former Methods than a Personal The Last is if alive A Good Philosopher and Divine But a Bad Mariner Though at Roterdam and a worse Husbandman For He makes His Vessel to return back before it comes to its ordained Port Empire and The Gospel ought to Sail to the Extreamest Parts before They Return He makes also His Witnesses to Rise BARE GRAIN Whereas 't is First to rot in the Ground and come up with a New Body as The Apostle plainly demonstrates 'T is well known France is not the Extreamest Nation The Witnesses therefore could not Rise There The Extrusion of the Poor Reffugies was only an Act of Secretion By Him who has his Fan in his hand who being unwilling to have the Wheat and Chaff burned together dispersed them abroad not for their Ruine but their Safety Sodom could not be destroyed till These Lots were gone out And Now The Fatal Day is approaching The French Tyrant was Raised up on purpose to be thrown down and made Great that Neighbour of his might be made Greater But this runs me on another Subject I Freely acknowledge that what I have wrote on these Subjects is New But this gives it a title to Truth Since all who have hitherto wrote on the Same Points have been mistaken Now if Persons would but lay aside their Prejudices to Causes and Persons and consider of things sincerely and impartially I doubt not but they would confess that I have made good The Title and that These things will remain no longer a Mystery to all Generations To God be the Praise and Glory who hath hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and Revealed them unto Babes See! How The Heaven and Earthly Powers Run back This World 's The Green Jerusalem's The Jack The Spirit is The Bias and The NAME Of Him who is the BRANCH Begins The Game Of Time being no Longer ANd I saw another Mighty Angel come down from Heaven c. This Angel comes on a Solemn Embassy from the Mighty God and therefore his Garb is very magnificent He is clothed with a Cloud has a Rainbow on his head his face is like the Sun and his feet as Pillars of Fire The Great Business of his Embassy is to instruct The World in the Great Concern of TIME and to Commence a NEW Dispensation Which is first to be Published throughout the world and then TIME is to be no longer This NEW Dispensation is plainly intimated in the Commission He gives to John saying Thou must Prophecy AGAIN Before Many People c. The Open Book in his hand is The Book of the OLD Dispensation and his Commanding John to eat it up is the Cancelling of it and The Commencing a New One. This Solemn Act of eating it up lays it up in a safe place that Man may come at it at all times and so renders him inexcusable before the Great Judge The King is come himself The WORD is upon his White Horse and though We may regard his Picture in his absence and call it The King yet to call The Written Word so in his Presence is something unmannerly I have a due value for The Written Word of God But a much greater for The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The ETERNAL WORD The One is The Original The other is but The Copy WORDS Printed or writen are but painted And we have had a great many unhappy Artists who have made The Copy very differing from The Original Some of The Draughts look more like J than Jesus The True word is only Audible and not visible No man yet ever saw words only heard them Therefore what is written or Painted in our Books cannot be The True and Real word Before The Marriage 'T is usual to send The Picture But when The Bridegroom comes 't is laid aside If it be asked how we shall distinguish I Answer The Spirit is our Helper and The Bride knows Her Lord. But to Return to The Angel His Drapery is all Hiroglyphick and plainly declares in what part of the world he delivers his Errand viz in the West 'T is the Setting Sun of the Gospel which sets under a Cloud when The Sun is setting 't is usual to see the Rayes dart down on the Sea and Earth like Pillars of Fire Before The Church was all-glorious without but under This New Dispensation She is all-glorious with in Her State is now inverted And This Angel coming to proclaim a New Dispensation and to usher in The Refreshing Times is Clothed with a Cloud which is a Symbol both of Change and Refreshment The Eastern Sun of Righteousness shining on the Western Cloud makes The Rainbow which is a very Comfortable Symbol and assures us God is mindful of his Promise which Promise He Performes by Renewing all The Old Eastern Images in the west For the Death Birth Resurrection Ascension c. of Christ are again Renewed in His Witnesses or Church Regenerate And These Things being strange to The world are appointed to be Published John Therefore is Commanded by The Angel to Prophecy AGAIN And He cryed with a loud voice as when a Lyon roareth He comes from the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah and therefore speaks in his Masters Language But besides His Embassy being to all the World should He not cry a loud He would not be heard And when He had cryed Seven Thunders uttered their Voices c. Since these Thunders are sealed I will not be too busie with them 't is probable they are the Seven years of the Seventh Angels sounding betwixt the Second and Third Woe which are a Mystery till the Last Blast And standing on The Sea and upon The Earth He lift up his hand and swore by Him That liveth for ever and ever c. I Never see The Sun Setting under a Cloud with his Feet like Pillars of Fire but it puts me into a Fit of devotion Thinking of The Most Solemn Oath of This Angel which puts a dismal Catastrophe to The World The Great God who is Just in all his ways and Holy in all his works is unwilling to surprise The world and therefore sends a special Message to Mankind by This Angel to acquaint them that after such a Time TIME should be no longer And That He may be Believed He Confirms it with an Oath that which a more Tremendous and Solemn One was never sworn Now since He has been so kind to send a Special Embassador 'T is worth our while to hear and consider well of his Message His Oath is positive and Indefinite That TIME should be no longer BVT c. But In The Days of The voice of The Seventh Angel when He shall BEGIN to sound The Mystery of God should be finished as He hath declared to his Servants The Prophets Here is no mention made of Time Times and half a Time as by the Angel in Daniel under The sounding of The Sixth Trumpet But The Death of CRONOS or TIME Indefinite is positively
City-Administration For God shall create upon every Dwelling-House of Mount Zion and upon all her Assemblies a Smoak of a Fire by Day and the shining of a flaming Fire by Night and upon all the Glory there shall be a Defence The Sun it self is to be ashamed when God reigns in Zion before his Ancients gloriously The Political part of this Worlds Oeconomy being screwed up to the Harmonious Pitch of the Natural there 's a Non-plus-ultra and we can go no further Nature is the utmost Bounds and is the Handmaid to that Eternal Bliss which is to be revealed in the presence of God for ever The Prophets are so full in their Descriptions of the Glory of this Administration that to come up to any tolerable measure of its Commendation I must transcribe them all and then fall far short of it too For to describe the Beauty of Nature is in a manner to describe GOD Himself who is the Fountain of it which is impossible But there is one of the Prophets put the Old Dispensation and the New in a Ballance his words are these Before these Days there was no hire for Man nor any hire for Beast neither was there any Peace to him that went out or came in because of Affliction for I set all Men every one against his Neighbour But now I will not be unto the Residue of this People as in the former Days saith the Lord of Hosts For the Seed shall be prosperous the Vine shall give her Fruit and the Ground shall give her Encrease and the Heavens shall give their Dew And I will cause the Remnant of this People to enjoy all these things This is a most gracious Promise and that God may be as good as his Word he binds Satan up all the time of this Oeconomy for should he still be loosed things would go on as formerly nay worse but being overcome in this last Battel God promises that neither he nor his crew shall Live Again as formerly when Defeated by Constantine but that they shall be as Drones without Stings and lick up the Dust of the Earth and lie prostrate at the Feet of the New Jerusalem or Church Regenerate for the whole time of this Dispensation The Rest of the Dead lived not till the Thousand Years were ended Then he and the rest of his impudent Dead Vassals will attack this City and Fire comes down from Heaven and destroys them But during his Imprisonment She Rules as a Queen and as the Soveraign Empress of the whole Earth but in an Hierarchical and Spiritual manner and not in an Imperial For Christ was a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck During this Reign there will be no more Appeals to Rome but to Jerusalem for there the Court of the General Assembly of the First Born will be held every Regenerate City sending yearly their Members to serve in this Heavenly Parliament God doth not abolish the Old Jewish Priesthood of Aaron nor the Babylonish one at Rome but puts a far better and more Excellent One in their room and this the Apostle hints all along in his Treatise or his Epistle on this Subject to the Jews he mentions a Rest to the People of God which is nothing else but the Millennium and HE the Heavenly Melchisedeck is supream Administrator in it as Aaron was in the Old Dispensation of the Jews He makes a Comparison all along betwixt one and the other and prefers one in a high degree before the other by all which it may be plainly understood Christs Reign is after a Spiritual Priestly manner and if it had not it had never been put so much in opposition against the Whore and as for the Temporal Power He delegates that to whom He pleases and disposes of it so thorough the whole time of the Millennium that no King or Potentate in the World shall be able to disturb or hurt his True Church The Bride has a Husband invested with all Power in Heaven and in Earth and is sufficient to maintain her against all Whorish Beastly or Satannical Usurpations whatsoever and He will use all his power to Cherish and Caress her to compensate her Sufferings under former Usurpations during his Minority He disposes his Power so that the Kings of the Earth bring their Glory and Honour and lay it in her Lap this is but their Duty and as I may say a Tythe to this Royal Melchisedeck who to requite their kind Protection and Kindness to his Spouse Blesses them as Melchisedeck of old did Abraham and this bringing their Glory and Honour into it stands in direct opposition to that Evil Treatment and Barbarous Affronts the Kings of the Earth of Old put upon her who butchered her Servants as Sheep for the Slaughter for which vile Indignities He now takes Revenge and casts the Beast and the Whore into the Burning Lake Men may raise many Mountains of Difficulties against this New Jerusalem But hear what God saith Who art thou O great Mountain Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a Plain And He shall bring forth the Head-Stone thereof with shouting crying Grace Grace Joshua is brought in by the Prophet standing before the Angel in filthy Garments and Satan at his right Hand and the filthy Raiment is taken away and he is cloathed with Priestly Raiments and a Miter set upon his Head Joshua here is the Representative of the Witnesses in Sackcloth or the Suffering Church in the Old Dispensation And Satan seems to be angry that she should be delivered from his Tyranny and stands by and accuses her of all those Backslidings which he has tempted her to and as it were infers from thence that she is unworthy to be delivered But God rebukes him The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee Is not this a Brand pluck'd out of the fire This Rebuke is that Great Battel fought by the WORD and Satan in which Satan is Defeated and the Virgin-Church Delivered out of his Clutches and a Crown or Miter set upon her Head The Text saith They Lived and Reigned as Priests with Christ a Thousand Years That is all the time which Satan and his Accomplices lay under the Angels Rebuke By this Pair of Witnesses Zerubbabel and Joshua is plainly hinted to us how the Millennium will Commence Zerubbabel is to overthrow all the Powers or Mountains of Opposition and so the Church Regenerate is Deliver'd and he is to assist Joshua in the Establishment of her for it is said The Counsel of Peace is betwixt them hoth The Text saith That The Man whose Name is The BRANCH shall rise out of his Place and build the Temple or City I know not how to make Christ come from Heaven Personally to build this Temple I know He is the Root and Off-spring of David and so may be called a Branch but all his Building is of a Spiritual Nature he builds up his Church Spiritually conferring Spiritual Gifts
within The Inward Powers being purified and set to rights the Outward Powers fall in of course and so the whole Creation quickly recovers its Native Beauty Therefore the first Act of Soveraignty which Christ will exercise will be to purifie the Heart there he begins his Reign of the Millennium If he should come in Person and be in the Air accompanied with an innumerable Company of Saints and Angels as some imagine Alas what would this sight do It would surprize us and we should gape for a little while but it would quickly wear off for we have the glorious Body of the Sun Moon and Stars and all the Beauty of the Creation without us but they have but little influence over us one small Ray of God in the Heart is more than all the Outward Aypearances whatsoever Satan therefore being a cunning Adversary when he came to conquer the World observed the Heart to be the chief Post and made his first Attack upon it and having conquered it and placed his Black Guards there he quickly became Master of the whole World But Christ comes to destroy the Works of the Devil to heal where he has wounded and to build up what he has pulled down and to raise the Creation out of that confusion in which Satan by a long Mis-rule has put it The first Act therefore of his Reign is to regain the Heart and that being secured all the rest come into due subjection And this consideration brings me to my Text. There has been a continual War fince the Creation berwixt Christ and Satan but in this Book particular mention is made of Three Great Battels if the last may be called one In the first Satan is thrown out of Heaven in the second he is thrown out of Heaven Earth taken Prisoner and bound and in the last he is thrown into Hell But this last is not so much a Battel as a Siege or Assault Satan in allusion to Ahaziah sending some of his Captains of Fifty to attack the Saints Camp and Fire comes own from Heaven and destroys them all At the First Battel or at least at the Mustering and Raising his Soldiers Christ was 〈◊〉 a White Horse and at the Second upon a White Horse and 〈◊〉 White-Linnen-Followers and at or after the last upon White Cloud But before I proceed any further I must note Christ's Wars are always of a two-fold Nature by the Word and Sword the Word first proclaims them and then retires into the Rear and the Sword in the Van leads the Armies was Lieutenant As for instance in this Second Battel First the Word gets upon the white Horse and proclaims the War raising an Army of white-Linnen-Followers which are his own Peculiar Army And these are nothing else but Preachers proclaiming a New Dispensation as is self-evident by their Swords being in their Mouths instead of their Hands and of being cloathed in Fine Linnen instead of Steel And tho' the Word's Garments are dipt in Blood 't is of the wicked Soldier 's and not of he own drawing These I say march at first in the Van proclaim the War and bid Defiance and then draw off into the Bear then comes up the Sword or Lieutenant or the Angel in the 〈◊〉 who is the Champion or Goliah of the Word who like him having first summoned the Fowls of the Air to a Treat presently fall on upon the Dragon or Satan and his Armies and Totally Routs them and when he has Routed them then comes up the Word in the Rear and compleats the Victory Preselyting the rest of the World by Preaching for the Text saith The Remnant were stain by the Sword of him that sat upon the Horse whose Sword proceeded out of his Mouth 'T is plain the Angel in the Sun or Constantine the second doth the Rough Work and is the Great Executioner He levels the Mountains and forces open the City Gates that the King of Glory may come in the VVord is nothing but the Word Preached and not a Person as some would have as is plain by the Sword in his Mouth which is the Sword of the Spirit Not by power or by might but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts Things standing thus the Forces of Satan who is Prince of this World being Routed and himself their Generalissimo taken Prisoner he 's not ransomed or bailed since none will be accepted but sent to Prison for a Thousand Years So All the World become the Kingdoms of the ord and his Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords The whole Earth is his now as well by Conquest as by Right of Inheritance all the Inhabitants of the Earth become his Vassals and lie Civilly dead before him The whole Race of Mankind are All concluded under Death their Power and Dominion which is their Life not only devolved on him as of Right the Usurper being Expulsed but also by Conquest by force being taken from them Now the first thing this Mighty Conqueror doth as is the custom of Conquerors He has a respect to his own Trusty Followers and Servants who assisted him in his Conquest to them therefore in the first place he saith Rise and Live That is He Invests them first with Power and they being the first of the Civilly Dead which receive any Power are said first to Live and Rise and this is called the First Resurrection which truly and really is so in a double sence because they are the first Receivers of Power and because 't is the first time that ever Holy and Good Men were so Solemnly Advanced they being to this time not much better than Civilly Dead always labouring under the death of Perfection Tribulation and Affliction Now as to The Rest of the Dead the Text saith They lived not again until the Thousand Years were ended That is The 〈◊〉 of the Conquered received no Power which is Life till the Thousand Years of Satans Imprisonment is ended as the 〈◊〉 and Holy Men do Rise and Live in Christ so the Wicked at dead in or with Satan for Imprisonment is a Civil Death and Christ will let the defeated vanquished or dead crew of Satan to have no Life or Power whilst his Saints Reign and He gives his Saints the Church Regenerate or New Risen Witnesses a Royal Lease or Pattent of Power for a Thousand Years and 〈◊〉 they may have no Rival but be undisturbed all the time 〈◊〉 their great Adversaries to their good behaviour during 〈◊〉 time and here is the greatest reason for this immagiâ—â—â—â— For after his defeat in the last or rather in the first 〈◊〉 by Constantine this cunning Quack healed his Wounds and 〈◊〉 Again creeping into Heaven or the power of Empire in 〈◊〉 of the Church which Power he has Usurped for 1260 〈◊〉 therefore sufficient caution is now taken by binding him 〈◊〉 he Live not Again as before and that he may not palm upon the World any more Whores laying them like changlings in the
in the Earthquake were slain of Men seven Thousand and the Remnant were afrighted and gave Glory to the God of Heaven Now though the Witnesses are already Risen which the more Judicious may easily discern by the Characteristicks before hinted and so my labour of Proof might seem to be spared yet to satisfie others and to make the Copy agree with the Original I find my self obliged to compare them one with the other in the ensuing Explication The Time of Harvest or of finishing their Testimony to cut down the whole Earth being Come There are Two Angels with Sickles One is commanded to cut down the Harvest the other the Vintage Now the Corn is always Ripe before the Grapes and where should the Angel begin the Harvest but in a Corn Countrey We have only Corn England Scotland and Ireland the Grapes are beyond Sea where the Vintage is to be gathered 'T is plain therefore That 〈◊〉 Angel should begin his Harvest first in these parts I think 〈◊〉 not mention when our Harvest was Gathered in England there being now so many on the Premises who helped to get it in By Harvest is meant Constitutions Civil and Ecclesiastical and a Reaping is a Cutting them down Now 'T is plain they have been all Cut down in England as well the Vine of the Church as the Cedar of the State First Monarchy and Episcopacy were Cut down then they Returned and Cut down the Republick and Presbytery and all other Models growing on that Stock These were but Pangs of a New Birth and though they now are both upon the Stage and exist together yet 't is but upon sufferance They are but Trespassers upon the Premises The Promises the Power and Government belongs to the New Birth the Heiress of which they are at present but Guardians An Infant that cannot go must have some body to look after it and who more proper than its own Parents the Old Witnesses But they are certainly civilly extinct Their Cutting down and being Reaped is an undeniable Symbol of Rejection and Abolition The Lease of Old Power being Expired the Head of Monarchy was Cut off and the Head of Episcopacy too and the Head of the Republick and Presbytery had they had any would have been cut off too for Heaven designed to shew some signal Tokens of Abolition The House of Power and Symbol of the Old Dispensation was Burned This was a true Type of the last Conflagration but more particularly of the Expiration of the Old Dispensation when the Harvest is Cut down the Stubble is usually Burned A New Aera Commencing 't was fit there should be New Habitations and God himself designing to Visit the New Powers 't was fit a Purgation by Fire should be used There was an Harvest in our Saviours Time which was nothing else but a Cutting down all the Constitutions of the World as the effect has plainly declared And this is the Second Harvest and will have the same effects This Harvest then being first got in in these Countreys there was reserved some of the Good and Best Wheat for Seed to be thrown into the Ground to raise a New Crop This has been done and it comes up Green and Kindly and is in a very Hopeful and Flourishing Condition not Rising BARE GRAIN but with a New Body such as God has been pleased to give it but of this more hereafter The Old Witnesses observing the time of the Beasts power Expiring made an Attack upon the Whorish Retinue and drove them out of all Power and Dominion This is THEIR DEATH and they ought to Dye first the Time of their end being Come but This Retinue returns with New Vigor and again Assaults the Witnesses driving THEM out of all Power and Dominion This is the Witnesses Death and there is great Insulting and Rejoycing over them because they had Tormented them so much before and many Gifts are sent and much Rejoycing there is at their Re-settlement but they who were their Friends prevailed so much that they should not be Buryed in hopes they would Revive the Text saith They suffered them not to be put in their Graves this argues their Death was not Literal and that the Tree was not pulled up by the Roots only cut off by the Stumps that there might be a new Ingrafting They lie thus Civilly Dead expulsed out of all Employment and Power in the Streets of the Great City which is Spiritually called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was Crucified This City can by no means be meant Rome as some would have it for it was never known that Jerusalem was called Rome and 't is plain Jerusalem is meant hereby Now Jerusalem was a Friendly City belonging to Christs Kindred and Nation and so ought this City in which his Body or Witnesses are to be Slain and no City in the World can claim such a Title as Lond n being the very shadow of it in a Line directly drawn as also doth answer the same in all other Respects of Kindred and Affinity to the Witnesses and though it be the Chief Protestant City yet in a Spiritual Sence Rome almost in a Literal it may be called 〈◊〉 and Egypt nothing hinders this In this City therefore for Three Days and a Half They lie Thrown out of all Power Spiritual and Temporal and some of them were really and Literally cast out into the Street this was in the last Persecution just before the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience when the Spirit of Life from God entered into them and they stood upon their Feet and Great Fear fell upon them which saw them And they leard a Great Voice from Heaven saying Come up hither and they Ascended up to Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies beheld them This was a grievous sight to their Enemies they had taken all care imaginable not only to kill them but to keep them dead But their Death was their Victory as of old their Saviours was for now they rise again to the Amazement of them all Alas Their care extended no farther than to the Old Witnesses with whom they had fought and who had tormented them so much And when they see New Witnesses standing in the Court of Heaven they stand amazed as if they had seen a Spectrum These we know and These we know say they But who are Ye These New Enemies they never dream'd of There 's no Feeing the Soldiers to say they are not risen for they are seen of all the World These then as soon as they appear being the First Fruits of God and to the Lamb all other old Fruit becomes intollerable to Prophecy A sudden Hurricane arises And the Text saith There was a great Earthquake and the Tenth part of the City sell and in the Earthquake was slain of Men Seven Thousand It should not be of Men tho' this Version is so this favours a literal Death too much Other Versions have it the Names of Men or Men of Note The Latin