Testament gives no Representation of them any further then as They are Recapitulated in the Beast So that the whole Apocalyptick Prediction appertains onely to and gives the Schemes of the state of the Roman Empire after it had subdued all the Three first Kingdoms under it self and become the Vniversal Monarchy of the World. And this it does with Relation to the Church of Jesus Christ as its principal object and aim which is a most remarkable Consideration Assuring us the Revelation is a Continuation and further Explication of what remain'd unfulfill'd of Daniel's Prophecy from those very first days of the New Testament or when They began That we may then go on with the Prophecy of Daniel As the Calendar we are upon was most declaredly brought down to the Roman Monarchy at the Birth of Jesus Christ So there are several Periods of the Calendar from that Time wherein the Prophecy of Daniel and of the New Testament Agree most Illustriously with History in Relation to the Roman Empire Period 1 It is most notorious notwithstanding the Birth Death Resurrection Ascension of Jesus Christ and the Apostolical preaching The Roman Empire continued one and continued Pagan in the supreme Powers and in the Body and Bulk of the People From hence it is evident the Calendar was not Run out because the Kingdom of Christ did not onely not Fill the Earth but did not consume other Kingdoms as it is first to do before it Fills the Earth And therefore no Interpretation of Filling the Earth with the Gospel or Spiritual Kingdom can stand Good And further the Calendar was not come down to the Feet and Toes of the Image nor into the Head of the Beast dishevelling it self into Ten Horns as it must in its last state But during the Pagan Empire it remained perfectly One and therefore was not in its last state Now of this Pagan Empire Two Things are most known That Jesus Christ having come into the Flesh under the Roman Monarchy Sathan the old Serpent and Dragon being aware that that Kingdom which shall utterly destroy his Kingdom was entred He as a Dragon watch'd that manly Birth to destroy it if it were possible first He then inhabiting the Pagan Roman Empire it is fitly Resembled to a Dragon in regard of that Spirit that inhabited it by a most particular influence over it And because when Christianity began to spread it self in that Empire in a multitude of Christians It had a Jealous eye over it and over the Empire it might raise Therefore by Ten so known and Famous Persecutions it endeavour'd as a Dragon to devour it and to surprize that Supreme Monarch Jesus Christ who should Rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron which the Christian Church compar'd to a Travelling woman was to Bring forth Herein the Pagan Empire is Resembled to Pharoh the Egyptian King of Old who fearing the overgrowth of Israel into a Kingdom as a Dragon lying in the Nile waited to devour it by Killing the Male Children And thus Herod the Roman Vassal though King of the Jews watch'd to have devour'd Jesus Christ the Incarnate King who shall sit on the Throne of his Father David and of whose Kingdom there shall be no End. Thus admirable is the Concinnity and Agreement between the Pagan Emperors of Rome that was to be a Spiritual Egypt and the Dragon How plain therefore is the Calendar of the Roman Empire in this particular to the very last of it as Pagan Dioclesian and the other last Heathen Emperors being among the Persecutors of the first rank and therefore we must needs be certain whereabout the Time of the Calendar then was For we know this state lasted about 300 Years after the Resurrection and in the clearness and particularity of this the New Testament exceeds the old Consider further this Imperial power with relation to the rest of the World and it was Salvage Dreadful and Terrible as Daniel styles it and as the Revelation styles it as a Dragon devouring and Consuming all other powers as with Iron Teeth and stamping on them as with Legs of Iron on which account the Dragon is said as it were to sweep down the Third part of the Stars or other Princes Rev. 12. 4. and powers of the World with its Syrma its Tail or Train of Power and enlarged Empire And in that it is call'd the Third part of the Stars It thus sweeps down It is agreeable that its Succession to the Third or Graecian Empire should be Connoted which it so particularly drew down from whence the Third or Third part becomes in this Prophecy a Cypher or private Character of the Roman Empire Whether in the West the most proper peculiar Rome and Roman Empire or in the East that affected also to be call'd Roman Empire even as Constantinople New Rome and These Two are therefore in these Prophetick Hieroglyphics call'd Two Wings of the one Great Eagle or Roman Empire And that we may know the Prophetick Calendar was taken care of in this Pagan state of Roman Empire the whole Roman Beast that is said to be diverse from the other Beasts in regard of its many and more Eminently Seven forms of Government very strange to the other Three Kingdoms before it especially in the last the Papal Supremacy was pictured as with Seven Heads Heads of that City that when St. John wrote the Revelation Reign'd over the Kings of the Earth and therefore could be no other then Rome And it is particularly said Five were Fallen One then was which we know could be no other then the Pagan Emperors Thus exact is the Calendar or account of Time till Constantine under whom the Empire became Christian Because all History Agrees whereabouts in Time it was Period 2 The second Period of the Roman Empire since the Resurrection according to Prophecy and most known in History is the Christian Roman Empire under Constantine and his successors And the Time is very well known in History and Agreed whereabouts it was But it must be acknowledged this Period or change of the Empire from Pagan to Christian is not at all shaddowed in Daniel's Prophecy in either of the Two Visions of the Image or of the Beasts it hath no Lines or Mentions And the reason is very clear and plain For when the Spirit of Prophecy was pleas'd to give a Calendar of Time by Two Visions Both representing a Monarchic Frame though of Four Monarchies Yet they were but One in a Bestian enmity and Contrariety to the great Kingdom of Jesus Christ A Christian Monarchy that was given for a short space as an Emblem shade or Specimen though but a dark one of that Kingdom of Christ could have no proper place there but must have confus'd the Frame But as if it were on purpose to compensate the silence of the Christian Monarchy in Daniel and because it may seem a Discontinuer in the Bestian Calendar of Kingdoms and in that Frame of Four and
End are unquestionable Assurances that both Intend the same thing viz. a Substantial Calendar of Four Monarchies to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ But yet this latter Vision differs from the Former in Two regards 1. The former was originally given to Nebuchadnezzar a Heathen Prince and Expounded by Daniel This is first given to Daniel and upon after Visional search more fully explain'd by God to him and so there is a more inward discovery of things relating to the Kingdom and Church of God then was vouchsaf'd to an Alien to the Common-Wealth of Israel although That was admirably Great and greatly for the Glory of the supreme Being and Governor of the World and a lasting Monument of it to after Ages and also an Illustrious Testimony of the Kingdom of Christ that should at the last break in pieces his own and the three succeding Monarchies which were as hath been shewn a Table of Time to that Kingdom and therewith all other Monarchies and Kingdoms But yet this was but in the gross To Daniel an eminent Minister of the Divine Kingdom there is a more explicit Revelation of Antichrist the great Enemy and opposite of that Kingdom who was the Clay of the Image and in whom the whole should be broken and this with the incident particulars of the Tyranny Antichrist should exercise over the Saints of the Son of Man Receiving the Kingdom from God sitting in Judgment on Antichrist and then the Saints possessing the Kingdom under Christ are great Amplifications of the former Vision and more agreeable to Daniel a Domestick of the Divine Kingdom and so most fit to lead to that Kingdom 2. The former Vision was in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar when the Babylonian Monarchy had gain'd the ascendent over all the Kingdoms so as to be an Vniversal Monarchy The latter Vision was in the West and Evening of that Monarchy viz. in the first year of Belshazzars short Reign who was the last Babylonish Monarch and to whom the Scripture records only three years In the first Vision thereof the Types were more condecent to a Prince so aggrandiz'd by God viz. A great Image of excellent Brightness and terrible Form a Head of Gold but in the latter Vision these four Monarchies are represented by Beasts seated in the midst of Violence Blood and Spoil and chiefly beastly and bruitish Idolatry and Persecution especially the first and last of these Monarchies were so And as to the second although the great Services of some of the Persian Princes to the Church of God might seem to have deserved a fairer Character and so the acknowledgment the Great Alexander is reported to have made to the True God in the High Priest yet in regard of the Idolatry and Ravage upon the World and as making up one Image of Universal Monarchy oppos'd to the Kingdom of Christ and lastly in regard of the Persecution of some of the Princes of both those Monarchies against the Church of God of which the Persan Princes withstanding Christ Dan. 10. 13. Haman in Esther and Antiochus of the Graecian Monarchy so great a Type of Antichrist desolating the Sanctuary and taking away the daily are Instances They are all under the same Name of Infamy Yet in the Infinite Mercy of God to any degree of Penitency Nebuchadnezzar's acknowledgment of God after his so great Humiliation seems remembred with Honor in that Symbol After the plucking of the Wings on the Lyons back shewing at once both the speed and the shortness of the Babylonish first Monarchy It was lifted up from the Earth and made as a man to stand on its Feet and a mans Heart was given to it In all other These Monarchies together as alienated from the Worship and Religion of the True God and as Predecessors of Antichrist are described from what is worst Bestialness and Ferity and therefore the whole of their Dominion to be taken away and consum'd by the Kingdom of Christ Now in that this Vision thus resumes the Time that was past from the first Vision It argues The two Visions so evidently of the same Importance One at the Beginning the other at the End of the Babylonian Monarchy are a substantial Calendar of Time to begin as from the Vision of Ezekiel and to determine at the Everlasting Throne that Ezekiel had foretold as they most evidently both do and so define the Time betwixt that Vision and that Throne which is the point we are in pursuit of It is true when the Sacred Chronology comes to a numeral Line or a Line of Time by Number the Babylonian Monarchy is then left out as it must needs be because else the numeral Line beginning after it could not be exact and because it is so perfect in the Account of the 2300 Even Morn that there needed no service from the substantial Calendar which is thenceforth to be guided by it Argum. 8 I come now to the last and undeniable Argument that These Visions are a Calendar of Time to the great Kingdom of Christ And that is if it can be made out by Holy Scripture in Agreement with Universal History That from the very Time of these Visions given Things have been in Motion and are still in the Motion They should be according to this Calendar to the Kingdom of Christ Then it will be impossible to deny that These Visions are indeed a Calendar of Time to that Kingdom But this is to be made out from Scripture and therefore They must be a Calendar For first the Scripture is express that according to this Calendar the Babylonian Kingdom gave way to the Medes and Persians according to that Hand-writing that so much Terrified Belshazzar of which Daniel was the Interpreter Thy Kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians viz. to the Breast and Two Arms of the Medes and Persians but so that the Persian Dominion Rose above the Medes and that one Horn in Cyrus started up so much higher than the other that it had the sole Dominion So that though Darius the Mede took the Kingdom or the Vniversal Monarchy from Babylon first Yet we read of Cyrus King of Persia his first year Following immediately For in answer to Daniel's prayer at the very End of the Seventy years the Commandment immediately came forth which was by Cyrus making in his first year a decree for the Release of the Captivity and therefore his First year must be at the End of Darius his first year So we read of his Third year and of the years of the following Kings of Persia by which we know the Persian Kingdom was the Second Kingdom The passing off of the Persian Monarchs is no less express For the Grecian He Goat Brake the Two horns of the Persian Ram who Took the Kingdom from Babylon and Stamped upon Dan. 8. 7. Him And to shew the Vniversal Monarchy then pass'd the King of Grecia is said to do according to his Will an expression of the c. 11.
transplanted themselves from their own Seats and by armed force plac'd themselves in Italy and the several parts and Provinces of the Roman Empire And yet they all made still the same Roman Monarchy and the same Beast because whereas the Persian King succeding the Babylonian did not place his Royal Greatness in Babel but in Shushan nor Alexander in Persia but in Graece nor the Roman in Graece Persia nor Babylon but transferred all to Rome The barbarous Nations on the contrary do not remove the Potentacy from the Roman Territories to the Countries from whence they came but continue it where they found it and Inhabit and Inherit the former Residencies of Roman Power and so are the same Empire in Feet of Iron and of Clay For if the Feet of Iron make no Transplantation much less would or could the Feet of Clay much more tyed to the same Earth from whence they sprung and above all to the Roman Earth of St. Peter where He say they as Bishop left the print of his Foot as in Clay that the Roman Hierarchy might sprout from it And they are all the same Beast also whereby the Calendar and Succession is maintained for to shew the same Idolatrous and Hostile Spirit to the Kingdom of Christ influx'd all the Dragon gave his All as was noted before and the whole is as nearly allyed as part to part in the same Body acted by one and the same Spirit And this was all certainly an Illustrious and adorable Care of Providence over Prophecy That Things should be just thus that Prophecy might be fulfilled in the Roman Monarchy continuing One and the same Monarchy as we shall see in Ten Kings united in one Ecclesiastic Roman Supremacy as Ten Horns in one Head and the Capital Imperial City Rome was continued for the same Head by a most astonishing and even amazing Ordination of God as the other Capital Cities within the Roman Dominion for the Ten Kings each in their own Kingdoms But still there were all the Violences of War made use of for the Succession of the Ten Kings as Feet of Iron and they were as necessary for the Feet of Clay to rise in the midst of those Noises stilly silently unobservedly to their Grandeur and the Supremacy of One Pontiff even He of Rome among them To adjust therefore every thing to this Succession with the Decorum of the prophetical Types let us now observe the admirable Concert of Providence and Prophecy in this Period In the first place therefore as a great Emblem of the Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ and his Vniversal Monarchy over all Nations and especially his Triumph over that Ancient Kingdom of Sathan Pagan and Heathenish Idolatry wherein Himself and his Angels and the Demoniz'd Spirits of his Servants were so immediately worship'd there is a wise Ordination by God of a Christian Empire to remonstrate this Victory in an Empire then own'd as the Vniversal Empire of the World and where Heathenism had seem'd to Triumph over Christianity but Christians thus overcame by the Blood of the Lamb by the word of his Testimony and by Christians not Loving their Lives unto Death This Empire therefore enter'd as into the Heart of the Fourth Monarchy in Daniels Visions by a High Dominion and Ordination of God though so contre-natural to it that on all Accounts It is as a casting Sathan out of Heaven and as it were the Coming of the Kingdom of our God. The whole Order therefore of these Emperors throughout the whole Time of the Christian Empire is so far all one order Revel 17. v. 10. that from first to last they are All one seventh King as the Kings of Judah were All One House of David but this Empire in its former and in its latter Times differ'd much in the purity of the Christian State and in the Illustrious Presence of God with it as Zedekiah and those latter Kings did from David and Solomon yet so that while the order it self stood there could be no Succession of the Bestian Kingdom for they are specificly distinct which is a note of great weight in the Calendar and it is even demonstrated That all those Christian Emperors in sacred Register are but One because They are called One other King and that they are specificly distinct because the Eighth is of the Bestian Heads the seventh before it is not But now as to our Note this Christian Empire look'd like an Infracture on the Calendar for that a Succession was due to the Feet of Iron and Clay and to the Ten Horns and to the little Horn that is to the Ten Kings and the Papacy as soon as ever the Legs of Iron and Head as of the Teeth of Iron that is the Pagan Empire was depriv'd of supreme Power so that this Christian Empire according to Daniels Visions was to have dyed as soon as it was born Prophecy therefore as it were remembring in the New Testament what it self had said in the Old and as conscious of the short space This Empire was to continue and knowing well That there were four Trumpets of War decreed and prepar'd as Storms and Tempests to remove it in the very next Vision to that of Heathenism desolated which was Revel 6. last It presents four Angels c. 7. 1. Holding the four Winds that They should not blow by those Trumpets c. 8. and a charge is given them to take heed to their Commission that they should not let out those Winds until the Servants of God were sealed in their Foreheads that is That the Christian Empire should continue and continue in Glory and Peace till Things were prepared for the Succession of Antichrist that Man of Sin or Beast as this Prophecy styles Him and as we shall find presently that sealing of the Servants of God in the Forehead imported Till the Feet of Clay then were ready for their Succession the Feet of Iron should not succeed for they were Feet together though of so different a Mettal and not to cleave nor the Ten Horns till the little Horn though in another appearance viz. of a Head in the New Testament-Prophecy should be ready for his Succession also for at the same Hour Both were to receive Power Now what does this so peremptory Charge import but a miraculous as it were and immediate over-rule of the natural course of Things according to Daniels Visions and the vertue of it lasted in full force from the Christian Empire of Constantine the Great till the Death of Theodosius the Great Then there was such a Relaxation of this Charge that the Angels prepared Themselves to sound but did no more then prepare Now how agreeable is this to History soon after Theodosius's Death these Clouds and Storms began to hover and hang but did not fall in their full effect of doing the Christian Empire out of the middle as the Apostle speaks 2. Thess 2. 7. where it stood as a Wall of partition betwixt the Bestian Times
forth as a short Emblem of the Kingdom of Christ in that Christian Empire the Manly Birth Christ as a Soveraign And least we should think it had a succession and so an endurance in the Papacy and Christian Kings and Emperours that rose out of its ruins we find according to Prophecy All that succession is involv'd in the dark Portraictture of a Beast and its Ten Horns That true Christianity that brought forth that Empire is close Hid in the Wilderness for 1260 years till the end of which it cannot return besides even that Papal state suppose it had been a succession of a Christian Kingdom It hath been if I may so speak Woe Trumpetted by the Saracens and Turks for so great a space that as hath been said it could not be the Kingdom of Christ and therefore must be the Kingdom of Antichrist For so we find the Beast as an Eighth King succeeded the Seventh or Christian King after a short space and the very same Beast of the Seventh Head succeeded the Sixth Pagan King wounded in his Head so his succession was double In Time He succeeded the Christian Emperour as Bestian He succeeded the Pagan sixth King who according to Daniel gave him his Throne Power and great Authority For the Papacy in his Ten Kingdoms devoted to him is a Pagan Christian or Antichristian Supremacy Thus it was and thus it ought to be that Prophecy might be fulfill'd Thus far then we are most assured whatever succeeded the Pagan Empire in Time was the short spac'd Christian Empire whatever succeeded the short Christian Empire in Time must be the Beast that notwithstanding the Interposal of the Christian Empire is united according to Daniel to the fourth Bestian Kingdom and according to the Revelation to the Dragon And seeing no other succeeded the Christian Empire in Time but the Papacy and the Ten Kings Therefore that is the Continuation of the fourth Monarchy in the Image as Feet of Clay and of Iron and in the vision of the Beasts as the Beast and Ten Horns and remains and shall remain so until it shall be Broken by the Kingdom of Christ Period 3 Our Calendar Reaches down to 475. by Prophecy and by History and here there enters a Bestian state which will take up more then Half the Time from the giving of these visions to Daniel and a Moyety or thereabouts of the whole Time that the fourth Kingdom had so much as a Being even at the Vrbs Condita or the building of the Roman City more then the Time thrice over that it came into this Calendar which was at the Cessation of the Graecian Empire Because therefore this Time would be so long it pleased the infinite wisdom and goodness of Holy Spirit of Prophecy to give some light before hand to his Servants how long this Time should last It pleas'd it I say to give here a Numeral though a mystic Calendar even just here and to tell us that Laws and Times should be given for Time Times and the dividing of Time into the Hand of the little Horn. And why seeing were are bound to search as far as we can what and what manner of Time the Spirit of Christ did signifie was it given here rather then in any other part of the vision of the Beasts if it had not been the pleasure of God that we should know before hand how long this last Bestian state should exist For if we had been to wait the event onely There had been less need of a Calendar here then in any other part of the vision For the Kingdom of Christ immediately comming into its succession after the Times of this last Roman state It will give a more Indubitable Resound of its event than any other event of the vision can be suppos'd to do It was certainly therefore given to define Time before hand But if with the Comment of Prophecy it self in the Revelation it were not to be understood Then it must be given to no end Let us therefore be encouraged to search it For it is certainly to be understood as I hope we shall find And that we may understand it These Two Things are necessary 1. To expound the Calendar in its Epoch or beginning and in its just Course Extent and Period and then Secondly to Adjust by the Symbols of Prophecy and the most noble Assurances of History or rather of our own knowledge and Experience The Things being much in Being and Existence at this Day the Congruity of Events according to it so far as They are already pass'd and thereby to derive the most ascertain'd Expectations of what is yet to come Now that we may do the first it is necessary that we concert Time Times Half a Time with Forty two Months which are the Apocalyptick Calendar for the Regnancies of the Beast and his Ten Horns or various Kingdoms according to the Resemblance of the Ten Toes in the Image which have been already prov'd to be in an immediate succession to the Christian Empire In the first place therefore we must observe the Correspondence betwixt the Time Times and Half a Time and the Forty two Months Let therefore Time signifie a year according to that note Prophecy hath undoubtedly on purpose provided us with of Seven Times passing over the Head of Nebuchadnezzar in his Lunacy for that Times should be more than Years the course of his Conquests till within about Ten years of his Death will not allow for in the Twenty seventh year of Jehoiachins Captivity He made as it appears his last Conquest and had been as we may perceive by Ezekiels Prophecy in a continual course of Victory to that Time as hath been more at large in a former Discourse discussed Now that Twenty seventh of Jehoiach must be the Thirty fifth of Nebuchad for Jehoiakims Third was his First Add therefore the last eight of Jehoiakim to Jehoiachims Twenty seventh they make Nebuch Thirty fifth and Evilmerodachs First who according to Scripture succeeded Nebuchadnezzar his Father falling on Jehoiachins Thirty seventh there remained Ten to Nebuch when Ezekiel prophesied his Conquest of Egypt within which Ten the seven of his Delirium must be comprehended the seven Times therefore could not signific more then seven Years For his Life we see would not allow more nor can They in any fair supposal signifie less there being no determinate measure of Time worthy to be call'd Times except Months and seven Months is a Time much too short for his being turn'd out as among the Beasts or that the stump or little short Time of his Reign should be so Banded with Iron that It might be secur'd to Him. Now I have thus industriously debated this Matter because I would gain by it that I think cannot now be deny'd That a Time in Time Times c. denotes a year If then a Time denotes a year Times joyn'd with Half a Time must denote two Years because there is no medium betwixt One Time and
Half a Time but two Times or two years so that the whole is Three years and a half Let us then calculate the forty two Months and we find They answer just Three years and a Half so that when we come to find as we shall do all along by the compare that the little Horn among the Ten Horns in Daniel and the Beast in the Revelation however they may seem to differ are the very same Even the Forty two Months will demonstrate that the Times and Half are three Years and Half as forty two Months in general Account make Now if They are Three Years and a Half we know certainly They must be prophetically multiplyed according to the standard of All prophetical Time given to Ezekiel c. 4. except there be a plain Reason against it each day of each year must become a Year Besides no Time so small as Three years and a Half can serve such a Kingdom as that of the Beast's The General sense of the Calendar then being thus establish'd the next thing to be done is to fix the Epoch of the Calendar which is as it were the Foundation of every Calendar Now seeing the Prophecy of the New Testament gives as we have found so clear an Account of the Time of the Christian Empire interposed to the Roman Bestian Empire betwixt the Pagan and the Antichristian of which Daniel says nothing we may from thence learn the most precise and definite Time of the Succession And It is evident The Succession must be immediately after the Abdication of Empire by Augustulus which was the very Time of the decease of the seventh King and therefore as close as Succession is to Succession so close must be the Antichristian Empire to the Christian Empire For so the general Laws of Succession require And much more when God interpos'd an Empire that should be an Emblem of the Kingdom of Christ till that was done out of the midst by an Ordination as Supreme as It was there set there could be no Succession so that It could not be till Abdication Thus on one side On the other side seeing It was an unnatural Interposal betwixt the Pagan-bestian and the Antichristian-bestian Kingdom as soon as ever that Christian Empire was according to that most pregnant Expression of the Apostle done out of the midst That Separation and distance made as it were by violence and not willingly betwixt Bestian and Bestian clos'd up and as in the moment Bestian reunited to Bestian as by an Elastic force of self Restitution so that the Succession could be no longer delay'd then just the Abdication of Augustulus And by the way we may observe Abdication whether out of fear and necessity or a desertion out of Resolution rather to part with Government than to govern according to the fundamental contract of Government is a doing a Government out of the midst and makes a good and valid Succession in Gods Account even where He had so particularly order'd a Succession because Government is so necessary that no vacuum can be allowed * Oporâ—â—t Imperaâ—â—rem stantem Râ—gem regenrem Emâ—ri The Powers therefore that are Powers in Being and in the actual Execution of Justice are ordained of God and to be obey'd Rom. 13. 1. 2. For thus it appears here the seventh King was according to Prophecy to continue only a short space and being constrained by Odoacer the Barbarian Conqueror to renounce Government Himself took the Title of King of Italy and not of Rome the Providence of God so ordering it as it were to keep the Succession clear and so the Succession immediately vested in the seventh Head and Eighth King that is in the Antichristian Papacy And of this the Sacred Prophecy gives all the Testimony possible for when it gives a series of Kings One after another and says Five were fallen One is Another is not yet and when He Revel 17. 10. comes must continue a short space and the Beast is the Eighth It is plainly to say though in other words The Eighth King who ever He is that is the Beast succeeded immediately to the seventh who was the Christian King or Emperor Now seeing whoever was the Supreme of Rome all along hitherto and must continue so till the Kingdom of Christ must have succeeded the Christian Emperor and been the Beast I do but ask then who hath demanded claim'd and been defended by the Ten Kings as Supreme of the City Rome for hundreds of years He must be This Beast Again because the Ten Kings as Feet of Iron with the Feet of Clay and as Horns with the Head were to have a Succession at equal dates with the seventh Head and Eighth King the Prophecy having so definitively given the Time of the Beasts Succession that it was whenever the seventh Head ceas'd It gives also the Time of their Succession that It was at the very same Time even at * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The like manner of defining Time is other Times used in the New Testament John 4. 52. Acts 10. 30. One Hour with the Beasts Receiving Power That is At the very same Time the Beast received Power They received Power also for they received Power at one Hour with the Beast and therefore the Feet of Iron and of Clay and the Head and the Ten Horns together received Power immediately upon the Abdication of the Christian Emperor which was at 475. The same Phrase or manner of speaking is therefore us'd concerning both Power was given to the Beast to continue Forty two Months That He might do all Things spoken of Him from First to Last He had Power to continue forty two Months or Rev. 13. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his whole Action Power was given to Him during the space of Forty two Months so the Ten Horns received Power as Kings Rev. 17. 12. though They had a motion and violent Action before yet as in the Apostles Time They had no Kingdom so They had no Right of Succession until the Beast received Power and They then received Power as Kings of a lawful Succession even at one and the same Hour with the Beast And now seeing the Beast and the Ten Kings received Power together there must be some very Cardinal Time for them to receive their Power in the Ten Kings altogether with one another and then They altogether with the Beast and the Beast together with every one of them This I say cannot be in Reason supposed without some supreme and eminent Designation of Prophecy concerning the Time when It should be and when God would be pleas'd to have it so accounted to be for could so many Kings who by various Accidents and Emergents of War arose to Kingly Power some at one Time and some at another be suppos'd to receive Power together at one and the same Hour Historically and in matter of Fact Besides according to all History It was not so some of these Kingdoms got up
much sooner then others It is therefore on a Prophetical Account and on positive determination of the Time by Divine Authority God by whom Kings Reign and who dates Kingdoms as He pleases dated the Power of the Beast and the Power of these Ten Kings All to an Hour and He hath told us when It was It was when that peculiar Christian Empire of Rome He had set up was by his Providence superseded before that though these Kings were Kings and the Bishop of Rome Bishop of Rome yet they were Kings and the Pope of Rome Pope of Rome under one Imperial Head who stood by Divine Appointment as their Supreme Lord He was their Head by a Divine Right and They All under Him and in that Right in a dependence upon him even as Herod on Augustus though not in Fact for He who gives the Kingdoms of the Earth to whom He pleases declares so and tells us The Beast came into his Hour as an Eighth King when the seventh gave up and though the sixth Head or Pagan Emperor was gone off so long before yet as in the Water or Air when the interposing Body is removed the ambient Air and Water from every side immediately clap together so the Bestian Pagan and the Bestian Antichristian Kingdom does when the Christian Empire was done in the Apostles Phrase so full of this Sense Out of the midst Having therefore clear'd and made Good the Epoch of the Time Times Half Time I will now before I proceed to consider their extent shew how great the Agreement of what we have seen in the state of the Roman Empire since the Christian Empire in it was done out of the midst how great I say the Agreement of it with Prophecy is which will make good that Solid Substantial part of the Calendar and shew us How plainly Time hath run on according to the Aqueducts and Chanels foretold to it so long before in these following Observations Observat 1 Let us then observe the Papacy the Cardinalism the Episcopacy the whole Roman Hierarchy and their dependencies in so great numbers on the one side and on the other the several Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire hath been so long and is still parted with the warlike Kings and People thereof And I may appeal to all the World whether there could be a fitter Emblem or Representation on both parts then Feet part of Iron part of Clay What weaker then the one What more Potent and puissant then the other And yet notwithstanding the weakness of the one and the puissance of the other The Ten Kings Agreeing to give their strength Power and Might and their Kingdom to the Beast They make the Pope a Seventh Head of Roman Supremacy and Vniversality and the Hierarchy Feet Foundations of Government and of the state of the World by being mingled with the Iron however They do not cleave Surely this matter being so well known as to run into sense we see it with our eyes as to the Event and the Emblem as easie to be understood as Familiar as the Notices of Iron Clay Feet of which the Emblem is compos'd are The attent consideration then would convince even an Atheist of the Truth of Scripture Prophecy even a Papist that the Roman Hierarchy is intended how much more then may it convince Protestants The Kings have also made the Pope a little Horn They have given him Territories Guards Forces Revenues as a King pulling up the Gothick the Graecian the Lombardic power as Three Horns before Him wherein Martell Pipin Charlemaign and Ludoviâ—us pius were his great Benefactors But all this was but very inconsiderable in compare with the rest as to an Iron Potentacy were it not for the Spiritual Supremacy the Riches of which is Incomputable Therefore he Looks with the Eyes of a man as the only Infallible Seer of the Christian World He hath a Countenance more stately then his Fellows the other Ten Kings over whom he hath a Mouth speaking great Things in the challenges of Supreme Dominion as the Vicar of Jesus Christ and as in his place King of Kings and Lord of Lords He hath Times and Laws given into his Hand and a Calendar of Time peculiar to Him He hath been for several Hundreds of years the great Leviathan in the Christian World the Chief of the Sons of Pride and of the ways of Providence and God's Government of the World That a Horn so weak in its true Anatomy and Intrinsick value should have borne such a sway in the Empire and Governments of the Earth piercing even to the Indies and formerly unknown parts of it who that reads Daniel in compare with what he hath seen known read or even heard of the Papacy will not rather think Daniel of late years took the Portraicture and writ the Character of the Papacy then spoke of it at the distance of so many Ages before it But he was guided by Him to whom all Things past present and to come are an even Now. In the same manner let us reflect upon the Cardinalism Arch-Bishops and Inferior Clergy with their Innumerable Train of officers as on the Feet of Miry Clay the Beast rising out of the Earth more often in their originals not of the Blood of Kings and Nobles weak in their warlike Prowesse Prophets teaching lyes who are the Tail of Mankind Yet with these as with the Seed of Men poor weak Inconsiderable men sprung from the Earth The feet of Iron mingle themselves and make together the Feet of the Image as equally essential parts of Government and the Clay is as we say Cheek by Jole with them These Merchants of Rome become the Grands of the Earth I desire no other but a Free Impartial Frank Judgment upon the Evidence now given that the Papacy and Roman Hierarchy are most lively Represented by the long and so known Conjunction of the Powers of Clay in Conjunction with those of Iron the Kings and Princes lying within the Roman Dition Observat 2 Equal to the first is the second Observation wherein we shall find the present state of the Roman Empire tyed and linck'd to Prophecy both in Daniel and the Revelation in that great and Remarkable point of Agreement An Image made to the Beast and the Beast joyn'd so often after with his Image and the Beast and his Image Let us then reflect on the Famous Memoir of Prophetick History in the first universal Monarch the Golden Head of the primitive Litteral Babylon Nebuchadnezzar in conceipt of that mighty Image He had seen in a Dream so divinely expounded and of which Himself was the Head of Gold would be worshipped and obeyed in the Counter-point of that Image set up and whoever would not worship that Image was to be cast into a fiery Furnace In like manner the other Beast or the Antichristian Hierarchy to raise up the Papacy as another Golden Head of mystical Babylon said by way of Oracle and with lying Wonders
Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Messiah had a Right to a Glorious Kingdom But in Resignation to the Divine Will that had so determin'd He seal'd or stay'd Prophesie from coming into the Effect of his Kingdom which Kingdom might well be called Vision or Prophesie because It is the Restitution of All Things and the Mystery of God spoken of by all the Prophets and so Christ bids Daniel seal Dan. 12 4. the Book and accordingly he Receives it from God Seal'd with seven Seals and Revel 5. Christ open'd in due order those Seales tho' it had been no Robbery to have taken the Kingdom immediately Throughout the Four first Seals there was the Intercessions of his Saints thro' his Blood for his Kingdom and the word of his Testimony Revel 6. vehemently urg'd Come and see and all along there ran a Course of Martyrdoms which was compleated at the Fifth Seal in the greatest and last Persecution under Dioclesian So at the Sixth Seal the Ancient Kingdom of Sathan the Dragon and Old Serpent Fell as from Heaven in the Desolation of Heathenism thro' the Roman Empire that is It fell in a Prophetical Symbol of what shall be fully done hereafter rather then Historical of what was then done And in the same Prophetical symbolism Revel 12. 10. in the Seventh or Sabbatical Seal The Kingdom of Christ call'd the Kingdom of our God made an appearance And these Seven seals must be within four hundred years after the Resurrection in which what Time the Christian Empire had was cut off from the wounded sixth Bestian Head or Pagan Emperour For the 2300 Even Morn allow so much Time and no more and the Monarchic Calendar requires it to be before the Roman Empire was divided into 10 Kingdoms So the Christian Empire must begin 280 years after the Resurrection where it had Right to enter as a Symbol of Christ's Kingdom as made Perfect by Sufferings and his Saints overcomming by his Blood by the word of his Testimony and by not loving their Lives unto Death And this Kingdom then lasted 120 years before the Apostasie had Eclips'd it and seeing there was so much cut off from the Pagan Empire if the Christian Empire had not held that Time Antichrist had been Reveal'd before his own Time and thus History agrees Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thes 2. 6 this appearance of the Kingdom of Christ in the midst of a Bestian Image of Monarchies and of the last Bestian Monarchy was Immediately interpos'd by God however against Nature Immediately hereupon even while Thirty eight years of the Christian Empire remain'd in a supremacy over Rome tho' much fallen from Glory the Apostasie that was to bring forth the Revelation of the man of sin or his succession at the end of those 38 years enter'd in the Gentiles Months and began the 1260 years It enter'd thus soon that the wounded Beast might be Heal'd and not dye and because the Christian Empire so unnatural according to Prophecy to the Bestian Monarchic Image ought to continue but a short space and because there remain'd onely 1260 years of the Numeral Calendar besides the 75 years of Preparation after them for the Kingdom of Christ and because here the Ten Kings to be united to the Beast were to Receive Power at the Cessation of the Christian Emperour as at one Hour with the Beast enter'd as Gentiles tho' not as Kings till that Cessation And here the Apostasie must needs enter because it was to enter by way of undermine and Eclipse upon the Kingdom of Christ which it could onely do while this Christian Empire remain'd a Symbol of it And here let us behold with Humble Admiration and Astonishment the Resignation of Christ to the divine will For with Readiness he Sealâ— up the Glory of his 144000 and so of his own Kingdom and Swears It should be so for Times Times and Half while the daily Sacrifice or pure Worship of his Gospel should be taken away But then he swears There should be no more such Time of Eclipse but all along to the 1290th year from thence and by the 1335 year from thence viz. in the first 75 years of the seventh Trumpet the Mystery of his Kingdom should be Finish'd and it should Appear And here behold again the Beauty of Providence in this Season For there was a Dilemma upon this Time If Beastian the Kingdom of Christ appearing in the Christian Empire must be revers'd whereas as in a Symbol It should never be revers'd the manly Birth was caught up to the Throne of God If not Beastian how would the Monarchic Calendar be secur'd For the Beastian Image stands till the Glory of Christs Kingdom which we are sure is not yet or how the Numeral Calendar whose 2300 Even Norn would want 1260 years Loe then the Divineness of the Reconciliation The very Ecclipse of the Sun is a Confession of the Sun. Else there could be no Moon in Brightness Ecclipsing it If no Christ no Antichrist no such Vicar Oh ominous Name Vicar of Christ what is the Greek Original for Vicar of Christ but Antichrist His High Pretensions answered by the Ten Kings Giving their Power to Him is a Confession of Christ and of his Supreme Monarchy This therefore and no other Beastiaenism could now Be or Last till the Kingdom of Christ. But on the other side Antichristianism is Beastianism The Ecclipse and Undermine are Beastian Christ therefore submits to the Ecclipse of his Kingdom for 1260 years because It was to last so long according to both these Prophetical Calendars as in the Little Horn or Antichrist and then He allows to the finishing of the Mystery 75 years after that his Kingdom might Come in its own Time as on the Evening of the Sabbatical Millenary appointed for it by the Father And then the Ecclipsing Moon vanishes by that Bâ—igâ—â—ness of Christs Coming call'd therefore so often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and becomes a wâ—ndring Star for which is reserv'd the blackness of Darkness for ever Let us therefore 2 〈◊〉 3. 17. every one fear to Fall from our own Fixation in the Gospel Firmament Now whoever Lays all these Things together and shall consider the Reason of them and them and when the Ten Kings entred the Roman Empire and how long ago the Christian Empire was how near on All Accounts the End of the 1260 Days must be will conclude They cannot end later then 1697 we might rather think They might have ended sooner then now even some years ago had not Event and this Numeral Calendar guided us but later then 1697. They cannot end And what we may expect till then we cannot so positively determine But as the seven Tâ—â—ndeâ—s Vtterâ—nces Seal'd gaug'd to each Church the measure of its State in the Beginning of the Reformation So I observe in these Three Nations of England Scotland Irâ—land the Bulk oâ— whose Natives were always Rebels to the Reforâ—â—tion the very State each was in as to the Reformation then casts anew a very remarkable Glance of it self 〈◊〉 this Day There is now therefore to be expected 〈◊〉 Turn in each as it were Heliotropically toward the Philadelphian 97. according to the distance of Time to it wherein the Church Cloath'd with the Sun shall come out oâ—â—â—s Eclipse which being so near should both Animate and steer all our Counsels and accordingly the God of Heaven however differing parties may design will Inspire Them To write all the Correspondencies of Scripture and its Prophesies to these Great Ends The World would hardly contain the Books What Consideration then does This Thing deserve Or how can we neglect it Except we can overthrow Divine Oracles or disprove what I have written as Founded on them which I am well assured cannot be done THE END
THE KINGDOM OF JESUS CHRIST Entering its Succession at 1697. According to a Calendar of Time. Drawn by the Four Monarchies and by the Time Times Half Time allowed to the Papacy and the Ten Kingdoms as the last state of the Roman or Fourth Monarchy then Ending Given in Daniel and Expounded by the Revelation in Consent with All History and carrying on the Scripture Line of Time. By T. Beverley a most Humble Minister in the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ Printed in the Year 1689. TO THE Most Excellent MAJESTY OF WILLIAM and MARY By Especial Grace of God According to Prophesie KING and QUEEN of England Scotland France and Ireland Truly Defenders of the Faith. AND To the High Court of Parliament At this Time Assembled Grace and Peace from Him which is which Revel 1. 4 5. was and which is to Come And from the seven Spirits which are before his Throne and from Jesus Christ the Faithful Witness the first Begotten of the Dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Most Dread Soveraigns Most Reverend and Noble Lords Most Worthy Senators and Patriots THE Great God of Heaven having made known of old even to Pagan Princes by his Servants the Prophets what should come to pass hereafter concerning the Kingdom of his Son and the cleansing of his Sanctuary his truly Catholic Church He hath Dan. 8. 14. enabled me the most unworthy of all his Servants the least of Saints and the chiefest of Sinners for the last five years to search and to understand by Books the number of years Dan. 9. 2. He would accomplish in the Patience or Delay of the Kingdom of Christ and in the Desolations of his Sanctuary I having then certain knowledge that the. Accomplishment of those years is as near as 1697 Have believ'd it my Duty in Fear of God who hath committed the Dispensation to me as also in Allegiance and Fidelity to the Supreme Government of these Nations to make publication of the Time and also to explain All those Symbols wherein the Divine Prophesie hath been though more hiddenly yet as certainly when justly concerted conveyed as by plainest words and to make Dedication of it to the Soveraign Government of this Nation with a lowest Obeisance as the meanest of Subjects and yet with the Assurance arising from the Evidence of Sacred Truth that so the Prophesie might be known in the Grand Pretorium or Pallace of the Nation and thereby in all other Places The View presented is worthy the profoundest Consideration of the Greatest Princes Statists and Divines Four Universal Monarchies which have one after another borne such sway in the World and whose Monarchs caus'd their Terror in the Land of the Living for near Daniels Twenty Ezek. 32. â—17 c. Dan. 8. 14. Three Hundred Evenings and Mornings prophetically multiplyed into years but most of Them being gone down into the Pit have laid their Swords under their Heads with their Iniquities on their Bones and to Rise with them if Enemies to the Kingdom of God and herewith the Antichristian State for above these last twelve hundred years with the Monarchs of the Ancient Imperial Roman Territories who have for most of the space given their Power Revel 17. 17. to the Beast But some have already The Rest shall Renunciate to that Adulterous Church and though some of them now with a High Hand cause their Terror in the Land of the Living yet They shall without Repentance beare their Shame also in going down to the sides of the Pit But how much more does that indeed Vniversal Kingdom of Christ at the end of these Four deserve Thought that shall receive These and many more Kingdoms into its Bosom and it self never End and that within so few years It is therefore Princely Wisdom and Nobleness to search and to command that Acts 17. 11. search be made into the Scriptures of the New and Old Testament whether These Things be so or no Not that Divine Oracles can be over-rul'd by a Counsel of Angels or Men but that by the Divinity of Holy Records the certainty of the Prov. 22. 21. Words of Truth may be Receiv'd For the more They are examin'd the more evident their Truth will be And least the Things being indeed so so Grand a Protestant Assembly should under-value Them and Know with Disadvantage hereafter so Great a Prophesie hath been among Them Ezek. 2. 5. and They Rejected it And why should it be thought incredible that the God of Heaven the Revealer of Secrets should so near the Time make Known as He hath always done by whom He pleases the Great Things that are to come to pass so shortly God hath honour'd this Nation with a most stupendious mirror of Providence concerning the Expiration of the Papacy so nigh at Hand why may He not be pleas'd to Honour it also with such a Glass of Prophesie that by the Understanding of the Times our Israel may know what it 1. Chron. 12. 32. ought to do and All the People be most devotely at their Command both as to Affairs Ecclesiastical Civil Military for the steerage of All which the Consideration of the Kingdom of Christ so near would be as the Pole-star For that an Account of All may be Render'd with Comfort to that Universal Kingdom so nigh Approaching what Purity in our Religion Holiness Justice Mercy Amendment of Life Reformation of Manners Contempt of the World Magnanimity Moderation of Church-Power Brotherly Love is necessary even in preparation to so Glorious a Revolution Now the Eternal Wisdom and Counsellor give his Urim and Thummim to the Evangelical Ministry of the Nation a Divine Sentence into the Kings Lips that His Mouth in this Matter may not Transgress in Judgment a Spirit of Judgment to them who sit in Counsel and an Ear to his Churches to Hear what the Spirit sayeth to them that so a People in these Nations may be made ready prepared for the Lord and a High way for our God So prayeth GREAT SOVERAIGNS And Supreme Councel Your Most prostrately Devoted in the Records of Jesus Christ T. Beverley TO THE King and Queens Most Excellent Majesty And to the High Court of Parliament And to All who Love and wait for the Appearance of Jesus Christ The most Humble Petition of your Faithful Minister in the Prophesies of Scripture THAT seeing the Apostle hath promulg'd that Divine 1 Chron. 9. 14. Canon That they who Preach the Evangile or good Tydings should live of the Evangelick reward that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 10. 7. is given to Him that is the Messenger of it And seeing most particularly the declaring the Finishing of the Mystery of God in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is styl'd God's Evangelizing by the Prophets And Lastly seeing it hath pleas'd the Infinite Grace of God to constitute me his most unworthy Servant such an Eu-Angelist to this Nation as to declare the
and Brethren Your most unworthy Fellow Servant in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ T B … THE General Preface With a Table of Contents THE Preface I intend shall be to present a Key of the following Discourse in the plainest manner I can The great Intencion of it is to Assert so Happy a Revolution of the World as the Kingdom of Christ in its Succession within so few Years as lye betwixt the present 1689 and the next ensuing 1697. This Kingdom however the Prophane and wicked World may take it and be Angry at it must needs be the Joy and desire of all good Men and Women The change will be so Great and Happy that the Heathen Empire becoming Christian under Constantine was so dark a shade of it that notwithstanding it the Churches flight Rev. 12. 6. into the Wilderness for 1260 days Is immediately upon it given out At this 97. It shall return from the Wilderness and not before How much more Glorious shall that Time then be The Pope and Turk shall go off the Stage of Power and which is much greater to us The Reformation or Protestant State shall be purg'd from all the Remains of Antichristianism in Doctrine Worship Jurisdiction and Manners which God knows are very great For Rev. 3. 2. Christ hath not Found our works perfect or Fill'd up before God. It is a dangerous thing to say if God hath said it How shall this thing be How did he raise the World in Six days when as yet there was none of it How did he bring in a Christian Empire after the Cruelties of those Salvage Emperors Dioclesian and the other Tyrants of that Time just before Raging in the Last and greatest Christian Persecution by the Pagan Empire The great Question is then whether he hath said it or not To shew he hath said it These Two Visions of Daniel are expounded by themselves together with the Light of the New Testament as a Calendar and here offer'd To make out this It is first Intimated which in its proper place pag. 1. is more fully prov'd that Daniel's great Visions throughout his Prophecy and so these two are on purpose to shew how long it would be e're Ezekiels vision of the Glorious City and Temple would come out of Vision into the Everlasting Throne and the Sanctuary cleans'd as Real Event To shew it would be a long Time God gives in these two Visions a Substantial Calendar of Four great Monarchies running out themselves e're the Everlasting Throne would be Erected At the end of them It would As in another Vision He gives 2300 Evenings and Mornings till the Sanctuary cleans'd as a numeral Calendar of the whole Time. The best Key that can be given to this is to give the Contents of the Discourse Referring to the pages wherein each part is discours'd in the way of Argument That these two Visions give so Substantial a Calendar of more value then Seth's pillars if Extant and then a Numeral Calendar ending 1697. The first Vision is in the Exquisite frame and admirable contrivance of it and the most Illustrious Remarks Providence so designedly gave it in Daniel's Exposition of it made out to be such a Calendar pag. 2. and to end in a Kingdom of Christ neither the Heavenly nor the Spiritual Evangelical Kingdom onely nor that of the Christian to pag. 13. Empire or Christian Princes and States since Constantine But One to Come The second Vision is then shown to be doubled to Fix the Certainty p. 14. 15. 16 as also that It is more particular as given to Daniel a Domestick of the Divine Kingdom above what was allowed to Nebuchadnezzar an Alieu The Grand Argument of such a Calendar propos'd and all along pursued is That Things have been successively and are to this day in Motion according to this Calendar And by express Scripture as pag. 16. 17. to the Babylonian the Persian the Graecian Monarchies All acknowledg'dly pass'd and gone off It is therefore in the next place shown the Calendar could not expire in the Graecian Monarchy as it stood divided after Alexander the Great And that therefore it must subsist in the Roman Monarchy and how Agreeably with Prophecy and History of the New Testament even to the Evidence of an Article of Faith It doth there subsist is argued And that this Monarchies having no Name in the Old or New Testament as the other Monarchies p. 18. to p. 25. have nor any particular shape in Daniel as the other Kingdoms have in the three Beasts does not weaken but strengthen the Calendar is also Argued That the Calendar therefore might continue in the Roman Monarchy That Monarchy remain'd unbroken at the Resurrection p. 26. and Ascension of Christ and from thence it is to be divided into three Periods 1. The Period of the Pagan Empire before Constantine's most p 26. 27. Livelily Symbold in the Revel c. 12. 1. c. 2. The Period of the Christian Empire from Constantine p. 28. till the Abdication of Augustulus The Symbol of it in the Revelation and the wonderful care Prophecy takes about it Shown at to p. 38. large Because it was not Bestian but a shade of the Kidgdom of Christ That yet the Calendar should not be thought destroyed is displayed from the Apostle Paul. 2. Thess 2. and from several Apocalyptical Concerts concerning it The Calendar as brought down to the Christian Empire and plac'd there as on a Grand pillar of Time is Reviewed as in that p. 39. Christian Empire Beginning and Ceasing 3. The third Period is of the Roman Papacy wherein is prov'd that whatever succeeded the Christian Roman Empire and hath continued all along to this day must be the Bestian State of the Roman Empire and it could be no other but the Papacy with the p. 40. Ten Kings and Kingdoms into which that Empire was after the Christian Empire Divided Because the State of the Roman Empire under the Papacy and the Ten Kings would be so long that the Calendar could not be enough supported by the Real substantial Notes of distinction nor known how long Here therefore the Numeral Calendar of Time p. 41. 42. Times and Half a Time is given which had been in vain given if not to be understood The explication is therefore undertaken in that Assurance and Ballanced with Forty Two Months Prophetically divided and multiplyed The Epoch or Beginning of these Times and Half Time is argued to be at the Abdication of Augustulus where by the way p. 43. to 45. the true Notion of Abdication is â—lear'd and urg'd and the Ten Kings thereupon Receiving Power with the Beast at one Hour which Receiving at One Hour is explain'd and argued The real Calendar in the Times and Half Time is argued by such undeniable and unparalellable Agreements betwixt the Prophecy of Daniel and the Revelation and the State of the Roman Empire p.
Universal Extent For whose sake such a Calendar of Monarchies was given To fore-tell which the Jews and Gentiles stood as one Body under the Shade of the great Tree Nebuchadnezzar And that this Dream of the Image might be the more Notable and Remarkable There was a Concurrence of all things that might make it so First in regard of the Vniversal Monarchy of the Prince that had the Dream whereby every Circumstance of the whole matter had an easie and almost a necessary passage through the most known parts of the World. It being given to the Prince himself it must needs be the more Notorious and the more Certain and to a prince not worshipping the True God It must be the more undeniable and free from the Suspition of a pious Fraud The manner of giving the Dream was by the ordination of Providence such as to cause the greatest Agony and Perplexity to his Thoughts For his Imagination was deeply Imprinted that a very Stupendious Dream had found a place in it And what yet it was was gone from Him which contributed exceedingly to the Notoriety of the Thing For first all the Magicians Astrologers and Wise men of Babylon were summon'd upon the Occasion When they came there was nothing offer'd them but a rude Apprehension of such a Dream whereas if the Dream it self had been told them They might have fastend some satisfactory however false Interpretation to it and so the thing have dyed When they could offer no Resolution in so difficult a Case there was to make the matter more Notable a decree to put them to death After all the King's perplexity and even Fury God gave him such a Resolution by Daniel as sav'd so many Lives which fix'd the thing yet deeper in all Mens Thoughts and gave Assurance that the King was fully satisfi'd within Himself That the Dream reveal'd to him by Daniel was the same that had Graven it self so deeply on his mind in his sleep And it was therefore ordered to be a Dream because according to the opinion of those Nations and also in the thing it self a Dream so exactly Fram'd under so great sense was least under the power of the understanding and therefore Divine and Immediately from God. Now that all these great Preparations and solemn Circumstances should be thus ordered and disposed by God without some High designation of God for the Glory of his own Kingdom and some very Admirable Prophecy and Course of Time lay'd out to it I appeal to any person that shall duely weigh and consider it whether it be so much as probable On the other side whether if there shall be other very weighty Reasons that such a Course of Time to the divine Kingdom is design'd This great Ceremony so immediately order'd by providence does not exceedingly concert with it and add to the Reasons otherwise drawn Seeing else All this Dvine state was to adorn a Heathen Prince's Dream concerning Heathen Potentacies and no change upon the Heathen world for the better nor any Accruement to the divine Kingdom hereby but onely those Temporary short Acknowledgments that dyed upon the Breath and Lips of that Pagan Prince that made them while neither Himself nor his Kingdom were Converted to the True God. Argu. 2 Although there was no End of Glory to the Divine Kingdom worthy the Magnificence of the Manifestation to the Babylonish Prince in this Dream short of the Divine Kingdom it self Yet taking the Divine Kingdom at the End there is a very great and Glorious Correspondence betwixt this Manifestation and the Divine Kingdom For at the Time when the Kingdom of God seem'd to be lost and swallowed up and to be even as it were none at all through the deep Captivity of the onely True people of God then in the World under this Babylonian King Yet to shew the surmount of the Divine Kingdom in its vertue and efficacies there is by the true and Supreme Monarch of the World a Dream so Rivetted into all the Imaginative faculties of this so great visible Monarch his Substitute and Servant that could not be by all the Pleasures and business of a Court forc'd from thence and which yet could not be so much as call'd into Knowledg what it was nor Expounded but by a particular Minister of the Divine Kingdom the Prophet Daniel All the Fatigues of the Astrologers Magicians and Wise-men the Seers of that great Prince being to no purpose in their Divination And this Dream retreived out of the dark of a Troubled but unknowing Imagination where it was written as in Marble in so indelible and yet secret Characters prov'd to be and was Acknowledg'd in the Inlightned understanding and not Incertain Imagination of this Prince to be a Prophecy of the uneasie Rest of his own Monarchic Power that was continually Over Turn'd Over Turn'd Over Turn'd * Babylonian Persian Grecian till He whose Right it is should come and take it out of the last Rest of it * Roman Even the Son of God Himself All which so wrought upon this otherwise Haughty Potentate that He made this Confession to Daniel Your God is the God of Gods and Lord of Kings and a Revealer of Secrets And as a further Acknowledgment He exalts Daniel as in a Representation of Gods Supremacy over the World to be over the Province of Babylon and Chief of all the Governouors and over all the Wise men of the whole Dominion A great Prophecy of the Subjection of Babylon it self to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and here the Horn of Israel that seem'd Dead was made to Bud according to Ezekiels prophecy of this very Time as before argued c. 29. 17. And further that Miracle from Heaven so Enclosing his Servants in the Furnace with the Guards of Providence that the Flame was a Wall of Fire to defend onely and not to kindle upon them while it Burnt up their Enemies vindicated Gods Supreme Royalty over Nature and caus'd that Exorbitant power that durst erect such an Image for his own Glory and command the worship of it under a penalty so dreadful to proclaim the reverence of the True God under a more dreadful penalty And lastly God suspended this Monarch from his Throne and Levell'd him with the Beasts by depriving him of his Reason till he came to such a humble Publication of the Name of God as was the nearest to True Religion that could be not to be determin'd to be True Religion And it is most observable that as the Son of God appeared to this very first of the Four Monarchs as it were in person who was the Supreme Monarch truly so call'd that his Right to the Kingdom designed Him might be the more understood and Testified So Daniel a Jew had his Skirt taken hold off thus leading to the True God and his Kingdom and He himself with the other his Three Companions in the Patience and Kingdom of Jesus Christ had a promotion in that Babylonish Monarchy
Words taking in the whole World. Argum. 6 If the very Frame of the Vision be such as is most proper for the giving such a Calendar until that Great Kingdom of Christ then we have Reason to look upon it as such a Calendar Let us then consider in the Image these several Things 1. The whole Image made up of all its Parts 2. The Distribution of the Parts as the several Residencies of the Monarchies 3. The Monarchicness it self 4. The Monarchicness first United in its Residency to such and such Parts and then its remove to other Parts Now in every one of these Particulars by the Wisdom of the Divine Spirit some assurance of Time in general is Given as It runs to the Kingdom of Christ but most particularly the Calendar is fix'd in the Duration of the Monarchic Residence in each part then in the Remove of the Monarchicness from one part to another as shall be seen by this following Reflection on each The whole Image is made up of Four Monarchies which in Allusion to the Humane Body make the upper and lower parts of such a Body the higher Parts the Precedent and first Ages of Time at and after the Vision given and so furthest from the End or Kingdom of Christ the lower parts the after Ages nearer and nearer to the End or Kingdom of Christ The whole Image therefore hath a fitness to describe Time by its Higher and Lower parts and further It self standing and having its several parts subsistent or in Being is thus far a Calendar that we know thereby The Time of the Image is yet and that therefore the Kingdom of Christ is not yet Come even as we know by the Kingdom of Christ not yet Appearing The Image is yet standing Thus we see the whole Image and the distribution of its Parts is prepared as the Dial-plate of a Clock or Watch or as the Months in the year giving together the Circle of the Suns motion But then the Monarchicness is as the Sun moving from Sign to Sign or from Month to Month or as the Hand on the Dial-plate from Hour to Hour so moves that Monarchicness from the higher to the lower parts and thereby defines Time For the Higher the parts in which the Monarchy resides the further off from the Kingdom of Christ the lower it subsides the nearer to the Kingdom of Christ If then we can find the Monarchicness in any parts of this Image yet Resiant or Resting we know in general the Kingdom of Christ hath not yet appeared but if we find it in not only the Legs but in the Feet and Toes we know as the Apostle says It is the last Hour but it is not yet out Let us then consider these Four Kingdomes or Monarchies as closely united as they make this Calendar of Time as the Humane Body is however the parts as several Kingdomes contest one with another where the Monarchicness shall Reside while then the Feet support the whole the whole stands and as the Head of Gold the Arms and Breast of Silver and Thighs of Brass give Lustre to the Iron Legs and Feet part of Iron and part of Clay So the Feet of part Iron part Clay at the same Time support the more excellent Mettals and show their danger of being Beaten together when ever those partly Brittle Feet fail and the Image falls thereupon Till then they Remain as in the Type united as Bodily parts however the Monarchicness as a Spirit Flitts and shifts in its efficacy of Power and Action from one to another viz. from the Higher to Lower on which account in the following Vision it is said the last or fourth Beast in the Little Horn and his Body is given to the devouring Flames But the other Beasts had onely their Dominion taken from them but their Lives were Prolonged That then which principally gives us the Time of the Calendar is the Motion of the Monarchic Spirit from part to part Now that Monarchic Spirit which is specific to all these Monarchies is Idolatrous Salvage Cruel oppos'd to the Kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ So long then as such a Spirit Animates and Informs any part of this Image so long the Calendar is in date And if we can find where this Spirit is now in its Monarchic Energetic force we may know whereabout we are in this Calendar For seeing it is most undeniable the Head of Gold was the First Kingdom and the Kingdom arising after and Inferior in Time was the Second Kingdom That which next followed after was a Third Kingdom that was of Brass and then a Fourth of Iron first as in the Legs and then part of Iron part of Clay as in the Feet and Toes of the last state and that each of these are called Kingdomes and not single Kings and one after another and that God hereby made known to Nebuchadnezzar what should be hereafter Seeing All these things are undeniably thus It is also undeniable these Monarchies are a Calendar of Time And lastly seeing the Kingdom that stands for Ever and Ever so particularly smites the Image in the Feet and Toes of Iron and Clay and that the Iron and the Clay and the Brass and the Silver and the Gold were Broken in pieces together and that in the days of the Kings Symboll'd by the Toes the God of Heaven would Set up a Kingdom and lastly that the Stone cut out of the Mountain without Hands shall Break in Pieces the Iron the Brass and the Clay which is set in the middle as in the point where all were Broken and the Silver and the Gold It is most evident This Image of Gold Silver Brass Iron and Clay is a Calendar of Time till the Everlasting Throne which must be the same with the Throne in Ezekiel and that the Toes particularly as of Clay are the very Last part or End of the Calendar before that Throne or Kingdom Argum. 7 The Consideration of the following Vision of Châ—p 7. the Four Beasts given by God to Daniel is a further Assurance of the Calendar to the Kingdom of Christ drawn in these two Visions For therein God hath doubled the thing for the certainty of it as in Pharohs Dream of old Interpreted by Joseph and there is no Reason to doubt both Visions Center in the same design to lead by the same Four Kingdomes to the Kingdom of Christ and at the same Time viz. at the End of the Four Monarchies There is no Reason I say to doubt although the Materials or Symbols of the Visions differ so much as one to be taken from the several parts of the Body of a Man the other from Salvage Beasts For so the similitudes in Pharohs dream much differ'd one taken from seaven Ears of Corn the other from seaven Kine But as then so now The great Intention was to Ascertain the Event by Ingemination For the Four Kingdomes in both Visions so evidently plain and the Everlasting Kingdom at the
Figure as this Prophecy hath given it can be the Monarchy we are in pursuit of although such Monarchy may continue till the Kingdom of Christ shall succeed But now how exactly does the Roman Monarchy Answet in the point of Succession For first the very Prophecy of Daniel tells us that the Kingdom of Alexander should be divided to the four Winds and then that it should be pull'd up for others besides Those It was divided for the Four and yet remain'd the same Dan. 8. 8. Dan. 11. 4. But it was to be pull d up for others so as to cease to be a Monarchy Now those others besides must be they whoever they were who devour'd and stamp'd on the Residue with Legs of Iron Dan. 2. 40. as in the Image with Feet of Iron as by the fourth Beast in the vision of the Beasts and they must be Romans Dan. 7. 19. For it is very well known that the Grecian Partite Monarchy came near to the days of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Flesh and yet not so near as to make any fair Interpretation of so much as the God of Heaven setting up the Spiritual Kingdom of the Gospel in the days of those Kings pourtrayed in the Image if that divided Grecian Kingdom had been the Fourth and Last and yet again so near that it is most known in all History that no other Monarchy could come between that Grecian Monarchy and the Birth of Christ but the Roman Monarchy onely so that if the Kingdom of the Stone out of the Mountain had been onely a Spiritual Kingdom Yet still the Roman Monarchy must be the fourth This seems order'd as on purpose to divert Interpreters from the divided Grecian Kingdom as the fourth Monarchy and necessarily to shape them on the Romans And it is most evident not onely in all History that the Roman Monarchy was then come to its Zenith in the Reign of Augustus but especially in the sacred Histories of the Gospel for there came out a Decree from Caesar Augustus at that very Time * Luk. â— that our Lord was Born. And that it particularly cover'd the Jewish Nation the onely People of God at that Time to which Prophecy had so singular an Eye And the decree from Augustus was to Tax or describe the whole Oecumen or Habitable World as by the poll Was not this a Fourth Vniversal Monarchy from the Babylonian the Persian the Grecian and was it not Roman c But further to make it more known at the death and Crucifixion of our Lord The Sentence was given by Pilate the Roman Substitute or Governour and the Jews declared on the occasion They had no power to put any one to death So that the Roman Vniversal Monarchy at that Time is become an Article of Faith Crucified under Pontius Pilate declares the Roman fourth Monarchy And now that the Evangelical Kingdom by the Birth Ministry Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ was set up by the God of Heaven that we might not think This Spiritual Kingdom was the Fulfilling of Prophecy There was no Breaking of this fourth Kingdom by it nor of any other Kingdom as is Foretold in these Visions But Christ altho' he own'd himself King of the Jews yet Joh. 18. 36. declar'd his Kingdom not of this World nor from hence That is not from below but to come down in the Jerusalem from above He did not therefore disannul Caesar's Kingdom nay He Establish'd it by that Command Render unto Caesar c. as it were in care that Prophecy might be Fulfill'd concerning that fourth Monarchy Agreeably after the Ascension of Christ Paul as directed by Acts 25. 1â— God made that Famous Appeal to Caesar and all the Apostles taught subjection to the Roman Powers This shews a spiritual Kingdom was not the design of Prophecy but an Imperial For when Constantine as an Vniversal Emperour declared for Christ It was then said with high Doxologies the Kingdom of our God Rev. 12. 10 is come as an Emblem of that Kingdom yet to come Thus far I have then undeniably as I must be Bold to say Reason'd That seeing the Kingdom of Christ is not yet come some of these four Monarchies must be in Being For they are a Calendar to it that it can be onely the fourth Monarchy that is thus in Being For the Babylonion the Persian the Grecian which were the three first even by name in Daniels prophecy are past and gone off as in the successive Dominion of Each The Roman then succeeding the Grecian and being so Great a Monarchy after it as hath appeared must be the Fourth And even because it is the Fourth it must be in Being because the Kingdom of Christ is not yet come And it must therefore continue in Being till that Kingdom comes On the other side we may assuredly Argue that as the Roman Monarchy was in Being as an Vniversal Monarchy since the days of Christ so by the general knowledge we have of the World It continues in Being in the Roman Papacy and the Kings yet devoted to it It is therefore certain the Kingdom of Christ is not yet come as it is to come according to this Prophecy And thus much then we are sure of before hand that we cannot stir off from this very Roman Monarchy till we come to the Kingdom of Christ For if it were ever a fourth Monarchy there is no Monarchy after nor beside it according to this sure word of Prophecy that can be a Remaining Calendar to us to that Kingdom Because whatever Monarchy was the fourth Monarchy must continue to the Kingdom of Christ we must therefore run upon it as upon an Ecliptick Line given us from which there must be no variation And if we can hold the Footing we have hitherto found in the History of the New Testament by the Prophecy succeding it and to which the History leads us and in Agreement with Vniversal History we shall certainly come down with the Calendar we are upon to our own Times and know how near we are to the End of it and so to the succession of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Posit 3 I come therefore to the third Position There is such an Idea of the Roman Monarchy in the Prophecy of the New Testament as will most exactly Correspond the Prophecy of Daniel in concert with most Agreed and Indisputed History and shew us whereabouts we are in this Calendar and how near to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. But before I come to compare this Idea with the Prophecy and most known Roman History and thereby to Educe the Calendar as it goes on I must observe by way of premisal these Three Things 1. That the Prophecy of Daniel does not name the fourth Monarchy nor tell us what Monarchy or what National Cognomination it hath as it hath in some part of Daniels Prophecy as hath already appear'd told us that the Head of Gold or first Kingdom was
yet but One and especially in the Two states of the one Roman Fourth Monarchy The Prophecy of the New Testament is much the more careful and Abundant and seems as it were to make Amends for this Appearing violation that whereas all the Four Monarchies are as one Bestian Monarchy or Image and the Fourth Monarchy but one Beast There comes in as Ex improviso as unforeseen a Christian Monarchy in the midst of that Last Fourth Monarchy and spoils the whole Frame and disturbs especially the Calendar as it may seem but it will be found much otherwise 1. For there is as I may Reverently call it a Prophetical scene in the New Testament Prophecy on purpose to Represent a Christian Empire casting out the Pagan in the Woman the Church bringing forth after most painful Throws Sufferings and Martyrdoms a Manly Child caught up to the Throne of God and the Dragon Cast down and and a solemn Doxology upon it Now is the Kingdom of our God come This was a great Emblem of the Kingdom of Christ as it is an Imperial Kingdom and not a Spiritual onely And this is so plain that no Interpreter doubts it of the Christian Roman Empire nor of the Admirableness of the Emblem Representing it 2. There is a distinct account of the Roman Monarchy in its Seven Heads which were crowned Heads or Formes of Soveraign Government and all Bestian or Idolatrous full of the names of Blasphemy And they must needs be of Rome that was carried alought by them because Rome without dispute was the City that then Reign'd over the Kings of the Earth as It is said Revel 17. ult Among these There is one King that is plainly styl'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a King of another sort No Head For there were but Seven and the Eighth is expresly to be One of the Seven viz. Heads So the Seventh King could be no Head for Five had been Heads and Fallen and One then was and the Eighth was of the Seven therefore the Seventh could be no Head. The Room therefore of this King in the Calendar is Embolimean and perfectly Intercalar And it is so plac'd that it must be as I may so speak in the Seventh Stall of those Kings immediately after the Pagan as All History knows the Christian Empire was and just before the Eighth King or Papacy as History also knows the Christian was in such a sense as Prophecy will guide us unto But that it might be known to make no great Infraction in the Bestian Calendar It is said Emphatically He must or He 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought in regard of his unnaturalness to the Bestian Monarchy according to Prophecy to continue but a short Space that is but about a hundred and fifty Years Can now any care be greater with Relation to the Christian Empire that we may know it was That it was by way of Interposal as in the midst of the Roman Bestian Monarchy and the very Time when and where it came so between and the general Scantling of Time it lasted 3. The Apostle Paul according to the wisdom given to Him discoursing of these Things shews that the Kingdom of Christ 2 Thess 2. 1. c. that was to have its Times it s own proper Times could not attain its proper Times even according to his own Oath till an Apostasie according to Daniel's Prophecy had brought forth 1 Tim. 6. 15. the Man of sin and He had had his own Times and therefore the Apostle is most vehement upon Christians not to expect that day of Christ s Kingdom till then For he knew the Oath Dan. 12. of Christ was absolutely against it There shall be Time Times Half Time first Therefore saith the Apostle though Christ be come into the Flesh though the Roman last Monarchy be now in its Course which may quicken your Expectations yet expect not that day of Christ till after the Times of the Man of Sin. And that you may not expect those Times too soon Know that God hath Interpos'd a Curb an Hold fast that shall keep back the Man of sin till his own just Times For the mystery of Iniquity is now at work and would bring him forth before his Time but there is a Christian Empire that will Hold fast its Time and be before Him and will cast him on his just point of Time that his Time Times and Half a Time assign'd him by that Oath of Christ may so end that the Kingdom of Christ may succeed in its proper Time immediately after the Times of the Man of sin which had not God thus Interpos'd a Christian Empire and the Pagan Empire had continued no longer it would not have done according to the great Times design'd by God Set in and by his own Power for Christ's Kingdom Thus by the Apostles discourse the Calendar is not weakned but strengthn'd and the Christians of the Apostles Times and of all Times since he writ may be led through the stages of Time since the Resurrection of Christ to the Kingdom of Christ As if the Apostle should say Watch the Pagan Empire when it ends For after that there shall be a preternatural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Successor of another kind a Christian Emperour who keeps back the Succession of the Man of Sin that ought to succeed immediately after the Pagan Empire according to the Course of nature But yet it will not disorder but keep Tight the whole Calendar the Man of Sin shall after that Christian Empire be Revealed just in his own Time and whenever the Times of the Man of Sin shall end expect the day comming and appearance of Christ for Christ shall consume him with the Approach of his comming and Abolish Him with the Brightness of his own Appearance From the Resurrection of Christ then the Pagan Empire lasts to the Christian Empire the Christian Empire till the days of the Man of Sin or Antichrist The Times of Antichrist till the Times of Christ and of his Kingdom an exact and an easie Calendar Solid and Substantial And seeing we all know the Pagan Empire is past That Christian Empire we speak of viz. of Constantine and of his successors till done out of the way had its Course and ceas'd if we can but know then how long the Times of the Man of Sin last we must needs know how long it is to the Kingdom of Christ. But it is most plain this Holder back is a very Elegant Insinuation of a Christian Emperor that stay'd the Succession of the Man of Sin after the Pagan Empire till his own just Times and no longer though the Con-naturalness of Paganism and Antichristianism was so Great and the Mistery of Iniquity then at work to attemper one to the other that he might very well have come just after Paganism and Paganism have merg'd into it but God had decreed a Christian Empire between a Specimen of the Kingdom of Christ even as
in Nebuchadnezzars first Babylonian Kingdom there were those sudden Appearances of the Divine Kingdom in his Acknowledgments of God which Antichrist supplanting it made him the more exceedingly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antichrist 4. As a further Care of Prophecy concerning the Calendar of Time and the Interposal of the Christian Empire it gives us this plain Account of the State of the Roman Bestian Empire during that Christian Empire viz. That by Reason of the Christian Empire that was not Bestian nor any of those Heads The Roman Beast lay wounded and it is said the Wound was a Wound unto Death and a Wound with a Sword and a Wound in one of the Heads and that we may take further notice of the Wound It is said His deadly Wound was healed and he did Live. Rev. c. 13. Now this Wound hath been much mistaken by some Interpreters as if it were the Wound given by the Barbarous Nations invading the Empire of which in the next particular we shall find another Account But it is very plain because the Wound was in one of the Heads and that the Christian Empire upon which the Barbarians fell most peculiarly was none of the Heads It must needs be that the Wound intended was on the Pagan Imperial Head whom Constantine the Great and Theodosius the Great besides other the Christian Emperors so remarkably Wounded even unto Death that It never recovered in a purely Pagan but only in the Pagan Anti-christian Head. To which because of the Congenialness of the one to the other the Dragon is said in prophetic Language to deliver his Throne Power and Authority by way of Succession and to live and to be worship'd in Him. So that though we are not plainly told it was the Draconic Head which we found to be the Pagan Empire was wounded yet in that it is said The Dragon was cast out of Heaven that the Dragon gave his Power Throne and Great Authority to the Beast and was worship'd in Him the World wondring after the Beast There is nothing more plain then that it was the Pagan Dragon that was wounded by the Christian Empire coming next after it and healed in the Beast coming in as a Head. This then was the Wound that the sixth Head as Pagan Idolatrous and bloody could not maintain its Supremacy and Imperialism till the Antichristian Head succeeds it but an Empire a Christian Empire prophetic of the Kingdom of Christ rooting out Pagan Idolatry and advancing Christianity so newly persecuted to death by Paganism came between by which though the Empire continued yet the Bestianism of the Empire was ready to dye and had dyed but that there was a decree to permit it to be Heal'd and Reviv'd within a short space in the Antichristian Beast which could therefore be no other then whatever succeeded the Christian Empire in Roman Beastian Supremacy though as we shall find only in an Image of Supremacy and therefore must be the Papacy else the Wound were not Healed to this day which were most contrary to Prophecy as destroying the frame of the Bestian Monarchies in Daniel and the whole Image of Things in the Apocalyps of John. Now this Note of the Beast wounded is so great an assurance of the Care of Prophecy over the Calendar given in Daniel though this Wound was not revealed in his Prophecy as improper to it and not to its Time as can be given and makes us more certain of the Truth of it then if that occasion of its Care had not been as the Truth of a Prediction is more seen by taking notice of a preternatural Accident and foretelling it then if such an Accident had not been we are therefore to consider the Prophecy of Daniel and John as all one Prophecy of the Divine Spirit in both and as but of one and the same Author writing several Prophesies in several Times and filling up the former by the latter And thus all History agrees That the Christian Emperors came after the Pagan Emperors and disabled their Idolatrous and persecuting Power And that after the Christian Emperors came the divided State of the Roman Empire in several Kingdoms and Kings united in the Papacy and hath continued to this very Day which must therefore be the Beast with his Ten Horns though all be convey'd as it ought to be according to this Prophecy in a Mystery and in an Image or else the Revelation cannot be a True Prophecy 5. There is another principal Note that the Sacred Prophecy of the New Testament gives on purpose to shew that the Bestian-Antichristian-Roman Supremacy in the seventh Head call'd the Beast and his Ten Horns did not immediately succeed to that Pagan Beastian Monarchy but that there was the coming between of a Christian Empire and that the Bestian Kingdom that followed that Christian Empire was the Papal Kingdom the knowledge and regard to which is of so great moment to this prophetic Calendar that Prophecy hath taken so great Care in it and It is thus to be understood The Four Monarchies succeding one another as in the Image of a Humane Body the Succession must be as by way of kind Communication as is between the several parts of the same body And this was to shew one Idolatrous Spirit a Spirit contrary to the Kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ inform'd and intelligenc'd the whole from Head to Foot. But though these Monarchies were so united in one Spirit and therefore as in one Body yet to shew the contrariety of each succeding to each former Kingdom they are in another Vision represented as Four Salvage Beasts each latter ravaging on that in power before it Thus the Persian as by a Belluine Might vanquished the Babylonian the Graecian the Persian the Roman the Graecian as Daniels Visions c. 7. c. 8. and all History make notorious And thus it was determin'd by God that the Ten Kings that came in as Feet of Iron in Succession to the Legs of Iron and the Horns in Succession to the Iron Teeth should come in as by way of Leaving or Legacying or kind Communication as from part to part And so indeed the Pagan idolatrous Empire did as it were naturally and spontaneously resign and dye into the Antichristian rising out of it thus it is represented after a prophetical emblematical manner by the Revelation The Dragon gave its Throne Power and Great Authority to the Beast that is the Pagan Emperor to the Papal Antichrist what ever distance of Time there was between them and so they worshipped the Dragon in the Beast as aforesaid Thus it was as between the Congenial one Pagan and Papal Beast and the Legs and Feet of the Image But then as the Vision of the Beasts imports each Kingdom succeding the former as by violence so these Horns or Ten Kings came by violence into the Empire for so it pleased the wise and Holy Governour of the World it should be The Nations foreign to the Roman Empire
of the Pagan Empire and the Times of the Antichristian Bestian Empire that They could not meet but then according to Daniels Prophecy expounded by the Revelation They clos'd for then the Dragon or Pagan Empire gave its Throne and Great Authority to Antichrist or the Bestian Empire and the Antichristian Times began And thus the man of Sin was held back as the Apostle said that He might be revealed in his own Time and the middle Time being of an arbitrary interposal but Divine is an Inter-reign of no Account in the Bestian Empire but all comes naturally together that the Dragon as was said Gave his Throne c. as if there had been no Interruption And how decorous now to the Type is All the State of Things as to the Heathen Empire remov'd 1. It was absolutely necessary to the Succession of the Papacy the Heathen Empire should be removed It was then most decorous it should be done by a Christian Empire the Emblem of the Kingdom of Christ and not that the Feet and Toes of Iron of the Roman Bestian Empire should ravage on the Legs of Iron nor the Horns of the seventh Head on the sixth Head which according to prophetic Representation kindly yielded the Succession to it as was said 2. The Christian Empire gave Great Advantage to the Feet of Clay or the Antichristian Hierarchy to negotiate their own power by the Favour of Christian Emperors and their Donations of Titles and Revenues to Christian Bishops and to a Christian Clergy as they affected to be call'd And Shoales of People then coming in to the Princes Religion there was a condescending to the Pagan Divi consecrated Temples Holy-days Priests Pontiffs Rites to the Dead Images So that Resemblances were found for them of a Christian Name until Things came to that pass that the Servants of God were seal'd that is the true Christian Glory was stay'd seal'd up and reserv'd to the future Time of the New Jerusalem and secur'd for that against Antichristian Contagion The Gentiles in Pagan Rites enter'd into the outward Court or Profession of the Christian Name and the True Worshippers retir'd into the Temple The Witnesses put on their Sackcloth out of whith they are not yet and the True Christian Church fled into the Wilderness in which it is still Hid though not so close since the Reformation but yet waits the perfection of the Reformation All which are Expressions of the Antichristian Succession together with the Ten Kings and for which the Trumpets were stay'd from sounding till he who judg'd Righteously of the True Epoch of the Apostasie gave them leave to sound In the second place as to the removing of the Christian Empire how admirably fitted are the Types also For seeing the Bestian Supremacy in the seventh Papal Head and the Ten Kings could not be till all Light of the Sun Moon and Stars of the Christian Empire were darkned and the Empire it self quench'd as a Lamp in Water and Rome so often taken and re-taken that it had no Title of Supremacy over it but that of Bishop and the whole Glory of the Empire blasted as by Hail mingled with Fire who so fit to do this as Barbarian Nations whom Prophecy brands as the Instruments of Sathan the Dragon persecuting the Woman the Church that brought forth the manly Child and who were to be the Horns of the Antichristian Beast by whose Mediation the Dragon gave his power to Him But this Empire however it carried the Name of Christian and bore the Emblem of the Kingdom of Christ still as Jerusalem even after the Crucifying of Christ was call'd the Holy City yet it was so deeply by this Time Antichristianiz'd that the Judgment of God administer'd by these barbarous Nations did indeed pursue it For he abhor'd the Idolatrous Prostitutions and Relapses to Paganism under the disguise of Antichristianism from which he had so wonderfully rescued it As therefore of old He gave up Jerusalem to be either Captivated or destroyed by litteral Babylon on whose Idolatries it doted even so He now delivered up the Christian Church and Empire as so Antichristianiz'd to be either destroyed or enslaved by those Feet of Iron and Clay and that seventh Head and its Ten Horns so that what Sathan did with a Hellish malice God most Righteously and Supremely though most severely executed by Him. And thus we have brought down the Calendar and settled it on that great pillar of Time the Christian Empire Inaugurated in Constantine Illustrated a new in the great Theodose and Vacated in Augustulus from which as we shall find the man of sin in his own Times as the Apostle calls them commencing and of which we have a numeral Calendar given us by Prophecy And the Time where we are to begin we are most certain of by History That it was close to 475 from whence therefore it is to be dated for then Augustulus was compell'd to Abdicate Empire Then therefore Antichristian Times began as I shall now go on to make out and to shew the state of Things from that Time going on till now as we all in great measure must needs know to be very Astonishingly agreeing with Prophecy I have now I say brought down the Calendar in my own Judgment and I offer it to the Judgment of all the Serious supposing it acording to the Spirit of God and therefore undeniable to the fourth Roman Monarchy establish'd upon an Article of Faith at the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ I have led it from thence through the Pagan State of it of which a Dragon watching a Manly birth to devour it is an Emblem so significant of the dreadful Persecutions for above 300 years after Christ as to be even demonstrative and so conducted it to the Christian Empire of which the Dragon cast out of Heaven and a Manly Child caught up to the Throne of God in a Kingdom decreed him as in Heaven though not immediately Appearing on Earth as is manifest by the Churches flying into the Wilderness is an Emblem so Beautiful and Inviting as not to be refus'd And if we do but yield that to be the Emblem of the Roman Monarchy first persecuting Christianity and then it self becomming Christian we are of necessity concluded that either that Christian Empire was all the Kingdom of Christ or that the Roman Monarchy is that Roman Fourth Monarchy still in a direct opposition to the Kingdom of Christ For so the Fourth Monarchy must be the fourth Monarchy till then and if the Roman be the Fourth that must be so Now that that Christian Empire is not the Kingdom of Christ we must needs know because it did not consume all other Kingdoms and because that of Christ shall never end but that of a Christian Empire would continue but a short space About an 150 years was the bounds of it And violently it was made to cease by the Barbarian Force which Prophecy calls the Dragon persecuting that Christian Church that brought
Sambenitoes Disguises clap'd on Saints and the Imagery put upon them by that Bestianism in an Image even as Pagan Persecutors cover'd Christians with the Skins of Beasts and the more cruel Imputations of Beastlike Enormities to them And to sum up all how exact is Prophecy in the manner of the Execution of this Feral Rage The Image speaks and causes to be kill'd All who do not worship which is as it were Word for Word The Spiritual power Delivering up to the Secular This Spiritual Bestianism as it is part of Clay can put no man to death It must be done for it by the Iron of the Feet and yet this Little Horn hath often appear'd in Armour as in Iron and found means to push and gore to death by himself and to make Good the Prophecy He is a Horn yet but a Little one and therefore it is generally done by the other Horns for Him when Iron is required Now in all this Imagery There appears a Recapitulation of the whole Image commanded by the King of Babylon to be worshipped In the wise Providence of God the last state of the Image is enshrin'd as it were in an Image sets up the great Idolatry of Image-worship cas'd up and veil'd under reverence to God and to Christ and to the Holy ones And for the sake of this Imagery the Servants of God are made Sacrifices to Flames and all kinds of death really and effectively though under an Image and by an Image In the same manner there is a Recapitulation of the Beasts in the Little Horn For He is Leopard as it were all over Antiochus that infamous Little Horn of the Graecian Leopard in its four Heads was his exact Type betwixt whom and this Roman Beast Daniel twice notes the succession passing over the Pagan Empire c. 8. 23. c. 11. 36. This Beast had also the broad Feet of a Bear resembling Hamans Letters sign'd by the Persian Ahasuerus throughout his 150 Provinces to put to death the Jews So the Beast by his Ten Kings throughout his Kindred Tongues and Nations causes the Witnesses to dye by the decrees like the Mouth of the Babylonian Lyon Nebuchadnezzar commanding Idolatrous Image worship And thus we see every way what a definitive Character of the last Roman state the Image made to the Beast is Observat 3 Let us observe how Prophecy is Fulfill d in the last state of the Image in that Character or Note of the Feet as part of Iron part of Clay that tho' the Iron and the Clay shall mingle They shall not Cleave This is admirably answer'd in Two Things 1. In the notorious distinction of Ecclesiastick and Secular or Laic the latter of which cannot without great Profanation and even sacriledg be confounded with the Former A thing very strange to Apostolick writings wherein the whole Flock are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Holy Priesthood the Church And the Ministers of the Gospel Elders and Presidents noting onely order and not distinction of any other kind Although therefore the Spirituality as They are call'd often invade the Secular Authority and Power Yet it is in the Guarb and Canonical habit of Spiritual and Ecclesiastic to keep that Character High and Indelible herein the Little Horn was in Daniel's Prophecy Remark'd so diverse from the other Horns Dan. 7. 24. 2. It imports the always separableness and the certain Separation that shall be betwixt the two Powers when these Ten Kings shall hate the Whore and burn her Flesh with Fire So that though the Kings or Feet of Iron as well as of Clap shall be broken as is foretold of Them Yet it is to be understood onely as they are parts of the Image and as together with the Clay they make the Feet of the Image and are as Horns on the Head of a Beast whenever they separate themselves from the Papacy They become Princes of the Reformation and if zealous and sincere therein They are with the Lamb as his Faithful Called and Chosen And of this for near these Hundred and Eighty years last past God hath been pleas'd to give an Exemplar though but very Imperfect in Comparison of what shall be in that Separation Princes and States styled Protestants have made from the Church and Pope of Rome But how dark and obscure is it and how much brighter shall it be when it shall be done universally by all these Ten Kings and their Kingdoms when the Apostasie shall be drawn of and the Kingdom of Christ shall be in its succession The very same ought to be acknowledg'd of the Reformed Episcopacy It is by no means to be confounded with the Feet of Clay whose Idolatrous Apostasie degrades them to so low a Station Yet it were to deal deceitfully in the divine Prophecy not to say That a much higher state of the Churches of Christ shall supersede present Constitutions by the very dawns of the glory of the Kingdom of Christ. Observat 4 It is no Indiscernable Character of this Roman state in its Feet of Iron and Clay that it remains to this day waiting as it were for that stroke from the Stone cut out of the Mountains without Hands For it hath already as hath been noted consum'd more Time then had pass'd before it from that so fam'd Ere of Vrbs condita or the building of Rome But because this is matter yet to come and when it is come will put all out of doubt I shall onely observe that as in these two Visions of Daniel so in the Apostle Paul and in the Revelation Notes of Ruin Comsumption Abolition Son of Perdition going into Perdition Being deliver'd to the consuming Flames the Beast taken with his false Prophet and cast into the Lake are Brands deeply set upon Him and together with his Consumption the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ is declared which is so certain an Assurance that neither the Kingdom of Christ is yet come nor this last state of the Roman Monarchy yet past that a greater cannot be given And when these things are Then shall the whole Image in its Idolatrous Frame and Composure Fall and be Broken and Rise no more For the Roman Monarchy in the Feet is the very Foundation of the whole Image As the Feet are to all parts of the Body So also are these Feet and Toes to the Image And because They are part of Clay thither is the stroke especially directed and there is the Image to be broken Now as the Gold of the Head Communicated its lustre the Silver Brass and Iron Communicated their value and strength to all the parts and as the Greatness of the whole Image gave it Dread and Majesty and an Vniversality of power So the Clay on which the Image stands as part of the Feet and Toes Communicated its Weakness Brittleness and under those as Types its Antichristianism to the whole So that the Clay Symbolizing that Antichristianism is inserted in the middle Dan. 2. 45. betwixt the Iron
the Brass the Silver and the Gold To shew it communicated it self to the whole and by it the force of the blow was distributed through the whole so that All was Broken that made up that Composition of the Image with the Clay and so far as it was tainted with that Antichristianism it is utterly Broken and made as the chaff of the Summer Floor Now as if Samsons strength had pass'd from his Head and Locks where it first dwelt while the dimensions and particular Characters of his person remain'd and so come down from higher to lower to his very Feet and there Broken So have we seen the Monarchic Spirit aod Life here describ'd passing from Mettal to Mettal from part to part comming down to the Feet the Seat of that Antichristianism that is to be Broken and the whole Image with it to Powder And seeing these Feet and Toes have continued so many Ages beyond all the former parts how can we but earnestly pray for that happy Revolution and if we are not so in Love with that state as to pray so for it yet however we should fear and prepare for it Thus far I have been representing the real and solid part of the Calendar of which I cannot doubt the Satisfaction It hath given to every observing Mind It now remains that the numeral though mystic part of it be consider'd under that Characterism of it Time Times and Half a Time in the Prophecy of Daniel And that this may be understood It must be expounded to us by that so divinely Learned and truly infallible Key of it and of the whole Prophecy of Daniel the Apocalyptical Prophecy of the New Testament and the Exposition it gives is as in a Complication of Charactorisms of Time Twice forty two Months Twice twelve hundred and sixty days and Twice three Times and a Half but with the little variation of Three Days and a Half for the great Reason of alluding to our Lords three Days in the Grave that we might learn to find a deeper and more intimate part in the space given as our Lord was but a deep part of the first the whole of the second and a small deep part viz. the very dawn or Morning-Break of the Third Day in the Grave which yet is call'd being Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth This plainly teaches us there was parallel-wise in these Time Times and Half a Time a deeper Tyranny of the Beast and of the Apostolical Church cclips'd by it and its Seed the Witnesses suffering under it in some parts of these Times then in others And These Things I have more at large handled in their proper place of the Line of Time and shall now only recal what is necessary to present this Time more at full And in the first place It is duly to be Remark'd that as the Spirit gave a Calendar however Mystic but just at the Rising of the Ten Horns on the Head of the Fourth Roman Beast which appears the seventh Head or Papacy in the Revelation with his Ten Horns or Kings and He a little Horn among them So in the Revelation It affixes those Charecterisms of Time to the Gentiles coming in to the outward Court and to the Witnesses putting on Sackcloth and to the Church fled into the Wilderness upon it as also to the Times of the Beast who is the seventh Head of the Fourth Beast in Daniel which we have proved to be Roman and to his Ten Horns and to the Woman persecuted by the Dragon making War with its Seed by the Beast to whom he gave his Throne Power c. Killing her Seed the Witnesses By which as also by the very express use of Three Times and Half the Spirit hath if we will receive it demonstrated to us That the Ten Horns and Little Horn in Daniel and the Beast and its Ten Horns in the New Testament-Prophet John are the very same Kingdom And the Time is doubled in the Witnesses and the Woman both for the certainty and also explanation of the Church not to be found as the Beasts and Romanists vaunt before Luther but Collectively as a Church Woman or Mother Hid in the Wilderness and yet districutively War'd with and kill d in single Saints or Witnesses as its Seed Now it is most Evident that in every one of these Characterisms of Time Three equal parts and a Half part of Time are still most clearly and peremptorily defin'd that we may thereby be most assuredly guided in the Calculation or Computation of the whole space And then they are made up into eighty four Indictions giving a broad Indication It was a Time soon after Constantine that was intended to be defin'd For so soon after Him Indictions came to be general Characters of Time being as Chronologers most agree instituted under him That we may then find the fundamental Reason of this Time we must consider that the Kingdom of Christ having made an Appearance and given a Specimen of it self as hath been shewn It was Estop'd by that Oath of Christ There shall be Time Times and half a Time for that Kingdom to be under an Eclipse In which Time That He the little Horn made so Famous Dan. 7. should scatter the Power of the Holy People or drive the Church into the Wilderness for those Times and Half a Time. Accordingly Revel 12. This very Eclipse is represented to come to pass For the Kingdom of Christ from Constantines Christian Retgn to the Death of Theodosius the Great as the Church cloathed with the Sun had the Bestian Pagan Kingdom compar'd with the Moon under its Feet as it were diametrally Hereupon there begins a gradual darkness or Eclipse upon the True Church For the Pagan Bestian Kingdom being now to become Antichristian-Beastian That Antichristian Beastian Kingdom borrows as the Moon in an Eclipse does most Light and Glory from the Sun and yet Eclipses that Light from the World For it turns its own dark obscure shade downward and retires the Light from above How does this most admirably Resemble the Antichristian Church in which former Paganism finding it self so to lye under the Sun takes as it were the advantage to guild it self with the Beams of Christianity It takes upon it self the Apostolick Faith the Acknowledgment of Scripture the names of Christ and of his Saints the style of Catholick Church And all this it does That it may engross to it self Those Titles of honour and Glory that Riches and splendor which is onely due to the True and pure Christianity in the Kingdom of Christ Hereby it robs the World of the Light and glory of Christianity for instead of those powerful and enlivening rays it casts upon the Earth Idolatry Superstition Ceremony Foppery of Religion which are ancient Paganism Antichristianiz'd and must needs chill make wan and pale all appearances of Gospel Truth so far as any were but in deed rather darken and obscure them altogether as truly Gospel
as of returning Pagan Bestianism should Eclipse and obscure the Kingdom of Christ after it had given an Emblem and appearance of it self which is the Foundation of the whole Type the very Frame and aspect of such a Calendar necessarily imports that the Time and Times are Three equal parts viz. The Time one single part and Times Two equal parts in themselves but double when conjoyn'd and then the Half Time the just Half of any of those equal parts And thus the explication of Time Times Half a Time by those so particular Characterisms assure us For Twelve hundred sixty days and Forty two Monnhs necessarily carry us upon Three equal years and one Half year and Three days and a Half are yet more express that There are Three equal parts and one Half part of any of the Three equal parts intended to be given Now that these are explanatory of these three Times and a Half is in two Instances viz. of the twelve Hundred sixty days and of the Beasts Forty two Months most clear which is enough to the present purpose For the twelve Hundred sixty days and the Three Times and Half are both the measure of the space of the Woman in the Wilderness and so the same And the three Times and Half and the Beasts Forty two Months are both given as the space of the Power of the little Horn in Daniel and of the Beast in the Revelation both which I have already prov'd are the same and therefore the Times and the Forty two Months must be necessarily the same and so equal in the Three parts and a half part But further when the Times and Half are thus distributed and with such allusion to the Death and Burial of Jesus Christ as in the Witnesses lying dead three days and a Half. It is both in the thing it self as in the allusion most evident that the first Time is allowed for the Ascendency of this Kingdom of the Beast till the Eclipse of the Kingdom of Christ by it becomes Total The two Times are the uniform Continuation of things in that very State the end of the First Time left Them But when It comes to a Half Time the Kingdom of the Beast being at the very moment of that Half Time entring what It was all the Two Times It just then comes under a check and surprise and can continue the Total Eclipse no longer but shall continue a partial Eclipse till the Half Time given to Him be also expir'd Then that Kingdom shall be prescinded as at the middle with both Ruin and Infamy upon which the Glory of Christ his Kingdom Church and People so long Eclipsed shall at the End of that Half Time shine out much more gloriously then ever yet It hath done and after a short preparation to a perfect day without any more Night Let us then examine at what Time the Half Time enter'd which may be certainly known by that check and surprize upon the Antichristian Kingdom that It could no longer totally Eclipse the Church of Christ as it had done And what Time that was there is a Vox Populi a common saying even of the Antichristian People that indeed is Vox Dei the very Oracle of God concerning the Half Time Where say They was your Church before Luther that is It was before indeed all along from Christ but It was for Time and Two Times under an Eclipse even Total that It could not be seen before Luther's Time From his Time It hath been blessed be God to be seen but not as It shall be at the End of the Half Time so here is evidently the Half Time begun Now what Chronology is not agree'd that Luther appear'd at 1517 Here then viz. at 1517 the Half Time most certainly Began For from that Time not any accidental change or for a Time but an unmoveable Reformation and Retrenchment upon the Antichristian Kingdom hath ensued in the revolt of several Kingdoms and States from it And how unmovable it hath been So universal consent in the late Revolution as it appear'd against Popery is in this Protestant Nation a Monument undoubtedly set up by God as a Specimen what shall be at the end of the Half Time whatever Judgment our sins may in the mean Time provoke upon us Being thus assur'd then when the Half Time began we are also most certain the Half Time is a Half equal to each of the Three equal parts In twelve hundred and sixty therefore an equal Half part to each equal whole part must be one hundred and eighty And if this Half part begin at 1517. It must end at 1697. by a consequence undeniable And then if from 1517. where the Half Time began we carry backward one Thousand and Eighty the just Amount of the three equal parts They must needs reach back by a retrograde motion to Anno 437. of the Christian Account at which Time the Ten Kings were every where carving their Kingdoms out of the Empire under the play of the first Trumpet So the Gentiles at that very time came as before explain'd into the outward Court and their Forty two Months began and gave Thirty eight Intercalar years till the Beast and the Ten Kings receiv'd Power as hath been explain'd which was at 475 as was before explain'd And thus the Times of the Beasts Moon so under the Feet of the Church as to Ecclipse it by surprizing the Glory proper to it as Cloath'd with the Sun are made equal to the Times of the Church in the Wilderness and of the Witnesses in their Sackcloth and run equal with them to the end and the Gentiles Months are of no further considerations but most naturally and simimilarly sink into the Months of the Beast and are united with them And yet lastly to make this Calendar most undoubted If we should lay aside the distinction betwixt Lunar and Solar Time and the Intercalation upon it and take the Time Times and Half Time as of the little Horn onely absolutely and by themselves Yet allowing the Little Horn the same with the Beast the eigth King succeding the Christian Empire at 475 as hath been so fully prov'd and let the Half Time as hath been also prov'd enter with Luther they will come to the very same point of 1697 if we allow but five Years from Luther 1517 viz. till 1522 for the revolts from the Bestian Kingdom which Reformed Princes and States in that Time made and which have continued to this day at which very Time Images and the worship of them of greatest Interest in Bestianism began to be cast out And then proportion the Times and half Time among themselves as was before most undeniably stated The expedients of Lunar Time and of Intercalation will be more necessary to set the Bestian Time at an even ballance with the whole Apocalyptical Emblem both of the state and Characters of this Time then to make certain the Calendar and its computation For Luther's appearance or so
For if not we shall in vain call to the Mountain to Hide us and to the Rocks to cover us when the Great Day of His Wrath is Come The Prophetical Map of which Holy and Blessed State is too large here to present but it is necessary that a short delineation of it so far as is agreeable to support the last and most excelling part of the Calendar be given For in both the visions the vision of the Image and the vision of the Beast There enters at the end inseparably and no way possible to be divided a divine Kingdom of which the expressions are so full and high that it is self evident the grand Intendment of the Holy Spirit was by the four Monarchies to lead to that Supreme Kingdom that where They end That may begin which is of it self a great proof that if we are thus far right in the Calendar as the Evidence of Divine Revelation assures me we are We must be near so great and happy a Revolution the Complement of the Calendar and are now as on a Pisgah view of it For the Kingdom of Christ hath an immediate succession to the Times of the Beast even as the Bestian Kingdom and Times had to the Christian Empire The succession is immediate but the Illustrious Glory hath a Time of Preparation after the succession In the Face of all Prophecy This succession appears in Daniel's two Visions the Divine Kingdom follows the Feet and the Little Horn even so close as to be said in their Days of those ten Kings The God of Heaven Sets up a Kingdom Dan. 2. 47. as it were within them because so just at the end of their Time The Apostle Paul tells us The approach of Christ to the Bestian Times is so near that Christ blasts Him with the Spirit of his Mouth and brings to nothing the blaze of his Moon by the full Glory of his own appearance That Illustrious Man of Sin the Antitype of Antiochus the Illustrious is so out-shone that He is a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness In the whole view of the Revelation the Glory of Christ's Kingdom rises as the Beast falls and when He and his False Prophet are cast into the Lake or as Daniel speaks His Body deliver'd to the consuming Flames Then the Kingdom is given to Christ and his Saints as in full Glory They sit on Thrones and Reign with Him. But nothing is so express as the Oath of Christ as at the Morning of the Half Time or Reformation a beginning Glory Seal'd or stay'd in the Thunders seal'd till the end of the Half Time Christ solemnly swears at that Time There shall be after Time Times and Half Time allowed No more such kind of Time The false High Priest the Counterfeit of the True is not made without an Oath indeed But because he is but a Counterfeit He is cut off at his Half Time by an Oath also and cannot be a Priest any longer He is broken without Hand from Heaven As soon as ever the Oath takes place That Time of the former date of Times and Half Time is no longer it Immediately follows The Mystery of God that is the Glorious Kingdom of Christ so much and so long spoken of by the Prophets shall be immediately in Motion by it self to its complement and perfection Accordingly at the end of the Twelve Hundred and sixty days and of the Three days and Half the same as hath been prov'd with Time Times and Half Time There is as in their Days of those Ten Kings the appearance of the Kingdom of Christ in the Witnesses rising c. even just before the Blast of the seventh Trumpet And then the Seventh Trumpet sounds and immediately there are Loud voices in Heaven The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ The Kingdom is proclaimed and advances all the Time of the Seventy five years in which the Twelve Hundred sixty years become Twelve Hundred ninety years and then Thirteen Hundred Thirty five the Epoch of the perfectly Blessed state of that Kingdom of Christ All which lay'd together is perfect Scripture Demonstration of the Complement of the Calendar and of the Kingdom of Christ in its succession so near to us as 1697 and then rising to perfect glory And until that Time there is to be a continual prayer for and Expectation of such preparatory motions in the World as by which Bestianism shall not onely not be allowed to Regurgitate on any of the reformed Nations by any of their Princes Giving anew their power to the Beast that had Revers'd their power from Him but that the rest of the Ten Kings and Kingdoms shall hate the Whore And that within the Reformation it self that Synagogue Prophecy Brands as the Synagogue of Sathan that was always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Friend to Primacy and to casting out of the Church on its unscriptural Canons should be bending to worship at Philadelphiaes Feet and thereby the Reformation become perfect and Illustrious Let us then take off our Hearts and Eyes from all worldly Glory whether Civil or Ecclesiastic which is now in its low West and adore the Glory of Christ in his Kingdom as the rising Sun now near its East and Morning Dawn As the Stars let every one move and even Fight in their Courses and help the Lord against the Mighty Let us wait for Jesus Christ from Heaven who before Pontius Pilate witness'd that good Confession of his Kingdom which though it is not of this World is yet of the approaching World to come whereof we speak and though it is not from hence or from beneath yet is the Jerusalem coming down from Heaven which he in his own proper Time now at Hand will shew who is Lord of Lords and King of Kings FINIS The Rationality of this Calendar in a Review and in Compare with the Numeral Calendar of the 2300 Evens Morns Or a Table of Time especially of that part of it within the foregoing Calendar and Explanatory of it so that its Truth is Evinc'd by iâ—â— Conformity to the Infinite Wisdom that hath made every Thing Beautiful in its Season THE Great Reason of All Time is the Allowance of space to the World for the variety of Action in it under the Government of supreme Providence whereby things are Roll'd this way and that way between the Kingdom of Sathan in the Apostasie of Humane Nature and the Restoration of it by the Seed of the Woman Jesus Christ until his Kingdom shall swallow up the Apostasie and appear in Glory which Appearance in Glory is determined by God who hath Reserved Times and Seasons in his own Power to Come â—igh upon the seventh Millenary of Time which is the Grand Sabbatism under the Son of Man the Lord of it who is also the Son of God. Time therefore being seven Millenaries in the whole as Inclusive of the Kingdom of Christ was for about the First Half
of it measur'd out by the Holy Line of whom this Seed was to Come according to the Great Revolutions order'd by God with Relation to this Seed As first by the Patriarchal Ages till Abraham From Abraham to the Giving of Canan to his Seed from the Giving of Canan to the Kingdom of David and Solomon the Great Type of the Kingdom of Christ But because This Kingdom fell from the very Glory of the Type by the Rending Ten Tribes from the House of David at the Death of Solomon and that within 390 years after Both Houses of Israel and Judah were in Captivity Time is drawn from Solomons Death to the Great Vision of the Restoration of All Israel in Ezekiels Temple and City and by Forty Additional years to the Restoring the House of Judah particularly out of the Babylonish Captivity by Cyrus The other Half of Time beginning soon after Ezekiels Vision till the New Jerusalem is call'd by our Lord The Times of the Gentiles 1. Because the Jews the then People of God from that Time would be till Ezekiels Vision came into Effect under Gentile Servitude 2. Because the Church of God would after the Death of Messiah by Jewish Hands be to Remove from the Jews to the Gentiles and so the Gentile Monarchies having the Jews and the Gentiles Christianiz'd under them would be Fit Representatives of the Vniversal Monarchy of Christ over all Mankind and yet till the Jews shall be perfectly restored according to that Vision of Ezekiel The Kingdom of Christ cannot Come which shews the Superiority of the Jews in that Kingdom shadowed therefore by their City and Temple and called for their sakes The New Jerusalem This Honour they have because Christ God over All in that Kingdom Blessed for Ever Came of Them. 3. Because however the Church of Christ was to be planted among the Gentiles as Engrafted among the believing Jews Yet so Great an Apostasie was to Rise in the Gentile Church as uniting with the Pagan Gentilism would Ecclipse and stay off the Glory of Christs Kingdom from appearing during those Gentile Times and so till the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Coming of the Glory of the Church out of its Ecclipse among the Gentiles Ezekiels Vision cannot become Effect nor All Israel sav'd Rom. 11. and thus the whole Gentiles Times are Times wholly opposite to the Kingdom of Christ in its Glory except about an 120 years of the Christian Empire which God supremely interpos'd and the last Half Time or 180 years since the Reformation in part reconcil'd to it These Gentiles-Times are double Calendar'd because of so Great Account 1. By a Calendar of Four Great Monarchies Each latter in Succession to the foregoing Dan. 7. Monarchy The last of which remains till the Kingdom of Christ shall break that and all others with it To so Great a Monarchy of Christ These Monarchies lasting until it are an agreeable Calendar And because the last State of the last Monarchy would be very long and of Great Consideration There is a Numeral but Mystic Calendar of Time Times and Half a Time given to that Alone 2. This Monarchic Calendar is arm'd with a Full Numeral Calendar beginning at Dan. 8. the end of the last Joynt of the whole Scripture Line before it viz. at the end of Ezekiels last 40 Days for Years and in the beginning of the second of these Four Monarchies viz. The Persian The Monarchic and the Numeral Calendar admirably serve One Another For so Great Pyramids of Time as Vniversal Monarchies and their Changes cannot but be generally known and observed and the Numeral Calendar keeps these Monarchies to their own Bounds and particularly joyning with the Numeral Mystic Calendar of the last part of the Fourth Monarchy binds it to its own Time and also adjusts the Kingdom of Christ after 75 years of preparation to its own Sabbatic Milenary by the note of 2300 Even Morn as Six Evens Morns led to the First Sabbath The Calendar of Monarchies was duly given when the Ten Tribes Jerusalem as Sodom of Old and Egypt also lay in Ruins under Litteral Babylon that Rome or Mystical Babylon bearing the names of all these Spiritual Sodom Egypt and of the City where Our Lord was Crucified what was Irrecoverable in Them All might fall into its Everlasting Burnings The Calendar of the 2300 Even Morn is given most opportunely precisely and exactly to adjust the Scripture Line of Time to the great Sabbatism and so could neither be more nor fewer then the 2300 Even Morn to be prophetically Multiplyed into Years In this Numeral Calendar every part of Time is kept not onely to its own proper Time in regard of Time but the Beauty of every part is seen in its own Season by the distribution of this great Calendar into several lesser parts of the whole Wherein though it be the Numeral Calendar of the Gentiles Times yet there is particular respect to the Church of God under the Gentiles Times as to the Jewish Church till it was Renunciated by Christ and so to the Gentile Church after under the Apostasie or Gentiliz'd Christianity This Numeral Calendar is united to Ezekiels vision of the City and Temple by Dan. 8. v. 14. the note of the Sanctuary Cleans'd It is united to the Monarchic Calendar by the Prince viz. The Antichristian Prince or Little Horn broken without Hand the last of the Princes in the Monarchic Calendar v. 25. If we then take the first 75 years of the 2300 and account them by the Word going forth by the Three Persâ—â—n Kings Cyrus Darius and Artaxerxes for the Restoring Jerusalem and Judah we are so far assur'd by Scripture according to the Monarchic and Numeral Calendar that so many years may be allowed and then parallel to these 75 the last 75 years at the end of the 2300. viz. from the last 1260 to 1335. in preparation for the New Jerusalem and the parallel is very beautiful of Litteral Babylon Falling and the Litteral Jerusalem Rising at the beginning of the 2300. Even Morn and Mystical Babylon Falling and the New Jerusalem Rising at the End of the 2300 E. M. And 75 years at the Beginning and at the End 75 years for the Restoring each Jerusalem Answer One Another in number and as a Time of preparation one for the Litteral the other for the New Jerusalem The Jerusalem that then was being thus Restored It was preserv'd 70 Weeks of Years or the 490 years immediately following the first 75 though in Straits or Troublous Times that in that as in the Holy City the Type of the New Jerusalem Messiah might Found his Spiritual and Evangelical Kingdom and the Right to his Glorious Kingdom because to it the Kingdom was first to Come And hereunto agree the Monarchic and Numeral Calendar that 490 years might be thus dispos'd Jerusalem having been preserv'd so long under the Persian Graecian and succeeding Roman Monarchy Ruling over Them. At the Death