there had wanted an Animal to typifie Reason unless you made Man the Type of both and put the Eagle quite out of office Thus crude and broken is the Remarker's conceit in this matter Again There are good Scriptural-phrases produced about the two flying wings of the Seraphins which he will have the same with the third pair of wings of the Beasts but the Application is methinks much of the Hooks For the two flying wings of the Seraphins Esay 6. signifie the readiness and expediteness of their Ministry enjoyn'd by God to the service of his Church whenas he referrs it to the exalting of ones self from a Worldly and Earthly to a Heavenly state Thirdly That seems a precarious groundless conceit or rather false That the Tree of Life was not set in Paradise for Adam to eat of but to play at Chop-cherry with him and to mock him whenas the Text says The Lord commanded the Man saying Of every tree of the Garden thou shalt eat and I hope the Tree of life was one of them The Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast plenary commission if not command to eat of all saving the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil Which had been a mere mocking of Adam if he had no power of eating of the Tree of Life And now fourthly this being a fundamental mistake of the Remarker in the case of Adam the like discovers it self in his conceit touching the Iews and the two Visions of Ezekiel that of the four living Creatures and that other of the Temple God gave no impossible Commands to the Iews But those exquisite descriptions of things touching the Temple by a long and operose Hylasmus and Israelismus set not out what the Iews should have been if they had kept these Ordinances exquisitely but what the Church of Christ would be of which the Iews were a Type in process of time That this is the sense of that Vision the Apocalypse that borrows so many things from it and uses such frequent Allusions to the Temple does sufficiently indicate Nor is there any other sense of the Vision of the four living Creatures as touching the Iews who were not upon condition of legal performances to arrive to that Angelical State that the Christian Church with them will arrive to at last But the Divino-political sense of that Vision which yet is most properly applied to it as repeated in the Apocalypse which relates to the Camp of the Iews a figure of the State of the Christian Church to come is that the Church of God at last will answer the Pattern of the Angelical Kingdom and God's Will will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Fifthly The Name of the City The Lord is there is the very Indication of the state of the New Ierusalem which is a demonstration it was never intended for the Iews under their Legal Dispensation upon any terms Sixthly Ezekiel is not here sent to Prophesie the Ruine of the City and Temple they both having been destroyed fourteen years before But they being destroyed he in this Hylastick and Israelistick way prophesies of the state of the New Ierusalem which the Apocalypse also describes Seventhly therefore The Iews their making a golden Calf and craving a King whatever other inconveniences it may cause to them it could not make them forfeit that which was never intended them in that state Eighthly If the Beasts be the Governed and the four and twenty Elders the Governours how come the Beasts to be upon the Throne and the twenty four Elders onely about it Ninthly The Wheels and living Creatures being not moved but as acted by the spirit does not signifie an Earthly state in them but the most Divine and Heavenly viz. an Vnselfwilledness in them That they have no Self excursions of mind or will but that the Spirit of life from the eternal mind is the perpetual principle of their motion and rest Tenthly That the four Beasts are not upon the Throne I have shew'd upon that place of the Apocalypse and that he contradicts himself in saying so I observed even now in the eighth Note Eleventhly The burning Coals which are Prunae do not signifie the Spirit of Elias in Men but the Seraphick Spirit in Angels as Seraphin from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has its denomination viz. from burning And the Seraphin are counted of the higher sort of Angels And as for Lamps they are in the description of the scene of the New Ierusalem Apoc. 4. Now for the Temple I say Twelfthly That the whole Vision of the Temple concerns the Christian Church and therefore that command to the Prophet chap. 43.10 11. respects especially the Thyatirian and Sardian Interval thereof that they may repent of all their sins and corruptions and so make what haste they can toward that excellent State of the Church which is prefigured by the Vision of the Temple Thirteenthly As for the Numbers 25000 5000 and 500 Ezek. chap. 45. and 666 in the Apocalypse nothing more can be signified by the former viz. those in Ezekiel than that the New Ierusalem will gratifie even the external man also and his outward senses which the Quinary number does denote namely that even the outward State of the Church then will be rich and glorious according to what is likewise prophesied of in the Apocalypse that the Kings of the Earth shall bring their honour and glory into it And it is the encouraging Prediction of Christ himself Seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all worldly good things shall be added thereto Which will most amply be fulfilled in the Millennial Empire of Christ which is that eminent Kingdom of God upon Earth And for that other Number 666 it is not set down to signifie the most complete carnal politick State but to be a certain character of the Pontifician Hierarchy the two-horned Beast who are discovered to have affected the number 25 which is the root of 666. That is the main drift of that Number though deluding their followers with pleasing Objects of sense may haply be aimed at thereby also Fourteenthly The 18000 measures which is the compass of Ezekiel's City agreeing with the Perimeter of the New Ierusalem whose Solid or Cubick measure is 12000 furlongs in the Apocalypse the true and usefull meaning of that is to assure us that Ezekiel's Vision of the Temple is a Prophecy of the State of the Church which is set out by S. Iohn in his description of the New Ierusalem that men may make no vagaries into any other fancies as the Remarker has done here And the Wisedom and Providence of God is admirable herein Besides if that Externality or Superficiality were aimed at which the Remarker would have signified the measure of the Superficies of the Cube not the Perimeter would have been set down and made use of Fifteenthly The difference of the Mosaical Laws and those of Ezekiel's Temple the greater exactness of these above the other is
were held together in before and subjecting them to the Gospel of Christ this shall be effected upon several Nations that were before Paganochristian in the Sardian Interval What can be more easie and clear Vers. 28. There 's but one Morning star and that is bright so that the Morning-star and the bright Morning-star must signifie the same And they are so far from signifying several states of the Church that the one is spoken onely of Christ himself viz. he calls himself the bright Morning-star But what the Morning-star is which is promised to the overcomers in the Thyatirian Church is hardly to be understood farther than we are partakers thereof but seems to be of like signification with 2 Pet. 1.19 both seeming to respect an addition of light of life to the light of truth before received Ans. There 's but one Morning star indeed which is Christ who is here signified but in a political consideration as Prince of his Empire on Earth which may have degrees of largeness and lustre And that Christ is here understood in a Political sense the foregoing verse intimates that speaks of the enlargement of his Kingdom Of which also the subsequence of the Epiphonema farther assures us according to the rule noted in the Exposition of the seven Churches And where Christ is called the bright Morning star Apoc. 22.16 it is not spoke there simply of his Person abstracting from his Kingdom on Earth because he says immediately before it I am the off-spring of David which is a challenging his right to all the Kingdoms of the Earth upon that score of his descent from David the King to whom God had made the promise Ps. 2. And this following the description of his glorious Reign in the new Ierusalem and relating to those times he saith not as in the Sardian Interval I am the Morning-star but the bright Morning-star by reason of his exceeding great lustre and glory in his Millennial Reign Why should any one wink against so clear a light and inviolable coherence and congruity of things But why he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Sardian Interval the Expositor has noted in his Exposition of the seven Churches Chap. 3. Vers. 4. WAlking with me in white is in this Verse made signifie that conversing with Christ by his Spirit whereby they shall be inabled to walk with him in all innocency and integrity But in the following Verse the being cloathed in white rayment which is the same with walking in white is taken in a different sense viz. to be prosperous in the propagating the affairs of Christ's Kingdom Also in the said following verse those words I will not blot his name out of the book of life which interpret the foregoing words viz. that the walking in white and the being cloathed with white rayment is the walking in the light of life whereby we become heirs of the crown of life and so written in the book of life are yet taken to signifie a continued succession of such men to the end of the world whereas the continuance of such a succession is no reward to the Sardian Church though it may be joy to them as they are concerned for the propagation of Religion Ans. If there be any Errour in this Interpretation it is in that the Expositor has not expounded to walk with me in white in the same sense he expounded to be cloathed in white rayment which has a Political sense and signifies the good success of affairs with them For the Remarker was to remember that the Expositor was giving the prophetical sense of these Epistles not the literal moral or spiritual And that therefore according to that solid Rule set down That the Declarations touching the success of the Church that is writ to before the Epiphonema signifies politically so this being cloathed in white is to be expounded accordingly But being whiteness signifies as well Innocency as Prosperity and Innocency is a fitting these few names in Sardis for their prosperous success that I made use of these different significations so well subordinated one to another deserves not to be cavilled at but rather to be approved And correspondently to this Prophetical sense which must be Political I will not blot his name out of the book of life is to be understood that these few names are the durable seed of such a Church as shall last to the end of the World But to say this is no reward to them that they have such a durable succession is a reproach to the Remarker as if he were a stranger to the true Christian State and knew not the gratifications of a soul regenerate into the living Image of Christ who with his Church is one mystical body in succession through all ages and therefore what any part of them suffer for the present if it make for the greater good of the Church for the future they take themselves to be amply rewarded by so happy an event And such a success as causes joy to them as the Remarker acknowledges must be a proportionable good to them and if consequent upon their labours and sufferings a reward thereof So that such Allegations as these are mere affected Cavils Vers. 8. The opened door that cannot be shut and the little strength signifie not any outward force or army but that spiritual strength that is attained to by faith working by love which makes us become freed by the truth from the thraldom of the worldly Powers and gain that enterance into the Kingdom of our Lord as never to fall Both this and the four following verses do shew the Philadelphian Church to be in a Militant State in progress to the victorious state of rest and glory in the Millennium And what is said in these verses is spoken of the entire State of the Philadelphian Church and therefore cannot be referred to the seventh vial as the commencement thereof But to instance in their signifying a Militant State c. The promise v. 9. to make them of the Synagogue of Satan who say they are Iews to come and worship c. does plainly shew the Church to be in conflict with such Enemies as pretend to be true Christians and yet refuse subjection to the true Church which cannot agree with the Millennial State when Satan shall be bound and all Enemies put under the feet of Christ c. The promise v. 10. to keep from the hour of Temptation that shall come upon all the world c. does evidence and a State far different from that of the Millennium and does seem to signifie that time of great trouble precedent thereto Dan. 12. The promise also v. 11. to come quickly and warning to hold fast c. does also plainly shew that the time of the Millennium when God will reward all his servants ch 11.18 is not then come though it be near approaching And the several promises v. 12. made to him that overcometh do
and indeed the onely sense consistent with the truth of the Prophecy as I have clearly proved in the second part of my threefold Appendage And for the silencing the Witnesses after they had prophesied 1260 days that this must be their three days and an half lying dead is a marvellous mistake For how can they be silenced but upon the penalty of their prophesying or witnessing There is no other way of silencing them imaginable And for God knows how many hundred years they were so severely silenced before that banishment imprisonment all manner of torturous Deaths were their penalty for offering to speak against the corruptions of the Apostatized Church And lastly they may prophesie as well when they are said to lye dead as when politically slain For to be Politically slain is either at least to have no power or influence on affairs for the right guiding of them or actually to be outed from any office in Church or State which is to lye dead as to those points but yet they may prophesie at their own peril Political Death is opposed here onely to natural Death And when they are silenced i. e. put out of Autority or licence to preach or prophesie that is one kind of that Political Death that is opposed to Natural but they thus lying not naturally dead they may preach or prophesie as I said at their own peril This therefore is a gross errour Vers. 12. This Call from Heaven is not any Political call by Princes but the Exaltation by the spirit of life that entred into them and set them on their feet whereon judgment began to be given unto them to take away the Dominion of the Beast but their rising hereby in power and interest in the world was by such secret operations of God as is undiscernible to the world and so they ascend as in a cloud This Spiritual Exaltation of them may occasion their worldly Exaltation also by Princes to such employments as they are free to accept of Ans. Heaven in the prophetick style is the Region of Political Powers and to interpret a Prophecy out of the road of the Prophetick style is merely to trifle with a man 's own private fancy And the Spirit of life entering into them signifies Politically as in that Vision of Ezekiel ch 37.9 And to interpret the cloud they ascend up to Heaven in of secret operations of God and undiscernible to the world being again quite out of the road of the Prophetick style is a mere private imagination Achmetes interprets ascending in a cloud of glory and power and the Scripture frequently describes that state so And Interpreters ordinarily intimate that this ascending of the Witnesses in a cloud after their three days lying dead is an allusion to Christ's Ascension after he had lain three days in the Grave who ascended in a cloud conspicuously and gloriously to take possession of that Throne and Dominion his Father had promised him Vers. 13. The tenth part of the City fell cannot signifie the taking away the Tithes of it For the words denote a ruine to the body of the City and not a loss of some appurtenances as revenues c. Which is plainly confirmed by the following words viz. the great Earthquake and the seven thousand slain and the affrightment of the rest Which seems to aim at some great Revolution to the subverting of the Antichristian State of affairs in one of the ten Kingdoms the Empire was divided into and so introducing such a settlement as to be a prelude and pattern to what is to succeed in other Dominions Ans. The meaning is not that the Tithes i. e. the holy Revenue of the City were taken away without the fall of any part of the City But being the Tithes did fall but whether a just tenth part of the City or no was uncertain the Expositor contented himself with what was certain But that there was a partial fall of the Polity or City he does not question Brightman and Pareus understanding by the City the Polity of Antichrist or his Kingdom for to understand it of a City of Wood and Stone is a little too gross I think adventure to pronounce that at least a tenth part of the Papal City fell in the late Reformation Which if true I willingly admit to be understood by the fall of the Tenth part of the City as well as the Tithes if not rather But that this Earthquake should be meant of one of the ten Kingdoms is a dwindling business the prophecy is fulfilled in a more illustrious way already Vers. 14. The third Wo-Trumpet cannot be the pouring forth of the Vials because the Trumpets belong to the Visions of the sealed Book and the Vials to the opened Book and also because the state of affairs before the Vials are far from agreeing with what is described at the seventh Trumpet Ans. The Description indeed of the Visions of the Vials and other Visions that fill up the Interval of the seventh Trumpet which is the third Wo-Trumpet belong to the Prophecy of the opened Book as being set down there But this hinders not but that they may be referred for order sake unto the third Wo-Trumpet Is it not expresly said here in the Text that the seventh Angel sounded though it be in the Prophecy of the opened Book What therefore is this for but to give us notice of the due order and Intervals of things in this Opened-book-prophecy from what we may observe in the Sealed-book-prophecy where there was mention of the seven Thunders And this also may give great countenance to that Reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this sounding of the seventh Angel mentioned here implies that what was suppressed and not written concerning the affairs of the sounding of the seventh Angel in the Sealed-book-prophecy shall be declared in that Interval of the Visions of the Opened-book-prophecy that synchronizes with the seventh Trumpet of the sealed Book This is an Observation very remarkable And as for the state of affairs before the Vials how well or ill they agree with what is described at the seventh Trumpet I can say nothing unless the Remarker had particularized But I presume the imagined disagreement is from his own misplacing them before the Rising of the Witnesses But place them after and the Agreement is good and according to that auspicious Acclamation v. 15. Vers. 15. No Kingdoms of the World became the Kingdoms of the Lord by the Reformation For though they rejected the Pope's Supremacy and reformed some gross Corruptions yet they continued so many as made them not cease to belong to the Ten-horned Beast And indeed Christ's Kingdom being to be governed wholly according to the Laws of Truth by the guidance of the Spirit of God all Government so far as it falls short thereof and is Politically managed according to the course of the worldly Powers and upheld to the obstructing the advancement of Christ's Kingdom upon Earth it 's so far Antichristian Ans.
will at first sight discern this So that the Tartars having a capacity of an Eastern consideration as well as of a Northern they will fit both the sixth Vial and the present passage of this Prophecy too and therefore have a privilege above the Germans Poles and Muscovites to make part of the Kings of the East which the sixth Vial mentions And by that time this comes to pass the Mahometan and Pagan Tartars may be turned Christians and being fresh Converts may have more zeal and activity in the behalf of true Christianity than either Germans Poles or Muscovites Besides it is a mistake in the Remarker that he surmises that it is the Turk that comes to his end v. 45. when it is the King of Pride that comes to his end For the Vision drives at him plainly from v. 36. to the very end of the Chapter And this last verse Luther in his Letter to Count Schlikius And he shall come to his end and none shall help him interpreteth it of the Ruine of the Pope The Letter is in Martinius Horzovinus his Collation of Huss and Luther p. 118. And how absurd it would be to suppose the contrary the Expositor has signified in his Exposition of the last verse of this eleventh Chapter which is needless here to repeat I will onely here add to what is said there that this Vision of the Scripture of Truth being for a long time ch 10. it is the more unlikely not to reach to the utter overthrow of the King of Pride and that being so notable a Providence not to skip over it Vers. 45. It 's strange to run so far as old Rome for interpreting this verse whenas it may be much better applied to new Rome 1. For Constantinople being seated in the point of a Promontory between two great Seas is much more properly said to be seated between two Seas than Rome which is at a large distance from those Seas it is seated between especially from one of them and is no more seated between them than any other part of Italy 2. Also the Title of glorious holy Mountain is much more applicable to Constantinople than to Rome because Constantine there setled when by reason of the hatred he contracted for professing Christianity he could abide no longer at Rome and also because many Emperours reigned there who were zealous against the Idolatrous corruptions of the Roman Church and many noted Councils also held there in one of which under Constantinus Copronymus the Worship of Images was condemned as Idolatrous And also because before the Ruine of the Eastern Empire they separated from Rome for its corruptions 3. And new Rome may farther be called so from what flourishing state Christianity shall be in there after the ruine of the Turkish Empire whenas old Rome shall have the same fate befall it with old Babylon according to what is pronounced against it Rev. 18. 4. Also it 's plain that in new Rome the King of the North has placed the Tabernacles of his Palace and the word Tabernacle may be perhaps used because of the following words Yet shall he come to his end viz. The Turks will not have a settled Empire there but it will be destroy'd 5. But whereas the planting the Tabernacles of his Palace being related after the tydings out of the East and the North seems to signifie what he shall doe at the end of his Empire it may notwithstanding be understood in the sense I have given For after the describing of his Conquests this planting of his Tabernacles comes as an additional Character of him Also the tydings out of the East and the North may respect not onely what shall befall him at the end of his Empire but also his almost continual conflicts during his Empire with the aforesaid Northern Countries and with the Persians 6. That the planting of his Tabernacle c. should signifie the taking of Rome by the Turk and so fulfilling what is said of casting the Beast and false Prophet into a lake of fire is not onely for the reasons aforesaid a groundless conceit but also disagrees with what the same Pen writes on Rev. 19. For there onely the Remnant of the Beast and false Prophet unconverted are made to be cast into the lake of fire c. And of the lake of fire no account is there given and better none than what is here given For it 's plain there that the casting of the Beast and false Prophet into the lake of fire and so extinguishing the Western Empire as it is there called must be by the Army of the Rider of the white Horse and consequently not by the Turks 7. Ezekiel's Prophecy of Tyre is no Type of Antichrist as is imagined and so gives no countenance to the applying the words Glorious holy Mountain as here is done Both his and Esay's Prophecy of Tyre as they are intermixt with their Prophecies of other neighbouring Nations so there 's no appearance of their having any other meaning than what those other Prophecies have viz. what concerns onely those Nations And the reasons given to the contrary in Synopsis Prophetica Book 2. ch 16. are of no moment 1. For Tyre is properly called an Harlot and said to commit fornication with all the Kings of the Earth by reason of the subtile deceits and allurements with which Merchants and Trafickers enveagle their customers 2. And Tyre being forgotten seventy years according to the days of one King viz. of one Kingdom as King is usually taken is plainly enough understood of the Babylonian Kingdom which was to continue seventy years according to Ieremy's Prophecy And Tyre being taken and ruined by Nebuchadnezzar did continue so till the end of that Kingdom 3. But the fansied Cabbalistical sense of those seventy years will soon vanish by considering first that the Christian Caesars belong to the sixth and not to the seventh Head as is shewed in the Remarks 4. And next that Antichristian Rome which is supposed to be Typified by Tyre was not in being before the Christian Emperours and therefore cannot be said to be forgotten during their Time 5. As to the description of the Prince of Tyre for which he is supposed to represent some great Priest in the Church first being threatned with the Death of the uncircumcised is no more than what is threatned to Pharaoh in Ezek. chap. 32. and is said to befall all the Princes there spoken of 6. Next he is not said to be adorned as is supposed with the high Priest's vestments but onely with pretious stones to signifie the perfection of beauty and splendour which by great wisedom he had attained unto 7. By reason whereof he is said to have been in Eden the garden of God in like sense as great Kings are called Trees of Eden in Ezekiel chap. 31.8 Then as to his being called anointed Cherub and his being upon the Mountain of God and walking in the midst of the stones of Fire they all
Iohn's Time than in Daniel's and as if about 600 years nearer approach to the event predicted enabled him to count the duration of the little Horn with eyes in St. Iohn's time to the punctuality of a year whenas in Daniel's time he could count it onely according to those large measures of Semitimes each of which contains 180 years This methinks looks very uncouthly and absurdly Indeed if he had not counted the reign of the little ruffling Horn with eyes by any parts of time but onely predicted that such a Polity would appear during the fourth Kingdom and then after in the Apocalypse told accurately the time of its duration whether 42 months or 1260 days prophetical it would look unsuspectedly but things being as they are they plainly look derogatorily to that perfection of Prescience in the Spirit of Prophecy to fansie he foretold the time of the Event an hundred and eighty times more punctually at 600 years nearer approach thereto viz. in St. Iohn's time than he did at that distance in Daniel's time as if he wanted that advantage then which he had afterwards Secondly It is plainly suggested by the Spirit of Prophecy chap. 12. from those two places compared together vers 6. And the woman fled into the Wilderness that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days and vers 14. And to the woman were given two wings of a great Eagle that she might fly into the Wilderness into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time It is plainly I say hence suggested That the expressing of the duration of the Medial-Visions by 1260 days is not for any more accurate account from some known Epocha of the time of the predicted Event For then the time of the woman's abode in the Wilderness should have been expressed in the first place by those more general and lax measures of a Time and Times and half a Time or seven Semitimes but then afterwards by that more strickt and minute measure of a Day as intimating the event to be predicted even to a set Prophetical Day But it being quite contrary it is a plain insinuation that Daniel's seven Semitimes is the Prophetical measure to estimate the true time of the events by and not those lesser parts of time a Prophetical Day or Month this measure of Daniel being placed not onely after the 1260 days in this and the foregoing Chapter but also after the 42 months there mentioned to be a key to the right understanding of these Variations Thirdly It is apparent that the variation of the seven Semitimes is not intended for any more punctually and restrictively predicting the event for that the variation would then have been onely into 1260 days Prophetical But it being also into 42 months it will entangle the account and make the Prophecy seem to contradict it self and imply things impossible to be possible that is that the Prophecy shall predict true as to time and not true at once For if the Event predicted fall within the last part of time suppose the last Prophetick Month though but a little after the beginning thereof the Prophecy is true but the same or what is necessarily and intimately Synchronal to it not falling out in the last of the 1260 days according to which expression it should do it makes the prediction false And indeed there is the same reason of the last Semitime In the fifth month whereof if the woman go out of the Wilderness the prediction is true but sith it is not in the last month nor in the last day it is doubly false Whence it is manifest that those variations of the seven Semitimes into 42 months and 1260 days are onely Cortical in the external Celature of the Vision are mere Numeral Diorisms not Prophetical Numbers restraining the event to any closer pinch of time than if the duration of the Medial-Visions had been in every place expressed by seven Semitimes Fourthly In the Vision of the two Witnesses who while the Outer Court is troden down by the Gentiles for 42 months do mournfully prophesie 1260 days which is the same time in other Terms the Spirit of Prophecy reducing all at last in this Vision Apoc. 11. vers 8.11 to three days and an half does himself set his Seal to this truth That as to the restrictive prediction of the event there was never greater preciseness intended than what that latitude of numbering by Semitimes did require which is very lax And that by three days and an half three times and an half or Daniel's seven Semitimes are signified that Assertion by invincible demonstration in the Apology I mean by those six solid arguments which the Remarker as eager and keen as he is upon the business to invalidate them has but shewn his own weakness in attempting it is made good to any intelligent and unprejudiced Reader Wherefore by the Reduction in the close of the Vision of the 42 months and 1260 days to Daniel's three times and an half expounding Day by Time first as it does most certainly sometimes so signifie and therefore from the abovesaid arguments as certainly so signifies here we may be assured from the Testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy himself that the onely standing Authentick measure of the duration of the Medial-Visions is Daniel's seven Semitimes But there is a necessity of reducing the signification of Day to that of Time first because a Prophetick day signifies but one natural year but a Time a Prophetick year which is 360 natural years Fifthly The nature of the things predicted to come to pass at the expiration of the Time of the Medial-Visions is such that their accomplishment cannot be effected in the space of a single Prophetical day Such is a considerable breaking the entireness of the Dominion of the little Horn with eyes or of the two-horned Beast the false Prophet or Whore of Babylon the fall of the tenth part of the City and Rising of the Witnesses at which such Acclamations as these are heard in Heaven The Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ chap. 11. vers 15. And chap. 15. that Song of Moses and the Lamb is sung by the triumphant Harpers on the Sea of glass Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy ways O King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name For thou onely art holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments are manifest Surely all this must not signifie such small Atchievements as can be brought about in one single year And as Rome was not built in one natural day no more could so great a ruine of the Roman Polity or Hierarchy though but partial be effected in one Prophetical day Which unless we reckon by Semitimes must of necessity be the measure we reckon by Wherefore it is plain from the nature of the things
the Te Deum When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers His ascending into Heaven and sitting at the right hand of God was the consequence of his sufferings In which Heaven there are many seats or mansions as he elsewhere tells us which undoubtedly he has prepared for every one that overcomes As Christ after he overcame sate down in his father's Throne which he gave him so all judgment being given to the son he that overcomes shall sit down in a Throne or seat in Heaven of Christ's giving as Grotius seems to interpret the words For it is most natural to conceive the Throne of Christ and of other Victors though not of equal majesty and glory yet to be of the same nature that is to say Heavenly as the current of Expositors runs And it was an Heavenly Throne Christ ascended after he had overcome not an Earthly Millennial Throne which according to the Remarker he had not obtained in the Laodicean Interval whenas he says expresly he was sate down already in the Throne his Father gave him upon his overcoming And therefore the like Thrones he promiseth other overcomers And lastly it being so plainly demonstrated before that the Millennium is comprised in the Philadelphian Interval it is impossible that this Throne promised to the Laodicean Victor should be understood of reigning with Christ in the Millennium So that I conceive it is plain enough that as this Epistolar Prophecy is acknowledged by the Remarker to reach from the beginning of the Church to the commencement of the Millennium so upon better reason that it reacheth to the end of the world For when the slate of the Church is divided into so many successions and prefigured in a Prophetical manner why should two such notable Intervals as that of the Millennium and the after game of Gog and Magog c. be omitted It were a rude and immodest thing in me to suppose the spirit of Prophecy defectuous in this point rather than suspect mine own judgment and slowness that may hinder my discerning the completeness and perfection of this Prophecy But the Remarker produces reasons why we should think the Prophecy of the seven Churches reaches no farther than the commencement of the Millennium The first is Because Christ invites the Laodiceans to the Marriage supper of the Lamb and promises the Overcomer a Throne in the Millennium The Second That there is no account given that the Millennial state should ever degenerate into the Laodicean Thirdly and lastly That it is unimaginable that the Millennium being established in that glorious state of Righteousness that is described and all occasions of evil removed the Devil being bound nor to be let loose again upon those that belong to the new Ierusalem but onely upon the Nations that the Millennial state should degenerate into the Laodicean But I have already answered the first by shewing that Christ's promising to sup with him that opens to him the door is no invitation to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb nor the promised Throne an Earthly Throne in the Millennium but a promise of the Heavenly Kingdom which this Throne signifies According as our Saviour promises his Apostles Luk. 22. I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my father has appointed unto me which hugely fits this place To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am sate down with my father in his Throne that ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom and sit on Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Which place is parallel to that of Matth. 19.28 Verily I say unto you ye that have followed me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Grotius expounds by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Munster by Resurrectio Mortuorum and Calvin says Non dubium est quin hîc de extremo die loquatur Christus at the Resurrection when the Son of Man shall sit on the Throne of his glory ye also shall sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel So that this is also a Throne of Iudicature a Laodicean Throne from which this Interval in one respect has its denomination because at the close thereof Christ with his Saints will judge the people which makes this promise the more suitable And that the Saints should have their Thrones of Judicature then to judge the people with Christ no man can much marvel at that considers that of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 6.3 Know ye not that we shall judge the Angels that we shall be co-approvers of the sentence of Christ against the Devils and wicked Souls at the last day which shews how fitly unforcedly and naturally this Throne here promised is understood of the Heavenly Throne as I have demonstrated it cannot be understood of an Earthly Throne in the Millennium To the second I answer That there is a very good account out of the Apocalypse to be given why we should think that the Millennial or Philadelphian estate will at last degenerate into the Laodicean It is true there is no express imputation of any fault upon the beloved City in the Prophecy of the opened Book but that after the Millennium there is a change of affairs is thence plain it telling us of the loosing of the Devil and the endeavours of Gog and Magog to subdue the Holy City but the reason in that Prophecy is omitted and it is the artifice of concealment in the Apocalypse to omit things in one Vision and supply them in another and the supplement is manifest in this Vision of the seven Churches For the Laodicean Interval succeeding the Philadelphian which I have demonstrated to include in it the Millennial Reign of Christ must needs synchronize with that state of the Church which is after the Millennial Empire Wherefore the reproofs of the Church of Laodicea for their Lukewarmness and Remisness in the affairs of the Kingdom of Christ and neglecting to retain and propagate that inward state of the spirit of life in the new birth but resting in a dead formal though otherwise unexceptionable external worship of God c. this shews the reason of the Devil 's being let loose again that he might raise stirs against the Church and so they might reflect upon their condition and repent them of their Lukewarmness and Remisness Which Hypothesis is more agreeable to the Iustice of God and his care over his Church than that he should loose the Devil again and raise storms against his Church no man knows why nor wherefore To the last I answer that it is very easily conceivable though the Church does at last become so pure and spotless so holy and righteous yet that in process of time it may decline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this state of mortality nothing can be absolutely firm and durable Did not the blessed Angels who were created in unspeakable purity and glory fall from their station
who yet had no Tempter from without for there were no Devils that needed to be tied up before the Angels fell Wherefore as to that point they had as much advantage as the Philadelphian Church but exceeding much more in being Spirit and not Flesh. But the Philadelphian Church will be mortal flesh as other sons of Adam Wherefore in long process of time they may well degenerate something even before the loosing of the Devil out of Prison And when he is loose again it is but a precarious surmise to think he can act onely upon the Nations that are not in communion with the Church For when he is loose he is as he was before he was imprisoned Nor is there any ground to restrain the word Nations to those onely that are not in visible communion with the Church but it may very naturally signifie that multitude of Nations and People in the World whether of the Church or not And it is a rash presumption to suppose that the Nations that walk in the light of the new Ierusalem are not converts to the Christian Faith forasmuch as they are said to be saved or the Kings of the Earth that bring their glory into it that they are not whole Kingdoms converted to the Christian belief as that auspicious acclamation foretells that the Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ c. Wherefore we see that there is not the least shadow of reason but that the Prophecy of the seven Churches is a Prophecy of the state of the Church distinguished into seven Intervals from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World Which may the better assure us that the two Prophecies the one of the sealed Book the other of the opened Book are so likewise Chap. 4. Vers. 3. THE pure transparent Iaspar stone is an Emblem of Holiness and the red Sardin stone of Iustice and therefore he that sate on the Throne being like unto them does signifie the Holiness and Righteousness of God in executing of Judgment and so does better sute with the occasion of the Vision it being a Representation of God on his Throne of Judicature as Judge of the World than to make the firmness of the one to signifie the strength or omnipotency of God and the red fiery colour of the other his piercing Activity c. But indeed it is not of a fiery red but of a dead red colour Ans. God is not represented here on his Throne of Judicature but simply in his Chair of State as I may so speak It is the Throne of the Divine Majesty as Creator and Governor of the World and more peculiarly of his Church according to that Doxology v. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Wherefore Grotius judiciously notes that the Iasper does signifie invictam Dei potentiam which we may briefly call his radical Omnipotency or rather the necessity of Existence of his indiscernible essence And the Sardius which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to in Hebrew so called from its redness vim Dei activam qualis in igne est They are his very words on the Text. And Zegerus tells us that Tychonius Primasius and Beda all three make the Sardius to have the colour of fire To which you may add Victorinus Rupertus Richardus and Lyranus who all give the signification of fire to the Sardius And Aretas expresly says in Cornelius à Lapide Sardius quia sanguinei ignei coloris est igneam i. e. sublimissimam efficacissimam Dei naturam significat But what the Remarker objects that the Sardius is but of a dead red colour is not true of the best sort and least true in the appearance of the Vision Where though the colour was not so brisk as that of a flame for there are three differences noted here both in Greek and Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Pruna Flamma Splendor yet it might very well be like that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pruna Which sutes best with the Vision in Ezekiel which answers to this and is noted in the Exposition it self Vers. 4. These Elders are onely Spiritual Rulers in the same sense as they and the four Beasts ch 5. are said to be Rulers For they come together in thanksgiving from being redeemed from the Earth and made Kings and Priests c. So that the reigning here signified is such as is common to all Saints and therefore it 's a gross perverting of Scripture to appropriate it to worldly Princes Ans. The Song of Thanksgiving is this ch 5. v. 9. For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation What wonderfull weak arguing is this Because the Kings out of every Nation are redeemed by the bloud of Christ and publickly confess the same therefore they are no more Kings of any Nation than the common people that are so redeemed As if true Christianity took away all subordination of Ranks and Degrees in the world Why then have they not all Crowns if they be all Kings alike or why has any so Who grosly perverts Scripture now And what does the Remarker mean by worldly Princes If he means worldly-minded Princes this contradicts the Scene of things here which is a Representation of the Millennial Happiness and Holiness upon Earth and therefore these four and twenty crowned Elders or Monarchs are not supposed worldly-minded If he makes them worldly Princes because they are still in the world that is on the Earth that 's a contradiction to Christ's Millennial reign on Earth The Millennium must be in Heaven then not on Earth If subordination of Ranks and Degrees from the Prince to the Pezant make them worldly Princes the Polity in Heaven is worldly For there is a subordinate Hierarchy of Angels there and Archangels of Powers Principalities Dominions and Thrones Colos. 1.6 and so the Millennial Reign will be no where O but it is said in the following verse And hast made us to our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign upon the Earth Ans. This questionless alludes to that which God commanded Moses to tell the children of Israel touching him Exod. 19.6 And ye shall be to me a Kingdom of Priests which is called a Royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2.9 and the Apocalypse more distinctly styles the true Church in those happy days Kings and Priests But as under Moses the Nation being called a Kingdom of Priests it did not confound the distinction betwixt Priest and People but Aaron was the High Priest and had other Priests under him And Moses was King in Iesurun and had the heads of the Tribes under him so the four and twenty Elders and the four Beasts the whole body of the Church joining together in this Doxology Thou hast made us Kings and Priests and we
Dream of the Sun and Moon and eleven Stars worshipping him where the Moon is interpreted his Mother though no Priest as the Sun his Father Chap. 9. Vers. 2. THE Sun darkned here is not the Gospel but the Autority or Legislative Power of those Dominions over-run by the Saracens and Religion but secondarily concerned as it suffers by the suffering of the Autority which upheld it And as the Sea denotes the many Dominions of the Earth so does the Sun here signifie the various Powers or Autorities that governed them Ans. That the Sun does not signifie Legislative power in abstracto but the highest person in Autority I have noted already And though one great Sea may signifie a comprehension of several distinct Kingdoms subject to tumultuate or rather War one against another as having no union under one Head yet the several Heads of these Kingdoms cannot so properly be represented by one Sun which naturally implies one Head over them all Wherefore being that the Saracens over-run so many Kingdoms and Principalities if this must be the darkning of them it would then have been said that the smoak of the Abyss darkned the Stars For when Multitudes of Kings and Princes are concerned together that have no dependence one of another they are then signified by Stars Whence the Red Dragon is said to have pulled down so many Stars with his tail that is to have subjected so many Kings and Princes to the Roman Empire Wherefore it is rashly pronounced That the Sun-shine of the Gospel of the Sun of righteousness is not meant by the Sun that is here said to be darkned whenas the smoak of the pit must be Mahometism And therefore in this passage Religion most certainly is related to and is the main concern of the whole Book of the Apocalypse and other things predicted merely in order to it viz. to the right worship of God through Jesus Christ. And therefore that sense which is easie and natural and tends that way is most assuredly the true sense of any passage of these Prophecies See the spiritual signification of Sun in the Expositor's Alphabet of Iconisms Chap. 10. Vers. 2. THE Ten-horned Beast did rise out of the Sea and two-horned Beast out of the Earth and our Saviour setting his right foot on the Sea and his left foot on the Earth does signifie here his coming down from Heaven to put down all Autority and power under his feet the Earthly Powers within his Kingdom being within the seventh Trumpet to be abolished and all things to become new by forming a new Heaven and a new Earth or establishing the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth and so making the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Ans. This Remark is not much amiss saving that it lears toward that foul conceit that there will be no Monarchy nor Princes over their respective Principalities and Kingdoms where the Kingdom of Christ is set up whenas the twenty four crowned Elders do most certainly denote the pure Apostolick Christianity of those many Kings and Princes that will be contained within the Kingdom of Christ in the Millennium And setting one foot on the Sea and another on the Earth refers particularly to the vanquishing the ten-horned Beast that came out of the Sea ch 13. and the false Prophet or two-horned Beast that came out of the Earth v. 11. out of a Clay-pit for the Clay in Daniel signifies the Ecclesiastick regenerating party which two ch 19.20 are taken alive and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Vers. 3. The sounding of the seventh Trumpet is plainly not at the time of the roaring of the mighty Angel and therefore cannot be branched into the seven Thunders For after his roaring and the seven Thunders uttering their voices thereon and the other matters after declared there is a Regress to begin a new Prophecy of the Contents of the opened Book and to bring the same down to the seventh Trumpet also that the affairs of the six Trumpets and the opened Book viz. during the time of the Antichristian and worldly Powers being connected as synchronizing the seventh Trumpet might close both together The seven Thunders therefore seem symbolically to signifie a preparation of the Christian party against the great day of God at the seventh Trumpet as the three unclean spirits like Frogs are of the Antichristian party That as the latter bestir themselves with miraculous deceits to excite the Princes of the Earth to battel so the former signifies a miraculous power of spirit that shall exert it self in many Christian Heroes whereby they shall become exciters and conductors of the Christian party to the same and hereunto shall also become Boanerges's thundring out such powerfull convictive testimonies against the abominations of their Enemies and such denunciations of God's judgments against them for the same as were not meet before that time to be uttered and therefore were to be sealed up c. Some such meaning seems to be signified in Micah ch 5. v. 5 6. Ans. The more clearly to decide this point let us consider that the Apocalypse consists of three Prophecies The Prophecy of the seven Churches The Prophecy of the sealed Book and the Prophecy of the opened Book And that as it less derogates from their perfection to be conceived each of them to reach from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World viz. of the affairs of this Earth so of the first of them I have proved the same as also shown that the second commenceth from the beginning of the Church and that it reaches to the end of the world is plain from hence The whole time of the Book consists but of seven Seals and some things of the book reach to the end of the world therefore the seventh Seal must reach to the end of the world And the seventh Seal being divided into seven Trumpets the seventh Trumpet must reach to the end of the world Wherefore it is plain that the Prophecy of the sealed Book reaches to the end of the world And if this Reasoning will not serve I will anon confirm it by the Oath of the Angel But in the mean time let us farther note that the sounding of each of these seven Trumpets and the Visum of each Trumpet do synchronize or are of equal extent begin and end together As for example The Visum of the sixth Trumpet which contains the over-running of the Turks and the general Impenitency of the Western Christian World for their Idolatry c. c. 9.20 The sixth Trumpet I say is conceived to sound all the while this Visum continues Now the seventh Trumpet belonging to the Prophecy of the sealed Book it was before we come to the Prophecy of the opened Book immediately to succeed the sixth and to sound all the time its Visum is exhibited But it is manifest the roaring of the Angel immediately succeeds the sounding of the sixth Trumpet wherefore
labourers which were appointed out of the Temple nor the appointers of them were such as entred the Sanctum Sanctorum and approached the Throne c. And Mr. Mede expresly interprets this Angel's coming out of the Temple of the prayers of the Church in general as that from the Thysiasterion of the prayers more especially of Martyrs and Confessors How largely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies may appear from what is said Psalm 29.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in his Temple does every man speak of his glory But it is not for every man to enter into the Sanctum much less into the Sanctum Sanctorum The whole Fabrick is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being the Habitation of God as the Notation of the word implies And Iohn 2.19 where our Saviour says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Destroy this Temple the Jews presently understood it of the whole fabrick that included the Courts which makes them answer Forty six years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was this Temple a building c. Wherefore it is plain there is ground enough for the Temple representing the Church of God the Congregation of God or his people using solemnly to be gathered thither And our Saviour calls it the house of Prayer This Angel therefore coming out thence and speaking to the other Angel sitting on the cloud representing Christ to put in his sickle signifies whitherto the prayers of the Church tended Vers. 16. The reaping of him that fate on a cloud may signifie the ascending of the Witnesses in a cloud or rather the consequences thereof For their ascent will be the pitching of the Thrones for the Ancient of days to sit or a commencement of that judgment that is to be given to the Saints of the most high to take away the Dominion of the Beast So that the reaping here will be the separating of the people of God from communion with the Beast to associate themselves with the Risen-witnesses and to fulfill the Monition Come out of her my people c. Ans. Is he then that sits on the cloud the Risen-witnesses It 's pity but there had appeared another with him to make them two The description imports that it is Christ himself according to the usual sense of Interpreters even that son of man that comes in the clouds of Heaven and the Ancient of days gives him the Kingdom which he augmenteth here by this Harvest of the converted Iews this immediately preceding the Vintage which synchronizeth and is in a manner the same with the seventh Vial see Mr. Mede and with the battel of the Rider on the white Horse ch 19. which there immediately ensues the Marriage of the Lamb which in all reason is understood of the calling of the Jews The Rising of the Witnesses is certainly before the first Vial but this affair synchronizeth with the sixth So much out is the Remarker here Vers. 18. Here the Angel that hath power over the fire his crying to him that had the sharp sickle is said to be for vengeance on the cruel Murtherers and Idolaters but the vengeance taken by thrusting in the sharp sickle is said more especially to respect the converting them which is a strange vengeance And the making the mention of fire here to be because of the Martyrdoms inflicted by it is not sense But the Angel is said to have power over fire in respect of his executing God's wrath by causing fierce and bloudy wars consuming like a fire c. In which sense fire is used in the first Trumpet and the Censer of fire cast upon the Earth before the Trumpets And so likewise here the Angel with a sharp sickle being to reap the Vine of the Earth viz. to gather the Antichristian party to battel is odered thereto by the Angel that had power over fire viz. who as our Saviour came not to bring peace but division and to send a fire on Earth and as the Rider on the red Horse in the second seal had power to take peace from the Earth c. had power to cause such divisions and commotions as should incense and stir men up to the said battel c. Ans. Upon those words which had power over the fire Peganius writes thus Who in the Priesthood says he of the Heavenly Tabernacle was to have care of the fire upon the Altar whence now should be kindled the fire of vengeance Which is a sense no way inconsistent with mine viz. That this Altar is named in relation to the Martyrdoms under the Papal Tyranny and the fire the rather because their Martyrdom was much by fire they were burnt as Holocausts to the pride and covetousness of the Papacy And Peganius himself upon those words precedent And another Angel came out from the Altar where the souls of the Martyrs says he were kept and whose bloud the Lord would avenge at this time But the fire of the Altar does not signifie wrath and vengeance simply of it self as appears from Esay ch 6. where a live-coal taken from the Altar by a Seraphin and put to the mouth of the Prophet is a sign of his iniquity being taken away and of his sin being purged which is not vengeance but mercy And the use of this fire on the Altar was to burn their Sacrifices which were to propitiate God's wrath not to kindle it Wherefore these things being considered what a severe sentence is this of the Remarker to say That the making of mention of fire here is because of the Martyrdom inflicted by it is not sense For it is more perfect and adequate sense than the other The Altar and the fire that burnt their Holocausts compared with the burning of the Martyrs which the Pontifician Power burnt as so many Holocausts to their Pride Avarice and Cruelty being a more proper and efficacious Incentive to pray for vengeance against them than merely the heat of fire signifying that way which may as well signifie the warmth of mercy the ardour of love and zeal for the conversion of men as vengeance Nor does the fire of Incense Apoc. 8. of it self signifie wrath and vengeance else prayer which the fume of Incense signifies could onely be for vengeance which is extremely absurd But the coals of Incense there are determined to that sense because the prayers of God's people had been uttered that way And the Angel that had the care of the fire on the Altar fire signifying the flames of holy zeal and love as well as the heat of wrath and revenge may call to him that has the sharp sickle according to both these senses out of wrath to destroy one party and out of love and mercy to convert the other For that seems to be an affected mistake in the Remarker that he makes the Expositor to allot both vengeance and conversion to the same party So that the Objection is a mere Cavil Vers. 19. Here is likewise a strange Wine-press of the Wrath of God viz. Mens being pressed in
fall there were no Deceivers nor Devils And the Devil when he is restrained to his Infernal confinement yet all that then can be said is but this Let no man when he is tempted say I am tempted of the Devil for he during his infernal confinement tempteth no man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed c. Iam. 1.13 And certainly in the Millennium men are not born without Original sin nor is their body of flesh less subject to various lusts than the Aethereal bodies of Angels were So that what is here produced is mere Rhetorical colour no solid or substantial Argument Vers. 3. This conceit of iron adamantine rigid Laws c. and these to be in a time when there will be so little need of them does shew an imagination much upon the rack If the wicked in the Millennium are to be kept under such Laws they will have little heart to join in that Song Blessing honour glory and power c. be unto him that sitteth on the throne and unto the lamb for ever Which is said every Creature in Heaven and Earth shall doe ch 5. But these will be times for which Paul says The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth and wherein it shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God it being not made subject unto vanity willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Rom. 8. viz. That wickendess which Iohn says the whole world lyes in being the result of its thraldom and delusion under the power of the Devil which lapsed man became subject unto yet in hopes to be delivered therefrom they becoming in this Millennial State partakers of their hopes having all stumbling-blocks of iniquity taken away and receiving all advantages to further them in the ways of righteousness they will joyfully walk therein and through the blessings they find do attend their so doing will be moved to join in the said Song of Blessing honour glory and power c. Ans. Here 's but the Repetition of the same things in the beginning of this Remark which were in the former and therefore they need no new Answer But afterwards he offers at two new Arguments against this conceit as he calls it of iron adamantine rigid Laws For if there be such in the Millennium the wicked will have little heart says he to join in that Song chap. 5.13 Blessing honour glory and power c. Whenas it is said Every creature in Heaven Earth and under the Earth c. shall join in it In answer to which I onely demand Whether the old Serpent in his Infernal confinement which is under the Earth will either join in or say Amen to that Doxology In what sense he will the wicked will also The other Reason is That this is the Time viz. the Millennium wherein the Creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God But I here demand first Whether all the Creatures or all men will be thus delivered from the bondage of corruption nay whether all men that live in the same Countries that they that belong to the new Ierusalem do I suppose the Remarker will not adventure to assert it Wherefore there being those among the Saints that are not Saints themselves these rigid Laws are fit to bridle them But then secondly I deny that this place of Rom. 8. refers to the Millennium but to the state of the Resurrection For then onely will this deliverance from the bondage of corruption be and the attainment of the freedom of the Sons of God which is the Title of the Angels For then in our glorified bodies we shall become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels And this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is mentioned v. 23. which we groan after and wait for viz. the Redemption of our bodies that they may be glorified and made Angelical such as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have the Angels or Sons of God Vers. 4. The first Resurrection is not a Revivification into their glorified bodies to reign in Heaven For there Saints cannot be said to reign there being none there to be Subjects to them And that State is not attainable till the Resurrection at the last day when Christ hath promised to raise up those that believe in him Iohn 5.28 29. Also the following words Blessed is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power do shew that the first Resurrection is not an emerging above the Regions of Mortality by being revivified into glorified bodies for then the pronouncing the second death to have no power over them would be needless Which is also farther evidenced by the reign in the first Resurrection being a thousand years whenas the Heavenly state is everlasting And it 's a great violation of Scripture to make a thousand years when spoke of the Resurrection to signifie Symbolically when it 's so oft in the Chapter used Numerically and by coherence of the discourse must every-where needs have the same signification Therefore the first Resurrection is a Privilege of the Martyrs that suffered under Antichrist to reign in the Millennial State as the Powers of the Air viz. the Devil and his Angels did among the worldly Powers till he was bound in the bottomless pit Ans. I answer Saints may be said to reign in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at least if not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides what will the Remarker say to that Text 2 Tim. 2. If we suffer we shall also reign with him And to Rom. 8. Heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him that is partake of his glorious Kingdom according to that Mat. 25. Come ye blessed of my father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you c. Whence it is plain that the Saints may be said to reign in Heaven according to phrase of Scripture And if there be a Polity in Heaven as most certainly there is the Martyrs may have several Provinces to rule over in a Briathick State as the Cabbalists seem to call it And that the Heavenly State is not attainable before the general Resurrection is against the opinion of the ancient Fathers as you may see in Mr. Mede And the last day reaches from the beginning of the Millennium to the end of the World or general Resurrection as I have discoursed this point more copiously in a Letter to a friend and therefore am loth to repeat it here The adding to the mention of the first Resurrection that the second death has no power over them is not needless both because it more manifestly imports that this Resurrection is not meant of a Political Resurrection but a Physical and also that it assures us of the sense of that passage in the Epistle to
the Church of Smyrna He that overcomes shall not be hurt by the second Death from the comparing of which two places together the Ancients rightly inferred the Rising of the Martyrs at the first Resurrection that it was their privilege So that as some of the passages in Daniel and the Apocalypse are as it were Tallies kept by parties one with another to give a just account of the sense so the same are some passages of the Apocalypse one to another of which I might give many more examples but I hold it needless Nor does the Martyrs reigning in Heaven that thousand years of the Millennium clash with their reigning there for ever afterwards But from the beginning of the Millennium to everlasting is their reign and Omne majus continet in se minus so that it is true that they reigned in Heaven while the Saints which worshipped not the Beast with their successours reigned in the Millennium on Earth viz. they reigned a thousand years while the Martyrs reigned in Heaven the same time But in this place it was impertinent and too motiminous nor sutable to the accustomed brevity and succinctness of the Apocalyptick style to tell they yet farther reigned to all eternity that being to be signified afterwards Nor is it any violation of Scripture to make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sixth verse signifie symbolically when in the fourth and fifth it does not the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being in the fourth and fifth verses Which therefore points at the determinate thousand years of the Millennium But it is lest out in the sixth verse and as it seems on purpose to lead us to that symbolical meaning touching those that partake of the first Resurrection and which was proper to them in conterdistinction to those Confessors who worshipped not the Image of the Beast and who with their successors onely reigned that thousand years of the Millennium Which farther argues that the first Resurrection is Physical and into an Heavenly glorified body So coherent is the discourse and agreeable with the symbolical sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in v. 6. But to make the Privilege of the Martyrs in the first Resurrection to be that they reign during the Millennium as the Powers of the Air the Devil and his Angels did among the worldly powers till he was bound this though it may seem a witty conceit yet it is not true For then they have but the office of ministring Angels which is not to reign but to minister For I hope they will not doe as the Devils did receive religious worship from us mortals And if these Martyrs have no bodies how is it a Resurrection and if onely Aerial bodies so have other souls as well as they And if you say they onely minister for the good of the Saints in this Airy Region what hinders but other souls that are not Martyrs may have the same office so that this is no Privilege of the Martyrs nor the right State of the first Resurrection Wherefore the safest and most natural sense of the first Resurrection is not to crop or mutilate it but to let it be full and of the same kind with the general Resurrection of the just Vers. 8. There was no increase of wickedness by relaxation of discipline For these Nations that gather themselves against the Saints are foreign Nations that were never subject to their discipline but during the Devil's being bound did live peaceably by them and haply did so rejoice in the light of the New Ierusalem as to fulfill those sayings The Nations that are saved shall walk in the light thereof and The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the Nations but were now so deceived by Satan's being loosed as to combine against the beloved City as the Neighbouring-nations used to confederate against Ierusalem Ans. That there was no increase of wickedness by relaxation of discipline is a thing said not proved though I have proved above to the contrary Nor is there any sufficient intimation in the Vision that they were foreign Nations that environ'd the Holy City that is the Holy Polity but people of a foreign spirit and aliens from the faith and genius of those that are of the true Houshold of God though they lived amongst the Nations that were converted to the true Apostolick Christianity And the Kingdom of Christ having become so large at that time when Apoc. ch 11.15 ch 15.4 all the Kingdoms of the World as it is written were become the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ it is hard to conceive it should be otherwise and also by relaxation of discipline that even those that were subject to their discipline should not so corrupt as to make part of the Army of Gog and Magog And what Nations can be thought to walk in the light of the new Ierusalem but those that are converted to the Christian Faith For by faith we are saved as the Apostle tells us And those Nations that are healed are the same that are saved also no other at all need be implied And whether you count Gog and Magog neighbouring or foreign Nations it is but childish and Idiotical to take it so far in the literal sense and against the genius of the Apocalyptick style that they must signifie either neighbouring or foreign Nations in a Geographical meaning but in a Mystical Dissimilitude of spirit and profession answering to distance of place and those that have the same profession but not the same spirit really and the same saith are Borderers rather than Natives And such are those that bear the name of the Christianity then established I mean in the Millennium but covertly favour the Dragon and the Beast And these are Gog which signifies Tectum But those that are open Draconists or Bestians these are Magog which signifies Absque Tecto as the Lexicon Sanctum will have it But this is a greater curiosity than needs It is sufficient in the mean time to observe that as the very people Gog and Magog that were the ancient Enemies of the Jews are not here understood so no people of a foreign Nation out of the bounds and precincts of the New-Ierusalem Jurisdiction or Kingdom of Christ are necessarily signified thereby though I do not deny but by Magog may be also understood whatever foreign forces are accumulated to those that are within the Dominions of the new Ierusalem Vers. 9. Those in the Ierusalem state being called the Camp of the Saints and the beloved City does shew they are in no such a degenerate state as the Epistle to the Laodiceans describes and so is one reason more to those many given ch 3. that the two last of the seven Epistles do not concern the Millennial State And it 's a great straining of the Text to serve the contrary conceit to make those Titles be given the new Ierusalem because there were many Saints there and the rest so as to purity of external Worship
whereof the Nations which are saved shall walk is signified by the leaves of the tree of life healing the Nations In like manner did other Nations borrow light from the Iudaical Worship and the Heathen Priests and Philosophers did rectifie their Theology by the Christian doctrine And though this healing of the Nations by the leaves will be much more verified in the people subject to the Dominion of the New Ierusalem than in those neighbouring Nations yet that verifying of it is signified by the description given of his righteous Dominion who is to judge the World in Righteousness and minister Judgment to the people with Equity Ans. The Tree of life the Remarker here will have to signifie the same thing that the pure River of water of life What a tautological Bungle is this and slurring this distinct Political description of the state of the New Ierusalem as if in all that is said nothing is understood but onely in general that the Citizens of this City are in the Dispensation of life But this is the effect as I said of his Aziluthick Dream These trees therefore that signifie Grandees in the Ierusalem Polity whether Ecclesiastick or Civil are such as answer to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Magnates of the Polity of Babylon who were Merchants and did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sold Justice for money being earthly-minded and as to the life of God trees quite dead and withered As for the Tree of life in Paradise it was the sincere union of our wills with the will of God and the Tree of knowledge of good and evil is the following our own will and the not keeping in that former union But what this is to the explication of the present Text I see not Trees here according to the Prophetick style signifie Men and that Grandees If they had been the Commonalty of the City or all the Citizens Grass and Flags growing by the River sides had better represented them than Trees That not neighbouring Nations but converted Nations become parts of the Kingdom of Christ are understood by Nations I have above sufficiently proved And it is a strange Paradox that those Nations that are capable of healing were not capable of being converted to such a frame of Polity and Religion which so palpably tended to both the present and future Happiness as well of Prince as People and was intended by Providence for the common Religion of Mankind whenas the Iewish was onely Topical And therefore the ancient Philosophers borrowing of the Jews without turning to their Religion signifies nothing here Vers. 3. There shall be no more curse signifies not Papal Curse but the curse of God for sin and therefore it follows But the Throne of God and the Lamb shall be therein and his servants shall serve him viz. By the Throne of God and the Lamb being therein they shall be established in righteousness and holiness whereby his servants shall serve him c. Ans. If the curse of God for sin is taken away in the Mellennium then there will be no more neither diseases nor death no Briars nor Thorns nor labour of tillage c. This is another Aziluthical whimsie or dream of a golden Age in which Ovid makes the Earth to bring forth all manner of fruit yea Corn it self without plow or tillage Mox etiam fruges tellus inarata ferebat Nec renovatus ager gravidis canebat aristis But it is a childish conceit to think that in the Millennium external Nature will be changed though men will then have more healthfull bodies by reason of their Regeneration into true Holiness and Righteousness The judgment of R. Moses Aegyptius is far more sober and sound touching the state of things in the reign of the Messias than the Remarker's who writes thus Non ascendat saith he in cor tuum c. Let not such a fond conceit arise in thy mind as if in the days of the Messias any thing would vary from the usual custome of this natural World or any thing be innovated in the work of the six days Creation But the course of Nature will then be no otherwise than now it is See Munster on Esay ch 11. whose expressions touching the times of the Messiah v. 6 7 8. that Wolves Lions Bears and Leopards will then lose their salvageness gave some Jews occasion to deny that the Times of the Messiah are yet because these Beasts still retain their old nature Which shews the danger of extravagant interpretations of Prophecy To set the sense of things upon such a strange rack and incredible that they that shall believe it will be hindred from acknowledging Prophecies to be fulfilled when yet really they are And therefore as ch 21.4 where it is said And there shall be no more death the meaning is not that the Citizens of the New Ierusalem shall never dye but there shall be no such death as in the Polity of Babylon no more bloudy massacrings of the faithfull witnesses of Christ so likewise here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there shall be no more curse is to be understood not that the curse of sin shall be taken from external Nature but such curses as were most notorious in the Polity of Babylon those Papal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or excommunicatory Denunciations that often did set all Christendom on fire and embroiled it in bloudy and destructive Wars The true Key of rightly explaining the State of the New Ierusalem is the interpreting things in way of opposition to the State of Babylon and the condition of the faithfull servants of Christ under it Which is worthy of any intelligent person's observation And what follows in this verse exquisitely well agrees with this exposition But the Throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it The Pope before had usurped the Throne of God from whence be thundered and lightened so with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Excommunicatory curses to the disturbance of all Christendom but now this Throne of God is taken from the Vsurper and become the Throne of the Lamb to the peace and refreshment of the Vniversal Church of Christ. Such is the State of his Millennial Empire AN ANSWER To Several REMARKS UPON Dr. Henry More HIS EXPOSITION OF THE VISIONS of DANIEL Written By. S. E. MENNONITE And Published in English by The ANSWERER Together with his ANSWERS thereunto LONDON Printed by M. F. for Walter Kettilby 1684. REMARKS UPON THE EXPOSITION OF THE VISIONS of DANIEL Vision 1. Vers. 33. THIS Image being to represent the four great Kingdoms that were to arise successively on the Earth and which is said to be terrible in the same sense as the four Beasts in the next Vision are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wild Beasts it 's very incongruous to understand any part of it of any other than secular power So that the feet being part of Clay and part of Iron cannot signifie the Roman Empire its becoming partly Ecclesiastical and
if Constantine in virtue of the Christian doctrine wherewith he was embued ruled more righteously than his Predecessors this was no abridgment of his absolute Power but merely a right use thereof And the same may be said of the ten Kings or Monarchs the ten Horns of the Beast They were trepan'd out of their Right when they acknowledged any Sovereign in causes Ecclesiastick as well as Civil besides themselves And I wonder whenas the Remarker produces such a notable example in the case of Carolus Calvus of the Ecclesiastick encroachments upon the Secular Power that he should at all doubt but that the Clay is the Ecclesiastick Power as well as the Iron the Secular and such a Power as alone is fitly set out by the Clay in full distinction to the Iron or Secular Power in Kings Nobles and Gentry c. Vision 2. Vers. 2. a SEA in the Prophetick style signifies not simply vast multitudes of people for then There was no more Sea Rev. 21.1 must signifie there was no more multitudes But by Sea is meant such multitudes united in a Political State under the Powers that rule them b And that Power which does overflow and so subject them to its Dominion is rather the Sea as appears by the second Trumpet and the second Vial and they as the Fish moving in it By reason whereof and the fluctuating condition they are in thereby they are represented by Waters Rev. 17. c This Power is the Spirit of the World ruling in them Their thraldom under which is that bondage of corruption which subjects them to the Prince of this World Of which Spirit Solomon saith He hath set the World in their hearts c. And Paul We have not received the Spirit of the World but the Spirit of God c. And by reason of the rule of which in us we are said to be of the World and so under the power of darkness in opposition to that Spiritual state which Believers are begotten into whereby they cease to be of the World and are translated from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of our Lord. This Spirit of the World therefore is the like Principle of the natural Life in man's heart as the Spirit of God is of the spiritual Life therein and by the one do the Devils bear the like sway in natural or unregenerate men as Christ does by the other in the Regenerate Hence is ascribed to the Devil that power over those who are delivered to him for the destruction of the flesh and also the power of Death through fear of which he makes men all their life subject to bondage And hence did he make that claim to all the Kingdoms of the World which our Saviour did not gainsay For he by the power mentioned being the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience Ephes. 2.2 which all mankind are till they are recovered out of their lapsed state he can as Paul says take them captive at his will and so rules as he pleaseth in the world save wherein God as supreme Governour of the World does interpose in the behalf of his servants and for bringing to pass what Changes and Revolutions he hath determined The four Winds striving on the great Sea and four Beasts coming out of it signifie the four great Kingdoms that were to arise successively on the Earth and the great commotion and combustion they would cause in the World by their vanquishing one another d But the Aerial Genii or Angels are not concerned therein as Ministers of God's Providence farther than they are a part of the Powers of those Kingdoms that are so to arise Such are the Presidentiary Angels of the Kingdoms of Persia and Graecia in Vision 5 th Ans. The Expositor does not say that a Sea signifies multitudes of people simply but that the great Sea in this place signifies so according to the Prophetick style which does not denote the determinate Dominion of any one Potentate but the people of adverse Potentates who are so far from being held under one Government that they are the people of opposite Governments or Empires and therefore cannot be called one great Sea as under one Government but as one great Multitude which is called a great Sea by reason of the greatness of the Multitude and is well represented by the great Sea with Winds ruffling the waves thereof by reason of the Commotion and War one against another b But that a multitude under one Government is not called Sea unless it be overflowing some other Government I deny to appear either out of the second Trumpet or second Vial. The Remarker should have spoke out more clearly But I say the Sea though it be not actually overflowing another being so subject to fluctuations from several cross Winds and unexpected occasions is properly a Symbol of worldly Governments that are obnoxious to these Commotions and Mutations Whence that passage Revel 21.1 is fitly understood And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth where Heaven signifies the governing Part and Earth the Multitude governed which being expressed by Earth there was no want of Sea to signifie the same but to denote the stability of this new constitution of things it is added And there was no more Sea which does not signifie there was no more multitudes but no more tumultuating multitudes and that firm Peace and Tranquillity possest the Millennial Empire of Christ and his holy and righteous people From whence come wars and fightings amongst you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members Jam. 4.1 c What follows in this Remark is something prolix and mysterious but may be well meant for ought I know but so far as I see enervates nothing that the Expositor has writ on this verse For the Spirit of the World which he discourses of certainly Ambition which the Expositor names is the chief effect of it and most chiefly considered in this place d Nor does the Remarker deny but that the Aerial Genii are concerned in these Mutations and Revolutions in Kingdoms which is all I care to have granted This looks like a desire of saying something contrary to the Expositor when there is nothing to be said But I cannot let pass one passage of Scripture amongst the many he has cited viz. that Eccles. 3.11 where he insinuates that in He hath set the World in their hearts by He is understood the Spirit of the World whenas it is plain from the foregoing words He hath made every thing beautifull in its time that it 's God that has set the World in mens hearts viz. in their understandings For the Heart is the seat of the Understanding in the Scripture-phrase in virtue of which they take more notice thereof than Brutes but yet are far from being Masters of the Mysteries of his Providence as is intimated in the following words of that verse
the Lion denoted the same The swiftness of whose expeditions viz. of the King of Babylon Ieremy compares to the slight of Eagles chap. 4. and chap. 40. Wherefore these four wings of this Leopard answer exquisitely to the description of the He-Goat in the next Chapter which is the same Empire viz. the Greek Behold an He-Goat came from the West on the face of the whole Earth and touched not the ground What did he then but in a manner fly And what can better set out such a flying than wings So fitly do these two Visions explain one another as to this passage But in the mean time the Remarker professeth himself of a wonderfull indistinct conception that cannot distinguish the nature of the four wings in general from the Number of them wherein yet he contradicts himself For he will not say that the four wings as four signifie haughty aspiring but as wings Wherefore as he from the general nature of them would have signified ambitious aspiring which if they did both here and in the Lion it clashes not with the Expositor's Interpretation one Symbol being capable of several senses by an Henopoeia of the second kind so the Expositor from the said general nature of them will have them signifie swiftness which is at least the more principal sense as has been proved and will reach also the swift division of the Greek Empire into four parts Alexander living so little a while after his Conquest Vers. 9. Though it be difficult to give an account of Ezekiels Vision chap. 1. yet I think it may be safely concluded that the living Creatures and Wheels are not Angelical as is here supposed For those four living Creatures agreeing in number and name with the four Beasts Revel 4. for they are both called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the four faces of each of these living Creatures being the faces of the four Beasts it shews that as the last signifies a successive body or society of men so the other must have the like signification Which is farther confirmed by their all four having the likeness of a man and a man's hand under every wing and their having Calves feet signifying the labour and travel which is given to men under the Sun and also by the spirit that is said to be in them and in the wheels Whereas Angels are called Spirits and not described by any Spirit abiding in them 1. The four faces and the four wings of the living Creatures I take to signifie the same thing viz. The complication in humane nature of the nature of those four Animals signified by the faces that is of Reason Religion Courage and Industry Of these four does humane nature consist and subsist by them they being the life and support of humane affairs The four wings may signifie the several spirits from which these operations are produced and the man's hand under each wing the management of all these operations by reason and prudence The four Beasts all of them representing the same body or society of Christians have the same signification with the four faces and wings of each living Creature but it would not have agreed with them that each of them should have had four faces as it doth with the erect stature of the living Creatures and also it would have been needless being the same thing is signified by the four several Beasts Besides those Beasts having six wings there would have been faces wanting to two of them 2. Which two wings added to the other four I take to be the same with the two wings with which the Seraphims fly Esay 6. these six-winged Beasts being the same with those Seraphims and to signifie that grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ or that Life and Truth which he says he is and thereby the way to the Father And we being by this grace or life and truth quickened and raised unto newness of life in Christ Jesus whereby we cease to be of the World and are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of our Lord and so raised up and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes. 2.6 they thereby become truly wings to us in exalting us from a worldly or earthly unto such an heavenly state Ezekiel's Vision therefore of the living Creatures and Wheels I take to be a Representation of the ruling of the God of Israel over his people in a natural state under a Legal or Iudaical Dispensation as the twenty four Elders and the four Beasts represent the same rule in a Christian state under the Dispensation of the Divine life The latter of which is to be fulfilled in the Millennium but the former was never fulfilled completely because the Iews failed of living up to the height of that Dispensation 3. But this Vision of Ezekiel and his other also of the Temple seem to be designed for the like purpose as the Tree of life was planted in Paradise viz. to signifie that Dispensation of life which men in due time were to be admitted unto but not then the natural earthly state of man not admitting thereof 4. So likewise the two mentioned Visions the first of them seems to signifie the Spiritual power wherewith God would have ruled over his people and the last the Spiritual communion he would have had with them with the blessing attending the same if they had walked perfectly with him according to all his righteous judgments in that legal dispensation 5. Hence the close of the Vision of the Temple is The name of the City from that day shall be The Lord is there that is from the time they shall keep and observe all the Laws and Ordinances then delivered 6. And hence the God of Israel on sending Ezekiel to prophesie the ruine of the City and Temple and Captivity of the people does to render their iniquity more heinous shew himself to the Prophet in the glory of that government which their transgressions made them fail of or fall from to be cast off 7. Two instances of their falling from that Government are First their making the Calf whereon God who Exod. 29.45 46. had promised to dwell among them does chap. 33.2 3. say he will send his Angel before them but refuseth to go up in the midst of them lest he destroy them Secondly their desiring a King which is said to be not the rejecting of Samuel but of God to rule over them 8. The Wheels I take to be the same to the four living Creatures as the four Beasts are to the twenty four Elders viz. as the Governed to the Governours 9. And both the Wheels and living Creatures being under the Throne and not rising but as lifted up nor moving but as acted by the spirit which was in both seems to signifie the natural earthly state of those they represent whereby they were as mere passive Subjects to the actings of the Spirit of God upon them like as the Prophets were to
referred to the third Vial. But for one to bring in by head and shoulders here the wrath of the Dragon in another Vision and in that part thereof which respects things a-many hundred years before yea above a thousand when there is so plainly before his face a fresh and notorious occasion of new conceived wrath is to resolve to say any thing rather than profess himself to have nothing to say b Secondly As to what relates to the sixth Vial Here he runs into the like extravagance interpreting the Temple of God in Heaven of the Emperours embracing the Christian profession applying to this part of the Vision which respects things after the Rising of the Witnesses as is manifestly proved against his Remarks that which happened above a thousand years before their Rising And for that significant Symbol of the Conversion of the Iews which Judicious Interpreters of the Apocalypse conceive will be about the sixth Vial What a puerile peice of Sophistry is that to put it off by saying They will then be no more concerned in the Ark of the Covenant than the Christians as if it could not belong to them then because they would be Christians But it may signifie notwithstanding that God will then within the compass of the sixth Vial have an eye to his everlasting Covenant he made with the Iews and so convert them to Christianity And it will be always true that this was a prophetick Type and prefiguration thereof even when they are turned Christians And lastly as to the Earthquake and Hail that does so palpably answer to the seventh Vial That it really does so and does not respect any Revolutions upon the Pagan Emperours turning Christians I have in my Answer to his Remarks upon chap. 11. vers 19. abundantly demonstrated And therefore it must necessarily glance at the seventh Vial. So that it being so plain that the Residue of this Vision is a more imperfect signification of the things that the Vision of the Vials does more fully signifie the argument holds good that the Vials must be placed at the beginning of the seventh Trumpet or second Ioint of the two first Visions of the Opened book that they may do the same service to those two Visions that the third Vision in Daniel does to the two precedent Visions there c And it is worth the observing That as the Vision of the pouring forth the Vials themselves is much more full than the slighter account of those affairs in this present Vision chap. 11. So the Preamble to the Vision of the pouring out of the Vials is much more large than the Preamble to their more obscure Compendium here And farthermore That as those Acclamations in Heaven and Doxology of the Elders is upon some real overthrow of the Babylonish party and victory of the Apostolick party which are called the Witnesses So the Triumphal Song of Moses and the Lamb must be upon the like victory and I doubt not but the very same The Doxology of the Elders is a Song of Thanksgiving plainly We give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned To which answers the Annunciation of the second Angel chap. 14. Babylon is fallen is fallen not will fall the great City of which a tenth part fell at the Rising of the Witnesses And in the Song of Moses and the Lamb it is said All Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy Judgments are made manifest and this before the pouring out of the Vials viz. in that partial fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses Thus strongly do these three bind one with another and one would think invincibly But what says the Remarker to this The Acclamations in Heaven at the seventh Trumpet are in no-wise applicable to the Rising of the Witnesses and nor they nor the Doxology of the Elders do answer to the Triumphal Song chap. 15. which indeed is no such Song as is shew'd in Remarks c. This is a mere sullen denying of a thing without giving any reason for it That there should be Acclamations in Heaven upon the fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses and ushered in with the sound of a Trumpet and yet should not be applicable thereto is very humourously and shamelesly spoken And I have produced reasons to prove that the Doxology of the Elders does answer to the Song of Moses and the Lamb already and the Remarker none in his Remarks that this Song of Moses and the Lamb is not a Triumphal Song So that things are hitherto firm in themselves and the Remarker onely obstinate But he comes in at last with this pretence That the Acclamations and Doxology at the seventh Trumpet are too great to be applied to the Rising of the Witnesses To which may be added that they being after the sounding of the seventh Trumpet are rather for the effects of it than for the fruits of the close of the sixth which is the Rising of the Witnesses But as to the first He must be of a very niggardly gratitude that can think that either those Acclamations in Heaven or Doxology of the Elders exceed so illustrious a Providence as the Rising of the Witnesses wherein so many Kingdoms Principalities and Provinces became the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ nor is it said that all Kingdoms then became his So that the form of speech is strictly within compass And yet these may be lookt upon but as the Primitiae of what was after to accrew thereto and so that indefinite Assertion may be enlarged to what is comprized in future hope and expectation And in answer to the second I say The Acclamations and Doxology are not after the sounding of the seventh Trumpet but commence with it But the sounding is mentioned first for the better embellishing the Cortex it ushering in as it were those Heavenly Acclamations and Doxology of the Elders And though they may glance at more enlarged hopes of future Accessions yet the principal Object and Occasion of this Thanksgiving is the actual Rising of the Witnesses And were it not so this signal Providence and illustrious Victory would be without any Doxology or Thanksgiving which is grosly absurd that there should be no shout nor sign of joy at such a surprizing Providence as this namely at the Reviving of the two Witnesses when they had lain slain three days and an half in the streets of the City nor at their ascending in a cloud into Heaven in the view of all the people the tenth part of their City that slew them falling in the mean time by an Earthquake and many thousands of their enemies buried in the ruins How incredible how indecorous is it that so happy a Catastrophe of the Witnesses sufferings as this should pass without a Plaudite Therefore it is a sensless thing not to make the Rising of the Witnesses and the fall of the City the Object of those Acclamations and of
the Doxology of the Elders and contrary to the usual mode of the Apocalypse that ever closeth the good success of the Church with some Indications of Joy and Thankfulness as chap. 12. vers 10 12. chap. 19. vers 1. and again vers 21. which concludes with a feast of Joy and Thanksgiving for the victory of the Rider of the white Horse d And now to go on mindless in what follows of the Remarker's haughty verbosity the fruits of an heated Melancholy and a crazied fancy which makes him reproach the most sound and usefull Truths I will onely take notice of what is most material he says on this present argument He says it was advisedly done of the Expositor to omit instancing in the words that do so glance at the fourth fifth sixth and seventh Vials because it is so hard to doe it But I answer The Expositor omitted it because it is so easie for any one to doe that reades his Expositions of this part of this Vision chap. 14. and that of the Vials chap. 16. How these comport one with another is manifest For the Mystical Interpretation of the fourth Vial shews in what a wretched and damnable condition they are in that adhere to the Papacy their sad case being so manifest out of the word of God which is the Sun a Lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths And this answers to vers 9 10 11. of chap. 14. where eternal Torment and damnation is denounced to them that worship the Beast and his Image c. And it is told in what unquietness of conscience they are in that in the light of those times adventure to doe so And for vers 12. Here is the patience of the Saints that will not go against their consciences but rather suffer that answers to that part of the fourth Vial And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the Name of God which Rage the Mother of Persecution does hugely well comport with the affliction of the Saints and the patience they are put to for that time But under the fifth Vial there is better news especially from the Political sense thereof as if there would be some such change of affairs in the behalf of the Evangelici that the seat of the Beast would grow unfrequented and his Kingdom considerably clouded and darkened upon which sense therefore of the fifth Vial the 13 verse of chap. 14. may very well be thought to glance Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for their works do follow them i. e. the effect or success of their works and labours for the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ and the fall of Antichrist From henceforth from such a time of the Sardian Interval viz. under the fifth Vial will the scales turn and the Evangelical power begin to be preponderant to the Antichristian Now the sixth Vial concerns the Conversion of the Iews haply with some other Eastern people How fitly therefore and plainly does the Harvest mentioned chap. 14.15 glance at the sixth Vial For conversion to the Gospel is reaping the Harvest as our Saviour himself has used the similitude Ioh. 4.35 And lastly what an assured Complication of time and affairs there is betwixt the Vision of the Wine-press the seventh Vial and the battel of the Rider on the white Horse is so fully made out by the Expositor that no man that has read what he has writ can doubt of it e Farthermore Whereas the Remarker says it does not appear of what use the so glancing at the affairs of the Vials here and the slight Intimations of them aforesaid at the seventh Trumpet can be save onely to give colour to the placing of the Vials in the seventh Trumpet I say that that use alone were abundantly sufficient for the Spirit of Prophecy to frame these two first Visions of the Opened book so as that by those Intimations and Glances not onely colour but sound evidence may be given that all the Vials are placed within the seventh Trumpet For from hence it will infallibly follow that they are to be placed after the Rising of the Witnesses and that the Rising of the Witnesses was the late Reformation begun by Luther c. which is of vast consequence to be understood and acknowledged That God may have condign praise and thanks for so great a mercy to his Church That broils and stirs of Phantastical and Fanatical people may be prevented who are apt to be encouraged to attempt Innovations upon that false conceit that the Rising of the Witnesses is near and that then forsooth that very Reformation will be indeed that is the true Rising of the Witnesses Whenas most certainly the Vision is accomplished already It will also beget a just esteem of the present Reformation and make men with quiet of conscience and chearfulness of mind hold communion with the established National Churches which is good for all the Reformed Nations and Kingdoms And lastly it will whenas things shall appear so well constituted without make men that have any sense of or propension to Religion and a desire to excell therein to look within themselves and to use all their zeal and heat against those faults that are to be reformed within as Pride Self-conceitedness Envy Wrathfulness Implacableness Censoriousness Covetousness Persidiousness Contemptuousness Malepertness against their Betters Indulging the use of the Creature Unconversableness Cavils against publick administration of affairs and despising and speaking ill of them that be in Autority with whatever other vices they discover in themselves I say they having no proper Object without to exercise their zeal on in reference to matters of Religion it will be more hopefull they will turn it inward against their own corruptions but now falsly fansying so much defect or corruption in the established Religion and Ecclesiastick Constitutions they are prone foolishly to imagine themselves Saints for their bitter inveying against the publickly constituted Religion and the administration of things there when as they lye cold enough to that necessary inward Reformation and are little sensible of it Wherefore as I said this use alone of the Intimations and Glances of the two first Visions on the Vials namely that we may thereby be assured that the Vials are all to be placed within the seventh Trumpet is sufficient that the frame of those two Visions should be so contrived But questionless there are other Uses also which would be too long to note These Intimations and Glances give the better assurance of the sense of the Vials As in the sixth Vial for example which Interpreters expound of the Conversion of the Iews understanding them by the Kings of the East But there is nothing to signifie conversion there But in this glance here by the mentioning of Harvest conversion is implied And if any one will say There 's nothing signifying the Iews yet I say the Intimation in the first Vision respecting the sixth Vial is the Ark of the Covenant which must needs
have the same Epocha that the beginning of the Church has Wherefore to proceed we being so well assured of this point we are next to consider what year of his Age Christ was crucified in and according to the above mentioned Thomas Lydiat whom I conceive to be in the truth Christ was crucified about the thirty third year of his Age he being betwixt twenty nine and thirty when he was baptized and entered upon his Ministry and he continuing the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom for about three years and an half as the ancient Fathers have delivered before he was crucified We take it therefore for granted that Christ was crucified in the thirty third year of his Age. And now lastly From the Vision of the measuring the Inner Court and the Profanation of the Outer for 42 months chap. 11. we gather the time of the beginning of the Apostasie thus Villalpandus divides the large Square Area upon which the Temple and all the buildings belonging to the Inner and Outer Court are placed into nine particular equal Square Area's Two of these Area's are those on which not onely the Temple but all the Porticus's that belong to the Inner Court are built With Area of the Inner Court distributed into two Squares has in its Western Square the Temple on its Eastern the Altar for Holocausts But thus the Inner Court taking up just two Squares of the nine equal Squares and the rest being allotted to the Outer Court with its buildings or Porticus's it is plain that the Area of the Outer Court to the Inner is as 7 to 2. And the two first of the proportional Terms being thus invariably fixt the third proportional 42 is to be taken in such a fixt invariable sense without any figure or Diorism as has been proved above Whence the fourth proportional will infallibly be inferred thus As 7 to 2 so 42 months in the full and fixt extent to 12 months which are equal to 360 days prophetical which is so many years Therefore the Symmetral Time of the Church before the Apostasie came in is 360 years Which 360 years include the year of Christ's Crucifixion But there were 32 years antecedent thereto which added to 360 makes 392 years To this very year inclusively according to this compute the Church continued Symmetral Wherefore the first year from which the Apostasie is to be computed is the year 393 seven years distant from the year of our Lord 400 which for roundness sake is usually made the Epocha of the Apostasie And Chemnitius expresly says that the Invocation of Saints began to be brought into the Church Non multo ante annum quadringentesimum And I think 393 is not much before the year of our Lord 400. This 393 therefore is the precise Epocha for computation though the Apostasie came in by degrees as an Evening Twilight Where it had been hard for us to pitch an Epocha to a precise year if the Divine Providence had not fixed it for us in that Vision chap. 11. Which yet is pleased in another place chap. 17. to make the Epocha more lax See the Ioint-Exposition on the 12 th verse of that Chapter in Synopsis Prophetica Book 1. Chap. 14. Wherefore as the Rising of the Witnesses in the last Semitime may be distinctly noted according to the number of the month and day of the month in which such particular Risings and Ascendings of the Witnesses happened so in the first Semitime of the seven from the abovesaid Epocha of 393 may the more notable advances of the Apostasie be noted according to the month and day But it would be over long to insist on these things This shall suffice for a Solution of the three proposed Queries And now out of what has been said to the two first of them it is apparent that this measuring of the time of the Witnesses Political Death and mournfull prophesying by Semitimes does not onely not destroy the usefulness of the Prophecy by giving so large a time for the fulfilling the prediction but is indeed the most usefull way of measuring as being the most accommodate to set out the fulfilling of the Prophecy in the Rising of the Witnesses the nature of their Rising being not restrainable to the strictness of a single year Nor is it at all inconsistent with the Synchronizing with the 42 months and 1260 days upon the pretence that those days cannot admit of any latitude but must signifie strictly so many years For these 42 months and 1260 days are simply such as to the computing of the event of the Prophecy onely in the Cortex of the Vision it being in that case a Numeral Diorism but by the Indication of the three days and an half or seven half days in the conclusion which is the golden Key of the Vision they are 42 months and 1260 days divided as a seven foot Rule by six notable equidistant notches or marks the whole making 84 Inches into seven equal parts though thus to have expressed it in the Cortex had been too bald and bare and not agreeable to the external smoothness and Politure of these Parabolical Visions nor adapted to the mysterious concealment of these Prophecies which is one main scope aimed at in their frame and contrivance But any wary and understanding Reader will easily conceive touching the Medial-Visions all which Synchronize one with another since that their duration answers to that ancient Authentick measure in Daniel of a Time and Times and half a Time Apoc. 12.14 or of seven Semitimes as in the seven foot Rule above mentioned and that this is glanced at again in the conclusion of the Vision by the three days and an half or seven half days that this is their real standing measure indeed Which Semitimes for farther use and curiosity being divided each of them into Hexamenons or six-months-spaces and after each month into thirty days which makes each Semitime an Hecatonogdoconthemeron or the space of 180 days a considerate and observant Reader I say will easily gather from hence that the single measure of the full space of Time allotted to the Medial-Visions is a Semitime an Hexamenon or an Hecatonogdoconthemeron and that nothing else is to be understood by this 1260 days and 42 months but these seven Hecatonogdoconthemerons and these seven Hexamenons So that the event of the Prophecy is not tyed up to the last month of the 42 or last day of the 1260 but onely to the last Hexamenon or last Hecatonogdoconthemeron And therefore these single measures being the measures of this full extent of Time that as to the completion of the Prophecy or the falling out of the predicted Event if it be but within the seventh Semitime begun but not expired forasmuch as a Semitime Hexamenon or Hecatonogdoconthemeron is the UNITE in this compute the fulfilling the Prophecy is sufficiently exact nor is there any defect therein no more than when a Prophecy foretells such a thing to fall out the hundredth
come c. Now therefore say I as these five Intervals represent the state of the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church so plainly amply and lively so does the Philadelphian Interval the succeeding state thereof where is not onely no Idolatry to be tempted to nor any Martyrdom for refusing to comply therewith but also no spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing but it is entirely holy and without blemish This is the description of the sixth Interval or Succession of States in the Church Catholick and Apostolick And therefore I demand here of any man that has any spark of judgment and sagacity left in him what time this can be but such that includes in it the Ierusalem State and blessed Millennial Empire of Christ which cannot be more pure perfect and glorious than this State of the Philadelphian Church Which is a Prophetical description of some state of the Church as is acknowledged on both hands and which is to succeed the Sardian and also that there will be a blessed Millennium on Earth Wherefore this consideration alone might assure us of this truth But when there is farther added That on him that overcomes that is on the Philadelphian Church I will write the name of the City of my God which is new Ierusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from my God c. Can it be any thing but affected stupour or some strange invincible prejudice a Prophetical sense being allow'd that any one should doubt but that the times of the New Ierusalem and Millennial Empire of Christ are included in the Philadelphian Interval which was the thing to be demonstrated Vers. 20 21. Christ's coming in to sup with them that open to his knocking does signifie his receiving them to his Marriage-supper And his granting to them that overcome to sit down on his Throne signifies their reigning with him in the Millennium And these being two promises to the same purpose to be fulfilled in the Millennial State and being made to the victorious in the Laodicean Church does manifest the same to be in a militant state precedent to the Millennium Nor is the degeneracy of the Laodicean Church competent to the Millennial state of which there 's no account that there should be any such change in it nor is it imaginable how it should it being established in that glorious state of righteousness as is described and having all occasion of evil removed by the Devil 's being bound and all things being made new And though he be to be loosed again yet it is not to deceive or work any change in those that belong to the new Ierusalem but to seduce the Nations about it who through his deceit are to be stirred up in enmity against it though before they brought their glory into it and walkt in the light of it Ans. To pervert the genuine sense of this Prophecy here the Remarker interprets that Politically that he should interpret Mystically or Spiritually as he has in other places interpreted that Spiritually which should have been expounded Politically So sinuous and serpentine a thing is beloved falshood From v. 15. to v. 20. The declension of the Philadelphian state after the Millennium in their remisness in pursuing spiritual gifts and graces and breathing after the living image of Christ in themselves and in their propagating of his Kingdom is prefigured or predescribed the Church being depressed then into a new denomination of Laodicean and they sharply rebuked and terribly threatned if they do not repent of these immoralities or Dispiritualities if I may so speak And thus continuedly in the same Moral sense he still farther upbraids them that though he by the searching rebukes of his spirit knocks at the door of their Consciences to awaken them out of their remisness and litherly formalness yet they are insensible of his call being satisfied to celebrate the Lord's Supper without idolatry still indeed as it was in the Popish Mass but also without any breathing after the fruits thereof our living union with Christ and spiritual Communion with him and yet he tells them for their comfort as well as reproves them that if they will open to him through constant obedience to his dictates that they shall fully enjoy his communion and be in a truly living union of Spirit with him which is the true meaning and scope of the Lord's Supper and which will recover them again into that wholsome state the Philadelphians stuck to universally in the former Interval That this is thus Spiritually or Morally to be understood and not Politically as the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is Apoc. 19.7 8 9. is farther manifest in that it is said If any one hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me viz. at his home they will sup together there which therefore is no invitation of the party abroad to sup Wherefore what a fond thing is this to apply Christ's coming into our hearts and Souls and entertaining there spiritual Communion with us such as is signified by the Communion of the Lord's Supper unto that Political sense of things the Jews adjoining themselves to the Church of Christ and acknowledging him their Messias their Head and Husband in the above cited place This is enormously to strain and pervert the sense of Scripture As is also that conceit of interpreting to sit down on his throne of their reigning with him in the Millennium For being there is no mention here of such conflicts and persecutions and martyrdoms in this Laodicean state to which an earthly deliverance and victory and an earthly crown and dominion was promised in the Smyrnean Pergamenian and Thyatirian Intervals nor any mention of the word of Patience c. the throne that is here promised must be of another nature that is a place or seat in Heaven as universally it is interpreted by Expositors And being the conflict the Laodiceans are here exhorted to is the subduing their carnal minds and affections and through mortification to be renewed unto the Heavenly image of Christ by the spirit of life in the new birth which is the true and onely method of attaining to this Heavenly Throne or Crown of glory it is very unnatural to understand it of any other Throne than that But they being roused thus up by the exhortation of Christ to shake off that dulness and torpor of spirit and dead formality and carnality and to be enlivened again into a quick sense of their duty by virtue of their Regeneration into his living image that of St. Paul to the Ephesians ch 2. will be fulfilled in them When we were dead in our sins he hath quickened us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit there is the promised Throne together in Heavenly places in Christ Iesus And that it is an Heavenly seat or Throne that passage in the promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does naturally insinuate according to that in