as having no such promise annexed to them and why should this be but to shew that these keys in the Churches hand should receive a sink and loss of their efficacie for a time For certainly the Lord knowing the apostated times if they had continued through the Babylonish defection would have added some word of remaining to them as well as to the profession To these we shall annex that Zech. 4.2 12. in which we may behold that related as evidently as the face is seen in the glass The Angel vers 2. sets before the eyes of Zechariah the image of the primitive Apostolical Church the like was also seen of John Rev. 1.12 20. onely here was the difference the Prophet sees the type of one Candlestick as representing the Church in her unity John beholds seven he writing to the seven Churches and here in vers 12. is pictured out a platform of the dispensation of the sealed elect number during the times of Antichristianism That the Candlestick vers 2. did embleme the primitive Churches we render these reasons 1. From the Angels answer vers 6. that this was not built by might or by power as outward Zerubbabel's temple was but by the Spirit as without hands by Christ the true Zerubbabel 2. From the head-stone of this spiritual building vers 7. which was the Lord Jesus 1 Pet. 2.6 Psal 118.22 Isai 28.16 Matth. 2◠42 Act. 4.11 3. From the shout and cry which was not Works works but Grace grace the manifest difference betwixt the Law and the Gospel 4. From the despising of small things the Jewish Ceremonies and the sight of the Plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel Christ vers 10. which teacheth the coming off from Mosaical rudiments to that of Christianity 5. From the seven eyes opened to be the Lambs eyes and for time in the primitive Rev. 5.6 and the seven Lamps vers 2. agreeable to Rev. 4.5 That the two Olive-branches and the two golden pipes vers 12. pertain to the next following Antichristian times is apparent by the decrease of the former fulness and the answer of the Angel vers 14. which can aptly be applied to no other time then that of the elect in Babylon From hence we shall evince this argument That there was a fulness of Ordinances in the primitive Age there were seven pipes to the seven Lamps vers 2. the number seven notes out a perfection the Pipes signifie Ordinances Luke 7.32 these being the organ by which the light and oil of Ministery is displayed whereas in the Antichristian season there are seen but two pipes that had golden oil the least of numbers and yet sufficient to testifie the truth of inward grace Now why should there be seven at the first and but two at the last but to set forth the cessation of the former five in their efficacie and power as being dead empty and without golden oil viz. Ordination Confirmation with the other stative Ordinances and that Ministery Prayer c. being predicted of God for abiding must as the two golden pipes remain and the two anointed ones by these empty themselves as the two Olive-branches In Rev. 7.1 the four open windes which are causa procreans conservans the begetting and preserving cause of these visible keys Ezek. 1.4 5. Act. 2. were by reason of the falling away wholly with-held from their apparent blast and the cause failing the effect must also cease this Spirit of life being restrained they must needs be meerly formal That as in the Scriptures before cited they were not promised to abide so the Spirit doth here desert and leave them empty of its lively influences In Chap. 9.1 2 3. the Angel who had usurped all Church-power into his custody totally apostated from heaven to earth becomes a meer earthly Angel by which that Church-policie that before was a kingdom of heaven is become a bottomless pit or a false Church without any bottom of Truth in her order and in stead of the keys of the celestial kingdom was another contrary key of the same bottomless pit the key being the same with the Church in the room of that sweet recreating winde or lightsome smoak descending from Gods glory to beget the truth of Office was the dark and delusive smoke or dispensation ascending from this bottomless furnace which ingenders none but locusts a degenerate brood of false Officers Here we may take notice of the effects that ensue upon the former with-holding of the windes God having forsaken and left it void Satan hath full power gives another key with other smoke whereby of Christ all is become Antichrist and bottomless of Truth In Chap. 11.2 where though the Temple was measured of which we shall speak anon yet the onward court was excluded and forbidden to be measured for so saith the Spirit The court without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies cast out That this outward court must belong to the visibility of Church-government may be cleared by these Arguments 1. Because this as opposed to the Temple within must be the exteriour outward part and who knows not that the Order of Ecclesiastical Government is the outside or visibility of the Church 2. Because this here excluded was given to the Nations the inward rooms of true grace with Worship flowing from those internal springs was never in the power of man to intermeddle with but the outward court of Church-Regiment was in the hands of Nations for many generations and nowhere else 3. Because the Nations by enjoying this outward court did tread the holy City under foot Now woful experience hath taught the Saints that that by which Antichrist hath trampled upon the godly was by sitting in the externality of Ecclesiastical Discipline in Spiritual Courts and Classes The four windes above restrained must be from this rejected Court the bottomless key pit and smoke in this unmeasured to Truth In Chap. 12.6 14. the same externality given to the Nations and mixed with worldly things becomes a worldly wilderness into which the woman fled That this wilderness is the National Babylonish Church is proved at large by Scripture and the analogie in Sect. 5. of the first Paragraph In Chap. 13. the Principality or chief of the power ruling here is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wilderness-beast compared with Mark 1.13 answerable to those false christs and false prophets which our Saviour foretold should be in the wilderness Matth. 24.24 The second Beast is here called a false prophet inferring the first to be a false christ or Antichrist as is shewed in our answer to him on Matth. 24. In Chap. 17. the Church born up by this Beast is called Mystery Babylon as being another and distinct from Sion in her very foundation who also was seen of John in this wilderness To sum up all if we consider the Gospel-times aright as they are pourtrayed in the Prophecies we shall finde that in the primitive there was the smoke of Gods glory preceding Isai
Pope have the true smoke or winde of the primitive Church then what he bindes or looses on earth is bound or loosed in heaven Matth. 16.19 as is further cleared in the second Section 5. The Officers coming from hence are locusts of a divers kinde from the true they proceeding from another key king pit and smoke If Office had been true in Rome then Membership must be the like for he can be no true Officer that is not withal a Member and if Office and Membership be both right in that Catholike Synagogue then must she be a true Church being radically right both in Ministers and people Sir have you exclaimed against Rome as Babylon for so many yeers and do you now by this argument prove her to be Sion However we may from this text observe that as the pit is bottomless so is the key the smoke and the locusts arising from it and that fundamentally so that your Ordination Excommunication Suspension coming from hence cannot have any parcel of the keys of the kingdom of heaven but must pertain to this bottomless key Object But say you these Ordinances may remain the Ordinances of Christ though in wrong hands and abused as the Great seal of the kingdom is still in the right and true seal though in the hand of an usurping Lord Keeper c. Answ If you should prove these constitutive Ordinances to be Seals yet in the Broad Seal there be two things requirable 1. The Power and Authority from whence the Seal proceeds 2. The confirming of an act coming from that power by the Seal When the writing sealed is derived from a lawful authority then the Seal carries the name and majestie of that true and rightful power which makes it a legal ratification but if it issue forth from an usurped Primacy though the matter and print may be the same with the other yet the act sealed bears the substance of that usurpation which puts another form upon it and makes it illegitimate nay treasonable So these Ordinances pertaining to Church-order in the primitive times arising from Christ and his Spirit working in the Apostles c. were accompanied with the name and power of Christ which made them true as representing the lively image of himself but these coming from other usurping lords as Popes Bishops or the like receive the character of the same usurpation which changeth their essence makes them unlawful and to carry the image of the Beast And your Office flowing from this bestial and exorbitant key must be false in its foundation The Key the Church the Smoke is another and thereof not Christ but Antichrist the king of the bottomless pit We informed you how the truth of this was verified by the event that there was no other Office but that of the Locusts kinde even in Luther's time who himself was a Monk In opposition to this you reckon up some Bishops Monks Friers Priests or of some such Popish Order that for 1260 yeers stood up to witness the Truth who were not locusts Answ These men whom you reckon up with any other of the like sort of godly men officiated by Antichrist had no other Office but that of the locust-kinde You your self acknowledge the Officers called Monks Friers Priests Abbots Cardinals and the Popish Clergie to be of the series of the locust a little before in the same page of your book And whatsoever excellencie and honour these men gained beyond others arose simply from the gift of Jesus Christ not at all from their Popish function that being but the defiled rags with which the same Witnesses were clothed No man not Popishly minded can imagine that their Frierhood Monkery Priesthood or the like could confer any dignity to their piety or that these men thus gifted by the Lord Jesus did attribute any esteem to their Popish Orders It is observable that God should rear up such men who had no Office but what was meerly invented to be such noble instruments to testifie in some degree the Truth which may teach you us and all others not to give any worth to such difiled Offices but onely to their qualifications which unless sanctified from heaven they had been locusts as well as the rest of their Orders and to conclude that this their grace and the right to dispense the same came not from their officiating but onely from the gift and grant of the Lord of life So that herein we must distinguish their inward gift with its administration from their outward investment the one distilling from Christ was radically true and holy the other coming from Antichrist was utterly false and polluted Object You assert further that Ockam John of Gaunt Dante 's John Wickliff Jerome of Prague Luther were men that amongst others made up the series of the three Angels Rev. 14. and yet lived in the Church of Rome had their external calling from that Church were of some of the Popish Orders c. Answ Bare saying is no proving and ipse dixit he said so will hardly pass for currant amongst men of judgement We shall deny that the men you name were of the rank of the three Angels specified Rev. 14.6 8 9. much less that they were called Angels by vertue of their Popish Office which you would insinuate For they lived within the circuit of the one thousand two hundred and sixty yeers of tribulation wherein they were mourners and being as you confess men that lived in the Church of Rome that had their external calling from that Church and of some of the Popish Orders must be those Witnesses clothed in sackcloth Rev. 11.3 Whereas these three Angels were of the rejoycing Harpers who arose not till after the expiration of that sorrowful time were clothed in white Robes of joy and greater purity and had gotten the victory over the Beast his image mark name and the number of his name Chap. 7.9 Chap. 15.2 Again neither the Ministery nor Writings of those you mention were so pure and full as might be termed an everlasting Gospel which the first Angels ministery was vers 6 neither did they with the second vers 8 unmask the root of Mysterie Babylon great part whereof was sealed up from their understandings neither did they discover the Beast his image and mark in its whole latitude with the third who with a thundering voice crieth against all such defiled Offices with which they were outwardly arayed vers 9. 2. These ministers or instruments of this threefold discovery are not intitled Angels by vertue of any outward call to an Office by the Pope Bishops or any other authority on earth but onely by the priviledge of a gift dispensed immediately by the Angel of the Covenant Rev. 10.8 9 10 11. Here their commission or sending forth Go comes simply from God their furnishing for this ministration or their taking and eating the book from the Angel and being thus divinely impowered they must prophesie though all the earth oppose it their
to follow the concurrences of the Prophets then to wander with others though never so learned Indeed Mr. Brightman with many that tread in his steps was necessitated to uphold Protestant Churches to tye up in a manner all this last noble work to the Jewish Nation and so to disinterest the Christian Gentiles from this glorious marriage and the City Jerusalem But how then can the stone fill the whole earth Dan. 2.35 or the kingdome under the whole heaven be given to the most high Saints chap. 7.27 or the kingdome of the world become the kingdomes of Christ Rev. 11.15 or the Lord onely reigne therein in all the earth Zech. 14.9 Surely this must be universall to all the Saints wherever inhabiting Object You in the close of this subject wish us to consider this saying of Iraeneus That Prophecies are dark and aenigmatical till fulfilled Answ We agree to the rule of Iraeneus considered with this limitation That prophecies cannot be compleatly known till cleared by the Event and the further off the same time is the greater veil lieth over them But withall we do maintaine that some degree of light may be gathered by viewing the prophecies with their times also by comparing Scripture with Scripture and by minding types and things that are past we may the better conclude what the like allegories represent in matters to come when the Spirit who searcheth all things even the deep things of God directs us in these mysteries Besides some events being gradual and coming one in the neck of another as these of the vials are hang together as it were in one chain in which the beginning presents some aspect of what will be in the end Hence Jeremiah fore-speaking of the day of vials saith chap. 30.23 24. chap. 23.19 20 When the fury of the Lord falls on the head of the wicked figured out by a whirlwind that in the latter daies ye shall consider it and at last perfectly to wit the thoughts and itents of his heart and his great works to come Consideration implyes a comprehension to the same time of that which could not by reason of the covering be considerably known before the Revelation likewise informs us chap. 15.4 That then his judgements are made manifest Moreover this last separation consisteth in the understanding of things past present and to come past as to number the beast from whom they distinguish in his rise foundation and whole latitude present whereby to know the way and walk now approved and to come so as to have an eye to the Saints and Sion and marriage which is terminus ad quem the end scope or resting place which this their passage aimes at A traveller hath some apprehension of the place he travels to Therefore have they their station on a glassie sea Rev. 15.2 and are promised to see eye to eye when the Lord returns again Sion Isa 52.8 This will be fully at the upshot and yet so far for the present as to guide them in their walk and almes Object You further charge against us that these prophecies are subject to various interpretations and that the mistakes and differences of other learned men may teach us not to build such lofty opinions upon c. Answ The plainest texts of Scripture are subject to various nay dissenting interpretations as well as these hence arise so many differences about Episcopacie Presbytery Independencie Poedo baptisme Predestination with innumerable others yet these divided principles ought not to weaken the force of any truths drawn from those texts The same Spirit that reveales the mind of other Scriptures may unclock the mystery of these 2. The cause of such variety and mistakes of the godly in former ages is the veile foretold to be cast over men during the time of tribulation But now the Lord hath promised to remove this covering from his returning people And this will have more force to highten us in searching into these profundities then all the discouragements of men to beat us back If it be true that nihil datur frustra nothing in the ordinary course of providence be vain is it then safe to imagine that the solemn Gospel-promise chap. 1.3 can be a meer empty sound and such as drives men to bare conjectures and trifling probabilities unmeet to lay the weight of any real determinations upon Or is the book opened chap. 10. without any certaine discovery of the mystery therein comprehended Or did the same Spirit which invites to count the beast chap. 13.18 lay insufficient grounds and rules to find out his number Or is that mighty voice and call from heaven chap. 18. Mat. 25.6 void of light and efficacy to dictate what they ought to separate from the way they should walk in and those nuptials they are preparing for We rather believe the sayings of this book to be the true sayings of God chap. 19.9 and to be true and faithfull chap. 22.6 and to contain matters of transcendent worth and solid foundations for knowledge practice and argumentation And though the spirituality thereof lie deep as things of rarest excellency usually do yet such of wisdomes children who are divinely inspired with an understanding Spirit will by vertue of that power assisting them thence draw out those precious truths which will confound and put to silence the wisdome of the world It is very remarkable that the testimony of Jesus in these latter ages is called the Spirit of prophecie chap. 19.10 The reason is because the prophecies hold forth that very dispensation and those Judgements of God proper to our owne generation which rightly teach us how to distinguish the times and to know the things that belong to our peace in this our day the ignorance whereof may occasion the misery of man to be great because he misseth his time This and all your other arguments of the same nature are no other for substance then what were formerly made use of by the Papists and Episcopalists against your selves which have not the least might to dishearten or strip us of our birth-right in this prophecie though coming from Mr. Elmestone I shall wish you for the future either to disprove our interpretation and give a better and clearer sense or forbear to speak evil of what you know not Now come we to your concluding argument specified in the 36 page of your book wherein you lay a high charge against our way and Tenents as if they were against the second and fourth Commandments the three first Petitions and a hinderance to mens salvation Answ We have already removed the violence of all this after-charge in severall passages of this treatise This general return will here suffice in which we utterly deny your accusation and affirme that to follow Christ in the path of separation to exercise in this our journey those ordinances now inspired by his Spirit both in private as also in our publique assemblies especially on the Lords day with a forbearance of the rest for the present
if Episcopacy be to be plucked up root and branch which you pleaded then no reliques of your Classical government will be left remaining much less will it be granted that you sit in the seat of judicature to adjudge all besides your selves to be Heresies Sects c. or that you have any authority given from heaven by humane force to captivate them to your wills and canons The Independents are in many respects in their way neerer to the Kingdome of Heaven then the Classical men and if you would not willingly subjectly your consciences to the separation which power they defie to own why should there be such high indeavors to imbondage them In this you are declared to be far beneath a legall spirit which teacheth to doe to others as you would be dealt withall by them Are not their consciences as tender as yours Are they not as pious and dear to GOD as upright to their neighbour as serviceable and faithful to the State as cordial and real to our publike Cause And why should they not with others partake in that common priviledge purchased by the expence of many of their deare lives It was not long since your selves were under the Bishops rod and then such a liberty would have been sweet and gratefully accepted but now nothing will satisfie unless you may in their steads lord it over your fellow-brethren The precept is ordinary yet profitable Foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Let the ruines of other tyrants teach you more wisdome and moderation In the next place you come unto me and our walk in particular in which to pass by other phopperies opprobrious dealings and false suppositions as not worth spending inke paper and time upon we shall only take notice of two passages The first is your calling it a Sect and in the title of your Book a Schisme Answ A Sect is a renting a Schism a cutting off or dividing from the truth now whether we or you be renters we leave to the tryal of the Word It hath been the usual policy of Satan to brand the new springings forth of truths by such opprobrious titles Thus dealt the Jews of old with the Gospel Acts 28.22 Chap. 24.5 14. and separation being now that which God calls his people to walk in we believe this charge of yours will be found to be as untrue and calumnious as was theirs and to come from the same spirit We should have expected no other language from the mouth of a Pope or Bishop but wonder to hear it from one who would rank himself amongst the godly However we regard not the censure of your papal chaire as being neither discovered to be what you stile us nor discouraged by such disgraceful Characters for we are not ashamed to bear the rebukes of Christ Your indeavors this way will prove but bare Essays whose births may be vanity and shame at conclusion Secondly You come to our company whom you call unstable souls and defame their assemblings by base scurrilous verses out of Ovid the very language of hell and unfit to be written by a chaste pen much more unmeet to be applyed to a godly or hopeful people For my own particular as I have freely received so I freely dispense the word and deny none to hear who are freely drawn as being sensible of the power of God who may chuse the mean and base things in the worlds esteem to confound the noble Notwithstanding were the same people with you many would be counted pretious Saints others very faire commers on though now from a root of bitterness they are so greatly vilified Such virulent invectives tend but to the fulfilling of the Prophecies which foretell that the meetings of these returners shall bear a reproach and burden Ezek. 34.16 Mica 4.76 7. Zeph. 3.18 albeit in short time they shall have a praise and a fame in every land where they have been put to shame their gathering or congregating being by the Lord Jesus ver 19. I cannot in charity think that these came simply from your self but from the instigation of some others whose spirits are compounded of gall and vinegar and have dipt your pen with the cruel venome of Asps We are sure such ribaudry becomes not the gravity of gray hairs much less of one esteemed an ancient professor It seems their throne being touched their kingdom waxing dark and people leaving them they begin to accomplish what is spoken Revel 16.10 11. The Lord open the eyes of their understandings that they many no longer be found fighters against God Before we pass from hence we shall mind you of a seasonable observation In the Primitive time there was an outward Jerusalem figured by Hagar the bond-woman whose zealous children under high pretences of holiness were the most desperate enemies to such who by their free Gospel-walk declared themselves to be the off-spring of Jerusalem from above So now there is an outward rejected court Rev. 11.2 and thereupon another inslaving motherhood and those who are over-rigid in those externalities and stand most upon them are like to prove the greatest enemies to such who by their practise of separation manifest themselves to be children of liberty and aim most at spirituality But leaving this we shall speak something of our first Letter after the receit whereof as you affirme it was noised that I had thereby blown up c. Answ If there were any such report the sound of it was not loud enough to come to my ears till I read it in your Epistle This I am sure of it was a private Letter never intended by the writer to come publikely abroad in the world and comprised but a light and hasty draught of my apprehensions touching the subject you requested whose principal scope was to proffer you a fuller discourse by word of mouth upon the particulars therein barely hinted But since you being pleased to divulge it in your book without my knowledge or approbation I shall only remark two passages The first is a mistake in printing in the second page and seventeenth line It is printed We are in our journey to Sion visibly separated whereas it ought io be To Sion visibly stated and so it was written in my Letter also Revel 8.34 for Revel 8.5 in the third page The second is as you assert that I quoted Isa 66.5 for Isa 56.5 which error you not finding out said nothing on that place Answ There were some such errors in yours insuing which when the words were written I rectified and replyed accordingly and it is possible that amongst many Scriptures I might faile in the quotation of one yet the words of the text being named your Concordance might soon have directed you to finde out the place ar else within the compass of eight or nine moneths for so long space it was ere your returned me answer you might have inquired of me we living so neer one to another You neither have nor I suppose ever can in your
2. Onely they and none else had their stand thereon all the rest of the common Israelites were hurt by the withholding of the windes Chap. 7. by the Locust Chap. 9.3 and were utterly supplanted by the Beast Chap 13.8 Matth. 24.24 Hence I deduced this consequence that the Elect alone must make up this Temple Sion and that all other Christians that had but the externality bring in a false visibility had not so much as outward measurement but were wholly the patrimony of the Beast and Whore 2. What was her condition here In Chap. 7 that she was some of every tribe distinguished from the rest onely by the seal of true election 2 Cor. 1.20 21 22. In Chap. 11.2 that all her outward court was taken from her and it being excommunicated became another even the possession of the Nations In Chap. 12.6 14 that she who vers 1. in the primitive day was in heaven there clothed with the sun had the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars all seen in open type as being enriched beautified and completed with full power in her outward visibility afterward by this apostacie fled into the wilderness beneath her former visible orbs where all about her was dry barren and confused earth the Kingdom of God was during this time within Luke 17.21 Her place vers 6 14. must be the abovesaid Temple void of the externality of Order Also the call for separation inters as much as Cant. 6.13 Return return O Shulamite also Isai 35.10 The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Sion the word ransomed imports their being captive before and their return their absence from that Sion they come unto also Chap. 51.14 The captive exile hasteth to be delivered from the pit which implies their former being in again Rev. 18.4 come out of her my people intimates that they were a company in Babylon before the time of this departure even in that city which is called Sodom and Egypt Chap. 11.8 by which the Spirit would teach us that as Lot was in outward Sodom Israel in Egypt Judah in Babylon so the Lords people should be in such a visible constitution as spiritually was Sodom for beastly idolatry Egypt for bondage Babylon as being in a strange land from the native Canaan of a Gospel-Order where they were strangers under other lords And in which Country there was another earth sea rivers and fountains sun throne rive viz. Euplwates and air Chap. 16. They cannot properly be called out to reward her in these but they must be before within In Chap. 11.3 4 The Witnesses even those who were the chiefest administers of light to the Temple had their outward clothing not with the sun as before but with sackcloth their external investment into Membership and Office being Antichristian and their stand before the earthly god of humane Hierarchies even in the above-said wilderness or great city vers 8. where the Beast those strange earthly lords have power to do and trample them under foot with tyranny vers 2. Chap. 13.5 making their estate mournful And in this dark night of their desertion they were as those asleep as not altogether sensible of their outward state till God by his call awaken them out of this drowzie Coma Cant. 5.2 Matth. 25.5 6. By these Scriptures me may gather that this mystical Church or sealed number was stript of all the glory of his visible inheritance in Church-order and outwardly in a false Babylonish station as in a foraigne country under strange Lords where she was in a mixed estate partly hurt defiled and through blindness deluded partly untouched undefiled undeceived they were indamaged dimmed and seduced in the externality but in the radix of the internal grace could not be subverted it being sustatined by the immediate hand of heaven 3. The next remarkable thing is How the Church was fed in this desolation In Chap. 7.1 2. we may deduce that there was some secret vertue of the Covenant to secure and perpetuate the sealed company In Chap. 11.1 that as there were worshippers in the temple and an altar so their worship must flow immediately from those internal closets that were measured and not at all from the outward court of order which was excluded in vers 3. that Christ himself gave power to the witnesses by an immediate gift when there was none outward of office from man and by that they fed the woman in her place Chap. 12.14 In Zech. 4.12 that though there were not seven pipes a fulness of ordinances as was in the primitive day vers 2. yet there were two remaining to empty out their golden oile as before that these must be such ordinances as are promised in the word to continue which is declared in this cessation above Hence we may draw two observations First For the resolving of a grand paradox propounded by the Episcopalists and Presbyterians against the separation viz. How there can be conversion in a false Church Here we may take notice that there was a temple within a woman Sion and a feeding by the witnesses where all the order was Babylonish Secondly that this more intrinsecal dispensation is weak and sparing and the Saints under it in a low and almost famished condition Amos 8.11 12. Their strength and perfection is then when this more internal work dilates and spreads its vertue to the superficies therefore the way and journey of separation is not a retiring in but an outgoing both of Christ and his people Isa 52.12 Revel 14.4 Mat. 25.6 and is compared by the Lord Jesus to a spring Mal. 24.32 33. as diffusing its vital sap more outwardly and blossoming that magnificent kingdome of the marriage is likened to a summer Luk. 21.29 30 31. The not observing this nor marking what ordinances were left of God to be meerly formal and what remained with some degree of power hath occasioned many to run into another extream and draw the work of the Spirit so within its self as might stop all the expirations or out-breakings thereof and under the notion of highness bring men into a lower condition then that of the Antichristian stand that was a narrow and sparing breathing their 's a stifling and suffocating of the Spirit as obstructing all its passages by which it should reflow in its workings out 4. The last consideration is the time of this great desertion and loss when it began how long it abides and the computation thereof This time cannot begin with the first trumper as Master Brightman and others carry it but must receive its initiation with the fifth deciphered in Chap. 9. For 1. It cannot be with any clearness of sense begin till the woman had taken her full flight into the wilderness chap. 12.6 In the former trumpets two parts in three of the visibility remained true and the star in fifth was in heaven till he fell to the earth and by that apostacie all the externality of church-policy became
Antichristianism is the keys of visible Church-constitution or Marriage-Ordinances resolve themselves radically into believers or into the power of the people who may at any time take them up erect and model visible Churches open and shut the doors thereof to others This we reduced to the touchstone of the primitive and found that they prayed preached baptized and at last brake bread while they were bare disciples and onely Covenant-members but in respect of Church constitution they were commanded to tarry and wait at Jerusalem till the promise of the Father to wit the keys of the Kingdom was given whereby the Kingdom of God came with power Acts 1.4 8. Luke 24.49 This was a manifest transfusion of the Spirit that did not onely increase the glory of the former but also stated and invested them with new Membership and Office and inspired the stative Ordinances of Ordination Confirmation Church-censures with a new created efficacie whereby they received in and shut out of that new-married Church The image of this is set forth in Acts 2. It is called a pouring out of the Spirit in regard of the abundant measure thereof visibly manifested vers 17 also a mighty rushing winde filling the house with cloven tongues of fire vers 2 3 as causing that breath of life and spiritual heat which operated in that apparent Kingdom Isaiah compares it to smoke filling the house as presenting the glory of Christ in his powerful administration Chap. 6.3 4. In Ezek. 1.4 5 the four Beasts or livings with each of them four faces which must typifie the Apostles Prophets and Evangelists who had all gists and tongues by which they were distinguished from the four Beasts Rev. 4.6 7 who had each of them but one face came out of the midst of that winde cloud and fire also in Ephes 4.8 11 the Spirit tells us that all the several degrees of the Ministerial Office to wit together with the former three Pastors and Teachers were ingendered originally by that virtual efflux of the Spirit sent down from heaven Indeed the twelve were set apart for their Office by Christ while he was on earth and in that sense named Apostles as Joseph is called the husband of Mary and she his wife while they were no more then espoused Matth. 1.18 19 20. and a man may be termed an heir when he is onely designed for the inheritance but their real investment was not till after For Ezekiel in the place before quoted shews that the four-faced beasts proceeded out of the wind cloud and fire expressed Acts 2 and in Eph. 4 Christ first ascended then gave gifts the gift sent down was the Office Some Apostles c. They had not till then that differential eminency of gift which gave being to and distinguished their Office from the rest nor of extraordinary Prophets or Evangelists nor of ordinary Pastors and Teachers no nor yet of the same which private members had after the Spirit was emitted They were before unfurnished with the gift of Tongues Act. 2.2 looked on Christ as an earthly king over a temporal kingdom Luke 19.11 Matth. 20.21 were ignorant of the death resurrection and ascension of Christ the common and main principles of Christianity Matth. 16.22 Mark 16.11 13. Luke 24.11 21 25. were not able to bear many things which after were easie to every believer Job 16.12 Chap. 14.26 1 Cor. 15.1.2 3 4 5 6 7. And this M. Robinson and others the solidest men of the Separation have maintained against the Presbyters and Bishops Again their first designation came not from man but onely from their Master which makes least for those who here will plead against us Besides the disciples were not called a Church nor did any lay on hands for Membership or Office nor use any Church-censures till they received power from on high Hence we may safely conclude that Gospel-stating at the first beginning came not from believers as believers but from the powerful dispensation of Chirst Jesus and that when if sunk and the same open windes before animating were with-held it must return to him the fountain whence at first it flowed for every thing resolvs into its principle But leaving the primitive we may search the Scriptures treating of this last marriage to come and we shall find the same pouring of the Spirit that was in that first Gospel-day * Rev. 11.2 Chap. 19.7 Isa 32.13 14 15. the joyous City shall lie desolate untill the Spirit be poured out from on High whereby the Wilderness shall be a fruitfull field and the fruitfull field counted for a Forest also Zech. 17.10 I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace c. Which must be on Jews and Gentiles for the mourners here poured on are interpreted by our Saviour to be all the tribes of the earth who by their sins and Iedol-worship have pierced Christ Matth. 24.30 likewise Ezek. 37.9 th-same open windes before bound up Rev. 7.1 shall be then loosed in their manifest blast So Luk. 17.24 and Psal 97.4 there will be the like fiery flashing lightning to illuminate the world which the earth shall see to wit visibly and tremble also Psal 102.16 When the Lord shall build up Sion he will appear in glory and Isai 60.2 His glory shall be seen upon thee both which places shew that his most excellent dispensation shall be visible Hence we may gather that as this by the apostacy resolved into Christ so it must again issue forth from him before it can have its true existence For this glorious effusion of the Spirit in the first beginning of Church-constitution is the foundation of the keys thereto pertaining it gives them their vital being their proper difference and by its manifold work causeth those various operations which proceed from and by them Thus in the primitive marriage they received power from on high whereby the Lord was to them for a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty Isa 28.5 by vertue whereof they had the high keys of the Kingdom So in this last the Lord will first marry them to himself to wit pour out his Spirit upon them whereby they shall be as a crown of glory and a royal diademe in his hand Hos 2.19 Isa 63.2 and then vers 5 they as sons of the Church shall marry in others the first is done by God immediately wherein man is meerly passive the second by man as instrumental working by the power of his preceding Into the first work of marriage acted simply by Gods own finger none save the Elect enter and not all the Elect but onely such elect ones who believe and wait for the same promise of pouring the Spirit for such choice singled ones were the hundred and twenty in the primitive though by the second done by the hand of the Church hypocrites did then intrude So in this last matrimony Isa 60.21 Rev. 21.27 none but the virgins who expect and prepare
in profession were beyond the sphere of Satan For the inward created principle in the soul breaking forth in and by these means and Ordinances the Spirit in and by the Word sustaining its perpetuity and Christ supporting the same are all far above the reach of Antichrist had these been in the power of that destroyer he would have utterly marred all the springs yea the very fountain of grace In the same manner the communion taken on the ground work of the spiritual union of all the godly wherever scattered when the corporated was false and Christ therein fed upon by faith was not altogether subverted for the mystical relation betwixt Christ and the heart and the godly with the godly was beyond the compass of Popes Bishops or any humane authority whatsoever Also for Baptism though the Antichristian Church was in her constitution and order unmeasured to truth and therein Babylon yet she was not utterly shut out from the Covenant but had the call of Israelites had the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost put on them with a common grace to believe the Covenant and an elect sealed number in and amongst their tribes none of which properties can be attributed to those wholly without Though Antichrist in some things infected the externality of this Ordinance yet could he not fundamentally raze the Covenant nor utterly abolish the name of Christ from amongst Christians nor make invalid the power of the Word perpetuating that name Isai 56.5 In like sort the ten apostated tribes were in their Church-order set up by Jeroboam radically false and yet were Israelites within the Covenant and had the signe of Circumcision Thus also men excommunicated are excluded from Church-fellowship but not from their Baptism and the Covenant Likewise Hereticks who fell from the Church were received again not by new Baptism but by laying on of hands Euseb l. 7 cap. 2 3. 2. Our Reasons why the later sort as Ordination Confirmation c. abode not are these following 1. They are not promised in the Word to continue Isai 56.5 2. They wanting that promise were forsaken by God when corrupted 3. All the external Order became Antichristian and so the Ordinances proper thereto must be bestial or else how could there have been a Babylon wherein the sealed number were captives 4. Our last taken from this text Rev. 9 is that these were wholly resolved into the Pope to whom was given another key with other smoke and Officers These being altogether external and Christ leaving them Antichrist might have and had absolute power therein to make them bottomless Object Against this you assert that though the Pope have another false key yet withal he hath the keys of Christs discipline in Ordination Excommunication Suspension c. Answ Though the Pope usurp the carcase of those Ordinances that were Christs before yet their true essential form which makes them to be Christs and true Office and Membership on which they depend he and his whorish Church have not For confirmation whereof these grounds do naturally arise from the text 1. The first Reason is drawn from the nature of the Pope and Antichristian Hierarchies vers 1. the Star or Angel fell from heaven the orb in which he was fixed before unto the earth or wilderness Chap. 12.6 a total apostacie from his former office and sphere and was not in the least degree heavenly but terrene earthly and meerly humane or a wilde beast Rev. 13.1 and is numbered not to God but to man vers 18. It is a true Rule Corruptio optimi est pessima The corruption of the best things is always worst and most contrary to its former goodness Satan who was the noblest is by his fall the basest of creatures and most unlike to an angel of light which he was before he fell So here that Angelical Office which shined as a fixed Star in the bright firmament of the primitive purity holding forth the liveliest glory of Christ for the perfecting of the Saints being once apostated from his former sphere became not onely an humane Hierarchie but a meer Antichrist as most opposite to Christ of any other 2 Thess 2.3 and the man of sin as that wherein the quintessence of evil and deceit is epitomized and grown to its perfect maturity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one in office altogether without and besides the Law and likest to sin it self which is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 3.4 nay he is the principal vicegerent of Satan on earth to whom he commits his chiefest power Rev. 13.2 throne and authority in the exercise whereof he is Abaddon or Apollyon Chap. 9.11 destruction it self in the abstract recorded in the two most famous Languages and is most emphatically stiled by Paul The son of perdition being one who hath caused the greatest ruine and desolation and is termed by John the King of the bottomless pit Thus we may see that the Office of the Pope and his Hierarchy is most corrupted of any thing else being that wherein the being of Antichrist doth subsist who is not a particular person but a corporation And this Official Hierarchy being stript naked of its primitive truth and becoming meerly Antichristian cannot in the least degree beget a lawful Office for Nâ—l dat quod non habet If the fountain be polluted how can the streams be pure None can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14.3 2. This Angel had another key different in nature from the former And it is impossible the keys of the kingdom of heaven can subsist with the key of the bottomless pit or the power of Jesus Christ be united with the power of Satan Contraries in their extremes cannot stand together but the one must destroy the other 3. The Church opened by this key is a bottomless pit bottomless she being void of the groundwork of Truth in her order a pit or prison being as a hell on earth in which men are captivated Prov. 7.27 Chap. 9.18 Isai 51.14 Chap. 49.9 Zech. 9.11 12. also a Church excommunicated of God and Babylon Rev. 11.2 Chap. 17.5 and so cannot in her constitution have the keys of the kingdom of heaven for the key must be of the same nature with the Church Besides if Confirmation Ordination Excommunication c. be true in Rome then must that Romish Church into which by these keys she enters and out of which she shuts be a kingdom of heaven and a Sion and not a bottomless pit and Babylon which we conceive you will be ashamed to affirm 4. The smoke or dispensation of this pit or false Church is hellish and diabolical eclipsing and darkning the whole Horizon vers 2. and how can the smoke or winde of Gods glory spiriting these Ordinances and making them lightsome dwell together with the darksome false and delusive smoke of the bottomless pit surely the Lord will not so much honour Antichrist his greatest adversary If the
shivers by the Stone the Saints in the time when this prophecie is fulfilled and that it was not in the age of Christ's Incarnation for then Augustus Caesar reigned under whom that Empire was in the highest degree of its glory and strength Florus reports of that time Hic est Romani Imperii juvenâ—…s quasi robusta maturitas This age was the youthly state and mature manhood of the Empire The destruction of this last kingdom is reserved for these last days to be accomplished by the Angel pourers Rev. 16. Chap. 18. 3. The Stone having broken down and driven away all the former image becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth and so must reign alone answerable to that magnificent kingdom Rev. 19 6. Zeâ—h 14.9 When the highest Saints take and possess the kimgdom of the former Monarchies Dan. 7.18 22. This they did not in the first Gospel-day when all the power of the Civil Rule was in the jurisdiction of those Romanes to whom the Church at that time was by the Ordinance of God subservient 4. This illustrious kingdom thus filling the earth is said to be everlasting and ever to enjoy the same plenitude of regiment vers 44. Chap 7.27 But even the Ecclesiastical Government of the primitive was seized on by Antichrist and the Nations who had all the outward court given them and who trod the holy city under foot in which time the Church had a great sink and decrease Your next Scripture Psal 1 10.2 speaks of the times of the vials when the Iron rod of Christs strength shall be sent forth out of Sion to bruise his enemies and then Christ in his separated people rules as a conqueror over his adversaries who though never so numerous shall be brought in subjection and such as withstand shall be broken in pieces Hereupon the Spirit by the Kingly Prophet gives sweet and seasonable counsel Psal 2.10 11 12. Be wise now therefore O ye kings be learned ye judges of the earth kiss the Son lest he be angry c. That we may avoid needless tautologies we shall answer to the relation betwixt Christ and his Church as he is a Head a King a Husband and she a Bodie a Kingdom a Wife as also to your supposed inference of our bringing a notable alteration in Christ in the fourth Paragraph Sect. 6. But here you bring three Reasons why this relation must be visible Object 1. They are visible things by which this relation is typed out and so must point out a visible you mean a constituted Church Answ It is usual in Scripture to figure out matters mystical and hidden by things visible and apparently known to us that by objects natural and obvious to our senses our mindes may be raised to the contemplation and comprehension of things divine and supernatural Thus the relative dependence between Christ and a believer is too too subtil and sublimate to be beheld with bodily eyes also Christ ascended as the Head the King and Husband and the throne of grace before which we make address though typed out by visible subjects yet are all to us invisible but the dispensation dâ—maning hence is sometimes more conspicuous sometimes more internal according to the pleasure of Gods own working Object 2. The Church invisible as so is unknown and wholly unseen to men and Christs invisible rule cannot by men be discerned and what honour were this to Christ to reign onely invisibly c. Answ We deny not that there was some degree of the profession of faith always existing but not a Church stated and set in a true visible order Indeed your argument appears very plausible to flesh and blood and makes most for the Church of Rome who onely in all the Western world can chalenge a continued succession of such a visibility of which she most boasteth and layeth as the chiefest pillar to bear up her Babylonish fabrick If then the glory of Christ cannot be uphold unless it be carried on with such an open regiment this deformed Whore is either the onely beautiful Spouse or else could have no honour in the world This Maxime of yours smells strong of a carnal spirit and tends to bring Christ to Lo here or Lo there even in that time when neither the first nor the last open days of the Son of man were to be seen Luke 17.22 If your eyes were further enlightned you might discern that the strength of Christ is made perfect in weakness and magnifies it self as well in the lowest estate of his Church as in its highest exaltation though more eclipsed from his peoples apprehension And thus the Lord is magnified that though he suffered Antichrist to usurp all the external Order of Ecclesiastical Regiment and make it a desolate wilderness yet in this earthly lowe stand of the Saints captivity he reserved to himself a sealed elect number whom he upheld by his own immediate power and gift against whom the gates of hell could not prevail and will at last more abundantly manifest his power justice mercy and love in the destruction of this man of sin and returning to his people more outward magnificence then ever they enjoyed before it being the wisdom of God to make humility the way to honour the darkest night of misery to bring in the brightest day of peace and happiness Again when Antichrist as you confess had seized on all the outward court of Order it would have been no honour to the King of kings to dignifie this visibility in the possession of another with the lively breathings of his Spirit but rather very derogatory for him to give his glory to another and thereupon he cast it out Object 3. Where faith is there it will be visible Answ Your self holds that infants may have the being of faith yet the manifestation thereof appears not unto us Psal 22.9 10. Rom. 9.11 12 13. but true it is that when Christians are of yeers faith will shew it self in the fruits of visible profession in a godly and holy life and exercise of the duties of Piety 2. Visible believers in the first initiation of visible constitution cannot state themselves but must first be stated by Christ by the pouring out of his Spirit as is at large cleared in the second Querie of the Cessation Object But to prove a visible constituted Church through the Antichristian times you instance first the two Witnesses Rev. 11.3 Answ These Witnesses are not visible stated Churches but such men as held forth the light of Ministery for the feeding of the elect in the wilderness of Babylon For 1. They have a true relation onely to the hidden mystical temple without any reference to the outward court 2. Their clothing to wit their outward investment into membership and office was with sackcloth as is before spoken The Primitive clothing was with the Sun even when the Dragon raged against the woman in the height of cruel persecution 3. Their visible stand was in the
set up a false Christ in regiment This was not so palpable in outward shew but came in Christ his name under very specious pretences of Order Unity repressing heresies holiness advancing Christ and his Kingdom and therefore did the more universally deceive If the natures persons and offices our Lord Jesus had been directly originally and fundamentally razed in the Romish Church then Gods people could never have remained for so many ages in such a visible stand Object 3. The Popes extravagant exercise of discipline in excommunicating suspending not onely simple persons but whole Nations and disposing of all Ecclesiastical dignities was founded on this false doctrine that the Pope is universall Bishop Christs Vicar c. Answ 1 The same barely considered as a Notion or thing taught was not the ground-work of the beast but as usurped and layed in discipline a stone in the quarrie is not the foundation of a house till it be hewen out thence and disposed in the bottom of the building 2 This false Tenent of universality and visible headship is not a doctrinal if doctrine be minded as opposed to discipline but a disciplinall principle as any rational man may apprehend Object 4 None can comply with the Beast in the foundation of his estate without the loss of his salvation as who doth rely on another besides Christ and acknowledgeth him to be supream head under him vicar of Christ and submit to his new Articles of faith but many godly Christian have complyed with him in discipline as Ridly Latimer c. Answer 1 The beast it is true layed another foundation which primarily and radically was in discipline and secondarily struck against doctrine as is shewed before his visible headship and vicarship are principles of discipline and thence flow his articles of faith Besides he was fundamentally both in matter and forme a Beast for 1260 yeares and some time after and so long the Church is Babylon as before is cleared and all that time the world worshipped him but his Articles of faith are not of so long standing most whereof were framed in the Council of Trent And then that cannot be his groundwork which in order of nature and time followed his being the Cause must be before the Effect 2 This was damnable as to all so only to those Christians not truely grounded upon the Rock Jusus Christ Rev. 13.8 who having a meer outside shallow and sandie bottome might be radically supplanted by such a totall and delusive externality but the Elect having a deeper root then that of the Beast could not in the inward work of grace be by him subverted though they were outwardly clothed with his Livery Thus Gregory and other Popes of Rome before him might be in the Election yet their Office was essentially a Beast they living within the aforenamed time of the tribulation the like may be said of Ridly Hooper with the rest by you nominated If this beast had been originally false in the essentials of doctrine it had been damnable to them as well as to the rest of the world for if the foundations be utterly destroyed how can the righteous stand Psal 11.3 We desire the Reader rightly to observe the difference betwixt Mr. Elmestone and us in this particular subject He pleads that the Church of Rome is fundamentally false in doctrine which you may finde by his Arguments above and yet that in her order or Church-constitution she is in her ground-work true for he avers that the Pope hath the true key of Christs discipline in Ordination Excommunication c. and that Friars Monks Priests Bishops c. were radically right in their membership and orders which they had in and from that Church as you may read in the 29 and 30 pages of his book The former he is driven to maintaine or else he must contradict in writing what he and his party have published for many years in open Pulpits before the Nation that Rome is a false Church and that woman Babylon described in Revel 17. that the Pope is Antichrist and the beast delineated chap. 13. the latter he is inforced to manage or else he must yeild their office to be false which lineally descended from the Romish Church But how the body of discipline can retaine life in its binding and loosing where the soul of doctrine is departed or how she can be a bottomless pit and a stranger to Sion who is bottomly true in her order and hath the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven to let into and shut out of such a visible Kingdome we conceive cannot be proved by Scripture nor agree with any reason On the contrary we affirme that Church to be in visible Order false in her membership Babylonish in her office bestial but yet as the Prophecies foretold and the event hath manifested that there should be a godly people in that false visibility so for their sakes the Lord reserved the root of the Covenant of doctrine faith profession issuing thence in prayer praises c. as also a gifted ministery coming not from the bottomless key of that Church but from the immediate gift of Jesus Christ which you may see evinced in the Cessation the former must be fundamentally false or else Rome could not be Babylon the latter must be radically true or else there had been no subsistence for the Saints And thus we shall end with this third Paragraph Paragraph IV. OUrs in brief was this that the call of God in our times is only for separation without stating or without constituting and modelling visible Churches and sitting down therein Rev. 18.4 You may finde it declared in the Cessation that there are two bright and manifest dayes of Jesus Christ in the clear administration of his glory 1. That of the primitive apostolical day which continued till the key of the bottomless pit was given and thereby the Sun and aire darkned which shut up that brightness with darkness of a succeeding night 2. The day of his coming like lightning when the marriage of the Lamb doth againe return after the final subversion of Antichrist Betwixt these two periods is the time of the Babylonish age wherein neither of those two dayes are to be seen in such an open dispensation of his power the kingdome then being inward This latter season containes two distinct special and very observable revolutions 1. The time of the Saints tribulation lasting 1260 yeers in which term the true Church is only a sealed number disrobed of the beauty of her exterior order and visibly seated in the desart of nations where her choicest witnesses were outwardly invested with defiled and mournful garments and prophesied in that earth before the God of the earth where the beast had power to prevaile and tread them under foot making their estate mournful This begun about the yeer three hundred and ninty when the Bishop of Rome obtained the primacy of seat and is expired in the yeer 1650 as is shewed in the Cessation and