Time and therefore by the constant care of God in preserving a Seed that is accovnted to the Lord for a Generation and particularly by the Types of this Prophecy we are most assured there must be such Witnesses and such must be their Testimony SECT VIII Wherein The Forty Two Months are measur'd by the exactest Rules of Prophecy and found by express Concurrencies of those Prophecies to begin at the Cessation of the Christian Western Empire and to end whenever the 1260 Days end the Date of the Kingdom of Christ immediately ensuing and therefore to begin at 475 and by compare with the 1260 Days to end at 1697. According to which the State of the Empire of the Administration of the First Beast and of the Witnesses during the Fourth Trumpet viz. from 475 to 606 is represented THE Point of Time I am now entring upon hath had a just Approach made to it according to its Importance which is very great I shall now through the Assistance of the Divine Spirit duely consider the most weighty sense of it self there being no Line of Time whose Bounds are so definitive the Beginning so uncontestably evident in History the End so illustrious as this must be to sense it self in the very nature of the thing That I may therefore discourse hereof most regularly I propose these four Heads to fix the Intendment upon 1. To shew That the Apostle Paul hath affirm'd the coming of the Man of Sin or Beast whose End is according to all Prophecies concerning him Destruction by the immediate Appearance of Christ's Kingdom at that his end hath an unmoveable Bar to his Manifestation till his own Time and that the Apostle John declares that Bar to be an indefeisable Succession of a seventh King not come in his Time to a sixth King then in Being in his Time and that seventh King to endure a short time and that then the Beast the eighth King should succeed and that he could succeed neither sooner nor later When therefore it will appear that such a seventh King did succeed the sixth and that that seventh did decease at 475 if it shall also appear as it will that this is the very same Beast to whom forty two months are determin'd it will then be most evident his forty two months must begin at 475. 2. To shew That the Kingdom of the Beast must last till the Kingdom of Christ according to the same Laws of Succession can succeed and it can last no longer as also that the Kingdom of Christ must succeed when that Kingdom ends and it can succeed no sooner if then it is expresly said the Kingdom of Christ shall immediately succeed the 1260 Days and that according to this Law of Succession and the course of all Prophecy it must also succeed the forty two months it then will plainly follow the 42 Months and the 1260 Days end together 3. To shew That the 1260 Days must be Time of the Sun and the forty two months must be Time of the Moon and seeing they must be adjusted to one another as ending together and lying both within one common Womb of Time Times Half Time The forty two months by the most exact compare of Lunar and Solar Time can be but 1222 Years and therefore besides all Advantages of Scripture-use of round Number beginning at 475 they most exactly and most necessarily must end at 1697. 4. To shew That the Beast indeed must have every way the Seminal fundamental Nature of such a Beast as he is describ'd to be at the very beginning of his forty two Months as the Infant hath of a Man but need not nor cannot be suppos'd to attain full prophetical Proportions till long after which Time Prophecy hath also dated to him by his Number 666. So that the description of the Empire according to the Fourth Trumpet the Administration of the other Beast and the State of the Witnesses may continue many Years after as they stood at the forty two Months entring and so Prophecy determines of them To begin then with the first of these I find this Order and Head 1 Concert of the Parts of it will be most convictive and demonstrative 1. That Daniel the Apostle Paul and the Apostle John speak all of one and the same Beast 2. That this one and the same Beast hath forty two months determin'd upon him as the just State of his Duration 3. That the Apostle John hath declared that peremptory positive Law of Succession that was the Let of the coming of the Beast into his forty two months For the first Although a multitude of Proofs from the Concert of all Prophecy which either have been or will be farther taken notice of may be given yet That which I will rest upon alone at this time shall be that most convictive one That his End is Destruction by the glorious Appearance of the Kingdom of Christ so that his eminent Character is Son of Perdition in Conformity to that Apostate Apostle Judas so near the Glory of Christ's Resurrection so the Apostle John twice describes him by his going into Perdition Apoc. 17. v. 8. v. 11. and his Destruction is solemnly declared c. 19. and then the Kingdom of Christ succeeds c. 20. c. 21. Thus Daniel in every Vision The great Image was smitten by the Stone cut out of the Mountains without hands growing to a great Mountain filling the Earth by a Kingdom never ending in its ten-toed feet part of Iron and part of Clay so exactly compounded of the Beast out of the Sea with his ten crowned Horns inseparably united with his false Prophetism a Beast out of the Earth Revel 13. The little Horn is a Beast deliver'd to the Flames and the Kingdom under the whole Heaven given to the Saints The King standing up against the Prince of Princes shall be broken without hand At the Accomplishing to scatter the Holy People viz. by this Beast as hath been made to appear All the Wonders of Christ's Kingdom shall be finished Dan. c. 2. v. 24. c. compar'd with Dan. c. 7. 11. c. c. 8. 24 25. c. 12. 7. The Apostle Paul 2 Thess 2 3. c. stiles him the Son of Perdition and foretels his being consumed with the Brightness of the Lords viz. Christ's coming and the Glory of his Appearance Whoever then considers the most notable and notorious Destruction always affix'd to one and the same kind of Power so even in all its manners of Description and such a kind of Destruction as is always declar'd to issue and flow out from the Glory of Christ at his coming to his Kingdom will find It must be one and the same Beast since Christ hath but one such Coming and one such Kingdom as these are describ'd to be nor indeed is there any more than one such Beast so scituated in Time Place and Succession as this will appear to be It is in the second place to be made out that this is the same
Beast that hath Fourty two Months determin'd to Him and though there needs nothing to make that good but to take the two Chaps c. 13. and c. 17. of the Apocal. and to write down all the particulars of agreement between those two Beasts and it will be impossible for so much as the thinking Mind to doubt of their being one and the same But I will only insist upon the former Argument in this matter that Beast that is so destroyed as the Beast in the c. 17. is to be destroyed must needs according to the former Argument be the same Beast But the Beast that hath Fourty two Months determin'd to his Continuunce c. 13. v. 5. hath such a Destruction affix'd to him as the Beast c. 17. hath For who can assume the Effrontery or Boldness to deny that the Beast c. 19. who is taken and cast into the Lake v. 20. is the same with the Beast c. 17. And the Beast c. 13. hath this very same Destruction foretold to him For he is to be Taken and to go into that Eternal Captivity of the Lake with his False Prophet inseparable from him according to v. 10. and his Ten Crowned Horns or whole Circle of Kings are to be killed with the Sword of Christ's Mouth c. 19. v. 21. compar'd with ch 13. v. 10. he that leadeth into Captivity shall go c. and he that kills with the Sword c. now Christ's Captivation and Killing are such as argues Divine Justice and Power and such is that declar'd c. 19 20. The Apostle John hath declar'd that so obstinate unyielding Bar to the Man of Sin being reveal'd still in his Time as the Apostle Paul most emphatically speaks signifying the impossibility of his Coming till that his own proper Time Now the occasion of that great Apostolical Paragraph was an Expectation of a sudden Appearance of the 2 Thess 2. Glory of Christ's Kingdom this very Kingdom of which we are now speaking which was the great Expectation of the Apostles till they were better Instructed and of other Christians after them upon a general but not particular Apprehension of Scripture Prophecy For that this Day was the day of Judgment there is no Sense for in those lightsome Days before the Apostacy seeing all the Prophecies are big with a Glorious state of Christianity in this World To this the Apost for their Information and of after Ages much more speaks punctually That it could not be expected so soon and does most vehemently obtestate by the very coming of Christ and our gathering unto him against the Expectation for saith he There must be an Apostacy first and the Man of Sin must be reveal'd but that must be in his own proper Time and not before for there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Person witholding and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an effectual Thing witholding or each of these taking such Fast Hold of their proper Space and Time that the Bestian Prince cannot come forward till they by going off let go their Hold and then shall be reveal'd that lawless one that Man of Sin which is an Exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is to be understood of a Body of Successors So this is the Apostle's Sense The day of Christ viz. of his Glory and Kingdom cannot come till the Man of Sin come The Man of Sin comes indeed out of the Apostacy as out of a Womb but as no Birth can so he cannot come till his own Time Sathan is eager enough every thing works to it as fast as it can the Mystery of Iniquity is now already at this very moment at work But every Thing that God hath ordain'd will hold its own it s own Time it s own Place and such a Holding Thing there is and such a Holding Person there is that possesses and fills that Time and Place Thus far the Apostle Paul goes in his Epistle so far he was order'd by the Holy Spirit to go and no farther the rest he refers to former Personal Discourse Now whatever prudential reason there might be of saying no more The great Reason was the Holy dictating Spirit order'd no more but that all Scripture might be search'd and compar'd Holy Writers say so much in one place so much in another so much one Holy Writer says so much more is said by another by every ones part the Harmony is made up The Apostle John therefore speaking as I have prov'd of the same great Matter and aiming at the Glorious Kingdom of Christ the grand scope of all Prophecy declares the Reason why the Kingdom of Christ could not Come because there was an unalterable Succession determin'd by God before that Kingdom There were seven Kings five of them he gives in the Lump because Prophecy was not concern'd in them or in the manner or order of their Succession they are only a Character of the Monarchy a distinctive of the Fourth Beast by its seven Heads or Forms of Government in a Succession as Kings signifie Dan. 7. But in three of them the Prophecy then in motion by the Apostle John was highly interested The first was then and it was in its course according to five of the seven Seals The seventh King was not yet Come it was not very far off comparatively but it was not as yet Come it was to come in the sixth Seal and when it came there was a necessity upon him he must continue by the same Comparativeness but a short space viz. during only the time of the sixth and seventh Seals Now this seventh the Spirit is industrious to assure us He was the Christian Emperour though he was a King of that great City and Empire yet he pertain'd not to the Beast indeed there was a Declination to the Apostacy in his time but the Church was yet pure all those Seals as appears by them it appears too it was declining the Apostacy drew near a declining from one Degree to another there had been from the first Operation of the Mystery of Iniquity forming the Antichristian Prince no with great Curiosity in the lowest parts of the Earth where no Eye saw the way of the Sathanick Spirit but he before whom Hell and Destruction have no Covering However this Christian Emperour was none of the Heads but wounded the Pagan sixth Draconick Head The Beast he is the eighth and is of the seven Seven what but Heads Clearly joyning this Vision with the seven Heads of Chap. 13. He that as the Son of Perdition goes into Perdition I say again Goeth into Perdition that Perdition just before the Kingdom of Christ and so hath no Successor but Christ consuming him Now this Succession stands firm God himself had fix'd it As then no Prince can succeed till the former is avaunted in so exact a Succession one cannot crowd out another no more than one Month or a Day following can crowd out the precedent but when any goes off the next succeeds immediately there can
accompanied with the Mahometan Force and yet even that remains a scourge upon it since the Reformation until now and cannot cease to be so while Antichristianism it self shall survive But if things had thus gone on The Kingdom of Christ had long ' ere now appear'd Let us then consider the Agreement of the Symbols of Prophecy with the stay of this Glory of Christ that it did not proceed to the utmost in the Ruine of Antichrist and the Revelation of his supream Dominion The first Estopple on the Kingdom of Christ is the sealing of the Thunders the constant Symbol of some breaking out of Christ's Kingdom for they were such powerful Voices of Highest and most Excellent Truth that if they had been written as John in Zeal to the Glory of Christ was about speedily to write them and not seal'd They had rent the Heavens and the Kingdom of Christ had been proclaim'd as by the Voices of the seventh Trumpet The clear shrill and exalted Voice of Divine Truth is Luc. 17. 24. as the Lightning that with the Thunder shineth from one end of the Heaven and that shineth to the other end of Heaven and brings forth the Day of the Son of Man which the Antichristian Kingdom trembles at and is shiver'd by as by the stroke of Thunder But written and seal'd are oppos'd in this Prophecy as immediate coming to pass and reserv'd to come to pass hereafter are oppos'd one to the other There is a Recognition and Renewal of the Oath of Christ concerning Time Times Half-Time Dan. 12. 9. Indeed the Front and Aspect of the Oath there is turn'd another way for then it was directed upon these Times as to come and the Oath is They shall be here it points upon them as past and Christ swears Time shall be no more but till the seventh Trumpet and then all should be finish'd spoken by the Prophets of his Kingdom which is such a Mystery the World will not believe however told them They are angry whenever Christ takes his Power to him and reigns and much more angry at Rev. 11. 18. any mention of it before hand at any unlocking or reading viz. interpreting Prophecy concerning it But Christ swears There shall be no more Time Or no Kalendar of any Kingdom but his own at the seventh Trumpet it shall then immediately succeed and be proclaim'd Till then Time is allowed for the thunders to remain seal'd Then they shall be opened And if the Thunders had not been sealed before the Oath the Oath had cut off that Time also but because the half Time cannot be less then it self The Thunders remain seal'd neither more nor less than the half Time So it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Time but only a half Time and a whole Time could be no more 4. The eating the Book It s being sweet in the Mouth and bitter in the Belly and prophecying again signifie altogether the retirement of Christs Kingdom anew into Prophecy in place of present Accomplishment and of that Kingdom then appearing For therefore was Its sweet in the Mouth because the Discourse of that Kingdom as in the Voice of Thunder was exceeding sweet as importing its present Appearance But the Discourse of it as matter of Prophecy and the Re-absconding it to that purpose into the Belly was exceeding bitter as signifying its Delay and Secrecy for longer time yet as Belly imports secretly Whereas therefore the Book in regard of the half-season ended was opened as if then to be accomplish'd and the things written in it to be finished It s remanding into the Belly of the Prophet concludes its delay and this was bitter The Book therefore was sweet in any presence bitter in any Delays of the Kingdom The Kingdom is not to be yet while the half day lasts It must be when that ends in the seventh Trumpet therefore it remains in Prophecy And of the Servants of God continuing to Prophecy in Sack cloth because of the delay of Christs Kingdom and to prophecy again before many Peoples and Nations and Tongues and Kings whom this Kingdom concerns John is here the Representative the prophetical Scheme or Symbol For this Prophecy is unto and so before many who will not vouchsafe to hearken or attend to it yet it is unto them before them and will take hold of them But while the Book is in Prophecy in the Belly It is Bitter and the Witnesses prophecy in Sackcloth So John Personates or Proxies for them The sealing then of the Thunders as also the Voice of the Roar of the Lion by implication retiring the Eating of the open Book or returning it into Prophecy Argue It must remain in Prophecy as it had done the whole Time of the Trumpets after the Seals opened because of the 144000 seal'd and that the Kingdom did not appear when it had in the Christian Emperours made so loud a claim And now by the Thunders utterances a so publick challenge of its Right yet it must return again into Prophecy and be Bitter in the Belly All these are the clear and evident Importance of these Symbols in a due compare of the Parts of this Prophecy between themselves And if we look not only into History but Knowledge it cannot be denyed but that the Kingdom of Christ hath not yet appear'd in Glory The blessed Effects of Christian Religion The great Prophecies concerning those Effects that even swell the Womb of Prophecy have not yet been brought forth The Antichristianism the Bestianism the Apostle Paul the Apostle Pet. Epist 2. c. 2. c. 3. Peter the Apostle John especially in his Apocal. describes hath yet a too sad Interest in the Christian World Mahometanism covers a great part of the habitable Earth and till very lately as in signification of the Time of Christ's Kingdom to be proclaim'd near at hand hath been the Scourge and Terror of Christianity but more particularly as according to this Prophecy of the Antichristianity of East and West and holds a very considerable part of the Profession of it under Slavery Pagaism we know possesses except obstinately blind interspers'd Judanism the rest of the World All which must remove at Christ's Kingdom And if we consider the State of Christianity more Reformed to it self to speak in the Language and Symbols of this Prophecy There are very great Parts of the Reformation that are within the Bowels of the yet Antichristian Princes and so within the Dition and Kingdom of the Beast when ever it pleases God to give scope to that Power They are all manner of ways persecuted and harrass'd even as the Succession or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Church of Thyatyra were to be and their last Works and Sufferings thereby became more than their First Rev. 2. 19. c. and are so far from being perfectly risen and out of Sack-cloth that they make an appearance of the Witnesses again Hungary France slain as in Neighbour Countries of
seven Churches that is proper and particular to the Church wherein the Churches as Symbols sustain the whole Prophecy which is worthy the Spirituality and Clearness of a New Testament Prophecy so to Order and of great Grace Elegancy and Condecency to God's great Regard to his Church The Second is that which embraces the whole State of the Church but propp'd and supported with such Imperial Events as most nearly related to the Church adorn'd with such Symbols such Notes of Time such Events as agree to those Times whereby History both Common and Ecclesiastick may be adjusted to and concerted with both and the Truth of the Prophecy and its true Interpretation justisted before and by all the World And this is that Systeme or Complex of Prophecies that first by the Seals runs through the Roman Empire till the sixth Seal Pagan and Christian in the sixth and seventh Seals in those things wherein the Kingdom and Church of Christ are most interessed until the Empire was blasted in the first Trumpet and true publick Worship also by the 1260 Days of the Daily taken away entring The Imperial City was thrown like a Mountain into the Sea in the second and in the third Trumpet when the Roman Empire expiring in the West was surrogated or new founded in the Beast succeeding in his forty two Months and so the Prophecy goes on in the other Trumpets till it comes to the Kingdom of Christ in the seventh Trumpet in its just Succession to the last State of the Roman fourth Monarchy according to all Prophecy And this till the thousand Years runs through the Voices of Preparation into the Vials and the Vials prepare to the thousand Years glorious Reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then this is the only true proper Division of this Prophecy into its two Systemes of the Churches and then rise the Seals Trumpets Voices Vials in another Systeme supporting all things relating to the Church by Imperial Motions Mutations and Times And in the latter Systeme all these Tubes of Time are each Sett of them and each of each Sett so united one to another that they can neither be disjoyn'd from their immediate sequence one upon another nor mov'd out of their order so that the Trumpets follow the Seals the Voices the Trumpets the Vials the Voices and each Seal Trumpet Voice and Vial follows immediately upon its foregoing Seal Trumpet Voice and Vial and every seventh comprehends the following Sevens the seventh Seal the seven Trumpets the seventh Trumpet the seven Voices the seventh Voice the seven Vials and each precedent Seventh hath some grasp on all the following Sevens So the seventh Seal comprehends the Trumpets the Voices the Vials the seventh Trumpet the Voices and Vials the seventh Voice the seven Vials so admirably is this Prophecy united and interwoven And to other Division than this of the second Systeme of Prophecies I can by no means subscribe as of the Prophecy divided into the sealed and open Book-prophecy or the Prophecy of the Empire first and then of the Church For that remarkable part of the sealed Book-prophecy viz. the palm-bearing Company by peculiar Right pertains to the open Book or that must be so if there were such an open Book-prophecy and much of the open Book-prophecy allowing such a one must needs pertain to the sealed but indeed there is no such Thing as an open Book-prophecy in that place where it is said to be open'd for the Book was no sooner open'd but it was eaten and so absconded assoon as open'd till open'd by the Voices c. 14. as shall be farther clear'd nor is there any Prophecy of the second Systeme but pertains properly to the Church as within first the Pagan then the Christian then the Bestian State of the one Roman Empire and lastly of the Vniversal Empire and Kingdom of Christ. Now in this Order apocalyptical Both Visions and Times in the first Systeme run through the six Churches In the second through those four Sets of prophetical Tubes Seals c. 6. c. 7. c. 8. to v. of Trumpets c. 8. v. 8. to the end of c. 11. of Voices c. 14. of the Vials c. 15. c. 16. and so laying these Chapters together the order is most exact except that in c. 7. There is an Anticipation of the Triumph of the New Jerusalem from v. 9. to the end In c. 11. there is a Collection of the whole State of the Apostasie during the six Trumpets into one Body together as it consists of the Sufferings of the Witnesses and the Tyranny of the Bestian Apostasie excepting some close Intimations in the very Composure of the Symbolisms of those Trumpets for the great Reasons hereafter to be given that refer to the same Apostacy and begin at the first Trumpet And then in the twelfth and thirteenth Chapters the extravasated Account of the Dragon watching the Woman and her manly Birth the Dragon cast down and the manly Birth caught up is to be reduc'd within its most proper Channel viz. the fifth and sixth Seals And this prepares for the right understanding of the Beast mention'd ch 11. as deriv'd from the Dragon c. 13. arriving his Number 666 which belongs to the six first Trumpets and it is there fitly set to prepare for the Vision of the Lambs Number c. 14. And as to the Chapters 17. 18. and 19. they are most evidently the Progress of the History of the seventh Vial and the full Relation of its Effects To prepare for which an extraordinary Description of the Woman or Great City reigning over the Kings of the Earth opposite to the Woman in the Wilderness is prefix'd and on her occasion a more perfect Portraicture of the Beast and of his ten Horns or Kings is given in preparation to the Judgment executed on all c. 19. And then the Milennial State being drawn up c. 20. it is carried on to the end of Apocalyptical Time as it reaches into the complemental State of Eternity which the Prophecy briefly absolves and then returns upon its more proper Subject or the 1000 Years of the New Jerusalem c. 21. c. 22. Now this Order began with the Preface to the Churches Vision of the first Systeme c. 1. and then the Preface of the second Systeme and lastly a Postscript returning especially c. 4. c. 5. c. 22. 16. to the Vials as given by the first Angel of the Vials This Order is I say the whole entire natural Order of this Apocalyptical Prophecy which is contriv'd indeed suitable to the Secrecy and Mysticness of the Prophecy so as often symbolically to declare when these Prophecies would have the clearest and most efficacious Discoveries in the Church viz. after the Half Time when the Thunders had utter'd their Voices and the Book open was shewn in the hand of Christ. That was the just Season for the Discovery of the Apostacy in the suffering of the Witnesses and the Tenthly Fall of the City and then after the seventh Trumpet
the silence of any such Voice moves Enquiry Why there is no such Voice and every Visum or Thing to be seen in both sorts of Seals the Voic'd or the seemingly silent Seals are to be judg'd of as they have Relation to the Kingdom of Christ especially because we shall find the three last Seals without Voices have something to supply the want of the Voices of those four Living Creatures 3. As to the Time and its Space that is measur'd out by these Seals seeing no Line of Time is expresly given with them it is impossible to be found out but either first by some of the Visa or things seen at the opening of these Seals that are so certain as to be necessarily agreed in and thereby measuring from them on each side of them to take the whole Course or secondly by the having good Assurance what are the Visa of the first and last of these Seals that thereby we may know when they begin and when they end by the most undoubted Accounts of History or thirdly by observing if there be any Light concerning the just middle Point of their Time or lastly by some other Line of Time that may how much larger soever so as to comprehend it yet set Limits to it in its Beginning Middle and End by some certain Line of Time that must end just before it and some other Line of Time that must follow it and that all taken together can answer that whole Line And all these ways I shall use to come to the exact Measure of the Space of the seven Seals and what Measures of Time are and ought to be allow'd to them Let us then examine the Importance of every Seal first by what it discovers of the Kingdom of Christ upon the joyning of the Visum or thing to be seen and the Voice together or remarking upon the No Voice and the equivalent Supply with the Visum or thing to be seen and then collect the Time of these seven Seals The Visum or thing to be seen of the first Seal is as is Seal 1 hardly controverted by any The riding out of Christ on his white Horse with his Bow and the Right of a Crown conquering and to conquer This then was the Aim of Christ to obtain his Crown in the first place by the pure and holy Arms and Power of his Gospel in the Vniversal Perfect Ministry of the Apostles and till the Effect of that was tryed he makes shew of no other whatever farther Aim Christ might have if his Gospel was not submitted to Thus is Christ riding out prophesied of of Old Ride prosperously because of Truth Meekness and Righteousness Ps 45. 3. And upon this Horse he rides out with final Victory Rev. 19. whose Name is the Word of God This then was then the State of Christ's Kingdom the making an Universal Offer of it self to Jews and Gentiles by that high Ministry of Persons immediately guided and infallibly inspir'd and accomplish'd with the Gift of Tongues and Power of Miracles to make the Publication of that Decree Thou art my Son This Day have I begotten thee Ask of me and as I have set Thee upon my Holy Hill of Zion by thy Resurrection so I will give Thee the Heathen for thy Inheritance and the uttermost Ends of the Earth for thy Possession And if they will not submit Thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel Psal 2. 6. The Apostolical Voice deep and loud as Thunder royal as of a Lyon the first Living Creature Come and see is a farther Assurance That this was then the State of Christ's Kingdom in this free and universal Offer of it self It bespoke the World therefore in the Language of the rest of that Psalm Be Wise now O ye Kings Be Instructed ye Judges of the Earth Serve the Lord with Fear Rejoyce with Trembling Kiss the Son lest He be angry and for breaking his Bands and casting his Cords from you He break you at last as a Potters Vessel with a Rod of Iron or as the Stone cut out of the Mountain without Hands shivers the Image of which the next Seal gives a Type Now this Appearance of Christs Kingdom and the most Holy declar'd Annointed in it was absolutely necessary to make known the thing seal'd and to be unseal'd and that the End might be known by the Beginning and the whole Compass of the Time of the Seals by Both. For nothing could make all these more known nor the stay the sealing had on this Kingdom from appearing more manifest than this its offer to appear at the end of the last half week in the Apostolical Preaching and yet Prophecy and Vision concerning it seal'd up so that it could not bring forth this Kingdom till its just Time constituted by the Father and the Oath of Christ himself and that in regard of the Obstinacy of the Body of the Jewish Nation and of the World of the Gentiles Immediately upon the refusal of this King upon the Holy Seal 2 Hill of Zion He began to use his Rod of Iron and sent out the Red Horse of War the Visum or Thing to be seen under the second Seal joyned with the Voice of the Gospel Come and See but abated and weakened not a Voice of Thunder Whereas had the Kingdom been accepted the Thunder should not only have continued but multiplyed into Thunders and Voices and grown lowder and lowder to introduce the Kingdom But the Antichristian Kingdom upon the True Kingdom rejected work'd on and enervated the Voice though it was still Apostolical Come and See As the Voice of an Ox as if it self were Falling a Sacrifice at the Altar deploring the slaughter then coming upon the World So this second living Creature The State of the Kingdom therefore was as retreated in the Gracious and Merciful Offer The Voice was not so Grand and Sounding but instead of it He that sat on the Red Horse of War had a Great Sword given him and It was Given to Him that He should take Peace from the Earth and that Men should kill one another This certainly was especially verified in those Desolations of the Jews under Vespasian and Titus and those succeeding War-like Emperours Trajan and Hadrian under the first of which the Destruction of Jerusalem was so dreadful and bloody till the last ruines by Hadrian That no Time nor History was ever deeper dyed in Blood nor could this be without dismal Recoyls of the Great Sword upon the Empire it self within the Bowels of which it was continually sheath'd insomuch that Hadrian in his account of the final Wars with the Jews omitted the usual Preface in his Letters to the Senate Ego quidem exercitus valemus We and our Army are well This he suppressed as not agreeing to that Season of so great loss of Blood to the Romans This was a very affrightful appearance of this Kingdom and of great Evidence
of its Greatness and Power of Revenges especially upon the Jews those Murtherers and Enemies that would not have Christ reign over them and it returned back upon the Gentiles also and the Roman Empire guilty of the same Opposition to the Kingdom of Christ though not against the same Light nor with the same unnaturalness for as to them He came more particularly to his own and his own receiv'd him not and therefore having after the crucifying of him rejected his Dominion the People of that Prince Vespasian Came and destroyed the City and the Sanctuary as with a Flood and Torrent of Vengeance and now unto the End of the War Desolations upon the Jews were determin'd and by the overspread of the abominable Armies was pour'd upon the Desolate by Hadrian after the Desolation of Titus Daniel 9. ult Now this great Judgment and Desolation as a grand Argument of the Truth of Christianity in Revenge of which this Desolation came upon the Jews and the Reverberations or Repercussions and Returnings of it upon the Heathen Empire and their Persecutions of Christians was a great Subject for the Apostolical Voice to enlarge it self upon and to perswade Men to pay Homage to the King of Kings who could thus avenge himself and so of great Use was that Sound of the Voice Come and See that beholding the Desolations that were made by Christ in the Earth they might be still and know that He was God and exalt him in the very Heathen Earth After this severe Vengeance of Christ by the Rider of the Seal 3 Red Horse there ensues the opening of the third Seal and the Thing to be seen under it was a Black Horse and He that sat upon it had a pair of Ballances in his Hand and the Apostolical Voice continuing as under the last former Seals Come and See and it was the Voice of the third living Creature the Voice as of a Man Now that we may judge of the State of the Kingdom under this Seal it is to be closely examined what this Visum or Thing to be seen imports even the Black Horse and the Rider with a Pair of Ballances in his Hand and then the distinct Voice in the midst of the Living Creatures It hath been generally interpreted all to Famine as if the Seals were a Course of Judgments but besides that neither the First nor the Fifth Seals carry any Signification of Judgment by a more sagacious Inspection into the spectacle of this Seal after that forenam'd excellent Duumvirate of Apocalyptical Interpreters Mr. Mede and Dr. More and compare of it with the Voice of the third living Creature as of a Man I am abundantly satisfied the Black Horse and the Ballances in the Hand of the Rider are an Emblem of that solemn Imperatorial Justice of the Emperours of this Third Seal the Antonines especially that great Mirror of Justice to Magistrates Alexander Severus in whom I account the interval of this Seal to End who bore in his Hand continually in all Administrations that great Ballance of the World that Ballance of commutative Justice given by our Saviour Do as you would have done to you and no otherwise and this as so remarkable in it self and of a higher Prophetical Vse as we shall Discourse when we come to the Time affix'd to these Seals and particularly to this A Voice in the midst of the living Creatures calls to the more solemn Observation of a Measure of Wheat for a Penny Three Measures of Barley for a Penny and see that thou hurt not the Oyl and the Wine And now the State of the Kingdom in Relation to this Visum I estimate by those highly Rational and Apocalyptick Discourses for Christianity by Justin Martyr Athenagoras Apollonius in his publick Account of Christianity to the Roman Senate Clemens Alexandrius Tertullian Origen Minutius Felix who all appeal'd to these Just and Manly Emperors and offer'd to lay Christianity before them as Equal Judges and that would but shew themselves Men. And Alexander Son of Mammaea a Christian Lady Severus was so far prevail'd upon by those weighty Reasons that History hath reported him to have decided for Christianity and as he shewed a constant Reverence to that great Apothegme of the Saviour of the World so to have built a Temple in Honour to him upon which very last particular yet I lay no weight as being too doubtful But the other Parts of the State of this Kingdom of Christ born up by the manliest Efforts of Reason manag'd by those Apostolick Persons before nam'd before those forenam'd Emperours and Alexander particularly are so beyond all Historical Dispute as to sway me much more than those inquisitive searches for some Dearth or Famine that might be adjusted to the Time of this Seal For I account it a Rule in this and all other parts of this Prophecy That the Interpretation depend not upon dark and obscure Parts of History but upon the most Conspicuous Open and Clear and that are most known and notorious in it And it is to me a just Suspition upon any Interpretation that is otherwise grounded After this gracious Tryal and Essay upon the Heathen Empire Seal 4 to draw it by the Cords of a Man and by the Bands of Reason immediately follows the Fourth Seal In which open'd the Visum or Thing to be seen is the Pale Horse and in the Place of any Imperial Rider sits Death and Hades the Grave or Hell followes it as its attendant Emblem and the Voice of the Fourth living Creature as an Eagle drawn by the Carcase says Come and see This imports that Complication of Evils and Judgments The Sword the Famine the Pestilence and the Beasts of the Earth and Power was given to Death over a fourth part of the Earth or every fourth of it that is upon all Quarters of it Under this Seal then in the Time of those many cruel and short liv'd Emperours between Alexander Severus and Dioclesian which were as Beasts of the Earth for savageness and so are a most famous Historical Commentary upon this Seal is shewen the mighty Vengeance and Wrath of God upon an impenitent and imperswasible Empire and this by that Apostolical Voice to Come and See or to consider it the State of the Kingdom vindicating it self is so far declar'd that it was even ready to break in with Fury upon the Heathen World and that Patience so much injur'd and abus'd was now about to flame out in utmost Wrath so far therefore the Kingdom of Christ was advanc'd as to have made its last Tryal of Grace upon Pagan Rome and upon this undoubtedly the Apostolical Ministry insisted in its Come and See as Ezekiel Ezek. 14. from 12 to 22. of old as God saith there When I bring my four great Judgments The Sword Pestilence Famine and the Beasts of the Earth though Noah Job and Daniel stood before me to turn away my Wrath They should deliver only their own Souls And now
the beginning of this Line which is one great Confirmation that we are upon the true Time of it for to declare this as it were with Industry there are even thirty joyn'd to the 1260 and more openly Three Fifteens or Forty Five to the 1290 that we may thereby be engag'd to look back upon the whole Line and find it throughout so compacted as may be easily computed and hath been before observ'd on Daniel's Vision 3. Each Community hath its just share in the intimate and full extended Time of this Line and each twice given The Beast hath first his intimate Time twice given in Daniel and by two forty two months given first to his Gentiles till his own rising and then forty two Months to himself he hath the utmost extent of Time Times half time as before declared and drawn out of the 2300 Evenings In just correspondence with which the Servants of God as collected and congregated in the Woman the Church that they might not be accused as having Relation to no Church and single in the Witnesses and the Seed who have the Witness that Apo. 12. 17. the Church might not seem a Notion onely have each one and the same 1260 da. drawn out of the 2300 mornings assign'd to them and the Witnesses three dayes and a half and the Woman three times and a half or season or intimate Time answering the Beasts intimate Time who must have the Servants of God as a subject to work upon while his Tyranny lasts Now that the Time at large or the Twice 1260 Days must needs be the same and differ only in notion as the Church and the Witnesses or the Seed that have the Witness of Jesus do is most evident because lying within the same Continent of Time Times Semi Time and being both of the longest reach and exactly of the same size it is not possible they should begin or end sooner one than another as we have found it possible the Gentiles and the Beasts months may do For neither are they so united as the Woman and the Witnesses And their months though of the same size one with another are yet not of an equal extent to time times half time at their full length nor to the 1260 dayes the just measure of the three times and half although both the Forty two months uniting as we have said are neither longer nor shorter than the 1260 dayes nor than the Three Times and half the common Womb of all And even so the three Times and half of the Woman and the three dayes and half of the Witnesses must be the same also seeing the Witnesses and the Woman are the same and the 1260 dayes the same and no difference but only notional as was explain'd For if they were different the Woman should have no parallel to the three dayes and half of the Witnesses nor the Witnesses have any parallel with the three times and half of the Witnesses which as most unbecoming so Uniform a Type are impossible also in such a sameness Thus the Marches or Out-lying Borders as well as the Intimate Time are full on the side of both Communities the Beasts Tyranny and the Sufferings of the Servants of God The last Seventy five years by the Voices Revel 14. and by the Vials Rev. 16. move on to the two utmost Pillars of Time It is done It is done Rev. 16. 17. Rev. 21. 6. Object In the former or after Parts of this Discourse I offer as I hope most Convictive Proofs of all these things in particular and answer all Objections I shall only at this time remove this one viz. There seems no more reason to understand the forty two Months as Lunar Months than the days of Years as Lunar Years Answ There is very great difference for if we look throughout the Scripture and the whole manner of Jewish Computation of Time we shall find They always understood Months Lunar Months and the very Solemnity of their New Moons absolutely requir'd it so that to understand them otherwise must needs be to understand against that constant use of Scripture and the Importance of the Name of their Months Scripture uses But now their Years were so necessarily Solar Years for there can indeed be no Year but strictly Solar that they most industriously provided to Adequate their Lunar Time to their Solar by Intercalations and Inserted Months or a double Adar which was their last Month of the Year we every Leap-Year by a double Twenty Eighth of February As may be seen by the Learned in that Excellent Tract of Maimonides of Intercalations which gives great light to this whole Matter As shall be farther taken notice of in the after Management of this Discourse Having given this general View of this Grand Prophetical Line of Time which appears to be of sovereign Use to the Church of God by the so often Repetition of it I think it necessary to make these Practical Remarks upon it for the universal profit of all that read it It ought to administer no Scandal to us that Christianity Remark 1 hath yet had no greater Effect in the Universe upon Jews Mahometans Pagans That it hath not won upon the world to an universal Conversion to it That it hath not prevail'd upon Christians themselves to higher degrees of Religious and Holy Affections and Actions That it hath not reconcil'd Men more to one another and made the Wolf and the Lamb to lye down together That it hath not fill'd the Earth with the knowledge of God as the Waters cover the Sea That it hath not deriv'd down a more universal state of outward Blessing Prosperity Peace and Happiness For these are the great Promises and Pretentions of the Kingdom Christ design'd to erect in the World now an Enemy hath done all this in the Wisdom of God and Christ the old Dragon the Serpent Satan hath inhabited and acted a Bestian Empire first as Pagan and in the very appearance of a Dragon watching to devour the manly Birth of Christianity and since That Empire became Christian in a Bestian Kingdom of Apostasie and this hath surpris'd and cut off the blessed Emanations of Christianity and the Gospel and made the Christian World except in some small chosen Parts of it like the Wilderness like Heathen Pagan Nations and Kingdoms full of Scandals to the great hinderance of the other parts of the World from submission to the Scepter of Christ or taking upon them his Name and Profession and made ineffectual this Profession to the very Professors of it And this hath been lo these twelve hundred and fifty years wait only till the ten are run out also and you shall see a greater change in the World than ever yet it hath known Christianity shall then prevail more in a little time than it hath done ever yet The Light of one day shall be as the Light of seven till it grows brighter and brighter to the perfect Day of Christs Kingdom the first
God pleases their strong Holds are like the first ripe Figs that fall into the Mouth of the Eater Their Nahum 3. 12. Warlike People are as Women This is a visible Pledge God will be ready with all things else the Tenth of the great City falling and that Turkish woe passing away when his Witnesses shall rise Revel .. 13. 11. Our Duty is to stand still to be in our Station of Subjection to the Powers that are over us and to see the Salvation of God and He that put it into the Hearts of Princes to agree and give their Power to the Beast untill His words shall be fulfill'd will also put it into their Heart to agree to do what shall then be to be done by his Appointment Our right sense of which and suitable Obedience to our Prince will be an Honour to Christianity to our Hearing and Reading this Prophecy and a Safety to our Souls if it should not be as it is most likely to be and we have the Royal Promise it shall be and I much hope it in these Nations even according to this Prophecy to our Concernments in this World And thus I have brought to a Point the Beginning of this Line at 437 which is the Foundation of all and accordingly we shall find the whole going on to 1697. The End of this first Point settling the Epoch or Beginning of this Line of 1260 Dayes ERRATA PAge 20. Line 3. for sixth read seventh p. 23. 6th line before the last for Witnesses read Woman p. 24. l. 15. As every Leap-Year we double February 24 to equal the Suns Year to our Account p. 58. l. 1. blot all of p. 64. l. 14. read Myrtle SECT VI. Wherein The Third Part of Men upon which the Trumpets have their Effects is more fully made clear to be the Roman Imperialness and that the Symbols of the Three first Trumpets do most plainly agree with the History in full Answer to the second and third Enquiry HAving given a general Account of the things nam'd in the Contents so far as is necessary to settle the Beginning of that Line upon the beginning of which we have been so intent it is now necessary to give a more ample Satisfaction concerning the Third part of men both that It means the Roman Imperial Power as also why the Empire being Christian there was such an Effusion or Wrath upon it that so the whole Line may be thereby ascertain'd The first Time then in true order of nature in this Prophecy though not in Place or in the Contexture of it this Third Part is found and made use of is in that Vision of the Dragon Revel 12. 3. Where I think hardly any Interpreter does not think there is a Representation of the Roman Pagan Empire in one Line or other of that Table And indeed when we consider the Prophecy hath the Roman Empire for its great Subject seeing in the Days of that and at the end of that Christ's glorious Kingdom is to be establish'd it is every where where it can be to be suppos'd and seeing here All things agree to it and that the Careir of Time was guided directly to it in the parallel Vision to this viz. of the fifth and sixth Seals upon the Dragon watching to destroy the Prince the Christian Church was to bring forth and to devour it in which Cause so many Souls lay under the Altar and yet that the Lamb was on the Throne from all this we cannot but suppose the Roman Pagan Empire intended The third part then of the Stars brush'd down as it were with the Tail of the Dragon whatever spiritual Signification it hath of the Sathanick Power does also suppose those Supreme Princes and States that the Roman Imperialism dismounted and made tributary stamping upon them with its Legs of Iron according to Daniel The Emblem is lively Dan. 7. 7. and elegant to present their Dominions converted into Provinces subjected to the Roman Dominion So that from hence That Empire Thirding the East and West of the Sovereignties of the habitable known World in the divine Judgment of it is symbol'd by a third part of Nature it self viz. Earth Trees Sea Fountains Sun c. for of the third part of the Stars brought under its universal Monarchy it was constituted And in this very Vision where the Holy Spirit who fore-knew and fore-saw what Interpretations would be made of what he writ and what Interpretations he would have to be made and in what Time and to what degrees of Certainty and Assurance these Interpretations should rise and so from thence what was fit to be laid in the Foundations and what to be superstracted The Holy Spirit that knew all this knew that in the Vision of the Dragon there would be found the Roman Monarchy agreedly so that there would be a fair Conduct to its third part in Dominion and wherever that Imperialness resided whether in the East or the West it was mounted upon the Ruine or Subjection of the third part of the Stars and so the third part became the Figure of the Roman Imperialness not of the whole Territory of the Empire but of the Imperialism or Grandeur of Supremacy And what was most immediately and properly to touch that is according to the most solemn Symbolicks of this Prophecy said to touch and impeach that third part For otherwise the whole Empire is call'd in the Evang. Luke the whole Habitable World and in the course of the Luke 2. 1. four Judgments of the fourth Seal which rang'd equally as it were over the whole Territory and Dominion of the Empire Death is said to have Power given it over four parts of men or over every fourth part with each Judgment signifying the free Expatiation of those Judgments upon the whole Latitude of the Empire and as it were quartering it with a judiciary staff But here the Territory of the Empire with its far and wide Dominion over the Earth was under the Ravage of Death without any touch upon the Imperialisme it self although so many Emperours fell under it and so there is no mention of the third part Revel 6. 8. So in the change of the Empire from Heathenism to Christianity there was no Change upon the Imperiality which continued as high still in the Christian Emperours from Constantine to the Death of the Great Theodosius as it was before the Description therefore is as if Heaven and Earth were concern'd in the Mutation but there is no mention of a third Revel 6. ult The opening of the bottomless Pit darkned the Sun and the Air with the Smoak out of which the Locusts came upon the Earth and they had Power to hurt men universally but Revel 9. 6. because the Imperial Sovereignty was not to be hurt in the very Imperiality there is no mention of the third part but when the Turkish Number was to seise upon the Eastern Throne that had its first Establishment upon the
now the Church was indeed out of view by the Apostasie introduc'd by the Gentiles the Beasts people under the other Beast so that the False Church hid the True as in a wilderness The Gentiles crowded the True worshippers into a clos'd Temple The Daily was taken away The witnesses were in Sackcloth where then could the True Church be seen All was scatter'd no Body of a Church appear'd but the Antichristian to this state things grew more and more under the Regnancy of the Beast till the Woman was fled from the Serpent himself All this is then to be accounted to the Beast serving the True Church by Gods overruling Hand so far as that it was out of the Dragons reach who was deceived thinking to strike the True but the False lay bleeding In the mean time Satan however in his Serpentine and draconick Nature jealous of any thing of Christ even in his own Kingdom first persecutes the Empire by the Barbarians where He knew the woman very lately was by her bringing forth the Manly Birth He struck at it by way of distinction in his own Aym but finding He could not reach it by the rude strokes of the Barbarians but the Eagles wings had convey'd it away and finding that those Barbarous Nations setled by degrees into the Antichristian Christianity and so help'd it forward into the wilderness He then resolved to be sure of it attempted to swallow it by the Mahometan Flood But This neither distinguishing it nor succeeding because the Bestian Earth drunk up the Flood not only receiving it upon it self but maintaining the name Doctrine Profession and Church state of Christianity so far as is necessary absolutely to Antichristianisme and its Kingdom so drunk up the Flood by setting it self against the blasphemous monstrous Mahometan Imposture and with a deadly hate because Mahometanism is no less against Antichristianity than Christianity so the Serpent disappointed is wroth and as so necessitated determines now to sift for his Ends by Draconism refin'd into Beastianism Heathenism guilded with Christianity but pointed and edg'd with Antichristianisme which is a compound of the Dragon and the Beast And because this Antichristian state allowed such a thing as a Christian Church tho but it self only He can make war only with the womans seed And to the purpose and as we say with a Vengeance He makes War with the womans seed who keep the Commandments God and hold as witnesses the Martyry of Jesus that is by the Beast whose History immediately follows cap. 13. and to whom the Dragon deputed his power and seat even Great Authority which Delegation the other Beast that spake as a Dragon viz. the False Prophecy received and managed for him the Grand Beast until He came to his Image and Number and so the Dragon and the Beast continue together till the Beast is taken and cast into the Lake and the Dragon and all his Draconism bound Chain'd and Seal'd up by the Kingdom of Christ appearing Rev. c. 19. c. 20. v. 1. And this is the True History of Draconism as entred into Bestianism by which it plainly appears the scattering of the Power of the Holy People or the state of the Woman in the Wilderness is wholly owing to the Beast and his Bestianism whose are Time Times Half Time and that the Dragon and his Persecution were wholly defeated by the Bestian Apostacy conveying the Church from the Serpent till He wrought by the Beast and made over his Power to Him in revenge upon the Womans Seed it self being still safe Now how admirable is all this according to the Symbols the Beast still in all appearance and semblance secures Christ on the Throne while it supplants his true Kingdom and Power for how could Antichrist's Kingdom stand if Christ were not in Title upon the Throne But how could it stand if Christ did indeed reign No it presently falls then or rather vanisheth away Again the Wings of the Apostatiz'd Empire while they convey the true Church out of all ordinary Visibility yet secure it in the Name and Notion of a Church the Beast's Earth thus helps it for a Christian Church is his Claim and Title to his Kingdom but it must be hidden for a true Christian Church visible destroys his Kingdom Thus all things even to Astonishment at the divine Prophetick Wisdom have a Harmony in Truth greater than that of the Spheres in Imagination Mahometans and Pagan Infidels by subverting Christianity necessarily overthrow Antichrist's Kingdom also it is in indispensable need of Christianity so far as a Pretence goes but the Brightness and native Glory consumes it while Christianity under a false mask supports it true Christianity scorches it to nothing as will be seen at the Vial pour'd into the Sun true Christianity and the Church therefore must be hidden and in the Wilderness and its Seed persecuted as if not of the Church that false Christianity and the false Church may reign in its Absence under its Name and Appearance Thus while the Dragon persecutes in his Aim and Intention the Christian Church the Apostacy pretending it self the Vniversal Church conveys the true Church into a Wilderness and so befriends the Notion of a Church while it conveys it out of sight the Dragon by the Beast makes War with the Seed and scatters them that they could not possibly be found in the Body of a Church not but that the Church was truly visible in the single Witnesses however anathematiz'd but it could not be reach'd in a Body even by the Serpent himself for it was not in a Body and yet the Notion of a Church was dear to the Antichristians for They and the Beast usurp'd it At this Time therefore according to this Prophecy it could be no Argument against the Church Where was it or It was not visible in a Body for it was not to be visible in a Body but in the Suffering scatter'd Seed So that it was hid from the very Serpent And yet even to the end of the 1260 Days there is a Mahometan Draconism levelling at Christ Christianity and the true Church but falling almost wholly upon the false Church and the Antichristian King and his Subjects who is therefore always principally concern'd to drink up this Flood and so helps the true Church by his Earth There is nothing at the present I can think necessary to add to this Explication of the Apocalyptical Dragon but that the whole Vision Rev. 12. to v. 13. is presented as in Heaven so that the Assumption of the manly Birth the Joy upon the Dragon 's casting down upon the Kingdom of our God being come c. is given as in Heaven and is reserved also in Heaven till the glorious Appearance of Christ and there is no more but such an imperfect cognisance of those great Things upon Earth as was given by the Christian short Empire to be expected till that glorious Kingdom of Christ at the end of the Beast's Reign which may
manly Birth that had Right to Rule all Nations Now with this Dragon the Beast was to be united to receive his Throne Power and great Authority from him and in Him the Dragon must Live and be Worshipped Therefore He that is the Beast must be Roman and Sit at Rome from which the Christian Emperours by Divine Conduct receded that this Character of the Beast might be left free to the Beast alone And under Him it must be Antichristian until the very Glorious Kingdom of Christ and then is to be Burnt when the Beast is Taken and Cast into the Lake that it may answer the whole Ichnography or Description Rev. c. 17. c. 18. Now that we may throughly understand this Character and the certainty of it By the Woman that sits on the Beast must be Apprehended Rome as a City and a Church a False and Antichristian Church fix'd in and made inseparable from this City No other can answer the Prophecy so that the other Beast called the False Prophet cannot be conceived by it For whereas this City must be burnt as from Heaven the False Prophet was taken with the Beast and cast into the Lake That it must be the very City is plain by the whole Prophetical Type This had the Seven Kings united with the whole Empire that by their Residence in it did also carry it and bear it aloft This Sate on many Waters This Reigned over the Kings of the Earth This had its Merchants and its various Merchandises its Pomp and its Pleasures This is the Eternal Rome that after its being Thrown a burning Mountain into the Sea at above twelve hundred Years old was preserv'd and rescu'd and hath stood twelve hundred Years more so Great as it is at this Day and shall not be totally Destroy'd till the Appearance of Christ It s Epoch of Restitution is in Sacred Prophecy as Chronicular and Monumental as is its Building or Vrbs Condita But as it is a City so is it an Apostatiz'd Church fix'd to that City For on its Forhead is written Mystery the sense of which is Church in a City opposite to the Mystery of the Seven Churches but agreeable to the mystery of Iniquity It is the Great Whore and mother of Harlots with which the Kings and People of the Earth have committed Fornication And this we know is the constant description of an Idolatrous Church in the Old Testament as of Aholiab and Aholibah Ezek. 23. It is Babylon the Great in this Mystery and it is spiritually call'd Sodom the Impure City in its Spiritual Fornications as well as corporeal Nicolaitanism and Aegypt the enslaving cruel City holding the Israel of God in Bondage It is Spiritually that Apostate Jerusalem that is in Bondage with its Children where our Lord was Crucified It covers the true Church call'd for its sake Pergamus and the high-rais'd Throne of Satan so it is Thyatyra the Spiritual Jezebel Daughter of Eth. Baal King of the Sidonians Daughter of an Ethnick Idolatrous City whose Merchandises are the Instruments of Idolatry and Superstition sum'd up in the Bodies of men not only attending its State as the Scarlet Fine Linnen Gold Silver Ivory Precious Wood does but its blind dark Religion requiring servile stupid Brutes for men and Souls of men perishing for ever in its service against Light and Convictions of Truth and defending it with a violated distorted Reason abus'd Parts and Learning Revel 18. 13. And this Rome must be both the City and Church for here and in it the Primacy of St. Peter residing as Bishop laid the Foundation of its so long Greatness under the Name of the Apostolick See Constantinople was but an Eminence as small as the Fame of it Seven Hills but as little Risings compar'd with this Eternal Church of Eternal Rome The Ottoman Port has swallowed that Flames from Heaven rest upon this so that the Smoke of its Burning shall ascend for ever and ever as both City and Church For so Prophecy hath read its destiny and it cannot be revers'd Strong is the Lord that Judgeth it This City then is to be a Pyramid Pile of Smoke and Flame ascending for ever and ever an eternal City of burning as the City Sodome a Lake of Brimstone settling in its very Room Place and Scituation a Jerico so curs'd as to be no more built and an Apostate Church suffering as spiritual Sodome the vengeance of eternal Fire He The Beast must carry universal monarchy as the Emperours 〈…〉 of Rome did over as it were the habitable World for so his Union with the Dragon imports and yet that this may not be mistaken it must be in an Image a real martial natural Cesareate is not in the prophetical Portraicture of Antichrist but in the Image of a Pontificate or a Vicarship to Christ on Earth even as the Caesars carried a Pontificate enchas'd into their Imperialism or Cesareate so the Beast bears a Cesareate or imperial Power enchas'd into his Pontificate The other Beast therefore ministring to the Worship of the first Beast viz. the Roman Empire as to be under the seventh head but not yet erected into publick Dignity and Supremacy found no way to do it but by saying to the Antichristian Earth and its Inhabitants that they should make an Revel 13. v. 14 15. c. Image to the first Beast that was wounded with a sword and did live was wounded in the sixth head liv'd in the seventh but was not yet in Dignity to be worshipped to this entire Beast as in the seventh head was to be made an Image of Idolatry and an Image of Imperiality an universal Power under the Image of an in ordine ad spiritualia resident in a pontifical supremacy and infallibility And when this Image had by the continuing service of that other Beast Life given to it to speak and to cause That all that would not worship this Image c. 14. v. 9. c. 15. v. 2. c. 16. v. 2. c. 19. v. 20. c. 20. v. 4 should be kill'd and that all should receive a mark c. Here arose the universal monarchy in an Image and from this time the Prophecy joyns continually the Beast and his Image together The Beast must answer that prophetick motto or Inscription Caract 5. upon him thrice given and pointing at three several Seasons 1. The Beast that Was Is not he is the eighth and is of the Ch. 17. 11. seven and goeth into Perdition this is determin'd to the point of time proper to his Succession and then he must answer it 2. The Beast that was is not shall ascend out of the bottomless v. 8. Pit c. This is determined to the times in which the Beast first bore the Woman For the Beast that thou sawest viz. with the Woman sitting upon him was c. Then therefore he must answer that Inscription 3. The Beast that was is not yet is This is determined to v. 8. the time when
this Argu. 1 Prophecy speaks of their King He is the Angel of the bottomless Pit whose Name is Abaddon in the Hebrew Tongue and in the Greek Apollion Now by this Description it is most evident some Potentacy is describ'd that hath its place in the World and whose very Constitution should of all that hath ever been in the World be such a one as Sathan himself who is the only proper Angel of the bottomless Pit hath and would choose to appear in be the immediate Intelligence of and the Spirit that acts it above any Potentacy that hath been in the World to this day But it is in the first place to be consider'd that as the Locusts and Horse-men we shall find plainly united in their empoyson'd Tayls of Serpents so they are in their King and his Title is therefore set in the joynt between the fifth and sixth Trumpet to communicate with both The Potentacy then must be a Potentacy on Earth and it must seat it self in the Hebrew and Grecian Acropoles or chief Cities as the Hebrew and Greek Tongues imports like as the Inscription upon our Saviour This is the King of the Jews was providentially written in Latin Greek and Hebrew to shew the chief Residency of his Kingdom in those so known parts of the World I appeal then to all Christians whether since the days of Christ or indeed since the Creation there hath been an Empire in the World that may be compris'd in one word viz. Mahometan that for the foule fordid base Impostures of its Religion and Alchoran the ignorance and bruitishness of its very Profession the Cruelty and ravage it hath made upon humane Nature to the utmost signification of the Words Abaddon or Apollion or wherein Sathan hath most immediately appear'd as the Enemy and Destroyer of Mankind can be said to be under the Angel of the bottomless Pit as its King with such propriety as the Mahometan Abating the confession of one God and the abhorrence of Image-Idolatry there is not any thing in which the utmost Effects of the Angel of the bottomless Pit have not been seen and even that good in that Confession of one God is improv'd by his Malice against the Knowledge of the true God in the Son and Holy Spirit and so may well be couch'd in the very Words Abaddon and Apollion as the every way most incomparable Dr. More hath with highest Ingeny and Learning observ'd The fallen Star that had the Key of the bottomless Pit who is sathanick enough in whom the Dragon also inhabits who hath been bloody to great Extremities yet is even essentially enough distinguished from him He is a Star fallen from another Sphere descends with the Key and ascends and lets out the Smoke but is in regard of the true Religion he professes still and maintains however debauch'd by Antichristianism not a Native of the Abyss as this Angel is he holds the Scripture while he lets out the Smoke also But this Angel of the bottomless Pit hath no more of God but what Hell hath that believes one God trembles in the acknowledge of him All else is perfect Hell The Time most eminently and illustriously agrees For after the Roman Western State was in Justinians Time so wholly unenlightned after the Christian three Woes proclaimed by Pope Gregory the first after Vniversality given by Phocas and receiv'd by Boniface and that there was some time for opening the bottomless Pit and letting out the Smoke out of that Smoke comes Mahomet the false Prophet and King of the Locusts inhabited and possessed by the Angel of the bottomless Pit of which his Epileptick Fits were an Emblem if not the Effects of a very possession according to the eminently judicious Mede upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the possessed in the Gospel he comes I say a false Prophet in Armour leading these Men-locusts who have a King over them for Solomon observes Proverbs 30. 27. those natural Insects have no King that we may thereby know These are Men-locusts This Mahomet upon his Persecution for his hellish Imposture makes a flight from Mecha and sets up for Prophet and King that flight becomes in the Judgment of God a famous Hegira an Era or Date of Time at Anno Dom. 622. from thence this Prophecy draws a Line to the taking Constantinople 1453. of just 830 years of which allowing five Months and five Months to the Locusts and their Action and an interspers'd five months after the manner of Locusts before between and after the heat and height of their Action their share will be to 1057 that is Four hundred thirty five Years when the Turkish Sultany entred into a remarkable Appearance in the World in Tangrolipix as then prepar'd for an Hour a Day a Month and a Year Which is most exact as to point of Time as will appear in that part to 1453 when Constantinople became the Ottoman Port. The Symbols or Parables of the Prophecy and the Parallels of History are most exact The Locusts came out of the Drought and Smoak of the Apostacy Thus Mahometanism sprung as is observ'd out of the Idleness Stupidity and Superstition of Monkery for Sergius the Monk incubated the Alcoran Their Power as the Scorpions of the Earth have Power their having Stings in their Tails and their hurting with them are all significant of their false serpentine Religion and their false Prophetism which Scripture compares to a Tail Now the propagation of this their Venome is the great pretence for their Cruelty and this envenom'd Syrma of a devilish Religion strikes under and for the sake of which their enslaving is worse than Death it self Their hurting neither the Grass of the Earth nor any green thing nor any Tree speaks the universal Blast of the Apostacy and its Drought that there was no such thing in Appearance to be hurt the Witnesses the Worshippers the Servants of God were all close The Woman in the Wilderness where the Serpent could not find her as before explain'd No green Olive Tree appeared tho' still secretly they emptied their Oyl but in the Time of these Locusts Elijah's Drought had withered all Appearances but what was secretly in the Temple in the House of God Psal 52. 8. The Emblems of their Warlikeness are very admirable their Likenesses were as Horses prepar'd to the Battel on their Head was the Glister of their Helmets like Crowns of Gold their Faces as of Men their Arabian Locks like the Hair of Women their Teeth as of Lyons their Breastplates of Iron the noise of their Wings was as the sound of Chariots and Horses running to the Battel and a warlike King over them All these are demonstrative Emblems of armed men The description of Locusts Joel 2. is so like this of the Apocal. 9. that I cannot think but that besides the litteral sense it had a prospect upon them And These as They came out of the Drought describ'd c. 1. of that Prophecy viz. the universal
Wither of all the Greenness of Religion For so Scripture Prophecy both designs before-hand for and after derives from it self The Distribution of their dreadful Effects to a five months of Torment upon men like the stroke of a Scorpion while it was a vexation to understand the Report we suppose according to History was their first invading the World in general and hovering over the Apostate Kingdom The swiftness of their Success was so prodigious that it could not but be thought that the Lord uttered his Voice before his Army and that as his Camp was very great so he was strong that executed his Word that the Day of the Lord was very terrible and none could abide it before their Face all People were much pained and all Faces gather'd Blackness The continual Tidings of their Victories and Successes was to be continually tormented as with Job's Messengers or with the stroak of a Scorpion a not being kill'd but a living in pain But when this Army drew nearer into Italy and even to Rome it self in the second five Months when it enter'd the very Gates of that great City they ran up the Walls and enter'd in at the Windows to pillage and plunder and were also perpetually striking with the Tails of not only their false Religion but in Contempt and Scorn of the Antichristian Idolatry and Image-worship it was worse than a speedy Death or a total Conquest the prophetical Death here intended especially when it came to cruel Slavery It was no wonder then men sought for Death that is a quiet State although of being conquered and in Subjection and could not find it it fled from them for God had determin'd them this lingring Torment and not a speedy Death or Conquest over them and even these Locusts could do no more than what was commanded them and given to them Now their Power the five second Months was more than the first it was not only to torment with their terrour and report but to hurt with a real Presence but it was only to hurt and not to kill as the Turkish Cavalry was to do at Constantinople so they could do no more than hurt they could not kill the Bestian Rome and Empire were to survive them Thus they had five Months and five Months of Action eminent grand Action but seeing they had the space of five Months more in their Fourhundred and thirty years they must be suppos'd to come out of a first Formation and rude Preparations or to be at a distance from the effects of Torment and Hurt upon the unsealed Anticbristian especially Western State And at their latter end of Power a winterly Torpor and Deadness seis'd them and the Turkish Power drove them into a desolate Land and their stink as of an Army of dead Serpents came up that yet in their Time had done great things and so is their Memory at this day And thus History and Prophecy will agree in the account of their Time at least in relation to the Bestian Kingdom besides supposable Interspersions or Truces of their Impressions upon the Earth of the fallen Star or Antichrist The just and natural ensuing Woe upon this first as close Arg. 4 as the two Bestian Times one to another and yet distinguish'd too under the very same Mahometan King or Angel of the bottomless Pit and in the Entail of the same serpentine Religion is a very persuasive Argument of the due Explication of these things in Prophecy whose Situation Connexion and Sequence one upon another even as the Hour Day Month and Year upon their Five Months Five Months and their Vacation or Non-Term of Action is close and inseparable but this will rise into a farther Observation upon that part of the Line in the mean time as a strong support it helps to sustain the Point we are upon The very great fitness of these Locusts under their King Mahomet is every way most admirable to be a Scourge and Arg. 5 Woe upon the Antichristian Empire and their Months or Half-Moon to be a portentous Paraselene or another Moon upon them They are a mock-state every way to them by the severe Vengeance of God an Antichrist to Antichrist coming by Sergius the Monk out of their very Smoak let out by the Key-bearing fallen Star Their King an Angel of the bottomless Pit rivals the Star of the bottomless Pit the Monarchy of the Beast and his ten Horns is mated by the Monarchy of this King and one Vniversality by the other the pseudo or false Prophetism of the one by that of the other the Miracles of the one by those of the other the Superstition of the one and the Cruelty and Bloodiness of the one by those of the other both are sharers in the Roman Empire each hath his Rome one old Rome the other new Rome each of which Imperial Cities are in this prophetick Emblem Thirds of Men. Both aspire to the Possession of Jerusalem as having the promise of Universal Monarchy and Dominion but both mistake the Jerusalem in Bondage for that which comes down from above at which both will be vanish'd Both are Draconick and oppose and stave off the true Kingdom of Christ both oppress the Witnesses and Servants of God but the Beast by single War with them the King of the Locusts in the general and mistaking the false Church for the true and its earthly Glory for the Glory of Christ and so cannot hurt the true Glory both last the one as a Bestian Kingdom the other as a Woe till the end of the 1260 Days Both are to be utterly destroy'd before the Glorious Kingdom of Christ But the latter is a Judgment and a Woe-Trumpet on the former both as it is Christian in Pretence and Profession to which Mahomet is a profess'd Foe and as it is Antichristian Idolatrous and Superstitious for so it is scorned and abused and derided as well as persecuted by Mahometanism Now to ballance these two Antichristianisms one with another and the Interest of Satan in them it is thus to be settled in one Satan is as an Angel of Light falling from Heaven and making use of the Key of the bottomless Pit as if it were the Key of the Kingdom of Heaven in the other he is plainly the Angel of the bottomless Pit and acts as the Destroyâ—r Now the first must be necessarily the most hateful to God because it is the greatest Blasphemy its Moon eclipses the Kingdom of Christ most directly and as it were in the Draconick Nodi surpris'd it when it was to appear at the casting down Satan from Heaven and the manly Birth caught up to the Throne of God upon which Antichristianism as the Finess of Sathanism Mahometanism was provided as a Scourge and Woe of the coursest and thickest of the bottomless Pit and the blackest Appearance of the Angel of it and therefore though Mahometanism shall be finally destroyed and sent back to the bottomless Pit yet Antichristianism shall receive greater
their Corrupt Antichristian state and utterly abolished and an Apocalyptical Evangelical seven shall take their Room so that the Successours in their Places shall have such a Sense of this Great Judgment on them as to Give Glory to God For that at this Time the whole Antichristian State was converted and repented I cannot understand because of the after course of this Prophecy But a great alteraiion in the Posture of the Christian World will then be made It will be of another Model as great a change as seven thousand Orders of Men falling under the sense and influence of this Apocalyptical Prophecy and modelled according to that can make shall then be so that in the whole Succession to the Kingdom of Christ signified by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They shall give Glory to God the God of Heaven in place of the Man of Sin who sat in the Temple of God shewing himself that He is God and in place of Idols of Gold and Silver Then the second Woe shall pass away Mahometanism whatever Existence it may have in the World shall no longer remain the Woe of the Christian World because when Antichristianity the Provocation of so great a Judgment is fallen the Judgment it self shall also remove although Euphrates may yet continue a River till at the sixth Vial it is dried up yet it shall not so overflow as hitherto it hath done And this Woe is always to be esteem'd the Boundary of the 1260 Days for their ending for till that Woe is past they cannot end for till then the Witnesses do not rise perfectly nor come out of Sackcloth till then the Beasts forty two Months of being a Bestian Power do not end nor the 1260 of the Woman in the Wilderness but then they shall all end together Therefore the Crashings and Smoaking of the Mahometan Mountain at this Time gives an alarm to the Expectation of these things and however the Antichristian Power by its Contributions concurr with the Ten Kings to the passing away of that Woe yet let it certainly know that at that very same time and by those very Ten Kings falling off from it it s own Decarchy or Ten-horn'd Supremacy shall fall into the Dust also For as we may be assured The Reformation the rising of the Witnesses are not yet at their top because that Woe is not yet pass'd so we may be assur'd All the Symbols and Emblems of the Antichristian City and Prince as roll'd down from their height and of the Kingdom of Christ rising although being future we cannot so certainly expound them yet they shall in their significancy be fulfill'd and made good to the utmost as those have been before them which we more fully comprehend by History And that all must be fulfill'd within the 180 Years from 1517 or from the Reformation begun then which must be by 1697. For that so the mouth of the Lord hath spoken by this Prophecy I now proceed to argue I must rely upon the proof I have already offer'd along this Line That I have made true motions and progresses upon it in Events of so great Concernment and universal Notoriety to the Christian World as to be most worthy to be the Discoveries of so Sovereign and Imperial a Prophecy given by the Prince of the Kings of the Earth receiv'd from his Father to shew to his Servants digested into a methâ—â—â— and Series of Time most exact and contriv'd into such â—onderful and self-demonstrating Symbols as that they may be found out by them that are stirr'd up by God to Read and so propos'd to those whom God enclines to Hear that Both may come to the Blessedness promis'd by understanding them aright Rev. 1. 3. In comparison of which Events and their order and series as I have presented them the little and close the private and particular points of Story without an equal and just Admensuration to Apocalyptical Time upon which some Names so great that for Reverence I dare not Name have fallen are but as Relations fit for private Discourse and unfit for a grave History or like the Description of small Rivers Hills or Vills unworthy the Title of a Geography and yet such a Prophecy so much below its own Majesty do such Interpretations make it Now according to this so illustrious so orderly Series of Events it will easily appear by Reflection on what is written The Reformation must necessarily be determin'd to the last 180 of the 1260 Years so as to determine at 1697. But I shall yet offer these two particular Arguments The very Time of the Pillar of the Beasts Number erected Argu. 1 I date to 725 or 26 as the solemn Representation of it by the beginning of the Iconoclastick War and so of the Beasts War with the Witnesses The very Time of the Death of the Witnesses I date to 787 represented by the second Council of Nice damning all that refus'd to worship Images the one 72 Years before the two Times of 360 Years a-piece the other only ten Years before Let us now by proportion of the three Years and a half of Elijah's Drought and the three days of our Lord's Death adjust the Expiration of the Intimate Time Times half a Time and as near Ten years after the two whole Times of intimate Time expir'd at 1517 we find the Witnesses standing on their Feet so eminently as that they began to esteem the Thunderbolts of Antichristian Excommunication brutish and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a solemn and Oracular manner as from this very Prophecy to be called Protestants Which Appellation however it began on particular occasion and as only in a providential Representation to agree History with Prophecy as I all along observe yet it hath been espous'd by the whole Reformation and it is by secret instinct derived probably beyond their Intention from these two Apocalyptical Witnesses For what is Protestation or Protestancy but a publick avowed Witness against the Tyranny of the Beast And that so solemn a Denomination is of no small Account appears by that so great Memorial of the Disciples being call'd Christians Acts 11. 26. And as the Pillar of Intimate Time was erected at 725 or 26 71 or 72 Years before the two whole Times so seventy one or seventy two Years after the two whole Times at 1517 lead us to the famous 1588 from which Time the most Catholick Kingdoms so call'd decay'd in Pomp and Reputation not to say the whole Austrian Family And had not the Thunders been seal'd and the Book retired into Prophecy the Parallels had been more illustrious but Sixteen hundred ninety seven shall I am fully assur'd answer for all The Disposal of this Time of the Reformation as it hath Argu. 2 been given is so demonstrative as not to be avoided for the Witnesses Prophecy in Sackcloth 1260 days Twelve hundred sixty days we are assur'd are three times and a half at their full extent for so long the Woman is in the