to the taking Constantinople and then going on there remain just sixty years to the Reformation during which Time God expected the Repentance of the other or Western part of the Antichristian World upon so great a Judgment on that Eastern part in which the Western had so great an Interest by such an Union in Antichristianism while the Eastern Horn so earnestly affected and aspir'd to the same Primacy and Universality and also were guilty of much the same Idolatry and Superstition and as the Union was thus near so the claim of Dominion by the Western Horn over the Eastern was very bold confident and impatient of denyal and submitted to at that Councel of Florence 1439 just before this killing the third part of men as it were providentially the more apparently to interest the Western Antichristian State in this Woe by the Greeks which made them one before men as they were always before God Immediately after the severe censure upon the impenitency of the whole Bestian State compar'd with the very worst of the Gentiles in all manner of Idolatry Sorcery of Seduction Sensuality Blood hateful sacrilegious Thefts Cheats Frauds and Emunction of mens Estates on religious Pretences on all these I say follows the divine Portraicture of the Reformation under the next Head Now the Argument confirming this true Motion of things upon the Line of Time as hath been stated is very forcible for it shews the descent of it so many years from that famous date of Mahometanism at 622 so often mention'd and it leads to a Period so very grand in History as the Expiration of the Grecian Monarchy after that The continuing Impenitency of the Western Apostacy and Eastern also as we shall see was so notorious as to improve it self rather than to abate any thing This Impenitency the very essential Character of the Apostacy to its final Destruction draws the course of Time at this present Juncture down to the Reformation or the last 180 years in the mean while the Turkish Woe continues its hour as an Evidence That the 1260 days of the Witnesses Prophecy in Sackcloth are not yet at an end nor are they yet in full sense risen nor can the seventh Trumpet yet have sounded because the second Woe however in this face of Affairs now in the World it seems upon its remove is not yet gone nor shall go till all other things declar'd to come to pass before that shall have pass'd shall be ready to their proper motion also The People of God at the beginning of this Trumpet seem like the Israelites under the Egyptian Slavery when the Conduct of those two Witnesses Moses and Aaron appear'd to them they cry out to Heaven groaning under their Burdens And there are many loud Sounds by way of Return from many eminent Servants of God declaring his Judgments upon spiritual Egypt and smiting it with Plagues in a free publication of the Vials of this Prophecy to be fulfill'd in their Season The Mahometan Woes were the first Plagues and the Vials the last and from this Time especially the Strokes of these Plagues were as often as it were as they would call'd down first by Prayer and then foretold by the Witnesses but much more it shall be done and much more their Duty to do thus in the next State of the Witnesses within the Reformation as we shall then shew By all which by way of Remark we may see God did not leave himself without Witness of his dreadful Displeasure upon the Apostacy and Antichristianism of the Bestian Earth and Prince against whom these two Trumpets sounded the second of which cannot expire nor cease its Sound and Blast till the Tenth of this anathematiz'd City Jericho fall in the full Revolt of its ten Kings till the Earthquake slay the 7000 and the rest give Glory to God in the Conversion that shall be at that time in the midst of a yet persevering general Impenitency and the Beasts forty two Months end as to his Monarchick Power however he survive till the Brightness of the coming of Christ in some low state of Being and Attempt to recover his Power And even as the Grecian Antichristian Empire was now desolated the third part of men kill'd and the Imperial Seat turn'd to the Ottoman Port so in a much higher degree of Judgment Babylon shall then be burnt with a perpetual burning and not only the third part of men but the whole rest of men who have not repented shall be kill'd with the Sword of Christ's Mouth that is so utterly subdued and condemn'd as never to return to Empire any more and the Beast himself and false Prophet who had deceiv'd them cast into the Lake In the time of the second Trumpet Rome had been thrown as a burning Mountain into the Sea where it was not only preserv'd but as it were new cast for a future Glory under the Beast But at that time its Smoak shall ascend for ever and its Glory sink as a Mill-stone not to be recover'd In the third Trumpet many men died but not so many as to rise to a third part of men shewing the Imperial Bestianism Rev. 8. 7. did immediately succeed and keep that Imperialism alive according to our Explication of the third part In this sixth Trumpet the third part of men died the Grecian Empire is irrecoverably ceas'd but the Western Empire lives still in the Beast and his ten Kings But the whole Residue of men are kill'd to shew the utter end of Bestianism Eastern and Western also when the seventh Trumpet shall have its full effect In the fourth Trumpet the Sun and the Stars were smitten in their third part The supreme and subordinate Magistrates so that the day shined not for a third part and the Night likewise Yet within a space after the Bestian Star fell from Heaven to Earth and gave a new Light but at that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is done The Beast and all such impure Lights such wandring Stars are deliver'd up to the Blackness of Darkness for ever And as a Pledge of such a Desolation The Grecian Antichristianism so far as not repented of so far as the Members of the Grecian Churches are not Witnesses in Sackcloth is kept up by God in so despicable and ruin'd a condition to this day as a monument prophetical of the last Judgment on Antichristianism within the Number of which I fear all such Impenitents fall All which may serve as a brief Remark on this joynt of Time SECT XIII This Section enters into the Half Time of the Reformation and by the Agreement of the Prophecy with the Event demonstrates the Beginning and End of that Time on Rev. c. 10. HAving thus far travers'd this Line of Time there remains yet the last part of it or the Half Time very great and remarkable in its Dawn but to be much more remarkable in its Setting and Close and it is to be assign'd to the Reformation from 1517
having the Key of the bottomless Pit not judicially given but committed to him not to open the bottomless Pit and let out the Smoak not to loose nor draw out at greater liberty and by provoking God to give the Malice of Devils greater scope by the Angel of that Pit raging like a roaring Lyon in a hellish Mahometanism but to lay hold on him to bind him to cast him into the bottomless Pit to shut him up and to set a Seal upon him that he may deceive the Nations no more for the 1000 Years which very Consideration of that so opposite Vision does much inlighten this of the fifth Trumpet we are now upon It remains that we consider now what the Service of the two Witnesses might at this time most agreeably with Prophecy be and as so considering it I look upon this joynt of Time this Proclamation of the three woe Trumpets to be the very entrance of the Witnesses in the second Type of that eminent Binary or Pair of Witnesses and Prophets Elijah and Elisha The Witnesses had now a long time as the Sons of Oyl emptied their golden Oyl by way of preparatory Furniture of those two golden Candlesticks the true Churches of Pergamus and Thyatyra that stood this whole Line of Time before the God of the whole Earth and though we have not the clear and unmixed Records of any such Testimony for that were to lessen the Prophecy besides that the Indignation of the Apostate Church must needs have suppress'd them they must needs have suffer'd more so than under the Injuries of Time but I say it were to lessen Prophecy which says They were cover'd with Sackcloth they were seal'd they were retir'd within the Temple the Church was in the Wilderness through the scattering of its Seed It is not then possible according to the Prophecy there should be pure liquid Remains of their Testimony But now the Antichristians like Sanballat and Tobiah and other the Enemies of the Jews disturb'd their Service and in building with them hinder'd the Operation and infus'd their Venome in some part into the Writings and Discourses of Persons of a much more excellent temper in the main Now the Witnesses therefore as we may in part see by Gregory praised before passed into the Spirit and Power of Elijah and Elisha they began now to have fire proceed out of their Mouths to devour their Adversaries They began to declare the Wrath of God against Idolatry and Antichristian Pride and Blasphemy And this entred as Fire into the Consciences of their Enemies that in this manner they were kill'd as it were by the Sword of Christ's Mouth which he threatens to the Balamites in the Church of Pergamus and herein they imitated the Zeal of Moses and Phincas against the spiritual Fornication and Nicolaitanism of that time and also prepar'd the Servants of God in Thyatyra with a holy Zeal against the Jezebelism and Idolatry and Fornication of that Time also when the Apostacy was increas'd But how can we hope for much of Monument hereof The Prophecy of Gregory is more than we could expect and were it not that he serv'd the Apostacy to many other great purposes we had not had so much of him but God over-rul'd so far Now the Witnesses were coming into the closest time of being seal'd and therefore we have the mention of it reviv'd within the fifth Trumpet They were sed with hidden Manna They were hardly known one to another at the very Time Elijah knew not of the seven thousand Knees that had not bowed to Baal nor their Mouths kiss'd him but thought himself alone How much less then can we now know them And which is very characteristical of this Period of the Witnesses Prophecy and Testimony They have Power to shut Heaven that it rain not in the Days of their Prophecy so that there arises a Famine not of Bread but of hearing the Word of the Lord and this endured for the intimate Time of which we are to speak in the next Period of the Witnesses and the Remark of shutting Heaven for three Years and six Months will be of great Conduct to us SECT X. Wherein is undertaken to be prov'd That the Mahometan Sarazens are the Locusts design'd in the fifth Apocalyptick Trumpet and that the five Months given to them comprehend Four hundred-thirty five Years from the Mahometan Hegira at 622 and so reach to 1057. upon Rev. c. 9. v. 1. c. I Pass on from this joynt of Time engraven with the real and substantial Characters of the Angel proclaiming the three Woes the Star falling the Key of the bottomless Pit given to him All which I have explain'd I come now to speak of the Descent of this Star to the opening the bottomless Pit and of that Smoak that issued out upon it and the unexpected Events of Locusts coming out of the Smoak which produce a new Line of Time beginning at 622 and not ending till 1453 but divided by Prophecy into two parts the five Months and five Months of the Locusts and the Hour Day Month and Year of the Army of Horsemen between which will come in the Account of intimate Time and so we will discourse each in their order Antichrist then appearing in the Star fallen to the Earth to shine there as an universal Pastor of which sort the Firmament of Heaven knows none nor can bear any such so he must needs fall to the Earth and the Beast here transmigrated into by the Dragon and beginning to exalt the Woman by carrying his Vniversality in an Image inscrib'd with the Name of the Woman and having receiv'd the Key of the bottomless Pit in place of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven he immediately proceeds to open it and le ts out Error Falsehood Blasphemy the Doctrine of Balam Nicolaitanism Antichristianism spiritual Pride and Tyranny like the Smoke or perpetual Vapour of the Abyss and its open Mouth that darkned the whole Air of the Christian Doctrine and Profession and in this by degrees he ascends higher and higher till he comes to his number 666. But Sathan above him in this bottomless Pit turning every way and moving more ways than one to advance his Kingdom especially over-rul'd and govern'd by God in fulfilling the course of his Judgment so impregnates this Smoke in that time of spiritual drought and of the Heaven shut as Brass and the Earth as Iron a Time specifick for these Locusts as drought is for the natural ones that unawares to this fallen Star there comes a swarm of Locusts out of the Smoke and they prove armed crowned Locusts dreadfully annoying and Tormenting the Antichristian World viz. by the Mahometan Saracens Having thus far then prepar'd to it I come to the main position of this Section the proof of which I am to undertake that these Locusts are the Mahometan Saracens whose five and five Months measure from 622 to 1057 The first Argument I derive from the Style in which
the Days of Cyrus while that Worship remain'd to be Gods Worship from which impure Pessundation that Holy Worship was most wonderfully vindicated and the Time of his Tyranny being in the most intimate part of it in literal or natural Account near the Time of Antichrists 1260. Days at a day for a year and near the whole 2300 in the whole of it and being broken by an immediate Hand from Heaven without an earthly Hand as Antichrist shall be He is made a most notable and eminent Type of Antichrist and so with Relation to Him and his Time a Line is drawn from Cyrus to the cleansing of the Sanstuary polluted by Antichristian Gentiles and to the breaking of Antichrist without Hand Antiochus standing all this while in open view as a Type and his Time as a Typical Line of Time And yet while his Time will serve a Typical End It is not exact enough to either main Intention to be the principal Thing to be measured by that Line of Time And for the making good these Assertions I shall now apply my self to the solemn Proof of these two Propositions 1. That the 2300 Days are a definitive Line of Time from the beginning of the Persian Monarchy to the very End of the Monarchies and till the Supream Monarchy of Christ and so are to be joyn'd to the end of the last Line and thereby to the several Lines from the Creation that altogether may reach that End 2. That the Vision principally intends Antichrist in every Part wherein Antiochus stands as a Type For the Proof of the first Assertion I use this first Argument Argu. 1 There is a plain Concatenation or Connexion of this Vision with the former as following orderly upon or after it For that purpose and to make it known it is so Daniel tells us This Vision appear'd unto him after that which appear'd c. 8. v. 1. unto him at the first Now that this was not intended as any Date of the Vision is very plain in that It is more particularly dated by assigning it to the third Year of Belshazzar whereas the first was assign'd to the first year of the same Belshazzar and so must needs be after the first Vision even as Belshazzars Third Year must be after his First These words therefore cannot but be of further Importance and signifie to us This Vision comes after the Former in a just Order and promotes the scope of it and adds further Light to it Now it is most evident the four Beasts intending four Kingdoms and Antichrist the little Horn with his Time Times and half a Time and then his being destroy'd and the Kingdom of Christ succeeding are the Principal Objects of that Vision and therefore they must be so of This. And in some notable Instance thereof It must exceed the Notices of the former and what can that be but in the Notices of Time Wherein it is so particular as to 2300 Evenings Mornings for to shew it one Line of Time It is in the Hebrew 2300 Evening Morning not 2300 Evenings Mornings although for Arguments sake with Ordinary Language and in Agreement with the sence we may express them in the plural Number and it is also call'd the Vision of the Evening Morning as so many Evenings and Mornings combin'd into one from the Monarchy of Cyrus the Persian to the Monarchy of Christs Vniversal Kingdom The Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy goes on General Argu. 2. through the Grecian Monarchy and so to the End and the Line of Time runs parallel with the Vision therefore the Line of 2300 Evenings Mornings must reach from the Beginning of the Persian Monarchy to the Monarchy of Christ which is the known and most undoubted End of the Four Monarchies and of all Monarchy but under him This Argument consists of these three main Propositions 1. That the Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy 2. That it runs on through the Grecian Monarchy to the End 3. That the Line of Time runs Parallel with the Vision SECT II. That this Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy and the Proof of it THat the Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy I give these undoubted Reasons It is most apparent in the very Portal of the Vision it was Reason 1 given at Shushan the Pallace by the River Vlai a River of Persia whither the Prophet was visionally convey'd out of Babylon to shew the Translation of the Monarchy from the Babylonian to the Persian Prince The Babylonian Monarchy was yet standing the Prophet a Subject of it in principal Place for he continued in his Preferment in Babylon till Cyrus the Persian He must therefore Dan. 1. 21. be resident at the time of the Vision in Babylon and not a Runnagate from it and his Loyalty but was prophetically and visionally set down at the Pallace of Persia to shew where the Visions Date was to commence viz. from the Persian Monarchy If this were not enough the Exposition of the Vision begins Reason 2 with the King of Persia and where the Exposition begins the Vision begins neither of these can be contested The Vision crops off the Babylonian Monarchy The Head Reason 3 of Gold and the first Beast like a Lyon does not under any Symbol or Representation appear in it The Monarchy was now indeed just expiring in Belshazzar's Third which Scripture counts upon as his last Year and whereas the former Visions were deliver'd to us in the Language of that Empire that thereby All People Tongues and Languages which take care by one means or other to have knowledge of the Imperial Language might have notice of them The Holy Spirit returns in this Vision to the Hebrew Tongue peculiar to the Church of God in the Old Testament But the Monarchy was not yet fully expir'd nor was the Image in all succeeding Ages to be bereft of its Head while therefore the Image and the Iconism of the four Beasts compleating the Image stood in the Eye of Prophecy Nebuchadnezzer is the principal in the first Monarchy with the Heart of a Man after his Eagles Wings were pluck'd importing his sober Acknowledgments of God upon the Humiliation into which his Frenzy dejected him even into a state among the Beasts but he seems to have risen out of Bestianism it self by abasing himself before God Dan. 4. ult The Beast in the Revelation To shew the Monarchick Power of the Image translated into that of the Beasts Kingdom survived whole and entire in him is resembled with every one of the Beasts himself being the fourth and to assure us he is the very fourth he hath neither in Daniel nor the Apocalips any shape peculiar to him but what in the Apocalips is compounded of the Three as it were to say All the Three existed in him as in one Image Revel 13. 2. The principal Reason therefore of omitting the Babylonian Monarchy is because The Prophetical Type of the four Monarchies being fully satisfied and replenished
Peculiarity of Expression The Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. 13. 8. and the corrupting and annulling that Supreme Point of Christian Religion and the Service founded on it and regulated by it according to its own Purity Simplicity and Transcendency free from idolatrous Defilements is a Cardinal Point of Antichristianism and a most proper Sense of taking away the daily Sacrifice of which I am often to make mention and desire that from hence it may be carried all along with the Notion of the daily Sacrifice though mentioned but this once even this Sacrifice of Daily or Eternal Vertue The sealing Prophecy and Vision is not only the Ratification and confirming all Prophecy by finishing of it as Christ Joh. 19. 30. declar'd It is finish'd so far as was requisite to that coming of Christ into his Mediatory and Redemptory Kingdom but signifies also the sealing of Prophecy at that present Time so as thta the second Coming of Christ into his glorious Kingdom Rev. 6. 1. c. Rev. 7. 1. c. Rev. 10. 4. c. should not at that Time be but run through that course of sealing first during the Time of the seven Seals then during the Time of 144000 sealed then during the seven Thunders sealed under which Sealing we yet must remain these next following Ten Years Then all Things shall be finish'd spoken of in that yet sealed Prophecy for the Glorious Kingdom of Rev. 16. 17. ch 21. 6. Christ till those two words of Finiture are pronounced It is done It is done Yet notwithstanding This The most Holy is Anointed in his Resurrection made Lord and Christ the true Messiah Acts 2. 36. Act. 13. 3â— even by Him who said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The Covenant of Grace in his Blood and the Sacrifice of himself He Confirms for one Week viz. the First half week by himself For so it begun to be spoken by the Lord and then it was confirmed by them that heard him Heb. 2. 1. c. To which the Body of the Jewish Nation being so heinously Enemies first in cutting off Messiah then in resisting all the Ministry of his Apostles and persecuting them to the Death The Flood of Desolations returned upon them by that very Roman Power People and Wing of Idolatrous Abomination and Desolation that they invocated for the Death of Messiah and so they remain and shall remain desolated till the End of that Indignation during the Times of the Gentiles till that City spiritual Sodom and Egypt in which our Lord was Crucified shall be burnt with Everlasting Burnings and the Captivity never be returned till the Captivity of the Old Jerusalem the bloody and filthy City be returned which shall never be for the New Jerusalem shall come down from Heaven and constitute a Holy City below Ezek. 16. 54. This Richest Line of Time laden with the Redemption of Remark our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ invites us to it self with admiring and adoring Thoughts and commands the World to Kiss the Son with a Kiss of Homage and Obedience Great Occasions derive agreeable Names Daniel is therefore suitable to the Vision call'd a Man of desires or belov'd expressing the infinite Love from which Redemption flows and which it begets in us back to God and Christ with vehement Passions of Desire And he is not only call'd so in this Vision but ever after it to shew the Honour put upon him by it Dan. 10. 11. 19. And as this Vision stands in this Prophetick Line of Time it ensures it to us For as at the fulness of Time treasur'd up in it Christ came against all contrary Appearances against all the Indisposition of the World to receive him and the Indesert of so Divine a Condescention He came according to the sure word of this Prophecy Determining him as to the very self same day in comparison of which the Transfiguration before the Apostles as Eye-witnesses was less sure according to this he came and did not tarry and though his Transfiguration remonstrated his Right yet it was in private His Decease as a Cloud receiv'd it and though vindicated by his Resurrection yet the sitting down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High was on the Throne of his Father He shall sit on his own Throne The Father will shew him whom the Heavens yet contain and Hide the Transfiguration was an earnest of it and does assure it yet we have a more sure Word of Prophecy unto which if we take heed and pursue its Conduct as a Light in the dark and obscure the fuliginous and dusky State of the Apostacy it will bring us to that bright Morning Star as the Wise Men were by a lesser Star led to this Morning Star even to him who Matt. 2. as the King of his whole Church is to be acknowledged with those Presents of Gold Myrrh and Frankincense Whatever most speaks Royalty Dignity on his part Love and Obedience on ours and he will return it a Thousand Fold by shewing himself and exalting us to the Mountain of Spices Cantic 8. ult SECT VI. Brief Remarques on Daniels last and largest Vision are made from part to part c. 10. c. 11. c. 12. THis last and longest of Daniels Visions I shall most briefly pass over Because the chief Things in it that concern the Kingdom of Christ have either been already given and are here recollected with some Explanations or the Line of Time to Christ is just Travers'd especially to introduce the End or else when it comes beyond the Weeks the Death and Resurrection of Christ Things are gone over again in the Evidence and clearness of a New Testament Prophecy yet sundry things of greatest Use and Remarque to the fuller understanding of what went before and is to follow will arise to us This last and longest Vision measures more particularly and distinctly the whole space of the 2300 days abating the two or three first years of Cyrus and so brings down Time to the End so as that from the sealing of Prophecy at the End of the first half and the last of the seventy Weeks Lines of Time are given the First implicitely along the Time of the sealed Book to be open'd in its seven Seals in the Apocalyps Or in express Numbers viz. the 1335 which just at the end of the seventh Seal begin in the Trumpets and continue until all Finished or IT IS DONE IT IS DONE and so arise to One thousand three hundred thirty five years This Vision according to the Pleasure of the infinitely wise Spirit of Prophecy varies from the precedent in this That it is rather Enigmatical in vail'd and covert Expressions then Iconical or by way of Imagery The first Vision was perfectly Dan. 2. an Image whose Anatomical Distributions by the Head the Arms and Breast the Belly and Thighs the Legs Feet and Toes distributed Time The second Iconiz'd by four Beasts had
Originals of the Old or New Testament and according to the very Design of Prophecy it is Appointed Time Appointed Times Appointed Half Time or Season Seasons half a Season and so in that first Distribution of Time according to the Motion of the Sun and the Moon the great Luminaries of Heaven it is used Genes 1. 14. for Design'd and Appointed Times and this is very necessary to be layd in the Foundation For accordingly it will follow The measures of this Season Seasons half a Season must be found out by observing the measures of the other Notes of Time wherewith they are joyned for that Character of Season it self speaks high and notorious Designation of this Time Times Half a Time and that most remarkable Season of which after-use is to be made arises from such a Designation and not an immediate Definition of the Space But then secondarily Because a Year and a Day are the most natural and ready Measures of designed Time and so may in that forenam'd Scripture be the Explanation of Seasons Gen. 1. 14. or remarkable and signaliz'd Times as they are immediately added to Seasons and because in all probability seven Times passing over Nebuchadnezzar under his Delirium Dan 4. 23. mean seven Years since they cannot mean Days or Months or less than Years nor more we may first consider Time Times Half a Time as three Years and a half and that with Authority because they are diversifyed into other such Extents of Time or Spaces as we shall see that point to so much So then the signification of Time Times Half a Time is taken from that first most known and honourable Account of Time the Suns Motion from Point to Point in its annual Circle This is a more honourable Circulation than that of a Day because the Sun more knownly varies every day from the Point from which and the Point to which it daily moves which makes the change of the Year to those several Seasons so that although as Solomon tells us The Sun riseth and goeth down and hasteth to the place where he arose distributing Day and Night to the World yet he neither sets nor rises two Days together at the same exact Point but veres towards one of the Tropicks although therefore a Day of the Suns being with us is the most noble measure of Time next to the Year yet it cannot deserve the Name of a Time of a signaliz'd Time as a Year doth both because it is not so exact to a Point of Revolution and because it is not so full a Year excelling a Day in being the greater and ampler and so the most perfect known and generally observ'd Circle for a Season comprehending that of a Day above three hundred sixty five times within it self and is the Suns perfect Emensuration of its way from one end to the other end of the Heavens and of its Visitation of the whole Earth with its Beams A Year must yet more excel a Month than it does a Day because the Sun hath the Government of the Day and of the Year but the Moon the much more ignoble Planet and Governess only of the Night gives to the Months their Character and Measure and tho there are twelve Points of the Space the Sun emensurates in a Year viz. the twelve Signs in the Zodiack and the Suns first Touch upon Aries to its gliding off from it to the next Sign may be call'd a Solar Month yet neither is it the proper Month which is defin'd by Lunations nor is it any Circulation of the Sun with it self or with its own Motion or with its great end of encompassing the World with its enlivening Beams there is no space therefore that can properly merit the Name of a Time or Season in the first place but a Year first and then a Day Times absolutely so call'd must needs also be most properly two Times for the first Plurality or more than one is two and the more so because it is set betwixt one Time and half a time for that Number which exceeds and removes from Unity first is two and that which is bounded by half a Time in its remove from one Time can be no more than two for if it had proceeded to more than two and had not been stop'd or cut off as the Hebrew significantly It had been three Times Half a Time therefore as it refers to the Beasts Time must be Time decurtated or cut off at the middle as the Garments and Beards of David's Servants half'd by Hanun in Disgrace and Dishonour to the Beasts eternal Infamy and in recompence to his surprise of the Churches Peace and Purity at its half Hour as shall be noted Apoc. 8. 1. Time then as One denotes Beginning as One is the beginning of Number Times as Two denotes Increase and Consistency as it is a progress of Time from One and settles in the first even Number Half speaks an endeavour of Motion to be continued but surpris'd and cut off at its middle Now these Time Times Half a Time might signifie only the three Years and a half they first import but that they must signifie more we shall find very full assurance when therefore we shall have reason'd that it must be more than three Years and a half it will then appear most reasonable that each Time should have its most perfect Circle And if a Year be the perfectest Circle of Time then a Year of Years must be the most perfect and full Circle beyond which there can be nothing but a Repetition or Multiplication of the same again and again so then the Time must be a Year of Years the two Times must be the same Circle twice told and the Half Time the same Circle attempted the third Time and clip'd off at the Semicircle which is the Account of this Character of Time Times Half a Time and which is the first and as will appear the most comprehensive of the Characters of this Line and tho there may be other Revolutions of the Heavens and of the Sun particularly known to learned Astronomers containing greater numbers of Years and there is a more perfect Number also of Years viz. the thousand Years given us in this Prophecy as we shall see afterwards yet there is none so fit to the present Purpose as Days and Years nor so full as a Year of Days and then a Year of Years or of prophetical Days most agreeable to Prophecy every way I come now to the second Character of Days A Day then Character the Second is the first most known and observable date of Time as it was first in use to measure Time by The Evening and the Morning were the first Day assoon as Time began A Day Gen. 1. 5. c. then is the Time in which the Sun performs his Motion speaking as the Scripture does to general Apprehension without regard to strictnesses of Philosophy whether the Motion be of the Sun or of
the Earth from East to West and gives Light to one of the Hemispheres and then from West to East and so hastens to the Place where he arose as near as the aforesaid Variation will allow and gives Light to the other Hemisphere as Lord of the Day to the World of both Hemispheres As then on this Account Days are in all Languages expressive of length of Time so one Day was by God made choice of to signifie a Year and one Day by Moses Psal 90. and by the Apostle Peter is singled out to parallel with a thousand Years and Man's Day by the Apostle Paul is us'd to express the whole course of Man's time of judging in opposition 2 Pet. 2. 8. to the Day of Judgment and the whole course of 1 Cor. 4. 3. Judgment is call'd frequently the Day of Judgment as one Day and as it is taken a Day for a Year in this Line of Time so we shall find in the three Days and a half it is taken for a Day of Years equal to a Year of Years Day threfore is a Standard of Time fairly to be accommodated to any Measure of Time the Conjunction it hath with such Measure otherwise given requires when therefore three Days and a half are joyn'd with twelve hundred sixty Days with twice forty two Months and all these within Time Times Half a time there is a fair Reason to understand them of the very same Tenor of Time with what they are so conjoyn'd But as for the accounting a Day for a Year that rests upon that Divine Institution of a Day for a Year first in a Case near and parallel of the Forty Years Commoration of the Church of Israel Numb 14. v. 34. to omit Jacob's old Stile of Time a Week of Years in the Wilderness and after that by the solemn Institution as of a prophetical Key Ezek. 4. I have appointed a Day for a Year so that when there is a concurrence of Prophecy and Things to be transacted that cannot be transacted in so short a space as of Days litterally and naturally understood they must be so understood as we are directed by Prophecy to understand them viz. a Day for a Year even as without Hesitation we compute into Weeks of Years Daniel's seventy Weeks and so into 490 Years Now we shall find such Transactions fitted to the twelve hundred and sixty days that cannot possibly be suppos'd to have their Motion in three years and a half so that they must be Prophetical days or days for years And thus we have settled the two first and most noble Characters of Time A year signified by a time and a day as it is used in the three dayes and a half and in the twelve hundred and sixty days with their most truly Prophetical Indications viz. three years and a half of years in the three times and three days and a half and twelve hundred and sixty years in the 1260 days Let us then proceed to the third Character of Months or the forty two Months A Month then we know is that Space of Time the Moon describes by Night in its progress through the Zodiack Third Character For whatever Hemisphere it moves in it is still Night it rules in which Motion is indeed so full of Variation and Incertainty in its Remove from the Ecliptick Line the Sun 's certain Path that it is said The Sun knows its way but the Moon does not even as the Phasis or figure of the Moon is upon perpetual change even to a Proverb upon the unadjustableness of any ones Humour or Manners Who can saith the Proverb fit a Coat to the Moon and so is excellently adapted to describe the Antichristian Tyranny that changes Times and Laws Not onely by rescinding the truly Christian Laws by mens own Additions contrary to those Laws themselves but also making perpetually changeable even the Counterfeits of them by innumerable new Traditions whereas the Religion of Jesus Christ is yesterday and to day the same for ever Besides that Judaisme and Heathenisme that had so many dependencies on the Moon is the Constitution of Antichristianism and therefore the true Church so distant from it is cloathed with the Sun and hath the Moon under its feet and therein abdicates Judaism Heathenism and Mahometanism that also claims a Kindred with the Moon as the Votaries of the Moon Now this Moon as Governess of the Night as so variable in its Motions and Measures gives no Rule of Time by Motion from East to West but only from one Lunation to another it denominates Months or Moons being certain onely in this to return from one Conjunction of the Sun to another which because it gives a new Phase to the Moon is therefore called in the Hebrew Novitas and the Lunations Novitates or New Moons But I understand No Way that it can describe the Circle of a Year but by its Attendance on the Sun in its Motion by so many new Conjunctions as will most agree with the Annual Motion of the Sun and the nearest This can be brought to by the Natural Motions of the Moon there will be between Ten and Eleven Days betwixt the Motion of the Sun and the motion of the Moon upon twelve Conjunctions call'd therefore Synodical Months of the Moon with the Sun For so many the Sun requires more to the finishing its Annual Course than the Moon needs to its twelve Conjunctions with the Sun And this be spoken of Months as they are most properly to be understood of Lunations For if we would interpret them of Solar Months besides another greater Obstruction or Caution to be entred against that Interpretation hereafter they could be only progressive not Circular and so not agreeable with a day or a year there being more of a Circulation of motion by that most Illustrious Prince of Time in a day than in a Month. And therefore we account a Day the first Circle of the Sun's motion with Light from East to West and so to East again and a Year the most perfect Circle of his motion in going forth from one end of Heaven and in Circuit to the other end thereof with Heat and Influential Vertue in neither of which Solar Months correspond as to any Complement and therefore not so fit Symbols of Time as the Lunar Months which have a circle from one Conjunction to the Sun with another Now these Lunar Months are in conjunction with Time Times Half a Time or three years and a half of Years and with Twelve hundred sixty Days or Years Twice Forty two Months of Years also but the former coalescing or falling into One within the latter as a River that had been a River before may be suppos'd to do into a new Cut or Channel prepar'd to receive the confluence of neighbouring Waters lying in the way of that former River so near that by the great confluence of Waters and the more ample Channel of the new River the old may
be no Vacuity Rex nunquam moritur where God holds the Succession and its Law firm and so it is to the very Kingdom of Christ Just then when the Christian Emperour deceas'd tht Bestian Emperour succeeded and that was indisputably at 475 and then his forty two Months of Duration succeeded and it was a large Time as Prophecy draws them out and they are still current they must have been yet a long time ago begun for there was the sixth King in Being when the Apostle wrote signifying his Time then in spending The seventh had no long time That end of things the Apostle declares Ch. 18. c. 19. c. 20. c. 21. is beyond all Controversie upon due yea but small Consideration not yet come Therefore this eighth King must have been long upon the Throne and now near the end of his forty two months For he came at the very first of them He came then though as an Infant Prince a Prince as in the Cradle yet then he came Humane History is not more competent to declare the Time when Antichrist was born than the Jews could pronounce aright when the Christ was born yet some chosen Observers there were of the one and of the other some or alarming Indications The Father Jerom sounded it aloud or rather by Inspiration before hand proclaim'd it but God hath judg'd it he hath declar'd it and there can be no incertainty in it When the short-liv'd Christian Emperours and their Empire dyed in the West then it was The true Seat of the Roman Empire being at seven headed seven hill'd Rome was by a wonderful Operation of Providence quitted by the Dragon to be the Seat of the Beast the Christian Emperours resided elsewhere most for still that was the Metropolis of the Bestian Empire Constantinople did but borrow the Name by a secret of Providence of Nova Roma as useful for some Types of Prophecy when the Christian Western Empire was cessated then the Eighth King succeeded his Fourty two Months then began I come now to the second Head of this Discourse The Head 2 Kingdom of Christ must come immediately after the Beasts Fourty two months ended The Law of the Succession requires it it must be then immediately proclaim'd It does not appear all at once no Kingdom does so But its Preparations are seventy five Years So great so glorious an Empire so just so even and cubical in its Thousand Years must have an honourable Preparation And it is but short in comparison During this time all sorts of warnings are given by the seven Thunders unseal'd Revel 14. all kind of Justice done upon Offenders by the Vials c. 16. The Beast hath a kind of dying Life as an outdated Usurper not yet executed but that hath lost his usurped Empire and then Lak'd for Ever This Succession of the Kingdom of Christ is dated by Prophecy to the end of the 1260 Days For then the Witnesses rise go out of their Sackcloth are array'd in a white Cloud Ascend to Heaven they cannot Ascend in Sackcloth but for 1260 Days Sackcloth was their Shrowd it is then certain the 1260 Days End It is certain also the Kingdom of Christ is then proclaim'd for when the second woe past away the third comes quickly No delay and the third woe Trumpet brought it and the first Sound or Report is The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ therefore lastly the forty two months must end with the 1260 days for Christ abated nothing of them by his Kingdom overhastily as is to be shewn and the Beast was to have so many for his Reign The 1260 days and the forty two months ending together Head 3 and the forty two Months beginning at 475 they must be adjusted one to the other as one being Time of the Sun the other as Time of the Moon For as in all Languages and parts of the World Days must and do signifie most properly the Time measured by the Sun so in the eastern and most especially the Jewish and Scripture Language Months signifie only and solely the Time as measured by the Moon and are call'd Novitates Newnesses or Times measured by each new Congress of the Moon with the Sun or new Moons so that however another way of speaking hath prevailed with us a Month of the Sun is as improper as a day of the night or a day measured by the Moon so that if words can signifie as they are always in Scripture us'd to signifie Months must signifie Time according to the motion of the Moon And further as hath been already shewn the Symbol is of the peculiar use in this Prophecy to semble Time of the Night of the Moon that the True Church hath under its Feet and as shall be more seen in a great Remarque upon the Mahometan Moon Because therefore days months years as they are within this Line of Time must all lye within Time Times half Time and equal 1260 days or years There are twice Forty two Months that knitting one within another will supply the shortness to 1260 Days or Years of the Forty two Months either of the Gentiles ending thirty eight years sooner or those of the Beast beginning thirty eight years later than those 1260 Days And as the Moon could be no Moon if there were no Sun to lend it Light so the Sun on a body prepared and moving to it as the Moon casts a Light like that of the Moon certainly and without fail In the same manner there could be no Antichristian months or Church if there were not a true Church and its Seed the Witnesses cloth'd with the Sun of Righteousness all those 1260 Years which cast those Months And if there be such a body as the Antichristian Church moving to the Christian Church as that does it must needs derive Months from its Days equal one to the other And it is most apparent that waving Scriptures round Number Unto the exactness of considerably less than a Years difference the Time of Forty two prophetical months adjusted by the strictest Accountant to the time of 1260 prophetical Days measured by the Moon 's motion from one new Conjunction with the Sun to another will be as 1222 Years to 1260 Years so that if the forty two months of the Beast begin at 475 the 1260 days beginning at 437 they will both end necessarily at 1697 which is the thing that ought to be shewn so great an Exactness so surely arguing the true Calculalation of this Line I hope all will agree cannot be bychance I request then I say a strictness of Account which to avoid both longsomness and perplexity in this Discourse I do not give but by so strict Account two mistakes will be escaped which may arise from a general apprehension of this Matter For it will then be found the Calculation is not to be made by accounting the Time of a Synodical Month to twenty nine days so many hours c.
although they are as overflowings of the Prophecy beyond its Conduct of things within the Trumpets yet it is most demonstrable They must all return within the Trumpets and Time at large begin with the Trumpets and intimate Time be guided by the Pillar of Time erected within the fifth Trumpet For seeing the Woman and the Witnesses 1260 days must needs be equal in their Beginning and Ending and the Beasts Intimate Time must be plac'd where the Witnesses Vanquishment and Death are and that these must be within the Trumpets nay in that all Time must be before the seventh Trumpet and end at it All Time therefore from thence in account recoyls backward so as to find room for it self even to the first of the 1260 Days within the first Trumpet which beginning at 437 ends with 42 the Concent of all Periods at 1697. All which ought to be evinc'd all along and I do more then hope hath been so evinc'd I have already prevented my self in the Remarques of this whole Line by placing them early in the first Views of it and therefore now make only these short ones as a Conclusion We may be heal'd of any dangerous Wonder that an Remark 1 Apostacy from Christian Religion so foul and thick as to need no Confutation of its Figments and Fables the very Title his Holiness Vicar of Christ do so loudly proclaim Antichrist That such a one hath endur'd so long a Time hath captivated the Wise the Learned the Politick the Noble the Royal the Imperial we see in this Prophecy It was to do so and by this Oath of Christ it was and is to last Time Times half Time even till the end of it It is to do so e're its Decem Principality It s ten horn'd Kingdom Fall And although it began by degrees yet it hath two most sudden Downfalls one at the Reformation as but in preparation and beginning the other at the end of that Half time then begun viz. at 1697 when His Fall shall be exceeding great Seeing it is most impossible Intimate time should return Remark 2 whatever Sufferings there may be of the Church of Thyatyra how great how dismal soever yet there cannot be a slaying of the Witnesses any more for Christ hath sworn with the Rainbow cap. 10. 1. on his Head It shall be as the Waters of Noah to him Isa 54. 9. There shall be no such Return for ever nor can I apprehend the Church of Sardis can in any parts of the Reform'd Nations Rev. 3. 3. v. 9. lose its State by a Return of that Apostacy its only danger is its shame that without Repentance will befall it at the more glorious Appearance of Christ's Kingdom and especially those Parts of it that have relapsed to a Synagogue of Sathan shall with double shame be forc'd to come and worship at Philadelphia's Feet and to know Christ hath lov'd it who endeavour'd to shut its Door Seeing we are compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses Remark 3 let us with great Confidence wait hope expect pray for the great Glory that is to be brought unto us at that great Appearance that will be made of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ at the end of the half time or half day or at the last of the last 180 of 1260 Days viz. at 1697 so often memorializ'd although but in preparation to that Kingdom it self 75 Years after And if we shall not live to it in this World yet we shall lose nothing by it for in Heaven and with the Lamb on Mount Zion we shall with the other Witnesses rejoyce in Rev. 14. 1. so happy a Change as will even then be made and so rejoyce for ever each in our Lot of the Land of Promise or the New Jerusalem The end of the second Point of this Line of Time or its Period SECT XIV Wherein is contained a brief Disquisition upon the seven Voices as they run along Apoc. ch 14. THE last Line of Time upon the grand Line of Daniel's 2300 Ev. Mor. stretches out it self beyond the so often repeated Prophetical Line we have been upon and yet it is most justly and according to the Reason of the Line to be joyned with it because the holy Spirit hath in Daniel so joyned to 1260 30 more making 1290 and then 45 making 1335 as hath been so often observ'd so that from hence however joyn'd rises a distinct Line of 75 Years consisting of its lesser Distinctions 30 and 45. And with great Wisdom and Design they are undoubtedly thus joyn'd and yet distinguish'd for hereby is shewn 1. That it is the same principal Line of 2300 Ev. Mor. thus protended 2. That the managements of Divine Power as to the Divine Kingdom are of a distinct nature from what they were any part even the last and best part that is the Half-time of the 1260 Days or since the Reformation and yet that there is an Agreement too so that the Kingdom is distinctly advanc'd in the first 30 above the State of it along the Half-time and still farther and higher advanc'd in the last Distinction or the forty five and yet that the Kingdom does not appear in Glory until the End of the 1335 all which appears very plainly both in Daniel and this Apocalyptick Prophecy where seeing the Voices and the Vials come after the 1260 Days we may conclude by the Union and by the Distinction together That the latter end of the sixth Trumpet adheres close to the seventh and then by the Voices first and the Vials after them both of the seventh Trumpet following so close one upon another and by the Blessed State coming upon all we may be most assur'd the Voices and the Vials answer to the Thirty and the Forty five Years of Surplusage to the 1260 Days so distinguish'd and so conjoyn'd Now that these Voices and Vials of the seventh Trumpet are yet to come and to come in the Order laid down and within the Time laid down these six Things may indubitably convince us 1. We may be fully assur'd nothing so great as the seven Thunders could be heard before the Reformation so high so loud for the Kingdom of Christ so they must be with the Reformation beginning 2. There is most apparently a space allowed for the Thunders remaining seal'd after their Voices uttered which space hath so great reason as hath been given to be rated at a Half-time or 180 Years and so cannot be run out yet since the Reformation 3. Nothing so eminent since the Reformation as the Fall of the Tenth of the Great City or the Turkish Woe ceasing whatever hopes now appear nor of the seventh Trumpet so closely lynck'd with both hath yet been seen 4. The Oath of Christ that Time should be no more cannot possibly allow such a space of Time or Delay as the Half-time after Time Times Half-Time within the seventh Trumpet or indeed any Time at all wherein every thing should not be in