not that the Iews may obtain the blessedness of the New-Ierusalem state by a legal performance of them which as I noted above had been but a mockery but farther to intimate that the Temple-Vision is a Prophecy of the Christian State of greater perfection than that of the Iews though prefigured here as in the Apocalypse by Matters and Ordinances belonging to the Temple And lastly Though the Remarker as to his main scope is most certainly in a mistake yet his Misconceit is such as it was not for every ordinary Genius to hit upon and he has ever and anon decked it with sundry piously sounding Sentences and Scripture phrases though they had not the luck to be rightly applied And this may be an Accession to his former commendableness that he abates something of his wonted stifness and is content to let what he has said to go for a conjecture onely Vers. 14. To make all People and Nations to signifie some of all People and Nations is a making too bold with the Text. But the words will be absolutely true of all Nations within the extent of Christ's Kingdom and in some degrees true of all the other Nations who will doe a kind of Homage to him by the walking in the light of the New Ierusalem and bringing their glory and honour into it That manner in which this is supposed to be fulfilled between the time of Constantine and the Apostacy is such as does in no manner agree with the state of Christ's Kingdom as is shewed in Remarks on the Exposition of the Revelation Of the four sentences supposed here to be represented the first and last might have been spared For here is onely signified the Judgment of the Beast which includes the little Horn and the settling of Christ in his Kingdom on Earth And the assigning the Kingdom to him besides the settling of him in it is an insignificant distinction Ans. The fore part of this Remark is so slight that the best Answering of it is to slight it And as for that which follows and were more material if it were true viz. That the State of the Church betwixt Constantine and the Apostacy is in no manner agreeing with the State of Christ's Kingdom it is contradictious to the very Visions of the Apocalypse chap. 12.10 Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ. Which is upon Michael's overcoming the Dragon Which all men in their wits that consider these things understand of the Christians deliverance from their Pagan Persecutours by Constantine And I have shown all the affected Paradoxes of the Remarker how vain how groundless and false they are in my Answer to his former Remarks on the Exposition of the Apocalypse And lastly as for the four Sentences The first is very pertinent and significant it being so agreeable to the Crown given to him on the white Horse Apoc. 6.2 The second and third are acknowledged by the Remarker and the fourth is made good from the tenth verse of this present Chapter where it is said the Iudgment was set and the books were opened Which answers to Apoc. 20.11 12. and Expositors make the Judgment to reach to the last day here in Daniel as well as it does there in the Apocalypse Vision 3. Vers. 8 9. THough Seleucus was not one of the four notable Horns yet he with his Predecessors in the same Kingdom were one of them And as there was many changes of the line in the Macedonian Kingdom yet all made but one Horn so the Seleucidae with their Predecessors make but one Horn in the Babylonian Kingdom And the Seleucidae and Lagidae being the two chief Kingdoms which succeeded Alexander of which there is so large a Prophecy under the Titles of the King of the North and the King of the South it 's strange that one of them should prove none of the four Horns his Kingdom was branched into And it 's yet more strange that the little Horn which was to arise in the latter time of those Kingdoms should be applied to Seleucus who arose soon after the beginning of them Ans. The Remarker seems not to mind what he says in this Remark For how could Seleucus with his Predecessors make one Horn in the Babylonian Kingdom when no Horn can be here meant but what succeeded the great Horn Alexander the Great And never any one made the Babylonian Kingdom one of the four Horns But by help of Ptolemy Seleucus did not onely recover his Satrapy of Babylon which Antigonus would have deprived him of but in a short time vanquishing both Antigonus and his Son made himself Master of Asia as well as of Syria and Babylonia and therefore himself began the race of the Kings of the North which is so famous in the Prophecy of Daniel though he was by no means one of the four notable Horns that immediately succeeded Alexander nor so reputed by Historians The thing is so nor can it be helpt But he may be a remoter successour of Alexander in that he succeeded Antigonus in the main of his Dominions and so may be fansied as of the line of one of the immediate notable Horns successours of Alexander though this be more than needs And as for the other difficulty that is raised how the little Horn that was to arise in the latter time of those Kingdoms should be applied to Seleucus who arose soon after the beginning of them we are to observe how the Angel v. 23. by an Idiconoea falls upon Antiochus Epiphanes who is but one part of the little Horn but hugely to be noted by reason of the affairs of the Church of God But expounding the Vision by way of a Geniconoea the little Horn will take in Seleucus and reach to the end of that line of the Syrian Kings or Kings of the North. See the Expositor's Notes on this Vision and there you will find several Examples of Geniconoea's and Idiconoea's and thence understand the Reasonableness and Solidity of the answer to this difficulty Vers. 26. I am inclined to think that as the description of Antiochus Epiphanes is agreed to be Typical of Antichrist so the 2300 days have a prophetical as well as a literal sense Else it had been a more ready way and more agreeable to the general course of the Prophecies to have computed the time by Prophetical days Also the saying that the Vision is for many days that is a long time does seem to import the same For whenas Haggai says Yet a little while and the Lord shall shake Heaven and Earth c. and Malachy That the Lord whom ye seek will suddenly come to his Temple c. where the Prophets express a longer time by a little while and suddenly it 's strange that a shorter time here should be called a long time So that these 2300 days may prophetically signifie some time of the Millennium that may properly signifie the cleansing of the Sanctuary For after
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 9.15 Testimony And this other is called the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony And Exod. 25.21 it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also before v. 16. the same thing is said and Vatablus from the Hebrew renders it Ponésque in arca Testimonium quod dabo tibi upon which Cornelius excellently well Hinc says he dicta fuit Arca Testimonii id est Legis Arca Testamenti id est Foederis Continebat enim legem quae erat conditio foederis inter Deum Hebraeos initi Consequenter Tabernaculum ab Arca quam continebat vocatum est Tabernaculum Foederis Tabernaculum Testimonii So Cornelius à lapide Whence we see plainly that the Temple in these two places named is one and the same Temple which Temple stood open out of which the Vial-angels came as well after the Doxology of the Elders ch 11. as after the Song of the Harpers in this Chapter But ch 11.19 the Ark of the Testament is said to be seen in it because this points at the sixth Vial which synchronizeth with the Harvest by both which is understood the calling of the Jews And therefore by the Ark of the Testament being seen in Heaven is signified that that was the time in which God would have an eye to his everlasting Covenant made with the Jews and resume them again to be his People which sense is worthy the taking notice of though it was omitted before c That sense which the Remarker would put upon the Ark of the Testament being seen in Heaven ch 11.19 I have shewn the vanity thereof sufficiently above nor need I here repeat it His conceit therefore sailing and there being no mention of opening the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony or Testament in Heaven but in these two places ch 11. and ch 15. and they both being after a Song of Thanksgiving it is a shrewd Indication d That the times of the opening the Temple here and those in ch 11.19 are one though the mention of the Temple being opened ch 11. be deferred till v. 19. that it may set off the appearing of the Ark of the Covenant with a greater grace but the time of seeing the Ark of the Covenant differs from the time of the opening of the Temple for the former is at the sixth Vial the latter just before the first Wherefore in brief The opened Temple in Heaven ch 11. and this opened here being one and the same and this in order to the effusion of the Vials this is no small confirmation of the Expositor's Interpreting the two last verses of ch 11. touching the affairs of the Vials which was worth noting by the bye Vers. 6. The seven Angels coming out of the Temple may signifie that it 's by the Worshippers in the Temple and at the Altar viz. the two Witnesses that they pour forth their Vials and that they minister to them in that service Their being cloathed in white linen and girt with golden girdles signifies the righteousness and holiness of their administration for the advancement of Christ's Kingdom which though spiritual extends to the executing Justice and upholding true Worship and they are the Ministers of God's wrath for transgressions against both Ans. That the Worshippers in the Temple and at the Altar are not the two Witnesses I have shewn above and therefore the Angels coming out of the Temple here cannot denote them and if the two Witnesses be the Ministers of God's wrath it is the more unlikely that that effusion of bloud from the Wine-press so that it would reach to the Horses bridle for sixteen hundred furlongs together should be understood Literally and not Parabolically else these Ministers of God's wrath must shed the bloud of an Army nine thousand times bigger than that of Xerxes as was noted above A Butchery incredible to be perpetrated by the Saints and holy Witnesses of God Chap. 16. Vers. 2. a TO understand the pouring forth of the first Vial on the Earth in such a general sense as the command is to pour all the Vials on the Earth so that it is onely to correspond with the other Vials in the Cortex is to make it signifie nothing and therefore the effect of the first Vial viz. the grievous sore on the Worshippers of the Beast is imputed to another cause viz. to their exulcerate rage at the Rising of the Witnesses b These are but sorry conceits for which one should reject Mr. Mede's far more current account of this Vial viz. that it signifies the Bohemian War that ensued the sufferings of Huss and Ier. of Prague whereby great ruine fell on the Popish Clergy and the religious houses in that and the adjoining Countries and miraculous defeats on the great Popish Armies sent against the Bohemians c. Which plague is aptly signified by the Vial poured on the Earth the two-horned Beast rising out of the Earth And that there was then the like spirit in agitation in other Countries though it did not break forth may appear by our Commons Petitioning in Parliament about the same time Henry the fourth and the Lords that he may have the Temporalties of the Bishops and Clergy which were consumed in unnecessary courses c. And also by the Parliaments importuning Henry the fifth to suppress the Religious houses as being Nurseries of Idleness and Cages of unclean Birds To divert which storm the Clergy set on foot the claim of the Crown of France and the War thereon c. c Also there could be no such exulcerated rage at the Rising of the Witnesses because the Reformation was not the Rising of them For though thereby the Pope's Supremacy was rejected and some gross corruptions reformed yet did the Reformed Churches retain generally the same Political state of Government and so much of the Popish Leaven in Matters of Religion that they did not cease to continue members of the Beast d Nor did there appear any such Spirit of life in them to set them on their feet and cause them to ascend c. they continuing in the same worldly state and station though freed from some Popish Grievances Ans. a Though the first Vial were poured out on the Earth in that general sense doth its pouring forth signifie nothing It will necessarily hit some particular thing or person or other and it particularly hits the marked slaves of the Beast and inflicts a sore on them and so every Vial the pouring it forth will mediately or immediately concern the Terraqueous Globe namely the Inhabitants thereof But for that special meaning of Earth which the Remarker takes notice of and I have noted to answer to the Clay in Daniel and to signifie the Ecclesiastick Rank of men if this in general were understood by the Earth v. 1. it were an Hypothesis very allowable yea laudable being these Vials concern the Pontifician Hierarchy which Mr. Mede calls Bestiam Antichristianam and all reach him either immediately or mediately
to such an usefull and edifying Interpretation as is here given by the Expositor Ver. 13. Our Saviour's being cloathed with a garment down to his foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle seems to respect not onely his Priestly but also his Kingly Office the garment signifying the first and the girdle that righteousness which was the girdle of his loins and that faithfulness which was the girdle of his reins Esa. ch 11. v. 5. where he is described as a glorious spiritual Prince And as in the Epistle to the Philadelphian Church his calling himself holy and true respects both his Offices of Priest and King so his garment seems to refer to the one and his girdle to the Truth wherewith he was girded whereby he is our Prince Ans. That his Priestly office is here aimed at is without question and the Expositor is for such Expositions as are most unquestionable If what is added had been as certain he would have taken it in But it seems not onely uncertain but unlikely For Kings wear not their girdles about their paps but about their loins but the Priests did And Aaron's girdle was interwoven with gold See Cornelius à lapide on the place And lastly as for Holy and True Truth as well as Holiness respects his Priestly office according as the Seventy render Vrim and Thummim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 15. To say that the voice of Christ being as the sound of many waters does plainly discover that Christ is here represented as in Union with his Church is scarce sense For the Union of him with his Church being spiritual can badly be represented by the sound of a voice Nor does what is said here of his voice signifie more than what is described Psal. 29. viz. That the voice of the Lord is upon many waters and is powerfull and full of Majesty c. And though waters in the Prophetick style are used to signifie a multitude yet it follows not that they must always do so but may also be used in a Literal sense as they are ch 20. v. 13. The Sea gave up the dead c. Ans. Whenas it is said expresly that his voice is as the sound of many waters and waters in the prophetick style signifie multitudes of people what can be more easie and obvious than to interpret it that his voice was as the voice of a multitude and how fitly does that then signifie that Christ is here represented in union with his Church through whose mouths by the breathing of his Holy Spirit in them he speaks to the world c. And it is not the Expositor's conceit alone St. Gregory Tychonius Haymo Seraphimus and Peresius interpret it of the sound of the Gospel which was preached by zealously inspired Emissaries and the truth thereof testified by innumerable witnesses in union with Christ by his Spirit And indeed what can better signifie the spiritual union of the Church of Christ with his living members than that all their voices should be as it were one voice breathed out from the mouth of the Son of God For that shews that they also have one heart and one spirit which is the Spirit of the Son of God with which they are all united Ver. 17. Iohn's falling at the feet of Christ as dead proceeded not from his fear that the Vision might portend great evil to the People of God but from such an astonishment as made Daniel chap. 10. on the like Vision of Christ there fall on his face in a dead sleep having no strength remaining in him and his comeliness turn into corruption and made a great quaking fall upon them that were with him though they saw not the Vision And as also made Ioshua fall on his face on his appearance to him as a Captain of the Host of the Lord. Ans. That it was not onely from the glory but the terrour of the Vision his legs standing in fire and a sword coming out of his mouth that caused Iohn to fall down as dead appears farther from his comforting of him in telling him that himself was dead but is now alive and has the Keys of Hell and Death c. to fortifie him against the dread of Persecutions that even then were exercising the Church and Iohn might well suspect that this Vision did portend greater Ver. 19. The things which thou hast seen respects the precedent Vision of the seven Churches The following words The things that are and shall be hereafter should be Both the things which are and shall be hereafter and so make the Vision contain both a Literal and Prophetical sense whereas the taking of the words in the sense supposed viz. to signifie the past Ephesine State of the Church and the present Smyrnean State of it and the future State of the other Churches destroys the literal sense and also spoils the coherence not onely with the precedent Vision but also with the following verse Ans. This Remark upon the Expositor is very impertinent he professedly having nothing to doe with the literal sense But that account which he gives in reference to the Prophetical is so easie unstrained and natural hast seen so plainly denoting the time past that D. Pareus on the place writes thus Ità rest Apocalypseos Christus ipse in tres ordines distinguit Quasdam jam viderat Iohannes inde ab exordio Evangelii sub Nerone sequentibus Imperatoribus ad Domitianum usque gestas quasdem in praesenti videbat majorem partem de futuris porrò visurus erat How naturally then the whole time of the Church being cast into seven Intervals Ephesine past Smyrnean current Pergamenian and the rest to come are those words Write the things which thou hast seen and the things that are and the things that shall be hereafter interpreted as the Expositor has interpreted them And how fitly do they cohere with what follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being the Accusative case shews plainly that the seven Candlesticks take in all the seven Intervals of the Church past present and to come Vpon the NOTES of Chap. 1. Rem 1. The seven Churches in Asia refers not to its signifying Fundamentum thereby to signifie all the Churches that keep the Apostolical foundation in doctrine and practice for that is implied in calling them Churches and Christ owns none to be Churches farther than they do so without which doing they cannot be united to him and so cannot be of his Church which is his body But Asia here alludes both to its signifying the Earth and also Action Of both which see Exposition of the seven Churches So that to the seven Churches in Asia does signifie To the seven Churches in their state of Action and Conflict or Militant State on Earth and this in distinction from that blessed state of Rest and Joy in that great Jubilee of the World the Millennium which the labours of this Militant State will end with And
were held together in before and subjecting them to the Gospel of Christ this shall be effected upon several Nations that were before Paganochristian in the Sardian Interval What can be more easie and clear Vers. 28. There 's but one Morning star and that is bright so that the Morning-star and the bright Morning-star must signifie the same And they are so far from signifying several states of the Church that the one is spoken onely of Christ himself viz. he calls himself the bright Morning-star But what the Morning-star is which is promised to the overcomers in the Thyatirian Church is hardly to be understood farther than we are partakers thereof but seems to be of like signification with 2 Pet. 1.19 both seeming to respect an addition of light of life to the light of truth before received Ans. There 's but one Morning star indeed which is Christ who is here signified but in a political consideration as Prince of his Empire on Earth which may have degrees of largeness and lustre And that Christ is here understood in a Political sense the foregoing verse intimates that speaks of the enlargement of his Kingdom Of which also the subsequence of the Epiphonema farther assures us according to the rule noted in the Exposition of the seven Churches And where Christ is called the bright Morning star Apoc. 22.16 it is not spoke there simply of his Person abstracting from his Kingdom on Earth because he says immediately before it I am the off-spring of David which is a challenging his right to all the Kingdoms of the Earth upon that score of his descent from David the King to whom God had made the promise Ps. 2. And this following the description of his glorious Reign in the new Ierusalem and relating to those times he saith not as in the Sardian Interval I am the Morning-star but the bright Morning-star by reason of his exceeding great lustre and glory in his Millennial Reign Why should any one wink against so clear a light and inviolable coherence and congruity of things But why he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Sardian Interval the Expositor has noted in his Exposition of the seven Churches Chap. 3. Vers. 4. WAlking with me in white is in this Verse made signifie that conversing with Christ by his Spirit whereby they shall be inabled to walk with him in all innocency and integrity But in the following Verse the being cloathed in white rayment which is the same with walking in white is taken in a different sense viz. to be prosperous in the propagating the affairs of Christ's Kingdom Also in the said following verse those words I will not blot his name out of the book of life which interpret the foregoing words viz. that the walking in white and the being cloathed with white rayment is the walking in the light of life whereby we become heirs of the crown of life and so written in the book of life are yet taken to signifie a continued succession of such men to the end of the world whereas the continuance of such a succession is no reward to the Sardian Church though it may be joy to them as they are concerned for the propagation of Religion Ans. If there be any Errour in this Interpretation it is in that the Expositor has not expounded to walk with me in white in the same sense he expounded to be cloathed in white rayment which has a Political sense and signifies the good success of affairs with them For the Remarker was to remember that the Expositor was giving the prophetical sense of these Epistles not the literal moral or spiritual And that therefore according to that solid Rule set down That the Declarations touching the success of the Church that is writ to before the Epiphonema signifies politically so this being cloathed in white is to be expounded accordingly But being whiteness signifies as well Innocency as Prosperity and Innocency is a fitting these few names in Sardis for their prosperous success that I made use of these different significations so well subordinated one to another deserves not to be cavilled at but rather to be approved And correspondently to this Prophetical sense which must be Political I will not blot his name out of the book of life is to be understood that these few names are the durable seed of such a Church as shall last to the end of the World But to say this is no reward to them that they have such a durable succession is a reproach to the Remarker as if he were a stranger to the true Christian State and knew not the gratifications of a soul regenerate into the living Image of Christ who with his Church is one mystical body in succession through all ages and therefore what any part of them suffer for the present if it make for the greater good of the Church for the future they take themselves to be amply rewarded by so happy an event And such a success as causes joy to them as the Remarker acknowledges must be a proportionable good to them and if consequent upon their labours and sufferings a reward thereof So that such Allegations as these are mere affected Cavils Vers. 8. The opened door that cannot be shut and the little strength signifie not any outward force or army but that spiritual strength that is attained to by faith working by love which makes us become freed by the truth from the thraldom of the worldly Powers and gain that enterance into the Kingdom of our Lord as never to fall Both this and the four following verses do shew the Philadelphian Church to be in a Militant State in progress to the victorious state of rest and glory in the Millennium And what is said in these verses is spoken of the entire State of the Philadelphian Church and therefore cannot be referred to the seventh vial as the commencement thereof But to instance in their signifying a Militant State c. The promise v. 9. to make them of the Synagogue of Satan who say they are Iews to come and worship c. does plainly shew the Church to be in conflict with such Enemies as pretend to be true Christians and yet refuse subjection to the true Church which cannot agree with the Millennial State when Satan shall be bound and all Enemies put under the feet of Christ c. The promise v. 10. to keep from the hour of Temptation that shall come upon all the world c. does evidence and a State far different from that of the Millennium and does seem to signifie that time of great trouble precedent thereto Dan. 12. The promise also v. 11. to come quickly and warning to hold fast c. does also plainly shew that the time of the Millennium when God will reward all his servants ch 11.18 is not then come though it be near approaching And the several promises v. 12. made to him that overcometh do
who yet had no Tempter from without for there were no Devils that needed to be tied up before the Angels fell Wherefore as to that point they had as much advantage as the Philadelphian Church but exceeding much more in being Spirit and not Flesh. But the Philadelphian Church will be mortal flesh as other sons of Adam Wherefore in long process of time they may well degenerate something even before the loosing of the Devil out of Prison And when he is loose again it is but a precarious surmise to think he can act onely upon the Nations that are not in communion with the Church For when he is loose he is as he was before he was imprisoned Nor is there any ground to restrain the word Nations to those onely that are not in visible communion with the Church but it may very naturally signifie that multitude of Nations and People in the World whether of the Church or not And it is a rash presumption to suppose that the Nations that walk in the light of the new Ierusalem are not converts to the Christian Faith forasmuch as they are said to be saved or the Kings of the Earth that bring their glory into it that they are not whole Kingdoms converted to the Christian belief as that auspicious acclamation foretells that the Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ c. Wherefore we see that there is not the least shadow of reason but that the Prophecy of the seven Churches is a Prophecy of the state of the Church distinguished into seven Intervals from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World Which may the better assure us that the two Prophecies the one of the sealed Book the other of the opened Book are so likewise Chap. 4. Vers. 3. THE pure transparent Iaspar stone is an Emblem of Holiness and the red Sardin stone of Iustice and therefore he that sate on the Throne being like unto them does signifie the Holiness and Righteousness of God in executing of Judgment and so does better sute with the occasion of the Vision it being a Representation of God on his Throne of Judicature as Judge of the World than to make the firmness of the one to signifie the strength or omnipotency of God and the red fiery colour of the other his piercing Activity c. But indeed it is not of a fiery red but of a dead red colour Ans. God is not represented here on his Throne of Judicature but simply in his Chair of State as I may so speak It is the Throne of the Divine Majesty as Creator and Governor of the World and more peculiarly of his Church according to that Doxology v. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Wherefore Grotius judiciously notes that the Iasper does signifie invictam Dei potentiam which we may briefly call his radical Omnipotency or rather the necessity of Existence of his indiscernible essence And the Sardius which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to in Hebrew so called from its redness vim Dei activam qualis in igne est They are his very words on the Text. And Zegerus tells us that Tychonius Primasius and Beda all three make the Sardius to have the colour of fire To which you may add Victorinus Rupertus Richardus and Lyranus who all give the signification of fire to the Sardius And Aretas expresly says in Cornelius à Lapide Sardius quia sanguinei ignei coloris est igneam i. e. sublimissimam efficacissimam Dei naturam significat But what the Remarker objects that the Sardius is but of a dead red colour is not true of the best sort and least true in the appearance of the Vision Where though the colour was not so brisk as that of a flame for there are three differences noted here both in Greek and Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Pruna Flamma Splendor yet it might very well be like that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pruna Which sutes best with the Vision in Ezekiel which answers to this and is noted in the Exposition it self Vers. 4. These Elders are onely Spiritual Rulers in the same sense as they and the four Beasts ch 5. are said to be Rulers For they come together in thanksgiving from being redeemed from the Earth and made Kings and Priests c. So that the reigning here signified is such as is common to all Saints and therefore it 's a gross perverting of Scripture to appropriate it to worldly Princes Ans. The Song of Thanksgiving is this ch 5. v. 9. For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation What wonderfull weak arguing is this Because the Kings out of every Nation are redeemed by the bloud of Christ and publickly confess the same therefore they are no more Kings of any Nation than the common people that are so redeemed As if true Christianity took away all subordination of Ranks and Degrees in the world Why then have they not all Crowns if they be all Kings alike or why has any so Who grosly perverts Scripture now And what does the Remarker mean by worldly Princes If he means worldly-minded Princes this contradicts the Scene of things here which is a Representation of the Millennial Happiness and Holiness upon Earth and therefore these four and twenty crowned Elders or Monarchs are not supposed worldly-minded If he makes them worldly Princes because they are still in the world that is on the Earth that 's a contradiction to Christ's Millennial reign on Earth The Millennium must be in Heaven then not on Earth If subordination of Ranks and Degrees from the Prince to the Pezant make them worldly Princes the Polity in Heaven is worldly For there is a subordinate Hierarchy of Angels there and Archangels of Powers Principalities Dominions and Thrones Colos. 1.6 and so the Millennial Reign will be no where O but it is said in the following verse And hast made us to our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign upon the Earth Ans. This questionless alludes to that which God commanded Moses to tell the children of Israel touching him Exod. 19.6 And ye shall be to me a Kingdom of Priests which is called a Royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2.9 and the Apocalypse more distinctly styles the true Church in those happy days Kings and Priests But as under Moses the Nation being called a Kingdom of Priests it did not confound the distinction betwixt Priest and People but Aaron was the High Priest and had other Priests under him And Moses was King in Iesurun and had the heads of the Tribes under him so the four and twenty Elders and the four Beasts the whole body of the Church joining together in this Doxology Thou hast made us Kings and Priests and we
Mr. Mede's Interpretation of the Rider of the white Horse with a bow in his hand to whom a Crown was given the Imperial Crown no doubt For the aim of his War was to turn the Roman Empire Christian which was effected under the sixth Seal Which Rider of the white Horse Mr. Mede understands of Christ. Wherefore when Christ upon his powring down the Holy Ghost had fitted his chief Commanders in this Evangelical warfare to carry on the design of converting the Empire to Christianity why should not he be this noble Heros on the white Horse not F. Vespasianus nor Titus his Son who sack'd Ierusalem thus making the Prophecy to commence forty years later than it should The warfare therefore of this Conqueror is both Spiritual or Evangelical and Political that is to say the external guidance of affairs as his moving Vespasian to his Wars against the Iews and giving him that success is in order to the propagation of the Gospel through the Empire And it is well known that Iulian to hinder the growth of the Gospel encouraged the Iews to rebuild their Temple But this noble Heros on the white Horse by his invisible Powers miraculously defeated the design as you may see in Ammianus Marcellinus The stretching his going forth conquering and to conquer to the seven Trumpets and Vials seems to me a forcing of the Text beyond its proper intention needless and impertinent Christ was so far from a conquering condition under the Trumpets that his two great Enemies Mahomet and Antichrist had in a manner over-run his Kingdom in those times Vers. 8. Fourth part is not here used because the destruction did not reach over all the Empire for some of the Trumpets which reached but part of the Empire are said to fall upon the third part of the Earth c. because a third part is used as a Symbol of the Empire Ans. But where is a fourth part used for a Symbol of the Empire Wherefore it is plain there is not the like Reason in both And a fourth part of the Earth being less than a third part of the Earth it is plain that a portion less than the whole Empire is intimated thereby Vers. 12. The Civil Autority and not the Draconick Majesty is the Sun and the Priesthood is the Moon and the Draconick Majesty exercising its Autority in both is included in both Ans. This is dictated not proved If the Draconick Majesty influence by his Autority both the Priesthood and the Secular Magistracy there is then one Sun and two Moons For derived Autority is mutuatitious as the light of the Moon and that which derives it is as the light of the Sun innate and Original But the secular Moon is not considered in this Vision It lay upon the Remarker to prove it Vers. 14. The Heavens departing as a scroll signifies a dissolution of the Pagan Magistracy as well as of the Hierarchy and therefore it is said in the following verse The Kings of the Earth and great men and chief Captains c. called to the Rocks and Mountains c. Ans. The Kings of the Earth and great Men and chief Captains calling to the Rocks and Mountains c. does not signifie a dissolution of the Secular Magistracies but it sets out the fear of those great Men that would support by their Arms the Pagan Religion who though they perished some of them in the quarrel yet the constitution of the Empire as to Seculars continued still the same the same Orders and Offices Emperours Consuls c. Chap. 7. Introduction THE first six Trumpets cannot as the Introduction to this Chapter makes them be a vengeance on the Roman Empire for persecuting the Primitive Christians because it was destroy'd viz. The Western Empire which is here intended by the three first of them The fourth is upon Rome under the seventh Head viz. The Ostrogothian Kings the fifth and sixth do concern both the Greek Empire and the Ten-horned Beast under the eighth Head Also it is unagreeable with the making the Christian Emperours the seventh Head by reason of the Church being then Symmetral For it is unreasonable that the Empire being then in so regular a condition as is supposed should be punished for its former Irregularities But the Ostrogoths were indeed the seventh Head as will be afterward shewed Ans. If the Expositor had said all the six Trumpets were a vengeance on the Roman Empire for persecuting the Primitive Christians the Objection had been the more valid But he says onely In the time of the six Trumpets vengeance is taken c. And I think if the Western Empire was destroy'd by the three first of them vengeance is pretty well taken of the Empire And if the Greek Empire and Ten-horned Beast of which the Greek Empire is part be concerned in the fifth and sixth Trumpets vengeance is farther taken of that Empire that was the Murtherer of the Primitive Martyrs In which many of the Pagans remaining at first and the Empire degenerating so generally into new Paganick Superstitions and Idolatries it is no wonder these plagues of the six Trumpets should thus fall upon them But there are two farther mistakes in the Remarker The first is that the Church about the commencement of the Trumpets was Symmetral which is contrary to the Expositor's Hypothesis and when the Church became Asymmetral the Christian Emperours who followed the guidance of the Church in the same measure became Asymmetral also and were the Head of the Beast that was is not and yet is in that measure it had degenerated into that form The second is that it is unreasonable that God should punish the Empire while it was in so regular a condition For to omit how the marked or sealed company were safe and that there are several passages in History testifying thereto that which Mr. Mede has here noted is considerable Neque sera saith he Christianorum Imperatorum ibi rerum potiuntium pietas justitiae Dei intercedere debuit non magìs quà m Pietas Iosiae ut regnum Iudae sanguinis à Manasse effusi reum excidium à Deo decretum effugeret See 2 King 2.16 And the making the Ostrogoth Kings one head of the Beast how vain a conceit that is I shall note in its proper place Vers. 2. Christ is not called the East but the Day-spring c. And the naming him from a quarter of the Heavens is an improper Appellation though to name him from the light arising there is proper And the Angel's ascending from the East was because he came to seal those that were the Children of light faithfully keeping the doctrine of the Sun of righteousness and therefore did sutably to his office come from the Region of light Ans. There wants no farther answer to this Exception than what may be read in the Notes on this second verse When Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here rendred the East a quarter of the World is not understood
Dream of the Sun and Moon and eleven Stars worshipping him where the Moon is interpreted his Mother though no Priest as the Sun his Father Chap. 9. Vers. 2. THE Sun darkned here is not the Gospel but the Autority or Legislative Power of those Dominions over-run by the Saracens and Religion but secondarily concerned as it suffers by the suffering of the Autority which upheld it And as the Sea denotes the many Dominions of the Earth so does the Sun here signifie the various Powers or Autorities that governed them Ans. That the Sun does not signifie Legislative power in abstracto but the highest person in Autority I have noted already And though one great Sea may signifie a comprehension of several distinct Kingdoms subject to tumultuate or rather War one against another as having no union under one Head yet the several Heads of these Kingdoms cannot so properly be represented by one Sun which naturally implies one Head over them all Wherefore being that the Saracens over-run so many Kingdoms and Principalities if this must be the darkning of them it would then have been said that the smoak of the Abyss darkned the Stars For when Multitudes of Kings and Princes are concerned together that have no dependence one of another they are then signified by Stars Whence the Red Dragon is said to have pulled down so many Stars with his tail that is to have subjected so many Kings and Princes to the Roman Empire Wherefore it is rashly pronounced That the Sun-shine of the Gospel of the Sun of righteousness is not meant by the Sun that is here said to be darkned whenas the smoak of the pit must be Mahometism And therefore in this passage Religion most certainly is related to and is the main concern of the whole Book of the Apocalypse and other things predicted merely in order to it viz. to the right worship of God through Jesus Christ. And therefore that sense which is easie and natural and tends that way is most assuredly the true sense of any passage of these Prophecies See the spiritual signification of Sun in the Expositor's Alphabet of Iconisms Chap. 10. Vers. 2. THE Ten-horned Beast did rise out of the Sea and two-horned Beast out of the Earth and our Saviour setting his right foot on the Sea and his left foot on the Earth does signifie here his coming down from Heaven to put down all Autority and power under his feet the Earthly Powers within his Kingdom being within the seventh Trumpet to be abolished and all things to become new by forming a new Heaven and a new Earth or establishing the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth and so making the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Ans. This Remark is not much amiss saving that it lears toward that foul conceit that there will be no Monarchy nor Princes over their respective Principalities and Kingdoms where the Kingdom of Christ is set up whenas the twenty four crowned Elders do most certainly denote the pure Apostolick Christianity of those many Kings and Princes that will be contained within the Kingdom of Christ in the Millennium And setting one foot on the Sea and another on the Earth refers particularly to the vanquishing the ten-horned Beast that came out of the Sea ch 13. and the false Prophet or two-horned Beast that came out of the Earth v. 11. out of a Clay-pit for the Clay in Daniel signifies the Ecclesiastick regenerating party which two ch 19.20 are taken alive and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Vers. 3. The sounding of the seventh Trumpet is plainly not at the time of the roaring of the mighty Angel and therefore cannot be branched into the seven Thunders For after his roaring and the seven Thunders uttering their voices thereon and the other matters after declared there is a Regress to begin a new Prophecy of the Contents of the opened Book and to bring the same down to the seventh Trumpet also that the affairs of the six Trumpets and the opened Book viz. during the time of the Antichristian and worldly Powers being connected as synchronizing the seventh Trumpet might close both together The seven Thunders therefore seem symbolically to signifie a preparation of the Christian party against the great day of God at the seventh Trumpet as the three unclean spirits like Frogs are of the Antichristian party That as the latter bestir themselves with miraculous deceits to excite the Princes of the Earth to battel so the former signifies a miraculous power of spirit that shall exert it self in many Christian Heroes whereby they shall become exciters and conductors of the Christian party to the same and hereunto shall also become Boanerges's thundring out such powerfull convictive testimonies against the abominations of their Enemies and such denunciations of God's judgments against them for the same as were not meet before that time to be uttered and therefore were to be sealed up c. Some such meaning seems to be signified in Micah ch 5. v. 5 6. Ans. The more clearly to decide this point let us consider that the Apocalypse consists of three Prophecies The Prophecy of the seven Churches The Prophecy of the sealed Book and the Prophecy of the opened Book And that as it less derogates from their perfection to be conceived each of them to reach from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World viz. of the affairs of this Earth so of the first of them I have proved the same as also shown that the second commenceth from the beginning of the Church and that it reaches to the end of the world is plain from hence The whole time of the Book consists but of seven Seals and some things of the book reach to the end of the world therefore the seventh Seal must reach to the end of the world And the seventh Seal being divided into seven Trumpets the seventh Trumpet must reach to the end of the world Wherefore it is plain that the Prophecy of the sealed Book reaches to the end of the world And if this Reasoning will not serve I will anon confirm it by the Oath of the Angel But in the mean time let us farther note that the sounding of each of these seven Trumpets and the Visum of each Trumpet do synchronize or are of equal extent begin and end together As for example The Visum of the sixth Trumpet which contains the over-running of the Turks and the general Impenitency of the Western Christian World for their Idolatry c. c. 9.20 The sixth Trumpet I say is conceived to sound all the while this Visum continues Now the seventh Trumpet belonging to the Prophecy of the sealed Book it was before we come to the Prophecy of the opened Book immediately to succeed the sixth and to sound all the time its Visum is exhibited But it is manifest the roaring of the Angel immediately succeeds the sounding of the sixth Trumpet wherefore
Bloud of the Lamb so as to be exalted to the Heavenly station of ruling by the Man-child being caught up unto God and his Throne c. and obtained sentence against their Adversary to be cast out c. yet was that sentence executed as before by the War v. 7. Ans. See what head-strong prejudice will doe As if the Remarker shou'd say though this eleventh verse does imply that the War was betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutors yet it was not But it does most certainly demonstrate that the War was betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutors For the words are these For they overcame viz. the red Dragon by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto death What can be a more express description of Martyrdom than this This is not a description of a War of Emperours against Emperours with their armies in the field where they fight upon equal terms but of Martyrs with the word of their testimony passively undergoing for their witnessing to the truth what their cruel Persecutors would inflict upon them Vers. 12. The Dwellers in Heaven are bid to rejoice by reason of the salvation and strength and Kingdom of God and power of his Christ which was to come and therefore surely must signifie them to whom the same came whose particular concern this matter of joy was whereas Angels and Martyrs are no farther concerned in it than in general as they are concerned for the welfare of the Church Nor can those that were exalted by preferments to the Political Heaven of the Empire be concerned in it farther than they were in such a state as to have the coming of salvation and strength and the Kingdom of God fulfilled in them For it onely respects those that are in such a state who are called dwellers in Heaven in respect of the Heavenly station that they were exalted to thereby after the Devil and his Angels were cast out and the autority of Christ established as Prince of the World For then they became the joyfull company with the Lamb on Mount Sion singing the Song of the victory c. who as they are there markt on their foreheads for preservation so they are the worshippers in the Temple and Altar or the two Witnesses meted for the same purpose and are the same that are called dwellers in Heaven Ch. 13.6 and are thus distinguished from those dwellers on Earth against whom the woe is pronounced by reason of the power the Devil will have over them still after he is cast out Ans. The Expositor has taken in both senses of Heaven political and natural they being both sure and consistent one with another and the joy of Angels and Martyrs at the welfare of the Church is too great to be slighted or omitted But to ramble into mystical senses and reach out to the company of the Lamb on Mount Sion is not to interpret by rule but to trifle All Apostolick Christians were concerned in this victory of the Church and most of those in high place in the Empire turned Christian. But the foregoing verse so plainly determining this joy to the victory of the Church in the times of Constantine which shews that the Kingdom of God and power of his Christ was come already and is said to be so v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not yet to come it is a strange vagary to ramble from the Antemedial synchronals to the middle synchronals which undoubtedly the company on Mount Sion belong to And for the Remarker's groundless conceit touching the worshippers in the Temple and Thysiasterion the vanity thereof has been above sufficiently shewn And for the dwellers in Heaven Ch. 13. v. 6. we shall consider it when we come at it But for this present place if the Dwellers in Heaven be those in high degree the Dwellers on Earth must naturally signifie those in low degree or common people as the Expositor has interpreted it Vers. 15. Arianism cannot be here intended more than the Catholick doctrine they both running into extremes and each maintaining their cause with like fumous Animosity But by the Serpent's casting out water like a floud seems to be signified the frequent tumultuating of the common people and Magistrates that continued Pagans against the Christians whereby great outrages were oft committed But such Arians and Catholicks may be also included who under a cloak of Religion did violently prosecute each other out of enmity or self-interest to the great reproach and ruine of Religion Ans. The contention betwixt the Arians and Catholicks is most certainly included and is that which History most of all rings of and most highly concerned the Church and therefore could not be omitted in this Opened-book-prophecy which concerns the state of the Church As for any other contests less notable betwixt Christians and Pagans they were such as could not hazard the Woman's being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her being carried away with the sloud None but a contention betwixt the Christians themselves and such as shaked the very foundation of their Religion could put her in that hazard So that this is a very lank sense which the Remarker gives of this passage Vers. 16. The Earth that helped the woman by swallowing the sloud may signifie the sober stayd sort of people who being either seasoned with principles of Religion or being of peaceable spirits and obedient to authority did endeavour to asswage all such tumults and discountenance and oppose all such furious Animosities and were for composing all differences in a legal orderly and peaceable manner Ans. Undoubtedly that sloud of contention was the hot Contest betwixt the Arians and Catholicks Could therefore the soberer sort of common people Christians or Pagans compose this difference What an absurd conceit is this The Earth that swallows up this sloud does not signifie the common people here though sometimes it is a Symbol of them But the sense is onely this That this floud of contention was swallowed down and dried up by the help of Oecumenical Councils as some rapid Torrent is suck't down by the gaping of the Earth This is enough But farther curiosity might invite a man to fanfie that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence Oecumenical comes is alluded to or Earth in general put for clayish Earth which in Daniel is a symbol of the Ecclesiastical Power of which Councils did consist And then it fits obviously and exquisitely Chap. 13. Vers. 1. THE name of Blasphemy if it does intend Idolatry yet it hath a farther signification as All sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost c. Where the malignant reproach of God's Spirit evidencing it self in the works of our Saviour is said to be unpardonable blasphemy And the like reproaching of the holy Spirit manifesting it self in the Saints is likewise blasphemy though not of so heinous a
resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation And yet the Powers then touching which St. Paul speaks were not onely Antichristian in some sense but mere Pagan But from this we may understand that the Root of all Autority is God himself And therefore they are Witnesses with a witness that in pretence of Christ's right to rule will strike at the Root of all Autority God himself and be guilty of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the ancient Giants were viz. of fighting against God Wherefore this doctrine implied in the Interpretation of these two Vials made by the Remarker is extremely unsound and unchristian and consequently upon this account also his Interpretation is false Vers. 12. Though the drying up the River Euphrates may signifie such mutation in the Turkish Empire as to make way for the Iews and Eastern Nations c. yet it 's like to have some farther signification viz. That whereas Euphrates was a great defence to Babylon by diverting the stream of which Cyrus took the City something analogous thereto whence may be the great strength and confidence of Mystical Babylon may be here signified to be removed to the like purpose But what this is time must disclose Ans. This Remark is ingenious enough But why may not the Entireness of the Turkish Empire be the great defence of the Mystical Babylon So that as the Entireness of the Roman Empire hindred the appearing of the Man of sin or Antichrist so the Entireness of the Turkish Empire may retardate Antichrist's ruine The Kings of the East not appearing for the truly Apostolick Church till there be some change or brokenness in the Turkish Empire Vers. 16. a There 's no such Commutation of Iconisms here as is imagined b but the division of the City into three parts is the consequence of that decisive battel viz. the Antichristian party being over-thrown and dissolved two parts thereof viz. the Beast and false Prophet are cast into the lake c. and the third slain with the sword proceeding out of the mouth c. ch 19. v. 20 21. Ans. a It is impossible but that there should be a Commutation of Iconisms in this Vision For the fore part of the Vision from v. 13. to v. 17. represents the forces of all the Kings of the Earth those of the Dragon's party viz. Pagans and Infidels and those of the Beast's and false Prophet's party viz. the Antichristian forces drawn out to fight against the Army of God Almighty or the Lord of Hosts viz. the Evangelical party into the fields of Armageddon but neither fight nor success is mentioned hitherto no nor so much as the seventh Vial poured out upon them yet for the discomfiture of the Infidel and Antichristian party by the Evangelical Wherefore unless there were a Commutation of Iconisms and these tripartite forces in Armageddon which comprize as it were the forces of all the world were turned into as great and large a City which might contain the same parties there is nothing of either conflict or success of that vast multitude congregated in Armageddon set out in the Vision which is extremely absurd as if the Spirit of Prophecy had forgot in the mid-way what he was about Wherefore the same thing to be predicted is continued but by a Commutation of Iconisms and the tripartite forces in the field are represented by a mighty City divided into three parts and the Battel is represented by those Boanergeses the preaching part of the Evangelical Host thundering over this great City and the success by declaring that the Cities of the Nations that is the Infidels they fell were thunder-struck converted to the pure Apostolick faith by the powerfull preaching of these Evangelists But it is said of Babylon which is part of this great City that Hailstones of a talent weight fell upon her but instead of being converted she blasphemed but that she was vanquished in a Political sense is plain from the Description A man must wink hard that can keep his eyes from intromitting so clear a Truth But now to what the Remarker alledges I say b How can the dividing of the City into three parts be the consequence of the Battel in Armageddon when there 's no fighting there nor the Vial poured out till v. 17 And the great City answering to the tripartite forces drawn out into the fields of Armageddon viz. Infidel Antichristian and Evangelical the said City must contain the same but this Tripartition the Remarker would take up withall leaves out the Evangelical party and makes the Antichristian party two whenas quatenus Antichristian they are but one party and ought to be so accounted And lastly for the third party slain with the sword here 's no mention of slaying with the sword in this Vision but of the Cities of the Nations being Thunder-struck To all which you may add that the Beast and the false Prophet were as much two before the fight as after and those slain with the sword viz. the Draconick party were one part of this Tripartition as much before as after the fight So that the fight could be no cause of this Tripartition Nor is there any true Tripartition but what was before the Conflict and which was of the whole number of the forces Evangelical Antichristian and Infidel into those three parts For Logick tells us as there is Reciprocatio definitionis cum definito so there must be Distributionis partium cum toto There must be an adequateness in both Vers. 17. a It 's done does here as formerly noted answer to the same words ch 21.6 and signifie the same with The mystery of God shall be finished and time shall be no more ch 10. viz. The course of this world is at an end and all things are become new the Politick frame of Governments is to be dissolved and a new Heaven and a new Earth to be established c. b But to imagine here to be signified the overthrow of Antichrist by powerfull preaching is a strange conceit They had long since by obdurate impenitence been past such cure of which they had long before this sufficient Trial and become ripe for this finishing plague which in the supposed sense would not be such but a mercy c The Vial into the Air signifies the immediate pouring it upon the Power of the Devil the Prince of the Powers of the Air or the extinguishing his power by which the Beast and false Prophet were acted Ans. a This fond fancy of the Remarker I have refuted above And it is a mere precarious dream of his that all Political Government shall cease The Mystery of God is finished if the Antichristian Governments cease and a true Christian Polity that faithfully and effectually supports the Kingdom of Christ and the Purity of God's Worship be established in the room of the order This extravagant fancy tends to nothing but Enthusiastical Anarchy The new Heaven and new
Earth in the Prophetick style signifies a new Polity and this such a Polity where reigneth Righteousness b It is a mistake in the Remarker and that a gross one that he thinks the Expositor supposes the Antichristian party to be converted by these Boanergeses it is the Infidel partly that are Babylon remains obdurate but in virtue of the conversion of the Infidel party to the Purity of the Gospel the Evangelical party grows so strong that the power of Babylon is quite abolished which is the victory over them c That the pouring of the Vial into the Air should signifie the immediate pouring it on the power of the Devil the Prince of the Air is a conceit both uncertain and needless and therefore the Expositor omitted it It rather respects the consequent Thundering and Lightening in the Air c. The miraculous restraint of the power of Satan begins with the Millennium which commenceth with the third Thunder Vers. 18. The voices thunderings and lightenings signifie no such promulgation of the Gospel by the Boanergeses as is imagined but the great judgments that then befell the Beast and false Prophet as they signifie ch 8.5 and as the great Hail does plainly shew they do so here which therefore is advisedly not taken notice of Ans. These voices thunderings and lightenings do very fitly set out the promulgation of the Law of the Son of God alluding to the thunderings and lightenings and dreadfull voice of God like a Trumpet at the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai Exod. 20.18 Deut. 5.24 and 18.16 But I do not deny but in some places it may signifie Wars in the ordinary sense But the circumstances of things determine otherwise here Nor does the mention of Hail hinder that determination which advisedly is defrred in the Vision and placed after the fall of the Cities of the Nations to intimate that the subduing of Babylon or victory over her was of another sort from that over the Cities of the Nations Wherefore the mention of Hail is deferred till the very last verse of the Vision and disjoined from the Thunderings and Lightenings that it may peculiarly respect the distinct execution done upon Babylon and such as followed the conversion of the Cities of the Nations Vers. 19. It 's a great reproach to the Evangelical party to reckon it part of the City of Babylon out of which they were come before in obedience to the voice Come out of her my people c. But the three parts of the City viz. that the Antichristian party was composed of are the Beast's the false Prophet's and the Dragon's party answerable to the three unclean spirits c. and the three parts it was divided into are as is mentioned on v. 16. Ans. The Evangelical party is not reckoned as part of the City of Babylon and therefore no reproach to them Nor can this great Armies gathered together in Armageddon which comprized the Evangelical forces also be conceived not to contain the Evangelical party in it For this great City is not Babylon it self no not according to the Remarker's account that makes the Dragon part of it and therefore it must be the most absolute great City that contained all the three parties met in Armageddon the Infidel Antichristian and Evangelical party The Remarker's Tripartition was sufficiently confuted before on v. 16. Chap. 17. Vers. 3. BLasphemy is to be taken here in the sense spoken of ch 13. as well as to signifie Idolatry and so far as it intends Idolatry it respects that which is committed by worshipping or idolizing the Beast as well as what is by the Beast's worshipping of Idols the former though not so heinous being of larger extent than the latter c. Ans. What a fond strained conceit that is of the Remarker to stretch the meaning of Blasphemy here to the sharp reproofs given to immorigerous Saints as some fansie themselves that deserve not the Title I have noted ch 13. But here is an Addition That by the Names of Blasphemy written on the Beast must be understood also the idolizing of the Beast or worshipping him By this rate all the Saints and Angels in Heaven will be full of names of Blasphemy the Virgin Mary especially But what Pen would ever set out the Idolatrous worship given to them from multitudes of people by describing them full of names of Blasphemy This it is to affect freaks and conceits of ones own contrary to the current of all Expositors Vers. 8. The Ten-horned Beast signifies the Civil Politick State of the Empire and so hath its denomination from the corruptions thereof viz. the violences oppressions and crafty fraudulent management of affairs which attend worldly Governments Therefore though their being Idolatrous may influence them to make them more corrupt yet it makes no alteration in the Civil State of affairs to give a new denomination thereto So that the sixth-headed Beast continues the same after the Empire being Christian till it receive the deadly wound by a sword viz. till its ruine by the Barbarous Nations and the seventh-headed Beast that is to continue but a little while is according to Forbes the Ostrogothian Kings adding thereto the preceding Reign of Odoacer about the expiring of the reign of which Kings happened divers Prodigies significant of the false Prophet or two-horned Beast viz. the eighth Head beginning to reign And if the said Kings be not the seventh Head they will be taken no notice of in the Prophecy though their reign be almost as long as the Christian Emperours who are here made the seventh Head and how much shorter it is than the reign of the other it sutes so much the better with that Head its being to continue but a little time And the dominion of those Kings was so absolute that the eighth Head could not begin to reign untill their expulsion c. And if they were the seventh Head then the Heathen and Christian Emperours make but one Head and so the same Beast continues as I said under the reign of both and therefore is not so denominated on a religious but on the civil account aforesaid Which is farther evident from the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. a wild Beast and the Beast is so named for the same reason that Ierusalem is called a Lioness and her Kings Lions Ezek. 19. and Nimrod a mighty Hunter c. And how early all worldly Rulers were noted for violence and oppression appears by that saying of Iob ch 9.24 The Earth is given into the hands of the wicked he covereth the faces of the Iudges thereof if not where and who is he And Solomon says He beheld the place of judgment that iniquity was there the place of righteousness that wickedness was there And the oppressions done under the Sun made him praise the dead more than the living And Psalm 82. God reproving the Rulers of the Earth for judging unjustly and accepting the person of the wicked and neglecting to
by conviction can with no aptness be signified by the said expressions of the Psalmist it being a spiritual subjecting of men into a voluntary obedience contrary to the other Ans. The sharp sword issuing out of the mouth of the Rider of the white Horse cannot signifie the sharp sentence of judgment which he does first pronounce against his enemies for that is supposed to have been done in his Royal Tent at a Council of war but he is here upon his march with his squadrons of Horse following him Nor does it also but onely signifie that spiritual slaughter or powerfull conviction of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the rest of his enemies namely those distinct from the Beast and false Prophet which therefore are the Infidel party And as for Christ's obstinate enemies Turks and Infidels have been such and will be such till they be as Esay speaks ch 11. 4. smitten with the Rod of his mouth not the rod of his strength in the Remarker's sense which Forerius interprets of the Preaching of the Gospel And as for that passage in the second Psalm we are to take notice that the Prophecy there belongs first to David and is literally to be understood of him But in the spiritual and mystical sense referring to Christ his Kingdom being mainly spiritual his warfare and conquests are rightly understood to be chiefly spiritual also The Text runs plainly upon this sense viz. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword and this is in his march to the battel as I noted before that with it he should smite the Nations This therefore is his weapon of war whereby he subdues the Nations And he shall rule them with a rod of Iron alluding to Psal. 2.9 where for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reges eos the Hebrew has 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conteres eos which aptly intimates that Contrition the Expositor mentions and farther confirms the sense of the sharp sword As also does that which follows And he treadeth the Wine-press c. which we have demonstrated above what a salvage mistake it is not to understand it in a Spiritual or Parabolical sense Wherefore the Vision of the Wine-press the seventh Vial and this present Vision synchronizing and indeed setting out the same thing and that of the Wine-press necessarily inferring a spiritual meaning and the Camp of Armageddon being turned into a City the Boanergeses thundred over which plainly puts off the conceit of a carnal battel in Armageddon and here the Commander on the white Horse being called the Word of God and the weapon whereby he subdues his enemies being a sword that comes out of his mouth and the Habits that both he and his followers are clad in being fine linen white and clean not white armour bright and shining all these things considered unless one be blinded with invincible prejudice how can he miss of interpreting all these of the spiritual warfare of Christ and the victories of the Gospel Vers. 16. The writing on the Thigh does not properly signifie his descent but his posterity or spiritual off-spring viz. That he is King of Kings in respect of those who through faith in him are begotten to be Kings and Priests to God ch 1. v. 6. Ans. The Thigh is a Symbol of Generation and consequently of Pedegree and Genealogy Which therefore may look both backwards and forwards in respect of the person whose Pedegree is considered Wherefore if any one will interpret this place both ways he has my free leave Vers. 17. As the Legislative power being the light of the World by which the affairs thereof are governed is in the Prophetick style called the Sun so the Kingdom of Christ having become now far the most prevailing Autority of the World Babylon being fallen and in almost an expiring condition he in the glory of his Kingdom on Earth is here called the Sun in whose power the Angel makes the following Invitation But to refer this so glorious a description of the great Battel and Victory of our Saviour to preaching of the Gospel and that in the time of so great knowledge when there will be so little need of it and the enemy will be so obdurate against it is an extravagant conceit So is it that the Beast and false Prophet gathered to the Battel should not be included in the slain and that for this wonderfull reason that they were cast into a lake of fire and therefore the Fowls could not feed on them Whereas their feeding on them is at the victory and the casting into the Lake follows which what it signifies see v. 20. Ans. This is a pretty conceit of the Remarker touching the Angel standing in the Sun but it is raised upon weak grounds For Sun does not signifie the Legislative power in abstracto nor yet in concreto unless it be Monarchical which is not according to the Hypothesis of the Remarker Nor is Babylon fallen before this battel in that consummate sense that to a carnal eye the victory could appear so sure on the Evangelical parties side And therefore though Christ were supposed here the Sun which renders the other Hypothesis needless of making Sun to signifie the Legislative power he in respect of his Kingdom being a Monarch the assurance of the victory is not to be foretold by a Politician from the visible power of Christ's Kingdom For this is the Philadelphian Army which Christ himself calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. small forces ch 3.8 and therefore no Politician could compute the success thereof from its Military power But these were some inspired Prophets of the Evangelical party that from the sure word of Prophecy and their experience of the marvellous effects of the zealous preaching of the pure Gospel in the power of the spirit foretell the success of the Battel in this Invitation standing in the glorious light or Sun-shine of the Gospel But to make the Angel that stands in the Sun to stand in the person of Christ the Monarch or Head of his Kingdom seems rude and incongruous This confident Invitation answers to that voice from the Throne from the Dabir or Oracle ch 16.17 It is done Nor need the Remarker judge the referring this so glorious a description of this great battel and victory to the preaching of the Gospel an extravagant conceit as there being then little need of it and the Enemy so obdurate against it For there will be great need of such preaching of the Gospel as we have described and the power of it predicted is not upon the Antichristian party which the Remarker fansies so obdurate but upon the Infidel party especially which are said to be slain with the sword of him that sate on the white Horse But the Beast and the false Prophet are not so slain and it is a wonderfull good and solid reason which the Expositor intimates for it Because the Fowls of the Air could not feed on them they being cast into the Lake of fire Nor could
fall there were no Deceivers nor Devils And the Devil when he is restrained to his Infernal confinement yet all that then can be said is but this Let no man when he is tempted say I am tempted of the Devil for he during his infernal confinement tempteth no man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed c. Iam. 1.13 And certainly in the Millennium men are not born without Original sin nor is their body of flesh less subject to various lusts than the Aethereal bodies of Angels were So that what is here produced is mere Rhetorical colour no solid or substantial Argument Vers. 3. This conceit of iron adamantine rigid Laws c. and these to be in a time when there will be so little need of them does shew an imagination much upon the rack If the wicked in the Millennium are to be kept under such Laws they will have little heart to join in that Song Blessing honour glory and power c. be unto him that sitteth on the throne and unto the lamb for ever Which is said every Creature in Heaven and Earth shall doe ch 5. But these will be times for which Paul says The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth and wherein it shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God it being not made subject unto vanity willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Rom. 8. viz. That wickendess which Iohn says the whole world lyes in being the result of its thraldom and delusion under the power of the Devil which lapsed man became subject unto yet in hopes to be delivered therefrom they becoming in this Millennial State partakers of their hopes having all stumbling-blocks of iniquity taken away and receiving all advantages to further them in the ways of righteousness they will joyfully walk therein and through the blessings they find do attend their so doing will be moved to join in the said Song of Blessing honour glory and power c. Ans. Here 's but the Repetition of the same things in the beginning of this Remark which were in the former and therefore they need no new Answer But afterwards he offers at two new Arguments against this conceit as he calls it of iron adamantine rigid Laws For if there be such in the Millennium the wicked will have little heart says he to join in that Song chap. 5.13 Blessing honour glory and power c. Whenas it is said Every creature in Heaven Earth and under the Earth c. shall join in it In answer to which I onely demand Whether the old Serpent in his Infernal confinement which is under the Earth will either join in or say Amen to that Doxology In what sense he will the wicked will also The other Reason is That this is the Time viz. the Millennium wherein the Creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God But I here demand first Whether all the Creatures or all men will be thus delivered from the bondage of corruption nay whether all men that live in the same Countries that they that belong to the new Ierusalem do I suppose the Remarker will not adventure to assert it Wherefore there being those among the Saints that are not Saints themselves these rigid Laws are fit to bridle them But then secondly I deny that this place of Rom. 8. refers to the Millennium but to the state of the Resurrection For then onely will this deliverance from the bondage of corruption be and the attainment of the freedom of the Sons of God which is the Title of the Angels For then in our glorified bodies we shall become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels And this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is mentioned v. 23. which we groan after and wait for viz. the Redemption of our bodies that they may be glorified and made Angelical such as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have the Angels or Sons of God Vers. 4. The first Resurrection is not a Revivification into their glorified bodies to reign in Heaven For there Saints cannot be said to reign there being none there to be Subjects to them And that State is not attainable till the Resurrection at the last day when Christ hath promised to raise up those that believe in him Iohn 5.28 29. Also the following words Blessed is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power do shew that the first Resurrection is not an emerging above the Regions of Mortality by being revivified into glorified bodies for then the pronouncing the second death to have no power over them would be needless Which is also farther evidenced by the reign in the first Resurrection being a thousand years whenas the Heavenly state is everlasting And it 's a great violation of Scripture to make a thousand years when spoke of the Resurrection to signifie Symbolically when it 's so oft in the Chapter used Numerically and by coherence of the discourse must every-where needs have the same signification Therefore the first Resurrection is a Privilege of the Martyrs that suffered under Antichrist to reign in the Millennial State as the Powers of the Air viz. the Devil and his Angels did among the worldly Powers till he was bound in the bottomless pit Ans. I answer Saints may be said to reign in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at least if not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides what will the Remarker say to that Text 2 Tim. 2. If we suffer we shall also reign with him And to Rom. 8. Heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him that is partake of his glorious Kingdom according to that Mat. 25. Come ye blessed of my father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you c. Whence it is plain that the Saints may be said to reign in Heaven according to phrase of Scripture And if there be a Polity in Heaven as most certainly there is the Martyrs may have several Provinces to rule over in a Briathick State as the Cabbalists seem to call it And that the Heavenly State is not attainable before the general Resurrection is against the opinion of the ancient Fathers as you may see in Mr. Mede And the last day reaches from the beginning of the Millennium to the end of the World or general Resurrection as I have discoursed this point more copiously in a Letter to a friend and therefore am loth to repeat it here The adding to the mention of the first Resurrection that the second death has no power over them is not needless both because it more manifestly imports that this Resurrection is not meant of a Political Resurrection but a Physical and also that it assures us of the sense of that passage in the Epistle to
Kings and Emperours reigned to the admitting of those signified by the Clay to some participation in the Government the conceit here of Seminaries c. does ascribe the Act of mingling chiefly to the Clay And no better is the account of the words They shall not cleave one to another which are made here to signifie the bickering and clashing betwixt the Secular and Ecclesiastical Power whenas the true sense of them is That notwithstanding those Kings shall yield to the States sharing with them in Government as aforesaid yet they shall keep them at their distance and retain the Majesty of Kings c. This change of the Power of Kings from absolute to mixt Monarchy was the result of Christianity's being established the Religion of the Empire Whereby the Man-child was caught up unto God and his Throne and the Devil cast out unto the Earth Revel 12. and so could not Lord it with the absolute Dominion as he did formerly in his Heavenly station For the Autority of Christ's Laws being now acknowledged would not admit of such Tyrannical Rule though the subtile Impostures of the false Prophet did under pretence of Religion after introduce such barbarous cruelties as did equal or exceed what was acted by the Heathen Powers But so powerfull a check had the States whereof the Clergy was a part on Princes by virtue of Christian Laws as oft to depose them for Male-administration Which Autority some of the Princes did allow them to have by virtue of the Episcopal Power joined with them as appears by that Speech of Carolus Calvus at the Council of Tullum viz. From which my consecration or sublimity of Kingdom I ought not to be cast down or supplanted by any without the judgment of the Bishops by whose Autority I was consecrated King and who are called the Throne of God in which he sitteth and by whom he decreeth his judgments To whose fatherly correptions and castigatory judgments I am ready to submit my self Mr. Baxter's Abridgment of Councils pag. 271. Ans. The Act of mingling is not here ascribed to the Iron but the expressions are wonderfull accurately agreeable to the sense which the Expositor has given For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Participle of the Passive voice and is rendred by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by our English Translation mixt not mingling it self which is quite against the conceit and surmise of the Remarker that makes the Monarchs of their own accord without being trepan'd or play'd upon by the Ecclesiastick Party to communicate part of their Legislative Power to what is signified by the Clay But the Text plainly imports the contrary viz. That mutual compliance which was betwixt the Iron and the Clay which is expressed by the Participle in Hithpael 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is effected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Seminaries of poor despicable mortified men in appearance or profession but notably trained up to make the Iron stick to the Clay the Secular power to the Ecclesiastick as is set forth in the Exposition These were shrewd efficacious Instruments for the promoting and continuing the adhesion of the Iron to the Clay the Secular Power to the Sacerdotal Hierarchy of the Empire And though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in your ordinary Dictionaries has no such Metaphorical sense yet the Metaphor being so easie unstrained and natural and so exquisitely agreeable to the sense of the Prophecy it is an Idiotick or Pedantick humour to suspect or refuse it And that Prescience that foretold these things did foreknow also that such places of Education would be called Seminaries in like manner as That the Saints which are Superstitiously and Idolatrously worshipped would be accounted and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which Mahuzzim exquisitely answers And lastly the Horse-men on each side of an Army which were to protect the foot that the Romans would call them Alae beside that the Analogy is very obvious and natural And therefore though no Hebrew Dictionary tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Idolized Saints or that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the Wing of an Army yet the most genuine meaning of those passages in those two Prophecies calling for such a sense and the easie naturalness of the Similitude or Analogy of things warranting it Mr. Mede did very well and laudably to use the freedom of so interpreting those places though none were so wise or lucky as to hit on it before him And there is the very same reason for the Expositor his making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to allude to the Seminaries of Ecclesiasticks trained up for the Interest of the Papal Hierarchy That against making the Iron and Clay their not cleaving to one another to import their falling out or clashing is a very sorry Cavil For what is disunion of friends but falling out and clashing and it is very usual for a Negative to signifie a Positive contrary to the Positive denied as in that of Virgil Quis aut Eurysthea durum Aut illaudati nescit Busiridis aras Where Illaudatus does not signifie one that simply is not praised but one that is detested and execrated of all for his barbarous cruelty And there are infinite Examples to the same purpose But the Iron ever keeping the Clay at a distance imports they never mingled or cleaved together which is plainly against the Text. So that the Remarker had better have let things alone when they were so well adjusted before than have tampered so unskilfully with them and upon grounds so conspicuously false as if the Iron and Clay signified any other than two Orders of men Secular and Ecclesiastick He might as well say Black and White would doe so What follows in this Remark is big with a double mistake First that the Defeat of the red Dragon by Michael was an abatement of the Secular power of the Empire or Emperours as if Constantine had less Secular power by becoming Christian Whenas the overthrow of the red Dragon concerned onely the Pagan Religion and what pitifull work the Remarker has made on that 12 th Chapter of the Apocalypse I have above shewn on his former Remarks The Emperour Constantine therefore remained as absolute a Prince as his Predecessors Nor did he ever give away which is the other false surmise of the Remarker his Legislative power more than his Predecessors But being miraculously converted to the Christian Religion he did but that which the most absolute Princes that are being in their Wits would doe for the good of the Empire which was committed to him by God without the due worship of whom through Christ he could not think the Empire could flourish He therefore consulted especially with the Bishops not to communicate his Legislative power to them but for them to communicate their skill in the Mysteries of Christian Religion to him that he might order affairs accordingly And
there had wanted an Animal to typifie Reason unless you made Man the Type of both and put the Eagle quite out of office Thus crude and broken is the Remarker's conceit in this matter Again There are good Scriptural-phrases produced about the two flying wings of the Seraphins which he will have the same with the third pair of wings of the Beasts but the Application is methinks much of the Hooks For the two flying wings of the Seraphins Esay 6. signifie the readiness and expediteness of their Ministry enjoyn'd by God to the service of his Church whenas he referrs it to the exalting of ones self from a Worldly and Earthly to a Heavenly state Thirdly That seems a precarious groundless conceit or rather false That the Tree of Life was not set in Paradise for Adam to eat of but to play at Chop-cherry with him and to mock him whenas the Text says The Lord commanded the Man saying Of every tree of the Garden thou shalt eat and I hope the Tree of life was one of them The Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast plenary commission if not command to eat of all saving the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil Which had been a mere mocking of Adam if he had no power of eating of the Tree of Life And now fourthly this being a fundamental mistake of the Remarker in the case of Adam the like discovers it self in his conceit touching the Iews and the two Visions of Ezekiel that of the four living Creatures and that other of the Temple God gave no impossible Commands to the Iews But those exquisite descriptions of things touching the Temple by a long and operose Hylasmus and Israelismus set not out what the Iews should have been if they had kept these Ordinances exquisitely but what the Church of Christ would be of which the Iews were a Type in process of time That this is the sense of that Vision the Apocalypse that borrows so many things from it and uses such frequent Allusions to the Temple does sufficiently indicate Nor is there any other sense of the Vision of the four living Creatures as touching the Iews who were not upon condition of legal performances to arrive to that Angelical State that the Christian Church with them will arrive to at last But the Divino-political sense of that Vision which yet is most properly applied to it as repeated in the Apocalypse which relates to the Camp of the Iews a figure of the State of the Christian Church to come is that the Church of God at last will answer the Pattern of the Angelical Kingdom and God's Will will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Fifthly The Name of the City The Lord is there is the very Indication of the state of the New Ierusalem which is a demonstration it was never intended for the Iews under their Legal Dispensation upon any terms Sixthly Ezekiel is not here sent to Prophesie the Ruine of the City and Temple they both having been destroyed fourteen years before But they being destroyed he in this Hylastick and Israelistick way prophesies of the state of the New Ierusalem which the Apocalypse also describes Seventhly therefore The Iews their making a golden Calf and craving a King whatever other inconveniences it may cause to them it could not make them forfeit that which was never intended them in that state Eighthly If the Beasts be the Governed and the four and twenty Elders the Governours how come the Beasts to be upon the Throne and the twenty four Elders onely about it Ninthly The Wheels and living Creatures being not moved but as acted by the spirit does not signifie an Earthly state in them but the most Divine and Heavenly viz. an Vnselfwilledness in them That they have no Self excursions of mind or will but that the Spirit of life from the eternal mind is the perpetual principle of their motion and rest Tenthly That the four Beasts are not upon the Throne I have shew'd upon that place of the Apocalypse and that he contradicts himself in saying so I observed even now in the eighth Note Eleventhly The burning Coals which are Prunae do not signifie the Spirit of Elias in Men but the Seraphick Spirit in Angels as Seraphin from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has its denomination viz. from burning And the Seraphin are counted of the higher sort of Angels And as for Lamps they are in the description of the scene of the New Ierusalem Apoc. 4. Now for the Temple I say Twelfthly That the whole Vision of the Temple concerns the Christian Church and therefore that command to the Prophet chap. 43.10 11. respects especially the Thyatirian and Sardian Interval thereof that they may repent of all their sins and corruptions and so make what haste they can toward that excellent State of the Church which is prefigured by the Vision of the Temple Thirteenthly As for the Numbers 25000 5000 and 500 Ezek. chap. 45. and 666 in the Apocalypse nothing more can be signified by the former viz. those in Ezekiel than that the New Ierusalem will gratifie even the external man also and his outward senses which the Quinary number does denote namely that even the outward State of the Church then will be rich and glorious according to what is likewise prophesied of in the Apocalypse that the Kings of the Earth shall bring their honour and glory into it And it is the encouraging Prediction of Christ himself Seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all worldly good things shall be added thereto Which will most amply be fulfilled in the Millennial Empire of Christ which is that eminent Kingdom of God upon Earth And for that other Number 666 it is not set down to signifie the most complete carnal politick State but to be a certain character of the Pontifician Hierarchy the two-horned Beast who are discovered to have affected the number 25 which is the root of 666. That is the main drift of that Number though deluding their followers with pleasing Objects of sense may haply be aimed at thereby also Fourteenthly The 18000 measures which is the compass of Ezekiel's City agreeing with the Perimeter of the New Ierusalem whose Solid or Cubick measure is 12000 furlongs in the Apocalypse the true and usefull meaning of that is to assure us that Ezekiel's Vision of the Temple is a Prophecy of the State of the Church which is set out by S. Iohn in his description of the New Ierusalem that men may make no vagaries into any other fancies as the Remarker has done here And the Wisedom and Providence of God is admirable herein Besides if that Externality or Superficiality were aimed at which the Remarker would have signified the measure of the Superficies of the Cube not the Perimeter would have been set down and made use of Fifteenthly The difference of the Mosaical Laws and those of Ezekiel's Temple the greater exactness of these above the other is
will at first sight discern this So that the Tartars having a capacity of an Eastern consideration as well as of a Northern they will fit both the sixth Vial and the present passage of this Prophecy too and therefore have a privilege above the Germans Poles and Muscovites to make part of the Kings of the East which the sixth Vial mentions And by that time this comes to pass the Mahometan and Pagan Tartars may be turned Christians and being fresh Converts may have more zeal and activity in the behalf of true Christianity than either Germans Poles or Muscovites Besides it is a mistake in the Remarker that he surmises that it is the Turk that comes to his end v. 45. when it is the King of Pride that comes to his end For the Vision drives at him plainly from v. 36. to the very end of the Chapter And this last verse Luther in his Letter to Count Schlikius And he shall come to his end and none shall help him interpreteth it of the Ruine of the Pope The Letter is in Martinius Horzovinus his Collation of Huss and Luther p. 118. And how absurd it would be to suppose the contrary the Expositor has signified in his Exposition of the last verse of this eleventh Chapter which is needless here to repeat I will onely here add to what is said there that this Vision of the Scripture of Truth being for a long time ch 10. it is the more unlikely not to reach to the utter overthrow of the King of Pride and that being so notable a Providence not to skip over it Vers. 45. It 's strange to run so far as old Rome for interpreting this verse whenas it may be much better applied to new Rome 1. For Constantinople being seated in the point of a Promontory between two great Seas is much more properly said to be seated between two Seas than Rome which is at a large distance from those Seas it is seated between especially from one of them and is no more seated between them than any other part of Italy 2. Also the Title of glorious holy Mountain is much more applicable to Constantinople than to Rome because Constantine there setled when by reason of the hatred he contracted for professing Christianity he could abide no longer at Rome and also because many Emperours reigned there who were zealous against the Idolatrous corruptions of the Roman Church and many noted Councils also held there in one of which under Constantinus Copronymus the Worship of Images was condemned as Idolatrous And also because before the Ruine of the Eastern Empire they separated from Rome for its corruptions 3. And new Rome may farther be called so from what flourishing state Christianity shall be in there after the ruine of the Turkish Empire whenas old Rome shall have the same fate befall it with old Babylon according to what is pronounced against it Rev. 18. 4. Also it 's plain that in new Rome the King of the North has placed the Tabernacles of his Palace and the word Tabernacle may be perhaps used because of the following words Yet shall he come to his end viz. The Turks will not have a settled Empire there but it will be destroy'd 5. But whereas the planting the Tabernacles of his Palace being related after the tydings out of the East and the North seems to signifie what he shall doe at the end of his Empire it may notwithstanding be understood in the sense I have given For after the describing of his Conquests this planting of his Tabernacles comes as an additional Character of him Also the tydings out of the East and the North may respect not onely what shall befall him at the end of his Empire but also his almost continual conflicts during his Empire with the aforesaid Northern Countries and with the Persians 6. That the planting of his Tabernacle c. should signifie the taking of Rome by the Turk and so fulfilling what is said of casting the Beast and false Prophet into a lake of fire is not onely for the reasons aforesaid a groundless conceit but also disagrees with what the same Pen writes on Rev. 19. For there onely the Remnant of the Beast and false Prophet unconverted are made to be cast into the lake of fire c. And of the lake of fire no account is there given and better none than what is here given For it 's plain there that the casting of the Beast and false Prophet into the lake of fire and so extinguishing the Western Empire as it is there called must be by the Army of the Rider of the white Horse and consequently not by the Turks 7. Ezekiel's Prophecy of Tyre is no Type of Antichrist as is imagined and so gives no countenance to the applying the words Glorious holy Mountain as here is done Both his and Esay's Prophecy of Tyre as they are intermixt with their Prophecies of other neighbouring Nations so there 's no appearance of their having any other meaning than what those other Prophecies have viz. what concerns onely those Nations And the reasons given to the contrary in Synopsis Prophetica Book 2. ch 16. are of no moment 1. For Tyre is properly called an Harlot and said to commit fornication with all the Kings of the Earth by reason of the subtile deceits and allurements with which Merchants and Trafickers enveagle their customers 2. And Tyre being forgotten seventy years according to the days of one King viz. of one Kingdom as King is usually taken is plainly enough understood of the Babylonian Kingdom which was to continue seventy years according to Ieremy's Prophecy And Tyre being taken and ruined by Nebuchadnezzar did continue so till the end of that Kingdom 3. But the fansied Cabbalistical sense of those seventy years will soon vanish by considering first that the Christian Caesars belong to the sixth and not to the seventh Head as is shewed in the Remarks 4. And next that Antichristian Rome which is supposed to be Typified by Tyre was not in being before the Christian Emperours and therefore cannot be said to be forgotten during their Time 5. As to the description of the Prince of Tyre for which he is supposed to represent some great Priest in the Church first being threatned with the Death of the uncircumcised is no more than what is threatned to Pharaoh in Ezek. chap. 32. and is said to befall all the Princes there spoken of 6. Next he is not said to be adorned as is supposed with the high Priest's vestments but onely with pretious stones to signifie the perfection of beauty and splendour which by great wisedom he had attained unto 7. By reason whereof he is said to have been in Eden the garden of God in like sense as great Kings are called Trees of Eden in Ezekiel chap. 31.8 Then as to his being called anointed Cherub and his being upon the Mountain of God and walking in the midst of the stones of Fire they all
before the Vials has a very fit and fresh Object the fall of Babylon and the Rising of the Witnesses and worth the praising and glorifying God for his Judgments therein and it is said in the Song All Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments are made manifest Again The fall of Babylon and the Rising of the Witnesses cannot but imply a victory over the Beast and there is in this Song mention of those that had got the victory over the Beast and over his Image c. Thirdly The fall of Babylon is really the fall of Aegypt the Pontifician Power being denoted by both and therefore the Rising of the Witnesses implies a deliverance from the yoke and bondage of that Aegyptian Pharaoh and his overthrow in the Red Sea And those that sing this Song are said to stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is on the shoar of that Sea that was converted into Glass or Ice Exod. 15.8 while the Israelites passed over and to sing the Song of Moses the servant of God c. Fourthly and lastly the Song is exquisitely framed to signifie a Thanksgiving for a victory and deliverance actually obtained and therefore if we cannot be certain that it is for such an actual deliverance and victory we can be certain of the sense of nothing This I hope is invincible evidence nor can any thing be more demonstrable and may deserve better language than what the rude Remarker gives viz. That nothing is here demonstrated but onely how the weakness of arguments is supplied with strength of confidence and imagination b And now for the fall of Babylon synchronizing with the Rising of the Witnesses there wants no new proof thereof here What has been said already on this Remark proves it over and over again And if any one will consult my Answer on S. E. his Remarks upon chap. 11. and chap. 14. it will be evident unto him that what he says there signifies nothing to the invalidating this present Position So that it is a groundless boast of S. E. to make any such Reference c And for the next clause of this Remark I say the Expositor does not make chap. 14.8 to signifie the same with chap. 11.13 For this latter contains onely the fall of the great City but the former the bringing the joyfull News of the fall of the great City or of Babylon which joyfull Annunciation supposes what happens chap. 11.13 and the Annunciation of it it self follows in order of time after that Accident as well as the Acclamations in Heaven or Doxology of the Elders d And now lastly for that boyish Clause of S. E. so grave a Divine as he may seem to be from his skill in the holy tongue whereby he is able to note that Sar in Sardis may as well signifie a Remnant as a Song though it be but a childish chiming piece of wit of his thus to allude to that old Proverb As the fool thinketh so the bell clinketh yet to give him his due he shews himself a man of no small judgment in the manner of his Application he omitting the mention of Fool and so closely reserving that Title to himself In which that he has done himself all imaginable Right I shall prove in that he has so fondly substituted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Reliquiae for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Canticum in the Aetymological account of the word Sardis For his reasoning here is wonderfull weak and sorry For First Though Sar in Sardis signifies as well a Remnant as a Song yet it signifying both and the latter sense complying so well with the joyfull Annunciation of the Angel with the Acclamations in Heaven and Doxology of the Elders and with the Song of Moses the servant of God and of the Lamb which all respect the commencement of the Sardian Church the Expositor had most solid and unexceptionable reason to make choice of that sense of Sar in Sardis that comported so manifestly with the Song of Moses and those other significations of Ioy upon the fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses and the commencing of the Sardian Interval of the Church the late happy Reformation so many strings drawing and tyeing us to that determinate sense rather than any other Secondly Suppose Sar to signifie Remnant how will he rid himself of the latter part of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dis which signifies Ioy. So that this Remnant will be a Remnant of Ioy however or a joyfull Remnant Who therefore cannot but break forth into Doxologies Praises and Thanksgivings for so great a deliverance It would be a very sensless and mute Remnant if it were not so But being so there is a real agreement and harmony betwixt even this Etymon of Sardis and those Songs and Doxologies above mentioned But thirdly and lastly To make Sar in Sardis to signifie Reliquiae or a Remnant in reference to the emerging of the Sardian Church upon the Rising of the Witnesses and the fall of Babylon is an apert Repugnancy or gross Nonsense those Kingdoms and Principalities then gained by Christ out of the hands of Antichrist being the Primitiae of his Acquists by his Wars and Victories not the Reliquiae and a Pledge of greater Accessions to his Dominion to be made hereafter So that this sense of Sar which S. E. would have is utterly unapplicable to the Church of Sardis And therefore must as the Expositor would have it signifie Canticum not Reliquiae and Sardis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Song of Ioy or Ioy breaking out into Singing So that this Exception of S. E. is so very slight and sorry that the grave Divine seems to have been in some more freakish fit allured thereto merely that he might vent his boyish wit of thinking and clinking with which he seems as much tickled as a Squirrel with the Musick she makes in her Wire-Cage with Bells hanging over it Pag. 283. a Whereas it 's said here that as Mr. Mede has placed the Vials onely the seventh followeth the sixth Trumpet he hath placed all of them within the sixth Trumpet b For the Bohemian War on the suffering of Iohn Huss was many years after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks at which the sixth Trumpet must commence if not sooner c So that though onely the seventh Vial follows the expiring of the sixth Trumpet yet all of them follow the commencement of it d And whereas it s argued that all the seven Vials must be after the seventh Trumpet because they are called the seven last plagues e it 's a strange crippling the sense of the words to make them serve the end designed But as it 's said in Remarks they are most properly called the last plagues in respect of the precedent plagues of the Opened book viz. those signified by the Monitions of the two precedent Angels chap. 14. and the plagues the Witnesses smote the Earth with chap. 11. yet also with
respect to the Trumpets But it 's enough to denominate them the last Plagues if they be the last Series of Plagues though there be a former Series of Plagues unexpired when they began Ans. This Remark abounds with mistakes For First a Mr. Mede has not placed all the Vials within the sixth Trumpet as appears by all the printed Schemes of his Synchronisms that I have met with in which the seventh Vial is placed within the seventh Trumpet And besides he says expresly in his little Treatise of Synchronisms Part 2. Synchron 3. Phiala septima quae consummationis phiala est concurret cum initio Tubae septimae b Secondly He makes the Bohemian War on the suffering of Iohn Huss to be many years after the taking of Constantinople Whenas the taking of Constantinople by Sultan Muhamed was in the year 1453. but the Bellum Hussiticum in the year 1420 above thirty years before But supposing it was as many years after how does this prove that Mr. Mede places all the Vials within the sixth Trumpet He indeed makes the Hussites concerned in the first Vial but then the sooner the Bellum Hussiticum began it were the more hopefull the Vials would end within the sixth Trumpet but the arguing from the later beginning of that War I must confess passeth my reach to discern what the force of the reasoning is and the other way would be very little to the purpose c Thirdly He seems plainly to contradict himself in placing all the seven Vials within the sixth Trumpet before and now letting the seventh Vial commence after the expiring of the sixth Trumpet d Fourthly Another gross mistake of the Remarker is in that he makes the Expositor to argue for the placing of all the seven Vials after the seventh Trumpet whenas he argues onely for the placing them after the sixth For after the seventh is after the end of the World But his arguing for the placing them after the sixth Trumpet is very firm and strong Because all seven of them are called the seven last plagues therefore not one of them is to begin and expire before any of the six Trumpet-plagues or the second Wo-Trumpet or Plague-Trumpet expire else that Vial that did so would not be one of the last plagues this second Plague-Trumpet suppose being later than it or expiring later than it e And this is no crippling the sense of last but maintaining the proper sense thereof and indeed the onely sense For how can that be said in succession to be the last that has a later that outlasts it And that the seven last plagues respect the six first plagues and consequently the first and second Wo-Trumpet or Plague-Trumpets properly so called the Remarker himself cannot deny And the Plagues of the six Trumpets are the very Plagues that the Witnesses are said to smite the Earth withall And it is wonderfully weak and freakish to run to the Vision in chap. 14. for a plague or two in respect of which the Vials may be called the seven last plagues viz. to those of the two precedent Angels there Whenas the former of them is no Plague-Angel that is no Inflicter of Plagues but a Preacher of pure Worship and an advertizer of the approaching judgments of God against Idolaters and yet of no other than such as are comprized within the six first Trumpets the fifth and sixth particularly And the second a Declarer of that actual judgment befallen Babylon at the close of the sixth Trumpet And then comes the third Angel whose voice according to the Remarker's own confession is onely a Premonition in general touching all the seven Vial-plagues Wherefore it is not a Plague it self and no more were the Advertisements of the other two Angels But I have really proved it to be a glance at the Plague of the fourth Vial and that after the fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses which things are nothing to the tooth of S. E. the Remarker but exceeding true And yet here I would have the Remarker to observe how unawares he has stumbled upon Truth in making the third Angel a Premonitor of the seven last plagues viz. the Vial-plagues and them to be last in respect of the plagues the first and second Angel give notice of which undoubtedly are the plagues comprized within the Intervals of the first and second Wo-Trumpets or Plague-Trumpets properly so called The Vial-plagues I say are according to him the last plagues in respect of the Plagues of those two Trumpets which is the very thing I contend for Pag. 285. There 's a stronger Objection in Remarks against the conceit of making the three days and an half of the Witnesses lying dead signifie the same with three times and an half than the second here mentioned viz. That the dwellers on Earth are said to rejoice over them when they are slain because they tormented them viz. by their prophesying and smiting the Earth c. but they prophesied 1260 days and during that time smote the Earth with the plagues Therefore this slaying of them are rejoycing thereat for putting an end thereby to those Torments must be after the 1260 days Ans. The Expositor's second Objection is which he answers in that page That if the three days and an half be the same with the three times and an half which is the same with the 1260 days or 42 months which are but various expressions of the three times and an half then the Witnesses will be conceived to speak and prophesie while they lye dead But now this stronger Objection of the Remarker as he imagines it which yet is not a jot stronger than the other is this That the dwellers on the Earth are said to rejoice over the Witnesses when they are slain because they tormented them by their prophesying and smiting the Earth but they prophesied 1260 days and during that time smote the Earth with the plagues Therefore this slaying of them and rejoicing thereat for putting an end thereby to those torments must be after the 1260 days This is a mighty argument with the Remarker But his confidence therein ariseth out of his ignorance of the nature of a Prophetick Henopoeia which exhibits things done or suffered at several times and repeatedly under one shew or at once as if it were one continued Action or Suffering The repeated therefore killing of the Witnesses whether naturally or politically as occasion was given at several times is expressed by one killing of them The tormenting of the dwellers on Earth by the Witnesses prophesying at several times is represented as one continued prophesying And the Rejoicing of the dwellers upon Earth for their being rid of the Torments the vexatious prophesying of these Witnesses put them to being repeated as oft as the killing of the Witnesses was at which they found themselves at ease toties quoties is yet exhibited under the shew of one Rejoicing This is most certainly the nature of a Prophetick Henopoeia to represent things thus
of Hell kindled by the Devil himself the very Mystery of Iniquity and depth of Satan whereby he subtilly endeavours to extinguish all sincere zeal for the Indispensables of Christianity by inflaming mens spirits in the behalf of what makes so slenderly to the purpose of that true and undefiled Religion before God by how much more I say that instead of this false and Hypocritical zeal a zeal that onely serves to excuse their consciences from the plain and undoubted duties of a Christian they shall grow seriously warm in the behalf of the known intelligible and indispensable precepts of life given by the Prophets of old and ratified by Christ and his Apostles that is to say by how much more just temperate and prudent by how much more meek self-denying and charitable by how much more faithfull and friendly they are one to another by how much more sincerely pious towards God and heartily loyal and tenderly respectfull towards his Vicegerents here on Earth and obedient to those that are put in autority under them whether in Church or State so that it become the genuine Character of a Protestant or Reformed Christian to be inviolably loyal to his Prince and cheerfully morigerous to all his lawfull commands by whatever Ministers of his Power they be enjoined I say by how much more this face of things shall appear by those degrees and not by the numbering of the 1260 days of the mournfull Prophesying of the Witnesses will it best be discerned how near or how far off the Ruine of Antichrist or the farther amplification of the Kingdom of Christ is But for people without preparing themselves for so signal a Blessing to sit counting upon their fingers ends how many years it is to the expiration of those 1260 Prophetick days in expectation of some strange change of things which days yet are expired above 30 years ago what a freak is this What a Fanatick dotage to imagine that yet to come which is already past and conceit in the mean time that God will however they behave themselves bring what they would have to pass before the expiration of their miscounted years not improving what is really already past to those laudable advantages Providence intended it For assuredly Divine Providence never freed us from the slavery of Rome to serve our own lusts or to serve Him according to our own self-chosen ways or humours but to be zealous and faithfull in the indispensable points of his service and worship and as to indifferent circumstances thereof to be concluded by the appointment of our lawfull Superiours set over us by Him Wherefore in very faithfulness to the Publick and to the Reformed Churches I have used this care and diligence to undeceive them and to set before them more true measures to calculate the approach of the fall of Antichrist by and the most speedy method of accelerating it that is By laying aside all humours and animosities and all heats and scrupulosities about smaller things and by endeavouring earnestly and sincerely in mortifying our own carnal minds to find and feel the true rellish of the plain and indispensable Duties of Christianity whether towards God towards his Vicegerents here on Earth or towards one another and so by the Renovation of our Souls into the living Image of our Lord Jesus Christ to become real Members of his body and faithfull Subjects of his Kingdom This is the onely true Method of the farther ruining the Kingdom of Antichrist and the advancing the Kingdom of Christ. And it must be a people of this Philadelphian character indigitated by those few Names in Sardis by whom the affairs of Reformed Christendom or the true Kingdom of Christ is likely to prosper Wherefore as many as have any good will towards Sion let them leave counting of time on their fingers ends and doting on an expected Expiration of the 1260 days as if it were yet to come whenas it is already past and lay their hand on that work above described in virtue whereof the desire of all Nations will come indeed in a more illustrious manner than ever and Christ really will consume with the spirit of his mouth that man of sin and Son of perdition and destroy him with the brightness of his appearing and upon his ruines raise his glorious Millennial Empire on Earth Whenas the Methods of hot Enthusiasts instead of this expected Happiness are more likely to bring an Hell upon Earth and unspeakable disorder and confusion Which that it may never be I have used this faithfulness and open freeness of speech which I have being assured no good Christian will ever tax me for it For I seek nothing of my own in this but to serve the true Interest of the Kingdom of Christ as every good Christian is bound to doe APPENDICVLA APOCALYPTICA OR A Brief CONFUTATION OF Mr. SAMVEL CLARK His Pretences for the Following of Mr. IAMES DVRHAM Rather than Mr. IOSEPH MEDE IN HIS Explication of the Seals and Trumpets and of the Inner and Outer Court of the Temple IN HIS ANNOTATIONS UPON THE APOCALYPSE Levit. XIX 19. Thou shalt not sow thy Field with mingled seed neither shall a Garment of Linen and Woollen come upon thee LONDON Printed by M. F. for Walter Kettilby 1684. APPENDICVLA APOCALYPTICA IT was not many days after I had sent the foregoing Appendage to the Printer when I was advertized by a friend touching Mr. Clark's Annotations on the whole New Testament and how particularly in his Preface to those on the Revelation Dr. More was concerned and his Exposition in some passages perstringed I had therefore the curiosity to send to London for the Book and having got it perused the said Preface and not so onely but in a cursory manner read over his Annotations In which where he follows his two safest Guides Mr. Mede and the Doctour to give him his due he has done well and usefully but in adjoining that third Party so heterogeneous to the other two I leave it to his own consideration whether he has not transgressed the mystical meaning of those Mosaical Precepts Levit. 19.19 and Deut. 22.10 Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed neither shalt thou plow with an Oxe and an Ass together But this onely in general touching his Annotations on the Apocalypse It is his Preface wherein I am concerned in the behalf of the Doctour whom as I have defended so stoutly against the Pretences of the Remarker that those main Usefulnesses of his Exposition might not be defeated or eluded so the like occasion again being given I shall endeavour to acquit my self with like success here in the mean time not at all grudging the Annotatour the praise of what is really commendable in him though otherwise I am like enough to be free in discovering wherein he is faulty And truly I think he is highly to be commended that he had that due value for the Apocalypse the most admirable Monument of Divine Providence and
even those that are poured on the Sun into the Air or on the River Euphrates they all touch the concern of the Beast that rose out of the Earth as you may see by the Exposition of the Vision And the first Vial poured on the Earth in this sense reacheth them immediately it inflicting so noysome and grievous a sore on those that are the marked slaves of the two-horned Beast especially their Interest being so much concerned in the fall of Babylon and the Rising of the Witnesses Wherefore that Cup of Intoxication and Dementation through Envy Malice Rage and Fury as it is said ch 11. v. 18. upon the Rising of the Witnesses and Doxology of the Elders And the Nations were angry which answers to the effect of the effusion of this first Vial the noysome sore on the marked slaves of the Beast that Cup I say is really the pouring forth of this first Vial which is a grievous plague indeed Impedit ira animum And Quos Iupiter vult perdere eosdem dementat prius So that by the Remarker's leave these are no sorry conceits nor the Expositor's private opinion but the opinion of worthy Interpreters before him b But the Remarker's is a groundless conceit to apply that which belongs to the times preceding the Rising of the Witnesses to the Vials which come after their Rising as is most plain to them that do not wilfully wink against the Truth Wherefore the War of the Hussites c. is such a business as the Albigensian War and if justifiable to be referred to the War betwixt the Beast and the Saints ch 13. v. 7. c Nor has the Remarker any evasion out of this evidence of truth but by an unworthy vilifying of the Protestant Reformation which undoubtedly was the Rising of the Witnesses and most certainly was a very illustrious Atchievement of Providence and quite wiped away that foul face of things which Custome and Law had established before and is described in the Idea of Antichristianism and therefore it is most wretched Ingratitude to undervalue so great a Bounty of the Divine Majesty towards his servants like the murmuring of the Israelites against Moses and Aaron by whose conduct they were delivered from the bondage and Tyranny of Pharaoh Nor was the Pope's Supremacy onely rejected and some gross corruptions here in the Church of England suppose reformed but all gross corruptions nor were there any left that can be a just cause of Separation from our Church But the cavil now forsooth must be because they retain still Political Government for Popish leaven in matters of Religion which is reformed to the pattern of the Times that were symmetral is plainly outed from our Church and continue in the same worldly state and station the terms for Political Government as if all Political Laws and Orders though they were made and managed for the support of the Kingdom of God and the purity of his Worship were worldly How freakish is this But how outragious to make the Reformed Churches merely for this cause to continue Members of the Beast This is such a wild Imagination that it is more becoming those Dreamers St. Iude describes that despise dominion and speak evil of dignities than any sober Christian d And lastly as I remember I noted before the Spirit of life entring into the Witnesses has not a Spiritual sense but Political And the Genius of Prophetick Iconisms and of the Apocalyptick Prophecies is rather to adumbrate the External and visible state of the Church than the Internal There is onely one thing remaining in this Remark at the beginning that I may seem to have slipt over viz. That the effect of the first Vial namely that rankorous sore does not seem to be imputed to the effusion of the Vial but to the Rising of the Witnesses But I answer that it is sufficient that this sore rages in the time of the Vial-Angel For here are seven distinct Times allotted to the seven Vial-Angels as there are seven distinct times allotted to the seven Trumpet-Angels and what happens in the said allotted times is attributed to the Angel to whom the time is alloted whether the Angel contribute any thing to it or no. Nor does any one imagine that the Locusts and Euphratean Horse-men were blown out of the fifth and sixth Angels Trumpets but that those things happened under the times allotted to them And the Rider of the red Horse under the second Seal he is said to take peace from the Earth merely because in his time there were such killing and slaying one another And it is something Idiotical to think otherwise of these things But supposing there must be some real activity in this first Vial-Angel for the inflicting this angry Aegyptian boil there is not the least absurdity in allowing it viz. 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 counsel by this distemper This I hope will take away all scruple touching this first Vial. Vers. 3. The second Vial is made to synchronize and in substance to be the same with the first the first being supposed to be the envious raging at the Reformation by the enemies of it and the second the Reformation it self in rejecting the Pope's Autority c. Ans. This second Remark is a mere calumny For the first Vial does not synchronize with the second because the first viz. that exulcerated Rage of the marked slaves of the Beast began presently upon the Rising of the Witnesses while the Reformation was but fresh young and tender and not so thoroughly established but was capable of quick Reciprocations of affairs as it happened here for example in England Queen Mary so suddenly succeeding King Edward But after this there was a more full settlement and firm establishment of the state of the Risen Witnesses so that through many Provinces Principalities and Kingdoms which are so many Seas the Pontifician party was hopeless and helpless those Seas becoming by the effusion of the second Vial as the bloud of a dead man For they were all dead to the Emissary fisher-men of the pretended successour of St. Peter nor a live Fish to be taken for their game The perfect Revulsion of these great Parts of the Pontifician Iurisdiction from those that his power still did actuate and enliven and the hindering them from reuniting for a due time till they were turned into the congealed bloud as it were of a dead man this was the effusion of the second Vial and plainly distinct from the first and such as to which the first might well contribute For the marked slaves of the Beast being dementated with wrath would necessarily doe such things as would excite the other party to use all possible care and