessity fall in the Changeable Class as it has done in every Dispensation hitherto Christ in one place is said to come with the Clouds which may very well be understood in the Changeable Class in which all the Thunders and Tempests are formed But the Vnchangeable Class is the Firmament which is to Remain or not to be moved And the Instruments He will use in changing all things changeable will be the Church Regenerate or New-Risen-Witnesses and this by a New Predication as Soldiers of the WORD with their Swords in their Mouth Predication and Vociferation are the only Artillery the Lamb uses to beat down the strong holds of Satan But as to Those Two Classes The Immutable I divide into Seven Heads and the Mutable into Five as follows Things Immutable to Remain 1. Religion or the Worship of that God which made the World being an indispensible Duty is Immutable Under this Head I mean the Christian Worship 2. Truth Being the Attributes of the Immutable God are 3. Justice both Immutable and must remain to the end of the World 4. Power or Government without which the World would be a Chaos and therefore Immutable 5. Pleasure and Pain Being the two great Wheels on which all Humane Actions run And I can by no means consent to his opinion who saith Men must live without Pain in the Millennium 6. The Common Effects of things Natural and Moral As of the four Elements That Fire will burn Water quench c. That Industry Piety and Frugality will advance single Persons Families and Kingdoms and that Luxury Sloth and Profaneness will always have the contrary Effects What accidental Alterations or differing Effects the said Causes may at any time have come not into this Account 7. Eating and Drinking Marrying and Giving in Marriage Buying Selling Building and Planting will continue to the End of the World Necessity making them Immutable
of Ground or an Inch of Power but what is given by him He therefore who has received from him the First Fruits of Power and Empire in England who has been preferred before all the Monarchs of the World being constituted his First Delegate He I say who has Received First ought to pay his Homage First and to Erect such a Monument of Gratitude as may be a Pattern to other Nations to all Generations I speak not so much of a Glorious City as a Tent Colledge or Tabernacle to shew the way and make a beginning And was it a City the thing is very feasible for if every little Village can rear a Church sure a whole Nation can quickly build a City In this Tent Colledge Tabernacle or City let there be built as for the Prophets of old a little Apartment for each Prophet putting a Bed a Stool a Table and Candlestick there and a sufficient Number being Annually chose out of all the Counties by Lot let them Twelve times a Year issue out and heal the Nation When this is done Righteousness will quickly cover the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea We shall have no dark Corners or barren Mountains but every thing will be full of Light and every thing will flourish and be green like the Paradice of God Indeed the Advantages of this most Excellent Administration are inexpressible and is worthy of the Great Contriver God Himself Then we shall know what the New Moons and the Sabbaths mean for Earth will Eccho to Heaven and we shall in a manner have a Sun Moon and Stars here below keeping due time in their Motions and Circulations with them above What the Sun is in the Heavens or the Heart in Mans Body the same will this City be in every Nation But Jerusalem in Palestine is to be the Head for to Her the great Stream of Promises belong The Text saith And Thou O Tower of the Flock to Thee it shall come even the First Dominion The Kingdom shall come to the Daughter of Jerusalem Jerusalem will be the Royal Seat or House of Christ Kingdom for The Name of the City shall be THE LORD IS THERE That is He will be there in a most Glorious manner but not Personally His Name is called Wonderful Counseller 'T is extreamly probable his Presence will be there after the manner he was in the Temple of old viz. Oracularly And since I am come to the City of Ezekiel it will not be amiss to observe the position of it and of the division of the whole Land which is exactly like a Man For there are the Lot of Five Tribes above and Seven Tribes below and the holy Portion for the Priests and Levites in the middle and this City in the upper part of the holy Portion answering the Heart exactly the holy Portion below answers the Belly and Intrails which are esteemed holy And the Princes Portion lies on both sides the holy Portion East and West like two Arms. to guard and defend it And 't is said They that serve the City shall serve it out of all the Tribes of Israel This seem but Reasonable for this City being the Heart supplies the whole Body with Salutiferous Juyces The Preachers do issue out Twelve times a year to heal them and there is the greatest Reason in the World that the whole Tribes should serve it by Administring such Conveniencies and Necessaries as are suitable And that the Inhabitants of this City are Preachers tho' the Text be silent yet is a thing without all contradiction For the Waters that issue out first to the Ancles then to the Knees then to the Loyns and at last to be like a River not be passed over these Waters I say do plainly manifest that the Gospel and Preaching is meant hereby and their Salutiferous Virtue does confirm the same And another Prophet is more apposite to the thing saith he In that Day Living Waters shall go out of Jerusalem half of them towards the former Sea and half of them towards the hinder Sea in Summer and in Winter shall it be Here is the exact Method and Administration pointed at and the Continuance of the same saying In Summer and in Winter it shall be Now 't is not possible to spell any thing out of this so clear an Expression but the Gospel and Preaching The Apostle to the Jews levels the whole of his Discourse to this New Dispensation for as it were rejecting the former he saith Leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on unto Perfection not laying again the Foundation of Repentance from dead works and of Faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptism and of Laying on of Hands and of the Resurrection of the Dead and of Eternal Judgment These all seem to be the matter of the last Dispensation and therefore he leaves them and designs to speak of something higher implyed by the succeeding Verse And this we will do if God permit And he makes Christ to be the chief Administrator in it saying For unto the Angels he hath not put in subjection the World Dispensation to come of which we speak And afterwards he tells them But ye are come unto Mount Zion and to the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels To the General Assembly and Church of the First-born whose Names are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant And to the Blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel This City is of a Heavenly Nature ministring in Spiritual things in which the General Assembly of the New-Risen-Witnesses do convene The Latin Version is Conventum Concionem implying a General Assembly of Preachers and their Names being written in Heaven answers to that Conscript Number which John mentions stood on Mount Zion and we cannot suppose that Heaven is meant thereby But this as I have before intimated for their Security in opposition to the Jewish Genealogies which are kept so strictly on Earth And for the Ministration of Angels God has always used them to Minister to Those which shall be Heirs of Salvation And no doubt but they will be imployed in a more especial manner in this most happy Dispensation This New Jerusalem can by no means be Heaven for Isaiah after having brought in God making a New Heaven and a New Earth he brings in the Children of Israel building Houses and inhabiting them and planting Vineyards and eating the Fruit of them which are things inconsistent with Heaven And 't is said The Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory into it which they cannot do into Heaven For Heaven needs no Glow-Worms to enlighten it And to represent any Church-state which is past there 's too much Beauty and Symmetry in it for that It must needs therefore presigure something to come And if it be
place for the Servants of God in each Nation for the Dispensers of his Word to dwell in and it ought to be as our Saviours Sepulcher in which 't is said Never yet Man lay For had the Spouse layen in such an one before She had had no occasion of Repentance and had not now been called a Church Regenerate So many Vile Idolators having lain in Rome Corrupted her Manners and Conversation and made her unfit for her Lords presence What Irregularities and Confusions there have been in the last Dispensations I think will be needless here to enumerate they being so plain and self evident to the World and that the principal cause and occasion of them has been what I mentioned I think is a like manifest The Dispensation of Moses was much better than this Last for he appointed Thirteen Cities for the Priests and Forty Eight for the Levites through all the Tribes of Israel The Servants of God were not left to scramble for their Livings in such a precarious manner as ours but had their due Lot of Land allowed them for a Possession which indeed was the greatest Due and Justice in the World And God appointed Moses to do it And when they came into the promised Land they applied themselves to Joshua and Eleazer And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the Land of Canaan saying The Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to give us Cities to dwell in with the Suburbs thereof for our Cattel The Lord commanding this thing not only shews the Justice but the Fitness and Properness of it And I challenge all the Skill and Wisdom of the Universe to propose a better Way and Method of Dispensing Gods Word than what He here doth Himself in this Chapter of the New Jerusalem There is a River of Life and a Tree of Life in the midst of this City which no Skill or Learning in the World can make any thing of but must of Necessity allow it to be the Gospel and the Preachers thereof And to what purpose can the Twelve Gates serve but that the Preachers may go out Twelve times a Years or every Month to heal the Nations 'T is said The Tree yielded its Fruit every Month and the Leaves of the Tree were for the Healing of the Nations And the Kings of the Earth bring their Glory and Honour into it This shews the Millennium to be rather an Hierarchy than a Monarchy as I hinted before And this Constitution of Circular and Itinerant Predicants doth confirm the same The Inhabitants of the City are a Royal Priesthood a peculiar People zealous of good Works But some say This New Jerusalem is Heaven because it comes down from above The Millennium is the Morning of an Eternal Day and this Jerusalem-state is a Type of Heaven but not Heaven it self because the Text saith plainly it comes down from Heaven and therefore cannot be Heaven it self It is said to come out of Heaven because of the Excellency of its Constitution being contrived by God himself and because 't is a Copy of the Heavenly Motions answering it in all its Circular Revolutions But if Men consider it right 't is a very strange Opinion to make all the other Scenes through the whole Prophecy to be on Earth and this to be in Heaven they may as well make Solomon's Temple in Heaven as to make this City in Heaven As his Temple was the Perfection of the Tabernacle so this City is the Perfection of the last Tabernaculous Dispensation of Babylon The Bride and the Whore are always put in opposition to one another and to make one upon Earth and the other in Heaven is to go against the whole current of Scripture-Analogy This City can be taken no other way but in a Literal sence And Men that only Gaze and speak at Random may be surprized But whoever doth soberly and seriously consider of the matter must needs Vote for me in this Case There is such a Torrent of Reason and Justice on my side that I cannot well see how any one can withstand it All Men will acknowledge that God made This World as a Theater to display his Glory upon the Five Empires are no other but Five Acts And the Altar Tabernacle Temple Mock City and True City are the Five Scenes Jerusalem is but the Scene of the Fifth Act which always is the best And 't is usual in the Last Act to have all the Actors on the Stage at once For first there are the New-Risen-Witnesses or Church Regenerate then the Jews then the Whore and her Retinue and lastly a Set of Idolaters throughout the World Every one are to be rewarded according to their Merit The Witnesses are the principal Actors in this last Act and are Risen but as yet enter not publickly till The Scene of the New Jerusalem be Drawn when The Stone which the Builders rejected becomes the Head Stone of the Corner But I spoke of the Reason and Justice of the thing Is it not a most Just thing that the Lord in Chief when He comes to visit the World should be served with the best Furniture and lie in the best Room in his own House He has had the First Fruits of our Flocks and our Herds an Altar for the Earth a Tabernacle for our Tents a Temple for our Houses But he has had no City yet And 't is fit he should be presented with the first Fruits of all the Compositums as well as of the Simple and Natural Things on the Earth The Kings of the Earth have built to themselves many stately Cities and called them after their own Name Saith one Is not this Great Babylon which I have Built for the House of the Kingdom and for the Honour of my Majesty And this is the cause which makes the Earth mourn and the Hail-stones of a Talent the Bombs ruine so many Cities Men build their own Houses and neglect Gods David would not do so He would not lie in Cedar when the Ark of God was in Tents But now the WORD OF GOD is on his White Horse in the Fields and like Jacob must lay his Head upon a Stone For He has no Tent at all But 't is hoped ere long this thing will be considered by our David when the Wars are over and when God shall give him Peace round about Again Nebuchadnezzar calls Babylon The House of the Kingdom Every Kingdom is to have a House or Principal City in it Now all the Kingdoms of the World are become Christs and 't is the most reasonable thing in the World that He should have a House in every Kingdom as Lord in chief and Proprietor of the Whole This is but a very reasonable Sacrifice to Him who can enter upon the whole Premises when He pleases At this very time He is Soveraign Lord of the Universe The King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that by a Decree ordained Him from Eternity No Monarch in the World has a Foot
proper way to preserve it This way therefore being used at the Publication ought to be used at the Restoration The running Waters are living and wholesome but the standing do putrifie Christ is the Alpha and Omega The Throne mentioned in the first part of the Revelations is nothing else but this New Jerusalem This Book is the most exquisite piece of Paint in the World and were the Painting-Art lost it might be found here The Son of God first draws the Design then the heavenly Raphael 's and Michael Angelo 's go on adding Line upon Line and Stroke upon Stroke guided by his Divine Hand till at last they finish and shew this Incomparable Hierogliphick in its proper colours By Throne nothing is meant but this City And the Prophet Jeremiah doth confirm the same saying At that time they shall call Jerusalem The THRONE of the Lord and all Nations shall be gathered into it to the Name of the Lord at Jerusalem And when the Text saith I saw Thrones and they sat upon them and Judgment was given unto them I know not how to understand any thing else but Cities where places of Judicature are usually erected Nor do I see any Inconvenience to let the Sword of Justice and the Sword of the Spirit to make their Monthly Circuits together that the Counsel of Peace may be betwixt them both When the Prophet saith And thou O Tower of the Flock this argues there must be many of them else they could not be a Flock And every holy City in each Nation sending annually their Representatives to pay their Homage and receive Instructions there these make in Council together The General Assembly of the First-Born much greater than that at Nice Thus saith the Lord of Hosts It shall come to pass that there shall come People and the Inhabitants of many Cities And the Inhabitants of one City shall go to another saying Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts I will go also Yea many People and strong Nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord. And another Text saith That whosoever of all the Families of the Earth that shall not come up to Jerusalem upon them there shall be no Rain We cannot suppose that the whole Number should come to the Feast of Tabernacles but some Representatives from the Regenerate City of each Nation and these being in a Body at the Feast of Tabernacles make up the General Assembly of the First-Born And the Prophet Isaiah saith And it shall come to pass from one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord. This has a peculiar respect to this most excellent Oeconomy in sending out Monthly Preachers out of each National Regenerate City which will give birth to Weekly Monthly Quarterly and Yearly Solemnities so that this Prophecy will then be fulfilled to an Iota These Circular Monthly Preachers are plainly hinted at in the Texts following I have set Watchmen on thy Walls which shall never hold their peace day nor night Thy Watchmen shall lift up the Voice with the Voice together shall they sing for they shall see Eye to Eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion And I will set Shepherds over them that shall feed them and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed neither shall they be lacking saith the Lord. And I will give you Pastors according to my heart which shall feed you with Knowledge and Vnderstanding Then he brought me and caused me to return to the brink of the River Now when I had returned behold there were very many Trees on the one side and the other Then said he unto me These Waters issue out towards the East Countrey and go down into the Desart and go down into the Sea which being brought forth into the Sea the Waters shall be healed And it shall come to pass that every thing that liveth that moveth whithersoever the River shall come shall live and there shall be a very great multitude of Fish because these Waters these Preachers shall come thither for they shall be healed and every thing shall be healed where the River cometh And it shall come to pass that the Fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi to Eneglaim There shall be a place to spread forth Nets There Fish shall be according to their kind as the Fish of the Great Sea exceeding many But the Miry Places thereof and the Marshes That is those that will not hear or admit of these Preachers shall not be healed but given to Salt And by the River on the Bank thereof on this side and on that side shall grow all Trees for meat whose Leaf shall not fade neither the Fruit thereof he consumed That is these Preachers shall never fail to make their Monthly Circuits out of the Cities it shall bring forth new Fruit according to its Months because the Waters issued out of the Sanctuary And the Fruit thereof shall be for Meat and the Leaf thereof for Medicine This is so full that there will be no occasion of quoting that of John which in a manner is a Repetition of it Daniel saith in the end of his Prophecy Many shall run to and fro and Knowledge shall be increased And Zacharia We have walked to and fro thorow the Earth and behold all the Earth sitteth still and is at Rest Were but these things fixed then might we very well say How Beautiful upon the Mountains are the Feet of him that bringeth Glad Tidings that Publisheth Peace that bringeth Good Tidings of Good that Publisheth Salvation that saith unto Zion Thy God reigneth These things are to be performed and done in the time of Christ Reign And these Preachers shall further say Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the Waters and he that hath no Money come ye buy and eat yea come and buy Wine and Milk without Money and without Price Many have paid very dear for a Draught of these Waters but old things are passed away and all things are become New The Spirit and the Bride say Come and let him that heareth say Come and let him that is athirst come and whoever will let him take the Waters of Life freely The Gospel then is to be as free as the Air or the Sun Beams Then will Righteousness cover the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea For what dry Mountain will not this constant heavenly Rain fall upon What dark Corners can be hid from these ever-shining Lights Glorious things are spoken of Thee O thou City of God! But when these things come to pass Men shall say that the Prophets have not told them half of the Truth That Pillar of Fire which led the Children of Israel out of Egypt and all the former Glory in the Tabernacle and Temple Administration were but first Fruits of the Glory which shall be revealed in this