look for it as at a proper Season God hath forescen and singled out for the Execution of his Judgment on Babylon even this her Enchanting Jubilee when she says I sit a Queen I am now on a Throne giving out my Pardons and Indulgences I am no Widow nor shall know the lofs of Children Behold from all Parts how they gather about me at this very time And at the time of so violent a Persecution upon the Servants of God making the same Protestation with our selves against the Papal Idolatry Superstitions and Tyranny If we are not concern'd at such a time as this we have only a Name to live as Protestants and the Reformed but are dead as God Charges upon the Church of Sardis the Prophetical Emblem of the Churches stiled the Reformed We have forgotten how we Received and Heard in that so great Appearance of God by the Rev. 3. 1 2. first Reformers and Princes will too sadly seem to have lost that first Protestant Spirit c. which acted those Princes in the Transactions at Spire Am. 1529. Oh that therefore we might Remember Hold fast and Repent And if there were a Spirit pour'd out from on high upon us a Spirit of Prayer who knows but that in the midst of this false Jubilee These two things Widowhood and loss of Children Alienation of Princes and People might come on this Mystic Babel in one Day in one Moment If we could wrestle with God as Jacob these Two Things would certainly come upon Her in their Perfection as on Esay 47. 8. that Babylon of Old for the Multitude of her Sorceries and Enchantments in this very day of her Jubilee To this very purpose I will draw out from the Text as it stands in connexion with This the Former the Following Chapters Six great Propositions and then argue further upon them in compare with other Scripture Prophecies Proposition 1. There is undeniably a great Judgment denounced by God and largely described upon some City Figured by Babylon the Great that must most certainly be Executed in its own Time and upon the City designed according to the sure word of Prophecy Cap. 1. 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave to him to shew to his Servants things shortly that is with great speed from that very time it was given to come to pass successively till the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in comparison of which all time is short Now because this Judgment cannot yet as will appear be possibly supposed to have come to 1 Cor. 7. pass it must yet come to pass And because so much hath all along and for so very long time been coming to pass according to this Prophecy and yet this Judgment hath not been Executed the Execution of it must needs therefore be very near Prop. 2. There are Infallible Characters fixed by the Prophecy in these Chapters before us on the the City so denounced upon assuring this City is the present Papal Rome For if Rome be the City Characteriz'd as it is now Papal it is that City so threatned by this Judgment For the Characters and the Judgment are inseparable Now Rome will appear to be the City Characteriz'd and therefore on it must the Judgment here written be Executed Prop. 3. It is one of the great Glories of this Judgment that the first coming of it into Execution shall be with great suddenness and surprizal and when very Few stiled by Christ the Few Names in Sardis have a Thought or Apprehension of any such thing One Day one Hour one Moment as of Ancient Babylon speak the very great Velocity of the Judgment Prop. 4. The Princes that at this time Bear up the Grandeur and the Haughtiness of Papal Rome by giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast called therefore His Horns shall be by the Lamb King of Kings and Lord of Lords so overcome as to be made Instruments in the Execution of the Judgment in such Parts and Degrees as the strong Lord who Judgeth shall Commission them unto which shall highly Exalt and make Illustrious the Judgment As an Indication of this it is said C. 17. 16. The Kings shall hate the Whore shall make her Desolate and shell eat her Flesh and shall burn her with Fire and in this Text her Plagues are Death and one concurring with the other Mourning Famine and burning with Fire Prop. 5. The Greatness and the sudden Invasion of this Judgment as denounced by God are uncontroulably to be demonstrated not only as to the possibility but the certainty of both as from the Truth of the Lord who hath so long ago denounced it so from the Wisdom and Omnipotency of the strong Lord that judgeth Prop. 6. The Divine Prescience and Wisdom hath chosen out a Time and decreed it for the Execution of this Judgment when Babylon shall shew it self in its Pride its Pomp its Presumption Security For it is when she shall say I sit a Queen and shall see no Sorrow and 't is most undeniable its Jubilee is such a Time and when Great Princes shall so be at her Devotion as for her sake with such a violence to persecute and Protestant Princes stand by and have nothing to say against it Prop. 1. I begin with the first Proposition that the Judgment here forewritten must most certainly be executed That there is a great Judgment here described and denounced on some City Figur'd by Babylon the Great is most uncontestable every word in the Foregoing and this Chapter assures it and in the following Chapter we have most solemn Doxologies and Thanksgivings upon it In Cap. 17. 1. The Vision begins thus John is called to come to the Angel who would shew him the Judgment of the Great Whore In this C. 18. 1. Another Angel having Great Power and with whose Glory the Earth shone Appears and he cry'd mightily with a loud Voice Babylon the great is fallen is fallen certainly and irrecoverably Fallen and so the Vision goes on in the most dreadful Expressions and Pourtraies of a Judgment most stupendious The Kings of the Earth bewail and stand afar off for fear of her Torment her Merchants throw Dust on their Heads and cry out in their Lamentings Alas Alas and at last her Irrecoverable Ruin is set out by a Millstone cast into the bottom of the Sea by a mighty Angel pronouncing So shall Babylon be thrown down and found no more at all ver 15. 19. 21. If this Judgment then be Prophetically denounced by the Holy the True the Mighty God It must and shall certainly come to pass in the Time and upon the City designed This is a Principle of Natural Light and Intellectual Reason so clear I shall no further insist upon it What then can be levied by way of Objection I can possibly suppose but two Things Either the Authority of the Book of the Revelation must be called into question as not from God or it must be said
very well expect its Downfall to be near and that it must needs be sitting on its last Supremacy But when we calculate according to the sure Word of Prophecy as we have utmost Assurance that Papal Rome is the Babylon that is to be judged So we have no Room for Doubt that it is the last Supremacy For as the City is adjudged to final Destruction so the Beast is thrice said to go into Perdition Chap. 18. 21 22. compared with Chap. 17. ver 8 11. If therefore the City sitting on the Beast is cast as a Milstone into the Sea That cannot survive the Beast to sit on any other And if the Beast go into Perdition as he is also call'd by the Apostle the Son of Perdition as the Judas of Christianity going into his own Place while the Woman sits upon him there is a perfect End of his Supremacy also he is therefore said by the Apostle 2 Thess 2. to be first taken away by the Breath of the Lord's Mouth and then brought utterly to nothing with the Brightness of his Illustrious Appearance 2 Thess 2. 8. And he is taken and cast alive into the Lake And even this gives certain Proof This is the last Supremacy For there can be none after the Eighth King upon which the City sitting is destroyed It could not therefore be the Seventh King which by being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another a very Forreigner of another Kindred to the other Kings No Head of Babylon though a King of Rome is therefore certainly known to be the Christian Emperor and came after the Pagan Emperor call'd the Dragon who then was in his Regnancy when the Apostle writ Let us then argue thus which ever of the Kings is the Beast must be the Supreme sitting on which Babylon prov'd to be Rome must be destroy'd It cannot be the Sixth King who then was when the Prophecy was given and who might be supposed to have lasted til I now For who can suppose in any Sense whatever Rome is upon the same King it was then nor can it be upon the Seventh King but no Head on that Account for he could continue but a short Space as hath been elsewhere made out it must be therefore some Supreme that hath continued a long Space in Opposition to the short Space This therefore must be the Papacy which hath lasted longer than any Government over Rome without Variation in any Essential Point and than so far as I know any other in the World Beside it is expresly said the Dragon by which I apprehend all Interpreters understand the Pagan Imperial persecuting Power at the Time of the Revelation given is expresly said to receive a deadly Wound from the Christian Emperor on which he as it were secretly conveyed over his Power Seat and great Authority to the Beast gliding it as unobservedly by the Christian Emperor unto the Idolatrous Antichristian Papacy by whom his Deadly Wound was healed which is therefore the Eighth King but Seventh Head Seventh from the Sixth Head or Pagan Emperor of whom when the Apostle writ it is said he now is Then follows the Seventh King no Head then the Beast the Seventh Head who hath continued even above 1200 Years So that the Time from the Cessation of the Western Christian Roman Empire when the Beast received Power and the Ten Kings with him at 476 of the vulgar Account exceeds the Time from the first Building of Rome to that Supremacy of the Bishop or Pope of Rome so that no Title of Principality in Rome hath by a kind of Providential Fatality been assumed by any Secular Power precisely over the City Rome but Bishop or Pope of Rome This argues beyond Possibility of Denial from this so long Continuance of the Papacy in Opposition to the short Continuance of the Seventh King no Head or Christian Emperor that the Pope is indeed that Seventh Head and Eighth King and so the Last even the Beast that goes into Perdition Posit 3. It is one of the Glories and Lustres of the Judgment of God on Babylon That the first coming of it into Execution shall be with great Suddenness and Surprizal It is expressed in one Day and one Hour and in the same Hour I know Day and Hour may signifie any determinate Season But in such very constant and pregnant Expressions of Suddenness exceeding Suddenness is intended The same Expressions are used concerning Literal Babylon * Esay 47. Jer. 51. In one Day and in a Moment one Post shall run to meet another with the Tydings so sudden and unthought of Tydings when Belshazzar thought of no such Thing the †Dan. 6. Hand-writing appeared upon the Wall And the same Night Belshazzar was slain and the King of the Medes took the Kingdom the Babylonian Monarchy then utterly ceasing This was Prophetically Typical of Mystical Babylon It is therefore no Argument this Judgment cannot be executed a long Time yet because there are no present Appearances Herein shall appear the Glory of this Judgment as one great Point of it the Suddenness of it In many of the most high and lofty Works of God Suddenness hath been the peculiar Lustre of them In the Creation of the World He spake and it was done He Psal 33. 9. Esay commanded and it stood fast He called to the whole Creation and it stood up together In the Giving the Spirit suddenly there was the Noise of a mighty rushing Acts 2. 2. Wind. In the Day of Judgment sudden Destruction shall come when they shall cry Peace Peace 1 Thes 5. 1. upon all the Enemies of the Kingdom of Christ The third Woe cometh quickly in the hasty and sudden Effects Rev. 11. 14. of it Now by this Suddenness it is not intended That the whole Execution of the Judgment should be in so short Time though it is and shall be in short Time For the whole Progress of the Third Woe is quick and speedy as it passes through the Tubuli or Pipes till it comes down into the Ocean of Everlasting Yet it shall not be in one Day Hour or Moment But the first Invasion or Assault shall be so Then it moves by seven Voices and by seven Vials of the last Plagues wherein is filled up the Wrath of Almighty God To the Ancient Literal Babylon it is said Esay 47. 7. c. Thou sayst I shall be a Lady for ever so that thou didst not lay these things to thy Heart neither didst thon remember the latter end of it therefore hear now this thou that art given to Pleasures that dwellest carelesly thou that sayest in thy Heart I am and none else besides me I shall not sit as a Widow neither shall I know the loss of Children but these two things shal come upon thee in a Moment in one Day the Loss of Children and Widowhood they shall come upon thee in their Perfection for the multitude of thy Sorceries and for the great abundance
of thy Enchantments But then it is destroyed for ever sunk as a Milstone This speaks the Perpetuity of the Judgment All this is most Prophetically Typical of the Judgment on Mystic Babylon We have found it was literally fulfilled as indeed in one Day and one Night on old Babylon and so it shall in the first Onset on the Mystical But the Judgments of it are so much of another Nature they shall continue much longer in the Execution like the second Death it suddenly surprizes but it continues for ever so is the Judgment of Babylon her Smoke rises up for ever and ever And If any man worship Chap. 14. 9 c. the Beast or his Image c. the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God without mixture and he shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the Presence of God and of the Lamb and of the Holy Angels and the Smoke of their Torments riseth for ever and ever Thus though the Beginning of the Judgment be sudden the Continuation of it is by certain Distributions of its self till it become an everlasting Lake of Wrath and Torment Posit 4. The Princes that long bare up the Grandeur and Haughtiness of Papal Rome by giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast called therefore his Horns shall be so overcome by the Lamb as to be made Instruments in the Execution of the Judgment in such Parts and Degrees as the strong Lord shall when he becomes Vniversal Monarch King of King and Lord of Lords commission them unto This shall highly exalt and make Illustrious the Judgment It is therefore much to be considered and is a great Confirmation that Babylon means Papal Rome as hath been already at large set forth that the so strange and unaccountable Subjection of so many Kings to the Papacy a feeble Power if we consider its Force of Arms which Statists and Men of Politicks have so wondered at is here accounted for It is indeed call'd Sorcery and Intoxication being made Drunk with the Wine of her Fornication the most Lively Description of False Religion But all is under the Divine Supreme Ordination For God put it into their Hearts to Fulfil his will and to agree together and to give their Kingdom to the Beast until the words of God should be Fulfill'd And they have one mind to give their Power and Strength unto the Beast and hereupon they make War with the Lamb and so Persecute his Truth and Servants And C. 17. 2 13 15 16. the People of these Kingdoms Nations Multitudes Tongues the Inhabitants of the Roman Babilonian Earth falling under the same Enchantment of a False Religion made Drunk and Commiting Fornication with her are as a Confluence of Waters to her on which she sitteth Was there ever or could there be a plainer Description in Prophesy of what is so plain matter of Fact which hath rais'd the Admiration and Wonder of all Observers But when the words of God shall be Fulfilled and the Time Allotted expired Then these Kings shall so far as God pleases be the Executioners of the Judgment For as the Plagues in the Text are Death Mourning Famine Burning with Fire so the Kings shall hate the whore make her desolate Eat her Flesh Burn her with Fire It 's True there are Kings that Bewail her v. 13. 18. But that pertains to another part of the Judgment when it is Advanced to the Eternal Judgment with the Explication of which I have not at the present to do But how wonderfull and Illustrious will the First Execution be when these Kings shall First Appear in it Sure It will be very Great and Glorious Propos. 5. The Greatness and Sudden Invasion of this Judgment as Denounced by God and by such Instruments as the Ten Kings are uncontrolably to be Demonstrated not only as to the Possibility but the certainty of both as from the Truth of the Lord who hath so long ago Denounced it So from the Wisdom and Omnipotency of the strong Lord who is the Judger This is not therefore in the least unreasonable but the Highest Justification from the Truest Principles of Reason is to be found in the Expectation of the Judgment upon the Beast and the City Let it be never so sudden For the Lord is every way Infinitely Shrong who Judgeth God therefore in such his great works of what kind soever appeals to the Consideration of himself as the God that stretcheth out the Earth and that which cometh out of it that giveth Breath unto the People upon it Es 42. So in the Judgment on Old Babylon He that made the Earth by his Power he hath Established the World by his Wisdom and he hath stretched out the Heaven by his understanding when he uttereth his Voice there is a Multitude of Waters in the Heavens and he Causeth the Waters to Ascend from the Ends of the Earth He maketh the Lightning with Rain and bringeth the Wind out of his Treasures Jeremiah 51. 16. 17. It 's therefore a very great Misprision of Infinite Wisdom and Power when we make that an Argument against the most Extraordinary and most Miraculous Works of God which he makes an Argument for Faith and Expectation of them as if he were Tyed by what he had done to do no more or had done all he could do and nothing to be Expected but according to the Laws of Creation and dayly providence and Leisurely Progresses and not in those Immediate Effects of Sudden Power The great God argues differently because those Works of his are so great and so high That therefore still so great and so high are to be Expected and that they should stand up so together when he pleases And so we unwisely think we very well argue he that so Wonderfully and Miraculously appear'd in the First Times of the Gospel hath done all that he will do or thinks fit to be done till the day of Judgment But undoubtedly we may better argue he hath much greater things to do to make the very latter times of the Gospel-Glory as Illustrious as their very beginning and entrance was Before his Kingdom the Man of sin and Son of Perdition shall be Consum'd and utterly defaced his Spirit shall be poured out The Everlasting Gospel shall be Preach'd The Heathen shall come to the Lord from the Ends of the Earth and shall know his hand and his might and that his Name is Jehovah And all Israel shall Turn to the Lord and be saved For Strong is the Lord who shall do all these things Posit 6. The Divine Prescience and Wisdom hath chosen and singled out a Time and decreed it for the Execucion of this Judgment when Babylon shall shew it felf in it's Pride in it's Pomp it 's Presumptive Security For as hath been said it is when she shall say I sit a Queen and shall see no sorrow as Babylon of Old said I shall be a Lady for ever and shall know no
THE GOOD HOPE THROUGH GRACE The Jubilee of the Kingdom of Christ shall come upon the Counterfeit Jubilee of Rome and before the end of the Following Year 1700 shall begin to bring under Desolation that Great City and its Papacy Therein Uniting the Year 1697 with 1700. according to Prophecy Humbly Presented to the Faith and Prayers of all Sincere Protestants By T. BEVERLEY Rev. xviii xix In one Hour is she made Desolate LONDON Printed for William Marshall at the Sign of the Bible in Newgate-Street and John Marshall at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street TO THE HONOURABLE His much Honoured Sir Samuel Barnardiston Honoured Sir ALthough I must ever Acknowledge a long Series of very great Obligations to your Friendship and Favour for me Yet That is not the Sole nor so much as the Principal Reason of the presenting this following Discourse to your Acceptance The more Due Reasons of that are That by the Freedoms you have Allowed me of Conversation with you I have very undoubted Evidences of your sincere Love to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory in its present Spiritual Evangelical Administration and in its Gradual Illustrations of it self in Glory Promised and Foretold to the latter Days And yet more particularly as in All Things I had observed your Patriottal Spirit your Great Love to your Country the true English Spirit so your Great Love to Protestancy and Bewailing That no Greater Liberty and Security could be procured for the Suffering Protestants beyond the Seas and particularly in France But I hope God supports you in so long a Life to see the Openings of his Kingdom And That your Honourable Lady whom I have long observed the Truest Consort of All the Varieties that God hath been pleased to Dispensate to you may Rejoyce with you in that so Great Joy is the Humble Earnest Prayer of Most Honour'd Sir Your most Affectionate Humble Servant in our Great Lord T. BEVERLEY The PREFACE to the Favourable Protestant READER THE Discourse following I Humbly Present as the Result of the most Close Researches into the Sure Word of Prophecy after the so great Disappointment of the Hopes I had at the Year Ninety Seven I Humbly Acknowledge to Infinite Grace it gave me not the least Doubt of the Truth and Divine Authority of sacred Scripture or particularly of the Prophetic Scriptures of Truth which the Divine Spirit takes such care to assure Are the True Sayings of God and that These Sayings are Faithful and True And I Humbly Bless Him I have besides all those Great and Weighty Arguments that so many Holy and Learned Men have Established the Autopisty or self-evident Diviness of Scripture upon I have the particular Assurance of so Admirable a Prophetic Scheme and Frame God hath given me that I am sure none but Infinite Prescience could ever have Projected or so curiously have Wrought and Inlaid and only to be Found by Compare of one Prophetic Scripture with another and when they are so matched one with another the Admirable Artifice is seen Now this very Adorable Workmanship led me to Ninety Seven by Prophetic Iconisms or Images adjusted to Prophetic Numbers of Time and justified and verified by Matters of Fact or as Prophecy calls them Effects of Vision in Ez. 12. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Matter of Fact of Vision universal History and Chronology Corresponding to them And in the very last Year after all Hope seeming to be past it pleased the Lord to shew me that Character of Time stiled Indictions or Fifteens of Years even studiously observed in adding 2 and 3 Fifteens to 1260 made up of so exact Dan. 12. Fifteens making them 1290 1345 All which sure could never be by Chance This Note of Indiction I say what I had always accounted I found enclapsed whole Prophetic Time from Solomon's Death to the Blessed Time at the end of the 1335 Days all which make 2730 Days â—â— Indicted As any one versed in Accomptancy may easily find And the very first the 390 Days of Ezekiel's bearing Judah's Sin begin in set Indictions Hereby I have found Ninety Seven established by even Arithmetic Demonstration as I have made out in a Treatise on purpose Printed 1699. Vpon all this I could not remove from Ninety Seven However so great a Failure looked so unfavourably upon it What therefore God upon earnest unwearied Prayers and so strict Enquiry aâ— the Holy Oracle was pleased to give in the Night at the House of an Elect Lady near Sarisbury and to enable to Cultivate and Improve I have here given to public view consisting of Four Heads 1. The Certainty of a most Stupendious Judgment to be executed on some City descyphered by Babylon and this City proved to be Rome 2. That the Time of this Judgment to be executed is at some pompous Time of Babylon such as the Holy Year or Jubilee and great Princes appearing for it 3. That whereas the Time this Judgment to be Executed was most properly Ninety Seven there is by a curious Artifice of Prophecy a Reserve of 3 Years and a half reaching to 1700 With an Answer of Objections to search of Time from Mistakes 4. That such a Reserve is called God's Infraction or Breach of Promise or his Abruption and Breaking off the Series and Contexture of Begun Providences the Notions of which are opened and applied to the present Case there are also Reserves in a way of Wisdom and Goodness from Ninety Seven And all recommended to Faith and Prayer under Divine Blessing and Humbly laid at the Feet of the Supreme Palmoni or Wonderful Numberer of Time the Apocalyptes or Revealer the High-Priest or Man Cloathed in Linnen and the Apostle of our Profession That He may judge whether his Word or not To Him God over all Blessed for ever be Glory for ever Amen THE JUBILEE OF THE Kingdom of CHRIST Coming on the Counterfeit JUBILEE of ROME Rev. xviii vii viii She saith in her Heart I sit a Queen and am no Widow and shall see no Sorrow Therefore shall her Plagues come in one day Death and Mourning and Famine and she shall be utterly burnt with Fire for strong is the Lord who judgeth her THE Intention of the following Discourse is to give Encouragement from this Scripture first then to excite and even arouse the Protestant Zeal Faith and Hope and to oblige the earnest Prayers and Supplications of the Reformed Churches and Nations and humbly to beseech the Princes and Governments of them by their Commands and Examples so to lead the way that we may all Rev. 6. 10. cry out with the loud Voice of the Souls under the Altar How long Lord Holy and True dost Thou not avenge the Blood of thy Servants on Them who dwell on the Earth which is a Prophetick Periphrase of Pagan Rome first and then of Rome Antichristian And this at a Time whereunto the Divine Spirit hath directed us so plainly and specially to
the Judgment hath been already Executed Object 1. As to the first I shall say these three Things Answ 1. That this Book hath such a Majesty of Truth in the most awfull Representations of the Divine Being of the Redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Beauty of Holiness and of the Abominableness and dreadful end of Sin That whoever hath any Fear of God arising from the light of Natural Conscience or any Gust of the Excellency of Sacred Writings cannot but acknowledge it from God Add hereunto those bright Rays that shining from it every where enlighten the Purity of Divine Worship in detestation of all Idolatry and Superstition and Illustrate the Glory of Martyrdom for keeping the Commandments of God and for holding the Testimony of Jesus In all The Glory of it is as of the Revelation of Jesus Christ given to him by God and who then will dare to set himself as a mark for that Commination If any Man take from the Words of the Prophecy of this Book God will take away his Part from all the great Promises of it and will add to him the Plagues written in it which both are most dreadful C. 22. 18 19. Answ 2. Let any one consider the Curious and Admirable Iconisms Images and Figures found in this Book and if he haue a Mind that hath Vnderstanding to apply them to the Events foretold from their first beginning shortly that is to begin from the time of giving it immediately to come to pass and reaching down to this very time he will find them so exactly to answer the prophetical and predictory Types as to justifie this Book of the Revelation to be from God by that very demonstration of Divinity God appeals to Esay 41 23. Shew us things to come that we may know ye are Gods Hence therefore we may be assur'd of the Divinity of this Prophecy even from the prescience of God in it Answ 3. The Prophecies of the Old Testament in Isa C. 47. and Jerem. 51. and in Daniel throughout are such an Exemplar of Judgment on whatever shall come under the Name of Babylon the great as Nebuchadnezzar memorializ'd it for after Ages that if we are duly perswaded of the Divine Authority of the one we have all the just Inducements of the same perswasion of this Apochaliptic Prophecy and that the Spirit who breathed the one breathed the other also who foresaw Mystical Babylon in litteral and prepar'd the Shades of the Destruction of it the Latter in the Former which highly aggrandizes the Evidence of the Divine Authority of the Revelation For none but the Divine Understanding could ever have excogitated such an Admirable Agreement Object 2. As to the second Objection That the Judgment hath been already Executed and the Prophecy fulfilled it shall be answer'd under the second Position that the City which is here denounced upon is Papal Rome from whence it will necessarily follow It is not nor can can yet have been Executed because the City Rome is yet in Being and Greatness but by this Judgment is utterly to be destroyed But in the mean time it may be envinc'd from the glorious Consequences drawn out C. 19. C. 20. C. 21. C. 22. which are so close connexed with this Judgment which have not yet come into effect that therefore not the Judgment itself for who can apprehend such Glorious Appearances as the Heavens opening Christ's coming forth Attended with the Armies of Heaven such an Universal Conquest of Enemies and such a New Jerusalem and Illustrious state of it have ever enlightned a World continuing yet so dark He that can perswade himself to believe that may believe any thing most unreasonable I come therefore to the second Position Posit 2. There are Infallible Characters fixed by this Prophecy by which we may be most assur'd It is the present Papal Rome to be Judg'd For the making out this Position Two things are to be prov'd 1. That Rome it self is the City intended 2. That though Rome Pagan be intended yet Rome Papal is the Babylon on which the Judgment is to be Executed so fully here describ'd That it is Rome There are two undeniable even Litteral Affirmations that even the Popish Expositors who have so great Reason to ward off the Blow from Rome yet they have not the face to deny the City must needs be Rome and therefore some of them fix on Pagan Rome But Rome take it Pagan take it Papal Rome it self is the City to be thus Judg'd as the Divine Spirit hath made known to us by saying the Seven Hâ—ads are Seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth Now the Seven Headed City was as plain a Character of Rome when the Apocalyptick Apostle writ as if we described London by the City whose Shore the Thames washes or Constantinople by the Bosphorus coming up to it Again the same Divine Spirit hath told us the City is she that hath the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kingdom at this very present time over the Kings of the Earth which is as plain a Distinction of Rome as at the time of the Revelation given as if we describ'd London by the City where the Courts of the King of Judicature and the Councils of the Nation are and the chief Seat of Trade is or Constantinople by the Ottoman Port Who that knows the History of the World at that time knows not That Rome was the Seate of the Empire of the World at that very Time This being so plain though other Proofs may be given I pass off from it and come to the second part of the Position That though Pagan Rome is to be taken in yet Papal Rome is the City to be Judg'd especially Ultimately Finally That this may be made out I must lay in the Foundation That as the City Rome is Evidently shewn to be the Babylon to be Judg'd So the Supremacy meant here by the Beast must be a Supremacy closely Related to the City Rome and Bearing up that City in Glory and Grandeur as Pope of Rome in the place of Emperor of Rome or any other of the Supreme Magistracys of it For the City and the Beast that Carryes it are Inseparable If it be therefore made out that the Supremacy is Papal on which the City is Born up when it is Judged It will most certainly follow that the City to be Judg'd is Rome Papal Even as if it be prov'd that the Rome to be Judg'd is Rome Papal It is therein prov'd that the Supremacy Judg'd is Papal Supremacy For as is said They are Inseparable and Proportion'd one to another I will therefore draw out several Characters of Papal Supremacy and of Papal Rome that are most Plain Matters of Fact upon both in Relation to and Compare one with another and that are given in Prophecy upon each as the most plain and easy to be understood waving what is more Critical and Curious and yet most Argumentative and most Conclusive as laid one to
and Its Roman City or False Church hath raised against those who have embraced Christianity and desire to enjoy it in the Purity and Simplicity of it or have not submitted to that Tyranny they have so grasp'd at as hath been described And we see the Princes and Powers of this World that have been the Devotionists of it have contributed their Force thereunto The secular Authority as they call it and which Prophecy calls The Ten Kings making War with the Lamb. And all this together hath come to that Extremity of Blood Slaughter and all manner of Torture as continue to this very Day History and Experience are so full of it I need say nothing The Waldenses or as we call them Vaudois are a lasting Monument hereof and continue so before our Eyes Now this Cruelty of Christians as they would be called upon their own so honourable Name is so monstrous that even Pagans cannot but be astonished at it and call into doubt that holy harmless and compassionate Religion so full of Mercy Peace all good Fruits when they find the Professors of it and the Papacy and Church of Rome who would be Supremes of it breathing out Slaughter and Blood to be as Lyons Tygers Wolves yea Devils let loose set on Fire of Hell upon those who profess the same Lord and Christ and such Princes as the French King to out-do the Neroes Domitians Decius's and Dioclesians and the Papal to equal yea to exceed the Pagan Rome herein And it should make us bewail that ever what hath been call'd Protestant should have any of these Stains upon it and abhor the least Thoughts of the Return of any such Thing in our own Nation Let us now take a View of the Portraicture of Prophecy and its Abundance when it gives us the Character of the little Horn of the King of Fierce Countenance of the lawless King that does after his own Will of the He to whom Time Times and Half are given of the Beast in the Revelation all which are one and the same Papacy of Rome as hath been already and may be now made out even to the very Nicety of Prophetic Explications and as to the Pseudo-Catholic Church of Rome Dan. 7. 21. I beheld and the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them Ver. 25. He speaks great words against the most High and shall wear out the saints of the most High Chap. 8. 24. His power shall be mighty but not by his own power and he shall destroy wonderfully and practise and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people Ver. 25. By Peace as if he did nothing but in a Peaceable Way Any thing of Force lies wholly on the secular Arm He shall yet destroy many In the Revelation Chap. 11. 7. The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless Pit shall make War against the Witnesses of Christ shall overcome them and kill them Chap. 13. 7. It was given by Way of Permission but most judiciary License also to make war with the saints and to overcome Ver. 15. He causes by his Supremacy in an Image that all who would not worship the Image of the Beast should be killed Ver. 17. And that no man might buy nor sell have Freedom of Trade as it is now in France who would not receive the mark of the Beast c. And till his Term expire this must be when it expires it shall end There is therefore set up as a Pillar inscrib'd as a Boundary of Time Ver. 10. Here is the Faith and Patience of the Saints Thus far it reaches till the Time of Judgment on the Beast and his Horns Then He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity he that killeth with the Sword shall be killed with the Sword Chap. 17. 14. The Ten Kings Horns of the Beast make war with the Lamb and his Saints But the Beast is taken and the Kings slain with Chap. 19. the Sword of Christ And as for the City or Papal Church of Rome how abundant is Prophecy Chap. 17. 6. I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of Jesus Chap. 18. 6. Reward her as she rewarded you Ver. 20. Rejoice over her Tbou Heaven and ye Holy Prophets and Apostles for God hath avenged you on her Ver. 24. In her was found the blood of the Prophets and Apostles and of the Martyrs all that were slain on the Earth Chap. 19. 2. God hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand And Chap. 11. 8. The bodies of the witnesses lay dead in the street of the great City which by Compare must be Babylon the Great the great City spiritually called Sodom for its corrupting the Earth with her Fornication and Egypt for her Cruelty and Tyranny and with that as distinct a Remark as could be set Spiritually All knowing their Antichristian Usurpation on that Word The Spirituality for the sake of which I could rejoice if that very Word in Use in our Nation Lords Spiritual were utterly blotted out Chap. 16. 3. The Angel that poured out his Vial on the Waters and Rivers of Babylon its Papacy and Kings said by way of Praise Thou art righteous Oh Lord which art wast and art to come because thou hast thus judged for they have shed the blood of thy Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy And anâ—ther Angel from the Altar where the souls ef Martyrs cry out How long Lord Answers Even so Lord God Almighty True and â—ighteous are thy Judgments Seeing then these Things of the Persecutions of the Romish City in its whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Breadth its Papacy and ten Kings are as clear as the Day and that Prophecy is so direct upon them if this very Character were alone it were even sufficient to assure it is Papal Rome under the Eye of Prophecy much more in this sevenfold Concenterment Charact. 7. The Papacy is the last Supream of the Roman Empire and that Supremacy the very last State and Time of this City Rome Now of this indeed we first say nothing beyond those Scriptural Reasons That the final and most destructive Judgments of God are to be expected on a City of so great Idolatries Filthinesses Pride Cruelty and the bloody Persecutions of the Servants of God and of so long Continuances therein as not only other Cities who when they have fill'd up their Measures of Iniquity have been judged by God but Jerusalem which God made so great an Exemplar of Judgment we may also observe in the Course of Providence and the Government of the World All humane States and Governments have come to their Periods and Rome having had so long a Duration from the Vrbs Condita or first Building of Rome and even since it became Rome Papal a Time as we may according to the most usual Allowances of Time to Cities and States the Sovereign Lord of Time hath determin'd
loss of Children All Scripture speaks of Sudden Destruction when Men cry Peace Peace It is a Time when Men are High and Proud and Haughty that their Fall is near Nebuchadnezzar was laid hold on by Vengeance with those words in his Mouth Is not this Great Babylon from whence it had its Name in this Prophecy of the Revelation Dan. 4. C. 11. Babylon the great The Great City said he which I have built for the Honour of the Kingdom by the Might of my Power and for the Honour of my Majesty And while the word was in the Kings Mouth the Judgment came upon him So while Belshazzar was in his Highest Jolity Drinking Wine in Vessels of the Temple and Praising his Idols of Silver and of Gold The Hand writing appear'd and that Night he was slayn Now it is certainly such a Time to Romish Babylon at this very day The Jubilee especially the Centurial is a Time when she sits a Queen is espoused by the Princes and is no Widdow when her Children gather about her the King of Poland so lately turn'd to her and she thinks she can know no Loss of Children when she sits as on a Throne Dispensing Pardons and Indulgences And a time it is when so Nebuchadnezzar-like a Prince is so Insolently Vaunting and so outragiously Persecuting and Protestant Princes stand by and are so Tender of the Articles of their late Peace as not to be at Liberty to offer their Intercessions to the contrary Thus far I have setled the Great Positions concerning the Judgment upon Babylon To which I shall add to Corroborate what I have already laid down and to make way to the Remaining Part of the Discourse these following Observations Observ 1. That together with the Judgment on Babylon not when it begins I would not be so mistaken but when it comes to it's Perfection and filling up There will be a concurrent Judgment upon the whole World of Wicked Men the World of the ungodly the Time of the Dead will then be come that they should be Judged The Judgments of C. 11. C. 15. God will be made Manifest in all the Earth Small and Great Bond and Free are slain with the Sword C. 19. 20 c. that proceedeth out of the Mouth of Christ the word by which he Judgeth at the last Day In the Burnings of Babylon the Cities of the Nations fall The Fire begins there and fpreads all over the Earth Then will be the great Earthquake and Hail Cap. 16. Vlt. All these Expressions and many other are made concurrent with Great Babylon coming up in Remembrance before God to give her the Cup of his Fury Now this ought to make greatly Remarquable to us the Judgment upon Babylon Observ 2. The Judgment of God upon Babylon is Celebrated with his Highest Adorations and Praises of his Servants Shewing at once the Highest Glory of God and the Happiness of his People in it There were Loud Voices in Heaven of Praise and the Four and Twenty Elders fell down on their Faces saying We Praise thee Oh Lord who Art who was who Art to come because then hast taken to thee thy Great Power and hast Reigned Which is at Babylons being Judged For then is the Allelujah of the Lord C. 11. God Omnipotent Reigning Psal 149. Then is the Time C 19. of the High Praises of God in the Mouths of his of their Rejoycing in Glory Then do they sing the Song of Moses the Servant of God and of the Lamb as we find it at large Then shall be the Four Courses of Alleâ—ujahs C. 15. 3. and all arising from Babylon being Judg'd that we have C. 19. 3. c. And then is the Glory of the New Jerusalem State coming down as a Bride Adorned for the Bridegroom Now then as the Eternal Judgment and the Allelujahs of Eternal Glory and Happiness are two so great points of Scripture Truth So by these Scriptures the Judgment of Babylon is declared a Great and a high point of Scripture Truth Because with Cap. 21. it are Complicated and Conserved the Truths of the Gospel that have such a Principality and Supremacy in it and they are so Interwoven with it that the one cannot be Separated from the other and the Judgment of Babylon ought therefore to be most closely attended to and not looked upon as a dark Prophetical Truth with which we have little to do Let us then Humbly set our selves as Daniel of old to search the Time in the Books of Prophecy when this Babylon as that of old is to be Judg'd and the whole Consederacy of the Enemies of the Kingdom and Servants of Christ yea all both small and great Wicked And then the Glory of Christ and his Reign shall appear And let us hast on to it with Earnestness of Prayer Desire and Expectation of it Observ 3. It is most undeniable The Prophecies of Scripture have continually given Numbers of Time as when Laws and Times are given into the Hand of the Little Horn there is a Limitation of Time and Times and Half when the Vision of the daily Sacrifice was given for the taking it away and the C. 7. Treading it under Foot There is a Time assign'd from the very First Date of the Vision to the Time of C. 8. Justifying the Sanctuary even 23000. Eves Morns When the Question was unto how long the End of the Wonders There is a Threefold Account of c. 12. Time Time Times Half a Time 1290. Dayes and 1335 Days In the Revel C. 11. On the Gentiles coming into the Outer Court There are Forty Two Moons Dererminate and to the Counter Prophecy of the Witnesses 1260 Days Three Days and a Half of the Witnesses lying Dead in the Street of the Great City 1260 Days of the Church in the Wilderness and Concurrent Three Times and a Half Forty two Moons of the Beasts continuated Supremacy And the Number of the Beast 666 with a General Rule and a Solemn Elogium of the Wisdom of Counting Here is Wisdom Let him that hath it Calculate as the word properly signifies And I say it is a General Rule There is the Same or a Parity of Reason to Count throughout And there are the same difficulties to be overcome For who indeed can once suppose the Blessed Spirit of Wisdom the Spirit of Truth Leading into all Truth the Spirit shewing Things to come would have given in the Scriptures of Truth which we are Commanded to Search and in the sure word of the Prophecy to which we are Commanded to give Heed as to a Light that Shineth in a Dark Place would have given these Numbers of Time if he had not intended they should be understood and guided our Hopes and Prayers to the Time of his Kingdom Observ 4. The Time of Babylon or Rome Judged is the Time of the Papacy going into Perdition The Time of the Papacy going into Perdition is the Time of Rome
or Violation or as in our Translation My i. e. Gods Breach of promise Numb 14. 34. The same word signifies Abruption or breaking off the even Contexture of Events begun All which have been mentioned already I will now according to these Rules discourse this Head But that I may do it with Greater Clearness I find it most advantageous to shew that in the Two Last Rules the various Instances of Reserved Times in Scripture are Deposited viz. Reserves of Time in a way of Goodness and Mercy and in a way of Displeasure and Breach of Promise Of these Two Reservings of Time being the only Kinds viz. Mercy or Displeasure I will first give an Instance of God's Dispensations in a way of Goodness Grace and Mercy in such a Reserve of Time The Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ was that very Fullness of Time that very To Day of his being Gal. 4. 4. made Known the only Begotten Son and for our Lords Entring into his Glory All Power in Heaven and Earth Psal 3. was Given to Him for his Spiritual Kingdom which He then Receiv'd and for the pouring out of his Spirit Then he Received the Sealed Book of all disposes over the Kingdoms of this World Rev. 5. And yet there were Fourty Days Surplusage of Time from the Resurrection of Christ to his Ascension And Fifty Days from his Death to the giving the Spirit Now the Death of Christ was plainly Foretold in the Middle of the Last Week And then he could not be Holden of Death but must Rise again the Third Day according to the Scriptures But that he should continue with his Disciples so long and that from his Death Fifty Days should be made up to the Giving of the Spirit was not so plainly Revealed Indeed if we could have laid our thoughts before or now closely consider the Distance of Time between the two Feasts of the Passover and Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks and that the Antitype must Answer the Type we might find some Ombrage of it But it was so obscure as hardly to be Traced till Reveal'd in the History of the Event though so prefigur'd at such a Dâ—stance Now this was in Mercy That our Lord Christ might give those many and Infallible Proofs of his Resurrection and speak to his Apostles whom he had chosen of the Things pertaining to the Kingdom of God But the Effect of Vision was herein much Lower then in his sitting down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on high in the Heavens and his making Intercession for us So the most Glorious Effects were not till such a Time after yet still the Principal Time was not Remov'd from its Dignity For the Death and Resurrection in that most Eminent Period of Time the Half Week Remains the very Base of the Forty Days and to all After-Time the very Hinge on which it turns till it shall come to the Fullness of All Times the Kingdom of Christ Ephes 1. 10. And as this was but such a short Time so it did but summ up and Recollect the Glorious Ministry of our Lord Jesus and could not be exceeded In the way of Judgment I give a Second Instance The very self same Night of the 430 Years Inclusive of the 400 Years assign'd to Abraham Gen 15. had indeed the Great Event of the Going out of Egypt yet that Glorious Constellation of Events Bringing into the Land of Promise and Casting out the Nations was not perform'd till Forty Years after This was indeed no way that we Know now to have been found but by God's so Immediate Revelation of Forty Days Prophetically given a Day for a Year It was but a short Time compar'd with the 430 Years And it could not be Transcended The Certainty of the Highest Complement of the Great Promise Fullfill'd was there to Begin And the Forty Days of Years was but a Surplusage of Time and a Recollection and Summing up of the Sojourning State of the 430 Years But that which I have especially to Remark upon it is That it was in the way of Infraction of Promise and Abruption of that Contexture or God's Breaking off from what he had begun to do in the Deliverance out of Egypt signified by that Hebrew Word so Emphatic hereof Numb 14. 34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But yet this very End of the 430 Years Remain'd the Foundation of the Time following after and was not mov'd from its Dignity For the passing through the Red Sea and Pharoah's Overthrow in it the Victory over Amalâ—k the Nomothesia or the Giving of the Law the Rearing of the Tabernacle Rested All on this Time and its Great Event and the Forty Years are dated from it which were else but Thirty Eight Years from the Ill Report of the Spies to the Entry upon Canan and the Ending of the Following Course of Time to Solomon's so Resplendent Reign and the Building of the Temple is Dated from it 480 Years 1 Kings 6. 1. Even from the Going out of Egypt And this Instance is the more Remarkable Because although this Time was Known to and Resolved of God as before as all his Works from the Foundation of the World Yet it comes in by way of Infraction of Promise and it broke off the Contexture of Great Deliverances It is Given so in Prophetic Language therefore a Day for a Year as in our present Prophecy we are upon and was upon the Account of Provocation and unsuitable Frame to Deliverances and the End of this Surplusage of Time touches the Entring into the Land of Promise the Type of the Glorious Kingdom of Christ Another Instance of this Kind may be The Seventy Years of the Babylonish Captivity had their most Known and Celebrated Period in the First Year of Cyrus as the Vniversal Monarch in the Second of the Four Kingdoms the Persian Kingdom we find therefore his Proclamation Twice Recorded in Scripture viz. in the End of the Second Book of Chronicles and in the Beginning of the Book of Ezra But here was not the Complement of Effects The Spirit of God Gives Account of several stops and stays till the very Seventh Year of Artaxerxes There the word of Restoring Judah and Jerusalem had its full going forth It was all yet as one United Time of the Words going forth to Restore and to Build Jerusalem It began in the Decree First of Cyrus then of Darius then of Artaxerxes King of Persia Ezr. 6. 14. which so full decree of Artaxerxes we have C. 7. 12. c. This he makes as Successor to Cyrus in that Monarchy and of which Nebuchadnezzar was the Golden Head viz. of the Four Vniversal Kingdoms and so styles himself King of Kings Now here Great Abruption had been from what God begun in Cyrus So that the work was stayed to the Second Year of Darius Ezr. 6th 24. Then another Seventy Years had slid in Recorded by Zachariah C. 1. 12. Which had their Epoch or
beginning as may be Computed from Nebuchadnezzars 23 d Year Jerem. 50. 30. At the last Captivation And here the Provocation was as may be Collected from the Holy Writers at that Time the unwillingness of the Jews to Leave their Babylonish Plantations And those who did go up to Judah neglected the House of God to Hag. 1. 4. Zech. 2. 6. Build their own Ceiled Houses The Great Delay of the Glorious Kingdom of Christ due to him at his Resurrection is so Transcendental to all other Cases and for which delay Vision and Prophecy was sealed at his Death until the very Time we are now waiting for I do not undertake to Insist upon at this Time being so ordain'd by the Father and by the Mediator for Holy and Wisest Reasons too large for the present Now in these Reserved Times they are so given in Prophecy That they might wholly have United with the Principal Times beginning and ending together but when they by the Event Run out beyond such Principal Times It then appears they were so Design'd by Prophecy to do And when they are in Judgment They seem as it were to Usurp upon the Time immediately following Those Principal Times As the Forty Years in the Wilderness Invaded so much Time of enjoying Canaan before the Reigns of David and Solomon Abridging and cutting it 40 Years shorter In The stay of the Building and Restoring the House of God from Cyrus to Darius and the full Restoration not made till Artaxerxes's Seventh Year The following Time of enjoying that Restored State was so much Decurtated Abbreviated and Retrench'd When such a Delay is in Mercy as in our Lords stay upon the Earth beyond his Resurrection The Time following the Principal Time as the Fourty Days of Christ with His is Enrich'd with Great Appearances of the Bridegroom not taken from the Children of the Bride Chamber And yet it was a Delay of Christs Appearance in Heaven and of the Spirit poured out I look upon these Instances as full Proof That there are such Mantissa's or Surplusages such Recollections or Epitomes of Reserved Time beyond the most Noted and Principal Times before which the high Events may not be Compleated but then most certainly shall I shall now in the following Heads apply my self to Ninety Seven whose Great Events have not yet been fill'd up Head 3 d. I come therefore to the Third Head And most particularly to shew the Curious Artifice and Contrivance of the Divine Spirit in the so giving the Times and Half in the 1260 Days That there may be a Reserved Time and under such an Equipoize of Interpretation that the Reserved Time may be drawn up into and within the Principal Time Or may be extended beyond it into some further Time and no Determination but by the Providential Event The Time that may be Reserv'd and Extended beyond the 1260 Days I have already assign'd to be the Three Days of Years and a Half The end of which shall have the whole Constellation of Events Transferr'd from the End or Period of the 1260 Days upon it self viz. from 1697 to 1700 As on purpose to Fulfil I trust the word of the Lord That what Time Babylon saith I sit a Queen her Plagues should begin to come in one Day And herein I cannot but hope The Beauty and Symmetry of Prophecy shall be seen between 97 as the Principal Time and the Three Years and a Half as the Recollectionary Time ending with the Jubilee 1700 To this very great purpose I lay down the following Scheme of Prophecy concerning this Point as in its Equipoize between 97 and 1700. 1. The first thing I observe herein is That after the Great High Preist and Apostle of our Profession The Man Cloathed in Linnen had given in Answer to the Angels who asked How Long to the End of these Wonders Dan. 12. 5. c. That there should be a Delay of Finishing for Time and Times and a Half He also added when He i. e. the Scatterer shall have accomplished to scatter the Power of the Holy People All These viz. Wonders shall be Finish'd Daniel complains He heard but he understood not Now it is true the Prophets did not understand the Particularities of All that was Reveal'd to them concerning Time but were left to search what or what manner of Time the Spirit of Christ which was 1 Pet. 1. in them did signifie Yet even their Doubts Recorded in Scripture were under Divine Inspiration and are so order'd as to give Occasion to Further Revelation But Time Times and Half were Reveal'd to Daniel before to be given to the Little Horn to wear out the C. 7. Saints of the Most High which was the same thing with scattering the Hand of the Holy People That then needed not a New Repetition The Thing therefore he understood not was What Time the Accomplishing to scatter might take up He Appeals therefore to his Lord and our Lord My Lord saith he what shall the End of These i. e. Wonders be His Question is directed upon the very Point he understood not and Receives Answer in Three Particulars 1. That there will be a Closedness and a Seal of Secrecy set upon the Determinate Time of Wonders Finishing viz. till the Event determines it The Seal on the Foreheads of the Servants of God Remains till the End and till the End or very Accomplishing to scatter They cannot be distinctly known For till then the Witnesses appear not Vnseal'd or with the Father's Name writ on their Foreheads in a Risen State on Mount Zion 2. It is Given as a Diagnostic or distinct Note of the Time between the End of the Times and Half or the 1260 Days and the Time of Accomplishing to scatter Many shall be Purified and made White and Tryed which we may very well understand of those they call The New Converts or the Re-united who have since been made White by Repentance and Purifying Grace who have been made Wise by Remembring what they had Receiv'd and Heard of the Gospel-Purity and Return'd to it coming a new out of Babylon while Persecutors will not understand but do more and more wickedly Persecuting and Scattering till the Vtmost End and Accomplishment of Scattering 3. The Great Palmoni or Wonderful Numberer of Time insensibly and yet as in Answer to Daniel's Question gives a further Delineation of Time in Thirty Days added to the 1260 making them 1290 under an Epoch or Beginning Characteriz'd with the Taking away the Daily viz. Sacrifice and the Abomination that maketh Desolate set up which I look upon most Undoubtedly to be argued to be the Antichristian Apostacy by the Papal Gentiles Entring into the Outer Court and so Taking away the Truly Christian Worship And to these Thirty of the 1260 are added Forty Five making the 1290 1335. Reaching to the very Blessed State of the New Jerusalem in which Daniel is assured a Lot and in the mean time to rest his Further Enquiries
and People His Spirit not coming upon them as on the Worthies of Old Nor was He pleased to give them that Resolution To make no Peace without the Security and Freedom for that which they accounted the True Christian Religion or with them who would and do now make Advantage of that Peace to the Persecution and Slavery of them with whom they are or ought to be of the same Character who keep the Commandments of God and hold the Testimony of Jesus So that this Peace was not at all to their Honour before God and His Servants although those under them ought to be Humbled because their want of Faith Love Holiness Peace and Union so Dishonoured God that He in Just Offence left Princes States Governments to themselves not to Appear for God as for their own Interests Object I know it may be said Because the Time was not come There was not that Spirit of Life from God foretold by Prophecy coming upon them and therefore they could not Act according to it And this alone was Argument enough Ninety Seven was not the Time of Accomplishing to Scatter nor of Beginning to Finish the Wonders Answ It is most True the Spirit of Life from God not coming down and Entering the Witnesses did shew It was not the Time But it is yet True the unsuitable Frame of Spirit in Protestants did Provoke God to Breach of Promise the culpable Cause of Mercies deny'd or delay'd is the want of that Holy Agreeable Frame although the Gift of such Grace is from God For in God alone is our Help yet still our Destruction is of our selves It is alway His Spirit that makes that other Spirit in us that was in Caleb and Joshua The want of such a Spirit as is Agreeable to what God hath promised to do provokes Him most Justly to Breach of Promise as to the Time held out to our Eye although he alone Gives that Spirit and Will at the very Time when the Promise must and shall certainly be Fulfilled Want of Holiness is a full Reason of Want of Deliverance although at the Time when Deliverance shall be Hâ—liness shall be also The peculiar Frame agreeing with the Kingdom of Christ is the Frame we find Obab 17. in the Church of Philadelphia not in our Sardis Rev. 3. 2. Let us now Consider the Delay or Translation of the great Effects expected at 97 from 97 to 1700 as the word Breach of Promise signifies Abruption or Breaking off the Series and Contexture God had pleased to have Begun and seem'd to be Going on in as therefore it cannot but be acknowledged There was not in 97 the glorious Appearance of the expected Effects So on the other side it cannot be deny'd There were such Beginnings that if God had pleased to go on in there had certainly been before this Time a very great Change and Revolution in the World But no sooner were those Offertures made but God shew'd his Abruption or Breaking off from any Thing he had Begun Two great Instances of which we had in that Year First The Treaty of Peace at Reswick was a very Remarkable Dispose of God bringing the Antichristian Princes to a Necessity of making Peace while Protestant Princes and States had a Ballance upon them and the Peace This looked very Hopefully that the Interests of Protestancy and the Reformation wherein the Glory of God of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Safety of His People and their Peace and Quiet was so undeniably Compriz'd should have found great Advantages and by an Embarrassement on all further Persecution on Protestancy there might have been an Accomplishment of Scattering This was a gracious Honorary Dispose on 97 and at the very Autumnal Equinox as the very Time that was to bear the Signal of the Witnesses Rising Herein God was pleased to set Judgment before those Protestant Sovereigns and to shew them what they were to do especially considering what Just Pleas they had to Insist upon as particularly and eminently that Edict of Nantz in behalf of the French Reformed where the Persecution hath since been Pursued with so great Barbarity But to shew God's Abruption as in the very Time and in the very Act of the Treaty concluded and so his Infraction in the very Year of Ninety Seven and of the Peace concluded And to Remonstrate both as before all the Nations about as he hath sometimes put a Word into the Mouth of his very Enemies especially when they are of Eminency as Balaam an exalted Prophet Caiaphas the High-Priest So it is much to be Reflected upon what the King of France that Prince of Persecution writ to the Arch-Bishop of Paris in the beginning of the Month called January in Popish Style 98 but in True Prophetic and even Protestant Style 97 Requiring the Thanksgiving of Te Deum after the Popish Manner for the Peace thus He Began The Time which Heaven hath Ordained How express for 97. for the Reconciliation of the Nations Sure the Protestants of each Nation made up the Nations This looked Fair for the Accomplishing to Scatter For the Protestants making up the Nations and the Time for the Reconciliation of the Nations being come their Scattering or Persecution was to Cease or to be Accomplished How else Reconciled But as if at the same Time God made an Abruption upon what was so promisingly Begun in 97 and put a Reproof into that Prince's Mouth upon the Protestant Princes and in them upon the Nations and even the Churches walking so much beneath the True Spirit of the Reformation and so provoking God to withdraw His mighty Spirit and Presence from the Princes That King thus expresses himself That which I Glory in most of all is the Worship of the true Religion as Authorized by a solemn Treaty under Sovereigns of a Different Faith the Author of so many Graces shews Himself too manifestly not to be Acknowledged and the Visible Characters of his Almighty Hand which they Bear seem to be the Seal he hath Affixed to them to Justify my Intentions Busied from this Time forward in Causing him to be truly Worshipped in all my Dominions In all which I have not the least Regard to the Assumings of that Haughty Monarch in which there is much of the Spirit and Style of the King of Assyria's Letter by Rabshakeh when he ask'd Am I come up without Jehovah All I consider is What of Agreement there can be Found between His Words and the Words of Prophecy As when he saith The Time for the Reconciliation of the Nations is Come a Word of great Extent in Scripture-Sense and Introducting a great Change indeed among the Nations and very Consonant to Scripture Predictions For I have all Reasons of Assurance to Conclude It was so in the First Institution of God and the Treaty of Peace was a Fit Method in Human View to it When the Treaty therefore was Concluded and a Peace so call'd made without Reconciliation of the
further Reserved Time for Wise and Holy Reasons in a way of Grace in the Retirements of Prophetic Sense And so I cannot but hope There is at this Time That Wise Holy and Gracious Purpose of the Delay That the very Just Season of the Judgment on Babylon should be taken according to what hath been already laid down and needs no Repetition that shall also concur with those of Displeasure Viz. The Popish Jubilee And seeing according to what I have Humbly laid down The Prophecys of Scripture have placed nothing beyond these Three Years and a Half ending with the Year 1700 but the Finishing Wonders in Daniel and the Seventh Trumpet of Finishing in the Revelation As I have most Abased Sense of my own Weakness Darkness and Unworthyness and Profoundest Reverence of the Divine Wisdom Holiness Supreme Dominion In which Regard none can stand before him or as a Shepherd appoint him the Time So I cannot but Trust in his Mercy and the Mâ—ghtiness of his Arm He will bring it at that very Time to pass and I observe That in Callenging of any Shepherd to stand before him he especially Directs to those who when they hear of the Judgments of God on the Enemies of his People Edom and Babylon and So now on Babilonish Rome think They can bring up Jerem. 4â— 50. those who shall Oppose the Councels of God like a Lyon coming up from the Swellings of Jordan with all speedy Rage and Power and oblige him to choose another Time for the Execution of his Judgment These are Jer. they who would stand as Shepherds before him and appoint him a Time Not they who would wait upon him in the way of his Judgments and would Discern the Signs of the Times thereof For it is a Severe Reproof The Stork in the Heavens knoweth her Appointed Time and the Crane and the Swallow and the Turtle observe But my People know not the Jerem. 7. â— Judgment of the Lord. Surely the Prophetic Scribe especially in Accounting the Numbers Time it sets He made it in vain the Pen of that Scribe is in vain It is true the Apostle does most Vehemently perswade â— Thes â— not to be moved with Letter or Spirit or Word as if the Day of Christ were at Hand But then at that Time He gives the most certain Substantial Line of Time in General to it Viz. The Course of the Son of Perdition till he goes into Perdition And then the Apostle John very particularly gives the Definite space of Time his Forty Two Moons of Years that we may know how to Distribute betwixt the Too Great Suddenness or the Too Long Delay of the Expectation and yet throughout to maintain that Looking for and hasting on to the Day of God in all Holy Desires and Preparation by Suitable Conversation while we daily Consider How he hath Declared the End from the Beginning that we may see and behold it together and be struck with Admiration This is that Glorious Challenge God makes upon the Idols of the Heathen in Justification of himself against them Declare Shew to us the Things that are to come Do Esay 41. 23. c. Work Good or Evil Judgments or Deliverances that we may know you are Gods To attend our God therefore herein in searching out and declaring what he hath first declar'd is to give Glory to him And this is the only End I have through his Grace propos'd in this Esay 41. 13. c. Discourse In its Beginning By setting out the certainty of Babylons Judgment at the Times of its Greatest Solemnity of Pomp and Pride and of the Strongest Combination of the Horns of the Beast the Princes of Europe to strengthen and exalt it and for the Persecution of the Servants of God who will not Receive his Mark nor Worship his Image Now that in this Time its Plagues may come upon that City of Fornications Drunk with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus as in one Day I cannot but Humbly Beseech and Recommend it to all the Servants of God who Love the Appearing and Kingdom of Christ not to be Discourag'd with the Delay beyond 97 but to cry with the Spirit and the Bride Come Lord Jesus come Quickly knowing the Time so undoubtedly Fixed and so near Herein The Grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all Amen Books lately Printed and Sold by John Marshall at the Bible in Grace-Church-street A Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Reverend Divine Mr. Thomas Gouge Who Deceased Jan. 18th 1â—99 By John Nessbit one of the Merchant Lecturers at Pinners-Hall Breadstreet 2 The Government of the Thoughts Prefactory to the Government of the Tongue by the Author of the Duty of Man An Ellegiack Essay on the Pious Memory of that Eminent and Learned Divine Mr. Mathew Mead with his True Effiges newly Engrav'd to the Life also most of his Works with most sorts of Books to Learn Short-hand