Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	glory_n	let_v	6,078	5	4.5887	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66765	Paralellogrammation an epistle to the three nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland, whereby their sins being parallel'd with those of Judah and Israel, they are forewarned, and exhorted to a timely repentance, lest they incur the like condempation : to render it the more effectual, some considerable notions are therein expressed touching ceremonies, and things indifferent, the Lords supper, the civil government, the taking of oaths, the mark of the beast, the library of conscience, the great Sabbath, and the two witnesses, with other particulars of concernment interwoven / written by Geo. Wither.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1662 (1662)	Wing W3176; ESTC R11575	78,735	140

offence at what I have expressed It is also to be Considered that the Ceremonial observation of a seventh part of time for the competent rest of mens bodies and providing due nourishments and refreshments for the Soul as also for performance of Holy Duties neither is nor was or can be essential to the morality of Rest or of Religious Duties but Circumstantial and Ceremonial only in regard a due portion of time or any set time for these purposes cannot be just the same portion or a like expedient for all but must be more or less oftener or seldomer according to the differing strengths weaknesses ignorances or other defects necessities or occasions of Individual persons who shall need the same and who must take and be allowed such times and so much time as shall be necessary and is required by that morality which was written in the hearts of all men among the residue of universal Morals at the beginning of time And the Rest of that Mystical Sabbath which GOD is said to have sanctified as aforesaid is neither pertinent nor communicable to Beasts or meer natural Men or to any save to those Saints who are made one with GOD in Christ Jesus and who have wrought and are to work with GOD and him in the six dayes of a thousand years a piece upon the work of Regeneration and in maintaining Good against Evil until it shall obtain the Conquest These things considered the sanctifying of a more excellent Sabbath than that which was observed by the Jews or than that which is called the LORD's day seemeth to have been intended by that which GOD is said to have sanctified at the Creation and the Mystery which I would shew forth relating to a confutation of the Error occasioned by the long continuance of Wickedness and Tyranny in the World and which was in part discovered unto me by meditating the fore-going Circumstances is this GOD having finished his Work of Creation the sixth day wherein Man was also made for whose sake the World was made His Wisdom fore-seeing what the Devil's malice and humane curiosity would produce by desiring the knowledge of Good and Evil it was his good pleasure all his Operations as to things Temporary being in Number Weight and Measure and a thousand years with him but as one day and one day as a thousand years that as he had wrought six common dayes upon the work of Creation so his Intellectual and Reasonable Creatures having made themselves work by their Prevarications should have six mystical dayes of a thousand years a piece according to the vulgar Accompt wherein to do those works which they ought to do or had a desire to do that so they might have a sufficient time wherein to compleat their knowledge of Good and Evil according to their longing as aforesaid And the seventh day which GOD sanctified after the work of Creation is as I believe that mystical day of a thousand years or that seventh part of time be it sooner or later wherein Christ according to their expectation in the main whom you call Fift-Monarchy-men shall visibly Reign upon the Earth with his Saints as John hath Prophesied Revel 20. 5. At which time will begin that great and Everlasting Sabbath wherein they shall rest from their labours and wherein they who have seen Christ upon the Earth in his Humiliation shall there also behold him in his Glorification to the rejoycing of his chosen People and to the confusion of his Adversaries not in such a gross carnal manner as is fancied by some but as becomes glorified Bodies and as was partly typified by our Saviours Transfiguration upon the Mount when his Disciples then present well knew not what they either saw or said or as it was at the hour of his Ascention which is neither expressible or intelligible in the state wherein we now are During the first six thousand years of time Good and Evil are permitted to execute their distinct and mixt Powers and Faculties in working out their ends and in struggling for the mastery and manifestation of their Natures as they best can in and by all those who are to them respectively inclinable And when that six thousand years are compleated abating so much thereof only as the violent fury of the Devil Antichrist and their Confederates shall diminish of their own time within the last six thousand years then the Wickedness of the wicked the Righteous endeavours of good men so far forth as it is meerly their own and all that seems good or evil in their own strength weakness wisdom folly ungodliness or piety shall come to an end and be of no force or esteem Whereof the Devil began to be afraid when he said to Christ Art thou come to torment us before the time That seems to me the seventh day which GOD is said to have sanctified and to rest on after his six dayes work aforesaid and in my apprehension the preceding thousand years before that great Sabbath are the six mystical dayes wherein men should have permission as I said before to do those works which they had a desire to be doing for perfecting their knowledge in Good and Evil in this life after they had by disobeying GOD in our first Parents entered into a Confederacy with the Devil This sense of that Mystery I received not from men but by meditating an Interpretation of the first Chapters of the Old Testament by comparing them with the last Chapters of the New Testament and by what I collected out of that Prayer which Christ himself left unto us to be a Pattern of what we might absolutely pray for in regard whatsoever I am taught by him to pray for I am warranted undoubtingly to believe Now according to the Contents of that Prayer I do believe that the Name of our Heavenly Father shall be Hallowed upon Earth and his Kingdom come down visibly among us and his Will be here done as it is in Heaven which can never be until that great Sabbath I believe also That all who seek after his Kingdom which is to come with sincerity in the first place shall be daily fed with the bread of eternal life and supplied with all things necessary for prosecuting their Work in the mean time That our sins shall be forgiven us as we by his example forgive those who have trespassed against us That in all our Tryals and Temptations whereby GOD exerciseth our Faith we shall be delivered from whatsoever is evil in them and be at last partakers of his Kingdom Power and Glory even here upon Earth where we have suffered with him when that great Sabbath afore-mentioned begins and in Heaven for ever But you may think perhaps to your discouragement the mean while that time is very far off because by our ordinary Computation of Times and Years there will seem to be about 300 years unexpired of the last thousand of those 6000 years in which Antichrist with his Mystery of Iniquity was permitted

Proclamation and afterwards a Covenant voluntarily and conscientiously made or was at least pretended by Prince Priests and People for the breach whereof Confiscation of Goods and Exclusion from the Congregation was menaced but how far forth it was put in execution it appears not no had any wrong been done thereby because that is no wrong which is done to a man by his own consent no nor that which is done against his will if it be purposed for his wel-being and cannot have any effect to his hurt nor fail of that good which is pretended which inforcing the Conscience can never produce but the contrary rather for GOD is never wel-pleased with any service unwillingly done though the performance be good in it self and is alwayes highly displeased with every one who for fear favour or for any other end whatsoever acteth or speaketh against his Conscience and no doubt as highly offended with all those who offer violence to the Consciences of other men in regard it is not only injurious to men but a presumptuous offence also against a Prerogative due and proper to Him alone If these Prevarications be found among us be it known that they are surer tokens of GOD's Indignation than those which we call Plague-tokens are of their near approaching deaths who are visited with the Pestilence yet we have lately had other signs and tokens which are both Presignificators of the General Judgment and of the National Calamities which will come upon particular Nations and Persons when their sins grow ripe according to what our Saviour Christ foretold Luke 21. 25. where it is said There shall be signs in the Sun the Moon and the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity the Sea and the Waves voaring mens hearts failing in looking after those things which are coming upon the Earth for the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken c. We have seen these or such like signs whether taken in a metaphorical or a literal sense and the sign also of the Prophet Jonas mystically revived in some of the Saints of GOD whose Judgments are begun upon those of his own Houshold and his Justice and Mercy have been manifested upon many of them in our sight Moreover though we who believe his Word have therein sufficient manifestations and look for no other signs of what is approaching yet GOD hath vouchasafed to Unbelievers in these dayes what he denied to the like unbelieving and adulterous Generation heretofore if what hath been credibly reported may be credited For we have heard of more strange Prodigies dreadful Apparitions and unusual Visions in the Air upon the Waters and on the Earth within a few years than I have read recorded in all humane Stories since the coming of Christ in the flesh and they are the more to be considered in regard GOD hath been pleased to give us Signs of what he intends though as I said before he denied Signs to those who desired them and forasmuch as they made us no whit the better it implies an experimental verifying of this saying They who will not believe Moses and the Prophets will not believe one sent from the dead If the Signs and Wonders lately averred be true or but in part true as I am perswaded they are though I never saw any such then they are very considerable And no less considerable or significant are they if feigned or delusions seeing they declare this Generation to be presumptuously wicked beyond all before them as daring to make aver and publish Lies of that nature If they are true they are the Finger of GOD pointing to somewhat whereof they are Signs and which ought to be heeded yea though they are but delusions of the Fancy they are terrible Signs of affrighted and self-condemning Consciences Those Apparitions which we see or fear to see upon the Earth shew us from whence all our troubles come even from our Earthly-mindedness and the Signs which men see or think they see in the Heavens invite us to look up unto those Hills from whence cometh our Salvation We have yet other Signs of what is approaching and of what will certainly ensue if not prevented by Repentance and they are very significant and observable though very few heed them or think themselves therein concerned GOD foretold the obstinate Jews that he would provoke them by such as they reputed a foolish People and so have we been provoked by some among us whose persons words and actions appear unto the greatest number of us not only foolish and contemptible but impudent and wicked also Such were they and their Actings who came naked into our Publick Assemblies and by what spirit soever they were thereto moved were Signs which I believe GOD permitted to signifie that he will openly discover our Shame and strip us naked from all those Fig-leaves which we have patched together to hide it and take from us all those things which we have made our chief delight pride and ornament And I am perswaded those signal Actings of that nature which were personated by some of the Prophets were in their times reputed as ridiculous and scandalous as the extravagancies which have been seen in our dayes They likewise whom ye term Quakers and who with much resolution and patience do sustain the Persecutions whereby they are prosecuted in all places Even they as I believe are instrumental by a Divine Dispensation signally to foreshew that Contempt which GOD will bring upon our false Worship false Honour vain Complements Hypocrisies Superstitions Formalities in Piety counterfeit Morality and Dissimulations with GOD and Men. Many take great offence at them and I do believe because it hath been averred unto me by conscientious men that some so called have professed and taught erroneous and scandalous Doctrines for there is no Dispensation whereinto the Devil hath not screwed many of his Instruments to disparage and hinder what was thereby intended but I do profess that none among all them of whose Principles and Conversation I have had opportunity to take notice hath appeared otherwise to me than a truly honest and pious man and though their language and manners are offensive to many they are not so to me because if they be not taken up with an affectation to singularity whereof I cannot judge unless I could see their hearts they seem to me such as are essential to their Dispensation and had GOD fitted me for the same work I should have done as some of them do though I will not justifie all that some of them do Habakkuk in his mode and at such a time as this was a Quaker So likewise was Ezekiel the Prophet and a sign to the Jews by GOD's Dispensation in his time as appears Ezek. 12. 17. The Word of the LORD came unto me saying Son of man eat thy bread with quaking and drink thy water with trembling and carefulness and say unto the People of the Land thus saith the LORD GOD of the Inhabitants of Jerusalem

ought I perceive every Dissenting Party is and will be Judge in his own Cause whomsoever else it concerns And we are all I confess even the best of us somewhat over-byassed as to Self-Interest Princes and their Councils will be sole Judges of that which they think concerns the Peace of their Kingdoms and Self-Interest Prelates and their appurtenat Officers will be Judges of that which they conceive pertains to the Discipline of their own Church and their temporary Dignities and Conscientious men suppose themselves as competent Judges next under GOD of what belongs to the peace of their Consciences as either of the former and resolve to act according to their own judgements or to suffer what shall be imposed upon them For as their Persecutors may peradventure say as the Jews did when they Crucified Christ that they have a Law by which these ought to suffer So they may say that GOD and Nature have Laws by which it ought to be otherwise and to those Laws they may and I do for my part appeal Let therefore if it be so these three Nations seek unto GOD as one man and humbly Petition the King in his own Person that to establish his Throne in Righteousness all Publick and Private Grievances may be impartially and effectually considered hereafter and not slighted as heretofore That in things relating to GOD and the Conscience men may be governed according to his divine Law only and in all Civil Matters by such humane Laws as the People have chosen and shall chuse agreeable to the Word of GOD and the Law of Nature Which Exhortation I propose not to ingratiate my self either with the People or the present Government to any self end For the Restraints and Sufferings which have been imposed on me have been more advantagious than all the Liberties or Preferments they can confer and were I put to chuse whether I would enjoy the greatest earthly Glory or be exposed to the greatest earthly Torments for a good Conscience I would as soon chuse the later as the first if GOD might be more glorified thereby Indeed I would chuse neither of them because I know not in which of those estates I should most honour God but leave it absolutely unto him to dispose of me as he pleaseth and will not desire muchless attempt any thing for my personal security or for enjoyment of my Conscience by any unjustifiable act It hath been said That the Kingdom of Heaven must be taken by violence yet let us now be cautious that we seek not to make passage into it by a Carnal violence and by the Temporal Sword which Sword belongs principally to the Kingdoms of this World lest we perish by that Sword as many have done Our Saviour said to Peter when he smote off the ear of Malchus in his defence Put up the Sword for in truth it was not then in season nor is so now Had either a natural or a supernatural Resistance been then seasonable our blessed Saviour as he at that time said could have prayed to his Father and have had more than twelve Legions of Angels immediately sent unto him for his Rescue Those Angels when the time appointed comes will appear under the Conduct of Michael their Arch-Angel to do that execution upon the Usurpers of Christ's Kingdom which hath been long since foretold and which we daily pray for The Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal nor shall the Conquest which we expect be obtained by any other Sword in the hands of the Saints but that Two-edged Sword proceeding out of his Mouth whom John saw standing between the seven golden Candlesticks sharpned by the Faith Hope Love Patience Prayers and Constancy of the LAMB's followers which Conquest at or about the end of the last of those six dayes aforesaid of a 1000 years a piece or at the shortning of that day and at the beginning of the great Sabbath which GOD sanctified at the Creation will be accomplished Till that time the Saints are patiently to wait upon GOD and permit his Enemies to enjoy their time without grudging or fretting at their prosperity as David counsels in his 37 Psalm In order to their final Destruction some proceedings will every year be made whilst the sixth Vial is pouring out and which is already in a great measure diffused and probably a signal progression in some evident particular will be vouchsafed betwixt this and the end of 1666 years after the birth of Christ and be compleated at or about the end as I have before declared of the thousand six hundred sixty and sixth year after his Passion if the Foundation of my Calculations fail not The Planets in their Courses are moving toward those Constellations and Influences which will shortly demonstrate they are fighting for the People of GOD against their Enemies as they fought against Sisera and his Army and when GOD destroyed the Host of five Kings with hailstones who Warred against the Gibeonites whilst they went under the Protection of Joshua But we have a surer Word to trust unto than the Book of the Creatures whose Characters our Folly hath now made obscure even GOD's written Word and Spirit and the Prophesies in that Word contained will shortly be fulfilled and then the knowledge of Good and Evil as to all sublunary things being experimentally known in full such an end will be put to all their strugglings for the Victory that our Scoffers will from thenceforth no more say or think that all things are to continue as they are but they who now insolently persecute the Saints will miserably affrighted sneak into Dens and Caverns of the Earth wishing the falling Mountains might cover them from his Presence whom they have persecuted and despised GOD's White Banner hath been displayed among us a long time heretofore to invite us by fair means to come in and make our peace His Red Colours are now hung forth and though it hath already cost us much blood and treasure we return not unto him and if we delay it until his Black Flagg be set up it will be then too late to Retreat without a mischief for they who are to come upon the black and pale Horses will immediately follow to do execution It is high time to look about us and take heed what this Spirit saith unto the Churches typified by the seven Churches in Asia wherein the state of the most eminent Congregations which are Members of the Catholick Church in all Ages are concerned as is also that Universal Church in all the Contents of St. John's Apocalyps throughout her several Ages until the end of the Mystery of Iniquity The sixth Trumpet as I believe hath sounded and is yet sounding The third great Wo will come forth A Mystical Earthquake hath already shaken down a Tenth part of the malignant City The Nations being both affrighted and angry are labouring to repair the Breaches and have partly skinned over some of their putrifying Wounds with Patches and

Plaisters and like the old Egyptians their true types encrease the works of Bondage and Slavery to the suppressing of GOD's People within their Jurisdictions because they perceive them endeavouring to separate from them But the time is near wherein the true Israelites and their Oppressors will receive the Rewards respectively prepared and due unto them by GOD's Judgments promenced against the one and his gracious Promises to the other though his Enemies struggle yet against him like Pharoah and his Armies in the Red Sea when their Chariot-wheels were taken off and while the waves on either side stood heaped up ready to swallow them The Grand City being divided into three parts will ere long fall with every subordinate Power Kingdom City and Society thereto belonging and wo to all them who have not separated from her by repentance Her abominations are come into remembrance before GOD Her sins are almost full ripe and she is become an habitation of Devils and a receptacle for every unclean bird all Nations have drunk the Cup of her Fornications and are besotted and bewitched with her Sorceries and Inchantments The Merchants of the Earth are enriched by the abundance of her carnal Delicacies and by her Traffick in spiritual and temporal Merchandizes for they have traded together not only for Gold Silver Pretious Stones Pearls fine Linnen Silks Purple Scarlet Vessels of Brass Iron Wood and Marble Spices Odours Oyntments Oyl Wine Wheat Beasts and Chariots but also for the Bodies and Souls of men according to what was prophesied pretending to settle upon their Chapmen Possessions in Heaven that they might cheat them and their Heirs of their Inheritances upon Earth Their Formal Devotions being of the same nature and value with such as were in use among the old Heathen Idolaters and for the most part borrowed from their Idol Temples will not avail them in the day of their Visitation but be cast out as unholy things fit for nothing but to be trampled under foot and destroyed with all those Trumperies which the Founders of the Mystery of Iniquity have raked together out of Judaism and Gentilism to trim up a will-Worship They who dote on them shall perish with them and GOD's People whom they now oppress and reproach shall be delivered from their scorns and oppressions If they with whom GOD hath intrusted the Civil Power shall joyn with her in oppressing his People he himself will deliver them from all their oppressive Actings and Constitutions who by a corrupt exercise of their Authority are more or less at enmity with his Kingdom and persecutors of his Saints as turbulent and seditious Persons for professing their Consciences and not complying with them in their Abominations and vain Inventions repugnant to the dictates of his Word and Spirit who is their Soveraign Paramount Yea so many of the Civil Governors and Magistrates as in their publick or personal actings adhere finally to Antichristianism in the essentials thereof shall be therewith destroyed But they who Conform to the Kingdom and Government of Christ shall be thereunto admitted and therewith honoured Be wise therefore O ye Kings and learn what ye are to do you that are Judges of the People Let not the Kings and Rulers of the Earth bind themselves together in their Counsels against the LORD and his Anointed nor the murmuring People imagine vain things For GOD who sits in Heaven derides their attempts and maugre all their opposition will set his King upon the holy Hill of Sion Psal 2. Amen These things considered our future Repentance and Reformation will not alone consist in forsaking our Transgressions against the moral Law and the impudent prophaness whereof we are guilty by meer carnal sins but in timely disserting also every spiritual wickedness by coming out of Babylon and desisting from complying with her and especially by razing out the Mark of the Beast if we have in any mode received it which is not to be performed by a local departure or separation but by a relinquishment of their Superstitions and Idolatries and by avoiding the mark of the Beast both in the hand and forehead which I conceive not to be any thing forcibly imposed upon men against their wills as Oaths Stigmatizings or Conformity with them in things indifferent But I judge that Mark to be a voluntary approving the Power of the Beast and an adhering to him or his Image by justifying their tyrannies professing their Idolatries and by openly or secretly persecuting the followers of the LAMB For these Qualifications knit together with an c will make such a perfect Character whereby to distinguish them from the Disciples of Christ that they shall be priviledged to buy and sell or to enjoy any place of Power Honour or Profit within his usurped Jurisdiction which he exerciseth at several times and under various Notions For I conceive that the first and second Beast mentioned in the Revelation as also the Image of the Beast The Skarlet Whore with her Cup of Fornications The Red Dragon The False Prophet the seven Heads the ten Horns the smoke which ascended out of the Bottomless Pit and the Locusts proceeding out of that smoak do all together make up but one Mystical Body of Iniquity as it was by degrees produced active and manifested in several times according to the true nature thereof in every particular part The first Beast being the fourth and last humane tyranny described by Daniel in the last of the four Beasts whereof he had a Vision in the Raign of Belshazer is that Monster out of which all the Appurtenances of the said Mystery successively branched The second Beast is that mixture of temporal and spiritual Oppressions and Wickednesses which sprouted up from the first by Sa●anical Delusions and fleshly Impostures It is called the Image of the Beast because of the manifold resemblances which it retains of heathenish Romes Cruelties Pride and Superstitions and their forming of it into that Image was partly as I judge to colour and countenance their Novelties and wicked Impostures with an appearance of venerable Antiquity and with a successive Authority which is one of their chief boasts and it was partly to share also among themselves the Dignities and Profits which were formerly enjoyed by the Flamines Arch-Flamines and other Priests among the Gentiles who had large Priviledges and Possessions It is expressed by a Red Dragon in respect of the bloody Persecutions thereby raised in the Primitive Church It is called a Whore arrayed in Scarlet with a golden cup of Fornications in her hand to signifie the carnal Pompe and Pleasures whereby it should infatuate and bewitch the great men of the World It is likened to a False Prophet to intimate the counterfeit Sanctity and Gravity whereby it should delude foolish Kings and Nations The Smoke ascending out of the bottomless Pit implies the Jugglings and Sophistications whereby they should becloud the Truth and darken mens understandings with fictitious Glosses and false Interpretations The

be otherwhile added by us though many who do therein as it were Tithe Mint and Annis are offended at such additions ignorantly supposing them to be Oaths Nevertheless I am so tender of offending their Consciences who scruple at such Niceties that I deny my self liberty even in many such indifferent things except I causually slip into them through inadvertency and I judge not uncharitably of those who dare not Swear at all because they have a written Word inducing them to be of that Judgment James 5. 12. where it is said Above all things Swear not neither by Heaven nor by Earth nor by any other Oath but let your Yea be Yea and your Nay Nay which seems to be a Caution against all Oaths whatsoever in the understanding of some but not in mine nor do I think this Scripture is to be limitted as some have thought to Promissary Oaths in regard there is no word in the Text or Context to warrant such an Interpretation Perhaps that which is offensive in Oaths consists more in the Circumstances or Formalities than in what is by them essentially intended I think therefore it would be a Provision worthy a Christian Government and would be more satisfactory to those whom it concerns than the Testimony of a Peer upon his Honour Conscientious men deserving at least as much Credit and Priviledge upon their bare word as the other by an empty Title if for an Expedient in this case a Law were enacted whereby the Testimony of those Persons who are Conscientiously afraid of Swearing may be taken for a legal witnessing of the Truth by an attestation upon their word only evidenced by some such action as the lifting up of the Hand without the usual Formalities of an Oath upon the same Penalties which our Laws inflict on persur'd Persons who deserve at least the same Pains or Mulcts which may befall to other men by their Falshood This I suppose will displease no reasonable or conscientious man in regard none ought to think that they are not in conscience oblig'd to Assert the Truth in Controversies between man and man or in matters relating to publick Justice or common Safety when it tends not to an Accusing of themselves And I have this charitable belief of the greatest number of them who make Conscience of Swearing as aforesaid out of meer Conscientiousness that they will be more trusty in their Assertions and more Loyal to the Supream Power though it favour'd them not upon their bare verbal Engagements than the greatest part of them will be who voluntarily take or impose Oaths by Compulsion on other men I am assured also that GOD will not hold them guiltless who by Threatnings or by Oaths or by Imprisonments or Tortures enforce men to act against their Consciences or to accuse themselves or other Innocents in their distempers and torments St. Agustine in his City of God inveighs against it as an abominable oppressive Cruelty practised till then by none but Heathenish Tyrants and afterward by the Beast who sprung from them to enforce Innocents against the Laws of GOD and Nature unjustly to accuse themselves and those whom they intended to destroy whereas both Divine and Humane Justice directs to other means of discovering Truths and vindicating of suspected Persons The Holy Ghost wills that every man before he suffers should be tryed and Convicted by the mouth of two or three Witnesses upon which Precept the Law of our Nation called the Great Charter is founded And as it is exemplified in the Case of Achan wherein the safety of a whole Nation was concerned and indangered by his private sin no man is to be interrogated as touching things which may tend to the accusing of himself until there be either an Accuser produced or a previous probability in some degree evidencing that he is guilty as Achan appeared to be upon a providential discovery first made out by five Lots before it came to a personal Examination and even then Joshua proceeded not rigorously or by menacings but meekly and by a Fatherly compellatur said unto him My Son give I pray thee glory to the GOD of Israel and tell me what hast thou done Whereupon he Conscientiously confessed his Crime In this temper of Spirit it becometh all Christians to search out doubtful matters and not by a tyrannous violence in what hazard soever the Publick may appear by the concealment thereof This is my Judgment whereto I will add what shall deserve to be well heeded at this time to wit That not only those Confessions or Accusations which are extorted by threatnings or tortures are no proofs at all of what is Confessed against themselves or others but that all these Informations and Accusations likewise which Condemned or Guilty men are allured tempted or bribed unto by hopes or fears promises of pardon favour or reward and not conscientiously declared ought not to be regarded as a valid Evidence further than they concur with other Circumstances and unquestionable proofs For they who are corrupted or distempered by covetousness hopes fears enforced necessities or long and hard durance will for the most part say any thing to escape a present misery as by sad experiments it hath been often seen Even at this day as I am credibly informed there is a man living who being thought murdered a poor innocent man was hanged lately in chains as principal in the fact and his Mother and Brother executed as Accessaries upon the said man's Confession when he was distempered to a degree of distraction by hard durance by the threatnings of the Prosecutors and by his own fears and frailties which were perhaps thought to be effects and evidences of his guiltiness But who can help this or how or when will it be better whilst Oaths are forcibly imposed and whilst they who have no conscience are more indulged than the most conscientious men I would to GOD that our Publick and Private Peace and Safety were no more endangered by false Witnesses Suborners of Perjury Trapanners Ignorant or corrupt Jurors and by some of them who impose Oaths against men's Consciences than by them who make Conscience of Swearing I may seem perhaps to make tedious Digressions impertinent to my first Design but they are not such if well considered for I being like a Beggar who is never out of his way might add much more collatrally at least tending to my first purpose which I omit partly because it cannot now be born partly for that I am not in such a capacity to express it as assures me it is part of my work at this present Therefore I will proceed with what I am certain so to be lest I be prevented as aforesaid by what I expect may shortly happen to the depriving me of those Tools and Opportunities which I have at this time and place in my fruition And I conceive that what I purpose next to treat of will be so necessary toward the performance of those duties for promoting

to Reign 666 years after he had attained to his full power Nevertheless let not that infringe the patience of any For though GOD is absolute in fulfilling the times promised for the benefit of his Elect he doth not so oblige himself to those times which concern the lengthning out the Kingdoms of his Enemies but that they may be shortned by their own actions according to this saying The wicked live not out half their time It is probable that our Chronology is defective some Chronologers differing in their Accompt hundreds of years and they about 80 or 40 years who differ least Or if it were not so the time of our suffering may be shortned for the sake of GOD's Elect yea Christ hath promised that it shall be shortned for their sake Matth. 24. 22. And probably the shortning the last dayes of Tribulation will be occasioned by GOD's permitting his and their Adversaries to be so violent and infatuated in their furious prosecutions of malicious Designs to uphold their Tyranny when they feel it tottering that they themselves will thereby shorten their own time And that the Kingdoms of the Devil Antichrist and the World will be so divided and confounded in their Designment and Prosecutions that they shall help destroy themselves and their Kingdoms by their own Actings and by provoking GOD according to his Conditional Decrees to come in when Evil is at the highest pitch of Malignity to make it evident that by his Power and Goodness alone Good becomes prevalent against Evil. And probably some Dispensations of Mercy in that kind will be vouchsafed as to the weakning of Antichrist's kingdom betwixt this time and the year 1666 according to our Computation after the birth of Christ But that Number of the Name or Power of the Beasts whose time of tyrannizing is thereby limitted from the last of the times of the distinct highest Exaltations of the two Beasts until the full end of their Powers will not be until so many years after the Passion of our Saviour if I have not mis-grounded my Judgment as I believe I have not For at the time of Christ's Passion the last of those Earthly Monarchies which have oppressed the Saints was at the highest and ever since it hath declined Their longest time of continuance as I conceive being mystically numbred out unto them in their own Numerals which put altogether in order according to their distinct Valuations singly can make no more as these their Characters demonstrate than M. D. C. L. X. V. I which is a M. years for the continuance of Heathen Romes tyranny after it was at highest until it was swallowed up by that Beast which arose out of it for old Romes Tyranny continued in the Civil Government of that Empire after Christian Emperours had the Title The remainder of the aforesaid sum being DCLXVI is the time of the Reign of Antichrist or the Man of Sin after he attained to an absolute Supremacy which will have an end in or about the Seventeenth hundred year after Christ's Nativity by our Accompt if Chronologers have not misreckoned the times This is my Judgment of the Number of Beast When that day comes I believe the Souls under the Altar will no more cry How long LORD We shall not then think the dayes or years of our suffering for Righteousness sake were over many nor will the Scoffers then ask any more in derision Where is the Promise of his Coming Then how long or short a time soever it be during which the present or the last Tryal of the Saints must continue Let us consider how little a few years more or less are in respect of Eternity and of how small consequence all that is which we can suffer in comparison of that reward which is prepared for those who overcome by patience What can we lose Or what have they lost who have been translated out of this life by the cruelty of their Persecutors but that which would have been a greater disadvantage had it not been lost Perhaps that experience which I have had in my particular of GOD's extraordinary strengthning me in my Sufferings by the encrease of Hope and Consolations vouchsafed may be believed by some to the augmentation of their constancy and comfort I do therefore unfeignedly profess though I profess it in much frailty of the Flesh That if GOD continue his Mercy begun which I doubt not of and shall give me a full draught of those Cordials whereof he hath vouchsafed me a Taste I think I should not repine to undergo for his Glory the heat of those terrible dayes which are begun or near approaching For I conceive it will not be much hotter than the Fiery Furnace which was heated sevenfold more than usually for Shadrach Mesech and Abednego and I beleive that to strengthen and preserve me I should have the same Companion they had in that Fiery Tryal if it might be so much to GOD's glory Let not then the length or sharpness of any Persecution discourage from a Constant waiting upon GOD whose Grace will be a sufficient Assistance in all Probations Nor let your imperfect apprehensions of those mysterious expressions whereby the estate of that Sabbath or Kingdom afore-mentioned is described mislead you either into a distrust of the reality thereof or into any carnal mis-belief misteachings or mis-actings by a vain curiosity of seeking to know further than is plainly revealed before the time For Fancy is apt to make many erroneous representations and that which shall be is darkly expressed for the exercise of our Faith and we can no more apprehend it as it is being in the state wherein we yet are than Children of a month old can declare what manner of life they shall here live when they come to ripe years It may suffice that so much is declared and unfolded by what is fulfilled and so demonstrated by Allusions to things of which we highly esteem that it may assure us there is an unspeakable glory and happiness prepared for all those who believe and suffer for Righteousness sake Our sight is yet too weak to behold it Our hearts are too narrow to apprehend it and that hour of the day is not yet come which will manifest to any so much as will hereafter be made evident to all But that we may not make our Afflictions and Troubles greater than else they would be and our Consolations less than they might be by our own defaults and so imbitter our Spirits against the Truth and each other that Repentance and Reformation be obstructed thereby and lest also through defect of true Piety towards GOD or of true Charity to Men we be found rather sufferers altogether for our sins than for Righteousness sake to the making of our sorrows endless in this life as it happeneth to many or to the rendring of us more wicked and cruel when our Sufferings be removed than we were before to the perpetuating of an unhappy condition hereafter Be