and them that worship therein this was the temple of priests for there was the Altar in the holy place now the other temple which was the most holy there was the Ark and that is the temple which is opened after the 7th trumpet sounded The holy of holies the temple of God was opened and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament Revel 11. last The ark was not seen in the temple of the Priests where the Altar was but it was seen in the most holy place for thither was the ark carryed and so in that chap. 15. Behold the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened This is not that state of the Church whiles they were under suffering from Antichrist but it is that state that the Church enters into after the expiration of the term of Antichrist when they are just going up into the kingdom that is the temple that is opened at the 7th trumpet and there it is called the temple of the tabernacle of testimony Because the ark was called the ark of the testimony and the tables that were in the ark are called the tables of testimony so that I say these temples were distinct that is the first thing The Second thing that I have to prove is that this most holy place is not opened for the Vyals to come out but is opened after they are come out for when the Angels are said to come out of the temple there is no specification that that temple was the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony but I heard a great voice out of the temple chap. 6. v. 1. now to prove this he says in the beginning of the 15th chap. I saw a great signe in heaven and there is a summary account of the Vyals pouring out and the victory of the true Church of Christ over the Antichristian Sinagogue in the four first verses before you hear of the opening of the ten ple of the tabernacle of testimony for this is a character that is observed throughout the Revelations where you meet with that word after these things as you do in 5th vers there is always another vision of distinct new matter and that which follows in time after the former as for instance after the Lord had dispatch't his minde unto Johu in those Epistles in the 2d and 3d chap. It is said chap. 4. After this I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven so likewise in the 7th chap. after the 6th seal had brought the heathen dragon down and cast him to the earth it is said after these things I saw 4 Angels standing c. Now this is an evident token of things that do succeed and follow and are not contemporary so here chap. 15. v. 6. It is said after the Vyals and not before the Vyals of which he had given a summary account in the former verses and indeed if we do but consider the nature and import of Vyals that will help us in the discerning of this point that is before us which will serve for an answer to another objection and that is this You will say the Vyals are the judgments of God upon the beast now this is the order of divine justice that sin when it is finished brings forth death but the beast had not finished his sin at the begining of the times of reformation and therefore it is not to be expected that he should have his reward till he hath done his work Answ Yet he had done work enough to be rewarded for before the Vyals began he was not idle he fell to work immediatly when once he had power given to him he opened his mouth in blasphemies He had ravished the Christian world from Christ before these Vyals began to be poured forth did he not deserve something for all this was he not ripe for judgments all the work that he did afterwards was very much occasioned by the Vyals by the coming forth of the light and the truth against him which did sorely vex him so that he behaved himself like a beast indeed with great rage more then before But consider in the 2d place mark ye the import of the Vyals of which word we read but once as I know in the old Testament viz. of a Vyal and that was Samuels taking a Vyal of oyl but the Vyals we read of in the Revelations are full of odours or the prayers of the saints now there are but 3 things that can fill the Vyals either the sin of the enemies or the judgments of God for those sins or the prayers of the saints and I think they may be all in the Vyals It is certain the prayers of the saints are there they cryed from the primitive times and so down all along The sins of the enemy they also fill up these Vyals you know what God says of the Amorite The sins of the Amorites are not yet full for so God tells Abraham as much as to say the Vyals are not yet full I shall give you one place here the Lord speaks much in this kinde of phrase Deut. 3.34 Is not this laid up with me in store or sealed up among my treasures he says before Their wine is the poyson of Dragons is not this laid up in store with me you know there are seven seals and six of them were opened before the heathen Roman was destroyed So that all the whole time from Christ unto his second coming is all under the seals we are under the seals to this day the 7th seal is not sully opened till Jesus Christ in person be exhibited to the joyful view and beholding of those that look for him All this while God is registring and recording all the sins of the enemy all their bitterness it is sealed up amongst his treasures that is the 2d thing that fills the Vyals the sins of the enemy Consider that antichrist had been at work about a 1000 years before ever a Vyal did stir against him before the beginning of the Reformation And as there was the sins of a thousand years treasured up against him and the prayers of a thousanp years for vengeance upon him so there was the wrath of God distilling into these Vyals for every sin brought a drop of wrath into these Vyals still therefore you need not say that antichrist had not done his work and so was not to have his wages for you fee he had done a great deal of his work yea his sin was full that is so much as was to precede the Vyals Now because the time is so farr past I shall spend the remainder of it in a word or two of application it is a word of exhortation to us To be waiting for the return of our Lord from the wedding and I would not have you think this is th same word altogether with that I spake the last day thongh if it were yet it were worth the while I exhorted you then to watch and that was
of the Angels when Christ comes from heaven the spirit is that power by which it is done and that being with us what advantage might we make to this day of God through the affistance of the spirit It is possible for men to have the name of the new Jerusalem written upon them before the new Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven else what means that promise Rev. 3.12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the house of my God and the name of the Citty of my God even of the new Jerusalem c. The overcomer is the person to whom this promise is made we must fight the good fight of saith we must be over coming all our spiritual enemies and this is the work of this present day let the Dutch and others grapple with their enemies we have other enemies to deal with though we desire that God would fight the battels of his people every where and give them the advantage in every battle ye I say we have other enemies that we are engaged with I tell you this overcoming is only by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ he is the overcomer that hath suffered in the flesh To this overcomer is the promise made of writing on him the name of the citty of God what is the meaning of that why he shall walk in the name in the power in the spirit of that new state An APPENDIX to the Former Discourse Of the 5th Trumpet with a general view of the four precedent trumpets THat the 5th trumpet is not to be ranged so high into the ages past as most interpreters do applying it to the incursions of the Saracens soon after the 600 year of Christ and allowing the space of 700 years well night between that and the 6th trumpet which they place upon the beginning of the 13th century There are many reasons to disswade as First from the general doctrine of the trumpets it is agreed by all that the man of sin or Antichrist hath as well his growing as his judgement and fall under the trumpets it must also be affented to that his sin must be full before his fall and judgment comes accordingly the four first trumpets are the time of his fin and corruption rising to the height and breaking forth and though those trumpets are applyed by most expositors to the judgment of the beast gradually destroying him and may with some fitness of allusion find ground and matter for such application for God though he gave up the Antichristian world to that Apostacy did not forbear to witness all along against gainst their growing corruptions in such manner as may answer the language and expressions of the 4 first trumpets yet I humbly conceive they properly set forth to us the gradual growth of corruption and degeneracy in that sinagogue of Satan and the occasion and means thereof which was 4 fold 1. The waxing cold of their love and the breaking forth of contentions about outward things exprest by the haile and fire mingled with blood and cast on the earth the generality of professors under the first trumpet The 2d degree ambition and burning desire of rule and supremacy in the clergy as they will be called exprest by the burning mountain cast into the sea under the 2d trumpet The 3d corruption in their administrations by a malignant star falling on the Rivers and fountains under the 3d trumpet 4ly A corruption of their light exprest by singling the 3d part of the sun the moon the stars under the 4th trumpet and here by this time things are come to that pass that the Lord sees it time to give a stop and to take in hand to judge this abominable state and therefore sin being finished so far as was ordained to be before for the rest of their sin breaks forth under their judgment and it is not the least of their sin there is an Angel sent to fly through the midst of heaven to denounce wo wo wo to the inhabitants of the earth i.e. to the worshipers of the beast by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the 3 Angels that are yet to sound now these three last trumpets being of a classis ranged thus together distinguished from the 4. preceeding it is a strong presumption that they are of a different nature and import and that as the former trumpets discover the growth of Antichrists sin so these acquaint us with the steps of his judgment under the 4 first he was climbing up higher and higher in his state and in his sin under the 3 last he is declining still more and more and sinking into the wrath of God under judgment till at last he is cast into the lake both head and tail this is my first Reason My 2d is from the non-quadrature of the application of the 5th trumpet to the Saracens in respect of time the Saracens I grant were a sore judgment and infested the Roman world exceedingly by courses and by times from the year 60 till the time of the Turks prevailing which was for many hundreds of years and were that hand and judgment whereby God testifyed against those growing corruptions of Rome all along while they were springing up but these Locusts under the 5th trumpet are bounded and limited within their 5 months which take a day for a year make but 150 years how this time can give an account of the incursions of the Saracens by the space of 6 or 700 years I cannot see nor am I satisfied with Mr. Medes falve for it having I think good reason to dissent from him and to understand these Locusts under the 5th trumpet of the 1st times of the Turks from the beginning of the 13th century while by the space of 150 years they were very noisome and offensive tormenting the men that had not the seal of God in their foreheads but not killing them as after that time they did for about the year 1450. or 53. as Mr. Mede hath noted out of History was Constantinople taken by the Turks which was a killing or an extinguishing of the Roman name in the East where you have the 5 months exactly from the 1st uniting of the 4 families of the Turks under the Ottoman family My third ground is from the mother text as I may call it from whence this allusion of the Locusts is taken which is from the prophecy of Joel as Mr. Mede hath observed to my hand which prophecy throughout is a celebrating of the day of the Lord or the day of his judgment in a prophetical strayn as is in so many words expresly owned more then once or twice in that prophecy chap. 1.15 chap. 21.11.31 and chap. 3.12 And in this day of the Lord judgment begins at the house of God and that takes up the one half of the prophecy unto the 18th verse of the 2d chapter and from thence to the end is the judgment of the enemy and God brings this judgment
beginning at 390. both the computations will come up together both Daniel and John and so they did come up together I am very well satisfied in it I speak it as to my self but I impose it upon no other I say they did I humbly conceive come up in the year 1650. then was Daniels 1290. dayes expired and then was the 42 months ended Now for the 45. dayes that are afterwards they are I believe the time that Daniel speaks of here in the beginning of this chapter At that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people This may seem strange that after Antichrist his 42. months are expired we should have such a time of trouble as never was but pray mark I believe there is a great mistake in this in the objecting of this trouble or in the applying of it As if it were the time properly of the Churches trouble I grant that the Church shall have a great sence of the trouble in common among others nay I grant that the enemies of Christ and of his kingdom shall chiefly direct their aim in all the time of that trouble against the Church even if it were possible to blot out the name of Israel from under heaven But the holy Ghost doth not object this trouble directly upon the Church nor properly for this being that time when Michael stands up the trouble is only accidental to the Church for it is the time that the Lord will deliver his people the trouble is but the charges of the suit would you be delivered without suit It is as if a woman should expect to be delivered without travel you should look upon the issue of the trouble observe how it is spirited how it is intended what is the designe of the trouble the Lord is coming to judge he is coming to take down this old state of things that he may bring in a new this is the trouble of these times It is not a trouble that is under the management of the enemy as if they did what they would no they are passive they are driven by the judicial hand of God they are bringing down their own house with their own hands as Solomon says it is that trouble under which the saints are called to lift up their heads because their redemption draweth nigh A little to gird this closer to us of the times being fulfilled wherein I do expose my self and my judgment Let others think of it and me as they shall see cause but I say I do verily apprehend it so I would not come to you with vain visions were it not sealed up to me to my heart and soul and it is not a new thing but I have been a long time leading into it and am more and more confirmed in it that the time is fulfilled and that this work that is now in hand it is Christs work it is he that gathers the nations but I say to gird this unto us consider this one thing That Antichrist is the last enemy that is to infect or annoy the Church and the only enemy that doth let or hinder the revelation of the son of God or rather the son of man from heaven and therefore if we can shew as I think we have shewed that his time is out then the time of Christ is come which I shall desire no other evidence for then what you finde in the 2 Thes 2. Where the Apostle is setling the minds of believers in those days touching the times of the man of sin and of the day of Christ when it should be and he issues his discourse into this as you may see in that chapter that there was nothing that hindred but the man of sin who was not yet revealed but this mystery must have it's time it must have its course he must be revealed and then when that man of sin is revealed then shall he be consumed by the spirit of Christs mouth and destroyed by the brightness of his coming and then comes the day of Christ for so you see in the text let no man deceive you for that day shall not come except there be a falling away first Now when that falling away hath had it's course and that the man of sin hath been revealed then there is nothing to let but Christ will come I could please my self with this subject In the next place I come to the signes which may be more suitable to you then these calculations are For these signes are those that our Saviour accomodates to all capacities he delivers them to his poor disciples who were at that time men of no extraordinary reach though when the spirit came upon them they were wonderful men otherwise they were no extraordinary men and our Saviour gave them these signes of his coming And I tell you now before I point you to these signes I shall not point you to such as it may be you might think but the signes that shall come upon you you shall finde in Mat. 24.29 The sun shall be darkned and the moon shall not give her light and the starrs shall fall from heaven c. And then shall appear the signe of the son of man in heaven I confess I have read these Scriptures many and many a time and have perused them over with the sence of an allegory in them a general notion of the darkness of the times and the like And some look upon them it may be according to the letter as if there should be a wonderful consternation upon these heavenly bodies that should make them to withhold their light But I shall acquaint you with what hath been presented to me and let them that are spiritual judge of it First where shall we begin these signes for here our Saviour doth give them a beginning immediately after the tribulation of those dayes now the question is what those dayes are that our Saviour speaks of before what the tribulation was as the end of which those signes do commence I know that you can hardly avoid fixing that tribulation upon the destruction of litteral Jerusalem I confess I would not undertake the task to carry the discourse that doth antecede this 29. v. out to any other subject then the destruction of Jerusalem but yet let me tell you by comparing this with another Scripture you shall finde a great help to discern what that tribulation was viz. Luk. 21.34 Jerusalem shall be troden down c. untill the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled Our Saviour speaks here and Luke doth record the very same discourse of our Saviour as Mathew doth and it doth appear by comparing these that our Saviour intended that description of those calamitous times that was to come upon Jerusalem to be a type and a figure of that passing away of carthly Jerusalem among the Gentiles The one was a glass as I may say and a mirror in which you might see the other it was a type and a
the space of 42 months unto the coming down of the new Jerusalem and Christs glorious appearance and having dispatch't that I came to the application and the last time I spent the whole in an use of exhortation to watching to watch for the Lords coming thinking to have gone on with other duties that this season calls for But it hath been cast into my thoughts since I was here that there may remain some doubts touching the times and I may be thought too forward and early a reckoner and that chiefly upon the account of the Vyals which many very serious and enquiring souls many that are very much enlightned in the works of God in this day and have great hopes for the kingdom of Christ and do wait heartily for redemption in Jerusalem yet cannot get over the stumbling block of the Vyals thinking they are not yet poured out whereas I have intimated often that we are under the 6th Vyal and have been so long Therefore though it may seem to be a great undertaking to remove this obstrnction and to give satisfaction in this point and I cannot say that I have so prepared my self for it that I can promise this will be the fruit of it yet I am willing to appear though in weaknesse and hold forth that light which I have for this thing that the Vyals most of them are poured forth I shall first give you my grounds for this and then I shall answer an objection or two that are come to my knowledge against it and so we shall go on afterwards with one application Now in discerning this point as indeed in discerning all prophetical mysteries there are two rules that do exceedingly avail to the guiding of us in fynding out the minde of God in prophetical truths and the first is this to look to the type and compare the type and the antitype together and the second is to compare the works of God in the world with his word for these works of God are the comment upon his word and the best comment that we can have Now for the first I would premise this that there is not any thing in the new Testament not any period of time nor any scene that concerns us Christian gentiles but there is the prototype the resemblance of it in the antient Church of the Jews these times of the new Testament are called the fulnesse of times they are the times of the fulfilling of prophecies prophecy though not as to fulfilling yet as to delivery was compleated and made up in the times of the old Testament and therefore it is said the prophets prophecyed until John and our Saviour when he began his ministry says the time is fulfilled now then to the point in hand what are the types of the Vyals We do finde that expositors have not amiss paralelled these Vyals with the judgments that God did execute upon Egypt when he brought forth Israel for they are a manifest allusion unto those judgments as you may see if you do compare them though they do not correspond in point of number yet they are called plagues here is the scab as was in Egypt as when Moses threw up the dust into the air so it is in the first Vyal there is a scab and a sore upon those that worshiped the beast then another plague was upon the rivers and fountains as here in the Vyals the 3d Vyal turns the rivers into blood and there was darknesse over the land of Egypt so under the 5th Vyal the kingdom of the beast is darkned so that I say there is a warrantable ground for an allusion of the Vyals to the plagues in Egypt but yet withall I say the allusion is not only unto the plagues of Egypt For the Vyals are poured forth by the witnesses and we shall finde that there is an allusion to 3 several pairs all in that vision of the witnesses or that doctrine of the witnesses as you may call it if you will Revel 11. there is I say an allusion to three pair of witnesses the first pair is Moses and Aaron Elijah and Elisha the second and Joshua and Zerubbabel the third pair and as they were called two witnesses so they did fulfil their testimony in 2 parts there was 2 parts of their witness and two seasons of the fulfilling thereof the first part was in a time of suffering before they were escaped from under their suffering-state that was their first part but in the second part they were upon the upper ground they were as I may say the heyrs apparent of a kingdom and an interest which was upon the rising hand I shall shew this to you clearly in all the three First you know that Moses and Aaron before they lest Egypt while Israel was under the yoak they did pour out several plagues upon Egypt but this was not all the work they had to do there was the greatest plague of all was powred out afterwards when they were escaped on t of Egipt at the red-sea there was the destruction of Pharaoh and all his hosts And Joshua who was indeed for a supply unto Moses when Moses was taken off to carry on and compleat the work he led Israel into Canaan and gave them that land so that he did enter upon the labours of Moses and he knew the work there is the first pair and from the time of the red-sea Israel was a prevailing in terest untill they were settled in Canaan so likewise you may see in the second pair Elijah was a man of contention all his days and fled for his life yet before his death he had power to restrain the heavens that they should not rain and he slayes the Prophets of Baal I might shew you how that Ahab and Jezabel and her prophets were exceeding apt types of the Beast the false Prophet and the whore under the times of the new testament as Elijah was a type of the witnesses Now Elisha comes with a double portion of Elijahs spirit he anoints John and brings down the house of Ahab and he perfects the work of Elijah in the spirit of the kingdom Elijah represents the time of the witnesses under their persecution and his ascention was a type of the ascention of the witnesses these are the second pair But the last pair is Joshua and Zerubbabel Joshua he was clothed with filthy garments as were the witnesses that prophecyed in sackcloth Zach. 33. Joshua was the priest the high priest and Zerubbabel he was the Prince the civel ruler Now you know that it is said in the Revelation that he hath made us kings and priests to God his father and the witnesses come first as priests in a suffering state and thereia they do part of the work they do execution against Babylon by powring out several of the Vyals but from the time of their slaughter and their ascention then Christ comes forth in his witnesses as acting immediately towards his kingdom and then he anoints them
the 1000 years are finish'd and those 1000 years begin not till Christs coming and his destroying the man of sin but how that will be proved that after Christ is revealed from heaven and the new Jerusalem planted in the earth such an enemy shall arise I cannot see for besides the improbability it is flat contrary to the text which saith the first heaven and earth were put away before the descending of the Jerusalem and Gog and Magog are destroyed by fire from heaven before the old heaven and earth pass away Rev. 20.10 11. therefore Gog and Magog are not in being after the new Jerusalem this is my 1st ground Obj. But it is said that the beast and the false prophet were cast into the lake before Gog and Magog come up upon the stage therefore Gog and Magog cannot be the same enemy with the beast and false prophet Ans They are not formally the same but materially they are as the old and new commandment are the same materially though they differ fromally or as the Dragon Rev. 12.3 and the beast Rev. 3.2 to whom the Dragon gave up were materially the same for the Dragon was a Roman and so was the beast therefore it was but the shifting of a form in like manner inter preters hold the first and the 2d beast to be the same materially only formally distinguishing this therefore I take to be the resolution of this doubt that during the 42 months all things are managed in the name of the beast though as I have hinted from the year 1300. the devil was loosed in him and acted as a Dragon but he puts not on the name of Gog and Magog till those 42 mouths are expired which was in and about the year 1650. and from thence begins Daniels last 45 years which are the times of Gog and Magog properly which Gog and Magog are the remnant of the same Roman Antichrist that was before but acting now in another rage and spirit and in the very name of the Dragon And to confirm this let it be considered that the casting of the beast and the false prophet into the lake was rather a damming of their places their politique and publick capacity and interest then a destroying of their persons and power physical or a judging of them under that form of Antichristian abomination leaving them enemies still in being as men that which makes for this is that they are said to be cast alive into the lake and the remnant of their party to be slain not with the material sword but with the sword of him that fate on the white horse which sword proceedeth out of his mouth to be short then the heathen Dragon the Antichristian beast and false prophet and the devil loosed with his Gog and Magog are the same 4th beast described by Daniel the same Roman Monarchy putting on several forms for several scenes works to be done by them for the tryall of the Saints and though the glory of the Roman Antichrist be ecclipsed and his name not used in this last scene of Gog and Magog which makes him fry in the lake as in his own grease for this shameful foil yet he shall be alive till Christ's coming from heaven who will then make void his place litterally as it was spiritually by the light of truth and conviction in the hearts of men made void before during which interim from his dejection into this lake of vexation and disappointment untill Christs glorious appearing the Dragon who joyned forces with him against him that sate on the white horse before his fatal discomfiture shall take up the bucklers and by himself manage the warr against Christ till he descends from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire and consumes him and his forces disables him as he did the beast before him and cast him even the Dragon also into the same lake of torment wrath vexation enmity and disappointment of these notions I say as of the former Hypothesis if they can be made good they will do the businesse My second ground is this Antichrist the beast the man of sin the false Church the whore of Babylon receive only a mistical judgment and destruction before Christs appearing from heaven then and not till then will be the manifest abolition and destruction of these enemies they will live and breathe though under judgment till that moment that Christ may have the glory of destorying them and that they may fell the terror of his hand in their destruction else what means that of the Apostle that Christ shall destroy the man of sin with the brightness of his coming therefore 't is that at the last Vyal of all we reade of great Babilons coming up in remembrance before God which shews that whatever interpreters invent of another Babilon at Constantinople to salve it the 5th Vyal poured on the throne of the beast did not dispatch Babilon and that the 18th chap. of the Rev. hath only a mistical fulfilling till Christ comes from heaven It will be objected that the papacy must be destroyed before the Jews be converted their Idolatries being a great let to the Jews receiving the Gospel I answer that this is a conjecture no where that I know determined in Scripture I grant that the Idolatries of Rome and the superstitions of those that come too near the Papists may well be look't upon as a great hinderance to the Jews embracing the Gospel but that God cannot carry them over this block I fear to affirm Nay 2ly I do expect the Jews return into their own land before they embrace the Christian faith and that their first stirring and restoring will be as truly while they are in their blood as their first planting was but after that when they are setled the Lord promises to pour clean water upon them and for ought appears to me God may make use of the Eastern Gog and Magog whom he will bring against them for an awakning of them to himself and will be sanctifyed in their eyes by his appearing for them against that enemy which deliverance he will likewise sanctify unto them for the turning their hearts back again unto him and the receiving of him whom he sent unto their fathers and now sends again to be their deliverers from this last enemy My third ground is the Analogy between the course of the ancient Church and people of God the Jews and us gentiles for they are our types as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 10. Now there is not the least colour or footsteep for the expectation of any the least disturbance of the new Jerusalem state by Gog or Magog or any other enemy yet Ezekiel and other of the prophets prophecy of this new Ierusalem and this is a certain truth that the whole System and body of prophecy was made up in the times of the old testament and therefore it is said the prophets prophecyed until Iohn the new Testament being called the fulness of times