and 214 daies And is called the greatest and total Conjunction Which comes to pass when ♄ and ♃ i.e. Saturn and Jupiter having wandred over all the Triplicities return to the same Goal or bound from whence they first set forth And although upon all these 3 modes of Conjunctions of the supream Planets ♄ and ♃ Saturn and Jupiter alwaies some signal Changes in the world have followed yet notwithstanding they alwaies have by far been of the greatest moment which have followed the Great Conjunctions or Congressures of the third way or mode For example ☜ From the Fall of Adam there have been 7 of these Great Conjunctions Or if with Kepler and other the most famous Astrologers we may annumerate also the First in the very beginning of the world then from that time to our age are numbred 8 of that sort of Conjunctions For the first is numbered in the time of Adam upon which followed the Fall of all Mankind The second in the time of Enoch which was received with Tyranny Robberies building of Fortifications and walled Townes 3. In Noahs time which was entertained by the Deluge of waters whereby transgressors were blotted out from the face of the earth 4. In the life of Moses Which was welcomed in by the Israelites going out of Egypt the promulgation of the Law and the rise of the Commonwealth of Israel in Canaan The fifth in the daies of Isaiah upon which followed 1. The transportation of the 10 Tribes of Israel into the Land of Assyria who to this day have not returned and anon after that of the two Tribes Judah and Benjamin from whence nevertheless after 70 years Captivity they did return 6. From the time of Christ which was accompanied and followed by the rise of the Roman Empire and the total destruction of the Israelitish Commonwealth 7. From the Age of Charles the Great upon which followed the Division of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western as also the Invasion of the Turk into the land of Promise and that Reformation sprung up in the Church whereby the Kingdom of the Apocalyptical Beast began to be obscured These things therefore being thus weighed N.B. what notable Changes these 7 former Conjunctions have brought into the world when nevertheless they consisted but of the concurse only of two or three Planets how can it be otherwise judged but that necessarily a greater change is portended under the eighth great Conjunction of them which happened in the year of Christ 1603. in Sagitarius under which we yet travel in pain and sob And so much the rather that this * By This I suppose he means this Decemb. ◠11 Anno of Chr. 166◠of which he treats and by That he means that in 1603. concurrence of all the Planets in the same fiery Sign of Sagitarius followed that in so short a time For my part those thoughts I confess spring up within me That even as anciently in the Feasts of Israel and their great Solemnities which lasted eight daies it was cautioned that the last day was alwaies to be reputed for the greatest day with which the Feast was concluded Levit. 23.36 John 7.37 So also do I judge in this matter that of all these 8 great Conjunctions this last is to be accompted for the greatest After which there is nothing more certain to follow than the Period of Esaus time and the destruction of the Beasts Dominion and false Prophet That now at last the time of Jacob may succeed and the Kingdom of JESUS CHRIST and of his Saints may be established on Earth For if some greater thing is hence to be expected than ever any Conjunction afore produced what other thing can this be than the Restitution of that Kingdom so long promised and desired and which the Apostles themselves expected by Christ to be erected Acts 1.5 and the final ruine of the Kingdomes of unrighteousness in this world that another world may succeed whose Glory may be meet for God only and to him ascribed Upon the third great Conjunction aforesaid the former world perished and another came forth as if called up from the dead At the fourth Conjunction the Lord chose to himself one only Nation out of all the peoples that had in this new world corrupted themselves which he brought out of the house of Egyptian bondage and brought them into a certain Land where he himself would govern them At the Fifth Conjunction the Kingdom of Israel for the sins of that people was cleft and parted into two Kingdoms of which one was transported into Assyria not returning to this day the other into Babylon for a little time Upon the Sixth Conjunction followed the dispersion of them also which returned from Babylon which continues to this day throughout the Provinces of the Roman Empire Upon the Seventh Conjunction this very last Monarchy of the Romans underwent the same Lot as the Kingdom of Israel suffered For as this was first divided and afterwards one part of it after another was torn and carried away So this last Monarchy of the Roman Empire was first divided into Eastern and Western the first whereof the Turks now long since have invaded and possessed And what now I pray can remain to be expected upon this 8th Conjunction but that the remnant-part of the Roman Empire have the same fate as ancient Jerusalem had Truly if we consult the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles that grand and general mutation which we whether Jews or Christians do expect and is to be expected will appear to be no other than that in the room of the present Kingdoms of the world the God of Heaven will set up a Kingdom N.B. which shall dissipate all other Kingdomes Dan. 2.44 And that terrible Beast of Daniel to wit the fourth Monarchy of the world which hath troden underfoot broken and crummed the whole Earth into morsels and that little and blasphemous horn shall likewise at length being brought to Judgment be deprived of their Dominion and utterly destroyed So that at last the Kingdom and the Power and the greatness of the Kingdom which is under the whole Heaven is given to the holy people of the Most High c. Dan. 7.26 27. To wit this is that change which we Christians with ourstretched neck do expect that shortly it shall comes to pass that the scattering of the holy people shall have an end Dan. 12.7 that ere long the Redeemer comes out of Sion who shall take away infidelity from Jacob Rom. 11.26 And that voice of that strong Angel who by his gloriousness shall brighten the whole earth shall ring over the whole world saying Babylon the great is fallen is fallen and is become the habitation of Devils and the hold of every foul Spirit and the Cage of every unclean and hareful Bird. Rev. 18.1 2. What I say is it that we Christians since once the Kingdom of the Beast hath been obscured do so anxiously desire and in all
forth that other world And that these labours and travels shall mutually follow swiftly one another Wherefore unless we will be prevented and destroyed by the unlook'd for coming of the Lord N.B. it will not behoove us to defer our repentance and reconciliation unto the last signes but ought to lay to heart those former signes which have been shewed Esdr ch 5. and that by so much the more diligently in that some of those last begin to appear But perhaps some man will say Obj. That Book of Esdras is Apechrypha and therefore deserves no credit Jerom himself rejecting it as fabulous I answer Answ Of the or dit to be given to the 4th Book of Esdras The Reasons which Jerome brings for the confirmation of his opinion are solidly confuted by M. Abraham Bartolus in his Preface to Esdras his Eagle as before that by Theodorus Bibliander a Tigurin Divine producing Demonstrations out of Joseph Scaliger and other Authors sufficiently valid deservedly to gain credit to this Book But suppose that this Book ought to be more suspected go to let us see nevertheless what Signes the Lord Jesus Christ himself and his Apostles lay before us by which concerning the end of this present world and the coming of Christ to set up his Kingdom on earth sure Prognosticks may be had which if they will agree with the Prophesie of Esdras what hinders but that this Prophesie may find belief Let us therefore hear what answer our Saviour gave to his Disciples when coming to him asked the signes of his coming and of the end of the world In those daies Mark 13. or straight after the tribâ—lation of those daies Mat. 24.29 there shall be signes in the Sun and the Moon and the Stars Luke 21.25 Behold there the signes in Heaven Now if thou dost desire to know what signes of the Coming of Christ and the end of the world shall be on earth behold the Lord presently subjoyneth in that cited place of Luke chap 21. v. 25 26 27 18. upon the earth distress of Nations with perplexity the Sea and the waves roaring ment hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth for the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a Cloud with power and great Glory And when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your Redemption draweth nigh Behold here a Prophesie above all exception and words of so certain and undoubted truth that heaven and earth shall sooner pass away than one title of them But what other thing doth this Prophesie sound forth than what we heard but now of the signes both in heaven and earth out of Esdras viz. In heaven in respect of the Sun Moon and Stars In earth by reason of the terrible things by which the minds of men shall be greatly distressed and made dubious And although the Prophesie of Esdras may seem in some particulars somewhat to differ from Christs predictions yet evidently it appears that on both sides nothing else is intended then the restitution of the Jews and by consequence that visitation of the Gentiles or that fiery Judgment on all peoples who have oppressed the Elect. Not that only the Jews are to be accompted those Elect which from the four winds from the four corners of the world are to be recollected and gathered together No by no means For under that word are comprehended all pious and sincere Christians of what Nation or rank soever viz. who being no less then the Jews as dispersed sheep under the oppression of false Christians and other Nations do lie troden underfoot and are deservedly to be annumerated to the truly converted Jews and genuine Children of Abraham But that we take here the word Elect as more specially belonging to the Jews the reason is this Because when our Lord Jesus Christ uttered these words he had only Jews standing before him to whom he foretold those things which properly appertained to their Redemption by which they might acknowledge that the Kingdom of God which Dan. 7.26 27. was promised to him was now at hand Luke 21.31 Unto them therefore saith the Lord When all these things shall begin to come to pass to wit these signs in heaven and earth then look up and lift up your heads and hearts He doth not say when ye shall see all these things fulfilled for that would be too late then to prepare for Redemption but when ye shall see these things begin then lift up your selves and elevate your selves above all earthly things for your redemption is near Now Candid Reader do thou judge whether by those things which we have before minded concerning all those signeâ— and those we see done in our Age in Heaven and Earth and which we still expect according to the Lords Prophesie it may not justly be concluded That even now the Redemption of the Jews and consequently the coming of Christ to his Kingdom 2 Tim. 4.1 and the judgement by fire upon the world of uâ—godly 2 Pet. 3.7 draws nigh Neve theless for the greater confirmation of the thing and that we may manifest that those things which we have minded concerning the Restitution of the Jews and the end of this last Monarchy of the world are not meer dictates of the Stars or a simple single Prognostication formed by the present Conjunction but the matters born upon strong and undoubted foundations Come on let us hear also what the Apostles have delivered concerning this thing and whether the signes which they have given are now past or no and what thence may be concluded And first let us see what Peter handling of the last times and that fiery judgement wherewith the world of the ungodly shall be burnt hath left us in writing In the last daies shall come scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asteep all things continue as they were fro mthe beginning of the Creation 2 Pet. 3.3 4. Note here a SIGN That in the last daies i. e. neer the end of these daies when now the coming of Christ shall be at hand shall discover it self To wit that then scoffers shall come ☜ who walking after their own lusts will know nothing of this coming of Christ And enquire I pray diligently and make experience what answer thou shalt bring back when once by walking over the streets of the great City Rev. 11.8 thou shalt talk with men or with the Doctors and Ductors the Leaders of the people as well among Christians as others concerning the approâ—ching of the time wherein Christ will return on earth to destroy the wicked and to set up his Kingdom of righteousness thou shalt heat whether their own mouth will not betray them that they altogether speak the self same thing which is here premonished concerning the scoffers of the
last daies viz. All things so continue as they were from the Creation That which now happens the same likewise hath formerly happened and therefore to conclude hence any certainty are toys and phantasms of mans own imagination Which being so that we are now fallen into those times when among all peoples especially Christians who in times past were very hasty in their hope of setting up the Kingdom of Christ in all Churches Cloysters and Houses all places are full of Scoffers why do we any longer doubt but that now those daies are near in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise the Elements shall melt with fervent heat to destroy the ungodly with all their works that there may succeed in the room thereof a new Heaven and a new Earth in which may dwell righteousness 2 Pet. 3.13 Wherefore it ought not to seem a wonder to any man that we so diligently attend to these Signes of his coming and do so interpret them But perhaps some body will say Obj. Peter doth not here speak of those things which are aforementioned viz. concerning the Conversion of the Jews and the total destruction of the 4th Monarchy and the setting up of the Kingdom of Christ on earth but of the time wherein the Heavens shall pass away and the Elements shall be dissolved i.e. of the end of the world Answ We answer what Peter affirmes touching the Heavens Earth and Elements are not properly to be understood according to the Letter as the collation of Scriptures doth shew For Christ will not by his coming destroy the works of his Father Heaven and Earth but the works of the ungodly and whatsoever curse for mans sake came upon Heaven and Earth all this he will burn up with fire and utterly purge out as a prudent Goldsmith that labours to burn not the Gold and Silver but the Dross and Dregs which adhere to the Gold and Silver But as for the substance it self of heaven earth all that God hath created all those things shall not be burnt by the coming of Christ but shall only be renewed and purged that where before unrighteousness took place now righteousness there dwelleth And where before the violent possessed the Kingdoms of the world there now the meek shall inherit Those heavens which the ungodly feign to themselves as their hope and expectation shall perish and those Elements or Rudiments of divine worship even as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * that is Rudiments is taken in this sense wherein some foolishly stick all their life time shall be dissolved and burnt yea the works of all men shall be consumed that a new heaven and a new earth may come forth wherein may be beheld by all men all things in the glory of their perfection as a pure workmanship of God the honour whereof may redound to him himself as the Kingdom and City of God the house and habitation of God and men and a certain manifestation of the Righteousness Majesty and Love of God c. And if indeed all these things ought to be so and if it be true that with Peter according to the promise maâ—e Isa 65. we expect a now Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwels righteousness 2 Pet. 3.13 it ought not to seem strange to us if before that be done a fiery Judgment preceds on earth to which these Signes in Heaven and earth have relation A judgment I say to deliver both Jews and Christians hitherto oppressed and to destroy all the destroyers and to restore all things on earth and to destroy them that have destroyed the earth Rev. 11.18 Behold now we see what signes the Ap. Peter hath set touching the coming of the Lord and how they have been fulfilled long since in an high degree so that in regard thereof nothing now remaines to be expected but the thing it self signified by those signes Now let us see moreover what the Ap. Paul that chosen vessel discourseth concerning the last times and how he limbs out in lively colours the men that shall live in that time They shall be saith he 2 Tim. 3.2 Lovers of their own selves covetous boastâ—rs proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthank ful unholy without naâ—ural affection truce breakers false accusers incontiâ—ent fierce desp sers of them that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof What seemeth to thee Reader Are our times described or is it longer yet to be expected till this kind of men come upon the Stage If thou wilt acknowledge that we are indeed devolved upon or into those times wherein every where men are found to be Lovers of their own selves Covetous Boasters Proud c. And that they also who carry a form of Godliness and would be reputed for godly do possess more of its external form than of the internal truth of it denying the very power of Godliness which consisteth in spirit and truth what wonder if we accompt the aforesaid signes in Heaven for fore Messengers and fore-runners of the consummation of those daies wherein the madness of all those men shall be made manifest to all men 2 Tim. 3.9 that some when ' at length true right cousness love of God and the sincere power of Godliness may come in their room But that it may more clearly appear that those things which we have mentioned concerning the restitution of the Jews and the end of the last Monarchy and have by this Conjunction of the Princely or chief Stars inferred that they are at the door are not meer Astrological Prognosticks but matters founded in the Word of God Let us go also to the Apostle John that beloved Apostle who was wont to lie in Christs bosom and see what he saith of this matter in the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ which Christ himself by his Angel dictated to him and commanded him to write it to the Churches 1. It is there read that the time shall come wherein the Saints of God shall be made Kings and Priests to God that as Kings they may reign on earth ch 1. v. 6. ch 5. v. 10. which thing because it cannot be done without the Jews nor before the Kingdom of the Beast and of the false Prophet be overthrown it necessarily followes that if ever that time ought to come to pass wherein the Saints shall reign on earth those former things ought first to precede or go before and if they now precede and we are come to these last times the consequence is necessary that thing to be at the door 2. In Chap. 11. of this Book of Revel which is as a kind of Compendium of the whole History of the Church or Temple of God beginning from the treading of it underfoot on earth and ending in the opening of it in heaven we read that the treading of the holy City underfoot the prophesying of the two Witnesses
in Sackcloath and Ashes and the lying of their dead Bodies in the streets of the great City are limited to certain periods of Moneths Daies and Times Which being run out the end of the world will not as yet follow but only the restauration of the holy City trampled the raising of the two Witnesses to life and that in the sight of their enemies And after these things will follow at length that great Earthquake whereby the tenth part of the City shall fall and 7 Companies of men shall be slain as also the third we and the last Trumpet Sufficiently clear therefore it appeareth to us who already have seen and do see the holy City of the Church trampled and the bodies of the Witnesses lie in the streets of the said City voyd of life that nothing necessarily is more nearly to be expected than that the fulness of the Gentiles come in and all Israel witness the Ap. Rom. 11.25 be saved and Jerusalem rise again from her trampling Luke 21.24 and shake off her dust and be cloathed with her Glory Isa 52.2 but that great City spiritually called Sodom and Egypt utterly to fall And so much the rather because now all the most excellent Chronologers and Searchers of times and who ever bestowed their labour on the computation of these 42 Moneths the 1260 daies or of the time and times and half a time are become like a woman great with child which having passed the time of her reckoning doth necessarily expect every hour the paines and labours of travel And seeing that the mean while those signes in Heaven and Earth break forth and offer themselves to open view who cannot conceive that the next change to follow as the expected birth of which all the Prophets and Apostles have prophesied is now before the door and we are now duly warned that we make our selves ready 3. We read in the 16th Chap. of Revelation Of the 7 Vials of the 7 Vials of the wrath of God to be poured out upon the earth before any man can enter into the Temple of the divine Glory ch 15.8 Surely 5 of these Vials now long since have been poured out The 1. by and by after the times of the Apostles producing that evil and malignant Uscer of false Brethren and rapacious Wolves who by degrees brake forth and brought upon the Church many troubles and griefs Rev. 16.2 The 2d. Vial was in the time of Constantine the Great about 300 years after the Birth of Christ when the body of the Church which formerly had been a separated thing from the world as earth from Sea is now again mixt with the people of the world as the earth which is again swallowed up of the Sea For then this Sea by the pouring out of the 2d Vial is made as the bloud of a dead man and every soul which lived in that Sea died by that plague ch 16.3 The 3d Vial was poured out about the 600 year after Christs Birth in the time of Boniface the 3. who was by the Emperour Phocas declared Head of the universal Church For then the Rivers and Fountains of waters were turned into bloud i. e. those spiritual Orders of Eremites Moncks and the like who from the time of Constantine the Great had kept themselves separated from the Sea of the peoples they also now began to be conformed to this Head of the Church and to be made partakers of this predominion which the Pope arrogated to himself and of all violence upon the consciences of men Because therefore they also powred out the Bloud of the Saints and Prophets therefore the most righteous God gave them bloud to drink bloud I say in comparison that whereas they were before refreshed with living waters now they drink meer bloud as of a dead man in whom there was no life or power The 4th Vial was poured out about the year after Christs birth 1100 or 1200 and continued to the time of Reformation when the wrath of God was poured out upon the Sun i.e. the Sacred Scriptures that only light which had remained after the loss of those aforesaid Saints And deservedly is the light of the Scripture compared to the Sun because as the Sun is set in the Firmament that it may cistinguish between day and night times of daies and years so the S. Scripture consisting of a sure word of Prophesie is given to that end that it may teach us prudently to discern between light and darkness between the various dispensations of God Moreover that which Syrach chap. 42.16 speaks concerning the Sun that it doth illustrate all things and the work thereof is full of the Glory of God the same may we affirm concerning the S. Scripture that it is a light that illustrates all things and is a work full of the glory of God For never any eminent thing happened nor doth yet happen or ever shall come to pass but that S. Script foresaw it and foretold it so as if any man would have eyes deeply to view his work without all doubt he might see it full of the glory of God Moreover as there is in the Sun heat besides light from which none can hide himself Psal 19.7 which heat warmeth refresheth and enliveneth this man but torments burnes and kils another man So in the S. Script besides that light of discerning there is heat or a certain vital power from which no man can hide himself and by which some men are comforted refreshed and quickned others are tormented burned and slain And when this is done viz. that men are not warmed and refreshed by the use of the S. Scripture but are burnt and incensed that thing no otherwise comes to pass then from their evil disposition and the pouring out of this Vial of the wrath of God upon them whereby men by occasion of the Scriptures wax hot one against another and with an inordinate zeal as with fire devour one another as the Histories of those times do abundantly witness The 5th Vial may be said â—â— be poured out about the year 1520 when the Rom. Empire to wit the Throne of the Beast began signally to be obscured from whence there came much affliction upon the Favourers and Adorers of the Beast so as they bit their tongues for grief and which is more by meanes of their grief and malignant ulcers they blasphemed God The obscuring of this Kingdom consisted 1. In that about that time very many Cities and Provinces yea Kingdomes revolted from the yoke of the Roman Religion Nor was this only so but 2. This obscuring consisted also in many tumults of war which were raised by this change of Religion Which obscuring of that Kingdom at last came to that that now in the year 1619 by meanes of the Bohemian war the Axe began to be laid to the very root of that bestial Throne which Throne although it continue to this day yet is not the darkning past but out of all doubt will be augmented
our Prayers petition for than that at length the sixth Vial also may be poured out upon the River EUPHRATES that the way for the Kings that are to come from the East may be prepared Rev. 16.12 to wit for the KINGS of which Baruch speaks ch 5. v. 5. Arise O Jerusalem and stand on high and look towards the East and behold thy Children gathered from the west unto the east by the word of the holy One rejoycing in the remembrance of God For they departed from thee on foot and were led away of their enemies But God bringeth them unto thee exalted with Glory as children of the Kingdom And after these things what else do we expect but that the Kings of the Earth and all their hosts be by those impure Spirits Rev. 16.13 like to Frogs excited and gathered together to the war of that great day of God Almighty Rev. 16.4 Isa 13. in which God shall arise and go down into the valley of Jehosaphat and there shall judge the people and that Nation which hath hitherto so miserably broken and troden underfoot the dispersed sheep of Israel Joel 3.2 12. and that he may utterly and for ever blot our and extirpate Babylon that great City the Mother of the Fornications of the Earth that terrible and blasphemous Beast and False-Prophet Rev. 18 19. Behold that concerning these Changes not only the old Prophets but the Lord himself JESUS CHRIST and his Apostles do witness And whoever is not blind but a little exercised in the S. Script and experience of former Ages and this present it will be easie for him to collect that now all these things necessarily are at hand by and by to be expected Therefore it ought to seem a wonder to no man that these Celestial Signes which necessarily fortel the Tidings of some grand and eminent universal change are referred or applyed by us to this matter Yet that it may more clearly appear that this present Conjunction of all the Planets is with great equity to be so interpreted by us go to let us turn our selves to the Planets themselves and let us I pray thee contemplate the Constitution and Disposition of these Peers of Heaven and Regents of the world how their countenances are found disposed both towards us and one towards another in this their unusual Congressure or coming together For the Countenance as it is commonly given forth is the Index of the mind As to the POSTURE of these Regents thou shalt find them all to be complexionated with a troubled and sad countenance To wit thou shalt see the Moon newly departed from the beams of the Sun from whom she was gone scarce 7 degrees to be vehemently enflamed all fiery and burning by the corporal Conjunction of Mars and that so much the more in that Mars himself is more enflamed by the conjunction of the Sun and the Sun takes his turn to be made more hurtful and discontented by the Conjunction of Saturn To which is added that Mercury which with the good is good and with the bad is bad is here necessarily become the worst with the worst For he being corporally joyned with Saturn what else will he bring forth by his Influences in this universal Combustion but all manner of fallacies frauds betrayings filling all with sinister suspitions secret Conspiracies and intestine hatreds and so fulfilling or filling up the measure of all unrighteousness and violence on earth Whilst Venus and Jupiter whose House this is although also present yet so remore will be so hindred and obstructed by the combustion and malignity of the intercurrent Planets that they will not be able with their more benigne beams while as strangers they invaded anothers House to reach unto us And if that be true that Theodorus Hoen a Famous Astrologer affirmeth and others also testifie to be certainly collected from the Tables of Conjunctions of Planets that in the time of Noah there was the like conjunction of all the Planets in PISCES awatery Sign upon which followed that terrible Judgment of an universal Deluge which together at once blotted out all the wicked from the face of the earth why may it not be lawful for us to collect from this concurse of all the Planets in the fiery Sign Sagittarius that by it is portended and foretold that fiery Judgment which immediately foreruns the Kingdom of Christ intimated in Peter Ep. 2. ch 3. and in the Revelation ch 11. v. 18. 2. If thou consider the PLACE in which all those Aethereal Regents convene thou wilt find it to be the same wherein the late great Conjunction in the year 1603 the 29th day of Sept. or 9 of Oct. was acted under which we still labour its full and final operation being not yet at an end to wit the last Sign of Sagitarius in the fiery Trigon As if the Heavens which are said to declare the glory of God and his Justice Psal 19. did by their voice intend no other than to repeat that signification of the next preceding great Conjunction and by a second Proclamation to confirm unto us that this combustion is no other then that whereby this present world of the wicked shall be burnt For if this be true that the present world shall shortly perish by fire and that Signes thereof are by God placed in Heaven it is necessary that this Sign be some fiery one which may most aptly square with the expression of this signification And if the Sign ought to be a fiery one it must be this which is the third and last in which also the great preceding and last Conjunction was acted And that which is more and more commends this place of the Heaven is that the very next day after the said Conjunction Sept. 30. or Oct. 10. 1603. when now by the coming of Mars that great Conjunction had received its compleatment that fame New Star appeared in Serpentario precisely in the same place of Heaven on which all the Astrologers eyes were fixed expecting the Conjunction of ♄ and ♂ Saturn and Mars witness Kepler in the Book which he wrote concerning the New Star in Serpentario of which he noteth many and wonderful things I will here add one out of the said Book where the Author comparing this Star * This Star i. e. that 1603. with that which was seen in Cassiopeia in the year 1573 saith thus THAT FORMER * Former Orig. prior illa relating I suppose to that star Anno 1573. And Later relates to that 1603. as I understand Sed caveat Lector cometh on the world unpremonished and as an unlookt for enemy which having possest the City wals appeared in the Market place afore the Citizens had heard the fame of his Expedition But this LATTER being long time afore expected entred at the appointed day with great solemnity after the manner of some mighty Monarch who about to visit his Metropolitan City sending afore him his Quarter-masters designeth places to all the Princes
after a sort in the punishment of their sins hoping in this that the measure of their punishments and chastisements will at length be fulfilled that God may again have mercy upon them And whereas formerly they were so averse from the Christians that not in their greatest necessity would they receive of us any support or almes now it is come to this pass that they not only gratefully accept of a morsel of bread giving God thankes for it but also come and desire the same of us Which indeed is no obscure sign on earth that their conversion and redemption draweth nigh Even as of old in Egypt then was the time at hand that Joseph would make known himself to his Brethren and receive all his Fathers Family into his protection when it fell out that his Brethren thinking no such thing came to receive from the hand of Joseph whom long since they had sold and delivered him into the hand of strange Nations bread and succours for the support of life And if now the Mercy for the Jewes is at hand to wit the Revelation of the true Joseph among them it necessarily followes that the judgment of Babylon is at hand and of necessity the destruction of the last Bestial Monarchy as afore we have often advised is before the doores For hear how Jeremiah chap. 51. knits these two together namely the Conversion of the Jewes and the Subversion of Babylon For he saith v. 5. Israel and Judah shall not alwaies be left of God the Lord of Hosts in widdowhood because their Land was filled with transgression because of the holy one of Israel c. And immediately in v. 6. Fly ye out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soul be not cut off in her iniquity for this is the time of Gods vengeance he will render to her a recompense Behold so soon as God shall have mercy on his people presently he will gird himself to render vengeance on Babylon for her injustice Pride and all Oppression towards the miserable dispersed sheep of Israel As in the former Chap. the Lord complained saying The sheeps my people are destroyed their shepwards made them to go astray they went from Mountain to Hill forgetting the place of their lying down all that found them devoured them and their adversaries said we offend not because they have sinned against the Lord the habitation of Justice even the Lord the hope of their Fathers Jer. 50.6 7. Hear also how Joel joynes these two together viz. the Conversion of the Jews and the Judgment of the Heathen which oppressed them as mutual consequents chap. 3.1 where he saith Behold in those daies and in that time when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem I will also gather all Nations and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel whom they have scattered among the Nations and parted my Land and they have cast Lots for my people and have given a Boy for a harlot and sold a Girle for wine that they might drink Note here how swiftly the one shall follow the other Even so soon as the Cup of indignation is removed from Sion so soon shall it be drunk to the Daughter of Edom. The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished O Daughter of Zion He will no more carry thee away into captivity he will visit thine iniquity O Daughter of Edom. He will discover thy sins Lam. 4.22 As if the Lord had said Thou hast seen how I have visited and discovered the iniquity of my people how I have led them captive among all Nations that these being admonished by their example might be wiser and might more diligently observe my Commandments than they have done But because thou hast done no better but worse than they and in stead of the Mercy with which thou shouldest have been enclined towards my people and the righteousness with which thou oughtest to have convinced them of unrighteousness thou hast done altogether the contrary thou hast used no mercy towards my people and by thy unrighteousness hast hardned them in their iniquity and whilst thou diâ—st these things thou wouldest justifie thy self fixing thine eyes not upon thy self but upon them thou sawest not the Beam in thine own eye but didst the More that was in thy Neighbours eye meditating in thine heart This people suffereth condigne punishment for their facts because they rejected the Lord Jesus who was the hope of their Forefathers and that in raging against them we cannot sin Yea thou hast perswaded thy self that in thy afflicting crucifying and killing of my people thou hast done my work and rendered my revenge Joel 3.4 But I assoon as the iniquity of my people shall be finished even as I have done to them so will I do to thee I will visit thee and discover thy abominations And as thou hast exercised no mercy towards my people so no body shall pity thee As thou hast done so shall it be required to thee in the Cup thou hast drunk to others shall it be drunk to thee Yea the double thereof Rev. 18.6 As to the Time of the Conversion of the Jews and the restoring of the Kingdom of Israel of which all the Prophets are full and by consequence the end of the terrible 4th Beast of Daniel that it is at hand that also may be sufficiently demonstrated by those Signes which are prescribed in the Old and New Testament some at least of which I will touch And 1. out of 4 * otherwise the 2 of Esdram 5.1 2 c. of Esdr 5.1 2 3 c. V. 1. Nevertheless as concerning the tokens behold he daies shall come that they which shall dwell on the earth shall be â—aken in a great number and the way of truth shall be hidden and the Land shall be barren of Faith 2. But iniquity shall be encreased aâ—â—ve that which thou now seest or that thou hast heard long ago 3. And he Land that thou now seest to have root shalt thou see wasted suddenâ—y 4. But if the most High grant thee to live thou shalt see after the THIRD TRUMPET that the Sun shall shine suddenly again in the night and the Moon thrice in the day 5. And Blond shall drop out of the wood and the stone shall give his voyce and the people shall be troubled 6. And even he shall rule whom they looked not for that dwell upon the earth and the fowles shall take their flight away together 7. And the Sodomitish Sea shall cast out fish and make a noise in the night which many have not known but they shall all hear the voyce thereof 8. There shall be a Confusion also in many places and the fire shall be oft sent out * Margin Sâ—aked again and the wild Beasts shall change their places and Menstruous women shall bring forth Monsters 9. And salt waters shall be found in