Prophetick Visions by Premiss the second But this State commenced at least fifty years before the ten Horns that is the ten Kings were all risen up in the Empire Wherefore the Beast under the seventh Head was in being before the ten Kings or ten Horns were risen up in the Empire Which was the thing to be demonstrated and which I conceive can never be confuted nor solidly answered by any one that acknowledges the Apostasie began at least fifty years before the ten Kings appeared in the Roman Empire In the interval indeed betwixt the Pagan and Pagano-Christian Caesars there was no Head of the Beast but that was the time wherein there was no Beast It was that time in which that part of the Name of the Beast was made good viz. Is not was and is not as that part is made good under the Pagano Christian Caesars or at large under the seventh Head viz. Is not and yet is For then it is rightly said of him He is not that old Pagan Beast and yet being again then revived into the Image of the former Pagan Beast in this Pagano-Christianity it is rightly said of him that he is and so the whole is fulfilled Is not and yet is But certainly when-ever he was either in his primitive or revived state he was not without an Head by Premiss the second And thus we have seen how solid and unexceptionable their Opinion is that place the Epocha of the forty two months War of the Beast with the Saints or Witnesses as high as the Apostasie of the Empire into Paganish Superstition and Idolatry that is to say about three hundred ninety three or four hundred years after Christ According to which Epocha the Reformation begun by Luther which is the partial Fall of Babylon and the then commensurate Rising of the Witnesses will commence about the middle of the second month of the last Hexamenon or Semi-time and reach into the middle of the fifth if not into the sixth month which is a wonderful easie natural and congruous completion of the time of the Event of that Vision But if the Epocha of that forty two months War be placed fifty or sixty years later viz. at the Rising up of the tenth King or tenth Horn in the Roman Empire the Rising of the Witnesses will begin about twenty years before the last Semi-time which is harsh and incongruous Besides that it would not reach the end this Epocha is intended for viz. to shew there will be a further fulfilling of this Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses even to a full ruine of the City of Babylon or the Beast so that the deliverance of the Church will be fully completed before the Expiration of the forty two months Which is plainly repugnant to express indications in the Vision it self For first The partial Fall or Fall of the tenth part of the City is plainly said to come to pass after the three days and an half which is the same with a Time and Times and half a Time or forty two months So that it is as evident as if it were writ with a beam of the Sun that the final issue of the forty two months War of the Beast with the Saints or Witnesses is no other than the partial Fall or Fall of the tenth part of the City and not of the whole City and a Rising then of the Witnesses commensurate thereto And then in the second place If the completion of this Vision of the Fall of the City and Rising of the Witnesses were within the forty two months space extended to a full deliverance of the true Church and an utter Ruine of Babylon or the Beast since the fulfilling of this Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses is before the Exitus of the sixth Trumpet Apoc. 11.14 and that it is confessed on both sides that the Vials all of them follow the sixth Trumpet and are in the seventh and that yet these Vials are to be poured upon the Beast by this reckoning there will be no Beast left for them to be poured upon Which is a most manifest Repugnancy CHAP. XXXI The Ichnography of Ezekiel 's Temple according to Villalpandus with two ways of computing the proportion of the Outer Court to the Inner thereby THE right and assured understanding of the Extent of the Symmetral Times of the Church being of so good use and great moment and that depending upon the knowledge of the proportion which the Outer Court has to the Inner which proportion is to be understood out of the Ichnography of Ezekiel's Temple which that learned industrious and judicious Writer on this Subject Johannes Baptista Villalpandus has delineated I shall first set down this Ichnography of the Temple so far as is useful to this purpose according to the mind of Villalpandus and after prove the truth and solidity thereof SW Africus NW Caurus SE Eurus NE Aquilo The entire Area of the whole Temple on which it is built viz. a. b. c. d. is five hundred Cubits long and as many broad and therefore is a perfect Square A perpetual Porticus noted with three Lines of which the middle is punctulated or made by points fifty Cubits broad divides this whole Area into seven equal square Area's SW NW X. Y. SE. Z. NE and into one oblong Area α. β. γ. δ. having the length of two hundred and fifty Cubits but the breadth of an hundred Cubits And there is a perpetual middle Ambulation or Walk in this perpetual Porticus And the middle Line viz. that which is punctulated drawn through the midst of this Walk doth fitly and that perpetually divide the Porticus in respect of the said Area's into exteriour and interiour Which being done it will be manifest that the oblong Area with the interiour Porticus lying about it and appertaining to it viz. ε. ξ. η. θ. will bear precisely a double proportion to each of the seven Area's with their interiour Porticus's belonging to them and looking into them single as in ε. ι. χ. λ. and so of the rest For the interiour Porticus's look into their own proper Area's or Courts the exteriour into their neighbouring Courts or Area's excepting the outmost of all as μ. ι. Ï. ν. and the rest which are placed on the Perimeter For these look out into the fields But from hence we may understand how naturally all the Porticus's which have Courts and Area's placed on both sides as σ. α. γ. ν. and φ. χ. ψ. ω. are divided long-wise into two equal parts and that those parts only which look into the next Area are to be reckoned to be the Porticus of that Area And therefore whenas that long Porticus which on all sides compasseth the rest of the space of the Temple can be rightly thought to look into a neighbouring Area only by one half of it self divided long-wise it is very reasonable that that interiour half part only of the Porticus should
mentioned even in the fifth Vial. And when so horrible a War was raised against the Evangelical Party here in England in Eighty eight and that by the great Providence of God they were so defeated this is referrible to the third Vial. And if in the midst of the sedulous Attacks of the Antichristian Party some mighty Potentate in Christendom should by God's Providence be raised up in their behalf the hearts of Kings being in the hand of God this were referrible to the fourth Vial. But according to the Apocalyptick Stile this is to be accounted neither any part of the forty two months War nor of the Rising of the Witnesses It is something tedious to insist on things so plain 6. In your sixth Paragraph you lay great stress upon that Passage Apoc. 17.17 touching the ten Kings that God has put into their hearts to fulfil his Will and to agree and give their Kingdom to the Beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled which words of God you understand of Daniel's Prophecy of the little Horn having the Saints given into his hands until a Time and Times and dividing of a Time And of those other words of Daniel where he says I beheld and the same Horn made War with the Saints and prevailed against them until the Ancient of days came and Judgment was given to the Saints of the most High and the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom Dan. 7.21 22. and then you skip from v. 22. to v. 27. adding And what Kingdom that is he tells in the following words but they follow a great way off The Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven And you say you suppose I will not say this Kingdom is so given and possessed yet and if not how can you say the little Horns making War with the Saints and prevailing against them for a time and times and half a time is expired I pray you Sir think seriously on this Answ Well I have thought seriously on it and find what you lay such great stress on has no strength in it at all I easily admit those words of Apoc. 17.17 may allude to these passages of Daniel But there is nothing here that infers that the forty two months War of the Beast with the Saints extends any further than the partial Fall of the great City and the then commensurate Rising of the Witnesses Which Time I call the prosperous Reign and War of the Beast which are the Time and Times and half a Time here mentioned in Daniel and in which Fall the last Semi-time current he made War and prevailed against the Saints as Daniel also has foretold And this was till the Ancient of Days came and Judgment was given to the Saints of the most High v. 22. which is further explained v. 26. which you wisely skipped over But the Judgment shall sit and they shall take away his viz. the little Horn's Dominion not all of it at once as it was not at the Fall of the tenth part of the City and commensurate Rising of the Witnesses but leisurely by degrees Which Apocalyptick Vision therefore is an excellent Commentary on this Text of Daniel God has adjudged the Cause to the Evangelical Party by this partial Fall of Babylon and the then Rising of the Witnesses This taking away part of the little Horn's Dominion is a Pledge of the having it consumed and destroyed even to the end But this destruction and consumption is not the issue of the forty two months War wherein the Beast prevailed for such a time against the Saints but at last he was partially vanquished but it is the result of the Effusion of the Vials so that things that lay so close wrapt up in Daniel are thus distinctly and explicitely set out in the Apocalypse and the Explication found to be the easie and natural sense of Daniel Do not wink wilfully against Truth and you will easily discern it See my Exposition of Daniel's second Vision on this place v. 26. And though this is so easily answered yet you are earnest with me again at the close of your Letter to observe that the Time Times and half a Time reach as far as till the Ancient of Days shall come and till the Judgment shall be given to the Saints c. Which thing I grant you viz. That the Time and Times and half a Time of the Horns prevailing War against the Saints did reach so far till the Ancient of Days gave him so notorious a check and counterbuff in the partial Fall of the City and the then Rising of the Witnesses This was the final issue of the forty two months once prosperous War of the little Horn or Beast against the Saints Which Time and Times and half a Time is no where mentioned in the Vision of Daniel Chap. 7. but in v. 25. then comes that in the 26. verse which is evidently to be expounded as I have above expounded it That upon the Judgment being set his Dominion in part was taken away in the partial Fall of the great City to which the Time and Times and half a Time do reach and comprize in the last Semi-time This is the issue of the three days and an half 's War or seven Semi-times War of the little Horn or the Beast with the Saints But the consuming and destroying his Dominion to the end that is the work of the seven Vials which being done then it follows v. 27. And the Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the Saints of the most High For then is the descent of the New Jerusalem in opposition to the great City of Babylon now quite abolished and after comes in the blessed Millennial Reign of Christ upon Earth which is the greatness of his Kingdom under the whole Heaven All which glorious Providences you would crumple up within the three Times and an half whenas it is demonstrated in Mr. Mede that the three Times and an half reach but to the Exit of the sixth Trumpet which you acknowledge the seven Vials to follow Consider seriously these things But to proceed to the seventh Paragraph 7. Here I only briefly advertise you that the first appearance of the Rising of the Witnesses falling some eighteen years short of the last Semi-time according to your Epocha or not reaching it by eighteen years that this is a greater Argument against the truth of your Epocha than against my Hypothesis that a Semi-time is the only Authentick Vnite in the Eventual Computation of the Medial Visions For according to your Epocha the Rising of the Witnesses will not begin after the seventh Semi-time current but before it which is expresly against the Text After three days and an half which absurdity cannot be salved but by making the entire Resurrection of the Witnesses the adequate Object of the Prediction and so it will reach about seventy years at least
yet it abated it so far as that the Woman was safe from being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereby Nay it was in a manner all drunk up by the Earth the Clayish Earth or Ecclesiastick Councils by that time Theodosius came to be Emperour which was a little before the Woman entred into the Wilderness And the Church had such Anchorage in this first Council of Nice that such Arianism Erat quando non erat as was properly condemned by that Council could never hold up its head again But the eternal Generation of the Son was acknowledged begotten of the Father before all Worlds as the Nicene Creed has it and Arius expressing himself more compliantly with this Creed was re-admitted into the Church by the favour of Constantine who you may be sure would never have re-admitted him unless he had come to some such tolerable compliance And the whole Controversie after that seems only to have been Whether the Son should be deemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his Father which being difficult to decide there were those that would have the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being too hard for the people nor mentioned in Scripture to be left out of the Creed giving that deference to the Nicene decision as not to pronounce it false but over-curious So that there was no peril of the Churches drowning in this Floud when the Nicene Council was so nearly observed even by those that seemed to oppose it And for the Homoüsians and Homoeüsians there wanted nothing but a dextrous Critick to shew how both their terms are consistent one with another if you will but exclude Sabellianism out of the account For making the Father and the Son two real Hypostases though indiscerpible or indivisible one from another they are not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it may aim at a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one and the same Individuous Substance but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of like substance because according to Aristotle himself there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Similitude betwixt Substances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Identity of Quality whether Essential or Accidental is a sure ground of Similitude And the Son being the eternal Image of his Father how can they but be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless you run into Sabellianism and will have nothing to do with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Substance and acknowledge a Trinity only of words qualifications or second Notions So that we see what a manifest Influence the Council of Nice had to keep the Woman from being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perishing in the Draconick floud And that not only from the benefit of this one Council which was purely Orthodox but even from those Councils which were with a general and promiscuous appellation called Arian though not such Arians as were first condemned by the Nicene Council So that though these Arian Councils were less Orthodox than they should be yet one part of the Christian Populacy adhering to them and the other part to the Orthodox Councils the Woman was so well buoyed up by the help of these Councils as young Swimmers are with Bladdders or Bulrushes that she was safe from sinking again into Paganism or giving religious Worship to any but who was really Creator of the Heavens and of the Earth Jer. 10.11 though that was the malicious project of the Dragon in spuing out that floud of Heterodoxy and Contention viz to extinguish Christianity and make men turn Pagans Thus therefore was the Woman helped by that first Oecumenical and other Councils But how Julian's Death can be so properly said to be an help to her in this case I must confess I see not For most certainly the floud out of the Dragons mouth signifies Heresie or Heterodoxy and Contention The natural Remedy to which evil are well regulated Councils that the minds of the Vulgar who are neither studied Theologers nor Philosophers may be setled and quieted by the grave authoritative decision of their Superiours in things hugely expedient and necessary in Religion and Divine Worship and such was the knowledge of the Divinity of Christ and Triunity of the Godhead Father Son and Holy Ghost Which Faith was assured to the Christian people by these Ecclesiastick Councils and Paganism kept out at arms length and the Christian Religion secured But as for the death of Julian in the Persian War how little service it did may appear in that within a year or two after Valens coming to the Imperial Crown proved an hot Persecutor of the Orthodox Object 3. Upon pag. 143. a The Text of the dead dying in the Lord seems to refer to such times when Martyrdom was most frequent b And p. 146. though Christ's Harvest may signifie the Conversion of Nations and People yet the Angels Vintage seems rather to signifie execution of Judgments because that is the usual Employ of Angels but those things I cannot so well judge of till I have better studied the whole Apocalypse One thing Sir I will a little discourse of which concerns the latter part thereof It is an Antichristian Polity that is to be destroy'd pretendedly or after a sort Religious Now it concerns us to consider after what manner such religious Polities are destroy'd according to the usual Method of Providence The Judaical Polity was very like the Roman c Now their religious Polity was destroy'd by the destruction of their Temple City Priesthood and the like Wherefore Interpreters have applied that Prophecy Gen. 49.10 of the Scepter 's departing from Judah to the destruction of the Jewish State by the destruction of their City and Temple d Cardinal Perron considers the City-Church of Rome as Central to the whole diffusive Church of Rome e It seems by the language of the Apocalypse that Providence designs the destruction of that Material City of Rome and its inhabiting Sacerdotal Polity both together and not one alone f Which if it were destroy'd there could be no such thing in rerum natura as a Church of Rome or Roman Communion no more than the Jewish Ecclesiastick State could exist when their City and Sacerdotal inhabiting Polity was destroy'd g In Rev. 17. v. ult it is the City of Rome that is spoken of for that City then reigned over the Kings of the Earth After the mention of this City immediately follows that Cry Rev. 18.2 Babylon the great is fallen and that other monitory Voice v. 4. Come out of her my people c. After which follows a large and pompous description of her destruction h These things bear hard Sir towards that sense of the Prophecy that the ruine of that Material City is intended as well as of the Sacerdotal Polity that inhabits it You see Sir I have done what I can to deserve the name of a Literalist but in a great Mundane Polity that is to be destroy'd and Cardinal Pallavicino pleads that such it ought to be Answ a The Text of the dead
yet partly because I have dwelt already on this Calendar of Prophetick Time longer than I intended and partly because I have already noted such things as may satisfie the Reader touching the Matters betwixt the Calendarist and my self I shall endeavour to be exceeding brief in my strictures on this Postscript Wherefore as for his first second and third Objections and Answers pag. 80 81. I have so fully set down what may satisfie the Reader therein in the foregoing forty fifth Chapter that I will omit saying any thing of them here We come therefore to his fourth Objection pag. 82. which is this But if the Line of 2300 Evening-Mornings could be supposed to begin at Cyrus yet the 1335 days Dan. 12. cannot be set to any other point of time than Antiochus for it is expresly dated from the taking away the daily Sacrifice and that is enough to destroy the Calendar His Answer to this is ample and ingenious but the summ and substance is this That the taking away the daily Sacrifice by Antiochus being a Type of the Beast or Antichrist his taking away the pure Christian Service which was at the beginning of his Reign this is to be the Epocha of the 1335 days as the taking away the daily Sacrifice is the Epocha of the 2300 Evening-Mornings literally understood But here I reply Why then is not the taking away the pure Christian Service the Epocha of the 2300 Days mystically understood especially I having demonstrated Chap. 45. that the Epocha of 2300 days mystically understood cannot be Cyrus his taking of Babylon though it would thus be very pretty the Typical Line reaching from literal Babylon's falling to mystical Babylon's falling and from literal Jerusalem restored to the mystical or New Jerusalem as he urges pag. 80. But that Epocha I have fully routed in that forty fifth Chapter and therefore the Epocha of the Typical 2300 days must either be in the taking away the Christian pure Service at the commencement of the Reign of the Beast where he would fix the Epocha of the 1335 days Whence the Church of God will not be cleansed from the impure Worship of Antichrist till above a thousand years hence Or else the Epocha must be from the taking away the daily Sacrifice which is most true but this will again destroy infallibly the ingenious Author's Calendar which I think I have hinted above also We pass therefore to the fifth Objection The Beast's time began before 400 and that spoils the Calendar-Account In Answer to this he recurs to that witty Invention of his whereby he concludes 404 years after the Refurrection to be the Time of the Purity of the Church and consequently the 437 of our Lord to be the Epocha of the Time of the Beast But this is already refuted in the foregoing forty fifth Chapter so that I need say nothing more here Furthermore to my Argument drawn from the proportion of the outer Court to the inner he answers First That let Villalpandus his Measures be never so punctual the Text seems not to point at Time but to the Churches Purity or agreement with Ezekiel's Measures Secondly Villalpandus's Measures are adjusted to the Temple but the Vision to the Tabernacle and City to make the outer Court Whence Villalpandus his Measures will be unapplicable to the business Thirdly The Church symbolizing with the Eremitical Woman was retired into the Temple worshipping before the golden Altar of Incense the daily Sacrifice being taken away viz. at the entrance of the Reign of the Beast before which time he supposes the outer Court was commensurable Fourthly Although it be hence that the first Vision of the Opened Book does not begin so high as the seven Churches or Seals yet this is according to the true Apocalyptick Order which first compleats the History of the Trumpets begun to the very end of the Apocalyptick time and then begins from the very first in the Woman cloathed with the Sun as a new set of Visions But to the first I reply This measuring respects not only the Purity of the Church but the Time of the visible Church continuing pure else why is that third proportional so seasonably offered in the Vision To the second That Villalpandus his Measures are adjusted to Solomon's Temple in Ezekiel which is Typical or Prophetical but the City being added it is Iconismorum Metallaxis usual with the Prophets to typifie one thing by more Symbols than one And by the Holy City is signified the People of Israel congregated in the outer Court to worship and answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the inner Court. To the third I say The retiring into the Temple can be no fit Symbol of the Woman in the Wilderness by Wilderness Paganism being emblematized as Alcazar has noted and brought a Cloud of Witness to confirm it and the reason thereof is added in my Alphabet of Iconisms So little congruity is there betwixt the Woman's retiring into the Temple and her being in the Wilderness which is as wide and vast as the two-winged Empire Eastern and Western Re-paganizing and so becoming a Wilderness or Desart And for the outer Court 's being commensurable before the entrance of the Reign of the Beast we were not come to the outer Court then and the Vision respects the external and visible state of the Church To the fourth and last I reply That the making the outer and inner Court synchronous does most certainly infer the first Vision of the Opened Book not to begin so high as that of the seven Churches and Seals Which is an intolerable absurdity and as great a piece of violence as can be done to the sacred Method of the Prophecies And now for the Calendarist's Apocalyptick Order so far it is true as that it points to the running through the History of the Trumpets begun to the very end of Apocalyptick Time which is the thing that is done in the roaring of the Lion-Angel distributed into seven Thunders which are equal put together to the space of the seventh or last Trumpet which therefore reach to the very end of Apocalyptick Time And therefore the Angel having declared that there was no more time than this seventh Trumpet which he had in so general a touch run thorough after his giving the Book to John to be eaten John is immediately bid to prophesie And therefore the Vision of the measured Temple and Witnesses is as certainly the first Vision of the Opened Book-Prophecy as any thing in the World can be certain And if it be so the Calendarist himself cannot but confess it begins as high as the seven Churches or the Seals But if he imagine the History of the Trumpets begun to be compleated to the end of Apocalyptick Time in the Vision comprized in the eleventh Chapter because of the second Woe 's being said to be past and the seventh Trumpet sounding to make the Vision of the Woman cloathed with the Sun the first Vision of the
Opened Book-Prophecy as commencing as high as the seven Churches or Seals there is he out again For that Vision in the eleventh Chapter does not reach to the end of Apocalyptick Time but to the seventh Vial only inclusively So that the Descent of the New Jerusalem the Millennial Reign of Christ and the Laodicean Interval are still behind But the Apocalyptick Time upon the seventh Thunder above-mentioned was quite ended and so a fit Regress made to a new set of Prophecies Which the ingenious Calendarist cannot deny but that it ought to begin as high as the seven Churches and the Seals And then of necessity the Time of the inner Court will not be synchronous but antecedent to the Time of the outer Which is a very plain Truth and equally useful He makes my second Argument for the forty two months beginning before 400 That the Invocation of Saints had entred somewhat before it In Answer to which he recurs again pag. 84. to the device of the Balance But my Reply to his Answer to the fifth Objection will serve here So that I will add nothing further but remind the Reader that not only the Invocation of Saints but the reposing Confidence in the Mahuzzim was then and this exceedingly spread as has been proved Chap. 28. The sixth Objection and the Answer being less material to my purpose I omit We therefore pass to the seventh and last which is this The Witnesses are risen and out of their Sack-cloth and that some years ago and therefore the 1260 years are also so long ago expired which utterly subverts the Calendar pag. 85. This says he being the great Objection requires the most distinct Answer I shall therefore briefly explain my full sense c. In pursuance of this I confess he is witty operose and copious but the substantial summ of the matter so far as I can gather is this That as the Time of the Medial Visions is distinguished into parts A Time and Times and Half a Time and three Days and an Half so there are several Degrees of the Completion of the Vision To this sense is that which occurs pag. 78. By all which it appears saith he Time at large has a less full presence of the Event and admits a contrary intimate Time hath the full presence of the Event and admits no contrary And pag. 88. Some says he speaking of the Witnesses are called up into places of Dignity as into Heaven but not as they shall be at the end of the 1260 days For each first and last part of all the Characters of Time must have degrees of the Event else they could not have a foundation to be so distinguished Even our Lord's first Night was a beginning to dye in his Agony being betray'd c. And till the Evening of the first day of the week he appeared not to a Number as not publickly risen till the end of the third day And then giving several instances of the scantness of the Reformation and of great Objects still remaining of the Witnesses sorrow to conclude then says he pag. 89. till after the full Expiration of the Time of the Apostasie being in Power as a Throne or Kingdom in all its coextensive Characters the Witnesses are not in full Apocalyptick sense Risen as the golden Key of the Time the three days and an half also assure us For till the Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or After three days and an half are fully past they rise not viz. conspicuously as our Lord did not And that that is not yet beside the credit of our Calendar is apparent in that since the Reformation there have been no effects like those that are to signalize the end of the 1260 days c. This is the main of his Answer to which I briefly reply that it reaches not the case For the utmost fulfilling of the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses is not that there shall be a Rising of them throughout the Kingdom of the Beast but that it shall be only in part of his Kingdom For it is expresly said in the Text that at the very hour of their Rising 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tenth part of the City fell not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt which there is as much difference as betwixt ten and one For as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the third part which is a Symbol of the Roman Empire does not signifie the whole Habitable or then inhabited Earth but the third part of the Earth only so the tenth part of the City cannot signifie all the ten parts of the City or the whole City but the tenth part only Besides that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not here relate to the ten-horned Beast or Secular Empire but to the Hieratical Polity the City of Babylon the tenth of that only fell but the Secular Empire where this fall was stood rather more strong than ever was more complete than ever being rid of the Papal Tyranny at the Reformation so far forth as it was reformed And now for the Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the three days and an half Forasmuch as it is said after these three days and an half the Witnesses rose and the tenth part of the City fell it is as clear as Noon-day that no more than a partial Fall of the City and a proportionated Rising of the Witnesses is the full completion of this Vision or Prophecy But whatever other Accessions there are to be made to the Kingdom of Christ or Ruine of Antichrist they must be the completion of some other Visions but not of this And as for the Credit of his Calendar I have again and again shown how frail it is And for any Effects to signalize the end of the 1260 days I have demonstrated elsewhere that not Days but Semi-times are the measuring Vnite of the Event of this Vision And that there was no signalizing Effect at the expiration of the 1260 days from the right Epocha it is a further confirmation that not a Day but a Semi-time is the Eventual Measure and the last Semi-time was signalized with the blessed Reformation But yet as if his Answer to this seventh Objection had been in it self solid and valid and that as he has explained things the Witnesses were not Risen in a full Apocalyptick sense he proposes three Objections out of what he has read of mine The first Objection is this The latitude of months for the fulfilling Events in some parts of them may so disagree with the narrower lines of day too narrow for the months pag. 90. that the Prophecy may be made to contradict it self and so speak true and not true as to point of Time and Events together True in the months not in the days But his Answer is this As the heighth of Events is by the Prophecy determined to the intimate part of the three days and the three times and an half so the duration of the Event at large is by the Prophecy
the Time is allotted whether the Angel contribute any thing to it or no. Answ If we were sure he did contribute nothing and that such a thing fell out in his allotted time as was plainly indicated in the Prophecy Then by a Prophetick Metalepsis the thing so happening might be attributed to him as the taking Peace from the Earth is attributed to the Rider of the red Horse under the second Seal because in his time there was such killing and slaying one another But if the Angel can be conceived to act positively I confess it is more than needs to recur to that Figure But to avoid all Cavil in reference to the first Vial-Angel I allow a real Activity in him for the inflicting that angry Aegyptian Boil So that as an evil Spirit from the Lord haunted Saul when his Melancholy fits came upon him so this first Vial-Angel may commissionate some Spirits upon the envy and the anger the Bestians had conceived against the Risen Witnesses to actuate them with more than ordinary Rage and Madness against them and so infatuate their Counsels by this distemper as is answered to the Remarks on the place The Objector would fain pinch somewhere if he could find what to lay hold on But effundit junctura ungues The work is too close wrought for him to find any entrance any where Query 5. In those words Rev. 16.8 The fourth Angel poured out his Vial on the Sun and Power was given him to scorch men with fire c. Whether him relate to the Sun or not rather to the Angel the Sun being no Person to whom Him can relate and besides it being sensless to refer it to any other than the Angel who inflicts the Plague Answ That Him should be referred to the Sun not to the Angel there is all the Reason in the World nor is there any Reason against it For the calling the Sun Him makes him no person no more in English than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does in Greek For Judg. Chap. 5. v. 31. there it is said Let them that love the Lord be as the Sun when he goeth forth in his strength and so he or his is in so many other places said of the Sun as it is needless to recite But why Him is to be referred to the Sun there are plain and obvious Reasons First Because Him does immediately follow the mention of the Sun Secondly The Reference is so natural the Sun being such a Fountain of Heat and the heat thereof so invigorated by the effusion of the fourth Vial on it And lastly The Suffrage of all Interpreters I could ever meet with or hear of concurs in this reference of Him to the Sun and not to the Angel So that it is most undubitably true that him is to be referred not to the Angel but to the Sun and that it is a mere affected swaggering in the behalf of S. E. to say it is sensless to refer him to any other than the Angel Whence it is unavoidably evident that the Remarker is out in his ill-natur'd Gloss on the fourth Vial as if the scorched with that fiery heat were those that were zealously incensed and sharply inveighed against the Antichristian Powers which is a perfect contradiction to the Text as if these Zelots scorched the Sun whenas the Text plainly says the Sun scorched them him being certainly referred to the Sun And then suppose him to be referred to the Angel and that he scorches the Zelots and incenses them against the Antichristian Powers this is still a perfect contradiction to the Text. For the Text says those scorched ones blasphemed the Name of God which the Remarker will not admit of his godly Zelots Query 6. Whether the Tripartite Forces gathered together in Armageddon under the Dragon under the Beast and false Prophet and under the Rider of the white Horse that has the Sword coming out of his mouth viz. the Infidel Antichristian and Evangelical Forces or Parties Rev. 16. v. 13 16. may be represented also by the great City divided into three parts v. 19. For how is it possible that three such opposite Parties as the Infidel Christian and Antichristian should be represented by a City which is a Body Politick united by Laws and Rulers to govern the same whenas those three Parties are uncapable of being so united c. Answ That those Tripartite Forces are the Forces of the whole World or a Conflux of the people of the whole World may appear from v. 14. And why the Inhabitants of the whole Orb of the Earth may not be lookt upon as one great City I see not For as different as they are yet they are all united in one common Law which is the Law of Nature and as to that common Law have one common Law-giver and Judge which is God And this is so palpable a Truth and the fitness of looking upon this inhabited Earth as one great City so obvious that those itinerant Sophists of old or those more modern that cared not to be tyed to any one particular Political Body yet have been lookt upon by themselves to be and so vulgarly stiled by others viz. Cosmopolitae Citizens of the World And Philo Judaeus expresly says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That this World is that great City as it here is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 19. And that it is an Aggregate as it were of all the Cities of the World appears from the same place where the Cities of the Nations are mentioned together with Babylon the great And lastly it is to be noted That that Tripartite Conflux in Armageddon is not resembled in this Commutation of Iconisms simply to a City much less to a City that is in unity with it self but to a City divided into three parts which therefore most exquisitely answers to those three opposite Parties congregated in Armageddon So that this Commutation of Iconisms here is so far from being impossible as the Objector would have it that nothing can be more easie and natural Unto all which you may add that though two of these three parts of this great City are Rebels for the present yet Christ the Son of God is their rightful Prince and Sovereign and this Battel under the seventh Vial is to reduce them to obedience Query 7. Whether the leaving out the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the end of the sixth verse of Rev. 20. whenas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is prefixed before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immediately twice before and after intimates any such Mystery as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there has a different signification from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the other places and denotes Symbolically an endless steady Eternity there being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 2. not having any such Mystery in it so that it may seem a trifling with the Text. Answ That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉