For if those many were the greater number then the Laodicean state would not be applicable thereto if the less then the Titles of the Camp of the Saints and beloved City would not agree therewith and the purity of their external worship in all will not mend the matter unless Hypocrisie may entitle one to Saintship Ans. That the Church of Philadelphia though degenerated into a Laodicean state may be called in these straits the Camp of the Saints and the beloved City appears out of ch 11. The City is there called holy though trampled down and polluted by the Gentiles Nor is it any straining of the Text to make them called the Camp of the Saints because there were many Saints there though not all such whenas the greater part according to several degrees of Saintship might be Saints and these less degrees of Saintship an effect of the degeneracy and that the external worship in all was still pure and incorrupt and they that used it did it out of judgment and conscience being sincerely pleased in that they thought God was pleased with it this adds a farther weight to make the City both holy and beloved especially in comparison of the rabble of their enemies And therefore it was not Hypocrisie but a solid ground that entitled this Camp to Saintship And if we should suppose the most degenerate part to have listed themselves in the Army of Gog and Magog as it is exceeding probable the Holy City seeming in such imminent danger this is manifestly consistent with the Camp being called the Camp of Saints and the City the beloved City and likewise with the degeneracy of those times I mean the Laodicean degeneracy at once those degenerate persons being now drained out of the Holy City into the Army of Gog and Magog and so the City lest fit to retain the Title of holy and beloved still without any scruple or exception Vers. 13. Death and Hell are here made one to be the Species of the other viz. The first to signifie those dead by diseases and the other the whole Region of Mortality But surely it will be a better account of the Text to suppose this to be a like distribution of the damned into two parts as the twenty four Elders and the four Beasts is of the Saints viz. into the Governours and governed and that Hell signifies those children of wrath who have been Rulers in the World under the Powers of darkness and Death those that died in their sins in their private condition but were not publick Instruments of evil as to others And that this distinction of them is made by reason of the different state or degrees of punishment that befalls them after this life according to that saying The Lord soon pardoneth the mean but the mighty shall be mightily tormented This sense will well agree with v. 14. viz. Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire but so will not the other sense For not all that dye of diseases much less shall the whole Region of Mortality be cast into the lake of fire c. Ans. Death and Hell are not here made the one the species of the other but rather the one a part of the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated Hell signifies the dark invisible Receptacle of the deceased and Hell has its name from an Anglosaxon word that signifies to cover 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore which is here rendred Hell is the common or universal Receptacle of all the deceased The Sea gave up the dead that were in it and Death and Hell delivered up the dead that were in them There was begun an Enumeration of the Receptacles of the deceased or by a Prosopopoeia of the Keepers of these Deposita viz. the deceased The Sea is one Those places that take in the bodies of those that dye of diseases another but to be short he abruptly names that common Receptacle or Keeper of all the deceased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated Hell This is the plain meaning of the Text. But the Remarker's two parts are out of doors because if Death and Hell make two parts Sea will come in for the third and so spoil the conceit which otherwise had no harm in it For whereas he most of all applauds his exposition as so well agreeing with v. 14. Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire if he take in Sea too to cast into the lake of fire it will make strange work But the Interpretation of v. 14. by the Expositor does not suppose Death there to signifie either all that dye of diseases or none but those that dye of diseases but to signifie Death it self and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hell to signifie this Region of Mortality wherein he reigns as you may see in his Exposition where the sense is sufficiently clear and smooth Chap. 21. Vers. 1. SEA does not signifie here the unquiet multitude of the wicked but as it does in the second Trumpet and the second Vial viz. The over-spreading of worldly Dominion that does overflow and overwhelm men with power as the Sea overflows the Earth Ans. The nature of the Sea is to be tossing unquiet and moving which therefore very well sets off the disposition of the Mobile vulgus especially the wicked part of them that are easily ruffled into seditions and rebellions But when this new Heaven and new Earth that is this New-Ierusalem-Polity is settled there will be no such thing as the appearance of a fluctuating Sea or of a Sea by invasion breaking in upon the Land but all will be in settled peace and quietness as the Expositor has explained this passage But to interpret Sea and Waters not of multitudes of people but of worldly Dominions the ruling Part is quite out of the road of the Prophetick style But the worldly Powers and worldly Dominions hugely fill the Remarker's fancy Vers. 2. The New Ierusalem coming down from Heaven is not a Polity to be settled on Earth by Councils but it is God's taking up his abode among men to rule and govern them by his truth and life dwelling in them whereby they shall walk in the light of life and so not need the constitutions of Councils Ans. The New Ierusalem come down from Heaven is the new Heaven and the new Earth and a new Heaven and a new Earth in the Prophetick style is a New Polity See the Alphabet of Iconisms in Heaven and Earth And besides in that it is the City Ierusalem in opposition to the City Babylon it must be a Polity antistoechal to a Polity City signifying a Polity in the Prophetick style And a Council and Laws will be requisite yea necessary in the Millennium for there will be Draconists and Bestians though under the Hatches mingled within the Dominions of the Kingdom of Christ. And it is a childish conceit to think that through so vast a Dominion as the Millennial will be there will be none but
Dream of the Sun and Moon and eleven Stars worshipping him where the Moon is interpreted his Mother though no Priest as the Sun his Father Chap. 9. Vers. 2. THE Sun darkned here is not the Gospel but the Autority or Legislative Power of those Dominions over-run by the Saracens and Religion but secondarily concerned as it suffers by the suffering of the Autority which upheld it And as the Sea denotes the many Dominions of the Earth so does the Sun here signifie the various Powers or Autorities that governed them Ans. That the Sun does not signifie Legislative power in abstracto but the highest person in Autority I have noted already And though one great Sea may signifie a comprehension of several distinct Kingdoms subject to tumultuate or rather War one against another as having no union under one Head yet the several Heads of these Kingdoms cannot so properly be represented by one Sun which naturally implies one Head over them all Wherefore being that the Saracens over-run so many Kingdoms and Principalities if this must be the darkning of them it would then have been said that the smoak of the Abyss darkned the Stars For when Multitudes of Kings and Princes are concerned together that have no dependence one of another they are then signified by Stars Whence the Red Dragon is said to have pulled down so many Stars with his tail that is to have subjected so many Kings and Princes to the Roman Empire Wherefore it is rashly pronounced That the Sun-shine of the Gospel of the Sun of righteousness is not meant by the Sun that is here said to be darkned whenas the smoak of the pit must be Mahometism And therefore in this passage Religion most certainly is related to and is the main concern of the whole Book of the Apocalypse and other things predicted merely in order to it viz. to the right worship of God through Jesus Christ. And therefore that sense which is easie and natural and tends that way is most assuredly the true sense of any passage of these Prophecies See the spiritual signification of Sun in the Expositor's Alphabet of Iconisms Chap. 10. Vers. 2. THE Ten-horned Beast did rise out of the Sea and two-horned Beast out of the Earth and our Saviour setting his right foot on the Sea and his left foot on the Earth does signifie here his coming down from Heaven to put down all Autority and power under his feet the Earthly Powers within his Kingdom being within the seventh Trumpet to be abolished and all things to become new by forming a new Heaven and a new Earth or establishing the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth and so making the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Ans. This Remark is not much amiss saving that it lears toward that foul conceit that there will be no Monarchy nor Princes over their respective Principalities and Kingdoms where the Kingdom of Christ is set up whenas the twenty four crowned Elders do most certainly denote the pure Apostolick Christianity of those many Kings and Princes that will be contained within the Kingdom of Christ in the Millennium And setting one foot on the Sea and another on the Earth refers particularly to the vanquishing the ten-horned Beast that came out of the Sea ch 13. and the false Prophet or two-horned Beast that came out of the Earth v. 11. out of a Clay-pit for the Clay in Daniel signifies the Ecclesiastick regenerating party which two ch 19.20 are taken alive and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Vers. 3. The sounding of the seventh Trumpet is plainly not at the time of the roaring of the mighty Angel and therefore cannot be branched into the seven Thunders For after his roaring and the seven Thunders uttering their voices thereon and the other matters after declared there is a Regress to begin a new Prophecy of the Contents of the opened Book and to bring the same down to the seventh Trumpet also that the affairs of the six Trumpets and the opened Book viz. during the time of the Antichristian and worldly Powers being connected as synchronizing the seventh Trumpet might close both together The seven Thunders therefore seem symbolically to signifie a preparation of the Christian party against the great day of God at the seventh Trumpet as the three unclean spirits like Frogs are of the Antichristian party That as the latter bestir themselves with miraculous deceits to excite the Princes of the Earth to battel so the former signifies a miraculous power of spirit that shall exert it self in many Christian Heroes whereby they shall become exciters and conductors of the Christian party to the same and hereunto shall also become Boanerges's thundring out such powerfull convictive testimonies against the abominations of their Enemies and such denunciations of God's judgments against them for the same as were not meet before that time to be uttered and therefore were to be sealed up c. Some such meaning seems to be signified in Micah ch 5. v. 5 6. Ans. The more clearly to decide this point let us consider that the Apocalypse consists of three Prophecies The Prophecy of the seven Churches The Prophecy of the sealed Book and the Prophecy of the opened Book And that as it less derogates from their perfection to be conceived each of them to reach from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World viz. of the affairs of this Earth so of the first of them I have proved the same as also shown that the second commenceth from the beginning of the Church and that it reaches to the end of the world is plain from hence The whole time of the Book consists but of seven Seals and some things of the book reach to the end of the world therefore the seventh Seal must reach to the end of the world And the seventh Seal being divided into seven Trumpets the seventh Trumpet must reach to the end of the world Wherefore it is plain that the Prophecy of the sealed Book reaches to the end of the world And if this Reasoning will not serve I will anon confirm it by the Oath of the Angel But in the mean time let us farther note that the sounding of each of these seven Trumpets and the Visum of each Trumpet do synchronize or are of equal extent begin and end together As for example The Visum of the sixth Trumpet which contains the over-running of the Turks and the general Impenitency of the Western Christian World for their Idolatry c. c. 9.20 The sixth Trumpet I say is conceived to sound all the while this Visum continues Now the seventh Trumpet belonging to the Prophecy of the sealed Book it was before we come to the Prophecy of the opened Book immediately to succeed the sixth and to sound all the time its Visum is exhibited But it is manifest the roaring of the Angel immediately succeeds the sounding of the sixth Trumpet wherefore
There is a very gross and false Principle laid down in this Remark if I mistake not the Remarker's meaning Which is this That Christ's Kingdom cannot be there where things are ordered by any external or Political Rules or Laws in either Church or State but merely by the immediate guidance and motion of God's Spirit That the Spirit of God will assist in making these Laws and will actuate and invigorate both Rulers and People with a sensible and living relish of them to observe them and see them observed in those excellent times that are to come I willingly grant But that other Principle I look upon as proceeding either from a deep or high melancholly I know not which to call it or if the Remarker can bear it a Religious delirancy And it is a most enormous piece of Ingratitude against the Holy and Benign Providence of God to speak so vilifying of the Reformation as he does If the Reformed people as they are called had taken half the pains to spy out every one his own faults and sincerely with imploring the Divine assistence had endeavoured to mend them that they have taken to spy faults in Governours and Governments we should have had a glorious Church of it by this time But spiritual Pride has laid waste their Understandings The Kingdom of Christ can very well subsist without such Enthusiastick whimsies Consider Apoc. 12. v. 10. Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ. Which is the Triumph of Christianity over Paganism And yet the Primitive Christians lived under external Laws and Rules both Spiritual and Civil Vers. 19. This Verse ought to begin the next Chapter it being the beginning of the Prophecy of the opened Book The Temple of God was opened in Heaven when Christian Worship was received and autorized by the Emperours and the Ark of the Testament was seen in the Temple when Christian Laws became received by autority to become the Laws of the Empire and the lightnings and thunderings and voices signifie the great changes in the world by shaking the powers thereof that should be made thereby Ans. What a marvellous Remark is this that this verse is the beginning of the Prophecy of the opened Book Whenas it is said ch 10 11. upon Iohn's eating the opened Book Thou must prophesie again before many Peoples and Nations and Tongues and Kings The Vision of the Inner and the Outer Court the two Witnesses their slaughter and resurrection is it no Prophecy What an affected blindness is this not to see so plain a Truth Wherefore that Vision most certainly begins the Prophecy of the opened Book which Iohn is said to swallow and thereupon that he was to prophesie before many peoples c. Which words this Vision immediately follows And again what a violence is this to make the opening of the Temple of God in Heaven no part of this first Vision but to tear it off from the rest of the Vision and make it part of the following contrary to the autority of the best Copies and most approved Expositors of the Apocalypse There must be a strange prejudice that should hurry any one upon such an outrage it being also repugnant to what is said in the same verse which he thus unnaturally breaks off And there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an Earthquake and great Hail which is plainly a description of matters concerning the seventh Vial where ch 16. it is said upon the seventh Vial being poured out into the Air That there were voices and thunders and lightnings and an Earth-quake and a great Hail indeed the Hailstones being of a talent weight The concurrence of these five Phenomena voices thunderings lightnings Earthquake and a great Hail being found here and no where else in all the Apocalypse saving under the seventh Vial what can it be but an Indication of their synchronizing or signifying the same things So that this cannot be the beginning of the ensuing Vision or Prophecy but the conclusion of this comprized in this eleventh Chapter And still it is more impossible for as much as it is certain that the Vision beginning in the next Chapter containeth the Persecutions of the Primitive Church as we shall see anon whence all in the foregoing Chapter must necessarily belong to that first Vision And therefore this Interpretation of the Temple of God being opened in Heaven is exceeding extravagant For this comes to pass after the seventh Angel begins to sound which is a thousand and odd hundred years after the Christian Worship was received by the Emperours We may note also that the pretty Interpretation he makes of this passage depends upon a Political sense of Heaven which he rejected before and may better doe it now it being not likely to signifie any thing more than merely the place where the Temple was seen as Heaven is taken in the following Vision Where certainly it signifies not Symbolically but Topically or Locally viz. the Air from which Region the Thunders and Lightenings were seen as well as the Temple of God appeared there As it is also said chap. 16. that upon the Angels pouring his Vial into the Air there were thunderings and lightenings which confirms to us that Heaven here which the Remarker would interpret Symbolically signifies onely Topically and denotes the Air. Chap. 12. Vers. 1. THe Woman cloathed with the Sun signifies the Church her being established in a Heavenly station by the Emperours receiving the Faith the supreme power being signified by the Sun and so autorizing and defending the same by their autority and is not applicable to the Sun of Righteousness farther than he is owned by the Emperours or worldly Powers to be Prince of the World for she is beautified with this cloathing by her being in Heaven But she was before her exaltation to that station as much cloathed with the light of the Gospel or the Sun of righteousness and her Crown of twelve Stars does signifie as much as her being cloathed with the Sun in that sense Ans. That the Expositor's interpretation of the Woman travailing in Birth and pained to be delivered is true this alone may assure us viz. because it is very natural and such as is hit upon by all Interpreters in a manner I may add also necessary it being incredible that the Opened-book-prophecy prefiguring the fate of the Church should omit the state of Persecution the Primitive Christians were under Which if not here is no where figured out in the Opened-book-prophecy Whence it is plain that as the Vision of the measured Inner Court prefigures the purity and unapostatized state of the primitive Church so this of the Woman in the throes of Childbirth her sharp persecutions under the Pagan Emperours But now for the Remarker's exposition besides that it is tautological it presently repeating what was understood according to him by the Temple opened in Heaven that it is false appears 1. Because it deprives
Bloud of the Lamb so as to be exalted to the Heavenly station of ruling by the Man-child being caught up unto God and his Throne c. and obtained sentence against their Adversary to be cast out c. yet was that sentence executed as before by the War v. 7. Ans. See what head-strong prejudice will doe As if the Remarker shou'd say though this eleventh verse does imply that the War was betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutors yet it was not But it does most certainly demonstrate that the War was betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutors For the words are these For they overcame viz. the red Dragon by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto death What can be a more express description of Martyrdom than this This is not a description of a War of Emperours against Emperours with their armies in the field where they fight upon equal terms but of Martyrs with the word of their testimony passively undergoing for their witnessing to the truth what their cruel Persecutors would inflict upon them Vers. 12. The Dwellers in Heaven are bid to rejoice by reason of the salvation and strength and Kingdom of God and power of his Christ which was to come and therefore surely must signifie them to whom the same came whose particular concern this matter of joy was whereas Angels and Martyrs are no farther concerned in it than in general as they are concerned for the welfare of the Church Nor can those that were exalted by preferments to the Political Heaven of the Empire be concerned in it farther than they were in such a state as to have the coming of salvation and strength and the Kingdom of God fulfilled in them For it onely respects those that are in such a state who are called dwellers in Heaven in respect of the Heavenly station that they were exalted to thereby after the Devil and his Angels were cast out and the autority of Christ established as Prince of the World For then they became the joyfull company with the Lamb on Mount Sion singing the Song of the victory c. who as they are there markt on their foreheads for preservation so they are the worshippers in the Temple and Altar or the two Witnesses meted for the same purpose and are the same that are called dwellers in Heaven Ch. 13.6 and are thus distinguished from those dwellers on Earth against whom the woe is pronounced by reason of the power the Devil will have over them still after he is cast out Ans. The Expositor has taken in both senses of Heaven political and natural they being both sure and consistent one with another and the joy of Angels and Martyrs at the welfare of the Church is too great to be slighted or omitted But to ramble into mystical senses and reach out to the company of the Lamb on Mount Sion is not to interpret by rule but to trifle All Apostolick Christians were concerned in this victory of the Church and most of those in high place in the Empire turned Christian. But the foregoing verse so plainly determining this joy to the victory of the Church in the times of Constantine which shews that the Kingdom of God and power of his Christ was come already and is said to be so v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not yet to come it is a strange vagary to ramble from the Antemedial synchronals to the middle synchronals which undoubtedly the company on Mount Sion belong to And for the Remarker's groundless conceit touching the worshippers in the Temple and Thysiasterion the vanity thereof has been above sufficiently shewn And for the dwellers in Heaven Ch. 13. v. 6. we shall consider it when we come at it But for this present place if the Dwellers in Heaven be those in high degree the Dwellers on Earth must naturally signifie those in low degree or common people as the Expositor has interpreted it Vers. 15. Arianism cannot be here intended more than the Catholick doctrine they both running into extremes and each maintaining their cause with like fumous Animosity But by the Serpent's casting out water like a floud seems to be signified the frequent tumultuating of the common people and Magistrates that continued Pagans against the Christians whereby great outrages were oft committed But such Arians and Catholicks may be also included who under a cloak of Religion did violently prosecute each other out of enmity or self-interest to the great reproach and ruine of Religion Ans. The contention betwixt the Arians and Catholicks is most certainly included and is that which History most of all rings of and most highly concerned the Church and therefore could not be omitted in this Opened-book-prophecy which concerns the state of the Church As for any other contests less notable betwixt Christians and Pagans they were such as could not hazard the Woman's being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her being carried away with the sloud None but a contention betwixt the Christians themselves and such as shaked the very foundation of their Religion could put her in that hazard So that this is a very lank sense which the Remarker gives of this passage Vers. 16. The Earth that helped the woman by swallowing the sloud may signifie the sober stayd sort of people who being either seasoned with principles of Religion or being of peaceable spirits and obedient to authority did endeavour to asswage all such tumults and discountenance and oppose all such furious Animosities and were for composing all differences in a legal orderly and peaceable manner Ans. Undoubtedly that sloud of contention was the hot Contest betwixt the Arians and Catholicks Could therefore the soberer sort of common people Christians or Pagans compose this difference What an absurd conceit is this The Earth that swallows up this sloud does not signifie the common people here though sometimes it is a Symbol of them But the sense is onely this That this floud of contention was swallowed down and dried up by the help of Oecumenical Councils as some rapid Torrent is suck't down by the gaping of the Earth This is enough But farther curiosity might invite a man to fanfie that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence Oecumenical comes is alluded to or Earth in general put for clayish Earth which in Daniel is a symbol of the Ecclesiastical Power of which Councils did consist And then it fits obviously and exquisitely Chap. 13. Vers. 1. THE name of Blasphemy if it does intend Idolatry yet it hath a farther signification as All sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost c. Where the malignant reproach of God's Spirit evidencing it self in the works of our Saviour is said to be unpardonable blasphemy And the like reproaching of the holy Spirit manifesting it self in the Saints is likewise blasphemy though not of so heinous a
Issue of the 42 months war more than an hundred years in which expiration of the 42 months or 1260 days prophetical he surmises that Antichristianity will be utterly rooted out of the Church as if that would be the full completion of the Rising of the Witnesses this gave me occasion in the above-mentioned Arithmetica Apocalyptica to shew that Daniel's seven Semi-Times not the 1260 days nor 42 months is the true Authentick eventual measure to compute the fulfilling of the Medial-Visions by And I may here add that if the fulfilling of the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses and the fall of Babylon be enlarged to an utter ruine of the Antichristian Kingdom and advancing the Reformation throughout Christendom and to the extending the last blast of the second Wo-Trumpet or sixth Trumpet or the beginning of the seventh and consequently the three Triumphant expressions of Ioy till then for they must be contracted or enlarged together I having proved so plainly that all the Vials which are so many plagues upon Antichrist follow the sixth Trumpet and those Triumphs or Doxologies chap. 11. v. 15 16 17. chap. 14. v. 8. and chap. 15. v. 3. there will be no time for the pouring out these Vials till Antichrist be gone upon whom they are to be poured Which shews plainly that the success of the 42 months war with the Saints or Witnesses is not to be as it were continued from the Reformation till an universal Rising of the Witnesses or full and final Ruine of Babylon at the expiration of the 42 Prophetical months or 1260 years but that the Reformation past is the adequate success of that 42 months War or Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time which is equivalent thereto and the onely Authentick measure of the truth of the events of the Medial-Visions And forasmuch as many Authentick copies Apoc. 13.15 instead of to continue have to make war forty two months and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if you leave out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies here to act at pleasure prosperously freely and unmasterly or untrollably as judicious Interpreters have noted and since however the Beast cannot make war before he continue and that therefore his continuance at least commences as high as his making war and both are said to be 42 months it is plain hence that the Beast's continuance and his war do perfectly synchronize and as one ends so must the other at the same time But the Rising of the Witnesses is the issue and end of the 42 months war therefore the continuance of that state of the Beast who is said to continue 42 months ends at the Rising of the Witnesses or fall of the tenth part of the City Which is a plain intimation that those Interpreters are in the right that interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 5. if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be left out to act at pleasure with uncontrollableness and success Which state of the Beast ceased at the Rising of the Witnesses and fall of the tenth part of the City For then was he over-mastered in a large part of his Dominions and he could not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 act so freely and domineeringly as he did before So that all the pretence of prolonging the 42 months continuance of the Beast Apoc. 13.5 beyond the time of the issue of the 42 months war v. 7. and then at the 42 months end precisely taken of quite extinguishing his power plainly vanishes the 42 months onely pointing at the entireness of his reigning before he came into that broken condition and not at the time of his reign at large Of so great use is that little Piece for the preventing mistakes touching this matter And for Appendicula Apocalyptica by maintaining Mr. Mede's Interpretation of the Seals against Mr. Durham's as also his Symmetral Times of the Church antecedent to the Asymmetral it does plainly strengthen the Right of Monarchy and Episcopacy from the Holy Writ against such as are otherwise affected And this is all that I have to say by way of Preface touching the whole Book nor shall add any thing more to detain thee from the perusal thereof but my prayers that thou maist reade to thy own edification and that what thou readest may either beget or encrease in thee a sober mind and sensible of thy duty to God and to thy Prince and to all that are in Autority under him whether in Church or State Farewell The ERRATA correct thus  For Reade PAg. 3. lin 17. Seraphimus Seraphinus Ibid. l. 18. Peresius Pererius P. 7. l. 33. now not P. 12. l. 3. his this P. 33. l. 20. from being for being P. 44. l. 10. Seat Seal P. 50. l. 28. regenerating degenerating P. 51. l. 10. Trumpet might Trumpet might P. 59. l. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. 65. l. 20. toils evils P. 67. l. 1. world word P. 83. l. 30. most of those most of all those P. 103. l. 23. Primity Primitiae P. 117. l. 24. Vails Vials P. 129. l. 4. Vial-Angel first Vial-Angel P. 130. l. 20. game gain P. 139. l. 2. partly Party P. 143. l. 29. in the is the P. 161. l. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. 176. l. 30. Motiminous Moliminous P. 238. l. 19. many main P. 274. l. 26. Arme Army P. 325. l. 24. Aetymological Etymological P. 351. l. 30. rom from P. 368. l. 31. Synopsis of Synopsis P. 383. l. 33. to the as the P. 410. l. 1. seven seventh P. 412. l. 22. why has why has not AN ANSWER To Several REMARKS UPON Dr. Henry More HIS APOCALYPSIS APOCALYPSEOS Written By S. E. MENNONITE And Published in English by The ANSWERER Together with his ANSWERS thereunto JAM III. 13 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by M. F. for Walter Kettilby 1684. REMARKS UPON APOCALYPSIS APOCALYPSEOS Chap. I. Vers. 4. BOTH here and vers 11. the direction to the seven Churches is rendred To the Catholick Church distinguished into seven Successions and so no literal sense but onely a prophetical sense regarded in the Epistles Ans. It was no part of the Expositor's scope to meddle with the literal sense but to give a continued coherent prophetical sense onely of this whole book of Prophecies the Apocalypse Ver. 6. Kings and Priests are doubtlesly to be taken here as in ch 5. v. 10. And hast made us to our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign on the Earth So that the sense here given is a straining of the Text from a proper literal to a forced metaphorical sense Ans. The sense is very easie unforced and exceeding usefull and a fit caution against such hot and heady Saints who would be presently up and reigning on the Earth before they have attained to the Kingdom of Heaven within them and have become Masters of their own Earthly minds Reigning upon Earth seems here in the Text on purpose omitted to give way
come c. Now therefore say I as these five Intervals represent the state of the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church so plainly amply and lively so does the Philadelphian Interval the succeeding state thereof where is not onely no Idolatry to be tempted to nor any Martyrdom for refusing to comply therewith but also no spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing but it is entirely holy and without blemish This is the description of the sixth Interval or Succession of States in the Church Catholick and Apostolick And therefore I demand here of any man that has any spark of judgment and sagacity left in him what time this can be but such that includes in it the Ierusalem State and blessed Millennial Empire of Christ which cannot be more pure perfect and glorious than this State of the Philadelphian Church Which is a Prophetical description of some state of the Church as is acknowledged on both hands and which is to succeed the Sardian and also that there will be a blessed Millennium on Earth Wherefore this consideration alone might assure us of this truth But when there is farther added That on him that overcomes that is on the Philadelphian Church I will write the name of the City of my God which is new Ierusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from my God c. Can it be any thing but affected stupour or some strange invincible prejudice a Prophetical sense being allow'd that any one should doubt but that the times of the New Ierusalem and Millennial Empire of Christ are included in the Philadelphian Interval which was the thing to be demonstrated Vers. 20 21. Christ's coming in to sup with them that open to his knocking does signifie his receiving them to his Marriage-supper And his granting to them that overcome to sit down on his Throne signifies their reigning with him in the Millennium And these being two promises to the same purpose to be fulfilled in the Millennial State and being made to the victorious in the Laodicean Church does manifest the same to be in a militant state precedent to the Millennium Nor is the degeneracy of the Laodicean Church competent to the Millennial state of which there 's no account that there should be any such change in it nor is it imaginable how it should it being established in that glorious state of righteousness as is described and having all occasion of evil removed by the Devil 's being bound and all things being made new And though he be to be loosed again yet it is not to deceive or work any change in those that belong to the new Ierusalem but to seduce the Nations about it who through his deceit are to be stirred up in enmity against it though before they brought their glory into it and walkt in the light of it Ans. To pervert the genuine sense of this Prophecy here the Remarker interprets that Politically that he should interpret Mystically or Spiritually as he has in other places interpreted that Spiritually which should have been expounded Politically So sinuous and serpentine a thing is beloved falshood From v. 15. to v. 20. The declension of the Philadelphian state after the Millennium in their remisness in pursuing spiritual gifts and graces and breathing after the living image of Christ in themselves and in their propagating of his Kingdom is prefigured or predescribed the Church being depressed then into a new denomination of Laodicean and they sharply rebuked and terribly threatned if they do not repent of these immoralities or Dispiritualities if I may so speak And thus continuedly in the same Moral sense he still farther upbraids them that though he by the searching rebukes of his spirit knocks at the door of their Consciences to awaken them out of their remisness and litherly formalness yet they are insensible of his call being satisfied to celebrate the Lord's Supper without idolatry still indeed as it was in the Popish Mass but also without any breathing after the fruits thereof our living union with Christ and spiritual Communion with him and yet he tells them for their comfort as well as reproves them that if they will open to him through constant obedience to his dictates that they shall fully enjoy his communion and be in a truly living union of Spirit with him which is the true meaning and scope of the Lord's Supper and which will recover them again into that wholsome state the Philadelphians stuck to universally in the former Interval That this is thus Spiritually or Morally to be understood and not Politically as the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is Apoc. 19.7 8 9. is farther manifest in that it is said If any one hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me viz. at his home they will sup together there which therefore is no invitation of the party abroad to sup Wherefore what a fond thing is this to apply Christ's coming into our hearts and Souls and entertaining there spiritual Communion with us such as is signified by the Communion of the Lord's Supper unto that Political sense of things the Jews adjoining themselves to the Church of Christ and acknowledging him their Messias their Head and Husband in the above cited place This is enormously to strain and pervert the sense of Scripture As is also that conceit of interpreting to sit down on his throne of their reigning with him in the Millennium For being there is no mention here of such conflicts and persecutions and martyrdoms in this Laodicean state to which an earthly deliverance and victory and an earthly crown and dominion was promised in the Smyrnean Pergamenian and Thyatirian Intervals nor any mention of the word of Patience c. the throne that is here promised must be of another nature that is a place or seat in Heaven as universally it is interpreted by Expositors And being the conflict the Laodiceans are here exhorted to is the subduing their carnal minds and affections and through mortification to be renewed unto the Heavenly image of Christ by the spirit of life in the new birth which is the true and onely method of attaining to this Heavenly Throne or Crown of glory it is very unnatural to understand it of any other Throne than that But they being roused thus up by the exhortation of Christ to shake off that dulness and torpor of spirit and dead formality and carnality and to be enlivened again into a quick sense of their duty by virtue of their Regeneration into his living image that of St. Paul to the Ephesians ch 2. will be fulfilled in them When we were dead in our sins he hath quickened us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit there is the promised Throne together in Heavenly places in Christ Iesus And that it is an Heavenly seat or Throne that passage in the promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does naturally insinuate according to that in
who yet had no Tempter from without for there were no Devils that needed to be tied up before the Angels fell Wherefore as to that point they had as much advantage as the Philadelphian Church but exceeding much more in being Spirit and not Flesh. But the Philadelphian Church will be mortal flesh as other sons of Adam Wherefore in long process of time they may well degenerate something even before the loosing of the Devil out of Prison And when he is loose again it is but a precarious surmise to think he can act onely upon the Nations that are not in communion with the Church For when he is loose he is as he was before he was imprisoned Nor is there any ground to restrain the word Nations to those onely that are not in visible communion with the Church but it may very naturally signifie that multitude of Nations and People in the World whether of the Church or not And it is a rash presumption to suppose that the Nations that walk in the light of the new Ierusalem are not converts to the Christian Faith forasmuch as they are said to be saved or the Kings of the Earth that bring their glory into it that they are not whole Kingdoms converted to the Christian belief as that auspicious acclamation foretells that the Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ c. Wherefore we see that there is not the least shadow of reason but that the Prophecy of the seven Churches is a Prophecy of the state of the Church distinguished into seven Intervals from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World Which may the better assure us that the two Prophecies the one of the sealed Book the other of the opened Book are so likewise Chap. 4. Vers. 3. THE pure transparent Iaspar stone is an Emblem of Holiness and the red Sardin stone of Iustice and therefore he that sate on the Throne being like unto them does signifie the Holiness and Righteousness of God in executing of Judgment and so does better sute with the occasion of the Vision it being a Representation of God on his Throne of Judicature as Judge of the World than to make the firmness of the one to signifie the strength or omnipotency of God and the red fiery colour of the other his piercing Activity c. But indeed it is not of a fiery red but of a dead red colour Ans. God is not represented here on his Throne of Judicature but simply in his Chair of State as I may so speak It is the Throne of the Divine Majesty as Creator and Governor of the World and more peculiarly of his Church according to that Doxology v. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Wherefore Grotius judiciously notes that the Iasper does signifie invictam Dei potentiam which we may briefly call his radical Omnipotency or rather the necessity of Existence of his indiscernible essence And the Sardius which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to in Hebrew so called from its redness vim Dei activam qualis in igne est They are his very words on the Text. And Zegerus tells us that Tychonius Primasius and Beda all three make the Sardius to have the colour of fire To which you may add Victorinus Rupertus Richardus and Lyranus who all give the signification of fire to the Sardius And Aretas expresly says in Cornelius à Lapide Sardius quia sanguinei ignei coloris est igneam i. e. sublimissimam efficacissimam Dei naturam significat But what the Remarker objects that the Sardius is but of a dead red colour is not true of the best sort and least true in the appearance of the Vision Where though the colour was not so brisk as that of a flame for there are three differences noted here both in Greek and Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Pruna Flamma Splendor yet it might very well be like that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pruna Which sutes best with the Vision in Ezekiel which answers to this and is noted in the Exposition it self Vers. 4. These Elders are onely Spiritual Rulers in the same sense as they and the four Beasts ch 5. are said to be Rulers For they come together in thanksgiving from being redeemed from the Earth and made Kings and Priests c. So that the reigning here signified is such as is common to all Saints and therefore it 's a gross perverting of Scripture to appropriate it to worldly Princes Ans. The Song of Thanksgiving is this ch 5. v. 9. For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation What wonderfull weak arguing is this Because the Kings out of every Nation are redeemed by the bloud of Christ and publickly confess the same therefore they are no more Kings of any Nation than the common people that are so redeemed As if true Christianity took away all subordination of Ranks and Degrees in the world Why then have they not all Crowns if they be all Kings alike or why has any so Who grosly perverts Scripture now And what does the Remarker mean by worldly Princes If he means worldly-minded Princes this contradicts the Scene of things here which is a Representation of the Millennial Happiness and Holiness upon Earth and therefore these four and twenty crowned Elders or Monarchs are not supposed worldly-minded If he makes them worldly Princes because they are still in the world that is on the Earth that 's a contradiction to Christ's Millennial reign on Earth The Millennium must be in Heaven then not on Earth If subordination of Ranks and Degrees from the Prince to the Pezant make them worldly Princes the Polity in Heaven is worldly For there is a subordinate Hierarchy of Angels there and Archangels of Powers Principalities Dominions and Thrones Colos. 1.6 and so the Millennial Reign will be no where O but it is said in the following verse And hast made us to our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign upon the Earth Ans. This questionless alludes to that which God commanded Moses to tell the children of Israel touching him Exod. 19.6 And ye shall be to me a Kingdom of Priests which is called a Royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2.9 and the Apocalypse more distinctly styles the true Church in those happy days Kings and Priests But as under Moses the Nation being called a Kingdom of Priests it did not confound the distinction betwixt Priest and People but Aaron was the High Priest and had other Priests under him And Moses was King in Iesurun and had the heads of the Tribes under him so the four and twenty Elders and the four Beasts the whole body of the Church joining together in this Doxology Thou hast made us Kings and Priests and we
and so thoroughly enlightening them with the Judgments of his Truth that they shall not need the light of the Sun or Moon viz. of those humane Laws and Policies c. So that Time shall be no more and the Mystery of God shall be finished does here answer to that great voice from the Throne at the pouring forth of the seventh Vial viz. It is done And to the same voice from him that sate on the Throne ch 21. who also there says Behold I make all things new viz. The Mystery of God being finished by the former things passing away a new state of things is to be introduced as is there after described Ans. At the expiration of the sixth Trumpet it is not improper to give notice that there will be no more time than what is contained in the seventh because the seventh is both contiguous to the sixth and reacheth to the end of the world as was noted above But that Time signifies Political Order and Government is a private precarious Notion of the Remarker without any ground or example in Scripture or the Onirocriticks And for his reason for which he imagines it signifies so it is over-lax Time indeed is divisible into Ages Ages into Years Years into Months Months into Days c. But what greater matter of order in this than in the dividing and subdividing of any other quantity Or if there be how does this Typifie Political Orders and Laws more than in Husbandry Mechanicks c. So that it signifying all things under the Sun done in any order or method as well as Political Laws and Government when this Time here spoken of shall be no more we may all put up our Pipes Tradesmen Husbandmen Students in whatever Arts and Faculties and fall asleep with our fingers in our mouths unless a spirit waken us that will drive us to act without order or government which yet can be no Apostolick Spirit because the Apostle's Precept is 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in order How much better were it Sapere ad sobrietatem than to entertain such high-slown conceits as these In these best times undoubtedly there will be humane Laws and Polities that is Laws and Polities constituted by men but perfectly conformable and complyable with the Laws of God and dictates of his Holy Spirit and his guidance will assist in making them To fansie an Aziluthick State on Earth whenas a Briathick Constitution is consistent with the State of Heaven is a too too extravagant surmise As for It is done and All things are made New Here would be rather undoing than doing and nothing would be made new No new Heaven nor new Earth which certainly has a Political sense if there were no Polity in this renewed state And the Polity will be constituted by men though by the guidance of the Holy Spirit which will invigorate also both Governours and People to support the said Laws and to live according thereunto Vers. 7. The saving here is a great straining of the Text to uphold a crazy Notion For whereas it is said in the Notes on the Verse That the sense is exceeding imperfect unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saving or except the common sense given of it is very clear and this new imposed sense so exceeding imperfect as to be really false And the several places cited to prove that it may be taken in this sense is no proof that it is taken so here Nor do those Citations prove that it is so taken in them For the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or But will signifie the same with saving or except c. Ans. The Remarker here is very Magisterial and somewhat Scoptical But the Expositor is crazy neither in his notion nor the proof of it For no man that understands Greek but must acknowledge that our English Translation is out in rendring those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus When he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God should be finished For it leaves out the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet makes but imperfect sense rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be finished whenas to make the sense perfect it should be rendred shall be finished but that would ill agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God shall be finished That is the sense our English Translation aims at but then it should not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being left out which yet is intollerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be rendred unsutably to the words following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut Evangelizavit as he told the joyfull news to his servants the Prophets Wherefore this Mystery of God containing that joyfull news it is very hard to conceive it not to contain the new Ierusalem and the Millennial reign of Christ. Which Mystery is not finished at the beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet but rather at the end thereof But now render but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saving as it certainly does signifie sometimes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall sound as it naturally signifies and all will run as glib as can be according to the most approved copies of the New Testament set out by Isaac Casaubon and Dr. Winterton which is the Cambridge Greek New Testament thus That there shall be time no more saving in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall sound and the Mystery of God be finished Which shews that the sounding of the seventh Trumpet will reach to the end of the World But now according to these Authentick Greek Copies if you render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But not Saving or Except The sentence will not be sense thus That there shall be time no more But in the days of the seventh Angel when he shall sound or begin to sound and the Mystery of God be perfected What then what of all that one may well say This plainly is not perfect sense to any one that understands sense unless you take away the Colon and take but in the same sense that except has which is all that I contend for Wherefore it being so plain that the sentence is imperfect sense unless you understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and But to signifie the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Except if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does sometimes signifie so it plainly follows it signifies so here This is more than enough to this Remark I will onely here note which I intimated above on v. 3. That this Oath of the mighty Angel That there shall be time no more saving in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel plainly imports that the sounding of the seventh Trumpet reaches to the end of the World or of the Scene
the Opened-book-prophecy of any Vision that sets out the persecutions of the primitive Church which is as notable and considerable as any thing that is prefigured in the whole Apocalypse and so makes the Opened-book-prophecy defectuous 2. It supposes which is false that Heaven in this Vision signifies Symbolically when it signifies onely Topically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had signified Symbolically it would have run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. And there appeared a great wonder a Woman in Heaven cloathed with the Sun c. if being seen in Heaven had signified her Political state or condition Which it does no more than it does concerning the red Dragon v. 3. who is not said to be seen in Heaven to set out his Political condition for that his seven Crowns sufficiently shew namely that he was in the highest Political state but onely signifies Topically and declares in what place Iohn saw this wonderfull sight and so it is of the Woman being seen there 3. The Remarker's interpretation here and his exposition of the Temple appearing in Heaven contradicts the Text. For he supposes in both the Christian Religion to have become the Religion of the Emperours and the Christian Laws the Laws of the Empire Whence it is plain that the Woman cloathed with the Sun in his sense is past her Throes This is point-blank against what is declared in the Vision that the Woman cloathed with the Sun being with child cried travelling in birth and pained to be delivered whenas the being in Heaven in the Remarker's sense implies she was delivered already Wherefore it being so plain from hence that the 19th Verse of the precedent Chapter is not the beginning of this Vision it is manifest that it ends the former and that the Earthquake and great hail is the same with that of the seventh Vial And consequently from what has been already noted here on this Chapter and what deliver'd in my answers to the Remarks on the former that the Vision comprised in that Chapter commenceth with the beginning of the Church and ends with the seventh Vial. It is also plain already that the Vision begun in this 12th Ch. commenceth from the beginning of the Church and endeth not till the Vision of the Wine-press which closeth the 14. Chapter and which the Remarker himself cannot deny but synchronizes with the seventh Vial. So that the 12.13 and 14. Chapters contain one entire Vision consisting of several parts synchronal to the Vision contained in the 11. Ch. And the affairs represented in this 12. Ch. reach unto the Woman's flight into the Wilderness where she is to be for a time and times and half a time and to the emerging of the healed Beast out of the Sea who makes war against her seed for 42 months the same with a Time and Times and half a Time and with the 1260 days of the mournfull Prophesying of the Witnesses Which time and things answer to one another those of the 13. Chapter to those of the 11. as the time of the affairs of this 12. Chapter to the measured Inner Court there in Chap. 11. And now forasmuch as there is a War betwixt the Beast and the Soldiers of the Lamb in the 13. Chapter the mustering of these Soldiers takes up part of the 14. Chapter and the description of their condition which Soldiers therefore synchronize with the War mentioned in the 13. Chapter And the voice of the first Angel is a menacing admonition to the Bestians for their Idolatry threatning to them the ill success of their War against the Saints at last Which comminatory voice of this first Angel commenceth for ought I can see with the fifth Trumpet and extends it self to the Western as well as Eastern Empire but is restrained to the time of the 42 months war But the second Angel tells the actual success thereof Babylon is fallen is fallen Which answers to the fall of the City in the 11. Chapter which is the success of the War there betwixt the Beast and the Witnesses But what follows the Fall of the City in the 11. Chapter and the fall of Babylon in the 14. reacheth into the times which commence with the seventh Trumper and end with the seventh Vial. So that there being such a perpetual correspondence of Time and Things betwixt the Vision comprised in the 11. Chapter and this integral Vision contained in these three next it is manifest they are two Synchronal Visions And this I thought was a seasonable place to represent them to be such Vers. 2. This travailing in pain is not the suffering of the Primitive Persecutions but her labouring to bring forth the Man-child that was to rule all Nations that as she was exalted to that Heavenly station by the Emperours receiving the Faith so the Devil might be cast down from the same and so outed of his Dominion which he held thereby whereby the autority of Christ might be established in Heaven as Prince of the World Ans. This travailing in pain must be understood of the Primitive Persecutions For after the Christian Religion had become the Religion of the Empire which was upon the victories of Constantine in whom the Man-child which the Woman brought forth who was to rule all Nations viz. those numerous Nations contained in the Roman Empire was caught up unto God and his Throne that is was invested in the imperial Throne the Woman that is the Apostolick Church was freed from her Throes The Remarker seems to interpret without any regard to History And here he harps again upon the same mistaken string making Heaven signifie Symbolically when it here onely signifies Topically Vers. 7. The War here does not signifie the conflict between the primitive Christians and their Persecutors For the Christians were not then in such a station as to war in Heaven but the War here on their side bears the same sense with the War of their Adversaries viz. the Devil being sentenced to be cast out on the Man-child's being caught up unto God and his Throne the War here was to put that sentence in execution and it was betwixt the Christian Emperours and the Heathen Emperours and also the Tyrants who in favour of Paganism rose up against the Christian Emperours by which War at length the power of the Devil or Pagan Empire was wholly abolished Ans. The War does signifie the conflict betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutors And the reason alledged against it is very vain as if Heaven signified Symbolically and not Topically which most certainly it does as Grotius has also noted and renders in coelo in aere And when the Man-child was caught up unto God and his Throne the Devil was not onely sentenced to be cast out but was actually cast out Nor was the Man-child taken unto the Throne of God till the Christian Emperour had overcome the Pagan Vers. 11. Though the Primitive Christians did overcome their Accuser by the
degree Which kind of blasphemy seems here to be chiefly intended Also our Saviour says to the Philadelphian Church I know the blasphemy of those that say they are Iews c. viz. Spiritual Jews or Christians The belying the Truth and Righteousness of God in believers in making that to be it which is not is there called blasphemy And so this Beast is v. 5. said to speak great things and blasphemies and v. 6. to blaspheme the name of God and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven whereby seems to be signified his enmity against the Saints with whom v. 7. he makes war but doth v. 6. discharge his wrath against them with blasphemous scoffs and reproaches to overwhelm them with contempt c. Of which see v. 6. Ans. That the Name of Blasphemy does chiefly if not onely intend Idolatry is the current sense of Expositors Papists and Reformed And Blasphemy being an Iconisme of Idolatry that sense is more probable for its being Iconistical the Genius of the Apocalyptick style being such as to signifie things Iconistically rather than plainly See Blasphemy in the Expositor's Alphabet of Iconisms Moreover this Vision sets out the state of the visible Church which visible state of things in the Church is the main object of those Visions of the Apocalypse that concern the Church as this Prophecy of the opened Book does wherefore the Vision in this 13 th Chapter comprizing those times of the Church wherein she was so visibly apostatized into Idolatry some Iconistical passages or other must particularly indicate that nor the Vision be content with that more slight and unobservable intimation by calling the two Beasts that appear here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which does more palpably denote their cruelty than Idolatry and therefore there is this farther Intimation and plainer in saying there was the name of Blasphemy on his seven Heads and that his mouth spoke great things and blasphemies v. 5. Where great things being joined with blasphemies it is a plain Indication that blasphemy here has no such dwindling sense as the Remarker would put upon it And lastly that it does not signifie Blasphemy in the Remarker's sense viz. reproaching and speaking evil of the Saints may appear from hence because this Title of Blasphemy is set in common upon all the seven Heads whenas several of them as the Kings and Decemviri had nothing to doe with the Saints or any of the Church of God Nay six of these Heads were gone before the Saints which the Remarker means were on the Stage and so had no occasion to blaspheme them But that they are all seven Idolatrous Heads is unquestionable with those that understand sense Wherefore Blasphemy and to blaspheme in several other places of Scripture signifying Idolatry as well as here as is abundantly made out by Mr. Mede and Peganius upon the place see also the Alphabet of Iconisms it seems to me an homoursome business in the Remarker that he should balk the Exposition of that excellent Interpreter Mr. Mede and take up with one so little approvable with any unless with some conceited touchy souls that fansie themselves Saints before they be so and love separation and cry out Stand off I am more holy than thou that when they are sharply though justly reproved for their real Hypocrisie factiousness and other vices and miscarriages they may imagine themselves to be blasphemed by the Beast or his Worshippers and so be the more confirmed in their presumed Saintship and in all the enormities that attend such a delusion So little edifying is such a precarious Exposition as this There wanted no prophetical Monitions or Prefigurations that wicked men will speak ill of good men from that Antipathy which is betwixt them But that the pretended Church of Christ still professing Christianity and declaring against Idols should really become Idolatrous and establish Idolatries by a Law to be able to predict this was becoming the Prescience of God and to predict it his Goodness it being so usefull for the Reformation of the Church There is nothing more that is material in this Remark unless I should take notice of that Assertion which seems to insinuate that mens speaking evil of the fruits of God's Spirit appearing in good men though of a private and ordinary quality not special Missionaries from God as Christ and his Apostles were nor publick persons or Grandees in Government that reproaching such is termed Blasphemy in Scripture Which I dare say is false let him search all the English Bible and find a place if he can And if so then this Interpretation of the Remarker is quite out of doors Vers. 2. The Dragon's power here given to the Beast is the same with the Beast's power v. 8. Over all that dwell on the Earth whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb c. viz. All who by entrance into life by faith do not attain to become members of Christ's Kingdom are shut out under the powers of darkness and so become subject not onely to Idolatrous delusions but to cruel bondage also c. The Dragon's seat and great Autority is not the Imperial Crown for that he lost being cast out of Heaven but it 's his dominion over those dwellers on Earth whose names are not written in the book of life c. Which is like the Dominion which a Rebel may gain over a great part of the Prince's Subjects that revolt from him though the Prince keep his Crown Ans. The Dragon's power here in this verse does not signifie the same that the Beast's power in the 7 th and 8 th verses For here the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies Military forces and what they are the Expositor has explained And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used here also and rendred Autority shews that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Military forces or else it were a needless tautology Indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may well be parallel to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in v. 7. and explained thereby For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this great Autority is said v. 7. to be an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power or autority over Kindreds Tongues and Nations and that is a great Autority indeed saving that there is made that diminution from it It does not reach those to make them submit to the unlawfull edicts of it whose names are writ in the book of life of the Lamb. That the Dragon could not give the Imperial Throne to the Beast because he was cast out of it himself is wittily observed But you must understand he surrendred it not willingly but because he could not keep it It signifies onely that the Beast succeeded the Dragon and that is imputed to the Dragon as done by him which was done onely upon occasion of the condition he was in by a Zoopoeia of the second kind But the furthering of
labourers which were appointed out of the Temple nor the appointers of them were such as entred the Sanctum Sanctorum and approached the Throne c. And Mr. Mede expresly interprets this Angel's coming out of the Temple of the prayers of the Church in general as that from the Thysiasterion of the prayers more especially of Martyrs and Confessors How largely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies may appear from what is said Psalm 29.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in his Temple does every man speak of his glory But it is not for every man to enter into the Sanctum much less into the Sanctum Sanctorum The whole Fabrick is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being the Habitation of God as the Notation of the word implies And Iohn 2.19 where our Saviour says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Destroy this Temple the Jews presently understood it of the whole fabrick that included the Courts which makes them answer Forty six years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was this Temple a building c. Wherefore it is plain there is ground enough for the Temple representing the Church of God the Congregation of God or his people using solemnly to be gathered thither And our Saviour calls it the house of Prayer This Angel therefore coming out thence and speaking to the other Angel sitting on the cloud representing Christ to put in his sickle signifies whitherto the prayers of the Church tended Vers. 16. The reaping of him that fate on a cloud may signifie the ascending of the Witnesses in a cloud or rather the consequences thereof For their ascent will be the pitching of the Thrones for the Ancient of days to sit or a commencement of that judgment that is to be given to the Saints of the most high to take away the Dominion of the Beast So that the reaping here will be the separating of the people of God from communion with the Beast to associate themselves with the Risen-witnesses and to fulfill the Monition Come out of her my people c. Ans. Is he then that sits on the cloud the Risen-witnesses It 's pity but there had appeared another with him to make them two The description imports that it is Christ himself according to the usual sense of Interpreters even that son of man that comes in the clouds of Heaven and the Ancient of days gives him the Kingdom which he augmenteth here by this Harvest of the converted Iews this immediately preceding the Vintage which synchronizeth and is in a manner the same with the seventh Vial see Mr. Mede and with the battel of the Rider on the white Horse ch 19. which there immediately ensues the Marriage of the Lamb which in all reason is understood of the calling of the Jews The Rising of the Witnesses is certainly before the first Vial but this affair synchronizeth with the sixth So much out is the Remarker here Vers. 18. Here the Angel that hath power over the fire his crying to him that had the sharp sickle is said to be for vengeance on the cruel Murtherers and Idolaters but the vengeance taken by thrusting in the sharp sickle is said more especially to respect the converting them which is a strange vengeance And the making the mention of fire here to be because of the Martyrdoms inflicted by it is not sense But the Angel is said to have power over fire in respect of his executing God's wrath by causing fierce and bloudy wars consuming like a fire c. In which sense fire is used in the first Trumpet and the Censer of fire cast upon the Earth before the Trumpets And so likewise here the Angel with a sharp sickle being to reap the Vine of the Earth viz. to gather the Antichristian party to battel is odered thereto by the Angel that had power over fire viz. who as our Saviour came not to bring peace but division and to send a fire on Earth and as the Rider on the red Horse in the second seal had power to take peace from the Earth c. had power to cause such divisions and commotions as should incense and stir men up to the said battel c. Ans. Upon those words which had power over the fire Peganius writes thus Who in the Priesthood says he of the Heavenly Tabernacle was to have care of the fire upon the Altar whence now should be kindled the fire of vengeance Which is a sense no way inconsistent with mine viz. That this Altar is named in relation to the Martyrdoms under the Papal Tyranny and the fire the rather because their Martyrdom was much by fire they were burnt as Holocausts to the pride and covetousness of the Papacy And Peganius himself upon those words precedent And another Angel came out from the Altar where the souls of the Martyrs says he were kept and whose bloud the Lord would avenge at this time But the fire of the Altar does not signifie wrath and vengeance simply of it self as appears from Esay ch 6. where a live-coal taken from the Altar by a Seraphin and put to the mouth of the Prophet is a sign of his iniquity being taken away and of his sin being purged which is not vengeance but mercy And the use of this fire on the Altar was to burn their Sacrifices which were to propitiate God's wrath not to kindle it Wherefore these things being considered what a severe sentence is this of the Remarker to say That the making of mention of fire here is because of the Martyrdom inflicted by it is not sense For it is more perfect and adequate sense than the other The Altar and the fire that burnt their Holocausts compared with the burning of the Martyrs which the Pontifician Power burnt as so many Holocausts to their Pride Avarice and Cruelty being a more proper and efficacious Incentive to pray for vengeance against them than merely the heat of fire signifying that way which may as well signifie the warmth of mercy the ardour of love and zeal for the conversion of men as vengeance Nor does the fire of Incense Apoc. 8. of it self signifie wrath and vengeance else prayer which the fume of Incense signifies could onely be for vengeance which is extremely absurd But the coals of Incense there are determined to that sense because the prayers of God's people had been uttered that way And the Angel that had the care of the fire on the Altar fire signifying the flames of holy zeal and love as well as the heat of wrath and revenge may call to him that has the sharp sickle according to both these senses out of wrath to destroy one party and out of love and mercy to convert the other For that seems to be an affected mistake in the Remarker that he makes the Expositor to allot both vengeance and conversion to the same party So that the Objection is a mere Cavil Vers. 19. Here is likewise a strange Wine-press of the Wrath of God viz. Mens being pressed in
respect the preceding plagues of the opened Book viz. those said to be inflicted by the Witnesses and also by the two precedent Angels to the third who is Monitor of the Vials Ans. The Beast here is most certainly the Roman Hierarchy or two-horned Beast because v. 2. the Victors are said to have got the victory over the Beast and over his Image and it is plain chap. 13. That the Two-horned Beast was the Maker of this Image but it farther follows And over the number of his name which also plainly belongs to the two-horned Beast And as for the seven last plagues in which is filled up the wrath of God against the said Beast which suffered considerably in the Rising of the Witnesses none of them seven can be called the last which end before the sixth Those plagues must certainly expire before any of the seven begin in respect of which all seven are to be called the last plagues This is pitifull tearing and forcing of things to serve a fond Hypothesis that will not hold water Lastly The second Wo-Trumpet being mentioned in the Opened-book-prophecy is a plain Indication that as to order of time and succession of things the seven last wofull plagues in the last Wo-Trumpet must succeed the second Wo-Trumpet and consequently the fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses though all the first six Trumpets belong to the Sealed-book-prophecy as does also the Interval of the seventh And as for the plagues inflicted by the Witnesses they were during their 1260 days prophesying ch 11.6 and therefore the same with the six first plagues there being no other actually inflicted plagues prefigured but they And for the two Angels they are no Inflicters of plagues but Advertisers touching God's judgments to come or already fallen on the Idolaters Vers. 2. The Sea of glass here is the same with that ch 4.6 and therefore hath respect to nothing farther than what it there signifies And to make standing on the Sea of glass to signifie standing on the shore of that Sea is a great straining of the Text Nor was there any such deliverance of the Protestants or overthrow of the Pope by the Reformation as to make any Parallel between that and the Jews deliverance and Pharaoh's overthrow Nor was the overthrow that was then given to the Pope by the doctrine of Iustification that being but one particular of the Reformation but the main of his overthrow then was the casting off his Supremacy Ans. That the Sea of glass is not the same with that in ch 4.6 though it may be also alluded to is plain in that it there is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Lamps are also said to be and therefore within the N 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For indeed the whole scene of things some whereof according to the Mosaick Position are without the N 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are there represented as within and that not without a Mystery it signifying that the Representation is of the state of the Church reduced to the most early Primitive Apostolick Purity But the Sea of glass here is seen by Iohn before the opening of the N 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Temple was opened v. 5. Which does put it more out of doubt that the Red Sea congealed as it were into two Walls of glass as Zeno Veronensis glosses on Exod. 14.22 that the Israelites might pass over the yellow or fulvid Sand betwixt is chiesly alluded to and it being called also the Song of Moses the servant of God doth farther ratifie it And indeed I meet with no Expositor Papist nor Protestant old nor modern but agree that Moses his song at the overthrow of the Aegyptians at the Red Sea is alluded to Wherefore the Remarker's refractariness to so evident a Truth is very remarkable Nor is it any straining of the Text to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 standing upon the shore of the Sea For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as much as prope or juxta and therefore if it be near or hard by the Sea where is it but on the shore And that it is understood of the Red Sea all Interpreters agree as I noted before But the Remarker it seems is wiser than them all But I hope he will not be wiser than the writer of the Apocalypse who compares the State of the true Church under the Tyranny of the Papacy to the Israelites servitude in Aegypt ch 11. Wherefore our being freed from this bondage may very well be parallel'd to the Iews deliverance and Pharaoh's overthrow And lastly the doctrine of Iustification though it was not the onely Instrument yet it was a main one The comfort whereof being so zealously and frequently instilled into the minds of both People and Potentates and that great drudgery and bondage under the Pope being held up by the contrary doctrine in that Church this proved a notable Engine to out the Pope not onely of his Supremacy but to free the people of all those superstitious Burthens they groaned under before Vers. 5. The a Harpers victory over the Beast does not signifie the Protestants victory but the victory of those sealed and measured for preservation against whom the Antichristian Powers could not prevail b The Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony in Heaven is not the same with the Temple opened in Heaven wherein was seen the Ark of the Testament ch 11.19 c For that as formerly was said signified the receiving of the Christian Worship and Laws by the Emperours d But this verse apparently relates to another time Ans. That the a Harpers victory over the Beast signifies the Protestants victory has been proved over and over again It is a Song of Thanksgiving for their deliverance from the Roman Pharaoh and declares God's judgments to have been manifested upon him And as for the 144 thousand sealed ones for that that measuring for preservation is a mere conceit I have shewn in its proper place whose invincible constancy and faithfulness to the Lamb and their privileges of the New Birth is intimated in the foregoing Chapter their new Song is also there mentioned which none could learn but the 144 thousand that were redeemed from the Earth That sets out their internal state but this is a Song of external deliverance and alludes to the deliverance of the Israelites from Pharaoh King of Aegypt And these 144 thousand sealed ones are the sealed of the twelve Tribes of Israel ch 7. As here is the Song of Moses the servant of God for their victory over Pharaoh Wisedom is easie to him that understands but to him that will not understand all things are hard b The Temple opened here and the Temple open ch 11.19 is most assuredly the same Temple For the Ark of the Testament is said to be in the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they render it also by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
they feed on them before they were cast thither as the Remarker imagines because they were taken alive and cast into the Lake of fire And Fowls that follow Armies do not seize on men before they be slain Wherefore it is a demonstration that the Beast and false Prophet were none of the slain by the sword that goes out of that Hero's mouth on the white Horse Vers. 18. The fowls invited to this feast are all noble-spirited and vertuously disposed persons who though not in a state of Faith will in this flourishing state of Christ's Kingdom be ready to side therewith as all filthy degenerate people will or rather must by reason of the low state they are sunk into side with the Babylonish party though in a fallen expiring condition For then is Babylon the Hold of every foul Spirit and Cage of every unclean bird chap. 18.2 Ans. The meaning of the Fowls of the Air which the Expositor has given is clear and without all exception and if that of the Remarker were to be admitted it were to be admitted but as a secondary sense though also true But it seems improbable to be true both because there is no Example of Fowls signifying precisely so as he supposes and also for as much as it is incredible that such nobly-spirited and vertuously disposed persons not in the state of Faith and therefore indeed Infidels such as mere Deists are and with numerous multitudes of such Christendom swarms and therefore are not so properly of the Antichristian party as under the Dragon or amongst the Infidels I say it is incredible when those Boanergeses shall thunder over the tripartite City or the Army of this Heros on the white Horse appear that is the pure Gospel be preached in the power of the Spirit but these noble and vertuous spirits will be found among the slain by the sword that goes out of that Hero's mouth that is to say will be converted Which if they be not it will be an Indication that they are not such noble and vertuously disposed Spirits as the Remarker imagines and therefore no Fowls flying in the midst of Heaven and so the Parable will be meant onely of the Angels Touching the last clause of this Remark see what we have said upon chap. 18.2 Vers. 20. This lake burning with fire and brimstone wherein the Beast and false Prophet are consumed may signifie what befalls them in the other life into which state the Devil after is to be cast ch 20.10 And also the inflamed zeal with which men will then be moved against the former Politick state of the Beast and false Prophet whereby the same will be wholly dissolved and so the former things will pass away and all things become new And the lake of fire in this sense may signifie the same with the great Hail-stones of a talent weight which fell on men ch 16.12 Ans. The nature of Prophecy is to tell us of the visible events of things in this life And the event of the Battel as to them that are said to be slain with the sword concerns their visible state here on Earth why should not then the event of the same battel as it is figuratively or symbolically set out concern the Beasts and false Prophets state in this world too The being put therefore into the lake of fire and brimstone signifies not their being punished in Hell in the other world but the consumption and abolition of their power in this For by fire are things consumed And it is said of the Whore that some of the Kings should eat her flesh and burn her with fire And it is the loftiness of the Prophetick style to parallel this consuming fire here which denotes the full consumption and abolition of the power of the Beast and false Prophet to the fire and sulphur of Hell This is so plain and necessary a sense that both Grotius and Dr. Hammond embrace it and make use of it on the place though not to the same purpose That the inflamed zeal of the Conquerors against the corrupt and idolatrous state of the Beast and false Prophet may contribute much to a speedier and perfecter dissolution thereof is not unreasonable to imagine But that a lake of fire and brimstone should signifie such zeal in men I know no example in any Interpreter of Prophetick symbols The other sense sufficeth But that the great Hail-stones of a Talent weight denote the same thing that this fiery lake does here therein I easily agree with the Remarker Which does farther confirm that the Lake of fire signifies not the state of the Beast and false Prophet in the other world but in this Vers. 21. The Remnant is not one of the two parts but the third of the three parts that the Antichristian party were divided into the Beast and false Prophet being the other two And they are said to be slain with the sword that proceedeth out of the mouth c. in distinction from the slaughter of the Beast and false Prophet which shews that the slaughter of them was real in battel Ans. In this Battel of the great day of God Almighty there are but these three Parties in all Those under the Dragon which are Atheists Deists and Infidels Those under the Beast and false Prophet which are the Antichristian Party and those under the Rider on the white Horse which are the pure Evangelical party There is therefore no pretence of dividing the Antichristian party into more than two parts one under the Beast the other under the false Prophet How can then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our English Bible renders Remnant be the third of the three parts that the Antichristian party were divided into that may be said to be slain with the sword that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Rider on the white Horse in distinction from the slaughter of the Beast and false Prophet The Beast and false Prophet undergoing both one and the same fate it shews they were looked upon as but one of the two parties that the Heros on the white Horse warred against and therefore when it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rest were slain by the sword that came out of the mouth of Him that sate on the white Horse it 's necessarily understood that that was the fate of those that were under the Dragon the third part not of the Antichristian party but of all the forces gathered in the field of Armageddon Were not this true there is nothing said of the event of the Battel upon those that were under the Dragon which surely was the most numerous multitude And that this victory over them is Parabolical not carnal and literal has been abundantly proved upon v. 15. Chap. 20. Vers. 1. IF the great Chain to bind Satan be a making Laws to bridle the wicked then the loosing of him must be a taking away or Relaxation at least of those Laws to give the wicked liberty which is not to
fall there were no Deceivers nor Devils And the Devil when he is restrained to his Infernal confinement yet all that then can be said is but this Let no man when he is tempted say I am tempted of the Devil for he during his infernal confinement tempteth no man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed c. Iam. 1.13 And certainly in the Millennium men are not born without Original sin nor is their body of flesh less subject to various lusts than the Aethereal bodies of Angels were So that what is here produced is mere Rhetorical colour no solid or substantial Argument Vers. 3. This conceit of iron adamantine rigid Laws c. and these to be in a time when there will be so little need of them does shew an imagination much upon the rack If the wicked in the Millennium are to be kept under such Laws they will have little heart to join in that Song Blessing honour glory and power c. be unto him that sitteth on the throne and unto the lamb for ever Which is said every Creature in Heaven and Earth shall doe ch 5. But these will be times for which Paul says The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth and wherein it shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God it being not made subject unto vanity willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Rom. 8. viz. That wickendess which Iohn says the whole world lyes in being the result of its thraldom and delusion under the power of the Devil which lapsed man became subject unto yet in hopes to be delivered therefrom they becoming in this Millennial State partakers of their hopes having all stumbling-blocks of iniquity taken away and receiving all advantages to further them in the ways of righteousness they will joyfully walk therein and through the blessings they find do attend their so doing will be moved to join in the said Song of Blessing honour glory and power c. Ans. Here 's but the Repetition of the same things in the beginning of this Remark which were in the former and therefore they need no new Answer But afterwards he offers at two new Arguments against this conceit as he calls it of iron adamantine rigid Laws For if there be such in the Millennium the wicked will have little heart says he to join in that Song chap. 5.13 Blessing honour glory and power c. Whenas it is said Every creature in Heaven Earth and under the Earth c. shall join in it In answer to which I onely demand Whether the old Serpent in his Infernal confinement which is under the Earth will either join in or say Amen to that Doxology In what sense he will the wicked will also The other Reason is That this is the Time viz. the Millennium wherein the Creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God But I here demand first Whether all the Creatures or all men will be thus delivered from the bondage of corruption nay whether all men that live in the same Countries that they that belong to the new Ierusalem do I suppose the Remarker will not adventure to assert it Wherefore there being those among the Saints that are not Saints themselves these rigid Laws are fit to bridle them But then secondly I deny that this place of Rom. 8. refers to the Millennium but to the state of the Resurrection For then onely 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 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 Vers. 4. The first Resurrection is not a Revivification into their glorified bodies to reign in Heaven For there Saints cannot be said to reign there being none there to be Subjects to them And that State is not attainable till the Resurrection at the last day when Christ hath promised to raise up those that believe in him Iohn 5.28 29. Also the following words Blessed is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power do shew that the first Resurrection is not an emerging above the Regions of Mortality by being revivified into glorified bodies for then the pronouncing the second death to have no power over them would be needless Which is also farther evidenced by the reign in the first Resurrection being a thousand years whenas the Heavenly state is everlasting And it 's a great violation of Scripture to make a thousand years when spoke of the Resurrection to signifie Symbolically when it 's so oft in the Chapter used Numerically and by coherence of the discourse must every-where needs have the same signification Therefore the first Resurrection is a Privilege of the Martyrs that suffered under Antichrist to reign in the Millennial State as the Powers of the Air viz. the Devil and his Angels did among the worldly Powers till he was bound in the bottomless pit Ans. I answer Saints may be said to reign in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at least if not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides what will the Remarker say to that Text 2 Tim. 2. If we suffer we shall also reign with him And to Rom. 8. Heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him that is partake of his glorious Kingdom according to that Mat. 25. Come ye blessed of my father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you c. Whence it is plain that the Saints may be said to reign in Heaven according to phrase of Scripture And if there be a Polity in Heaven as most certainly there is the Martyrs may have several Provinces to rule over in a Briathick State as the Cabbalists seem to call it And that the Heavenly State is not attainable before the general Resurrection is against the opinion of the ancient Fathers as you may see in Mr. Mede And the last day reaches from the beginning of the Millennium to the end of the World or general Resurrection as I have discoursed this point more copiously in a Letter to a friend and therefore am loth to repeat it here The adding to the mention of the first Resurrection that the second death has no power over them is not needless both because it more manifestly imports that this Resurrection is not meant of a Political Resurrection but a Physical and also that it assures us of the sense of that passage in the Epistle to
the Church of Smyrna He that overcomes shall not be hurt by the second Death from the comparing of which two places together the Ancients rightly inferred the Rising of the Martyrs at the first Resurrection that it was their privilege So that as some of the passages in Daniel and the Apocalypse are as it were Tallies kept by parties one with another to give a just account of the sense so the same are some passages of the Apocalypse one to another of which I might give many more examples but I hold it needless Nor does the Martyrs reigning in Heaven that thousand years of the Millennium clash with their reigning there for ever afterwards But from the beginning of the Millennium to everlasting is their reign and Omne majus continet in se minus so that it is true that they reigned in Heaven while the Saints which worshipped not the Beast with their successours reigned in the Millennium on Earth viz. they reigned a thousand years while the Martyrs reigned in Heaven the same time But in this place it was impertinent and too motiminous nor sutable to the accustomed brevity and succinctness of the Apocalyptick style to tell they yet farther reigned to all eternity that being to be signified afterwards Nor is it any violation of Scripture to make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sixth verse signifie symbolically when in the fourth and fifth it does not the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being in the fourth and fifth verses Which therefore points at the determinate thousand years of the Millennium But it is lest out in the sixth verse and as it seems on purpose to lead us to that symbolical meaning touching those that partake of the first Resurrection and which was proper to them in conterdistinction to those Confessors who worshipped not the Image of the Beast and who with their successors onely reigned that thousand years of the Millennium Which farther argues that the first Resurrection is Physical and into an Heavenly glorified body So coherent is the discourse and agreeable with the symbolical sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in v. 6. But to make the Privilege of the Martyrs in the first Resurrection to be that they reign during the Millennium as the Powers of the Air the Devil and his Angels did among the worldly powers till he was bound this though it may seem a witty conceit yet it is not true For then they have but the office of ministring Angels which is not to reign but to minister For I hope they will not doe as the Devils did receive religious worship from us mortals And if these Martyrs have no bodies how is it a Resurrection and if onely Aerial bodies so have other souls as well as they And if you say they onely minister for the good of the Saints in this Airy Region what hinders but other souls that are not Martyrs may have the same office so that this is no Privilege of the Martyrs nor the right State of the first Resurrection Wherefore the safest and most natural sense of the first Resurrection is not to crop or mutilate it but to let it be full and of the same kind with the general Resurrection of the just Vers. 8. There was no increase of wickedness by relaxation of discipline For these Nations that gather themselves against the Saints are foreign Nations that were never subject to their discipline but during the Devil's being bound did live peaceably by them and haply did so rejoice in the light of the New Ierusalem as to fulfill those sayings The Nations that are saved shall walk in the light thereof and The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the Nations but were now so deceived by Satan's being loosed as to combine against the beloved City as the Neighbouring-nations used to confederate against Ierusalem Ans. That there was no increase of wickedness by relaxation of discipline is a thing said not proved though I have proved above to the contrary Nor is there any sufficient intimation in the Vision that they were foreign Nations that environ'd the Holy City that is the Holy Polity but people of a foreign spirit and aliens from the faith and genius of those that are of the true Houshold of God though they lived amongst the Nations that were converted to the true Apostolick Christianity And the Kingdom of Christ having become so large at that time when Apoc. ch 11.15 ch 15.4 all the Kingdoms of the World as it is written were become the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ it is hard to conceive it should be otherwise and also by relaxation of discipline that even those that were subject to their discipline should not so corrupt as to make part of the Army of Gog and Magog And what Nations can be thought to walk in the light of the new Ierusalem but those that are converted to the Christian Faith For by faith we are saved as the Apostle tells us And those Nations that are healed are the same that are saved also no other at all need be implied And whether you count Gog and Magog neighbouring or foreign Nations it is but childish and Idiotical to take it so far in the literal sense and against the genius of the Apocalyptick style that they must signifie either neighbouring or foreign Nations in a Geographical meaning but in a Mystical Dissimilitude of spirit and profession answering to distance of place and those that have the same profession but not the same spirit really and the same saith are Borderers rather than Natives And such are those that bear the name of the Christianity then established I mean in the Millennium but covertly favour the Dragon and the Beast And these are Gog which signifies Tectum But those that are open Draconists or Bestians these are Magog which signifies Absque Tecto as the Lexicon Sanctum will have it But this is a greater curiosity than needs It is sufficient in the mean time to observe that as the very people Gog and Magog that were the ancient Enemies of the Jews are not here understood so no people of a foreign Nation out of the bounds and precincts of the New-Ierusalem Jurisdiction or Kingdom of Christ are necessarily signified thereby though I do not deny but by Magog may be also understood whatever foreign forces are accumulated to those that are within the Dominions of the new Ierusalem Vers. 9. Those in the Ierusalem state being called the Camp of the Saints and the beloved City does shew they are in no such a degenerate state as the Epistle to the Laodiceans describes and so is one reason more to those many given ch 3. that the two last of the seven Epistles do not concern the Millennial State And it 's a great straining of the Text to serve the contrary conceit to make those Titles be given the new Ierusalem because there were many Saints there and the rest so as to purity of external Worship
if Constantine in virtue of the Christian doctrine wherewith he was embued ruled more righteously than his Predecessors this was no abridgment of his absolute Power but merely a right use thereof And the same may be said of the ten Kings or Monarchs the ten Horns of the Beast They were trepan'd out of their Right when they acknowledged any Sovereign in causes Ecclesiastick as well as Civil besides themselves And I wonder whenas the Remarker produces such a notable example in the case of Carolus Calvus of the Ecclesiastick encroachments upon the Secular Power that he should at all doubt but that the Clay is the Ecclesiastick Power as well as the Iron the Secular and such a Power as alone is fitly set out by the Clay in full distinction to the Iron or Secular Power in Kings Nobles and Gentry c. Vision 2. Vers. 2. a SEA in the Prophetick style signifies not simply vast multitudes of people for then There was no more Sea Rev. 21.1 must signifie there was no more multitudes But by Sea is meant such multitudes united in a Political State under the Powers that rule them b And that Power which does overflow and so subject them to its Dominion is rather the Sea as appears by the second Trumpet and the second Vial and they as the Fish moving in it By reason whereof and the fluctuating condition they are in thereby they are represented by Waters Rev. 17. c This Power is the Spirit of the World ruling in them Their thraldom under which is that bondage of corruption which subjects them to the Prince of this World Of which Spirit Solomon saith He hath set the World in their hearts c. And Paul We have not received the Spirit of the World but the Spirit of God c. And by reason of the rule of which in us we are said to be of the World and so under the power of darkness in opposition to that Spiritual state which Believers are begotten into whereby they cease to be of the World and are translated from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of our Lord. This Spirit of the World therefore is the like Principle of the natural Life in man's heart as the Spirit of God is of the spiritual Life therein and by the one do the Devils bear the like sway in natural or unregenerate men as Christ does by the other in the Regenerate Hence is ascribed to the Devil that power over those who are delivered to him for the destruction of the flesh and also the power of Death through fear of which he makes men all their life subject to bondage And hence did he make that claim to all the Kingdoms of the World which our Saviour did not gainsay For he by the power mentioned being the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience Ephes. 2.2 which all mankind are till they are recovered out of their lapsed state he can as Paul says take them captive at his will and so rules as he pleaseth in the world save wherein God as supreme Governour of the World does interpose in the behalf of his servants and for bringing to pass what Changes and Revolutions he hath determined The four Winds striving on the great Sea and four Beasts coming out of it signifie the four great Kingdoms that were to arise successively on the Earth and the great commotion and combustion they would cause in the World by their vanquishing one another d But the Aerial Genii or Angels are not concerned therein as Ministers of God's Providence farther than they are a part of the Powers of those Kingdoms that are so to arise Such are the Presidentiary Angels of the Kingdoms of Persia and Graecia in Vision 5 th Ans. The Expositor does not say that a Sea signifies multitudes of people simply but that the great Sea in this place signifies so according to the Prophetick style which does not denote the determinate Dominion of any one Potentate but the people of adverse Potentates who are so far from being held under one Government that they are the people of opposite Governments or Empires and therefore cannot be called one great Sea as under one Government but as one great Multitude which is called a great Sea by reason of the greatness of the Multitude and is well represented by the great Sea with Winds ruffling the waves thereof by reason of the Commotion and War one against another b But that a multitude under one Government is not called Sea unless it be overflowing some other Government I deny to appear either out of the second Trumpet or second Vial. The Remarker should have spoke out more clearly But I say the Sea though it be not actually overflowing another being so subject to fluctuations from several cross Winds and unexpected occasions is properly a Symbol of worldly Governments that are obnoxious to these Commotions and Mutations Whence that passage Revel 21.1 is fitly understood And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth where Heaven signifies the governing Part and Earth the Multitude governed which being expressed by Earth there was no want of Sea to signifie the same but to denote the stability of this new constitution of things it is added And there was no more Sea which does not signifie there was no more multitudes but no more tumultuating multitudes and that firm Peace and Tranquillity possest the Millennial Empire of Christ and his holy and righteous people From whence come wars and fightings amongst you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members Jam. 4.1 c What follows in this Remark is something prolix and mysterious but may be well meant for ought I know but so far as I see enervates nothing that the Expositor has writ on this verse For the Spirit of the World which he discourses of certainly Ambition which the Expositor names is the chief effect of it and most chiefly considered in this place d Nor does the Remarker deny but that the Aerial Genii are concerned in these Mutations and Revolutions in Kingdoms which is all I care to have granted This looks like a desire of saying something contrary to the Expositor when there is nothing to be said But I cannot let pass one passage of Scripture amongst the many he has cited viz. that Eccles. 3.11 where he insinuates that in He hath set the World in their hearts by He is understood the Spirit of the World whenas it is plain from the foregoing words He hath made every thing beautifull in its time that it 's God that has set the World in mens hearts viz. in their understandings For the Heart is the seat of the Understanding in the Scripture-phrase in virtue of which they take more notice thereof than Brutes but yet are far from being Masters of the Mysteries of his Providence as is intimated in the following words of that verse
ruling them by the Divine Influence of his Spirit whereby he has the perfect and absolute command over them This Symbolical Idea of the glory of the God of Israel Moses saw in the Mount and ordered things according to this pattern in the Mount as he was directed of which the Cherubims on the Ark of the Covenant is part as also the pitching of the Tents of the Israelites about the Tabernacle in four parts with the Standards bearing the names of these four living Creatures in their Camp These were an external Imitation of the Symbolical Idea of the Angelical Kingdom of the God of Israel but their Dispensation reached not to the Life and Reality thereof but they bore it onely in the outward Image But this standing Symbolical Idea is that Seal which the Divine Providence intends so thoroughly to impress on his Church at last in way of Life and Perfection that the God of Israel by the Influence of his Spirit will so actuate his Church that his Will will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven or in the Angelical World by his holy Angels To which purpose this Vision is again exhibited to Iohn in the Apocalypse as a Representation of the blessed state of the Millennium when the State of the Church will answer this Symbolical Idea in the truth of Life or plenteous Dispensation of the Spirit Here therefore is the Remarker's mistake that he fansies that the standing Symbolical Idea of the Angelical World where there is no Death nor Succession cannot set out the State of the Church on Earth where there is Death and Succession Which methinks is as awkardly argued as if one should imagine that St. Michael the Archangel being the Seal of some Corporation and intended for the signing of successive Leases of that Corporation the Seal should be argued successive and not to be the same standing Individual Seal because the Wax and Leases it seals are not so and consequently that the Seal cannot be the Image of St. Michael the Archangel because he is one standing Person and not in Succession Wherefore it is plain that the standing Symbolical Idea of the Angelical Kingdom which is unsuccessive may notifie the Millennial Kingdom of Christ on Earth which is successive and the said Kingdom be examined by it how near it is to the Pattern as the Seals of Leases how near they are to the standing Original Seal of the abovesaid Corporation To the second I say Those four living Creatures having the likeness of a man and the hand of a man under each wing does not prove these Angels to be men but rather proves that the Remarker is mistaken in the nature of Angels as if they had either no form which is impossible they being finite Creatures or a round form as if they were so many Aereal or Aethereal Foot-balls or contracted Hedg-hogs But if they have distinct Animal Forms what can it be but humane all conceived imperfections being removed therefrom and nothing taken in but what will well consist with Heavenly Beauty and Glory Wherefore let their Figure for the main be humane and other variations in them onely Symbolical Appendages it does not follow from thence that they are not the standing Symbolical Idea of the Angelical Kingdom but rather that the Angels are naturally in humane shape For that this Vision signifies Angels is plain in that they are called Cherubims But if one will be here resty and perverse there will be no room left for any Cavils if we answer that the faces of a man and the hands of a man signifie no otherwise than the faces of a Lion Oxe and Eagle or the feet of a Calf they all signifying onely symbolically Which Answer will weaken also the third Reason For the feet of a Calf need signifie nothing but what is competible to the Angelical nature as the face of an Oxe or Calf does no other it may signifie robustious indefatigable strength And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies God or an Angel has its Notation from strength and is ordinarily translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Seventy And to give a reason why all the four Beasts have Calves feet is obvious enough because that which supports ought to be strong But there are farther Cabbalistical Mysteries touching that point which is needless here to enter upon It is sufficient that we have hitherto proved that the three first Reasons have no force to evince that these living Creatures and Wheels are not Angelical And for the last Reason it is the slightest of all as if Angels which are Spirits were not to be actuated by the Spirit of God as well as the Souls of men are Whenas by virtue of the Divine Spirit they escape the being turned into Devils And indeed the many Reins whereby the God of Israel rules and governs the four Provinces of his Angelical Kingdom is the Influence of his Divine Spirit which unites with their spirits and they with it whereby he drives them whither he pleases For his Spirit is as sure to be effectually in their pure Essence as the Rays of the Sun in the clear Air. Wherefore there being such solid proofs that the living Creatures in Ezekiel's Vision are Angelical and none but invalid Arguments against it it is an argument that the Remarker has much mistaken himself in thinking it was so safe to conclude the contrary The rest of the Remark is a Digression into an Ethical or Ethico-political explication of the Vision of Ezekiel which though it were true and unexceptionable the Expositor is not concerned to meddle with as not at all enervating the Philosophical account of that Vision he admitting both a Philosophical and Moral Cabbala touching both the Bereshith and Mercavah too But that the Remarker's pains may not seem to be over much slighted I will consider some passages in it First then He makes the four faces the four wings and the four Beasts to signifie but one and the same thing which is a marvellous slubbering and hudling things together which surely have more distinct meanings Certainly it must be some great and abstruse Mystery that is thus repeatedly both by the Faces Wings and whole bodies of the four Beasts and living Creatures and thus pompously set out And yet it is onely this That there are these four Properties in Humane Nature Reason Religion Courage and Industry Which lying so bare and obvious to every understanding what is this but the making the Spirit of Prophecy to trifle in setting out so pompously such a trivial Theory that no man is ignorant of nay I may say and that so maimedly and unfitly For the Elephant certainly had been a more fit Animal to represent Religion than the Eagle so that there is a fitting Animal wanting to denote the property of Religion in Humane nature And for as much as Brutes have Reason and Man alone properly Religion Man had been a better Symbol of Religion than an Eagle But then
there had wanted an Animal to typifie Reason unless you made Man the Type of both and put the Eagle quite out of office Thus crude and broken is the Remarker's conceit in this matter Again There are good Scriptural-phrases produced about the two flying wings of the Seraphins which he will have the same with the third pair of wings of the Beasts but the Application is methinks much of the Hooks For the two flying wings of the Seraphins Esay 6. signifie the readiness and expediteness of their Ministry enjoyn'd by God to the service of his Church whenas he referrs it to the exalting of ones self from a Worldly and Earthly to a Heavenly state Thirdly That seems a precarious groundless conceit or rather false That the Tree of Life was not set in Paradise for Adam to eat of but to play at Chop-cherry with him and to mock him whenas the Text says The Lord commanded the Man saying Of every tree of the Garden thou shalt eat and I hope the Tree of life was one of them The Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast plenary commission if not command to eat of all saving the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil Which had been a mere mocking of Adam if he had no power of eating of the Tree of Life And now fourthly this being a fundamental mistake of the Remarker in the case of Adam the like discovers it self in his conceit touching the Iews and the two Visions of Ezekiel that of the four living Creatures and that other of the Temple God gave no impossible Commands to the Iews But those exquisite descriptions of things touching the Temple by a long and operose Hylasmus and Israelismus set not out what the Iews should have been if they had kept these Ordinances exquisitely but what the Church of Christ would be of which the Iews were a Type in process of time That this is the sense of that Vision the Apocalypse that borrows so many things from it and uses such frequent Allusions to the Temple does sufficiently indicate Nor is there any other sense of the Vision of the four living Creatures as touching the Iews who were not upon condition of legal performances to arrive to that Angelical State that the Christian Church with them will arrive to at last But the Divino-political sense of that Vision which yet is most properly applied to it as repeated in the Apocalypse which relates to the Camp of the Iews a figure of the State of the Christian Church to come is that the Church of God at last will answer the Pattern of the Angelical Kingdom and God's Will will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Fifthly The Name of the City The Lord is there is the very Indication of the state of the New Ierusalem which is a demonstration it was never intended for the Iews under their Legal Dispensation upon any terms Sixthly Ezekiel is not here sent to Prophesie the Ruine of the City and Temple they both having been destroyed fourteen years before But they being destroyed he in this Hylastick and Israelistick way prophesies of the state of the New Ierusalem which the Apocalypse also describes Seventhly therefore The Iews their making a golden Calf and craving a King whatever other inconveniences it may cause to them it could not make them forfeit that which was never intended them in that state Eighthly If the Beasts be the Governed and the four and twenty Elders the Governours how come the Beasts to be upon the Throne and the twenty four Elders onely about it Ninthly The Wheels and living Creatures being not moved but as acted by the spirit does not signifie an Earthly state in them but the most Divine and Heavenly viz. an Vnselfwilledness in them That they have no Self excursions of mind or will but that the Spirit of life from the eternal mind is the perpetual principle of their motion and rest Tenthly That the four Beasts are not upon the Throne I have shew'd upon that place of the Apocalypse and that he contradicts himself in saying so I observed even now in the eighth Note Eleventhly The burning Coals which are Prunae do not signifie the Spirit of Elias in Men but the Seraphick Spirit in Angels as Seraphin from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has its denomination viz. from burning And the Seraphin are counted of the higher sort of Angels And as for Lamps they are in the description of the scene of the New Ierusalem Apoc. 4. Now for the Temple I say Twelfthly That the whole Vision of the Temple concerns the Christian Church and therefore that command to the Prophet chap. 43.10 11. respects especially the Thyatirian and Sardian Interval thereof that they may repent of all their sins and corruptions and so make what haste they can toward that excellent State of the Church which is prefigured by the Vision of the Temple Thirteenthly As for the Numbers 25000 5000 and 500 Ezek. chap. 45. and 666 in the Apocalypse nothing more can be signified by the former viz. those in Ezekiel than that the New Ierusalem will gratifie even the external man also and his outward senses which the Quinary number does denote namely that even the outward State of the Church then will be rich and glorious according to what is likewise prophesied of in the Apocalypse that the Kings of the Earth shall bring their honour and glory into it And it is the encouraging Prediction of Christ himself Seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all worldly good things shall be added thereto Which will most amply be fulfilled in the Millennial Empire of Christ which is that eminent Kingdom of God upon Earth And for that other Number 666 it is not set down to signifie the most complete carnal politick State but to be a certain character of the Pontifician Hierarchy the two-horned Beast who are discovered to have affected the number 25 which is the root of 666. That is the main drift of that Number though deluding their followers with pleasing Objects of sense may haply be aimed at thereby also Fourteenthly The 18000 measures which is the compass of Ezekiel's City agreeing with the Perimeter of the New Ierusalem whose Solid or Cubick measure is 12000 furlongs in the Apocalypse the true and usefull meaning of that is to assure us that Ezekiel's Vision of the Temple is a Prophecy of the State of the Church which is set out by S. Iohn in his description of the New Ierusalem that men may make no vagaries into any other fancies as the Remarker has done here And the Wisedom and Providence of God is admirable herein Besides if that Externality or Superficiality were aimed at which the Remarker would have signified the measure of the Superficies of the Cube not the Perimeter would have been set down and made use of Fifteenthly The difference of the Mosaical Laws and those of Ezekiel's Temple the greater exactness of these above the other is