the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that are in them to him that sits upon the Throne and unto the Lamb to what times possibly can this belong but to the holy happy and glorious Millennial Reign of Christ in his Saints upon Earth The Song of the twenty four Elders and four Beasts prefigure the Joy of the Millennial Monarchs and People that of the Angels the Joy of the Angels in Heaven at this flourishing State of the Church on Earth and that of the rest of the Creatures the Conviction of all the World that the Lord Jesus was no less than he declared himself to be the Son of God and Saviour of the World to whom the Father had given all Power in Heaven and Earth of which this Millennial State of the Church is a most illustrious and glorious Effect filling all the World with wonder and amazement And this I hope may satisfie the eighth Query 9. Ninthly To the ninth Allegation I answer That the Doxology of the Angelical Quires does prefigure the Joy of Angels in Heaven for that blessed condition of the Church in the New Jerusalem state on Earth So that though this Vision which is a Representation of the glory of the God of Israel in his Spiritual or Angelical Kingdom in the Dramatical frame of things is so contrived that the four and twenty crowned Elders and four Beasts prefigure also the Monarchs and People of the Millennium yet there are left numerous Quires of Angels in counterdistinction to these to signifie Angels literally so called and the Song is to signifie their Joy at this State of the Church on Earth Nor has that strong Angel that makes the Proclamation any other sense than so that he was one of the Angelical Retinue of the God of Israel in Heaven Nor is that Rule of interpreting Angels of men in the Apocalypse universally true I am sure not in the Introductory Visions The word Angel occurs in several places of the Introductory Visions where it stands for an Angel literally so called not for a man to say nothing of other places So little force has this ninth Allegation 10. And lastly for the tenth which urges That if there had been any such universal Doxology to Him that sits on the Throne and to the Lamb after he had taken the Book that there would have been some traces or footsteps of it in History To this I answer That it is a marvellous groundless conceit and expectation that what is here Parabolically and Dramatically set down only to express that Joy and Happiness which would redound to the whole Creation from Christ's being invested with this Power of opening the seven-sealed Book that is to be enabled both to foretel and guide the affairs of his Church so as that the state thereof will be so glorious and prosperous at last here upon Earth that all the World will be convinced of his stupendious Foresight Wisdom and Power that therefore there shall be such an universal Te Deum sung to him throughout the whole Universe at once so that the Solemnity might be recorded in History This is not the meaning of the Prophetick Stile And besides if it were the time is not yet come when this is to be For such expressions as these can suit with no meaner State of the Church on the Earth than that of the Millennial Reign when the four and twenty Millennial Monarchs including both the Jewish and Gentile Sovereigns or Princes may seasonably sing this Song Thou hast redeemed us with thy blood and made us Kings and Priests and we shall reign upon Earth viz. in Christ's Millennial Empire But to expect Records of such a Doxology in History before the Doxology has been is a great Incongruity Wherefore I hope any indifferent eye may easily discern that notwithstanding all these ten Allegations my Exposition of this Vision comprized in the fourth and fifth Chapters of the Apocalypse is unexceptionably true CHAP. XXXV Three Objections from a considerate hand The first against our making the three Times and an Half the forty two months and twelve hundred and sixty days to be the same time The second against oun affirming the Euphratean Horsemen to have subdued the Eastern Roman Empire with Fire-Guns The last against our making the Aegyptian year to consist only of three hundred and sixty days in Arithmetica Apocalyptica but in Apocalypsis Apocalypseos of three hundred and sixty five with Answers to all three THE first Objection Every day in the forty two months signifying a year makes in the whole twelve hundred seventy seven years at least there being really in every year not three hundred and sixty but three hundred and sixty five days This seems to make the three Times and an Half or forty two months and twelve hundred and sixty days not to be the same Answ That the forty two months are Aegyptian Months and consist of just thirty days apiece is manifest in that thirty times forty two make just twelve hundred and sixty days And these days and those months are the time of the mourning of the Witnesses and of that which all along occasions their mourning viz. the outer Court being trodden down by the Gentiles which is a plain indication that the twelve hundred and sixty days are a note of no more nor less time than the forty two months and that therefore they must be Aegyptian Months And as it is plain that the months are Aegyptian so we must conceive that the years in the three Times and an Half are so many Aegyptian years and an half consisting of Aegyptian Months which therefore make each of them three hundred and sixty days See Rev. Chap. 12. v. 6 14. This is their solid Year consisting of so many months to which they add the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are called the Dies adjectitii which are five which here the Spirit of Prophecy takes no notice of but resolving the forty two Aegyptian months which is three solid Aegyptian Years and an half into just twelve hundred and sixty days shows that no more years than so are to be understood thereby And this not respecting at all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or five adjectitious days in this Compute of the Time of the Medial Visions all which synchronize one with another complies excellently well with that Truth which I have made out viz. That the eventual measure of the Medial Visions is not a Year which has been thought hitherto so to be but a Semi-time in respect of which seventeen years or more is not at all considerable So that there was no need of being so precise as to take the Dies adjectitii into the Reckoning and so to make the whole twelve hundred and seventy seven years at least as you would infer Wherefore though every day in the forty two months stands for a year yet these months being Aegyptian months and consisting of just thirty days apiece and there is the
of which the Truth is to be followed and the shadow to fly away And lastly For what is alledged in the seventh Argument they are but such things as are already answered by my answering the first where I have explained in what sense there is said to be no death nor sorrow nor pain And it being said there is no curse that is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that respects the Papal Curses as is noted in my Exposition And that there is no Night is no more than is said by Esay of the state of the Church on Earth Thy Sun shall no more go down c. Chap. 60. And this state of the Church being so holy on Earth it is no wonder that such ill people as are called Dogs Sorcerers Whoremongers Idolaters c. are excluded from it and not admitted into their Communion And in that they are said to enjoy the sight of the face of God and of the Lamb what is this more than what S. Paul witnesses we are capable of in this life That God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness may shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ So that there being so many indications as I have observed in my Notes that the description of this New Jerusalem is a description of a state of the Church on Earth and the best Arguments alledged against it being really invalid it remains manifest that the state of the Church in the Millennial Reign of Christ on the Earth is predicted and described by this Description of the New Jerusalem But now after the pondering of the Plea of both Parties though I am very confident that the description of the New Jerusalem is a description of the Church on Earth in the Millennium yet I am on the other side as confident of what is not at all repugnant to this that this excellent Millennial state of the Church is a Type and so intended to be in its description of that more transcendently blessed and glorious state of the Church Triumphant in Heaven And the reasons that induce me to this belief in brief are these First It seems handsom and congruous that it being so universally acknowledged on all sides that the State and Oeconomy of the Jewish Church was a Type of the Christian Church which was to succeed it so the best state of the Christian Church Militant which is the Millennial state or rather the state of the New Jerusalem here described which the Heavenly state succeeds should be a Type of the succeeding Church Triumphant in Heaven Secondly There is a sufficient lively Description and sensible Representation of the state of the second Death which succeeds the general Judgment the Lake burning with brimstone and fire why therefore should there not be as lively or rather more lively description of the state of Eternal life to which the Godly are adjudged as well as the Wicked to the other state Thirdly therefore The Description of the New Jerusalem State or Polity for it is the Kingdom of Heaven immediately succeeding this Lake of fire in the very next Chapter under the very name of a new Heaven and a new Earth the same with the New Jerusalem and this after the Conflagration we are fairly invited thereby to conclude that the state of the New Jerusalem on Earth is so described that it is also a Type of the Triumphant Jerusalem in Heaven And thus far we will allow force in Alcazar's second and third Argument that they may fairly warrant in conjunction with other Considerations the description of the New Jerusalem on Earth to be a Type of the Church Triumphant in Heaven Fourthly This being a most Holy Book of Divine Visions and this of the New Jerusalem the last of the Visions what can be a more proper Vision than this that typifies also the glorious and blissful state of the Saints in Heaven to be the close of all and which not only this Book of the Apocalypse but the whole Bible aims at Fifthly and lastly It is observable and I have noted it in my Mystery of Godliness Book 7. Chap. 7. That in a Prophecy that may have a meaner fulfilling at the first and is really intended for that fulfilling yet by reason of the high actuation of the Spirit of the Prophet some expressions may come from him that much better fit the Antitype than the Type in which the Prophecy is first fulfilled This is so over and over again verified in the Prophecy Typical of our Saviour Christ that it is needless pains to name any And many such instances also are observable in the Typical Prophecies of Antichrist as that in the Prince of Type c. Now this being so observable in Predictions that are but Types of what there will be a fuller completion that there are strokes in them that properly belong not but only figuratively to the Type but to its Antitype there being this very case in the description of the New Jerusalem a Prophecy of the Millennial state of the Church on Earth that is to say there being such expressions therein that more naturally describe the state of Heaven as S. Augustine has well observed in the first Argument and Alcazar in the last the genuine Result of this Consideration is this That it is a Prophecy of such a State of the Church on Earth as is a lively Type withal of that transcendent Happiness the Saints will find in Heaven where there shall be not only no more death sorrow crying tears pain or torture from that bloody persecutive Polity of Babylon which are intimated by a Synecdoche Generis but absolutely and properly speaking without a Figure there shall be none of these things at all These are the Reasons that move me to think that though the description of the New Jerusalem be a Prophecy of the blessed Reign of Christ on Earth that yet it is withal a Type of the Joys and Glory of the Kingdom of Heaven wherewith the Saints are rewarded after the Conflagration CHAP. XXI The occasion of his more fully making out that grand Truth that the whole Apocalypse in a manner consists of three main Prophecies beginning with the Church and reaching to the end of the World viz. the Epistolar Prophecy Sealed Book Prophecy and Opened Book Prophecy with the three Introductory Visions prefixed thereto That the Epistolar Prophecy is such a Prophecy That the Sealed Book Prophecy is such And also the Opened Book Prophecy The Reference of the three Introductory Visions to the Title of the Book of the Apocalypse Introductory Visions to Prophecies in Isaiah Ezekiel and Daniel and that they are not properly Prophecies themselves The Meaning of the Introductory Vision of the Epistolar Prophecy The like Meaning of the Introductory Vision to the Prophecy of the Sealed Book The drift of the third Introductory Vision muchwhat the same with the two former and that the Angel there
1 That the twentieth which is the first year of the 82. Olympiad is the true Epocha of Daniel 's Weeks 2 That the Weeks end in the second year of Caligula 's Reign 3 That Christ suffered in the twenty second year of Tiberius 4 That his Manifestation as the Messias was in the nineteenth of Tiberius 5 That he was born L. Aelius Lamia and M. Servilius Geminus being Consuls These four last point to be proved ordine retrogrado by History and Reason That there is no more violence done by Tho. Lydiat 's placing the Nativity of Christ two years later than the Dionysian account than by Scaliger 's placing it two years sooner nor so much as by Suslyga and Kepler 's placing it four or five years sooner than Dionysius BUT having thus clearly and irrefragably made out that the beginning of the Reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus was in the second year of the 77. Olympiad the 277. of Nabonassar and the 4243. of the Julian Period whence the twentieth of Artaxerxes which is the only true and genuine Epocha of Daniel's Weeks is found to be in the first year of the 82. Olympiad and the 296. of Nabonassar or the 4262. of the Julian Period we are now to take notice what will be the consequence viz. That first it will necessarily follow that the last year of Daniel's Weeks will be in the second year of the 204. Olympiad the 785. of Nabonassar and the 4751. of the Julian Period that is to say The Weeks will end in the second year of Caligula's Reign according to Helvicus Secondly in virtue of the Prophecy of Daniel which tells us that the Messias by his Sacrifice upon the Cross shall null the Judaick Sacrifices and that in the midst of this last Week precisely taking it for the middle of the Week it hence follows that Christ suffered in the 4748. year of the Julian Period that is in the 22d year of the Reign of Tiberius And thirdly partly because the Prophecy says he will confirm a Covenant with many this one Week in the midst of which he died whence his own personal Ministration can be but three years and an half and partly because it is said in the Prophecy that to Messias the Prince viz. his Manifestation was seven weeks and sixty two that is to say sixty nine weeks or 483 years which 483 years from the Epocha the Decree which went out the twentieth of Artaxerxes in the month Nisan reach to the 4745. year of the Julian Period we are to conclude that the Messias was manifested in the nineteenth of Tiberius in which year Christ was baptized by John the Holy Ghost descending upon him in the shape of a Dove and a Voice from Heaven saying unto him Thou art my beloved Son in thee I am well pleased Luke 3.22 This is the Manifestation of the Messias made in the 4745. year of the Julian Period and in the nineteenth year of the Reign of Tiberius At what time the Evangelist in the forecited place expresly says that Jesus was about thirty years old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 entring then upon his Ministry From whence lastly it follows if we reckon thirty years backward that Christ was born in the 4716. year of the Julian Period that is to say in the Consulship of Lucius Aelius Lamia and M. Servilius Geminus as Thomas Lydiat contends he was These things may seem Paradoxes to such as have not impartially and carefully considered the matter but they are genuine and necessary Confectaries from the admission of that only true Epocha of Daniel's Weeks the twentieth of Artaxerxes Longimanus beginning his Reign in the second year of the 77. Olympiad not the first of the 79. But now if these seeming Paradoxes shall be also in several countenanced and confirmed by authentick History and Reason or both what can we require more for the certainty assuring us that this is the true Chronological account of this Prophecy of Daniel and as assured an Account as can be had of any thing in History and Chronology that ever was put to question Though we went in a Retrograde Order before we will begin now first with the first and propose what is said for proof that Christ was born in the Consulship of L. Aelius Lamia and M. Servilius Geminus or in the 4716. year of the Julian Period which is two years later than Dionysius or the vulgar Account places the Nativity of our Saviour Which yet is no more Paradoxical than Scaliger's placing it two years sooner nor so much as Laurentius Suslyga's and Johannes Kepler's their placing it the one four years the other five years sooner than Dionysius Whence Tho. Lydiat had the more injury done him from those that received his Paradox with so much rudeness and incivility But how he maintains it let us now consider CHAP. IX That Christ was born four years before the death of Herod according to Epiphanius and Sulpitius Severus That Herod dyed Metellus and Nerva being Consuls proved out of Josephus which is just four years after the Consulship of Lamia and Geminus That it is most certain that Herod was but betwixt fifteen and sixteen years of Age when he was made Prefect of Galilee and ridiculous to think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was writ for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the negligence of the Scribe A full Answer to the passage of Josephus A difficult knot not otherwise to be untyed than by supposing two Epocha's of Herod 's Reign the latter when he was restored to his forfeited Kingdom by Augustus The fitness and necessity of this solution a further Argument that Herod dyed in the Consulship of Metellus and Nerva Reasons to prove this latter Epocha And that it was his chief Epocha and most affected by Herod That Eusebius makes use of this Epocha And also Epiphanius as likewise the ancient Graeci Fasti That computing from this Epocha Herod 's 37 years Reign reaches to Nerva and Metellus and that consequently Christ's Birth is in the Consulship of Lamia and Geminus THE first Point is made out thus First from the Authority of the most ancient Fathers he proves that Christ was born four years before the Death of Herod This Epiphanius says more than once first in these words Servator in triginta septem annis principatus ipsius Herodis puer erat quatuor annorum quando Herodes impletis annis triginta septem vitam finivit And then in another place Tricesimo tertio anno Herodis nascitur Christus Dominus tricesimo quinto venerunt Magi tricesimo septimo mortuus est Herodes And Sulpicius Severus as expresly writes thus Sub hoc Herode anno imperii ejus tertio tricesimo Christus natus est c. herodes post Nativitatem Domini regnavit annos quatuor I omit to add what he brings out of Eusebius that being more operose and involved But this is a fair Testimony of the most ancient Fathers who one would think the best knew what
tenus as Plutarch in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who puts Fulvius for Fabius above-named in which story it is most manifest how cleaving Augustus his affection was to his Grandchild Agrippa to the very last to commit I say only an Antonomastick errour T. L. ingeniously supposes that Augustus had not so little favour for Agrippa Posthumus but that to see how this might work upon him he caused him to be present at the Pleading of the Cause of Herod's Children who should succeed Tiberius being then absent and employed in the German or Illyrick Wars Which unexpected eruption of Favour toward Agrippa might so nettle Livia and her Relations that thereupon she might the more forcibly urge Augustus to discard Agrippa toward the latter end of that year and banish him into the Island Planasia This is the only way I know to save Josephus his credit But if it be stood upon that Josephus did really mean Caius not Agrippa Posthumus upon his own supposition or declaration that Herod reigned not above thirty seven years or thereabout and that the beginning of his Reign is from his first being made King of the Jews by the Roman Senate and Favour of M. Antony from whence it follows that the abovesaid Council held touching the Succession into Herod's Kingdom fell out seasonably in the year before Caius took his Expedition into the East and so was yet present at Rome the Controversie will then come to this Whether Josephus when he affirms thus or whether when he affirms what is plainly repugnant thereto That Herod was but about fifteen years of Age when his Father Antipater made him Prefect of Galilee which implies that Herod died about ten years later is to be believed But this Controversie is sufficiently determined to our hands already in our eleventh Chapter Which the Reader may peruse again if he find it needful It is not needful for me to repeat it again here CHAP. XV. That Christ was baptized the nineteenth of Tiberius proved from the Prophecy of Daniel from the year of Christ's Nativity and his Age when baptized Nothing in S. Luke repugnant to Christ's being baptized in the fourth year of the Baptist 's Ministry with the childishness of their phancy that pretend to the contrary The genuine sense of that expression of S. Paul As John had fulfilled his course Four Arguments couched together for the proving Christ was baptized the nineteenth of Tiberius Historical passages which comport with the Baptist 's four years Ministry As that of the Jews saying to Christ Forty six years was this Temple in building c. John not beheaded till Vitellius was Prefect of Syria which was in the twenty first of Tiberius about two years after he had baptized Christ That the slaughter of the Galileans or Samaritans by Pilate was in the last year of his own Prefecture and Tiberius his Reign while Christ was alive WE have cleared the time of the Nativity of Christ and showed how consonant it is to manifold Testimonies of Authentick History We proceed now to Christ's Manifestation or Baptism which according to the indigitation of the true Epocha of Daniel's Weeks and History of Scripture is the year 4745. P. J. and the nineteenth year of the Reign of Tiberius the time of the Manifestation of the Messias according to the Prophecy of Daniel being 69 weeks or 483 years complete and Christ according to the Testimony of S. Luke being about thirty years of Age when he was baptized by John the Baptist which was the time of his Manifestation the Holy Ghost then descending upon him in the shape of a Dove and a Voice from Heaven witnessing of him that he was the Messias the Son of God If you reckon inclusively from the Consulship of Lamia and Geminus which was in the 4716. year P. J. you will find it just thirty years Which alone the time of the Nativity of Christ being so fully cleared might assure us that the Baptism of Christ was in the nineteenth year of Tiberius Nor is there any thing in S. Luke's Gospel that contradicts this Chronology of Christ's Baptism pointed at by the true Epocha of Daniel's Weeks I mean the Lydiatean Epocha which counts the time from the twentieth of Artaxerxes Longimanus whenas the Funccian counts from the seventh Whence the Lydiatean Epocha has a vast advantage of the Funccian the Funccian casting the Baptism of Christ on the thirteenth year of Tiberius two years before John began to baptize which therefore is a plain contradiction to the Testimony of Scripture But the Lydiatean places it after the fifteenth year of Tiberius according to the Testimony of S. Luke and though about four years later than others have placed it yet consistently enough with the Testimony of S. Luke he declaring only that it was after the fifteenth year of Tiberius not how many years after the same But because there is no distinct mention of years betwixt John's beginning to preach and baptize and the time he baptized Christ they have clapt Christ's Baptism close to the first year as Children and Idiots phansie the Sky and Moon or Sun at the Horizon to touch the Earth because they see nothing betwixt But as wise men correct their phancy by Reason and in virtue thereof while the Sky or Moon seems to touch the Earth assure themselves it is as distant therefrom as when it is nearer their Zenith so considerate persons that ponder with themselves that weighty Province that lay on John the Baptist's shoulders as the Angel Gabriel predescribes it to Zachary his Father Luke 1.17 And many of the Children of Israel says he shall he turn to the Lord their God and he shall go before him in the Power and Spirit of Elias to turn the heart of the Fathers to the Children and disobedient to the wisdom of the Just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord that is for the Lord Christ they I say that rightly consider this must needs conclude that it must be a work of some years to effect it especially John working no Miracles and yet having gained the esteem of the people so far by his long and diligent Converse with them and repeated Instructions to them whereby he converted many to a pious sense of their duties that they began to conceive that he might be the promised Messias Wherefore Paul being aware of the nature of the Baptist's Province that he was to go before the face of the Lord Jesus to prepare the way for his being acknowledged the promised Messias calls the performance thereof the finishing his course 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13.25 And as John fulfilled his course c. Whenas others out of heedlesness or ignorance have phansied that John went but a stride or two before our Saviour in the Inchoation of their Ministry like some Mace-bearer before a Chief Magistrate But this savours of too much Idioticalness and Puerility We have couched therefore together at least three if not four
words seem naturally to imply such a seeing of him as S. Paul had by Vision from Heaven whereby he was converted and forced to say Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord to recant his Judaism and sing Hosanna to Christ the Son of David and profess himself a Christian And accordingly which is the third place pointed at by Mr. Mede S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But for this very reason says he I who out of ignorance had been a Blasphemer a Persecuter and Injurer of Christ obtained mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in me first as the Primitiae of the Jewish Nation that is to be converted in such a miraculous manner as I was Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as our English has it for a pattern to them for then it should have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for a representative Figure or Type of them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting This seems to be the natural sense of the place For why should he say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in me first if others were not to follow that should be converted in such a miraculous manner as he was by Vision and Voices from Heaven For in other ways of Conversion he was not the first of the Jews that were converted Wherefore there must be a Conversion of the Jews by such a mean as S. Paul was converted and of which the manner of Paul's Conversion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Prophetick Type or Figure These three Scriptures may incline a rational man to believe that some chief of the Jews the most able the most noted and most zealous of them for the Jewish Religion may be called as Paul was Whose Testimonies will awake all the Jewish Nation and cause them more impartially to consider the Truth of Christian Religion And the Completion of Prophecies and their genuine Interpretation the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and the lives of the Reformed Christians a sort of them at least may be so considerably perfected by that time those few Names in Sardis by that time being well increased that things being so fitly prepared it may seem a Miracle for any honest sincere Jew in those days not to be converted These are my own proper thoughts on these three places of Scripture But for fuller satisfaction you may consult Mr. Mede I do not love to dwell long on an Argument that I cannot so certainly and assuredly master CHAP. XIX The last part of the Letter The Reinforcement of his Objection against the literal or physical sense of the first Resurrection from two parallel places of Daniel and John An Answer to that Reinforcement from those very parallel places The Genius of the Prophetick Stile in Daniel and John in intimating one Antitheton by another What Antitheton to those awakened into Eternal life in Daniel is to be found in the Apocalypse What is meant by the Devil's detrusion into the Abyss That the first Resurrection is Physical not Political proved from the Text it self Apoc. 20. v. 4. That the Judgment there did pass upon those that were either naturally or politically dead before the Millennium when the wicked were not politically so and therefore cannot be those revived in a Political sense after the Millennium Further Arguments that the first Resurrection is Physical THUS far I wrote before I received your last which contains a Reinforcement of your former Objection against the taking the first Resurrection Apoc. 2◠in a literal or Physical sense and not in a Political What you add I confess is sober and ingenious and may suit with some mens palates the best but though I have thought several times of this very thing afore of my self yet mine ever refused it I will set it down in your own words that I may not disadvantage the strength of the sense you aim at You ask Whether since my self make that place of Daniel Chap. 12. parallel to that of Apoc. 20. the first Resurrection mentioned there by S. John may not be understood rather in a Political sense of the state of the Church in the Millennium than in a natural and Physical concerning the Martyrs For those others say you in Daniel which awake to shame and everlasting contempt perhaps may be answerable to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Apocalypse and the awakening there parallel to the living here c. And whereas it is said by S. John The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished what hinders say you but it may be understood of the wicked getting into Political power again after the expiration of the Millennium That is briefly your sense if not your very words To this I answer That though the attempt be ingenious to object thus from those two parallel places yet the places themselves that are parallel will jointly bear off the force of the Objection and show that a mere Political sense for these places is harsh and forced For what can be more violent and harsh than to interpret Dan. 12.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Political sense This is the main place that the Jews alledge for their Article of the Resurrection in a Physical sense as also the Christians And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the very Gospel-phrase again and again inculcated that signifies a blessed Immortality in a glorified body And besides this as Apoc. 20.12 there is mention of Books being opened at the general and Physical Resurrection as all well in their wits must needs understand it so before this Resurrection in Daniel there is mention of the Book in which those whose Names are written are to be saved as it is said Apoc. 20.15 that those whose Names are not found in the Book of Life were cast into the Lake of fire These things considered methinks make it certain that the awaking here in Daniel into everlasting life signifies not a Political but Physical Resurrection let Porphyrius and Grotius phansie what they please And therefore in this parallel place of the Apocalypse the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their living and reigning with Christ must have a Physical sense not a Political and signifie their Vivification into celestial bodies and their reigning with him in Heaven And so those that had not worshipped the Beast nor received his mark c. they answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in eodem genere that is to say in a Political sense to those that in Daniel are to be in shame and everlasting contempt one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying the opposite thereto and the opposite to that in Daniel is here made choice of in the Apocalypse For it is the Genius of the Prophetick stile in these two Prophets Daniel and John to intimate one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by another I have observed several Examples though I have not the command of them in my memory for the present That in
the thousand years were finished may be understood of the wicked's reviving Politically after the expiration of the Millennium and the rather because the sense of the place carries it for those that at the Millennium were heretofore dead either naturally or Politically and so Judgment proceeds upon them Apoc. 20.4 which the wicked were not in a Political sense and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they lived not again must refer to that Physical Resurrection we contend for Add to all this that if the first Resurrection were understood in a Political sense and meant in general as well of them that were beheaded as those that worshipped not the Beast and in no other sense than so there is no reason why S. John should use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at first and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And we might demand if that be the first Political Resurrection which is the second unless we will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And how it can be appropriated to this first Resurrection as a special Priviledge of the partakers thereof that the second Death shall have no power over them this by promise belonging to all true Believers though not Martyrs from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World But to obtain a glorified body before the second Death or the Lake of Fire be in being which by its own Nature exempts from the harm thereof or of any thing like it in being this is a peculiar Priviledge indeed And blessed and holy and peculiarly happy is he that has his share in such a first Resurrection as this for he is actually out of the reach of all harm that may come from the Lake of Fire the being within the reach of whose power is to be obnoxious to the second Death and according to the Apocalyptick Antithetical implications or intimations he is possessed already of everlasting life in a glorified body whenas others are but Candidates for the same I hope by this time you perceive how easie smooth and natural my Exposition of the first Resurrection in a Physical sense is and how intricate harsh and perplex the contrary way would be c. CHAP. XX. That the Description of the New Jerusalem is a Description of a state of the Church on Earth The high expressions therein but such as are used in the Prophets touching the people of the Jews The Plea of those that will have it merely a Description of the Church Triumphant in Heaven consisting of seven Arguments out of Alcazar An Answer to those seven Arguments A more moderate way betwixt them that hold the Description of the New Jerusalem the one to signifie merely such a state of the Church on Earth the other the state of the Church in Heaven viz. That though it be a Prophecy of an excellent state of the Church on Earth yet the Description of that state is an intended Type also of the state of the Church Triumphant in Heaven THERE is a wide difference betwixt some Interpreters touching the Description of the New Jerusalem Apoc. 21. some understanding it to be a Description of the State of the Church here on Earth others of the State in Heaven Amongst these latter is S. Augustine especially and after him Ribera Alcazar Pareus and others Amongst the former Justin Martyr Grotius Dr. Hammond Brightman with others And I must confess I am altogether of that Opinion that it is the Description of the State of the Church on Earth after the ruine of Antichrist and so have expounded it continuedly throughout in my Exposition of the Apocalypse and have carefully suggested Arguments all along from the Text it self that it is so to be expounded So that there wants nothing for any further confirmation thereof unless I should take notice how there are no expressions so high in this Description but what are in other places of the Prophets and generally understood by Interpreters of the State of the Church on Earth namely such expressions as these In that Prophetical Thanksgiving of Tobit Chap. 13. Jerusalem shall be built up with Sapphirs and Emeralds and precious Stones thy Walls and Towers with pure Gold And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with Beryl and Carbuncle and Stones of Ophir In the Prophecy of Isaiah Chap. 65. v. 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind But be you glad and rejoice for ever in what I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy See also Chap. 66.22 In the Prophecy of Ezekiel My Tabernacle also shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people Again Isa 25.8 The Lord will wipe away tears from all faces And 54.11 Oh thou afflicted tossed with Tempests and not comforted behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours and thy foundations with Sapphirs I will make thy windows of Agates and thy gates of Carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant stones And Chap. 60.19 The Sun shall be no more thy light by day neither for brightness shall the Moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory Thy Sun shall no more go down neither shall thy Moon withdraw it self for the Lord shall be thine everlasting-light and the days of thy mourning shall be ended What more exalted expressions than these are there in the Apocalypse in the description of the New Jerusalem All which places notwithstanding are understood of a state of the Church on Earth And so the City which Ezekiel describes by which is understood the Church on Earth the twelve Gates the River Trees and Fruit they are all transcribed into the Description of this New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse So assured a thing is it that the Apocalyptick Description of the New Jerusalem does denote a state of the Church here on Earth Wherefore it were a more fit thing to bring into view the Plea of the other Party who are so confident that it is a description of the state of Heaven than to concern our selves in any further proofs that it is a state of the Church on Earth that we may give a right judgment of the matter Alcazar who is very stiff for this Opinion produces no fewer than seven Arguments for the same The first is the Authority of S. Augustine who bluntly says in his De Civitate Dei lib. 20. cap. 17. That it is mere impudence to assert otherwise because it is said Absterget Deus omnem lacrymam ab oculis eorum mors jam non erit neque luctus neque clamor sed nec ullus erit dolor And at the end of that Chapter he says That these things are so clearly spoken of the World to come and the Immortality and Eternity of the Saints that we must not pretend that any thing is manifest in Scripture if this place be obscure The second is taken
from the Order of the Apocalypse which having set down at the end of the preceding Chapter a description of the Day of Judgment and punishment of the Wicked it necessarily follows that in the next place should be set down a description of the everlasting glory and happiness of the Elect in Heaven The third is from that it is said Chap. 20. v. 11. That the Heaven and the Earth fled away from the face of him that sat upon the white Throne and there was found no place for them and this to have been in the last day of Judgment Wherefore the New Heaven and the New Earth mentioned in the beginning of the next Chapter forasmuch as the Universe cannot be without an Heaven and Earth must be the renewed Heaven and Earth after the Day of Judgment in which the glorified Saints enjoy themselves in their Heavenly state which is called the New Jerusalem The fourth is taken from Chap. 21.7 8. He that overcometh shall inherit all things but the fearful and unbelieving c. shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Whence says he it is manifest that it is the Heavenly Bliss that is here promised to the Victor and that this Jerusalem therefore is a state in Heaven not on Earth Fifthly The side of the Square Area of Ezekiel's City by which the Church Militant is prefigured is but four thousand five hundred reeds or forty five furlongs but the side of the Square of the Area of the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse is extended unto twelve thousand furlongs which makes the Area of the New Jerusalem seventy one thousand and an hundred and eleven times bigger than the Area of Ezekiel's City and therefore Ezekiel's City being the Church Militant this New Jerusalem by reason of the vast difference in their capaciousnesses and S. John's City containing not the Elect of some one time but of all Ages must needs be the Church Triumphant Sixthly Those words I saw no Temple there imply That this description of the New Jerusalem is not of the Church Militant but Triumphant For the Church Militant is not without Temples Seventhly and lastly In that it is said There is no Night no Death no Pain no Curse That without are Dogs c. And that the Inhabitants of this City shall always enjoy the sight of the Face of God and the Lamb these are manifest indications that the state described is not of the Church Militant but Triumphant These are the notable Arguments of Alcazar which Pareus also applauds or approves as stiff in Alcazar's Opinion as himself But I shall answer them in order To the first therefore I say That the true understanding of the Apocalypse being by Divine Providence reserved for these latter times as it is manifestly intimated in Daniel Chap. 12.9 As it is no disparagement for the ancient Fathers not to be knowing in matters which the Wisdom of God thought fit to conceal from them so it is no rudeness or injury to their Authority that it is not admitted in cases wherein they are no competent Judges They had not the advantage we have who have so much of the Prophecies of the Apocalypse so clearly fulfilled before our eyes the fulfilling of Prophecies being the most certain Key for the opening of them It is not likely that S. Austin understood that the Whore of Babylon is the Apostatized Church that great City or Polity Antichristian and Idolatrous that was to be destroy'd by the pouring out of the Vials upon the destruction whereof one of the Vial-Angels showed this City or Polity the New Jerusalem to John as that Power or Polity that was to succeed in the others room in which the Servants of God that adhered to the pure Gospel nor would submit to the Roman Superstitions and Idolatries were cruelly persecuted tortured and murdered many hundred thousands of them which could not be without the tears of them that were concerned These things I say S. Austin being ignorant of we may well excuse him for his confident mistake who if he had known them would have easily discerned the Speech to have been figurative when it is said there shall be no more death nor crying nor sorrow nor pain and that God will wipe all tears from their eyes viz. that by a Synecdoche generis those kinds of death sorrow pain crying and tears are pointed at that were caused by that Antichristian Polity that so barbarously persecuted the Saints of God that in this New Jerusalem state they should be free from these Which is an easie and obvious sense thus understood And indeed the observing that the description of the New Jerusalem is in opposition to the Polity of Babylon which it succeeds is a special Key for the rightly opening the meaning of the Description all along as may be observed in my Exposition thereof To the second I answer 1. That the Object of the opened Book-Prophecy of which the Description of the New Jerusalem is part is not the state of the Church in Heaven but the state thereof on Earth And therefore though a description of the state of the Church in Heaven would follow here handsomly yet it being quite Heterogeneous to the nature of this Prophecy we may be sure it is not here described but a state on Earth in the Millennium and that therefore there is a going back into those times in this Description the placing of the Visions being no certain Argument of the order of time they belong to as all know that know any thing in the Apocalypse Again That there is an holy and happy state of the Church of Christ in his Millennial Reign on Earth is plain and that that State or Polity opposite to the Polity or City of Babylon is no where so fully described as the Whore of Babylon is Chap. 17. is as plain Wherefore what can be more likely than that this City the New Jerusalem is described as a Polity opposite to the City of Babylon which was drunk with the blood of the Saints and the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus from which barbarous Persecutions the Saints are secured in this New Jerusalem state Whence it is said There shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying but that God will wipe all tears from their eyes c. Chap. 21.4 Thirdly Those many passages noted in my Exposition of this Description of the New Jerusalem which is needless here to repeat plainly demonstrate it to be a description of the state of the Church on Earth And lastly The Vial-Angel the last doubtless as being nearest to this time that shews John the Bride the Lamb's Wife in opposition to the bloody Whore of Babylon destroy'd by him under the seventh Vial how naturally does his showing John the City New Jerusalem upon his having destroy'd the City of Babylon imply that he shows him that Polity that is to succeed that of Babylon and that therefore this New
Jerusalem is here upon Earth To the third I say That that high expression of the Heaven and Earth flying away or vanishing from the face of him that sate upon the Throne and that there was found no place for them is only to set out the exceeding great Glory of him that sate upon the Throne that they could neither see Earth nor the Azure Sky their eyes being so filled and taken up with the great resplendency and brightness of that light But the real stress of the Argument if there be any in it is That there is a new Heaven and a new Earth after the Conflagration which accompanies the last Judgment mentioned in the beginning of the ensuing Chapter But from what has been faid to the second Argument it is apparent that it is a mere Lemmatosynechia that is the continuing together of the Visions in the outward Cortex of the Apocalypse as if that were the very order of time in the things they prefigure when it is quite otherwise in the true sense of the Visions This is one part of the artifice of Concealment affected by the Apocalypse of which there are many instances As that Chap. 4.1 where after the Vision of the seven Churches John is bid to come up that he might be shown what things must come to pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after these things Which Lemmatosynechia has so imposed upon some otherwise learned and of notable parts that they have joined the beginning of the sealed Book-Prophecy with the ending of the affairs of Laodicea That also seems to be a Lemmatosynechia Chap. 13.14 where the two-horned Beast is said to make an Image to the Beast that had the wound by the Sword and did live as if the ten-horned Beast in the immediately foregoing Vision were meant which is a glib correspondency in the Cortex when the inward sense is otherwise But there is not a more elegant Lemmatosynechia than that Chap. 11.9 where the three days and an half of the Witnesses being dead are immediately placed after the twelve hundred and sixty days of their mournful prophesying when yet the three days and an half are the same time or Synchronal to the twelve hundred and sixty days as I have elsewhere proved by impregnable Arguments I will only add one instance more Chap. 16. v. 18 19. where the City is said to be divided into three parts upon the Earthquake there mentioned whenas that Tripartition of the City was before but it is a very smooth and trim Lemmatosynechia in the Cortex And such a Lemmatosynechia is this in naming a New Heaven and a New Earth immediately after the Conflagration which is a wonderful smooth connexion in the Cortex when yet in truth this New Heaven and New Earth is a Political Heaven and Earth answering to that of Isaiah Chap. 65.17 and created in the beginning of the Millennium This is the promised New Heaven and New Earth mentioned by S. Peter alluding to that of Isaiah wherein dwelleth righteousness whenas the Polity of Babylon was full of persecution injustice and blood Wherefore Alcazar being not aware of this usual Artifice of Concealment intended in the Apocalypse which I call Lemmatosynechia has produced that for a strong Argument which the matter rightly understood has no strength in it at all To his fourth I answer That we are both agreed in this that the 7. and 8. verses of Chap. 21. respect the state of men to come after the Day of Judgment the Lake of fire and the Inheritance of Heaven For I declare in my Exposition That from the second verse to the ninth is a brief description of the affairs of the Church from the second Thunder to the last or to the end of the World to the last Reward of the Godly and Punishment of the Wicked But as after a brief mention of the destruction of Babylon Chap. 16. v. 19. there is a large description of her and her destruction in the two following Chapters 17. and 18. so here after a brief intimation of the emersion of the New Jerusalem into being there is a full and glorious Description thereof from the ninth verse of this 21. Chapter to the sixth of the next And I may here further add that as in the foregoing Chapter v. 9 10. the Conflagration is glanced at in the destruction of Gog and Magog by fire who besieged the holy City but the Judgment of the wicked and fiery Lake or Conflagration more fully prosecuted from v. 11. to the end of the Chapter So here after the brief mentioning of the state of the New Jerusalem in the five first verses it is more fully described from the ninth verse to the end of this Chapter and some part of the next So small force has this fourth Argument to infer that these descriptions of the New Jerusalem belong to the state of the Church in Heaven The fifth Argument makes a pretty show but it is grounded upon a gross mistake as if the twelve thousand furlongs were the side of the Square Area of the New Jerusalem whenas it is a solid Number whose Cubick root multiplied by four gives the same Perimeter in a manner that Ezekiel's four thousand five hundred multiplied into four do give that is eighteen thousand not Reeds but Cubits as both Gaspar Sanctius and Villalpandus conceive them to be both of them learned and industrious Commentators upon Ezekiel By which solid account the seeming force of this fifth Argument quite vanisheth See Mr. Potter's Interpretation of the Number 666. Chap. 5. And the Equality of Perimeters of the Square Area of Ezekiel's and S. John's Cities supposing the solid measure of S. John's City to be twelve thousand furlongs as the Text it self seems to intimate and he measured the City with a Reed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all twelve thousand furlongs and he presently thereupon adding the length breadth and height of it are equal implies they are solid furlongs this Equality I say added to the twelve Gates in each City twelve Tribes the River and the Trees and Fruit is a plain Argument that S. John's City and Ezekiel's are Figures of the same thing and Ezekiel's being of the State of the Church on Earth S. John's must be so also And now for his sixth Argument from I saw no Temple there It consists very well with the state of the Church in those best and most glorious times thereof in the Millennial Reign of Christ which the Cabbalists also call the Reign of the Spirit when God will find in abundance such Worshippers as he seeks for viz. such as shall worship him in Spirit and in Truth And this passage seems inserted on purpose to be a Key to the Jews that will then be converted how to understand Ezekiel's Prophecy of the same state of the Church by the City he describes and makes so much to do with the Temple and Rituals thereof they will by this Note understand that it is an Hylastick Parable
would have it by this very Vision But the mistake of this Opinion I shall manifestly discover in the following Chapter The next thing I will consider here is this Whether the Vial-Angels received their Vials before or after the Song of Moses and the Lamb Chap. 15. That they received them after any one may be well assured that observes First That one continued Vision is divided sometimes into several Chapters As the Introductory Vision to the Sealed Book-Prophecy Chap. 4 and 5. as also that one Vision comprized in the 12.13 and 14. Chapters Which answers to that contained in the eleventh Secondly That in like manner the Vision of the Vial-Angels is contained in the 15. and 16. Chapters Thirdly That to so large a Vision the first verse of Chap. 15. And I saw another sign in Heaven great and wonderful seven Angels having the seven last Plagues c. is but the general Title thereof and the Vials are not so much as mentioned in this Title Fourthly That before he falls upon the Vision it self there is an Introduction thereto a kind of Dramatical Interlude which is not as in ordinary Plays merely for delight but for some weighty instruction else there can be no sense of clapping it immediately after the summary Title of this Vision What then can it be but to intimate that the Order of the Vials is to be after this Song of Moses and the Lamb. Wherefore it being said v. 5. After that that is after the singing of this Song I looked and behold c. viz. After this the seven Vial-Angels came out of the Temple having the seven Plagues but not yet said to have the Vials but immediately to receive them of one of the four Beasts and in the beginning of the next Chapter bid to pour them on the Earth If the sense of this express order of things be not that the Angels received their Vials after the Song of Moses and the Lamb we cannot be assured of the certain sense of any passage of the Apocalypse nor of the whole Bible no nor of any Writing whatsoever Insomuch that I have been amazed that it ever came into any mans mind to think otherwise A third thing is What the adequate Visum is of the sixth Trumpet i. e. what affairs in the World or Church are noted to fall out during the sounding of that Trumpet To which I answer That it is that which is set down Chap. 9. from v. 13. to the end of the Chapter Whereby is signified the Over-running of the Eastern Empire and the Church by the Turks with the possessing themselves of Constantinople and the general Impenitency of the Western Church and Empire notwithstanding this notorious Judgment of God upon the Eastern Which latter part is fully exprest v. 20 21. And the rest of the men that were not killed with these Plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Daemons and Idols of Gold and Silver and Brass and Stone c. Neither repented they of their Murders nor of their Sorceries nor of their Fornication nor of their Thefts That this is the adequate object of the Vision of the sixth Trumpet I conceive is plain from hence First That immediately after this instead of the Angel of the sixth Trumpet that sounded steps in a mighty Angel to roar out the next Interval the last of the seven divided also into seven Thunders as the seventh Seal into seven Trumpets Secondly Because if this be not the precise Visum or Object of the Vision of the sixth Trumpet there will be no stop till you come to the 14. verse of Chap. 11. The second we is past c. Which is the most outragious wild thing to be conceived as can be the Vision of the Witnesses in sackcloth running up as high as the first Trumpet to say nothing of the measuring the Court of the Temple and Altar And thirdly and lastly which nicks the business methinks marvellously well The Rising of the Witnesses and Fall of the City is a Prophecy of a considerable Reformation that is of the Repentance of a considerable part of the Western Church and Empire or of their ceasing to be impenitent which was the latter part of the Visum of the sixth Trumpet Wherefore immediately upon this Rising of the Witnesses and Fall of the City that is upon the ceasing of that general Impenitency it being said the second Wo is past it is manifest that the Turks over-running the Eastern Empire and the general Impenitency of the Western thereupon was the adequate Visum of the sixth Trumpet And these three Points respect the foregoing Chapter There are three Points behind that have no such reference The first is what may be the full meaning of the Lamb 's being found worthy to open the Seals of the Seven-sealed Book For the fulness of this meaning being rightly understood we shall therewithal better discern how well the Doxologies of the four Beasts and twenty four Elders and after of those numerous Quires of Angels and indeed of the whole Creation in this Dramatical Theatre in Heaven are made to prefigure the Joy and Rejoycing which will be in the blessed Millennium on Earth when the Power given to the Lamb of opening the Seals shall have that glorious effect in introducing those times of the New Jerusalem which these Angelical Actors on an Heavenly Stage are made to prefigure in the sight and hearing of S. John after his being caught up into Heaven in his Divine Rapture mentioned Chap. 4. v. 2. Wherefore in brief I conceive that the Lamb 's receiving the Book and therewith a power of opening the Seals implies these two things The first is the representing to John by way of Prophetical Vision the state of the Church and of the World so far forth as the Church is concerned in the affairs thereof through a long Series of time to the end of all even to the very Conflagration That this is one meaning of this power of opening the Seals is plain from Chap. 6. v. 1 3 5 7 9 12. and Chap. 8.1 in which seven places the Lamb is said orderly to open the Seals one after another and upon the opening each Seal a Prophetick Vision follows Whence it is manifest that his Power of opening the seven Seals is the Power of imparting this whole Book of Visions to his Servant John For at the Opening of the seventh Seal all the whole Book of the Prophetick Visions was opened as is to be understood from the frame of the Book above described But now forasmuch as the truly opening of the Seals would not be absolutely put into the hand of Christ unless he had also Power given from him that sits on the Throne to guide the affairs of this sublunary World so as that he might bring to pass by permission or impulsion and positive motion the things that are prefigured For the Effect brought to pass both argues the truth and
mentioned even in the fifth Vial. And when so horrible a War was raised against the Evangelical Party here in England in Eighty eight and that by the great Providence of God they were so defeated this is referrible to the third Vial. And if in the midst of the sedulous Attacks of the Antichristian Party some mighty Potentate in Christendom should by God's Providence be raised up in their behalf the hearts of Kings being in the hand of God this were referrible to the fourth Vial. But according to the Apocalyptick Stile this is to be accounted neither any part of the forty two months War nor of the Rising of the Witnesses It is something tedious to insist on things so plain 6. In your sixth Paragraph you lay great stress upon that Passage Apoc. 17.17 touching the ten Kings that God has put into their hearts to fulfil his Will and to agree and give their Kingdom to the Beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled which words of God you understand of Daniel's Prophecy of the little Horn having the Saints given into his hands until a Time and Times and dividing of a Time And of those other words of Daniel where he says I beheld and the same Horn made War with the Saints and prevailed against them until the Ancient of days came and Judgment was given to the Saints of the most High and the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom Dan. 7.21 22. and then you skip from v. 22. to v. 27. adding And what Kingdom that is he tells in the following words but they follow a great way off The Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven And you say you suppose I will not say this Kingdom is so given and possessed yet and if not how can you say the little Horns making War with the Saints and prevailing against them for a time and times and half a time is expired I pray you Sir think seriously on this Answ Well I have thought seriously on it and find what you lay such great stress on has no strength in it at all I easily admit those words of Apoc. 17.17 may allude to these passages of Daniel But there is nothing here that infers that the forty two months War of the Beast with the Saints extends any further than the partial Fall of the great City and the then commensurate Rising of the Witnesses Which Time I call the prosperous Reign and War of the Beast which are the Time and Times and half a Time here mentioned in Daniel and in which Fall the last Semi-time current he made War and prevailed against the Saints as Daniel also has foretold And this was till the Ancient of Days came and Judgment was given to the Saints of the most High v. 22. which is further explained v. 26. which you wisely skipped over But the Judgment shall sit and they shall take away his viz. the little Horn's Dominion not all of it at once as it was not at the Fall of the tenth part of the City and commensurate Rising of the Witnesses but leisurely by degrees Which Apocalyptick Vision therefore is an excellent Commentary on this Text of Daniel God has adjudged the Cause to the Evangelical Party by this partial Fall of Babylon and the then Rising of the Witnesses This taking away part of the little Horn's Dominion is a Pledge of the having it consumed and destroyed even to the end But this destruction and consumption is not the issue of the forty two months War wherein the Beast prevailed for such a time against the Saints but at last he was partially vanquished but it is the result of the Effusion of the Vials so that things that lay so close wrapt up in Daniel are thus distinctly and explicitely set out in the Apocalypse and the Explication found to be the easie and natural sense of Daniel Do not wink wilfully against Truth and you will easily discern it See my Exposition of Daniel's second Vision on this place v. 26. And though this is so easily answered yet you are earnest with me again at the close of your Letter to observe that the Time Times and half a Time reach as far as till the Ancient of Days shall come and till the Judgment shall be given to the Saints c. Which thing I grant you viz. That the Time and Times and half a Time of the Horns prevailing War against the Saints did reach so far till the Ancient of Days gave him so notorious a check and counterbuff in the partial Fall of the City and the then Rising of the Witnesses This was the final issue of the forty two months once prosperous War of the little Horn or Beast against the Saints Which Time and Times and half a Time is no where mentioned in the Vision of Daniel Chap. 7. but in v. 25. then comes that in the 26. verse which is evidently to be expounded as I have above expounded it That upon the Judgment being set his Dominion in part was taken away in the partial Fall of the great City to which the Time and Times and half a Time do reach and comprize in the last Semi-time This is the issue of the three days and an half 's War or seven Semi-times War of the little Horn or the Beast with the Saints But the consuming and destroying his Dominion to the end that is the work of the seven Vials which being done then it follows v. 27. And the Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the Saints of the most High For then is the descent of the New Jerusalem in opposition to the great City of Babylon now quite abolished and after comes in the blessed Millennial Reign of Christ upon Earth which is the greatness of his Kingdom under the whole Heaven All which glorious Providences you would crumple up within the three Times and an half whenas it is demonstrated in Mr. Mede that the three Times and an half reach but to the Exit of the sixth Trumpet which you acknowledge the seven Vials to follow Consider seriously these things But to proceed to the seventh Paragraph 7. Here I only briefly advertise you that the first appearance of the Rising of the Witnesses falling some eighteen years short of the last Semi-time according to your Epocha or not reaching it by eighteen years that this is a greater Argument against the truth of your Epocha than against my Hypothesis that a Semi-time is the only Authentick Vnite in the Eventual Computation of the Medial Visions For according to your Epocha the Rising of the Witnesses will not begin after the seventh Semi-time current but before it which is expresly against the Text After three days and an half which absurdity cannot be salved but by making the entire Resurrection of the Witnesses the adequate Object of the Prediction and so it will reach about seventy years at least
New Jerusalem with Answers thereto THE first Objection upon Apocalypsis Apocalypseos pag. 4. To be Kings and Priests unto God signifies as much as a Sacerdotal Kingdom as Exod. 9.6 a Kingdom because of the reigning Estate Sacerdotal because of their Priestly Employ and in some places as Apoc. 20.6 because of the unstainedness of their condition as to Externals Now it is acknowledged that there is a Kingdom designed here on Earth for Christ and Christianity and there are a great many places that seem to promise all his faithful Adherents at least his faithful suffering Adherents of all times a share in the glory and felicity of that Kingdom-Estate as if the Martyrs of the Primitive Times and of all Times should have a Recompence for their Sufferings in the New Jerusalem-state of things as Apoc. Chap. 2. v. 26. where you acknowledge that the Ruling the Nations and the Morning-Star are matters Political If these be confined to the successive Intervals of the Church the Sardian and Philadelphian Times suppose what will they signifie in the literal Interpretation And pag. 23. of Apoc. Apocalypseos it is said the bright Morning-Star belongs to the Philadelphian Interval which is at a great distance from the Thyatirian how shall the Martyrs and Confessors in the Thyatirian Interval have any share in the happy Philadelphian state of things Or what will such a promised felicity signifie to their encouragement wherein not they but their Successors only of following times are to have an interest It is needless to mention many other places that appertain to this matter But I could never untye this knot of difficulties in the Apocalypse that is I could never conceive it possible that Christian Sufferers of all Times and Ages should partake of the Jerusalem-state of things nor how the Apocalypse can be interpreted so as not to assert it Which is the more probable because the Kingdom-state which is designed for Christ is a kind of Heavenly Kingdom-state upon Earth Answ The New Jerusalem-state is nothing else but the Triumph of the truly Apostolick Church emerging into Universal Power above their Enemies into undisturbed Peace and an Heavenly Holiness of Conversation here upon Earth Which at last she will obtain and it is an encouragement to the present suffering Martyrs that the cause they suffer for will at last appear so glorious and triumphant here on Earth while they in the mean time are better rewarded in Heaven and it were a bidding them to their loss to have them exchange their Heavenly felicity for this Earthly though gloriously flourishing condition And lastly look but on the Apostolick Church according as the Prophetick Stile represents it as one continued Body from the beginning to the end and all these promises to the Pergamenian and Thyatirian Sufferers are made good to them as being still the same Body of the Church in their Successors Nor is this Heaventy Kingdom of Christ upon Earth otherwise to be understood Heavenly than that the Spirit and Conversation of Christians in the New Jerusalem-state will be truly Holy and Heavenly So that I see no difficulty at all in this Point if we rightly conceive the matter And it will further ease the Reader 's mind if he consider what I have writ Chap. 20. That though the New Jerusalem be a Prophecy of an excellent State of the Church on Earth yet the description of that State is an intended Type also of the State of the Church Triumphant in Heaven Object 2. Upon pag. 22 23. To have power over the Nations seems to signifie That he shall be of Power over Nations or of Regal Dignity in that Kingdom-estate upon Earth which is designed for Christ by his Father Chap. 2.27 And the promise of the Morning-Star confirms such an Interpretation For it is the Star of Empire and the white Raiment promised Chap. 3.5 is an Ensign of Regal Dignity Answ The ingenious Objector seems to mistake in the propriety of the Prophetick Stile which as in the Symbol of a Woman a Man or Beast does not intimate one single Individual but a Body of men and their succession so by the single person He is not meant this or that single Man but the whole successive Body of men that are Overcomers which according to the Prophetick Stile are signified by this single person He Those that stand out through Faith and Patience to the last in those Countries where the Pagano-Christians domineered over them these with their Princes and Rulers will have the Dominion over the Pagano-Christians and will become the beginning or commencement of the great Empire of Christ So far as the Father of our Lord Christ has enlarged his Kingdom in the Sardian Succession so far these Overcomers partake thereof with him And this Sardian State of the Kingdom of Christ is the promised Morning-Star but the Jerusalem state the bright Morning-Star And lastly Though white Raiment may be a Regal Ensign yet it is most safely interpreted of prosperous Success and may answer to that in the next Epistle v. 8. Behold I have set before thee an opened door c. Object 3. Upon pag. 31 c. It is observable touching the Church of Philadelphia that there are many passages that represent her in a state of Tryal She is said to have a little strength and to have kept the word of Christ's Patience she is exhorted to hold fast that which she hath that she lose not the Crown for which she was conflicting she is exhorted to overcome and encouraged to behave her self heroically Now Sir how will this agree with the New Jerusalem-state of the Church Besides it is promised to the Philadelphians as a thing to come Chap. 3.12 But it is more observable that it is promised to the Philadelphians that their Christian Champions shall be Citizens of the New Jerusalem and that Christ will write upon them his new Name which I believe you rightly interpret King of Kings c. This therefore seems to countenance what I said before That all Christ's suffering Adherents shall have a share of the New Jerusalem-felicity here on Earth and have preferments in that Kingdom-Estate Which may seem to be further countenanced from the promise to Laodicea Chap. 3.21 That they shall sit with Christ on his Throne Answ This Objection is grounded on a mistake as if the Philadelphian Interval and New Jerusalem-state did synchronize Whenas the Philadelphian Interval begins sooner and ends sooner than the New Jerusalem-state Wherefore those Exhortations belong to that part of the Philadelphian Interval that goes before the Jerusalem-state Whence their emerging at last into that state is promised to them as a thing to come Now as for their Christian Champions c. as if it were understood of some select Persons this difficulty is grounded upon the old mistake viz. That He signifies a particular person whenas in the Prophetick sense and stile it here signifies the whole Body of the faithful Philadelphians predicting that that
sort of men by their Faith Patience and powerful preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom will at last have so glorious and victorious success that they with their Successours shall bring in the New Jerusalem-state or Millennial Empire of Christ so that all that is predicted of the New Jerusalem shall be fulfilled in them here on Earth while all Christ's suffering Adherents in the mean that are dead enjoy themselves in Heaven As for the Promise to the Laodicean Overcomers it is not the promise of an Earthly Throne but an Heavenly as to be Assistents of Christ coming to judge the People as the Word signifies in the Close of this Interval of the Laodicean Church which Interval may be so denominated as for other reasons so haply by way of Allusion to Ptolemy's Laodicea combusta as I have more than once noted the Conflagration closing this Interval Object 4. Notwithstanding the great Learning which you have employ'd Sir in the Exposition of the seven Churches it seems a somewhat lubricous business But the rest of your Exposition is matter of much greater Certainty But it is no disparagement for any man that is thus assured of the truth and meaning of the Apocalypse as to the main purport of it to acknowledge there is great difficulty in interpreting several particular passages Touching the New Jerusalem I cannot but observe that there are a great many passages in the Apocalypse which seem to argue the time will come when God and the Son of God will hold his Estate and Court here upon Earth Which how strange soever it may seem is not so strange as that the Son of God should be crucified here upon Earth And if this Hypothesis might be thought solid and well grounded all the passages of this Book aforementioned and many more would be sufficiently clear and the description of the New Jerusalem in the two last Chapters would be easily intelligible which I think cannot be well understood without it These places Rev. 21. v. 3 4 5 6 12 13 15. and Chap. 22. v. 3 4 5 6 14 15. sound this way at such a rate that they almost force me whether I will or no to believe some such thing But how far and in what manner these things may be true may be troublesom to conceive Answ This business would not seem so lubricous to the learned Objector if his Reason and Phancy was but once well inured to that Figure of the Prophetick Stile which we call Henopoeia which takes not place only in a Man Woman or Beast made the Symbols of some Society or Body Politick But the Pronoun He which so often occurs in these Epistles to the Churches has also in it this Figure and signifies not a single Person but such a Body or Society of men so or so behaving themselves together with their Successours This successive Body by a Prophetick Henopoeia is represented as one single Person by the Pronoun He He that overcometh This once admitted all difficulties vanish as to the seven Churches And if the Objector did but observe how full of Hylasmus's and Israelismus's the Apocalyptick Stile is he would easily be reconciled to such a sense of these places of the twenty first and twenty second of the Apocalypse as the Expositor has given of them though they bear so hard upon his Phancy for the present as to drive him to expect a personal Reign of Christ upon Earth Consider also here what we intimated above That the Description of the New Jerusalem is so drawn as to be a Type also of the Church Triumphant in Heaven But to proceed We averr moreover That Christ's Personal Reign here on Earth would be infinitely more strange than his Suffering here because the Reasons of this latter are so palpable But I see no reason at all for a Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth whenas the Spirit of Christ within us in that measure and efficacy it will be in those days will serve all intents and purposes that his Personal Reign can be supposed to serve to And this reigning by his Spirit is a greater perfection in his Church than if he should guide them by his personal Presence and Voice here on Earth Inward Regeneration by the operation of the Spirit into the living Image of Christ is a greater Priviledge I say than to be guided by the external Person and Voice of Christ amongst us sounding in our ears As if the thing could be it were better for an Horse to be turned into a perfect man than to be rid by the bravest Heros that is And lastly That Opinion touching all the suffering Adherents to Christ that they should become Citizens of this New Jerusalem on Earth which is conjoined with the Opinion of Christ's personal Reign is not agreeable to Reason in that it brings down the persecuted Saints great Reward in Heaven which Christ promiseth Matt. 5.12 to a lesser reward here on Earth CHAP. XXXIX Two Objections more out of the same Letter The first touching the Palm-bearing Company whether they synchronize with the New Jerusalem The other touching the Intricateness and Obscurity of the Vision of the two Witnesses With Answers to both Objections THE first Objection is upon pag. 67. Mr. Mede's Arguments saith he for the Synchronism of the Palm-bearing Company with the New Jerusalem seems not firm If they were and we could be assured that the Palm-bearing Company were personally Citizens of the New Jerusalem it would argue that the New Jerusalem-state is designed to be premiant to the suffering Christians And indeed it seems to be the main scope of the Apocalypse to predict that Divine state of things But however the Palm-bearing Company are plainly the Triumphant Army of Martyrs and are of great affinity with those Rev. 20.4 saving only that the latter are the Martyrs under Antichrist the former seem to be the Martyrs under Paganism And since these Martyrs are described as personally rewarded with their white Robes c. it would be strange for us to think they are rewarded by Proxy in the prosperity of others in the Jerusalem-state Besides that it is too early of the Apocalypse to have a formal Vision of the New Jerusalem state Answ That the Palm-bearing Company synchronizes in part with the New Jerusalem besides what Mr. Mede alledges the Methodicalness of the Apocalypse may assure us For the prefixing of the 144000 sealed ones with the Residue of that Vision in that Chapter before the seven Trumpets is according to exquisite Method the seven Trumpets being a more distinct and particular Representation of the affairs of the same Time Nor does it follow from the Palm-bearing Company 's being Citizens of the New Jerusalem that those individual Martyrs that suffered either under Paganism or Antichrist that they live in the New Jerusalem here on Earth but by a Prophetick Henopoeia the whole successive Body of the pure Apostolick suffering Church under the Persecution of Antichrist being understood when this one
Religion and make Laws and Orders concerning it so far as consists with the just Liberties of truly conscientious men nor are repugnant to the written Law of God whether in Scripture or in Humane Souls This is so consistent with Christianity that I do not doubt but the Holy City in the Millennium will be built by a Council truly Holy and truly Oecumenical Arg. 2. This Imperial Council confessedly added to the Creed Answ What the Council of Nice concluded concerning the Divinity of Christ and Triunity of the Godhead was no addition to the Creed or Canonical Scripture but only an Explication made for the quieting of the Church and burying that Floud of Contention wherewith the Dragon would have overwhelmed the Church And therefore no Pride Fraud nor Covetousness being underneath but a sincere study of preserving the Church in Peace and of exhibiting such a Form of Faith as was least obnoxious to the Cavils of the Heathen as if the Christians worshipped more Gods than one or any thing that was not God we have no reason to question but Christ assisted and directed that Council in their determinations according to his promise Arg. 3. That this Council has been of greatest Authority and most dangerous to be opposed Answ I do not see how this derogates any thing from the worthiness of the Council so that it should be made the Epocha of the time of the mournful Witnesses till their Rising Certainly it is as dangerous to oppose the Apostles Creed and yet I think no man will deem it a fit Epocha for the time of the mournful Witnesses Arg. 4. The Council of Nice set the first Horn on the Ecclesiastick Beast the other not by full Authority till Anno 380. or rather 451. A Beast may be a Beast without one Horn or with none but he cannot have an Horn and be no Beast Answ The Patriarchate of Rome and that other of Constantinople that they be the two Horns of the two-horned Beast Apoc. 13. I easily admit But so soon as they were two Summities or Preeminences Ecclesiastical that they were necessarily ipso facto two Horns in that worse sense that I deny For neither embodying into a Polity or having Superiorities and Preeminences make Beasts and Horns but only Idolatry and Cruelty But the degeneracy of the Church into Idolatry was a pretty while after the Nicene Council It commenced with the Beast that was is not and yet is And he commenced with the breaking of the Empire into several Kingdoms which was after the Nicene Council and the first Constantinopolitan also Arg. 5. The Dragon stood before the Woman that was ready to be delivered to devour the Child as soon as it was born Chap. 12.4 The Child was born in the Conversion of Constantine Therefore the Re-paganizing of the Church must be presently after and so was the flight of the Woman into the Wilderness Answ The Dragon stood ready to devour the Child so soon as it was born but no Text says he did devour it so soon as it was born but quite contrary that it was caught up to the Throne of God and possessed the Imperial Crown and the Woman also escaped by her flight into the Wilderness An Attempt does not at all infer an effect I understand no force at all in this Argument Arg. 6. This gives a good account of the universal Woe Chap. 12.12 which seems to come in strangely after those words of Triumph preceding For the Devils Pagan Worship must quickly have come to an end by the Conversion of Constantine if he could not in that short time have turned off Constantine from the Faith or Re-paganized the Christians And the greatness of his wrath shows he was likely to make quick dispatch Answ I answer 1 That that Wo is not universal Earth and Sea not comprehending all the parts of a Political World There are Heavens besides that are bid to rejoice at this defeat by the Conversion of Constantine The vulgar people are Earth and Sea and amongst them the Devil was resolved to bestir himself 2 The short time he had to turn himself in is in reference to the keeping up his old Draconick Religion He must either do it before the Woman go into the Wilderness or else never And therefore that floud of Contention was to turn off the Populacy from Christianity and make them adhere to the old Pagan Religion But for Re-paganizing the Empire become Christian his time was not short for that he carrying on and perfecting that project for many hundred years 3 And lastly The greatness of his wrath only shows the greatness of his straits not the quickness of his success in those designs of either upholding the old Paganism or introducing a new one In the former whereof he is quite defeated and in perfecting the latter his progress was but slow when once begun nor begun till about four hundred years after Christ when the Empire begun to be broken into many Kingdoms Arg. 7. In this way we need not go to the uncertain Conjectures of proportion betwixt the inner and outer Court from Villalpandus or arbitrarily fix on such an Epocha as will best suit with our own Opinions For the state and times of the Church before and after Constantine are signally distinguished of themselves with reference to the Altar Chap. 11.1 as the Symbol of Martyrdom Answ I say 1 That the proportion of the inner and outer Court of the Temple namely the Area's of them in Villalpandus are not uncertain And it is the Area's of them by a Metonymia Adjuncti that are conceived to be measured The square Area of the whole Temple in the largest sense is conceived to be cast into nine square Areolae of equal bigness Two of which are the Area's of the inner Court the rest of the outer Whence the inner to the outer is as two to seven And it is Ezekiel's Temple questionless that the Apocalypse alludes to and none else As the description of the Trees and the River Apoc. 22. is from thence And the thing is so phrased according to the Artifice of the Apocalyptick Stile that both the proportion of the Time of the Non-Apostasie and Apostasie and also the Non-Apostate and Apostate Condition of the Church is insinuated For his being bid to measure the inner Court shows the Symmetricalness of that State of the Church but the rejecting the outer Court from being measured intimateth its Incommensurableness or Asymmetry to the Measure But the naming the forty two months it was to be trodden down gives a third Term whereby we may gather the time the Church was not yet trodden down by the Gentiles For as the outer Court is to the inner so is forty two months time to the Time sought for which is twelve months Thus As 7 to 2 so 42 to 12. The time therefore of the Non-Apostate Church is one entire Time or two Semi-times 2 And this plainly hinders us from seeking such an
In the Year 410. or the eighteenth day of the first month of this first Hexamenon Honorius sent express word to Heraclianus concerning the Donatists that if they met contrary to his Decree they should be punished poena proscriptionis sanguinis The severity of which Decree of Honorius against the Donatists no man of equity can wonder at that reflects upon what was observed before out of Alstedius Nor where-ever I produce Instances of the severity of the Orthodox Power against Heterodox Christians even to sanguinary Penalties or what may be equivalent thereto is it to perstringe their proceedings any further than that there seems no provision made to secure the purely conscientious and peaceful Heterodox Christians nor any difference put betwixt them and such as are for Tumult Violence and Persecution themselves For sanguinary severity against such Heterodox Christians that are merely conscientiously such as they are and are peaceful and loyal Subjects cannot but feel harsh to a truly Christian Spirit In the twenty first day of this month or the year 413. Theodosius Imp. in Oriente Eunomianos saepe damnatos novo Rescripto exagitavit simulque Anabaptistas ultimo supplicio afficiendos decrevit And Honorius the year after declares the Donatists Infames Intestabiles and inflicts Banishment on their Bishops and Clergy and the same punishment on as many as conceal them In the twenty third day of this month this memorable Instance of Hieratical Cruelty happened Hypatia a famous She-Philosopher Daughter of Theon and a wise grave and discreet Matron venerated for her Wisdom even by Princes and great Persons out of mere suspicion that she hindred Orestes the Governour of Alexandria from being reconciled to Cyrillus the Bishop thereof after his Monks from Mount Nitria had broke the Governour 's Pate was by one Peter the Reader and a number of other Zealots for the Bishop which followed Peter their Ring-leader pulled out of her Chariot by main force carried into the Church called Caesareum and there stript of her cloaths had her skin and flesh torn off with sharp shells till she died And then quartering of her body they carried the members thereof to a place called Cinaron and there burnt them to ashes Socrat. Histor Eccles lib. 7. cap. 15. In the Year 428. or the sixth day of the second month of the first Hexamenon that grandisonant Speech was uttered by Nestorius upon his being chosen Patriarch of Constantinople unto the Emperour Give me O Emperour the Earth cleared of Hereticks and I will give thee Heaven do thou assist me in routing the Hereticks and I will succour thee in vanquishing the Persians But full little then did this valiant Man think how easie a thing it is for one that will be curious in Speculation beyond necessity or usefulness to fall into Errour and how far more easie to be thought to do so by others whether it be so or no. But why mistakes in unnecessary decisions should be deemed Heresies I believe this great Man could hardly give a good Reason But this persecutive Zeal against whatsoever has the Luck to be called Heresie himself tasted at last of the bitter fruit of that Tree who lost his Patriarchate and was banished for that Heresie he is deemed the Author of and gave name to viz. Nestorianism In the Year 436. or the fourteenth day of the second month of the first hexamenon Nestorius was by the Command of the Emperour Theodosius banished to Petrae or Oasis in Aegypt the worst and most infamous place for Exuls In the fifteenth day of this month Gensericus King of the Vandals raised a sore Persecution in Africk against the Orthodox he with his Bishops being Arians Amongst other Sufferers four Spanish Noblemen Arcadius Probus Paschasius and Eutychius first proscribed then banished afterwards tortured and at last cruelly put to death all four of them Spond out of Prosper And yet it is said of these Vandals that they so thoroughly reformed Carthage from Paganism Vt ne vestigium quidem ibi relictum fuerit Gentilitiae impietatis Nor can this Instance of bloody Cruelty be excepted against as not being done by the Christian Hieratico-political Power For the Arians cannot be denied to be part of the Christian Church by Premiss the fifth For Arius himself soon relinquished that gross Errour of Erat quando non erat The Arians therefore acknowledging the Logos to be ab Aeterno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Nicene Creed has it must acknowledge him to exist necessarily ab aeterno and nothing can do so but what is God Wherefore they being qualified according to the Conditions set down in the fifth Premiss it is manifest they must be allowed to be part of the Christian Church though not so Orthodox as they should be If they that are called Arians all along in History were in that first gross sense such the Apostasie of the Church would have begun with Arius as the Reformation is conceived to begin with Luther And then as one of the Fathers complains the whole world might well groan indeed to find it self turned Arian But this Supposition as it ill accords with History so far as I can discern so it is point-blank against the Testimony of the Apocalypse out of which may be clearly understood from the proportion of the outer Court to the inner Chap. 11. and from the Rising of the Beast that was is not and yet is at the same time in which the Ten Horns were catching at and obtaining Kingdoms Chap. 17. that the Apostasie came not in till about seventy years after that Arius appeared and his Opinion was condemned by the Council of Nice So true a Glass is the Apocalypse to discover the State of the Church all along In the twenty seventh day of this second month or in the year 449. Dioscorus Bishop of Alexandria presiding over the second Ephesine Council Flavianus Bishop of Constantinople and Eusebius Dorylaeus were violently kickt to compel them to subscribe but Flavianus so cruelly beaten and abused that he died upon it In the fifth day of the third month or in the year 457. Timotheus Aelurus getting into the Bishoprick of Alexandria raised all manner of cruel Persecutions against the Orthodox And his Myrmidons they were that so salvagely murdered Proterius the former Bishop even in the very Baptistry dragg'd his Corps thorough the streets of the City tore it into parts and like greedy Dogs forbore not to taste of his entrails After they burnt his body to ashes which they scattered in the wind In the twenty fourth day of the said month or the year 476. Basiliscus the Tyrant burnt amongst others Plato Groom of his Chamber for opposing Timotheus Aelurus an Eutychian Bishop In the first day of the fourth month or Anno 483. Hunericus King of the Vandals renews a most direful Persecution against the Orthodox Bishops and Clergy that would not turn Arians Banishments torturings and cruel treatings even unto death numbers of them suffered
the Wolf and the Lamb shall feed together is to be understood literally with Answers thereto Six Particulars in order to or compliance with the making the War of the Heros on the white Horse Apoc. 19. Literal only or Carnal With an Answer to the said Particulars IN my Exposition of the Epistle to the Church in Pergamus I interpret the Nicolaitans to be a people that sat loose enough as to the Romish Church but were also unchast and loose of their bodies And that there were such within the Pergamenian Interval which reaches from An. Dom. 324. to An. Dom. 1242. is apparent from History This the Reverend and Learned Dean of Paul's Dr. Stillingfleet has made good to our hands in the Fanaticism of the Roman Church where he tells us that this Nicolaitan Doctrine which afterward proved the very Doctrine of Henry Nicolas the Father of the Family of Love did obtain amongst them at the beginning of the thirteenth Century viz. That every Person of the Holy Trinity had his successive Time of Ruling the World That the Law of the Father continued till Christ's Coming the Law of the Son till their Time and then the Time of the Holy Ghost was to begin In which the use of Sacraments was to cease and all external Administrations c. And they so highly extolled Love that what would have been a sin without it they thought to be none with it as Fornication Adultery c. This is the Primitive Nicolaitism which was again renew'd by H. N. aliàs Henry Nicolas from whence our modern Familists spring as also at first the Quakers who still cast away the Sacraments and make nothing of external Administrations This business is related in Nauclerus and that before An. Dom. 1190. so fully is it within the Pergamenian Interval It may not be amiss to set down his words concerning the latter part of their description Charitatis etiam virtutem sic ampliabant ut id quod aliàs peccatum esset si fieret in Charitate jam illud non esset peccatum unde stupra adulteria caeteras corporis voluptates nomine Charitatis perpetrabant mulieribusque cum quibus peccabant simplicibus quos decipiebant impunitatem promittebant Deum tantummodo bonum justum praedicantes This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Christ says he hates and abhors Apoc. 2.15 And it is a surprizing hit that Henry Nicolas should be so eminent a Reviver of this Nicolaitan Doctrine But I have said enough already to confirm our Exposition of that passage of the Apocalypse I will pass hence to Chap. 8. v. 7 8 c. where the third Part mentioned at least half a score times I interpret to be a Symbol of the Roman Empire and there is very good reason for it from what occurs Chap. 12.4 where the great red Dragon with seven Heads and ten Horns which most certainly denotes the Roman Empire according to all Interpreters is said to have drawn down with his Tail the third part of the Stars of Heaven and to have cast them to the Earth that is to have brought the third part of the Kingdoms of the World under his subjection Which passage is an intended Key to that in the eighth Chapter as the seventeenth Chapter is chiefly to the eleventh and thirteenth In the ninth Chapter v. 8. where the Locusts are said to have hair as the hair of Women I as Mr. Mede before me interpret of the Saracens which are Arabians of whom Pliny writes Nat. Hist lib. 6. cap. 28. N. 30. Arabes mitrati degunt aut intonso crine And the Vision describes the Locusts as having faces of humane shape but that they wear their hair as Women as do the Arabians as being Mitrati that is having Womens Head-tire on For so Mitra signifies Pilea virorum sunt Mitrae foeminarum It was the Head-cover also of the Lydians and Phrygians but accounted less manly Whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a reproachful Title given to the soft and effeminate though the Arabians were not reputed such See Martinius Mr. Mede cites rather the sense than the words of Pliny But whether we read or aut it is plain these Arabians ordered their hair as women which therefore is a fit Character of the Saracens in these Locusts In the eighteenth Chapter v. 23. I content my self in noting that the voice of Bridegroom and Bride being no more heard in Babylon signifies that there shall be no more propagating of their Pseudo-Catholick Religion the end of Marriage being Propagation And this is a true sense and unexceptionable But it might have been fuller if we had noted also that there may be an allusion to that usurped Title of the Pope who calls himself Sponsus Ecclesiae For then the proselyting of Nations and Countries to the Papal Religion and Jurisdiction would look ever like a new Marriage But the Joy of such Marriages will cease after the final Fall of Babylon which is described in this eighteenth Chapter of the Apocalypse See Gabriel Powel in his De Antichristo l. 1. c. 14. In Chapter 22. v. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there shall be no more curse This I expound of the furious Papal Anathema's or Excommunications to depose Kings and Princes and to involve the Christian World in blood which I do not doubt but is the proper Prophetical meaning of the place and not the Curse of God for Sin which was Diseases Death Briars Thorns the labour and sweat of Tillage and the like That Curse we shall never be delivered from till we come to Heaven And those that phansie such things here on Earth in the New Jerusalem state as in this passage so in all other passages that sound so high they are to remember that the proper fulfilling of them is to be in Heaven though in a figurative sense they will be fulfilled here and that the description of the New Jerusalem on Earth is so framed as to be also Typical of the State of the Church in Heaven as I have more fully declared in Chapter 20. of these Paralipomena But forasmuch as besides this mistake in S. E. I find a sober and judicious Writer W. A. in his Treatise of the State of the Church in the latter Ages of the World to incline to the Opinion that there will be even a Change of Nature in the Time of the New Jerusalem-state of the Church I will a while here divert into what he says Chap. 10. and produce the most material Reasons he hath for the proving that in those days there will be a Change of the World Natural as well as the World Moral as he phraseth it Those places of Scripture that seem to promise plenty of things and increase of People I conceive imply no such Radical Change in the World Natural For merely from the Moral Temperance of men in those Times there will be length of Days and the Propagation of a
sound Off-spring this with Peacefulness will cause Populousness And for Plenty which depends upon the Clouds and timely and seasonable Showres they have ever been and will be at the Command of the invisible Powers in the Air. So that that will be no insititious Change in the Natural World but the effects of free Actions in those invisible Agents But that indeed of Isaiah Chap. 65.20 if not fitly interpreted may seem to argue a Change of things more than what depends upon what is Free and Moral For after God had promised he would create a new Heaven and a new Earth v. 17. he adds a little afterwards That there shall be no more thence an Infant of days nor an Old man that has not filled his days For the Child shall dye an hundred years old but the Sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed Here the Child dying an hundred years old to the heedless may import that they shall be more longaevous then than the Patriarchs before the Floud an Hundred being to a Thousand as Seven the Age of a Child to Seventy which would imply a strange Change in the Natural World indeed But to give W. A. his due he has pitched upon the most likely sense of this Verse viz. That there shall no Child ordinarily dye by any untimely death nor an Old man that has not lived so long as in the course of Nature he might well reach That the space from Childhood to old Age shall ordinarily be an hundred years c. But I deny that this argues any more than what depends upon a Divine Morality or real Regeneration in their Parents who will transmit a sound and wholesom constitution to their Posterity Which if any one of them do not improve to the like Vertue and Piety and yet by the Benefit of their Constitution live an hundred years content mainly with the things of the Animal life such a Sinner as this notwithstanding his Longaevity is accursed both because he for the present deprives himself of the enjoyments of the Divine life and must expect also but a bad Reception when he dyes into the other State The next Text of moment which he urges is Rom. 8.21 The Creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God Which he would have to argue that there will be a Change of the World Natural in the blessed Millennium as well as in the World Moral he supposing that Creature there signifies the whole sublunary Creation at least And the Apostle v. 22. says For we know that the whole Creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now Where the whole Creation is the same with the Creature it self not Christians quatenus Christians but the very Creature or Creature it self groaneth and is in pain But then it is to be understood as Dr. Hammond also will have it of the whole Humane Creature which he makes out rationally and judiciously And what Creatures but humane or Men can expect to be delivered into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God This therefore does not respect the Jerusalem-state of the Church here on Earth but the State of the Resurrection For then only will this deliverance from the bondage of Corruption be and the attainment of the freedom of the Sons of God which is the Title of the Angels For then in our incorruptible glorified bodies we shall become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels And this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is mentioned v. 23. which we groan after and wait for viz. the redemption of our bodies that they may be glorified and made Angelical such as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have the Angels or Sons of God as is declared in the Answer to S. E. Something like this Text is that alledged out of the Acts Chap. 3.21 where S. Peter speaking of our blessed Saviour saith Whom the Heaven must receive until the Times of Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began W. A. to give him his due manages this Text ingeniously enough to his present purpose upon supposition that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were to be rendred as our English Translation renders it Restitution implying thereby Restauration or Renovation But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a completed Circuit or Period properly relating to Astronomical Revolutions It signifies also the effecting of a thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore signifies either the Periodical Times that is to say the Times brought to a Period or the Times of effecting of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets Which easie sense implies no such Change in the World Natural in the Millennium as our Author would deduce therefrom And this is not my sense only on the Text but Grotius his also or something in him near akin to it As for that Isai 66.22 For as the Heavens and Earth which I will make shall remain before me saith the Lord so shall your seed and your name remain This Heaven and Earth as that Chap. 65.17 is a Political Heaven and Earth that Divine Polity which will constitute the New Jerusalem-state of the Church in which the Jews or Israelites will have a portion as long as that Polity stands which is to the end of all But I have made so much haste that I have omitted a prime Text alledged by this ingenious Author Isai Chap. 65. The Wolf and the Lamb shall feed together and the Lion shall eat straw like the Bullock and dust shall be the Serpents meat they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain saith the Lord. And a fuller description to the same purpose there is Chap. 11. which he produces to prove that there will be a Change in the World Natural in the Millennium as well as in the Moral World he urging the literal sense of these places for these three Reasons following First Because the Wolf and Lamb the Lion and Bullock are supposed to retain their Original proper Natures still For if not then the Wolf would become a Lamb and the Lion a Bullock and then in the mystical sense which he opposes it would only be that the Lamb and the Lamb would feed together and the Bullock eat straw like other Bullocks The second Reason is That we cannot well imagine for what other purpose that saying The Lion shall eat straw like an Ox should be added but only to give some account how those Creatures shall live and how they shall be fed when they shall cease to prey upon other living Creatures Which implies that the sense is literal The third is Because it is further added That dust shall be the Serpent's meat which further confirms the foregoing Reason as if the Prophet did persist in instructing us how these Creatures when their noxious properties are taken away shall feed and sustain themselves Nor
should be excepted I see not Whence it follows that the Event of the Vision of Chap. 4. must follow that of the Church of Laodicea Wherefore the Church of Laodicea does not conclude the World 2. Besides unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serves to shew the order of the Events of Visions it serves to no use at all For as for the order of S. John's receiving of them it is well enough known by his order of relating them 3. To which I may add That for sureness sake it is not only said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Voice tells him withal that the things which he should see were such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereby it seems to me that we are enjoined of necessity to expound that Vision of Chap. 4. of something that was to succeed the Vision of Laodicea For I hope you will not deny but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has respect to the things next before spoken as well here as in all other places 4. There are also other Considerations to prove the connexion and order of the Visions of the 3. and 4. Chapters Such as these Christ promises Philadelphia an open door which no man shall be able to shut i. e. he tells her he has set this door before her meaning as I conceive that the Church was not yet arrived to this open door but in some time she should In the next Epistle we have Christ knocking at this door for what other can it be to get it open In the very entrance of Chap. 4. the door is opened Are these three doors the same or no Surely the Text seems to intimate they are the same 5. Another Consideration may be this When Christ promises the Victor that he should sit with him in his Throne even as he was set down with his Father in his and then immediately after exhibits a most glorious Representation of this Throne viz. the Throne of God and of Christ does not this seem to look as if the Throne exhibited to view were that which were just before promised 6. That the Laodicean Interval does not reach to the end of the World may be evidenced from the placing of the Promise to the Victor before the Parabolical Epiphonema which argues it to be a Political promise when no such can take place that time when an end shall of course be put to all worldly Polity And therefore if it was not such a promise but simply a promise of Heaven it ought to have been placed after the Parabolical Epiphonema So that there is no evasion from the strength of this Argument allowing the Rule of placing the Parabolical Epiphonema to be true on Chap. 2.11 7. And lastly Supposing the Throne to be Heavenly in a literal sense will it not hence follow that the Victor shall sit in as high a place in Heaven as the Father and the Son do For it is promised to the Victor to sit with Christ in his Throne even in like manner as Christ sits with his Father in his and that must be one and the same Throne because Christ and the Father are one Wherefore it can be no Heavenly Throne and therefore it is an Earthly that is promised and consequently this Earthly Scene continues after the Interval of Laodicea These are his Arguments set off to the utmost advantage so far as my skill could reach But in Answer 1. To the first I demand how those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are but an Adverb of Order in Time the same that Postea in Latine as Beza here translates it should have that propriety of sense as never to suffer the Vision they belong to to be expounded of any Event antecedent to the Event of the Vision next before whenas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies no more than Afterwards or After this as our English Translation has it which is most easily and naturally understood of the Vision precedent as if he should say After this Vision I looked and behold c. But if you will have it After the Event of this Vision I looked I demand how could John in Domitian's time be said to look up c. after an Event in Queen Elizabeth's time which seems a plain Repugnancy whenas John's looking up is about fifteen hundred years on this side of that Event Wherefore it is not from any force or virtue of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Vision they belong to is not expounded of any Event antecedent to the Event of the Vision next before but from other clear circumstances or that the Visions are in the same order as the Events they prefigure and no weight of Reason appears to the contrary And for his Appeal to my Exposition of the Apocalyse his ground fails there also For Chap. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. some things there are expounded of what is antecedent to the Prediction Chap. 17. v. 14. of the Victory of the Lamb. But suppose all places where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is found had been so expounded by me as the Objector phansies it does not follow that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be so expounded here because there are such notable indications to the contrary 1. For first there being seven Intervals from the beginning of the Church Apostolick it does both according to the Apocalyptick and Cabbalistick sense of Seven imply all the Intervals of the said Church from that first Term. As the seven Seals beginning from the same Term reach to the end of the World And so the seven Trumpets from the Term they do commence reach to the end of the World And the same I doubt not of the seven Thunders that they last to the very last the Conflagration it self And the seven Heads of the Beast take in all the Heads of him that are Wherefore it is rational that the seven Intervals of the Church take in all the Intervals of the Church that are And therefore I think I saw reason that this place however 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be expounded in others should be excepted 2. But again How harsh and absonous is it to make the Epistolar Prophecy to reach but to the Reformation and the Affairs of the Church and the Prophecies thereof to be continued in Visions and Prophecies of quite another mode and fashion Does not this look like a strange heterogeneous patch or botch And is it not infinitely more smooth and elegant to conceive the Epistolar Prophecy a complete Prophecy of its own kind and manner of contexture reaching from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World And that after this begins a new Prophecy of the same extent but of another Texture and Nature without any connexion to this Ne Gryphes jungantur equis 3. Thirdly If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie after the Event of the Vision of the Church of Laodicea which according to him is the Reformation then all the whole Prophecy that follows at least that of
my Throne and judge the Apostate Angels at the last Day Nor them alone but as Co-assessors with Christ on this Laodicean Throne they shall judge all the guilty people gathered before the Throne of Christ at the Day of Judgment And is not this then manifestly a promise of what is not only visible but also Political and withal clear that there was all the reason in the World that this promise should be as it is placed before the Epiphonema and not after it And this I think is a full and satisfactory Answer to this sixth Argument that from the placing of the promise of a Throne to the Laodicean Victor before the Epiphonema would infer that it is an Earthly Throne because the placing thereof thus implies it visible and Political whenas this Heavenly Throne is manifestly so likewise And that it is an Heavenly Throne and not an Earthly as we have plainly shown this sixth Argument to prove nothing to the contrary so there are many Arguments for it and such as no man unbiassed with prejudice but will thereby be readily assured of the truth thereof As 1 The general consent of Expositors 2 The state of the Laodiceans who are described under no such circumstances as the Smyrnean Pergamenian Thyatirian and Philadelphian Churches who living under other Polities were subject to Martyrdoms Persecutions and great Hardships and therefore those and the few Names in Sardis having for this very cause an Earthly Political promise made to them there being no such ground for them of Laodicea to have so as being in a contrary condition in peace plenty and ease insomuch that they themselves conceive they have need of nothing this is a plain indication that no such earthly Political promise is made to them they enjoying it already 3 All those Moral or Spiritual Exhortations and Increpations which tend to the fitting them for Heaven and which show them that only true and necessary way thither these are another intimation that the promise to the Laodicean Victor is that of an Heavenly Throne not an earthly which they enjoy'd already wanting nothing But the great solicitude of Christ seems here to be to fit them for that state Whence he says after all these sharp reproofs As many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent Behold I stand at the door and knock c. This is all an urgency for the preparing themselves for that Heavenly Throne the Day of Doom being so near at hand 4 And lastly The very words of the promise imply it is an Heavenly Throne as the Method he so earnestly commends to them tends thereto To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne i. e. As Christ when he had overcome the sharpness of Death was advanced to the right hand of God in Heaven by the gift of his Father so he having thus opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all true Believers he that overcomes in that Moral sense shall have an Heavenly Throne of Christ's giving all judgment as it is said being committed to the Son And it is very harsh that Christ's Throne after his overcoming should be Heavenly and the Laodicean Victors Earthly and not of the same kind though of a less degree This is certainly the genuine sense of the promise of this Throne to any one that is not blinded or biassed with some strange prejudice And this would have been the sense if the promise had been placed after the Epiphonema and not at all repugnant with our Hypothesis that the Laodicean Interval is the last Interval reaching to the end of the World which is sufficiently proved from other Arguments But the promise being placed before the Epiphonema it is not only not repugnant to but confirms our Hypothesis that Laodicea is that Interval that takes in the last Judgment when in a visible manner all people are to be judged as the word implies The judgment and rewards shall be visible in the sight of all the World So fittingly do all things fall in with the truth of our Hypothesis But I may seem to have dwelt too long upon my Answer to this sixth Argument We proceed to the seventh and last 7. To this seventh and last therefore I say That unless we suffer our Phancy to stick to the mere Cortex of the figurative Letter which puts Throne for a Kingdom here and the power of Judicature which is the real and genuine sense this Argument will appear to have small strength in it For then supposing what I take to be true that it is the promise of an Heavenly Kingdom to sit with Christ in his Throne is to partake of Christ's Kingdom given to him by his Father when he had overcome the sharpness of Death which Kingdom is plainly Heavenly he being thereupon exalted to the right hand of God in Heaven from whence he is to come visibly at the last Day to judge the quick and the dead For the Father judgeth no man but has committed all judgment to the Son as I noted above And therefore Matt. 25. he saith to the sheep on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom c. Which Kingdom is so large that Myriads may partake thereof without sitting in Christ's lap as the Objector's Argument insinuates Christ to sit in his Father's lap and so all that partake of this Heavenly Kingdom to be as high in Heaven as God the Father and his Son Christ are whenas they are not of equal Sovereignty though the Throne were supposed Earthly So that this Sophistry would exclude the Victor from having any Throne at all But that one and the same Throne in this gross sense is not meant appears from the expression of the same thing or one part or Specimen thereof the power of Judicature Matt. 19. where Christ tells his Apostles that at the Resurrection they shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel viz. at that time when all Nations shall be gathered together before Christ's Throne of Glory Matt. 25. and yet all these thirteen Thrones are but one Throne in the abovesaid signification of Throne that is the power of Judicature Which in a measure as it is there promised to the Apostles so here to the Laodicean Victor whose Priviledge it will be to judge also the Apostate Angels at the last Day as the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 6.2 And I little question but that this Priviledge is included in a particular manner in this promise of an Heavenly Throne to the Laodicean Victor the placing the promise before the Epiphonema intimating it to be visible which cannot be but at the last Day From whence as from other Arguments it is plain that the Laodicean Interval is the last time of the Church upon Earth else why should such a promise be made to the Laodicean Victor rather than to any