THE KINGDOM OF JESUS CHRIST Entering its Succession at 1697. According to a Calendar of Time. Drawn by the Four Monarchies and by the Time Times Half Time allowed to the Papacy and the Ten Kingdoms as the last state of the Roman or Fourth Monarchy then Ending Given in Daniel and Expounded by the Revelation in Consent with All History and carrying on the Scripture Line of Time. By T. Beverley a most Humble Minister in the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ Printed in the Year 1689. TO THE Most Excellent MAJESTY OF WILLIAM and MARY By Especial Grace of God According to Prophesie KING and QUEEN of England Scotland France and Ireland Truly Defenders of the Faith. AND To the High Court of Parliament At this Time Assembled Grace and Peace from Him which is which Revel 1. 4 5. was and which is to Come And from the seven Spirits which are before his Throne and from Jesus Christ the Faithful Witness the first Begotten of the Dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Most Dread Soveraigns Most Reverend and Noble Lords Most Worthy Senators and Patriots THE Great God of Heaven having made known of old even to Pagan Princes by his Servants the Prophets what should come to pass hereafter concerning the Kingdom of his Son and the cleansing of his Sanctuary his truly Catholic Church He hath Dan. 8. 14. enabled me the most unworthy of all his Servants the least of Saints and the chiefest of Sinners for the last five years to search and to understand by Books the number of years Dan. 9. 2. He would accomplish in the Patience or Delay of the Kingdom of Christ and in the Desolations of his Sanctuary I having then certain knowledge that the. Accomplishment of those years is as near as 1697 Have believ'd it my Duty in Fear of God who hath committed the Dispensation to me as also in Allegiance and Fidelity to the Supreme Government of these Nations to make publication of the Time and also to explain All those Symbols wherein the Divine Prophesie hath been though more hiddenly yet as certainly when justly concerted conveyed as by plainest words and to make Dedication of it to the Soveraign Government of this Nation with a lowest Obeisance as the meanest of Subjects and yet with the Assurance arising from the Evidence of Sacred Truth that so the Prophesie might be known in the Grand Pretorium or Pallace of the Nation and thereby in all other Places The View presented is worthy the profoundest Consideration of the Greatest Princes Statists and Divines Four Universal Monarchies which have one after another borne such sway in the World and whose Monarchs caus'd their Terror in the Land of the Living for near Daniels Twenty Ezek. 32. â—17 c. Dan. 8. 14. Three Hundred Evenings and Mornings prophetically multiplyed into years but most of Them being gone down into the Pit have laid their Swords under their Heads with their Iniquities on their Bones and to Rise with them if Enemies to the Kingdom of God and herewith the Antichristian State for above these last twelve hundred years with the Monarchs of the Ancient Imperial Roman Territories who have for most of the space given their Power Revel 17. 17. to the Beast But some have already The Rest shall Renunciate to that Adulterous Church and though some of them now with a High Hand cause their Terror in the Land of the Living yet They shall without Repentance beare their Shame also in going down to the sides of the Pit But how much more does that indeed Vniversal Kingdom of Christ at the end of these Four deserve Thought that shall receive These and many more Kingdoms into its Bosom and it self never End and that within so few years It is therefore Princely Wisdom and Nobleness to search and to command that Acts 17. 11. search be made into the Scriptures of the New and Old Testament whether These Things be so or no Not that Divine Oracles can be over-rul'd by a Counsel of Angels or Men but that by the Divinity of Holy Records the certainty of the Prov. 22. 21. Words of Truth may be Receiv'd For the more They are examin'd the more evident their Truth will be And least the Things being indeed so so Grand a Protestant Assembly should under-value Them and Know with Disadvantage hereafter so Great a Prophesie hath been among Them Ezek. 2. 5. and They Rejected it And why should it be thought incredible that the God of Heaven the Revealer of Secrets should so near the Time make Known as He hath always done by whom He pleases the Great Things that are to come to pass so shortly God hath honour'd this Nation with a most stupendious mirror of Providence concerning the Expiration of the Papacy so nigh at Hand why may He not be pleas'd to Honour it also with such a Glass of Prophesie that by the Understanding of the Times our Israel may know what it 1. Chron. 12. 32. ought to do and All the People be most devotely at their Command both as to Affairs Ecclesiastical Civil Military for the steerage of All which the Consideration of the Kingdom of Christ so near would be as the Pole-star For that an Account of All may be Render'd with Comfort to that Universal Kingdom so nigh Approaching what Purity in our Religion Holiness Justice Mercy Amendment of Life Reformation of Manners Contempt of the World Magnanimity Moderation of Church-Power Brotherly Love is necessary even in preparation to so Glorious a Revolution Now the Eternal Wisdom and Counsellor give his Urim and Thummim to the Evangelical Ministry of the Nation a Divine Sentence into the Kings Lips that His Mouth in this Matter may not Transgress in Judgment a Spirit of Judgment to them who sit in Counsel and an Ear to his Churches to Hear what the Spirit sayeth to them that so a People in these Nations may be made ready prepared for the Lord and a High way for our God So prayeth GREAT SOVERAIGNS And Supreme Councel Your Most prostrately Devoted in the Records of Jesus Christ T. Beverley TO THE King and Queens Most Excellent Majesty And to the High Court of Parliament And to All who Love and wait for the Appearance of Jesus Christ The most Humble Petition of your Faithful Minister in the Prophesies of Scripture THAT seeing the Apostle hath promulg'd that Divine 1 Chron. 9. 14. Canon That they who Preach the Evangile or good Tydings should live of the Evangelick reward that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 10. 7. is given to Him that is the Messenger of it And seeing most particularly the declaring the Finishing of the Mystery of God in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is styl'd God's Evangelizing by the Prophets And Lastly seeing it hath pleas'd the Infinite Grace of God to constitute me his most unworthy Servant such an Eu-Angelist to this Nation as to declare the
of the Pagan Empire and the Times of the Antichristian Bestian Empire that They could not meet but then according to Daniels Prophecy expounded by the Revelation They clos'd for then the Dragon or Pagan Empire gave its Throne and Great Authority to Antichrist or the Bestian Empire and the Antichristian Times began And thus the man of Sin was held back as the Apostle said that He might be revealed in his own Time and the middle Time being of an arbitrary interposal but Divine is an Inter-reign of no Account in the Bestian Empire but all comes naturally together that the Dragon as was said Gave his Throne c. as if there had been no Interruption And how decorous now to the Type is All the State of Things as to the Heathen Empire remov'd 1. It was absolutely necessary to the Succession of the Papacy the Heathen Empire should be removed It was then most decorous it should be done by a Christian Empire the Emblem of the Kingdom of Christ and not that the Feet and Toes of Iron of the Roman Bestian Empire should ravage on the Legs of Iron nor the Horns of the seventh Head on the sixth Head which according to prophetic Representation kindly yielded the Succession to it as was said 2. The Christian Empire gave Great Advantage to the Feet of Clay or the Antichristian Hierarchy to negotiate their own power by the Favour of Christian Emperors and their Donations of Titles and Revenues to Christian Bishops and to a Christian Clergy as they affected to be call'd And Shoales of People then coming in to the Princes Religion there was a condescending to the Pagan Divi consecrated Temples Holy-days Priests Pontiffs Rites to the Dead Images So that Resemblances were found for them of a Christian Name until Things came to that pass that the Servants of God were seal'd that is the true Christian Glory was stay'd seal'd up and reserv'd to the future Time of the New Jerusalem and secur'd for that against Antichristian Contagion The Gentiles in Pagan Rites enter'd into the outward Court or Profession of the Christian Name and the True Worshippers retir'd into the Temple The Witnesses put on their Sackcloth out of whith they are not yet and the True Christian Church fled into the Wilderness in which it is still Hid though not so close since the Reformation but yet waits the perfection of the Reformation All which are Expressions of the Antichristian Succession together with the Ten Kings and for which the Trumpets were stay'd from sounding till he who judg'd Righteously of the True Epoch of the Apostasie gave them leave to sound In the second place as to the removing of the Christian Empire how admirably fitted are the Types also For seeing the Bestian Supremacy in the seventh Papal Head and the Ten Kings could not be till all Light of the Sun Moon and Stars of the Christian Empire were darkned and the Empire it self quench'd as a Lamp in Water and Rome so often taken and re-taken that it had no Title of Supremacy over it but that of Bishop and the whole Glory of the Empire blasted as by Hail mingled with Fire who so fit to do this as Barbarian Nations whom Prophecy brands as the Instruments of Sathan the Dragon persecuting the Woman the Church that brought forth the manly Child and who were to be the Horns of the Antichristian Beast by whose Mediation the Dragon gave his power to Him But this Empire however it carried the Name of Christian and bore the Emblem of the Kingdom of Christ still as Jerusalem even after the Crucifying of Christ was call'd the Holy City yet it was so deeply by this Time Antichristianiz'd that the Judgment of God administer'd by these barbarous Nations did indeed pursue it For he abhor'd the Idolatrous Prostitutions and Relapses to Paganism under the disguise of Antichristianism from which he had so wonderfully rescued it As therefore of old He gave up Jerusalem to be either Captivated or destroyed by litteral Babylon on whose Idolatries it doted even so He now delivered up the Christian Church and Empire as so Antichristianiz'd to be either destroyed or enslaved by those Feet of Iron and Clay and that seventh Head and its Ten Horns so that what Sathan did with a Hellish malice God most Righteously and Supremely though most severely executed by Him. And thus we have brought down the Calendar and settled it on that great pillar of Time the Christian Empire Inaugurated in Constantine Illustrated a new in the great Theodose and Vacated in Augustulus from which as we shall find the man of sin in his own Times as the Apostle calls them commencing and of which we have a numeral Calendar given us by Prophecy And the Time where we are to begin we are most certain of by History That it was close to 475 from whence therefore it is to be dated for then Augustulus was compell'd to Abdicate Empire Then therefore Antichristian Times began as I shall now go on to make out and to shew the state of Things from that Time going on till now as we all in great measure must needs know to be very Astonishingly agreeing with Prophecy I have now I say brought down the Calendar in my own Judgment and I offer it to the Judgment of all the Serious supposing it acording to the Spirit of God and therefore undeniable to the fourth Roman Monarchy establish'd upon an Article of Faith at the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ I have led it from thence through the Pagan State of it of which a Dragon watching a Manly birth to devour it is an Emblem so significant of the dreadful Persecutions for above 300 years after Christ as to be even demonstrative and so conducted it to the Christian Empire of which the Dragon cast out of Heaven and a Manly Child caught up to the Throne of God in a Kingdom decreed him as in Heaven though not immediately Appearing on Earth as is manifest by the Churches flying into the Wilderness is an Emblem so Beautiful and Inviting as not to be refus'd And if we do but yield that to be the Emblem of the Roman Monarchy first persecuting Christianity and then it self becomming Christian we are of necessity concluded that either that Christian Empire was all the Kingdom of Christ or that the Roman Monarchy is that Roman Fourth Monarchy still in a direct opposition to the Kingdom of Christ For so the Fourth Monarchy must be the fourth Monarchy till then and if the Roman be the Fourth that must be so Now that that Christian Empire is not the Kingdom of Christ we must needs know because it did not consume all other Kingdoms and because that of Christ shall never end but that of a Christian Empire would continue but a short space About an 150 years was the bounds of it And violently it was made to cease by the Barbarian Force which Prophecy calls the Dragon persecuting that Christian Church that brought
most precise Time of that Happy Revolution The KINGDOM of CHRIST in its Succession upon such undeniable Prophetic Evidence I most Humbly pray that for an Evangelion or reward of so good Tydings I may be Enabled by the Assistances of so Great Protestant Princes Assembly and Nation to perfect the whole Prophetical Ministration committed to me And that it may be laid up for so near a Time to Come as 1697. and the Truth may be Justified by the Event In the mean Time I most Humbly Appeal to the most Reverend Episcopal Robe who are so able and whose proper Function it is to Judge whether any Line of the Chain of the Scripture Argument I have us'd be loose or weak Now that the Contempt of so great a Message and neglect of the Messenger may not rest as a Reproach of the Goodly price Jesus Christ is prized at but that your Bounty may be accepted as a Sacrifice of sweet smelling Savor to God and Abound to the Account of the Nation valueing the Kingdom of Christ shall be the prayer of Soveraign Princes Most Noble Lords Most Honourable Representatives of this Protestant Nation Your most Humble Petitioner and Servant in this Evangile T. Beverley Parts Printed The Scripture Line of Time from the first Sabbath to Abraham From Cyrus to the Millennial Sabbatism The Prophetick Song of Solomon from Davids Kingdom to the Kingdom of Christ. The Command to come out of Babylon The late Revolution Daniel's two Visions Expounded To be Printed The Scripture Line of Time from Abraham to Cyrus The Prayer of the Kingdom or the Lords Prayer The Sacrament of the Kingdom or the Lords Supper adjusted to this Kingdom The Doctrine of the Kingdom and the New Jerusalem The Epistles to the seven Churches the seven Voices or Thunders the seven Vials Expounded To the Angels of the Churches of Christ the Evangelical Ministery most particularly in England Grace and Peace from Him that Holdeth the Seven Stars in his Right Hand and walks in the midst of the Seven Golden Candlesticks and hath the Seven Spirits of God. IT is to you My most Reverend and Dearly Honoured Fathers and Brethren in Christ that in the Second place as in due order I Present the following Discourse Not because you know not the Truth but because you know it and that no Lye is of the Truth and so according to the Apostles prescription concerning Prophesying 1 Cor. 14. 29. are able to Judge when a divine Revelation by way of Exposition as well as of Immediate Inspiration is given to Any One. Not as you well know that you can add or take away from what hath the Evidence of Divine when you find that Suffrage and Joynt Publication Blowing the Trumpet and Giving warning is Your All. I therefore Communicate to you Apart the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the particular Good Tydings I declare least if I am not able to undergo Gal. 2. 2. your Test I had or should Run in vain But I am able if I may so allude to be Baptiz'd with that Baptism and to Render an Apology with Meekness and Fear to any that shall most severely Examine me of the Hope I Promulge through his Grace that I Trust in to work in me Mightily to that purpose I onely Fear Prejudging without Hearing I know I have not onely Believ'd and therefore Spoken but that I have Prophesied according to the Rom. 12. 6 Analogy of the Faith at once given to the Saints according to the Doctrine of Godliness and the Symmetry of All Scripture Prophecy the Light of which hath from God shone into me above what I can express As the Prophets of Old Divinely mov'd were more Inwardly assur'd of being Sent then They could expose to Others I would Humbly offer that one Credential concerning the Time Times Half Time to strict Judgment What greater Argument the Spirit of God design'd That Time should be search'd then giving Dan. 7. 1 it so peculiarly to the little Horn call'd so disertly by Him The Beast and to the Beastian Times in the Revelation and to no other And why search'd if not to be found And is not the Dividing and Multiplying among Themselves those Characters according to precise certain Epochs of the First Time and of the Half Time even Mathematical Let none therefore say the Book is Seal'd or I am not Learn'd Isai 29. ◠〈…〉 Acceptance with God tho' the Things being of difficult Interpretation require greater Attention Especially You will not say so Most Reverend and Learned whose peculiar office It is to Search the Scriptures And you know Daniel and the Revelation are Scripture And Loe I present you the Book unseal'd by the Assistance of Him who prevail'd to Open the Book of Seven Seals And now How would this so near Appearance of the Chief Shepherd oblige us to Feed the flock of Christ not as Lords nor for Filthy lucre but as Ensamples of the Flock â— Pet. 5. 2. How would this Doctrine of the Kingdom Open a door wide and Effectual to all manner of Re-Reformation and to a new and Apostolick mission for the preaching the Everlasting Gospel as by the speed of an Angel flying through the midst of Heaven Rev. 14. 6. It will be so anon within a Prophetical last Half Hour of the Three Days and a Half if not just now How would this preserve us from Grudging one against another â—ames 59. and cause our Moderation one towards another to be known to All Because the Judge is before the doors and the Lord at Hand â—hil 4. 5. How would it cause us to cease to De-Synagogue one another so â—ev â— 8. proper to the Synagogue of Sathan especially when for Indifferents least we come to worship at the Feet of Them we have endeavour'd to shut the Door upon and to acknowledge Christ lov'd them Lâ—t us then Hasten to the Philadelphian State of Purity Love and Peace And so the God of Love and of Peace shall be with us For this cause I bow my Knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is call'd I most Humbly and Earnestly Recommend to you also the assisting and Furthering of me in this work of the Gospel according to my Humble Petition Prefix'd who am however otherwise most justly through the Riches of his Grace as in an Isle of Patmos 〈◊〉 the word of God and for the Testimony of Jesus Christ And as Prostrate upon the ground I most earnestly beg pardon of Heaven and Earth Acknowledging my self Less then the least of All the Ministers of the Gospel and not worthy to be call d a Minister of Christ but by the Grace of God I am what I am and I have Labour'd more Abundantly in this great point thro' the assistance of that Spirit who Divides to all as He will and because He will. Most Reverend and Dearly Loved and Honoured Fathers
46. to 53. under the Papacy and the Ten Kings as can be no way overcome by so much as an Atheist or Papist that will consider The Numeral Calendar of Times and Half a Time is made out by Ballance with the 1260. days and Forty two Months 〈◊〉 54. to â—4 as the Time of the Eclipse of the Church of Christ by the Bestian Moon under its Feet Giving Great understanding of the Calendar both in Allusion to an Eclipse one of the surest Characters of Time in Chronology and also most exactly Calculated in its Time of Duration and various degrees of Beginning Middle and Going of And the Application of a Calendar onely to the Little Horn in Daniel and to the Time of the Bestian Tyranny in the Revelation shews us They must be both the same and that therefore we must be Right in the duration knowing the Epoch of the Times and of the Half Time This is discours'd at large and then by way of Brief Recollection That if the Beasts Times and Half Time are taken alone and Divided and Multiplyed by themselves according to that fix'd Epoch of the Times and of the Half Time They must needs end at 1697. The succession of the Kingdom of Christ is demonstrated necessarily to follow at the end of the half Time together with some Practical p. 64. to the End. Intimations If then to the succession of the Graecian Monarchy in its Divided state we have express Scripture for the Calendar if all History assures us the Roman Empire swallowed that and Scripture present it then in its Greatness even to an Article of Faith and hath both by a real Conspicuous Agreement betwixt it and Prophecy all along presented it to us in its State to this day and given us a Numeral Calendar that tho' Mystick is to be and is I solemnly Assert with undoubted Certainty unlock'd to us as ending at 97. And that nothing can Follow but the Kingdom of Christ Let us being so near a Kingdom that cannot be shaken have Grace wherewith to serve God with Reverence and Godly fear For Our God is a Consuming Fire Hâ—b 12. 28. Besides some small Mistakes in Pointing these few Faults have escap'd which the Courteous Reader is desired to mend thus Page 4â— line 6. for were read we p. 46. l. 28. point thus Compos'd are The p. 50 l. 40. r. Bestianism p. 64. l. 30. r. slay p. 66. l. 26. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A DISCOURSE UPON Those two Grand Visional Dreams of Daniels Prophecy The Dream of the Image given to Nebuchadnezzar and Interpreted by Daniel Chap. 2. And the Dream of the Four Beasts given to Daniel Ch. 7. Wherein it is endeavoured to be proved That These Two Visions are a Calendar of Time comprehending the whole Space from the Time of Nebuchadnezzar's Vniversal Monarchy to the Kingdom and Dominion of Christ under the whole Heaven The Proclaimings whereof shall be heard as from Heaven 1697. I Have in the Foregoing Discourses Adjusted these Visions of Daniel and his whole Prophecy to the Time of Ezekiels Prophecy and particularly to that Cardinal Vision * c. 40. c. of the Glorious Temple and City and therein to the last Joynt of the Line of Time before it viz. the 390 days at the end of which as I have shewn Ezekiel had that so great Vision giving a visional Cessation to his Bearing the Iniquity of the House of Israel I have adjusted also the first of these visions to Nebuchadnezzar's Supreme Monarchy by his Conquest of Egypt viz. to the Second year of it and the twenty seventh of Jehoiachins Captivity and the Thirty fifth of Nebuchadnezzers general Reign Now in all these partiâ—ulars these Two visions have deep Interest as I have shown I now address my self onely to this point to prove that these Two visions are a Real and Substantial Calendar of Time to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ when the Sanctuary shall be Cleans'd according to that Great Note of Daniel's Third vision at the End of the 2300 Evenings and Mornings and most Agreeing with Ezekiels Prophacy when also according to that Prophecy the Everlasting Throne shall be Ezek. 47. 7 c. set up These Two then and indeed the Third vision of Daniel give the Time how Long That great vision of Ezekiel shall be vision onely and put nothing into Act and Effect The Third vision which is Exactly numeral I have already publish'd the probation of as Reaching that End. Without any further preface therfore I lay down these following Arguments to prove that these Two visions are such a Substantial real Calendar and contain also a short Hieroglyphical numeral Calendar of Time Times and Half a Time that Falls into all the Variety and yet Complication of the Characters of Time in the great Prophecy of the New-Testament the Revelation which together with the real Substantial Characters of these visions make the Time demonstratively certain that the succession of Christs Ringdom shall be 1697. Argu. 1 The first Argument I shall Level to this point shall be That These Two Dreams or visions are made so Remarkable by God that They are worthy to be such a Calendar of Time as I affirm of Them Now the first vision as laying the Foundation is fuller of outward pomp and more prepar'd for publick and universal notice But the second is more Inward to the Glory and Kingdom of Christ as a second and more perfecting Hand drawn upon the First The First visionary Dream was granted to Nebuchadnezzar in whom an Vniversal Monarchy then Resided which made him a fit Head of that Image and of that Time also to be continued all along in a Course descending from the Head to the several parts even to the Feet and Toes and then and there to be Broken in pieces and to be succeeded by the Kingdom of Christ And as in preparation to this very purpose the Greatness of this Monarch is so often Amplyfied in the Prophets He is several Times Call'd by God Nebuchadnezzar My Servant as the Great not onely Substitute of Divine power but as the proto Type of it as it shall appear in Christ God gave Him All Nations to serve Him even the Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of the Heaven Jeremiah was Commanded to send Yokes to all Nations as a Symbol of serving Him and submitting to his Yoke Ezekiel calls Him King of Kings a style Prophetick of Christs supreme Title and the Mighty one of the Heathen Daniel represents him by the great Tree whose shaddow cover'd and protected the very Fowls of Heaven and Beasts of the Earth and All Flesh was Replenish'd with its Fruit. His Greatness reach'd to Heaven and his Dominion to the End of the World. This made Him the Head of Gold the Beginning of the Vniversal Monarchy that was to succeed in the Persian Grecian and Roman States and to Foreshow what a Kingdom the Kingdom of Christ was to be in its
thus understood take up no Room nor give any more Resistance or Anti-typy to the four Monarchies before then the Hoasts of Immaterial Beings do to Bodies how innumerable soever or then the Omnipresence of Immensity does to the motion of material Beings throughout the whole Sphere of worldly space or the Notions of Vertue and Justice make resistance after the manner of Armies to the Insults of bodily Puissance and therefore though the Kingdom of Christ had great Effects upon the World in that very spiriritual Sense and by way of Consequence upon bodily Action yet the Imagery of it were as improperly joyn'd with the Imagery of the Monarchies as the laying Spirits in Colours would be when the Action of Body and Matter is intended to be represented first and then that Body and Matter forc'd out of its place by other however purer Matter that should fill its Room and Space for so it is here the Stone though Cut out of the Mountain without Hands becomes a Mountain filling the Earth and the Saints of the most High take the Dominion under the whole Heaven which Expressions plainly shew the State of these Monarchies is not taken away and supplyed by a State above All Heavens but by a State as well under the Heaven and upon the Earth as on high so that the taking away all Earthly State and a Heavenly State succeeding it cannot be the meaning of this Vision nor a spiritual State before that can be the meaning for the highest spiritual State that hath been yet in the World. viz. the Ministery of Christ and his Apostles gave no disturbance to the Monarchies of the World noâ— made any remove of them Argum. 5 The Heavenly State of Christs Kingdom or in the pure and perfect Eternity being foreprized by those Expressions forenam'd from being the meaning and importance of this Vision we may further argue that neither the Spiritual State of Christs Kingdom at his Resurrection nor that Spiritual State prevailing upon the multitude of Christians first by Conversion and then upon Temporal Princes as Constantine and Princes since the Empire becoming Christian under Him can be the purport of this Vision For though the Kingdom of Christ did grow great in its Spirituality and Divine Truth in the Ministry Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ And though the World was in very Great and wonderful manner converted to Christianity after it and though the Kingdom of Christ did become visibly and sensibly Great under Constantine and did break in pieces the whole material and secular frame of the Heathen Roman Monarchy and might seem hereupon to become a Mountain filling the whole Earth and indeed great notice is taken of it in the Revelation as if the Kingdom of our God had been come Revel 12. Yet by comparing two things one in this Prophecy the other in the Apocalyps we shall be plainly convinc'd that neither the Spiritual Kingdom nor his Kingdom supposed in the Christian Empire can be this Stone Mountain nor Kingdom and certain Knowledge not only of History but of the general State of the World will make it good 1. That the Kingdom God sets up shall not be left to other People that is It shall not be as the other Kingdoms bequeath'd left by Will or as we speak demised to other People not without the Death that is the Ruine of the Testator as to his Dominion however his Life might be prolonged This is ordain'd by him whose Dominion is to all Generations Thus the Babylonian demis'd to the Persian the Persian to the Graecian the Graecian to the Roman the Roman shall be forced to surrender to the People of the most High But they shall never pass away their Dominion over whom the Lord Jesus is Prince to any diverse People as the Inheritor of their Power But now let the Kingdom be understood of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ or of the Empire as Christian becoming the Kingdom of Christ and this Character will fit neither for the Spirituality of Christs Kingdom was thus far left to other People that the Apostle after the Resurrection of Christ says That day shall not come except there come an Apostasie First a defection â— Thes c. 2. from the Kingdom of Christ and the Man of Sin who is a Prince most opposite to Christ be Revealed accordingly it is said The Spirit speaketh expresly some viz. a Generation of men shall depart from the Faith c. How then can so much as the Spiritual 1 Tim. 4. 1. Kingdom of Christ be said to stand for ever and ever And then for the Kingdom of Christ being supposed to become Great by Constantine and other Christian Princes since Him It cannot be made good for besides the Inrodes the Barbarous Nations made on the Empire and the Kingdom of the Beast Rising so soon as the same Hour the Empire fell Besides all this the Mahometan Imposture and Pseudo-Religion arose against the spiritual part of Christs Kingdom and its Tyranny against the appearrance of the Kingdom of Christ that should fill the Earth How then did the Kingdom of Christ in this Sense break in pieces all other Kingdoms and consume them that It might it self fill the Earth Or how was the Kingdom under the whole Heaven given to the Saints of the most High Or how was his Kingdom such an Everlasting Kingdom But when ever Christ takes the Kingdom It must be thus universal in its spread and Everlasting in its Duration From whence I conclude neither the Spiritual Evangelical Kingdom begun at the Resurrection of Christ nor the Christian Imperial Kingdom at Constantine is the Kingdom here foretold but one yet to come and though the Spiritual Kingdom then begun never indeed can be totally destroyed nor so much as the Imperialness of the Name of Christ declared in Constantine shall ever be deposed yet the Consumption of all other Dominions and the Greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven cannot so much as be pretended to be Fulfilled while Popery and Mahometanism have such a Name in the World nor can the Prophesie possibly allow any Abridgment of what was once obtained by this Kingdom which yet hath certainly fallen out to Christianity in both the Spiritual and Imperial Kingdom of Christ from whence it is certain It is not the Kingdom here prophesied that hath yet been Nor to speak Impartially can It be understood by either of these Prophesies that there should be any visible Regiment at least in the then known parts of the World but what shall be given to the Saints of the most High when That Kingdom shall appear for All shall be taken from those of the four successive Monarchies that had it before or what ever was enjoyed by any of them within any of those Territories seeing of Them particularly It is prophesied that their Dominion shall be taken away and given to the Saints of the most High and then are added more large and comprehensive