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
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
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
Prophetical of the Kingdom first comming to the Jews when it shall be Given under the whole Heaven to the Saints of the most High. Thus jealous was Divine honour not onely over it self but careful of presenting to Universal view and notice its great design of setting up an Vniversal Monarchy and Kingdom in a visible Glory by that great Son of Man who is also the Son of God The Glory was not so Given to another but that it was seen to this Gentile Ruler as sitting on a Throne far above Him and He on all occasions was humbled and abased before it And whether these Acknowledgments of the Father might not have an influence on Evilmâ—rodach the Son and move Him to that kindness to Jehoiachin and to set his Throne above any of the Kings the word of God gives us no possitive Rule to assert Yet probable it is both the Father and the Son however convinc'd of the true God knowing Gods determination of the Seaventy years Captivity of the Jews They minght not release it as Cyrus did It being God's Councel it should not be done during that Monarchy because as in Time so in other great Regards it could not Agree to that Type Babylon was to Bear to be so honour'd Argu. 3d. The very Frame and Fabrick of the Dream or Vision it self is a full Evidence of a Calendar of Time to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ For the Image it self is a Calendar of Time and while that sands the Calendar cannot be out of date for the Monarchy like the Sun from sign to sign moves on and slides down from the Head to the Arms and Breast then to the Belly and Thighs then to the Legs and Feet and points to time all along according to the nature of a Calendar both by its duration and by its motion and while the Feet are unbrokan the Image stands and remains a Calendar 2. The Four Mettals Gold Silver Brass Iron and a mixture of Clay according the General Emblem of successive Ages in this very order signifies the Flower and top of Time and the Head of it at first and at last the very dregs of Time. In which the second is said to be a Kingdom Inferior not so Dan 2. 39. much intending the strength or Temperament of the following Persian Monarchs in many regards exceeding the Babylonian as the Inferiority and Posteriority of Time in regard of which the Head was of Gold as further off from Ruin and Desolation to which every succession approached nearer till the very Feet and Toes of Clay had the Fatal and Destructive stroke wherein all fail'd and fell So as in Litteral Bobylon the Glory began in Gold so in mystical Babylon the Feet and Toes of Iron and Clay shall be struck and Broken and the whole Image shall Fall and Great shall be the Fall of it 3. The Monarchies themselves into which the parts of the Image are Interpreted Describe a long Time since it is sufficiently known such Potentacies must have Time to display Themselves in And that if They succeed one Another it must be a long Tract of Time that must give them oportunity to Come on and go off from the Stage of so publick Action Therefore They themselves as Kingdomes or Monarchiies describe long Time. And seeing the Kingdom that shall stand for Ever and Ever and that shall have the dominion under the whole Heaven is plainly plac'd at the End of these Four and Breaks in peices the last The Kingdom of Christ that does this and so the whole Falling and Beaten to Powder and passing away as the Chaff of the Summer Floor must needs be the Scene that must open last and its Times be beyond all their Times Till therefore These Four Kingdomes have had their Time the Kingdom of Christ comes not on nor breaks them in pieces and till the Time the proper Time of the Kingdom of Christ be come these have not had their Full Time So this is an Indented Character of Time if any one That if the last of these Kingdomes be yet continuing It is certain Christ's Kingdom is not yet And if Christs Kingdom be not yet it is certain the last of those Kingdomes is yet continuing and is not dash'd to powder and all the Image with it as it shall be by the Stone cut out of the Mountain Filling the whole Earth when his Kingdom shall come Argu. 4 After a most stately and Magnificent description or Iconism of Four mighty Monarchies that visibly and sensibly rul'd over the World and aw'd it and that by force and power broke in pieces all who did not submit There is subjoyn'd the presence of a Fifth Kingdom or Monarchy that the God of Heaven should Set up and had never yet been set up that should Break in pieces and Consume all these Kingdomes and should it self stand for ever And the description of the Four precedent is evidently on purpose to Introduce and set at the clearest and fullest Light the last The doubt then is what Kingdom this last should be The Sovereignty of Supreme and Universal providence is at all Times alike The most High always Rules changes Times and Seasons Pulls down and Sets up It cannot therefore be understood of that For to what Account would so particular and express Iconism of that Turn that is always the same and always alike or why should that Kingdom of the supreme Godhead administred by his Providence that is an Everlasting Kingdom and Endureth throughout All Generations be thus Postpon'd to Four great Monarchies that existed before them and by and in which they Themselves always subsist while they do subsist This divine Providential Kingdom then it cannot be Let it then be suppos'd to be the Spiritual Evangelick Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ beginning at his Resurrection and Christianizing so great a part of the then Known World and which by degrees brought Nations and Princes into Subjection to it not onely Spiritual but also Politick Civil and Monarchic from the Time of Constantine And that it was not the Spiritual and Evangelical Kingdom of Christ I will contest onely on this Topick When an Image is made up of Four Monarchies Sensible Visible and that did all their work in such a Sensible Visible manner It is against those curious Laws of Iconism in which the Holy Spirit is as Exquisite as in the very order of the Creation or in the Fabrick of Mans Body to subjoyn a Spiritual Stone and Mountain that should as a Stone smite the Image and Break it in Pieces and then it self became a great Mountain filling the Earth and all this onely in an Evangelical Spiritual sense and then Rise up into a perfect Spirituality or Heavenliness and therein continue for Ever This I assert and leave the assertion to every judicious Considerer to be so unlike the admirable Emblematizings or Representations of the Divine Spirit as to be by no means endured For the Stone and the Mountain
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
Words taking in the whole World. Argum. 6 If the very Frame of the Vision be such as is most proper for the giving such a Calendar until that Great Kingdom of Christ then we have Reason to look upon it as such a Calendar Let us then consider in the Image these several Things 1. The whole Image made up of all its Parts 2. The Distribution of the Parts as the several Residencies of the Monarchies 3. The Monarchicness it self 4. The Monarchicness first United in its Residency to such and such Parts and then its remove to other Parts Now in every one of these Particulars by the Wisdom of the Divine Spirit some assurance of Time in general is Given as It runs to the Kingdom of Christ but most particularly the Calendar is fix'd in the Duration of the Monarchic Residence in each part then in the Remove of the Monarchicness from one part to another as shall be seen by this following Reflection on each The whole Image is made up of Four Monarchies which in Allusion to the Humane Body make the upper and lower parts of such a Body the higher Parts the Precedent and first Ages of Time at and after the Vision given and so furthest from the End or Kingdom of Christ the lower parts the after Ages nearer and nearer to the End or Kingdom of Christ The whole Image therefore hath a fitness to describe Time by its Higher and Lower parts and further It self standing and having its several parts subsistent or in Being is thus far a Calendar that we know thereby The Time of the Image is yet and that therefore the Kingdom of Christ is not yet Come even as we know by the Kingdom of Christ not yet Appearing The Image is yet standing Thus we see the whole Image and the distribution of its Parts is prepared as the Dial-plate of a Clock or Watch or as the Months in the year giving together the Circle of the Suns motion But then the Monarchicness is as the Sun moving from Sign to Sign or from Month to Month or as the Hand on the Dial-plate from Hour to Hour so moves that Monarchicness from the higher to the lower parts and thereby defines Time For the Higher the parts in which the Monarchy resides the further off from the Kingdom of Christ the lower it subsides the nearer to the Kingdom of Christ If then we can find the Monarchicness in any parts of this Image yet Resiant or Resting we know in general the Kingdom of Christ hath not yet appeared but if we find it in not only the Legs but in the Feet and Toes we know as the Apostle says It is the last Hour but it is not yet out Let us then consider these Four Kingdomes or Monarchies as closely united as they make this Calendar of Time as the Humane Body is however the parts as several Kingdomes contest one with another where the Monarchicness shall Reside while then the Feet support the whole the whole stands and as the Head of Gold the Arms and Breast of Silver and Thighs of Brass give Lustre to the Iron Legs and Feet part of Iron and part of Clay So the Feet of part Iron part Clay at the same Time support the more excellent Mettals and show their danger of being Beaten together when ever those partly Brittle Feet fail and the Image falls thereupon Till then they Remain as in the Type united as Bodily parts however the Monarchicness as a Spirit Flitts and shifts in its efficacy of Power and Action from one to another viz. from the Higher to Lower on which account in the following Vision it is said the last or fourth Beast in the Little Horn and his Body is given to the devouring Flames But the other Beasts had onely their Dominion taken from them but their Lives were Prolonged That then which principally gives us the Time of the Calendar is the Motion of the Monarchic Spirit from part to part Now that Monarchic Spirit which is specific to all these Monarchies is Idolatrous Salvage Cruel oppos'd to the Kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ So long then as such a Spirit Animates and Informs any part of this Image so long the Calendar is in date And if we can find where this Spirit is now in its Monarchic Energetic force we may know whereabout we are in this Calendar For seeing it is most undeniable the Head of Gold was the First Kingdom and the Kingdom arising after and Inferior in Time was the Second Kingdom That which next followed after was a Third Kingdom that was of Brass and then a Fourth of Iron first as in the Legs and then part of Iron part of Clay as in the Feet and Toes of the last state and that each of these are called Kingdomes and not single Kings and one after another and that God hereby made known to Nebuchadnezzar what should be hereafter Seeing All these things are undeniably thus It is also undeniable these Monarchies are a Calendar of Time And lastly seeing the Kingdom that stands for Ever and Ever so particularly smites the Image in the Feet and Toes of Iron and Clay and that the Iron and the Clay and the Brass and the Silver and the Gold were Broken in pieces together and that in the days of the Kings Symboll'd by the Toes the God of Heaven would Set up a Kingdom and lastly that the Stone cut out of the Mountain without Hands shall Break in Pieces the Iron the Brass and the Clay which is set in the middle as in the point where all were Broken and the Silver and the Gold It is most evident This Image of Gold Silver Brass Iron and Clay is a Calendar of Time till the Everlasting Throne which must be the same with the Throne in Ezekiel and that the Toes particularly as of Clay are the very Last part or End of the Calendar before that Throne or Kingdom Argum. 7 The Consideration of the following Vision of Châ—p 7. the Four Beasts given by God to Daniel is a further Assurance of the Calendar to the Kingdom of Christ drawn in these two Visions For therein God hath doubled the thing for the certainty of it as in Pharohs Dream of old Interpreted by Joseph and there is no Reason to doubt both Visions Center in the same design to lead by the same Four Kingdomes to the Kingdom of Christ and at the same Time viz. at the End of the Four Monarchies There is no Reason I say to doubt although the Materials or Symbols of the Visions differ so much as one to be taken from the several parts of the Body of a Man the other from Salvage Beasts For so the similitudes in Pharohs dream much differ'd one taken from seaven Ears of Corn the other from seaven Kine But as then so now The great Intention was to Ascertain the Event by Ingemination For the Four Kingdomes in both Visions so evidently plain and the Everlasting Kingdom at the
3. Vniversal Monarchy in this Prophecy Alexander the Great is by all allowed to be that Grecian King figur'd by the Leopard and He Goat and is expresly nam'd King of Grecia After Alexander There was a continual mutation and change of that Monarchy out of one Hand into another that it was as into the four Winds in regard of the motion and Variation till it after settled in the four Kingdoms and Conspicuously in Two the Lagidae of Egypt and the Seleucidae of Greco-Syria as in the Two Thighs of the Image so Remarkable a Character of Time as to be known by the Dhil-Karnain or Two Hornes as it were from this Prophecy of Daniel and these Prophecy especially insists upon in the Eleaventh Chapter as the King of the South and of the North as shall be after explain'd And in this succession the Calendar is very clear and not to be doubted as hath been already and shall be further made good in these Three great Positions wherein the further progress of the Calendar down to our very Time shall be even demonstrated Posit 1. That the Time delineated by this Calendar cannot be expir'd Posit 2. That the Calendar and its Time being not expir'd it can be continued onely in the Roman Monarchy Posit 3. That the Calendar having its subsistence in the Roman Monarchy there is as may justly be expected such an Idea of it partly Historical but especially Prophetical in the New Testament agreeing with undoubted History as shall exactly correspond this Prophecy of Daniel whereby we may know whereabouts we are in this Calendar with an answer to Objections Posit 1 This Calendar is to expire in the Stone cut out of the Mountains without Hands that is by a High divine supernatural power smiting the Image and Becomming a Mountain that shall Fill the whole Earth And in the days or Their dayes of those Kings to make the date most exact viz. of the Feet and Toes part of Iron and part of Clay The God of Heaven shall set up a Kingdom that shall not End not be left to other people but it shall Break in pieces and Consume all these Kingdoms and They shall be Broken in pieces and become as the chaff in the Summer Threshing Floors and the Wind shall carry them away so that their places shall be no more found And according to the Second Vision the Calendar must expire in the Giving the Body of the Little Horn Broken in the following Vision without Hand that is by an immediate divine power to the consuming Flame and giving a Dominion Glory and Kingdom to the Son of Man that All People Nations and Languages should serve Him The Kingdom and Dominion and Greatness of the Kingdom viz. particularly of that Vniversal Monarchy that had been according to the Image shifted from part to part and more then that the whole Dominion or the Dominion under the whole Heaven shall be given to the People of the Saints of the most High. Now I would appeal to all thinking and considering Men who do not Implicitly yield up their faith to the Stream of Interpreters whether These things have yet been plainly visibly and notoriously Fulfill'd as is justly to be expected in Prophecies already Incarnate and compleated in their Events And especially in an Event so great above all other Events or whether it can be suppos'd such Firm Solid natural Expressions of a Kingdom can be Attennuated and Evaporated into Metaphor and Similitude Seeing it is much to be believ'd that therefore Metaphor and Similitude is so often us'd because All Things that are written shall be at last Fulfill'd in so High Perfect Substantial massy Event and uncontradictable Reality If then these Things are in this manner to come to pass and are not yet come to pass we know this Calendar cannot be as yet expir'd or out dated Posit 2 If the Calendar then be not expir'd it can be continued onely in the Roman Monarchy For there is nothing more evident then that it must be continued in one of those Four Monarchies that are given in the Image and in the Vision of the Beasts and seeing the Babylonian the Persian and Grecian whether in Alexander or in the Divisions into which his Kingdom Fell have had their succession one after another and that none of them continue at this day in such a succession The Calendar must subsist in a Monarchy of such a Succession as is given in those Visions and a Monarchy that survives in that Succession at this very day It must be a Monarchy of such a Succession because the Two Visions do plainly import and declare such a Succession as closely connected and conjoyn'd as the members of a Humane Body from Head to Foot and as the parts of Time from part to part are conveyed in each Month and Year As therefore the member of any other Body the Legs or Foot of a Foreign Body cannot supply the place of such a member in this or that Body that it is not of no more can any other Monarchy or Kingdom supply the place of any of these Monarchies that are not Joyn'd in the just order and scituation of each Monarchy with respect one to another in this Image or any more then a Month or a day taken from another Year or Month can support the Course of this Year or Month. And it must be a Monarchy that survives at this day or else it cannot be a Monarchy of the Image For such a Monarchy must whatever it be sustain the Course of Time to the Kingdom of Christ as before described which no Monarchy can do that is not even now extant because the Kingdom of Christ hath not yet appeared Now no Monarchy can answer Prophecy in these Two points but onely the Roman Monarchy For all History agrees no Monarchy or Kingdom succeeded Alexanders proper and personal Kingdom describ'd in this Prophecy but the Grecian division of that his Kingdom which besides it was Grecian still and therefore cannot be said to succeed the Grecian Monarchy besides this Is does not remain in that succession at this day that it ought to do to support the Course of Time as given in this Prophecy That Grecian division therefore must be reputed one Third Monarchy with Alexanders All Grecian though of another Model from Alexanders Yet such as Prophecy gave it as of one in Alexander and as divided into Four after Him and then more Remarkably into Two If that be so then no other Monarchy but what succeeded that Grecian Monarchy as so divided especially into the King of the North call'd the Greco Syrian or Seleucidean and the King of the South the Egyptian or Lagidean Kingdom can be the Monarchy we design Because as hath been said it must be in immediate succession to the Foregoing Monarchies so that any supposable Grecian Monarchy or Kingdom under the Turk at this day that hath come in out of the orderly course of Succession and not of such a
Figure as this Prophecy hath given it can be the Monarchy we are in pursuit of although such Monarchy may continue till the Kingdom of Christ shall succeed But now how exactly does the Roman Monarchy Answet in the point of Succession For first the very Prophecy of Daniel tells us that the Kingdom of Alexander should be divided to the four Winds and then that it should be pull'd up for others besides Those It was divided for the Four and yet remain'd the same Dan. 8. 8. Dan. 11. 4. But it was to be pull d up for others so as to cease to be a Monarchy Now those others besides must be they whoever they were who devour'd and stamp'd on the Residue with Legs of Iron Dan. 2. 40. as in the Image with Feet of Iron as by the fourth Beast in the vision of the Beasts and they must be Romans Dan. 7. 19. For it is very well known that the Grecian Partite Monarchy came near to the days of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Flesh and yet not so near as to make any fair Interpretation of so much as the God of Heaven setting up the Spiritual Kingdom of the Gospel in the days of those Kings pourtrayed in the Image if that divided Grecian Kingdom had been the Fourth and Last and yet again so near that it is most known in all History that no other Monarchy could come between that Grecian Monarchy and the Birth of Christ but the Roman Monarchy onely so that if the Kingdom of the Stone out of the Mountain had been onely a Spiritual Kingdom Yet still the Roman Monarchy must be the fourth This seems order'd as on purpose to divert Interpreters from the divided Grecian Kingdom as the fourth Monarchy and necessarily to shape them on the Romans And it is most evident not onely in all History that the Roman Monarchy was then come to its Zenith in the Reign of Augustus but especially in the sacred Histories of the Gospel for there came out a Decree from Caesar Augustus at that very Time * Luk. â— that our Lord was Born. And that it particularly cover'd the Jewish Nation the onely People of God at that Time to which Prophecy had so singular an Eye And the decree from Augustus was to Tax or describe the whole Oecumen or Habitable World as by the poll Was not this a Fourth Vniversal Monarchy from the Babylonian the Persian the Grecian and was it not Roman c But further to make it more known at the death and Crucifixion of our Lord The Sentence was given by Pilate the Roman Substitute or Governour and the Jews declared on the occasion They had no power to put any one to death So that the Roman Vniversal Monarchy at that Time is become an Article of Faith Crucified under Pontius Pilate declares the Roman fourth Monarchy And now that the Evangelical Kingdom by the Birth Ministry Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ was set up by the God of Heaven that we might not think This Spiritual Kingdom was the Fulfilling of Prophecy There was no Breaking of this fourth Kingdom by it nor of any other Kingdom as is Foretold in these Visions But Christ altho' he own'd himself King of the Jews yet Joh. 18. 36. declar'd his Kingdom not of this World nor from hence That is not from below but to come down in the Jerusalem from above He did not therefore disannul Caesar's Kingdom nay He Establish'd it by that Command Render unto Caesar c. as it were in care that Prophecy might be Fulfill'd concerning that fourth Monarchy Agreeably after the Ascension of Christ Paul as directed by Acts 25. 1â— God made that Famous Appeal to Caesar and all the Apostles taught subjection to the Roman Powers This shews a spiritual Kingdom was not the design of Prophecy but an Imperial For when Constantine as an Vniversal Emperour declared for Christ It was then said with high Doxologies the Kingdom of our God Rev. 12. 10 is come as an Emblem of that Kingdom yet to come Thus far I have then undeniably as I must be Bold to say Reason'd That seeing the Kingdom of Christ is not yet come some of these four Monarchies must be in Being For they are a Calendar to it that it can be onely the fourth Monarchy that is thus in Being For the Babylonion the Persian the Grecian which were the three first even by name in Daniels prophecy are past and gone off as in the successive Dominion of Each The Roman then succeeding the Grecian and being so Great a Monarchy after it as hath appeared must be the Fourth And even because it is the Fourth it must be in Being because the Kingdom of Christ is not yet come And it must therefore continue in Being till that Kingdom comes On the other side we may assuredly Argue that as the Roman Monarchy was in Being as an Vniversal Monarchy since the days of Christ so by the general knowledge we have of the World It continues in Being in the Roman Papacy and the Kings yet devoted to it It is therefore certain the Kingdom of Christ is not yet come as it is to come according to this Prophecy And thus much then we are sure of before hand that we cannot stir off from this very Roman Monarchy till we come to the Kingdom of Christ For if it were ever a fourth Monarchy there is no Monarchy after nor beside it according to this sure word of Prophecy that can be a Remaining Calendar to us to that Kingdom Because whatever Monarchy was the fourth Monarchy must continue to the Kingdom of Christ we must therefore run upon it as upon an Ecliptick Line given us from which there must be no variation And if we can hold the Footing we have hitherto found in the History of the New Testament by the Prophecy succeding it and to which the History leads us and in Agreement with Vniversal History we shall certainly come down with the Calendar we are upon to our own Times and know how near we are to the End of it and so to the succession of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Posit 3 I come therefore to the third Position There is such an Idea of the Roman Monarchy in the Prophecy of the New Testament as will most exactly Correspond the Prophecy of Daniel in concert with most Agreed and Indisputed History and shew us whereabouts we are in this Calendar and how near to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. But before I come to compare this Idea with the Prophecy and most known Roman History and thereby to Educe the Calendar as it goes on I must observe by way of premisal these Three Things 1. That the Prophecy of Daniel does not name the fourth Monarchy nor tell us what Monarchy or what National Cognomination it hath as it hath in some part of Daniels Prophecy as hath already appear'd told us that the Head of Gold or first Kingdom was
transplanted themselves from their own Seats and by armed force plac'd themselves in Italy and the several parts and Provinces of the Roman Empire And yet they all made still the same Roman Monarchy and the same Beast because whereas the Persian King succeding the Babylonian did not place his Royal Greatness in Babel but in Shushan nor Alexander in Persia but in Graece nor the Roman in Graece Persia nor Babylon but transferred all to Rome The barbarous Nations on the contrary do not remove the Potentacy from the Roman Territories to the Countries from whence they came but continue it where they found it and Inhabit and Inherit the former Residencies of Roman Power and so are the same Empire in Feet of Iron and of Clay For if the Feet of Iron make no Transplantation much less would or could the Feet of Clay much more tyed to the same Earth from whence they sprung and above all to the Roman Earth of St. Peter where He say they as Bishop left the print of his Foot as in Clay that the Roman Hierarchy might sprout from it And they are all the same Beast also whereby the Calendar and Succession is maintained for to shew the same Idolatrous and Hostile Spirit to the Kingdom of Christ influx'd all the Dragon gave his All as was noted before and the whole is as nearly allyed as part to part in the same Body acted by one and the same Spirit And this was all certainly an Illustrious and adorable Care of Providence over Prophecy That Things should be just thus that Prophecy might be fulfilled in the Roman Monarchy continuing One and the same Monarchy as we shall see in Ten Kings united in one Ecclesiastic Roman Supremacy as Ten Horns in one Head and the Capital Imperial City Rome was continued for the same Head by a most astonishing and even amazing Ordination of God as the other Capital Cities within the Roman Dominion for the Ten Kings each in their own Kingdoms But still there were all the Violences of War made use of for the Succession of the Ten Kings as Feet of Iron and they were as necessary for the Feet of Clay to rise in the midst of those Noises stilly silently unobservedly to their Grandeur and the Supremacy of One Pontiff even He of Rome among them To adjust therefore every thing to this Succession with the Decorum of the prophetical Types let us now observe the admirable Concert of Providence and Prophecy in this Period In the first place therefore as a great Emblem of the Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ and his Vniversal Monarchy over all Nations and especially his Triumph over that Ancient Kingdom of Sathan Pagan and Heathenish Idolatry wherein Himself and his Angels and the Demoniz'd Spirits of his Servants were so immediately worship'd there is a wise Ordination by God of a Christian Empire to remonstrate this Victory in an Empire then own'd as the Vniversal Empire of the World and where Heathenism had seem'd to Triumph over Christianity but Christians thus overcame by the Blood of the Lamb by the word of his Testimony and by Christians not Loving their Lives unto Death This Empire therefore enter'd as into the Heart of the Fourth Monarchy in Daniels Visions by a High Dominion and Ordination of God though so contre-natural to it that on all Accounts It is as a casting Sathan out of Heaven and as it were the Coming of the Kingdom of our God. The whole Order therefore of these Emperors throughout the whole Time of the Christian Empire is so far all one order Revel 17. v. 10. that from first to last they are All one seventh King as the Kings of Judah were All One House of David but this Empire in its former and in its latter Times differ'd much in the purity of the Christian State and in the Illustrious Presence of God with it as Zedekiah and those latter Kings did from David and Solomon yet so that while the order it self stood there could be no Succession of the Bestian Kingdom for they are specificly distinct which is a note of great weight in the Calendar and it is even demonstrated That all those Christian Emperors in sacred Register are but One because They are called One other King and that they are specificly distinct because the Eighth is of the Bestian Heads the seventh before it is not But now as to our Note this Christian Empire look'd like an Infracture on the Calendar for that a Succession was due to the Feet of Iron and Clay and to the Ten Horns and to the little Horn that is to the Ten Kings and the Papacy as soon as ever the Legs of Iron and Head as of the Teeth of Iron that is the Pagan Empire was depriv'd of supreme Power so that this Christian Empire according to Daniels Visions was to have dyed as soon as it was born Prophecy therefore as it were remembring in the New Testament what it self had said in the Old and as conscious of the short space This Empire was to continue and knowing well That there were four Trumpets of War decreed and prepar'd as Storms and Tempests to remove it in the very next Vision to that of Heathenism desolated which was Revel 6. last It presents four Angels c. 7. 1. Holding the four Winds that They should not blow by those Trumpets c. 8. and a charge is given them to take heed to their Commission that they should not let out those Winds until the Servants of God were sealed in their Foreheads that is That the Christian Empire should continue and continue in Glory and Peace till Things were prepared for the Succession of Antichrist that Man of Sin or Beast as this Prophecy styles Him and as we shall find presently that sealing of the Servants of God in the Forehead imported Till the Feet of Clay then were ready for their Succession the Feet of Iron should not succeed for they were Feet together though of so different a Mettal and not to cleave nor the Ten Horns till the little Horn though in another appearance viz. of a Head in the New Testament-Prophecy should be ready for his Succession also for at the same Hour Both were to receive Power Now what does this so peremptory Charge import but a miraculous as it were and immediate over-rule of the natural course of Things according to Daniels Visions and the vertue of it lasted in full force from the Christian Empire of Constantine the Great till the Death of Theodosius the Great Then there was such a Relaxation of this Charge that the Angels prepared Themselves to sound but did no more then prepare Now how agreeable is this to History soon after Theodosius's Death these Clouds and Storms began to hover and hang but did not fall in their full effect of doing the Christian Empire out of the middle as the Apostle speaks 2. Thess 2. 7. where it stood as a Wall of partition betwixt the Bestian Times
For if not we shall in vain call to the Mountain to Hide us and to the Rocks to cover us when the Great Day of His Wrath is Come The Prophetical Map of which Holy and Blessed State is too large here to present but it is necessary that a short delineation of it so far as is agreeable to support the last and most excelling part of the Calendar be given For in both the visions the vision of the Image and the vision of the Beast There enters at the end inseparably and no way possible to be divided a divine Kingdom of which the expressions are so full and high that it is self evident the grand Intendment of the Holy Spirit was by the four Monarchies to lead to that Supreme Kingdom that where They end That may begin which is of it self a great proof that if we are thus far right in the Calendar as the Evidence of Divine Revelation assures me we are We must be near so great and happy a Revolution the Complement of the Calendar and are now as on a Pisgah view of it For the Kingdom of Christ hath an immediate succession to the Times of the Beast even as the Bestian Kingdom and Times had to the Christian Empire The succession is immediate but the Illustrious Glory hath a Time of Preparation after the succession In the Face of all Prophecy This succession appears in Daniel's two Visions the Divine Kingdom follows the Feet and the Little Horn even so close as to be said in their Days of those ten Kings The God of Heaven Sets up a Kingdom Dan. 2. 47. as it were within them because so just at the end of their Time The Apostle Paul tells us The approach of Christ to the Bestian Times is so near that Christ blasts Him with the Spirit of his Mouth and brings to nothing the blaze of his Moon by the full Glory of his own appearance That Illustrious Man of Sin the Antitype of Antiochus the Illustrious is so out-shone that He is a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness In the whole view of the Revelation the Glory of Christ's Kingdom rises as the Beast falls and when He and his False Prophet are cast into the Lake or as Daniel speaks His Body deliver'd to the consuming Flames Then the Kingdom is given to Christ and his Saints as in full Glory They sit on Thrones and Reign with Him. But nothing is so express as the Oath of Christ as at the Morning of the Half Time or Reformation a beginning Glory Seal'd or stay'd in the Thunders seal'd till the end of the Half Time Christ solemnly swears at that Time There shall be after Time Times and Half Time allowed No more such kind of Time The false High Priest the Counterfeit of the True is not made without an Oath indeed But because he is but a Counterfeit He is cut off at his Half Time by an Oath also and cannot be a Priest any longer He is broken without Hand from Heaven As soon as ever the Oath takes place That Time of the former date of Times and Half Time is no longer it Immediately follows The Mystery of God that is the Glorious Kingdom of Christ so much and so long spoken of by the Prophets shall be immediately in Motion by it self to its complement and perfection Accordingly at the end of the Twelve Hundred and sixty days and of the Three days and Half the same as hath been prov'd with Time Times and Half Time There is as in their Days of those Ten Kings the appearance of the Kingdom of Christ in the Witnesses rising c. even just before the Blast of the seventh Trumpet And then the Seventh Trumpet sounds and immediately there are Loud voices in Heaven The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ The Kingdom is proclaimed and advances all the Time of the Seventy five years in which the Twelve Hundred sixty years become Twelve Hundred ninety years and then Thirteen Hundred Thirty five the Epoch of the perfectly Blessed state of that Kingdom of Christ All which lay'd together is perfect Scripture Demonstration of the Complement of the Calendar and of the Kingdom of Christ in its succession so near to us as 1697 and then rising to perfect glory And until that Time there is to be a continual prayer for and Expectation of such preparatory motions in the World as by which Bestianism shall not onely not be allowed to Regurgitate on any of the reformed Nations by any of their Princes Giving anew their power to the Beast that had Revers'd their power from Him but that the rest of the Ten Kings and Kingdoms shall hate the Whore And that within the Reformation it self that Synagogue Prophecy Brands as the Synagogue of Sathan that was always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Friend to Primacy and to casting out of the Church on its unscriptural Canons should be bending to worship at Philadelphiaes Feet and thereby the Reformation become perfect and Illustrious Let us then take off our Hearts and Eyes from all worldly Glory whether Civil or Ecclesiastic which is now in its low West and adore the Glory of Christ in his Kingdom as the rising Sun now near its East and Morning Dawn As the Stars let every one move and even Fight in their Courses and help the Lord against the Mighty Let us wait for Jesus Christ from Heaven who before Pontius Pilate witness'd that good Confession of his Kingdom which though it is not of this World is yet of the approaching World to come whereof we speak and though it is not from hence or from beneath yet is the Jerusalem coming down from Heaven which he in his own proper Time now at Hand will shew who is Lord of Lords and King of Kings FINIS The Rationality of this Calendar in a Review and in Compare with the Numeral Calendar of the 2300 Evens Morns Or a Table of Time especially of that part of it within the foregoing Calendar and Explanatory of it so that its Truth is Evinc'd by iâ—â— Conformity to the Infinite Wisdom that hath made every Thing Beautiful in its Season THE Great Reason of All Time is the Allowance of space to the World for the variety of Action in it under the Government of supreme Providence whereby things are Roll'd this way and that way between the Kingdom of Sathan in the Apostasie of Humane Nature and the Restoration of it by the Seed of the Woman Jesus Christ until his Kingdom shall swallow up the Apostasie and appear in Glory which Appearance in Glory is determined by God who hath Reserved Times and Seasons in his own Power to Come â—igh upon the seventh Millenary of Time which is the Grand Sabbatism under the Son of Man the Lord of it who is also the Son of God. Time therefore being seven Millenaries in the whole as Inclusive of the Kingdom of Christ was for about the First Half
Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Messiah had a Right to a Glorious Kingdom But in Resignation to the Divine Will that had so determin'd He seal'd or stay'd Prophesie from coming into the Effect of his Kingdom which Kingdom might well be called Vision or Prophesie because It is the Restitution of All Things and the Mystery of God spoken of by all the Prophets and so Christ bids Daniel seal Dan. 12 4. the Book and accordingly he Receives it from God Seal'd with seven Seals and Revel 5. Christ open'd in due order those Seales tho' it had been no Robbery to have taken the Kingdom immediately Throughout the Four first Seals there was the Intercessions of his Saints thro' his Blood for his Kingdom and the word of his Testimony Revel 6. vehemently urg'd Come and see and all along there ran a Course of Martyrdoms which was compleated at the Fifth Seal in the greatest and last Persecution under Dioclesian So at the Sixth Seal the Ancient Kingdom of Sathan the Dragon and Old Serpent Fell as from Heaven in the Desolation of Heathenism thro' the Roman Empire that is It fell in a Prophetical Symbol of what shall be fully done hereafter rather then Historical of what was then done And in the same Prophetical symbolism Revel 12. 10. in the Seventh or Sabbatical Seal The Kingdom of Christ call'd the Kingdom of our God made an appearance And these Seven seals must be within four hundred years after the Resurrection in which what Time the Christian Empire had was cut off from the wounded sixth Bestian Head or Pagan Emperour For the 2300 Even Morn allow so much Time and no more and the Monarchic Calendar requires it to be before the Roman Empire was divided into 10 Kingdoms So the Christian Empire must begin 280 years after the Resurrection where it had Right to enter as a Symbol of Christ's Kingdom as made Perfect by Sufferings and his Saints overcomming by his Blood by the word of his Testimony and by not loving their Lives unto Death And this Kingdom then lasted 120 years before the Apostasie had Eclips'd it and seeing there was so much cut off from the Pagan Empire if the Christian Empire had not held that Time Antichrist had been Reveal'd before his own Time and thus History agrees Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thes 2. 6 this appearance of the Kingdom of Christ in the midst of a Bestian Image of Monarchies and of the last Bestian Monarchy was Immediately interpos'd by God however against Nature Immediately hereupon even while Thirty eight years of the Christian Empire remain'd in a supremacy over Rome tho' much fallen from Glory the Apostasie that was to bring forth the Revelation of the man of sin or his succession at the end of those 38 years enter'd in the Gentiles Months and began the 1260 years It enter'd thus soon that the wounded Beast might be Heal'd and not dye and because the Christian Empire so unnatural according to Prophecy to the Bestian Monarchic Image ought to continue but a short space and because there remain'd onely 1260 years of the Numeral Calendar besides the 75 years of Preparation after them for the Kingdom of Christ and because here the Ten Kings to be united to the Beast were to Receive Power at the Cessation of the Christian Emperour as at one Hour with the Beast enter'd as Gentiles tho' not as Kings till that Cessation And here the Apostasie must needs enter because it was to enter by way of undermine and Eclipse upon the Kingdom of Christ which it could onely do while this Christian Empire remain'd a Symbol of it And here let us behold with Humble Admiration and Astonishment the Resignation of Christ to the divine will For with Readiness he Sealâ— up the Glory of his 144000 and so of his own Kingdom and Swears It should be so for Times Times and Half while the daily Sacrifice or pure Worship of his Gospel should be taken away But then he swears There should be no more such Time of Eclipse but all along to the 1290th year from thence and by the 1335 year from thence viz. in the first 75 years of the seventh Trumpet the Mystery of his Kingdom should be Finish'd and it should Appear And here behold again the Beauty of Providence in this Season For there was a Dilemma upon this Time If Beastian the Kingdom of Christ appearing in the Christian Empire must be revers'd whereas as in a Symbol It should never be revers'd the manly Birth was caught up to the Throne of God If not Beastian how would the Monarchic Calendar be secur'd For the Beastian Image stands till the Glory of Christs Kingdom which we are sure is not yet or how the Numeral Calendar whose 2300 Even Norn would want 1260 years Loe then the Divineness of the Reconciliation The very Ecclipse of the Sun is a Confession of the Sun. Else there could be no Moon in Brightness Ecclipsing it If no Christ no Antichrist no such Vicar Oh ominous Name Vicar of Christ what is the Greek Original for Vicar of Christ but Antichrist His High Pretensions answered by the Ten Kings Giving their Power to Him is a Confession of Christ and of his Supreme Monarchy This therefore and no other Beastiaenism could now Be or Last till the Kingdom of Christ. But on the other side Antichristianism is Beastianism The Ecclipse and Undermine are Beastian Christ therefore submits to the Ecclipse of his Kingdom for 1260 years because It was to last so long according to both these Prophetical Calendars as in the Little Horn or Antichrist and then He allows to the finishing of the Mystery 75 years after that his Kingdom might Come in its own Time as on the Evening of the Sabbatical Millenary appointed for it by the Father And then the Ecclipsing Moon vanishes by that Bâ—igâ—â—ness of Christs Coming call'd therefore so often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and becomes a wâ—ndring Star for which is reserv'd the blackness of Darkness for ever Let us therefore 2 〈◊〉 3. 17. every one fear to Fall from our own Fixation in the Gospel Firmament Now whoever Lays all these Things together and shall consider the Reason of them and them and when the Ten Kings entred the Roman Empire and how long ago the Christian Empire was how near on All Accounts the End of the 1260 Days must be will conclude They cannot end later then 1697 we might rather think They might have ended sooner then now even some years ago had not Event and this Numeral Calendar guided us but later then 1697. They cannot end And what we may expect till then we cannot so positively determine But as the seven Tâ—â—ndeâ—s Vtterâ—nces Seal'd gaug'd to each Church the measure of its State in the Beginning of the Reformation So I observe in these Three Nations of England Scotland Irâ—land the Bulk oâ— whose Natives were always Rebels to the Reforâ—â—tion the very State each was in as to the Reformation then casts anew a very remarkable Glance of it self 〈◊〉 this Day There is now therefore to be expected 〈◊〉 Turn in each as it were Heliotropically toward the Philadelphian 97. according to the distance of Time to it wherein the Church Cloath'd with the Sun shall come out oâ—â—â—s Eclipse which being so near should both Animate and steer all our Counsels and accordingly the God of Heaven however differing parties may design will Inspire Them To write all the Correspondencies of Scripture and its Prophesies to these Great Ends The World would hardly contain the Books What Consideration then does This Thing deserve Or how can we neglect it Except we can overthrow Divine Oracles or disprove what I have written as Founded on them which I am well assured cannot be done THE END