Bloud of the Lamb so as to be exalted to the Heavenly station of ruling by the Man-child being caught up unto God and his Throne c. and obtained sentence against their Adversary to be cast out c. yet was that sentence executed as before by the War v. 7. Ans. See what head-strong prejudice will doe As if the Remarker shou'd say though this eleventh verse does imply that the War was betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutors yet it was not But it does most certainly demonstrate that the War was betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutors For the words are these For they overcame viz. the red Dragon by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto death What can be a more express description of Martyrdom than this This is not a description of a War of Emperours against Emperours with their armies in the field where they fight upon equal terms but of Martyrs with the word of their testimony passively undergoing for their witnessing to the truth what their cruel Persecutors would inflict upon them Vers. 12. The Dwellers in Heaven are bid to rejoice by reason of the salvation and strength and Kingdom of God and power of his Christ which was to come and therefore surely must signifie them to whom the same came whose particular concern this matter of joy was whereas Angels and Martyrs are no farther concerned in it than in general as they are concerned for the welfare of the Church Nor can those that were exalted by preferments to the Political Heaven of the Empire be concerned in it farther than they were in such a state as to have the coming of salvation and strength and the Kingdom of God fulfilled in them For it onely respects those that are in such a state who are called dwellers in Heaven in respect of the Heavenly station that they were exalted to thereby after the Devil and his Angels were cast out and the autority of Christ established as Prince of the World For then they became the joyfull company with the Lamb on Mount Sion singing the Song of the victory c. who as they are there markt on their foreheads for preservation so they are the worshippers in the Temple and Altar or the two Witnesses meted for the same purpose and are the same that are called dwellers in Heaven Ch. 13.6 and are thus distinguished from those dwellers on Earth against whom the woe is pronounced by reason of the power the Devil will have over them still after he is cast out Ans. The Expositor has taken in both senses of Heaven political and natural they being both sure and consistent one with another and the joy of Angels and Martyrs at the welfare of the Church is too great to be slighted or omitted But to ramble into mystical senses and reach out to the company of the Lamb on Mount Sion is not to interpret by rule but to trifle All Apostolick Christians were concerned in this victory of the Church and most of those in high place in the Empire turned Christian. But the foregoing verse so plainly determining this joy to the victory of the Church in the times of Constantine which shews that the Kingdom of God and power of his Christ was come already and is said to be so v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not yet to come it is a strange vagary to ramble from the Antemedial synchronals to the middle synchronals which undoubtedly the company on Mount Sion belong to And for the Remarker's groundless conceit touching the worshippers in the Temple and Thysiasterion the vanity thereof has been above sufficiently shewn And for the dwellers in Heaven Ch. 13. v. 6. we shall consider it when we come at it But for this present place if the Dwellers in Heaven be those in high degree the Dwellers on Earth must naturally signifie those in low degree or common people as the Expositor has interpreted it Vers. 15. Arianism cannot be here intended more than the Catholick doctrine they both running into extremes and each maintaining their cause with like fumous Animosity But by the Serpent's casting out water like a floud seems to be signified the frequent tumultuating of the common people and Magistrates that continued Pagans against the Christians whereby great outrages were oft committed But such Arians and Catholicks may be also included who under a cloak of Religion did violently prosecute each other out of enmity or self-interest to the great reproach and ruine of Religion Ans. The contention betwixt the Arians and Catholicks is most certainly included and is that which History most of all rings of and most highly concerned the Church and therefore could not be omitted in this Opened-book-prophecy which concerns the state of the Church As for any other contests less notable betwixt Christians and Pagans they were such as could not hazard the Woman's being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her being carried away with the sloud None but a contention betwixt the Christians themselves and such as shaked the very foundation of their Religion could put her in that hazard So that this is a very lank sense which the Remarker gives of this passage Vers. 16. The Earth that helped the woman by swallowing the sloud may signifie the sober stayd sort of people who being either seasoned with principles of Religion or being of peaceable spirits and obedient to authority did endeavour to asswage all such tumults and discountenance and oppose all such furious Animosities and were for composing all differences in a legal orderly and peaceable manner Ans. Undoubtedly that sloud of contention was the hot Contest betwixt the Arians and Catholicks Could therefore the soberer sort of common people Christians or Pagans compose this difference What an absurd conceit is this The Earth that swallows up this sloud does not signifie the common people here though sometimes it is a Symbol of them But the sense is onely this That this floud of contention was swallowed down and dried up by the help of Oecumenical Councils as some rapid Torrent is suck't down by the gaping of the Earth This is enough But farther curiosity might invite a man to fanfie that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence Oecumenical comes is alluded to or Earth in general put for clayish Earth which in Daniel is a symbol of the Ecclesiastical Power of which Councils did consist And then it fits obviously and exquisitely Chap. 13. Vers. 1. THE name of Blasphemy if it does intend Idolatry yet it hath a farther signification as All sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost c. Where the malignant reproach of God's Spirit evidencing it self in the works of our Saviour is said to be unpardonable blasphemy And the like reproaching of the holy Spirit manifesting it self in the Saints is likewise blasphemy though not of so heinous a
even those that are poured on the Sun into the Air or on the River Euphrates they all touch the concern of the Beast that rose out of the Earth as you may see by the Exposition of the Vision And the first Vial poured on the Earth in this sense reacheth them immediately it inflicting so noysome and grievous a sore on those that are the marked slaves of the two-horned Beast especially their Interest being so much concerned in the fall of Babylon and the Rising of the Witnesses Wherefore that Cup of Intoxication and Dementation through Envy Malice Rage and Fury as it is said ch 11. v. 18. upon the Rising of the Witnesses and Doxology of the Elders And the Nations were angry which answers to the effect of the effusion of this first Vial the noysome sore on the marked slaves of the Beast that Cup I say is really the pouring forth of this first Vial which is a grievous plague indeed Impedit ira animum And Quos Iupiter vult perdere eosdem dementat prius So that by the Remarker's leave these are no sorry conceits nor the Expositor's private opinion but the opinion of worthy Interpreters before him b But the Remarker's is a groundless conceit to apply that which belongs to the times preceding the Rising of the Witnesses to the Vials which come after their Rising as is most plain to them that do not wilfully wink against the Truth Wherefore the War of the Hussites c. is such a business as the Albigensian War and if justifiable to be referred to the War betwixt the Beast and the Saints ch 13. v. 7. c Nor has the Remarker any evasion out of this evidence of truth but by an unworthy vilifying of the Protestant Reformation which undoubtedly was the Rising of the Witnesses and most certainly was a very illustrious Atchievement of Providence and quite wiped away that foul face of things which Custome and Law had established before and is described in the Idea of Antichristianism and therefore it is most wretched Ingratitude to undervalue so great a Bounty of the Divine Majesty towards his servants like the murmuring of the Israelites against Moses and Aaron by whose conduct they were delivered from the bondage and Tyranny of Pharaoh Nor was the Pope's Supremacy onely rejected and some gross corruptions here in the Church of England suppose reformed but all gross corruptions nor were there any left that can be a just cause of Separation from our Church But the cavil now forsooth must be because they retain still Political Government for Popish leaven in matters of Religion which is reformed to the pattern of the Times that were symmetral is plainly outed from our Church and continue in the same worldly state and station the terms for Political Government as if all Political Laws and Orders though they were made and managed for the support of the Kingdom of God and the purity of his Worship were worldly How freakish is this But how outragious to make the Reformed Churches merely for this cause to continue Members of the Beast This is such a wild Imagination that it is more becoming those Dreamers St. Iude describes that despise dominion and speak evil of dignities than any sober Christian d And lastly as I remember I noted before the Spirit of life entring into the Witnesses has not a Spiritual sense but Political And the Genius of Prophetick Iconisms and of the Apocalyptick Prophecies is rather to adumbrate the External and visible state of the Church than the Internal There is onely one thing remaining in this Remark at the beginning that I may seem to have slipt over viz. That the effect of the first Vial namely that rankorous sore does not seem to be imputed to the effusion of the Vial but to the Rising of the Witnesses But I answer that it is sufficient that this sore rages in the time of the Vial-Angel For here are seven distinct Times allotted to the seven Vial-Angels as there are seven distinct times allotted to the seven Trumpet-Angels and what happens in the said allotted times is attributed to the Angel to whom the time is alloted whether the Angel contribute any thing to it or no. Nor does any one imagine that the Locusts and Euphratean Horse-men were blown out of the fifth and sixth Angels Trumpets but that those things happened under the times allotted to them And the Rider of the red Horse under the second Seal he is said to take peace from the Earth merely because in his time there were such killing and slaying one another And it is something Idiotical to think otherwise of these things But supposing there must be some real activity in this first Vial-Angel for the inflicting this angry Aegyptian boil there is not the least absurdity in allowing it viz. That as an evil spirit from the Lord haunted Saul when his Melancholy fits came upon him so this first Vial-Angel may commissionate some spirits upon the envy and the anger the Bestians had conceived against the Risen Witnesses to actuate them with more than ordinary rage and madness against them and so infatuate their counsel by this distemper This I hope will take away all scruple touching this first Vial. Vers. 3. The second Vial is made to synchronize and in substance to be the same with the first the first being supposed to be the envious raging at the Reformation by the enemies of it and the second the Reformation it self in rejecting the Pope's Autority c. Ans. This second Remark is a mere calumny For the first Vial does not synchronize with the second because the first viz. that exulcerated Rage of the marked slaves of the Beast began presently upon the Rising of the Witnesses while the Reformation was but fresh young and tender and not so thoroughly established but was capable of quick Reciprocations of affairs as it happened here for example in England Queen Mary so suddenly succeeding King Edward But after this there was a more full settlement and firm establishment of the state of the Risen Witnesses so that through many Provinces Principalities and Kingdoms which are so many Seas the Pontifician party was hopeless and helpless those Seas becoming by the effusion of the second Vial as the bloud of a dead man For they were all dead to the Emissary fisher-men of the pretended successour of St. Peter nor a live Fish to be taken for their game The perfect Revulsion of these great Parts of the Pontifician Iurisdiction from those that his power still did actuate and enliven and the hindering them from reuniting for a due time till they were turned into the congealed bloud as it were of a dead man this was the effusion of the second Vial and plainly distinct from the first and such as to which the first might well contribute For the marked slaves of the Beast being dementated with wrath would necessarily doe such things as would excite the other party to use all possible care and
so the prophetick sense of the Epistles reacheth but to the commencement of the Millennium Ans. It is sufficient that others would call those Churches that did not keep to the foundation but added doctrines and practices contrary thereto And therefore Asia's signifying Fundamentum is not needlesly superadded to design the truly Catholick Church That Asia signifies Action is granted on both sides but it is Illogical to deduce Conflict from Action and the Arguing à genere ad speciem as if one should say It is a living Creature Therefore it is a Man Though all Conflict is Action yet all Action is not Conflict This is foisted in to serve a false Hypothesis and to exclude the Millennium out of the Intervals and to make them reach but to the beginning thereof Rem 2. There 's no need of the Ephesine State of the Church its ending at the beginning of the Persecution in Nero's time but it may continue after as the Pergamenian State does continue through the succeeding Epistles For as the advancement of the Church to that State was from Christianity's being received by Autority so the continuing of Autority to profess that Religion is a continuing that State though from a new emerging condition the Church may receive a new denomination And so the Ephesine State being agreeable to the whole Primitive time though the emerging Persecution does give the denomination of a new State to the Church yet it destroys not the former that is consistent therewith That the Ephesine Church was not tainted with Nicolaitism is no Argument that it expired before the beginning of that Sect but rather of the contrary For if that Sect was not then in being it was no commendation of the Church not to be tainted therewith nor could it be said to have it Ans. It is sufficient that from a new emerging condition the Church may receive a new denomination and so begin a distinct Interval and thus will the whole Succession of time from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World be distinguished into so many Intervals So limited as History complying with the characters of the Prophecy will ratifie which is all that is intended And thus the Ephesine State or Interval will be naturally terminated upon the commencement of Persecution in Nero's time the Smyrnean then beginning And the Smyrnean end upon the emerging of the Church out of persecution by the Emperours turning Christian and the Pergamenian then begin But the Church quickly degenerating into Idolatry and persecuting the Apostolick Christians and so long a time continuing so from some remarkable change of the Modes of their Idolatry and Persecution and other degeneracies of the Church this Pergamenian denomination may cease and the degenerate Church be called Thyatirian and the true Church be said to be the Church in Pergamus and the Church in Thyatira because it was within the Jurisdiction of the degenerate Church so denominated c. As for that touching Nicolaitism it is a mere cavil or quibble For it plainly was a commendation of the Ephesine Interval that there was not yet that uncleanness found in it that was after set on foot by the Nicolaitans And the Nicolaitans being Christians they could no sooner appear but the Church ipso facto would be defiled by them Wherefore the Ephesine Interval of the Church being now defiled by them it 's a sign that Interval comes short of the times of the Nicolaitans Chap. 2. Vers. 11. THE promise here to the overcomer being onely that he shall not be hurt of the second Death gives no assurance thereby of being partaker of the first Resurrection The crown of life which is promised to them that are faithfull to death must certainly be meant of the reward in the other life And what reward would it be to the sufferers unto death to have their successours obtain the imperial Crown Besides take it to signifie the reward in the other life and it will so agree with what follows the Epiphonema the one promise explaining the other whereas the senses here given of both are so different as to make them badly sute for promises of the same Epistle Ans. The promise here to the overcomer according to the Elliptical intimations in the Apocalypse is the promise of partaking of the first Resurrection and so has the ancient Church expounded it And to ask what reward it would be to the sufferers unto death to have their successours to obtain the imperial Crown is to tell us without asking that selfishness or want of that unselfinteressed love which makes us prefer the publick good of the Kingdom of Christ before our own causes the Remarker to make such a weak objection as this And if the Crown of Life and not being hurt by the second Death explained each other and were but the same thing it would be a needless tautology whenas taken in these different senses it is a double promise to encourage the Smyrnean Church to suffer Martyrdom the one that their sufferings shall turn the Roman Empire Christian the other that they for their Martyrdom shall partake of the first Resurrection a privilege peculiar to Martyrs c. To which may be added that it is observable where there is any promise or threatning before the Epiphonema it indicates things Political touching this state on Earth but if placed after the Epiphonema the invisible state and concerns of the other world And why may not one Epistle use both these arguments they having both force to persuade to the same thing Vers. 13. The Pergamenian state commencing at the Emperours professing Christianity the testimony and suffering of Antipas is not to be applied to the Pope onely but does primarily respect that haughty imperious spirit which was generally observed in Patriarchs and Bishops after they grew so great through the protection and favour and bounty of Princes which begat such fierce contentions amongst themselves and furious ragings against their adversaries or opposers Ans. The sufferings and testimony of Antipas does chiefly respect those that were martyred by the Church of Rome under the Pope in this Interval which is bounded by the ending of the War against the Waldenses and Albigenses which were slain with the sword These things are certain and conspicuous as is made out in the Exposition of the seven Churches As for smaller matters if any have the like evidence let them add them that will Vers. 16. I will come unto thee quickly is taken in a distinct sense from the following words And I will fight against them c. Whenas plainly the coming quickly is to fight c. And this threatning to fight with the sword of his mouth is against the true Church which by transgression had deserved such sharp rebuke and therefore cannot be intended against the enemies of it Ans. What strange confidence is this upon no ground at all I will come unto thee I will fight against them Is not thee and them sufficient notes of
diversification that they are spoke touching distinct nay opposite parties the one his Church the other their adversaries whence he says he will fight against them To all which you may add That this is the Political Prediction preceding the Epiphenema Vers. 18. Thyatira does as in all other Epistles signifie the state of the true Church that 's written to and not of the Antichristian Church at that time and therefore it cannot refer to the making the Virgin Mary the daughter of God but alluding to that signification of the word may signifie that state of the Church wherein the autority of Christ began to gain the ascendent of worldly powers and which therefore may be reckoned the infancy of his Kingdom and in that respect the Church as to that time may be called a daughter though otherwise styled a woman Which time we suppose to commence from the expulsion of the Goths out of Italy whose Reign there was the seventh Head that was to continue but a little time immediately after which the Popes grew so great as to cause the Exarches first to remove to Ravenna and after to be expell'd Italy and so prospered with their usurped autority as by degrees to make all the foreign Nations that had overrun the Empire and setled in it to be subject to them He therefore gaining such rule by his false pretensions to be Christ's Vicar does evidence the reality of that autority by usurpation whereof he grew so potent as also did the Roman Hierarchy who oft proved able to sway the States of Kingdoms to depose their Kings c. Since therefore the usurpers of Christ's autority grew so potent and prevalent thereby such as were redeemed from the world to become members of his Kingdom and so were really accompanied with the power of his spirit proportionably to the state they had attained to must surely be likewise of great prevalency in their several stations though but of private condition Hence so great power is ascribed to the two Witnesses ch 11. And hence the great persecution and war at length was raised against the Saints by the Antichristian powers to suppress the emerging power of Christ's Kingdom in them which fulfilled the other sense of Thyatira by the multitude of Martyrs sacrificed c. Ans. In the Epistle to the Church in Pergamus Christ says I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat is Which undoubtedly is the See of Rome and therefore the Church in Pergamus is the Apostolick Church within the jurisdiction of the Roman there termed in the Prophetick style Pergamenian and so undoubtedly Thyatirian in this Interval And therefore barely to contradict this without any reason added is mere wantonness and humour But now the Pergamenian Interval ending in the year 1242 when the Pope's Legate Amelin made an end of the Albigensian war with Trancavel Bastard-son of the Earl of Beziers what an extravagance is it to say that the Thyatirian Interval began near seven hundred years before the Pergamenian ended The faithfull Martyr Antipas by his account should be slain in the Thyatirian Interval whenas the Prophecy places him in the Pergamenian And that the slaying of Antipas respects and typifies those vast slaughters of the Waldenses and Albigenses with me there is not nor can there be with any one else that well considers it the least doubt imaginable and therefore I make no question but the Pergamenian Interval reaches so far as to include them whence the Thyatirian denomination must of necessity begin after their time nor can the distinct denominations which constitute the Intervals interfere one with another Again a Daughter in the Prophetick style is a delicate Damosel in her flourishing age not an Infant and Christ's true Church upon the expulsion of the Goths was so far from getting the ascendent over the worldly powers that she grew more and more enslaved under the power of Antichrist under the bondage of that Roman Pharaoh than which there is not a more worldly power under the Sun and was held under this power till the Sardian Interval viz. till the rising of the Witnesses that is to say till the late happy reformation begun by Luther c. This therefore is a very rude rush against manifest truth as if the Remarker did not mark what he did or said Else he would not say that the Popes caused the Exarches to remove their seat to Ravenna whenas no History that I meet with makes any mention of any other seat of them but that But such slips as these I could willingly wink at if the main of the remark had any solidity in it But how lax and lank it all is the intelligent will easily discern by these few hints I have given Vers. 23. I will kill her children with death seems here to signifie a spiritual death and curse ensuing the same and so will better cohere with the following words All the Churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and heart c. and is of the like signification with what is threatned Zach. 14. against such as fought against Ierusalem and would not keep the feast of Tabernacles Ans. Those two Expositions given by the Expositor are plain and events answerable But no events have answered or are likely to answer to the other as to the strange miraculous diseases And for her children to be killed by a spiritual death it would be no loss to her they would be the more alive to her and snug in her bosome and be the closer Thyatirians And for the coherence of what follows it is sufficiently perspicuous in the other plain and unstrained way Vers. 26. Giving power over the Nations respects not the Governours and people that were reformed For they gained no power thereby but freedom onely from the thraldom they were formerly under But if this respects any thing of the Reformation which I conceive it does not and that the Thyatirian Interval reaches not so far it must signifie the chief leaders in the Reformation who through the cause of God they were engaged in attained to bear so great sway and make so great changes c. Ans. Those that were under the rule and power of the Nations even whole Provinces and Kingdoms of them that is to say under the power of the Paganochristians shall vanquish and overcome the Paganochristians so as to turn them to their own Religion or those that remain of them unconverted to have them under their girdle c. This therefore is a mere cavil The easie sense is whereas suppose the Antichristian powers bore sway over the Kingdoms or Nations of England Scotland Ireland Denmark Swedeland c. under the Thyatirian Interval in the Sardian Interval the Apostolick Christians such as Christ speaks to in the Church of Thyatira shall bear the rule over these Nations And the ruling them with a rod of iron and breaking them a-pieces like a Potter's Vessel is shattering a-pieces the Antichristian Compages they
were held together in before and subjecting them to the Gospel of Christ this shall be effected upon several Nations that were before Paganochristian in the Sardian Interval What can be more easie and clear Vers. 28. There 's but one Morning star and that is bright so that the Morning-star and the bright Morning-star must signifie the same And they are so far from signifying several states of the Church that the one is spoken onely of Christ himself viz. he calls himself the bright Morning-star But what the Morning-star is which is promised to the overcomers in the Thyatirian Church is hardly to be understood farther than we are partakers thereof but seems to be of like signification with 2 Pet. 1.19 both seeming to respect an addition of light of life to the light of truth before received Ans. There 's but one Morning star indeed which is Christ who is here signified but in a political consideration as Prince of his Empire on Earth which may have degrees of largeness and lustre And that Christ is here understood in a Political sense the foregoing verse intimates that speaks of the enlargement of his Kingdom Of which also the subsequence of the Epiphonema farther assures us according to the rule noted in the Exposition of the seven Churches And where Christ is called the bright Morning star Apoc. 22.16 it is not spoke there simply of his Person abstracting from his Kingdom on Earth because he says immediately before it I am the off-spring of David which is a challenging his right to all the Kingdoms of the Earth upon that score of his descent from David the King to whom God had made the promise Ps. 2. And this following the description of his glorious Reign in the new Ierusalem and relating to those times he saith not as in the Sardian Interval I am the Morning-star but the bright Morning-star by reason of his exceeding great lustre and glory in his Millennial Reign Why should any one wink against so clear a light and inviolable coherence and congruity of things But why he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Sardian Interval the Expositor has noted in his Exposition of the seven Churches Chap. 3. Vers. 4. WAlking with me in white is in this Verse made signifie that conversing with Christ by his Spirit whereby they shall be inabled to walk with him in all innocency and integrity But in the following Verse the being cloathed in white rayment which is the same with walking in white is taken in a different sense viz. to be prosperous in the propagating the affairs of Christ's Kingdom Also in the said following verse those words I will not blot his name out of the book of life which interpret the foregoing words viz. that the walking in white and the being cloathed with white rayment is the walking in the light of life whereby we become heirs of the crown of life and so written in the book of life are yet taken to signifie a continued succession of such men to the end of the world whereas the continuance of such a succession is no reward to the Sardian Church though it may be joy to them as they are concerned for the propagation of Religion Ans. If there be any Errour in this Interpretation it is in that the Expositor has not expounded to walk with me in white in the same sense he expounded to be cloathed in white rayment which has a Political sense and signifies the good success of affairs with them For the Remarker was to remember that the Expositor was giving the prophetical sense of these Epistles not the literal moral or spiritual And that therefore according to that solid Rule set down That the Declarations touching the success of the Church that is writ to before the Epiphonema signifies politically so this being cloathed in white is to be expounded accordingly But being whiteness signifies as well Innocency as Prosperity and Innocency is a fitting these few names in Sardis for their prosperous success that I made use of these different significations so well subordinated one to another deserves not to be cavilled at but rather to be approved And correspondently to this Prophetical sense which must be Political I will not blot his name out of the book of life is to be understood that these few names are the durable seed of such a Church as shall last to the end of the World But to say this is no reward to them that they have such a durable succession is a reproach to the Remarker as if he were a stranger to the true Christian State and knew not the gratifications of a soul regenerate into the living Image of Christ who with his Church is one mystical body in succession through all ages and therefore what any part of them suffer for the present if it make for the greater good of the Church for the future they take themselves to be amply rewarded by so happy an event And such a success as causes joy to them as the Remarker acknowledges must be a proportionable good to them and if consequent upon their labours and sufferings a reward thereof So that such Allegations as these are mere affected Cavils Vers. 8. The opened door that cannot be shut and the little strength signifie not any outward force or army but that spiritual strength that is attained to by faith working by love which makes us become freed by the truth from the thraldom of the worldly Powers and gain that enterance into the Kingdom of our Lord as never to fall Both this and the four following verses do shew the Philadelphian Church to be in a Militant State in progress to the victorious state of rest and glory in the Millennium And what is said in these verses is spoken of the entire State of the Philadelphian Church and therefore cannot be referred to the seventh vial as the commencement thereof But to instance in their signifying a Militant State c. The promise v. 9. to make them of the Synagogue of Satan who say they are Iews to come and worship c. does plainly shew the Church to be in conflict with such Enemies as pretend to be true Christians and yet refuse subjection to the true Church which cannot agree with the Millennial State when Satan shall be bound and all Enemies put under the feet of Christ c. The promise v. 10. to keep from the hour of Temptation that shall come upon all the world c. does evidence and a State far different from that of the Millennium and does seem to signifie that time of great trouble precedent thereto Dan. 12. The promise also v. 11. to come quickly and warning to hold fast c. does also plainly shew that the time of the Millennium when God will reward all his servants ch 11.18 is not then come though it be near approaching And the several promises v. 12. made to him that overcometh do
the Te Deum When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers His ascending into Heaven and sitting at the right hand of God was the consequence of his sufferings In which Heaven there are many seats or mansions as he elsewhere tells us which undoubtedly he has prepared for every one that overcomes As Christ after he overcame sate down in his father's Throne which he gave him so all judgment being given to the son he that overcomes shall sit down in a Throne or seat in Heaven of Christ's giving as Grotius seems to interpret the words For it is most natural to conceive the Throne of Christ and of other Victors though not of equal majesty and glory yet to be of the same nature that is to say Heavenly as the current of Expositors runs And it was an Heavenly Throne Christ ascended after he had overcome not an Earthly Millennial Throne which according to the Remarker he had not obtained in the Laodicean Interval whenas he says expresly he was sate down already in the Throne his Father gave him upon his overcoming And therefore the like Thrones he promiseth other overcomers And lastly it being so plainly demonstrated before that the Millennium is comprised in the Philadelphian Interval it is impossible that this Throne promised to the Laodicean Victor should be understood of reigning with Christ in the Millennium So that I conceive it is plain enough that as this Epistolar Prophecy is acknowledged by the Remarker to reach from the beginning of the Church to the commencement of the Millennium so upon better reason that it reacheth to the end of the world For when the slate of the Church is divided into so many successions and prefigured in a Prophetical manner why should two such notable Intervals as that of the Millennium and the after game of Gog and Magog c. be omitted It were a rude and immodest thing in me to suppose the spirit of Prophecy defectuous in this point rather than suspect mine own judgment and slowness that may hinder my discerning the completeness and perfection of this Prophecy But the Remarker produces reasons why we should think the Prophecy of the seven Churches reaches no farther than the commencement of the Millennium The first is Because Christ invites the Laodiceans to the Marriage supper of the Lamb and promises the Overcomer a Throne in the Millennium The Second That there is no account given that the Millennial state should ever degenerate into the Laodicean Thirdly and lastly That it is unimaginable that the Millennium being established in that glorious state of Righteousness that is described and all occasions of evil removed the Devil being bound nor to be let loose again upon those that belong to the new Ierusalem but onely upon the Nations that the Millennial state should degenerate into the Laodicean But I have already answered the first by shewing that Christ's promising to sup with him that opens to him the door is no invitation to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb nor the promised Throne an Earthly Throne in the Millennium but a promise of the Heavenly Kingdom which this Throne signifies According as our Saviour promises his Apostles Luk. 22. I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my father has appointed unto me which hugely fits this place To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am sate down with my father in his Throne that ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom and sit on Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Which place is parallel to that of Matth. 19.28 Verily I say unto you ye that have followed me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Grotius expounds by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Munster by Resurrectio Mortuorum and Calvin says Non dubium est quin hîc de extremo die loquatur Christus at the Resurrection when the Son of Man shall sit on the Throne of his glory ye also shall sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel So that this is also a Throne of Iudicature a Laodicean Throne from which this Interval in one respect has its denomination because at the close thereof Christ with his Saints will judge the people which makes this promise the more suitable And that the Saints should have their Thrones of Judicature then to judge the people with Christ no man can much marvel at that considers that of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 6.3 Know ye not that we shall judge the Angels that we shall be co-approvers of the sentence of Christ against the Devils and wicked Souls at the last day which shews how fitly unforcedly and naturally this Throne here promised is understood of the Heavenly Throne as I have demonstrated it cannot be understood of an Earthly Throne in the Millennium To the second I answer That there is a very good account out of the Apocalypse to be given why we should think that the Millennial or Philadelphian estate will at last degenerate into the Laodicean It is true there is no express imputation of any fault upon the beloved City in the Prophecy of the opened Book but that after the Millennium there is a change of affairs is thence plain it telling us of the loosing of the Devil and the endeavours of Gog and Magog to subdue the Holy City but the reason in that Prophecy is omitted and it is the artifice of concealment in the Apocalypse to omit things in one Vision and supply them in another and the supplement is manifest in this Vision of the seven Churches For the Laodicean Interval succeeding the Philadelphian which I have demonstrated to include in it the Millennial Reign of Christ must needs synchronize with that state of the Church which is after the Millennial Empire Wherefore the reproofs of the Church of Laodicea for their Lukewarmness and Remisness in the affairs of the Kingdom of Christ and neglecting to retain and propagate that inward state of the spirit of life in the new birth but resting in a dead formal though otherwise unexceptionable external worship of God c. this shews the reason of the Devil 's being let loose again that he might raise stirs against the Church and so they might reflect upon their condition and repent them of their Lukewarmness and Remisness Which Hypothesis is more agreeable to the Iustice of God and his care over his Church than that he should loose the Devil again and raise storms against his Church no man knows why nor wherefore To the last I answer that it is very easily conceivable though the Church does at last become so pure and spotless so holy and righteous yet that in process of time it may decline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this state of mortality nothing can be absolutely firm and durable Did not the blessed Angels who were created in unspeakable purity and glory fall from their station
who yet had no Tempter from without for there were no Devils that needed to be tied up before the Angels fell Wherefore as to that point they had as much advantage as the Philadelphian Church but exceeding much more in being Spirit and not Flesh. But the Philadelphian Church will be mortal flesh as other sons of Adam Wherefore in long process of time they may well degenerate something even before the loosing of the Devil out of Prison And when he is loose again it is but a precarious surmise to think he can act onely upon the Nations that are not in communion with the Church For when he is loose he is as he was before he was imprisoned Nor is there any ground to restrain the word Nations to those onely that are not in visible communion with the Church but it may very naturally signifie that multitude of Nations and People in the World whether of the Church or not And it is a rash presumption to suppose that the Nations that walk in the light of the new Ierusalem are not converts to the Christian Faith forasmuch as they are said to be saved or the Kings of the Earth that bring their glory into it that they are not whole Kingdoms converted to the Christian belief as that auspicious acclamation foretells that the Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ c. Wherefore we see that there is not the least shadow of reason but that the Prophecy of the seven Churches is a Prophecy of the state of the Church distinguished into seven Intervals from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World Which may the better assure us that the two Prophecies the one of the sealed Book the other of the opened Book are so likewise Chap. 4. Vers. 3. THE pure transparent Iaspar stone is an Emblem of Holiness and the red Sardin stone of Iustice and therefore he that sate on the Throne being like unto them does signifie the Holiness and Righteousness of God in executing of Judgment and so does better sute with the occasion of the Vision it being a Representation of God on his Throne of Judicature as Judge of the World than to make the firmness of the one to signifie the strength or omnipotency of God and the red fiery colour of the other his piercing Activity c. But indeed it is not of a fiery red but of a dead red colour Ans. God is not represented here on his Throne of Judicature but simply in his Chair of State as I may so speak It is the Throne of the Divine Majesty as Creator and Governor of the World and more peculiarly of his Church according to that Doxology v. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Wherefore Grotius judiciously notes that the Iasper does signifie invictam Dei potentiam which we may briefly call his radical Omnipotency or rather the necessity of Existence of his indiscernible essence And the Sardius which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to in Hebrew so called from its redness vim Dei activam qualis in igne est They are his very words on the Text. And Zegerus tells us that Tychonius Primasius and Beda all three make the Sardius to have the colour of fire To which you may add Victorinus Rupertus Richardus and Lyranus who all give the signification of fire to the Sardius And Aretas expresly says in Cornelius à Lapide Sardius quia sanguinei ignei coloris est igneam i. e. sublimissimam efficacissimam Dei naturam significat But what the Remarker objects that the Sardius is but of a dead red colour is not true of the best sort and least true in the appearance of the Vision Where though the colour was not so brisk as that of a flame for there are three differences noted here both in Greek and Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Pruna Flamma Splendor yet it might very well be like that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pruna Which sutes best with the Vision in Ezekiel which answers to this and is noted in the Exposition it self Vers. 4. These Elders are onely Spiritual Rulers in the same sense as they and the four Beasts ch 5. are said to be Rulers For they come together in thanksgiving from being redeemed from the Earth and made Kings and Priests c. So that the reigning here signified is such as is common to all Saints and therefore it 's a gross perverting of Scripture to appropriate it to worldly Princes Ans. The Song of Thanksgiving is this ch 5. v. 9. For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation What wonderfull weak arguing is this Because the Kings out of every Nation are redeemed by the bloud of Christ and publickly confess the same therefore they are no more Kings of any Nation than the common people that are so redeemed As if true Christianity took away all subordination of Ranks and Degrees in the world Why then have they not all Crowns if they be all Kings alike or why has any so Who grosly perverts Scripture now And what does the Remarker mean by worldly Princes If he means worldly-minded Princes this contradicts the Scene of things here which is a Representation of the Millennial Happiness and Holiness upon Earth and therefore these four and twenty crowned Elders or Monarchs are not supposed worldly-minded If he makes them worldly Princes because they are still in the world that is on the Earth that 's a contradiction to Christ's Millennial reign on Earth The Millennium must be in Heaven then not on Earth If subordination of Ranks and Degrees from the Prince to the Pezant make them worldly Princes the Polity in Heaven is worldly For there is a subordinate Hierarchy of Angels there and Archangels of Powers Principalities Dominions and Thrones Colos. 1.6 and so the Millennial Reign will be no where O but it is said in the following verse And hast made us to our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign upon the Earth Ans. This questionless alludes to that which God commanded Moses to tell the children of Israel touching him Exod. 19.6 And ye shall be to me a Kingdom of Priests which is called a Royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2.9 and the Apocalypse more distinctly styles the true Church in those happy days Kings and Priests But as under Moses the Nation being called a Kingdom of Priests it did not confound the distinction betwixt Priest and People but Aaron was the High Priest and had other Priests under him And Moses was King in Iesurun and had the heads of the Tribes under him so the four and twenty Elders and the four Beasts the whole body of the Church joining together in this Doxology Thou hast made us Kings and Priests and we
of affairs on this Earth whence I inferred that the Sealed-book-prophecy did so Which is an Article so contrary to the belief of Atheistical and sensual men that it is no wonder that so strong an Asseveration is used to impress it on them But this answers to his calling himself the Amen c. in his Epistle to the Laodicean Church where the same Article is asserted See the Exposition it self on this present Chapter This Angel therefore swearing at the Expiration of the sixth Trumpet that there shall be no more time saving in the days of the sound of the seventh Trumpet and this before there is any entrance into the Prophecy of the opened Book plainly joins the seventh Trumpet to the sixth and so makes a decursion from the beginning of the Sealed-book-prophecy to the very end of it conterminating to the end of the world and by mentioning the seven Thunders also before the said Sealed-book-prophecy is finished points us plainly to a division of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet into seven such Intervals as the seventh Seal was divided into viz. seven Trumpets as we noted above And thus by the Oath of the Angel as I observed before by the bye it is assuredly true that the Prophecy of the sealed Book reacheth to the end of the World Chap. 11. Vers. 1. IT 's very incongruous that the Temple or Thysiasterion and the Outward Court being one Entire Fabrick should signifie prophetically things succeeding one another But they here signifie indeed things that synchronize For the Worshippers in the Temple and at the Altar are measured to be preserved from those evils which they in the outward Court do suffer by its being trodden down and are the same with the two Witnesses in the next verse the Moses and Aaron or those that officiate in the ruling or judicial and in the Priestly offices The Worshippers in the Temple signifie the first because there was the Law in the Ark on which the Divine Presence was seated in the Mercy-seat as on a Throne of Judgment to be consulted with and the Worshippers at the Altar do plainly enough signifie the latter Ans. That things coexistent together may signifie things succeeding in time one after another may appear from that Analogy Space has to Time and they partake so much in the common similitude of one nature that Spatium signifies as well Spatium Temporis as Spatium Loci as is abundantly manifest in reading Latin Authours And as in the Extension of Space or Place one part is out of another not confounded one with another and upon some respect one part counted in site before another another after So it is also in the succeeding parts of Time And as the parts of Space are measurable or numerable so are the parts of Time And there may be the same proportion betwixt a part of Space to a part of Space that there is betwixt a part of Time to a part of Time and alternatim So that even from hence we may be satisfied that the Area of the Inner and the Outer Court without any Incongruity may be made prophetically to signifie things succeeding one another If the Inner Court have an aptitude to denote the Church in her purer condition and the Outer in her less pure as questionless they have and she be first in that first condition and after in the second it 's plain that the Inner and Outer Court though they be coexistent yet have an aptness to signifie things succeeding one another And if the Area of the Inner Court bear the same proportion to the Area of the Outer that the Time of the Purity of the Church to the Time of her lesser Purity by easie Analogy the Proportion of the Outer Area to the Inner will give us the proportion of the time of the less Purity of the Church to the time of her Purity These things will be whether we will or no. And these significancies are so congruous and natural that they are ordinarily hit upon Thus Cornelius à lapide on Ezekiel says Atrium gentium non mensuratum significat innumerabilem gentium multitudinem Ecclesiae adjungendam And H. N. makes the Sanctum and the Sanctum Sanctorum two Dispensations the one following the other and favourably interprets the latter of the Dispensation of his own Followers Also the three immured Intervals of Space in Cebes his Table signifie three States or Moral conditions of men succeeding one another in time And the seven Churches in the Apocalypse though coexistent together yet the spirit of Prophecy makes use of them to signifie seven succeeding States of the Church Catholick and Apostolick And the parts of Nebuchadnezzar's Image he saw in his dream though view'd altogether represented notwithstanding four successive Kingdoms according to the number of the Metals it consisted of And lastly Aretas even upon this place by the Inner Court understands the Iudaical Church by the Outer the Christian Wherefore it is very congruous to understand though they be States in succession the Inner Court of the pure State of the Christian Church and the Outer of her State Apostatical But to make the Inner and Outer Court to signifie things that do synchronize spoils those elegant Analogies of Time and Place which I noted above For as the Outer Court's dimensions lye out from the Inner so the Time that is signified by the one should be distant from the Time that is signified by the other and should by no means synchronize which is as gross and harsh as to fansie the stones that paved the Inner and Outer Court laid confusedly and intermixtly one by another Besides making the things signified here by the Inner and Outer Court to synchronize makes the Prophecy of the opened Book to commence no higher than the beginning of the seventh or last Seal Which is a strange mutilation or if you will decollation of the Prophecy of the opened Book whenas the Prophecy of the seven Churches and of the sealed Book and it was a point of their perfection to doe so commenced from the beginning of the Church Wherefore this is a surmise very absurd And the Absurdity still appears greater in that the proper undertaking of the Opened-book-prophecy is to set out the affairs of the Church as the other of the sealed Book the affairs of the Empire And yet thus it would omit the chiefest and most notable times thereof viz. the Primitive Times and the Victory of Christianity over Paganism For if this present Vision begin so low as the seventh Seal the next of the Woman cloathed with the Sun must do so too or else it would be a gross neglect of order and method not to begin the Prophecy of the opened Book with a Vision that had as high an Epocha of time as any Which considerations may assure any intelligent Reader that the Remarker is enormously out in making the things signified by the Inner and Outer Court to synchronize Such a monstrous mistake as
There is a very gross and false Principle laid down in this Remark if I mistake not the Remarker's meaning Which is this That Christ's Kingdom cannot be there where things are ordered by any external or Political Rules or Laws in either Church or State but merely by the immediate guidance and motion of God's Spirit That the Spirit of God will assist in making these Laws and will actuate and invigorate both Rulers and People with a sensible and living relish of them to observe them and see them observed in those excellent times that are to come I willingly grant But that other Principle I look upon as proceeding either from a deep or high melancholly I know not which to call it or if the Remarker can bear it a Religious delirancy And it is a most enormous piece of Ingratitude against the Holy and Benign Providence of God to speak so vilifying of the Reformation as he does If the Reformed people as they are called had taken half the pains to spy out every one his own faults and sincerely with imploring the Divine assistence had endeavoured to mend them that they have taken to spy faults in Governours and Governments we should have had a glorious Church of it by this time But spiritual Pride has laid waste their Understandings The Kingdom of Christ can very well subsist without such Enthusiastick whimsies Consider Apoc. 12. v. 10. Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ. Which is the Triumph of Christianity over Paganism And yet the Primitive Christians lived under external Laws and Rules both Spiritual and Civil Vers. 19. This Verse ought to begin the next Chapter it being the beginning of the Prophecy of the opened Book The Temple of God was opened in Heaven when Christian Worship was received and autorized by the Emperours and the Ark of the Testament was seen in the Temple when Christian Laws became received by autority to become the Laws of the Empire and the lightnings and thunderings and voices signifie the great changes in the world by shaking the powers thereof that should be made thereby Ans. What a marvellous Remark is this that this verse is the beginning of the Prophecy of the opened Book Whenas it is said ch 10 11. upon Iohn's eating the opened Book Thou must prophesie again before many Peoples and Nations and Tongues and Kings The Vision of the Inner and the Outer Court the two Witnesses their slaughter and resurrection is it no Prophecy What an affected blindness is this not to see so plain a Truth Wherefore that Vision most certainly begins the Prophecy of the opened Book which Iohn is said to swallow and thereupon that he was to prophesie before many peoples c. Which words this Vision immediately follows And again what a violence is this to make the opening of the Temple of God in Heaven no part of this first Vision but to tear it off from the rest of the Vision and make it part of the following contrary to the autority of the best Copies and most approved Expositors of the Apocalypse There must be a strange prejudice that should hurry any one upon such an outrage it being also repugnant to what is said in the same verse which he thus unnaturally breaks off And there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an Earthquake and great Hail which is plainly a description of matters concerning the seventh Vial where ch 16. it is said upon the seventh Vial being poured out into the Air That there were voices and thunders and lightnings and an Earth-quake and a great Hail indeed the Hailstones being of a talent weight The concurrence of these five Phenomena voices thunderings lightnings Earthquake and a great Hail being found here and no where else in all the Apocalypse saving under the seventh Vial what can it be but an Indication of their synchronizing or signifying the same things So that this cannot be the beginning of the ensuing Vision or Prophecy but the conclusion of this comprized in this eleventh Chapter And still it is more impossible for as much as it is certain that the Vision beginning in the next Chapter containeth the Persecutions of the Primitive Church as we shall see anon whence all in the foregoing Chapter must necessarily belong to that first Vision And therefore this Interpretation of the Temple of God being opened in Heaven is exceeding extravagant For this comes to pass after the seventh Angel begins to sound which is a thousand and odd hundred years after the Christian Worship was received by the Emperours We may note also that the pretty Interpretation he makes of this passage depends upon a Political sense of Heaven which he rejected before and may better doe it now it being not likely to signifie any thing more than merely the place where the Temple was seen as Heaven is taken in the following Vision Where certainly it signifies not Symbolically but Topically or Locally viz. the Air from which Region the Thunders and Lightenings were seen as well as the Temple of God appeared there As it is also said chap. 16. that upon the Angels pouring his Vial into the Air there were thunderings and lightenings which confirms to us that Heaven here which the Remarker would interpret Symbolically signifies onely Topically and denotes the Air. Chap. 12. Vers. 1. THe Woman cloathed with the Sun signifies the Church her being established in a Heavenly station by the Emperours receiving the Faith the supreme power being signified by the Sun and so autorizing and defending the same by their autority and is not applicable to the Sun of Righteousness farther than he is owned by the Emperours or worldly Powers to be Prince of the World for she is beautified with this cloathing by her being in Heaven But she was before her exaltation to that station as much cloathed with the light of the Gospel or the Sun of righteousness and her Crown of twelve Stars does signifie as much as her being cloathed with the Sun in that sense Ans. That the Expositor's interpretation of the Woman travailing in Birth and pained to be delivered is true this alone may assure us viz. because it is very natural and such as is hit upon by all Interpreters in a manner I may add also necessary it being incredible that the Opened-book-prophecy prefiguring the fate of the Church should omit the state of Persecution the Primitive Christians were under Which if not here is no where figured out in the Opened-book-prophecy Whence it is plain that as the Vision of the measured Inner Court prefigures the purity and unapostatized state of the primitive Church so this of the Woman in the throes of Childbirth her sharp persecutions under the Pagan Emperours But now for the Remarker's exposition besides that it is tautological it presently repeating what was understood according to him by the Temple opened in Heaven that it is false appears 1. Because it deprives
as the Beast was revived when the former Politick state of the Empire was restored in the Ten-horned Beast so when the Pope created a new succession of Emperours it then became a complete Image of the former Beast So that the Beast and his Image are not so denominated from the affairs of Religion but from the Civil state of the Empire yet so as to include Religion as it is complicated with the civil affairs Ans. Here the Remarker again misseth the mark quite by not taking heed to that inviolable Rule in expounding the Opened-book-prophecy viz. that it sets out the state of the Empire in reference to matters of Religion and the pure worship of God and Christ and that these Expositions are the surest that respect that For what cares the Spirit of Prophecy for taking notice of the changes of secular States and Kingdoms but so far as God's true Church and the Purity of his Worship are concerned and consequently those that worship him according to the Laws he has appointed The Pagan Emperours of Rome were Pontifices Maximi as well as Emperours and the Pagan Religion part of the Laws of the Empire it being enacted and ratified by the Supreme Powers thereof as the civil Laws were Wherefore the Pagan Religion equally if not more being the very life and soul of the seven-headed red Dragon that is of the Pagan Empire which would cease to be the red Dragon if the Pagan Religion ceased than the Civil Laws themselves when the Pagan Religion was in a sort abolished by the sixth head of the red Dragon his turning Christian namely the Emperour Constantine c. Certainly that was the Head and then that was wounded to death and wounded to death in the fullest sense that the Opened-book-prophecy can be truly thought to take notice of as chiefly to aim at For what is the Church concerned in the affairs of Kingdoms but so far as they either hinder or further the pure worship of God and Christ And in the same sense that the Head was wounded to death is the Beast said to be wounded in this verse by the sword namely in the red Dragon's fight with Michael and the Martyrs the battel being described in the immediately foregoing Chapter and therefore where should he get his wound but there For the Martyrs sticking close to the truth of the word which is the sword of the spirit got the victory over the Beast they loving not their lives unto the Death Add unto all this that the Beast could not revive before his head wounded to death was cured Neque enim sanatio istaec factum aliquod posterius fuit sed ipsa Nativitas Bestiae novissimae as Mr. Mede judiciously concludes from the genuine sense of the Text of the Prophecy But in this civil or secular sense that the Remarker drives at his head was not cured till Carolus Magnus was made the Western Emperour But he is represented in this Vision in the beginning of it as with ten crowned Horns so with his head cured Such he was when he emerged out of the Sea he was revived again from his deadly wound Therefore the Epocha of this Vision as I noted before commenceth as low as the reign of Carolus Magnus according to the Remarker and the 42 Months of the Beast must end after two thousand years after Christ. And besides this according to the Remarker's sense of the reviving of the Beast and Beast's Head will continue dead near three hundred years after the body of the Beast was revived This it is to attempt to unlock the Apocalypse without that excellent Key the Rule I have so often mentioned Chap. 14. Vers. 7. IF the zeal of those Greek Emperours named were not a sufficient fulfilling of the monition of the first Angel the overrunning of the Empire by the Saracens would be far more proper to make it up both in regard of time and other respects than the subduing by the Turks But neither of them are signified being Visions belonging to the sealed Book Nor needs there any farther fulfilling than what was by those Greek Emperours Ans. The Expositor's words on this verse are these That this Angelical Monition was the most loudly and earnestly urged upon the Christian World at the dreadfull siege and storming of Constantinople and subduing the whole Eastern Church and Empire to the Turk Which makes neither the plague of the Saracens nor Turks to belong to the Opened-book-prophecy but lets them keep their place in the Prophecy of the sealed Book But implies onely that the voice of that Angel is not confined to the Greek Emperours onely but may be stretched to as many either secular Potentates or Prelates or other eminently zealous men and observant of the severe judgment of God against the Idolatrous Greek Church For ought I know those early Evangelici may come in for a share here who were Preachers of the everlasting Gospel that which was purely contained in Scripture and declared against the Idolatries and Superstitions of the Church of Rome and sealed their Testimony with their bloud I mean the Waldenses and Albigenses Who if they made any use of the judgments of God by the Saracens on the Empire as well as others might do of his judgments by the Turks and it can be made out I am not against it And from the end of the Albigensian War which was finished Anno 1242 to the taking of Constantinople which was in the year 1453 in that Interval there were many famous men declaring for the everlasting Gospel against the Antichristian doctrines and practices and they making the Pope of Rome the Antichrist could not but denounce this approaching judgment You may see their names in Alstedius and David Pareus And upon the taking of Constantinople by the Turk the voice of this first Angel would be louder in preaching the everlasting Gospel and denouncing the fall of Antichrist or Babylon till the second Angel could tell the news that it was done See Alstedius his Chronologia testium veritatis where you may easily make Collections to this purpose Vers. 8. The fall of Babylon viz. the commencement of it is most aptly applied to the separation of the Albigenses and Waldenses from the communion of it to which may be added the separation of the Greek Church from it before the subduing of the Empire by the Turks But to apply this to the Reformation will clash with the admonition of the third Angel Ans. The Waldenses and Albigenses could not be the Angel that declared that Babylon was fallen but were a people that were aggrieved that it stood but were an holy good people and truly Evangelical and preachers of the Everlasting Gospel and denouncers of the judgments of God against Babylon predicting that it would fall and therefore belong to the first Angel And though Mr. Mede would draw the affairs of the Waldenses and Albigenses to the voice of the second Angel yet he has not the confidence to say
that their appearing was the fall of Babylon but onely that as he phrases it Iam nunc ruinae Babylonis jaciuntur fundamenta And he would countenance his application from the very place that Babylon is fallen is fallen alludes to Isa. ch 21. Because at the time that Isaias uttered that Prophecy the Medes cast off the yoke of the Assyrians and building their imperial City Ecbatana under their new King Dejoces laid the foundation of an Empire fatal to Babylon as well as to Nineve But supposing that so yet it is plain in the Vision that the Prophet Esay's Imagination was not carried to the time of Dejoces and the building of Ecbatana but to that very festival night that Belsazer celebrated in which the Medes and Persians took Babylon And it might very well then be said Babylon is fallen is fallen But the other time being about 150 years before if it had been said that then Babylon was fallen it had been a falshood and so it is in the News of the second Angel if the Angel respect the Times of the Albigenses and Waldenses and say that then Babylon was fallen it is plainly an untruth it standing tight about 400 years after their appearing Nor can his so pronouncing be excused by this passage in Esay as has been plainly proved See Munster Vatablus and Cornelius à lapide upon that Vision of Esaias But now how the separation of the Greek Church has any place here I understand not But if the breaking of that short union such as it was of the Greek Church with the Roman be reckoned to this partial fall of Babylon how much more is the Reformation begun by Luther which is nearer to that affair of the Greek Church than that to the Albigensian to be reckoned thereto when so many Countries Principalities and Kingdoms fell off from the Papacy Wherefore this voice of the second Angel is most fitly applied to the Reformation as the Rising also of the Witnesses the Rising of the Witnesses being the fall of Babylon And it is said expresly at the Rising of the Witnesses that a tenth part of the City fell viz. of the City Babylon Which being not a final or total Ruine of Babylon but as it were the Primity thereof and at least a tenth part thereof falling at the Reformation it is a most evident argument that the Reformation is the Rising of the Witnesses and this very fall of Babylon which is with that Joy and Triumph declared by this second Angel What can be more clear And therefore this joyfull Annunciation of the fall of Babylon corresponds with the Doxology of the Elders upon the sounding of the seventh Trumpet ch 11. Nor does this at all clash with the Admonition of the third Angel as we shall presently see Vers. 11. The misapplying the Monitions of the two former Angels hath run the third out of distance to signifie the Condemnation to Hell-Torments which is peculiar to the day of judgment whenas plainly here is signified a judgment in this life For their torments are said to be in the presence of the holy Angels and by reason of the suffering them the Worshippers of the Beast have no rest day nor night And it 's also said Here is the patience of the Saints viz. in bearing what they shall suffer from the Worshippers of the Beast enraged with these Torments So that doubtless this Monition of the Angel does signifie the plagues of the Vials Ans. The Monition of the third Angel is not run out of due distance nor reaches to the last judgment when the wicked shall be cast into Hell but is onely a peremptory declaration that those that worship the Beast and his Image shall be so served at the last day at the general day of judgment But this does not excuse them from unquietness and unpeaceableness of mind in this life And that that final Judgment is to be inflicted in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb is no argument that it is a judgment in this life because the Holy Angels as also the Saints Martyrs especially will be Assistents to the Lamb on his Tribunal at the last day when he shall pronounce that dreadfull sentence Go ye accursed into everlasting Fire c. All Expositors agree that Infernal Torments are here understood by being tormented with fire and brimstone and the smoak thereof ascending up for ever and ever But that which follows concerns the unpeaceableness of mind and unquietness of conscience in them that have any conscience left in them if they worship the Beast and his Image by reason that the voice of this Angel will be so loud and clear touching the Idolatrousness of the Church of Rome and the Unsalvableness of those in her Communion Which will the more enrage the Pontifician party to persecute and necessitate others that have any conscience left in them to suffer any persecution rather than hazard their own salvation and turn Idolaters This will be the most eminently fulfilled I mean the preaching of the third Angel under the effusion of the fourth Vial in the Mystical sense thereof though it has in some measure been fulfilled all along the Reformation and may reach through all the Vials by a Geniconaea but by an Idiconaea more peculiarly respect the fourth But from hence is that which follows Here is the patience of the Saints c. So that the Remarker and Expositor here agree That the Monition of the third Angel respects the plagues of the Vials in some sort Vers. 15. The Angel coming out of the Temple does here and elsewhere signifie their coming from the Throne of God where they received his commands and justice and judgment being the habitation of his Throne the righteousness of those commands may be farther signified Also they being ministring Spirits attending at the Throne signified by the seven Lamps burning before it the Temple is their proper abode till they be sent out But what ground there is to make the Temple here to represent the Church I do not apprehend Ans. This conceit of the Remarker would be the more plausible if the Angel had been said to come from the Throne But every one that went into the Temple went not into the Sanctum Sanctorum That was a privilege of the High Priest onely And that all Angels have the honour to attend the Throne is a point the Remarker will never be able to prove Nor that the Temple here signifies the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereof in that strict sense For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifies as large as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred Templum which contains the outward and inward Court also And Peganius an excellent Critick in the Jewish learning touching this Angel coming out of the Temple says It was anciently a custome among the Iews out of the Temple to appoint labourers for the first Harvest and to signifie to them when they should begin Certainly those
founded yet not excluding an allusion to such qualities in any of the stones as will bear an apt application But straining here to give a particular account of them all hath caused a strange luxuriancy of fancy Ans. To slubber over the Mystery of the twelve stones with those two significations onely in general of splendour and solidity is again to make the Spirit of Prophecy to trifle And being thus niggardly as to admit of but two properties it is still worse in that one is less proper for a Wall which is a structure for defence rather than for beauty and ornament But take them both in if this were the business one kind of stone would have served better than all twelve and that is the Diamond which out-does them all for solidity and splendour What stone so hard and invincible as it What stone so beautifull and splendid But yet in a better mood he seems inclined to admit of an allusion to such qualities in any of the stones as will bear an apt application But if in any why not in all He saith straining here to give a particular account of all hath caused a strange luxuriancy of fancy But how can that fancy be luxuriant that is not exorbitant but keeps within a prescribed compass and takes notice of no virtues in any of these stones but what tend to the safety and security of the City to preserve the Philadelphian State therein and hinder it from lapsing into the Laodicean But that is the very thing that the Remarker has a pique at the presumption of the Expositor for that he would give an account of every stone in the Wall they several of them supposing and so aptly complying with his Hypothesis of making the Philadelphian state and New Ierusalem state all one and the Laodicean to succeed so that he cannot endure it and upon that account calls that strained fancy in the Expositor which is strickt and unexceptionable Reason as any one that examines it without prejudice will find it Vers. 23. Christ's Kingdom being Spiritual the Kings or Rulers there will rule by a Spiritual Power by which they will be also Priests such as the twenty four Elders are to the four Beasts and such as they and the four Beasts to those they shall reign over And therefore to suppose as here is done that Monarchs or crowned Heads who rule by worldly power shall be Kings or Rulers in Christ's Kingdom shews little understanding of the state of it or something worse Of that Lordship which the Kings of the Gentiles exercise and of their being called Benefactors our Saviour says It shall not be so among you but he that is chief as he that serveth Luk. 22.25 And their profession of Christianity while they rule by the same Worldly and Political Government cannot make them Christian but rather the more complete Antichristian Rulers But the Autority that those Spiritual Kings and Priests will have in the Millennial State over those they govern may be likened to that Rule and sway which the Nobility Gentry and Clergy have over the Commonalty saving the great difference that whereas the one is gained by worldly means and managed for worldly interest to the much grievance and oppression of the people the autority of the other will be exercised with a true Christian spirit to the full satisfaction and joy of those who are governed and so will cause the fulfilling of what was told at our Saviour's Birth of great joy and gladness that should be to all people and of that Doxology ch 5.13 of every Creature in Heaven and on Earth Blessing honour glory and power c. Ans. This is one of the oddest Remarks of the whole pack We will therefore consider each passage therein more strictly Christ's Kingdom being spiritual says the Remarker the Kings or Rulers there will rule by a spiritual power by which they will be also Priests Here we are first to consider in what regard the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth may be called spiritual in such sort as to be inconsistent with its being a Kingdom Political which is settled by Councils and ordered by Laws and Decrees For certainly the Kingdom of Christ was a spiritual Kingdom from the Apostles times and onward at least till the Christian Religion became the Religion of the Empire and yet the affairs of the Church were regulated by Laws and established by Councils There was at least twenty Councils before Constantine's time So that the Church was both a Spiritual and Political Kingdom of Christ at once In what regard therefore was it spiritual It was spiritual first in regard of its Erection which was not by an arme of flesh or worldly forces as other Kingdoms ordinarily are raised but by the Spirit of God in powerfull preaching of the Gospel and in doing of Miracles Secondly It is an holy spiritual Kingdom antistoechal to the Kingdom of evil spirits against which this Kingdom of Christ was erected to rescue us from their Temptations and the thraldom of sin and wickedness under them And St. Paul declares Ephes. 6.12 That we wrestle not against flesh and bloud as if we had any carnal or worldly design of wrestling the dominion of the World into our own hands that we might enjoy the World but against Principalities against Powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the present Princes of the dark World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syrus legit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Grotius against the evil spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the airy Regions which is an Hellenism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answering to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which often signifies no more than the air And Drusius on the place cites one of the Commentators on Liber Aboth who tells us A terra usque ad firmamentum omnia plena esse turmis praefectis infra plurimas esse creaturas laedentes accusantes omnésque stare ac volare in Aere c. Which shews plainly that Drusius is of the same mind with Grotius In this sense therefore is the Kingdom of Christ a Spiritual Kingdom in that by the working of the Spirit in his servants it wrestles with opposes and finally overcomes the Kingdom of evil spirits tempters to all manner of wickedness and debauchery under which the Souls of men were enslaved Thirdly and lastly The Kingdom of Christ is a Spiritual Kingdom because the proper aim and scope thereof is merely spiritual viz. the end and aim of it is not worldly and temporal things but things spiritual and eternal The Polity Laws and administration thereof by those that have the Spirit of God tend to this scope that all the Subjects thereof may advance in the state of Regeneration by the power and working of the Spirit of God in them here that they may be Heirs of that Heavenly invisible spiritual and eternal Kingdom in the world to come Whatever more than this is imagined of the spirituality of Christ's Kingdom will end I fear
in blind Enthusiastick Huffs and sudden Blasts that will tear all into Anarchy But we proceed Christ's Kingdom being spiritual says he the Kings and Rulers there will rule by a spiritual power Why so they will though it be such a Polity as I have described the Governours being endued with the Spirit of God and acting for the abovesaid spiritual ends and being autorized so to act by the Laws of Christ's Kingdom which their inward frame of spirit heartily closeth with and assures them of the truth and equity of them as also all the people of the New Ierusalem who will be found willing to subject themselves thereto in this day of Christ's power Is not this plainly and fully to act and rule by a spiritual power Nor does this ruling thus by a spiritual power presently make them Priests properly so called Christ is our King as well as our Priest And so there may be as well Spiritual Kings in his Millennial Empire as Priests according to the sense above declared they ruling and reigning in the same Christian spirit and for the same Spiritual ends that the Priests officiate for But to illustrate his meaning how they will be Priests he farther adds That they will be such as the twenty four Elders are to the four Beasts and such as they and the four Beasts will be to those they shall reign over But there is so much light in the Illustration that it discovers the darkness of his own errour For the description of the twenty four Elders is this chap. 4. That there were twenty four 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thrones and on these Thrones twenty four Elders in white raiment and there were golden Crowns on their Heads What can be more expressive of Kings than Thrones and golden Crowns and of holy and righteous Kings than the white raiment they are cloathed with Which in all likelihood is white silk which is called soft raiment in Matthew and said to be fit for Kings houses But that it is left indifferent it is the more capable of having some allusion to the Priesthood likewise but then with a complication of Holiness in these Millennial Kings that they had the power of Kings and the holiness of Priests and were supreme Heads of the Church in Ecclesiastick causes also in their own dominions For the Kings in these times will not be so blind as to be led by the nose by the Priests but see what is fitting themselves and accordingly approve of it and the Priests will easily appeal to them they themselves being faithfull also to the true end of Christ's Kingdom If these Kings were Priests properly so called or Kings properly so called were not here meant instead of golden Crowns on their Heads they would have had golden Girdles girding their white raiment Wherefore it is plain that the twenty four Elders are properly Kings in respect of the four Beasts But they are Kings onely over the four Beasts the four Beasts comprizing the whole Israel of God that is the whole Kingdom of Christ in the Millennium And therefore the four Beasts are Subjects nor are they Kings or Rulers over other people or Nations out of the Kingdom of Christ which is rashly and without ground asserted by the Remarker Wherefore the Remarker vainly insults over the Expositor in the following words And therefore to suppose as here is done that Monarchs or crowned Heads who rule by worldly power shall be Kings and Rulers c. This is to fly in the face of the very Text and pull the golden Crowns off the Heads of the four and twenty Elders For they are crowned Heads and reign and rule in Christ's Kingdom But that he may seem to have some wit in his wrath he would by crowned Heads understand such Monarchs as rule by worldly power But I have already demonstrated that the Monarchs in the Millennial Polity rule by a Spiritual power and that a Political and Spiritual Government are not terms inconsistent one with another nor need I again repeat it Whence it is manifest that the Remarker out of the ignorance of the state of Christ's Kingdom or something worse an affected singularity in high-flown Notions has erred in so material a point But he holds on to maintain it from that saying of our Saviour Luk. 22.25 which is the same with Mat. 20.25 but neither are any Reprehension of just Political Government which is managed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks Politic. lib. 3. cap. 7. but of that which Aristotle there calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of any kind of Government as he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tyranny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a digression from the Regal Power and defines it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Monarchy constituted for the good of the Monarch which with Aristotle's leave it should be but I suppose he means exclusively to the good of the publick 'T is this our Saviour blames if any thing here in Monarchy not Monarchy it self merely as Political But mainly he spoke this to upbraid the ignorance of those of his disciples that were ambitious of high places in his Kingdom here on Earth they foolishly conceiting they should have the pleasure and riches whereby they may be inabled to be gracious Benefactors and splendour of worldly Potentates This concerns the Apostles themselves and the succeeding Bishops which were to be Rulers of the Church and therefore is rather a prediction for them than any Prescription to secular Christian Monarchs that should be afterwards the Apostles I say this seems onely to concern and the succeeding Primitive Bishops who were to live in mean rank as to the condition of the world and to care and toil for the good of the Church and bear the brunt of all Persecutions as our Saviour himself dyed for his Church This is the genuine sense of those two places But for such a Monarch as really rules for the good of the Kingdom of Christ that those places any thing concern such a Political Government is a wonderfull groundless conceit and quite out of the Road of Truth As that which follows is either grosly false or impertinent For if he mean that Political Government simply in it self will make a Christian Ruler or a Ruler that professes Christianity rather the more completely Antichristian it is wretchedly false as may appear out of what has been said already But if he mean by Political Government Worldly Government which serves the ends of the World rather than of the Kingdom of Christ this is absolutely impertinent to the present point and contrary to the Hypothesis which is that these Millennial Monarchs rule by such a Political Constitution as best serves the promotion and conservation of Christ's Spiritual Kingdom and best sutes with the Regenerate spirits both of the Governours and Governed Which he keeping to though himself were unregenerate yet is he far from being Antichristian but as it 's said in lower matters Malus homo yet Bonus
there had wanted an Animal to typifie Reason unless you made Man the Type of both and put the Eagle quite out of office Thus crude and broken is the Remarker's conceit in this matter Again There are good Scriptural-phrases produced about the two flying wings of the Seraphins which he will have the same with the third pair of wings of the Beasts but the Application is methinks much of the Hooks For the two flying wings of the Seraphins Esay 6. signifie the readiness and expediteness of their Ministry enjoyn'd by God to the service of his Church whenas he referrs it to the exalting of ones self from a Worldly and Earthly to a Heavenly state Thirdly That seems a precarious groundless conceit or rather false That the Tree of Life was not set in Paradise for Adam to eat of but to play at Chop-cherry with him and to mock him whenas the Text says The Lord commanded the Man saying Of every tree of the Garden thou shalt eat and I hope the Tree of life was one of them The Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast plenary commission if not command to eat of all saving the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil Which had been a mere mocking of Adam if he had no power of eating of the Tree of Life And now fourthly this being a fundamental mistake of the Remarker in the case of Adam the like discovers it self in his conceit touching the Iews and the two Visions of Ezekiel that of the four living Creatures and that other of the Temple God gave no impossible Commands to the Iews But those exquisite descriptions of things touching the Temple by a long and operose Hylasmus and Israelismus set not out what the Iews should have been if they had kept these Ordinances exquisitely but what the Church of Christ would be of which the Iews were a Type in process of time That this is the sense of that Vision the Apocalypse that borrows so many things from it and uses such frequent Allusions to the Temple does sufficiently indicate Nor is there any other sense of the Vision of the four living Creatures as touching the Iews who were not upon condition of legal performances to arrive to that Angelical State that the Christian Church with them will arrive to at last But the Divino-political sense of that Vision which yet is most properly applied to it as repeated in the Apocalypse which relates to the Camp of the Iews a figure of the State of the Christian Church to come is that the Church of God at last will answer the Pattern of the Angelical Kingdom and God's Will will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Fifthly The Name of the City The Lord is there is the very Indication of the state of the New Ierusalem which is a demonstration it was never intended for the Iews under their Legal Dispensation upon any terms Sixthly Ezekiel is not here sent to Prophesie the Ruine of the City and Temple they both having been destroyed fourteen years before But they being destroyed he in this Hylastick and Israelistick way prophesies of the state of the New Ierusalem which the Apocalypse also describes Seventhly therefore The Iews their making a golden Calf and craving a King whatever other inconveniences it may cause to them it could not make them forfeit that which was never intended them in that state Eighthly If the Beasts be the Governed and the four and twenty Elders the Governours how come the Beasts to be upon the Throne and the twenty four Elders onely about it Ninthly The Wheels and living Creatures being not moved but as acted by the spirit does not signifie an Earthly state in them but the most Divine and Heavenly viz. an Vnselfwilledness in them That they have no Self excursions of mind or will but that the Spirit of life from the eternal mind is the perpetual principle of their motion and rest Tenthly That the four Beasts are not upon the Throne I have shew'd upon that place of the Apocalypse and that he contradicts himself in saying so I observed even now in the eighth Note Eleventhly The burning Coals which are Prunae do not signifie the Spirit of Elias in Men but the Seraphick Spirit in Angels as Seraphin from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has its denomination viz. from burning And the Seraphin are counted of the higher sort of Angels And as for Lamps they are in the description of the scene of the New Ierusalem Apoc. 4. Now for the Temple I say Twelfthly That the whole Vision of the Temple concerns the Christian Church and therefore that command to the Prophet chap. 43.10 11. respects especially the Thyatirian and Sardian Interval thereof that they may repent of all their sins and corruptions and so make what haste they can toward that excellent State of the Church which is prefigured by the Vision of the Temple Thirteenthly As for the Numbers 25000 5000 and 500 Ezek. chap. 45. and 666 in the Apocalypse nothing more can be signified by the former viz. those in Ezekiel than that the New Ierusalem will gratifie even the external man also and his outward senses which the Quinary number does denote namely that even the outward State of the Church then will be rich and glorious according to what is likewise prophesied of in the Apocalypse that the Kings of the Earth shall bring their honour and glory into it And it is the encouraging Prediction of Christ himself Seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all worldly good things shall be added thereto Which will most amply be fulfilled in the Millennial Empire of Christ which is that eminent Kingdom of God upon Earth And for that other Number 666 it is not set down to signifie the most complete carnal politick State but to be a certain character of the Pontifician Hierarchy the two-horned Beast who are discovered to have affected the number 25 which is the root of 666. That is the main drift of that Number though deluding their followers with pleasing Objects of sense may haply be aimed at thereby also Fourteenthly The 18000 measures which is the compass of Ezekiel's City agreeing with the Perimeter of the New Ierusalem whose Solid or Cubick measure is 12000 furlongs in the Apocalypse the true and usefull meaning of that is to assure us that Ezekiel's Vision of the Temple is a Prophecy of the State of the Church which is set out by S. Iohn in his description of the New Ierusalem that men may make no vagaries into any other fancies as the Remarker has done here And the Wisedom and Providence of God is admirable herein Besides if that Externality or Superficiality were aimed at which the Remarker would have signified the measure of the Superficies of the Cube not the Perimeter would have been set down and made use of Fifteenthly The difference of the Mosaical Laws and those of Ezekiel's Temple the greater exactness of these above the other is
not that the Iews may obtain the blessedness of the New-Ierusalem state by a legal performance of them which as I noted above had been but a mockery but farther to intimate that the Temple-Vision is a Prophecy of the Christian State of greater perfection than that of the Iews though prefigured here as in the Apocalypse by Matters and Ordinances belonging to the Temple And lastly Though the Remarker as to his main scope is most certainly in a mistake yet his Misconceit is such as it was not for every ordinary Genius to hit upon and he has ever and anon decked it with sundry piously sounding Sentences and Scripture phrases though they had not the luck to be rightly applied And this may be an Accession to his former commendableness that he abates something of his wonted stifness and is content to let what he has said to go for a conjecture onely Vers. 14. To make all People and Nations to signifie some of all People and Nations is a making too bold with the Text. But the words will be absolutely true of all Nations within the extent of Christ's Kingdom and in some degrees true of all the other Nations who will doe a kind of Homage to him by the walking in the light of the New Ierusalem and bringing their glory and honour into it That manner in which this is supposed to be fulfilled between the time of Constantine and the Apostacy is such as does in no manner agree with the state of Christ's Kingdom as is shewed in Remarks on the Exposition of the Revelation Of the four sentences supposed here to be represented the first and last might have been spared For here is onely signified the Judgment of the Beast which includes the little Horn and the settling of Christ in his Kingdom on Earth And the assigning the Kingdom to him besides the settling of him in it is an insignificant distinction Ans. The fore part of this Remark is so slight that the best Answering of it is to slight it And as for that which follows and were more material if it were true viz. That the State of the Church betwixt Constantine and the Apostacy is in no manner agreeing with the State of Christ's Kingdom it is contradictious to the very Visions of the Apocalypse chap. 12.10 Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ. Which is upon Michael's overcoming the Dragon Which all men in their wits that consider these things understand of the Christians deliverance from their Pagan Persecutours by Constantine And I have shown all the affected Paradoxes of the Remarker how vain how groundless and false they are in my Answer to his former Remarks on the Exposition of the Apocalypse And lastly as for the four Sentences The first is very pertinent and significant it being so agreeable to the Crown given to him on the white Horse Apoc. 6.2 The second and third are acknowledged by the Remarker and the fourth is made good from the tenth verse of this present Chapter where it is said the Iudgment was set and the books were opened Which answers to Apoc. 20.11 12. and Expositors make the Judgment to reach to the last day here in Daniel as well as it does there in the Apocalypse Vision 3. Vers. 8 9. THough Seleucus was not one of the four notable Horns yet he with his Predecessors in the same Kingdom were one of them And as there was many changes of the line in the Macedonian Kingdom yet all made but one Horn so the Seleucidae with their Predecessors make but one Horn in the Babylonian Kingdom And the Seleucidae and Lagidae being the two chief Kingdoms which succeeded Alexander of which there is so large a Prophecy under the Titles of the King of the North and the King of the South it 's strange that one of them should prove none of the four Horns his Kingdom was branched into And it 's yet more strange that the little Horn which was to arise in the latter time of those Kingdoms should be applied to Seleucus who arose soon after the beginning of them Ans. The Remarker seems not to mind what he says in this Remark For how could Seleucus with his Predecessors make one Horn in the Babylonian Kingdom when no Horn can be here meant but what succeeded the great Horn Alexander the Great And never any one made the Babylonian Kingdom one of the four Horns But by help of Ptolemy Seleucus did not onely recover his Satrapy of Babylon which Antigonus would have deprived him of but in a short time vanquishing both Antigonus and his Son made himself Master of Asia as well as of Syria and Babylonia and therefore himself began the race of the Kings of the North which is so famous in the Prophecy of Daniel though he was by no means one of the four notable Horns that immediately succeeded Alexander nor so reputed by Historians The thing is so nor can it be helpt But he may be a remoter successour of Alexander in that he succeeded Antigonus in the main of his Dominions and so may be fansied as of the line of one of the immediate notable Horns successours of Alexander though this be more than needs And as for the other difficulty that is raised how the little Horn that was to arise in the latter time of those Kingdoms should be applied to Seleucus who arose soon after the beginning of them we are to observe how the Angel v. 23. by an Idiconoea falls upon Antiochus Epiphanes who is but one part of the little Horn but hugely to be noted by reason of the affairs of the Church of God But expounding the Vision by way of a Geniconoea the little Horn will take in Seleucus and reach to the end of that line of the Syrian Kings or Kings of the North. See the Expositor's Notes on this Vision and there you will find several Examples of Geniconoea's and Idiconoea's and thence understand the Reasonableness and Solidity of the answer to this difficulty Vers. 26. I am inclined to think that as the description of Antiochus Epiphanes is agreed to be Typical of Antichrist so the 2300 days have a prophetical as well as a literal sense Else it had been a more ready way and more agreeable to the general course of the Prophecies to have computed the time by Prophetical days Also the saying that the Vision is for many days that is a long time does seem to import the same For whenas Haggai says Yet a little while and the Lord shall shake Heaven and Earth c. and Malachy That the Lord whom ye seek will suddenly come to his Temple c. where the Prophets express a longer time by a little while and suddenly it 's strange that a shorter time here should be called a long time So that these 2300 days may prophetically signifie some time of the Millennium that may properly signifie the cleansing of the Sanctuary For after
inauspiciously to make cunning Traficking properly Whoredom Let him produce any Lexicographer that will tell us that Traficking signifies Whoring in any approved Authour sacred or profane and a farther answer shall be framed In the mean time to one that will say any thing it is fit to answer nothing Cunning Traficking may be akin to thieving but how it is to simple Whoring I see not Secondly The seventy years Tyre is forgotten and lyes in Ruines cannot be understood of the seventy years of the Babylonish Kingdom For then Tyre should be taken in the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's reign whenas it was not taken by him till the 4136 year of the Iulian Period which is about 30 years from the beginning of the Babylonian Kingdom as you may see in Petavius his De Doctrina Temporum Thirdly What a vain conceit it is to make the Christian Caesars part of the sixth Head of the Beast I have shewn upon his foregoing Remarks To make them part of the sixth Head is to make them Idolatrous which is a perfect contradiction to the Vision which makes eight Kings but onely seven Heads of the Beast and all of them Idolatrous Wherefore one of these eight Kings must not be Idolatrous which were the Primitive Christian Caesars who were the seventh King of the eight Fourthly Rome was Idolatrous before it was Christian and turned Idolatrous again when it became Paganochristian and Whoredom is the true Symbol of Idolatry known to all wherefore the Harlot though she was silent awhile in the time of the pure Christian Caesars which were the seventh King yet when that time expired she might sing again like a Harlot Nor does this at all hinder but that this Vision is Typical of Rome-Antichristian this stroke setting out more exquisitely the Paganochristianism of their Idolatry that they Paganize again and again play the Harlot by a new Mode of Idolatry which yet is the lively Image of the Idolatry of old Paganism Fifthly As for Pharaoh his being threatened with the death of the uncircumcised we being taught out of the Apocalypse that by Aegypt is understood the Pontifician Hierarchy he must be of a slow sense that does not discern that Prophecy of Ezekiel chap. 32. v. 19. to concern the Papal Hierarchy which pretending to be Holy Church in a special manner and that this Papal Polity is that Kingdom of Christ that shall abide for ever which is the privilege onely of the Millennial Empire of Christ the Prophet upbraids that confidence to this Roman Pharaoh as if he were more holy and pure than other worldly Potentates and therefore says expresly Whom dost thou pass in Beauty Go down and be thou laid with the uncircumcised Thou shalt perish as well as other Heathen or Pagan Polities If there were not some such weighty sense as this under it it is incredible that Pharaoh's lying down in Death with the uncircumcised should be so often repeated in this Prophecy He is reckoned amongst that long list of uncircumcised Potentates whose Empires failed and so must his though he thinks himself in such a special manner a circumcised one and to be that Christian Kingdom which shall never fail Sixthly That the Prince of Tyre is described as adorned with the High Priest's Vestments is evident from hence in that of all the nine pretious stones which are named there is not one of them but what is in the High Priest's Breast-plate but to have named all twelve had been too bare for the nature of a Prophecy of this kind and too sorry a conceit it would be to fansie the Breast-plate without the other cloathing And his naming a little after the anointed Cherub shews that the Prophet's fancy was carried into the Temple into the Sanctum Sanctorum and to the High Priest who alone had power to enter thereinto Seventhly And as to his being said to be in Eden the Garden of God that ill sutes with the City of Tyre built on a hard steril Rock whenas Italy the seat of the Sacerdotal Prince chiefly aimed at is by Geographers and Historians acknowledged to be the very Paradise of Europe Nor does the Remarker mend himself by making the Prince of Tyre the tallest Cedar in the garden of God by referring to Ezek. 31. For that example of the King of Assyria is brought in onely to set out the high Sovereignty and Magnificency of Pharaoh who is a Type of Antichrist that exalteth himself above all that is called God or is worshipped It is a Parable taken up against him And therefore v. 18. it is said Thou shalt lye in the midst of the uncircumcised for all thy pretended Holiness with them that be slain with the sword This is Pharaoh and all his multitude saith the Lord God The whole Parable of the King of Assyria is understood of Pharaoh and consequently of the Papal Hierarchy and it does lively set out the business but it would take up too much room to give an account of it here Eighthly There must be a strange thick callosity on the perceptive faculty of that man that can discern no more by those expressions The anointed Cherub The Holy Mountain of God The walking up and down in the midst of the stones of fire viz. cloathed with the Vestments of Aaron as was above noted than the signification of forsooth an Angelical state as if the Angels in Heaven were anointed Cherubs whenas it plainly refers to the Cherubim in the Sanctum Sanctorum which were anointed and consecrated of an high and mighty Merchant with a company of his cunning Traders and Trafickers if not blew-apron men grown rich and wealthy by their worldly craft and subtilty nothing less than the most holy things in the Temple of God must set out the greasie glory of these fat Burgomasters and their worldly splendour and prosperity arising from their over-reaching arts in Trafick and the thence issuing sordid gain What a homely course conceit is this Ninthly As for the name Sanctuary being applied to Moab the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in both places is of a general signification and signifies any consecrated place whether it be to the God of Israel the true God or otherwise But that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here respects the true God and alludes to the Sanctuary of the God of Israel and therefore denotes some high and mighty Priest principally not a worldly though princely Merchant the anointed Cherub the holy Mountain of God and the Vestments of Aaron a little before mentioned do naturally indicate and that the fancy of the Prophet had not withdrawn it self from the Temple at Ierusalem The allusion to whose most holy things to conceive to be merely to set out the worldly prosperity of a City of subtile cheating Merchants as also to conceive that the comparing of the Wisedom of the Prince of Tyre with that of Daniel and making the Tyrian Prince prefer his own before it doth denote onely his cunning in Trading and not some
I say must be placed in one of the two eminent Ioints of the two foregoing Visions and so as it may serve the like end as that third Vision in Daniel does viz. more fully to represent the matters belonging to some space of time in the foregoing Visions The Remarker himself is agreed that it is not to be placed in the first Ioint Wherefore its natural place is at the second Joint after the Risen Witnesses and partial fall of Babylon For upon this it is presently said The second Wo is past viz. the second Wo-Trumpet or sixth Trumpet This is the first Argument of the Expositor the following arguments are to be considered afterwards Now what says the Remarker to this a If a succeeding Vision says he Prophesie but of the three first of these Monarchies it must of necessity end in the third Joint and does not doe it out of any relation to or contexture with the precedent Prophecies c. But I answer that the succeeding Vision does not Prophesie of the three first of these Monarchies but of the second and third and for that very purpose begins at the first Joint viz. with the Persian Monarchy Nor does end at the third Ioint but with the affairs of Antiochus Epiphanes they respecting the Church of the Iews for whose cause this succeeding Vision is subjoined but the line of this part viz. of the third Kingdom continued near an hundred years longer though I will not gainsay but in some considerable sense the times of Antiochus Epiphanes may be said to be in the close of the third Kingdom But it was the beginning at the first Ioint for the passing to the second and to the third Kingdom which was the design So that we see that this succeeding Vision is in mere subserviency to the fuller illustrating some affairs touching the Church that were to be in the Times of the third Monarchy and therefore has relation to the foregoing Visions as a supplement to some parts thereof and thence is a fit example whereon to infer the like was to be done in the Visions of the Opened book And that which he farther adds of these three Visions being received at such divers times and in such divers manners one being but an Interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream how weak and impertinent is this as if that Wisedom which inspired Daniel could not so attemperate his Visions that they might be thus subservient one to another And besides they are actually placed thus in Daniel's book of Prophecies as the other three are in the Apocalypse So altogether nothing is it that the Remarker has hitherto alledged b But now secondly as to what he says of the first Ioint in the two first Visions in the Opened book that it is a mere Imagination the Inward and the Outward Court synchronizing I have so fully confuted that fond conceit of his in my Answer to his Remarks on that place that I need onely here remind him of it Nothing can be more rude and absurd than that c Thirdly As for the second Ioint it is most certainly an Authentick Joint whether the Remarker will agree to it or no and plainly demonstrated by Mr. Mede in his Synchronisms and solidly maintained by the Expositor nor to be denied by any one in his Wits it being the Contermination of the Medial Synchronals with the Post-Medial and of the sixth Trumpet with the seventh But where the Vials are o be placed is the thing in dispute and consequently the beginning of the Millennium properly so called d Fourthly His arguing that there is no need that a partial Vision should commence with some eminent Ioint of the more general Vision preceding because the three admonishing Angels is a like Vision and does not is very infirm Forasmuch as that of the three admonishing Angels is no partial Vision in such a sense as the third Vision in Daniel is and the Vision of the Vials but merely part of a Vision viz. of the second Vision of the Opened book And the first Angel belongs to the Medial Times the second to the Enterance of the Post-Medial Times the joyfull Annunciation of the fall of Babylon respecting the fall of the City at the time of the Rising of the Witnesses which was just at the close of the sixth Trumpet as I noted before So that all that follows chap. 14. from vers 8. to the end of the Chapter respects things or events after the Rising of the Witnesses e Fifthly The Expositor's pains in proving that the Vials do not commence with the Trumpets is not mis-spent because some learned men have been inclined to that opinion and there are some shews and plausibilities for it And sixthly the pains taken to remove the Vials from the beginning of the Trumpets is not to place them at the end of the Trumpets For the end of the Trumpets is no Ioint at all the seventh Trumpet reaching to the end of the World but it is to place them in the second Ioint of the two foregoing Visions viz. at the contermination of the Medial and Post-Medial Synchronals which is the same with the contermination of the sixth and seventh Trumpet At the close of the former of which the Witnesses rise and the City of Babylon falls in part So that if they be placed at the second Ioint of the two first Visions of the Opened book it is all one as the placing them in the second Ioint of the Vision of the Sealed book And besides to say The Trumpets belonging to the Sealed book and the Vials belonging to the Opened book and they being distinct Prophecies have no relation one to another is a wonderfull groundless Assertion and point blank against the express Indication of the Spirit of Prophecy in the Apocalypse who referreth the Rising of the Witnesses and the partial fall of Babylon to the exitus of the second Wo-trumpet or sixth Trumpet And yet the Rising of the Witnesses is part of a Vision of the Opened book And what correspondency things have prophesied of in the Sealed book to those prophesied of in the Opened book it were easie to shew but it would take up too much time f And seventhly and lastly what the Remarker will call needfull I know not but that the placing of a partial Vision should be at some eminent knot of the more general Vision preceding is wonderfully natural and congruous which is the first argument of the Expositor for placing the Vials at the second Ioint of the preceding Visions when the first would not do But besides this there are four arguments more added which we will now see how well the Remarker can evade in his next Remark which is as follows Pag. 280 281. The imagined slight intimations saith he of the seven Vials Rev. 11 18 c. is a very slight fancy a The Nations anger is that for which the wrath of God is there said to come upon them and not their anger or exulcerate Rage at the
the Doxology of the Elders and contrary to the usual mode of the Apocalypse that ever closeth the good success of the Church with some Indications of Joy and Thankfulness as chap. 12. vers 10 12. chap. 19. vers 1. and again vers 21. which concludes with a feast of Joy and Thanksgiving for the victory of the Rider of the white Horse d And now to go on mindless in what follows of the Remarker's haughty verbosity the fruits of an heated Melancholy and a crazied fancy which makes him reproach the most sound and usefull Truths I will onely take notice of what is most material he says on this present argument He says it was advisedly done of the Expositor to omit instancing in the words that do so glance at the fourth fifth sixth and seventh Vials because it is so hard to doe it But I answer The Expositor omitted it because it is so easie for any one to doe that reades his Expositions of this part of this Vision chap. 14. and that of the Vials chap. 16. How these comport one with another is manifest For the Mystical Interpretation of the fourth Vial shews in what a wretched and damnable condition they are in that adhere to the Papacy their sad case being so manifest out of the word of God which is the Sun a Lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths And this answers to vers 9 10 11. of chap. 14. where eternal Torment and damnation is denounced to them that worship the Beast and his Image c. And it is told in what unquietness of conscience they are in that in the light of those times adventure to doe so And for vers 12. Here is the patience of the Saints that will not go against their consciences but rather suffer that answers to that part of the fourth Vial And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the Name of God which Rage the Mother of Persecution does hugely well comport with the affliction of the Saints and the patience they are put to for that time But under the fifth Vial there is better news especially from the Political sense thereof as if there would be some such change of affairs in the behalf of the Evangelici that the seat of the Beast would grow unfrequented and his Kingdom considerably clouded and darkened upon which sense therefore of the fifth Vial the 13 verse of chap. 14. may very well be thought to glance Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for their works do follow them i. e. the effect or success of their works and labours for the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ and the fall of Antichrist From henceforth from such a time of the Sardian Interval viz. under the fifth Vial will the scales turn and the Evangelical power begin to be preponderant to the Antichristian Now the sixth Vial concerns the Conversion of the Iews haply with some other Eastern people How fitly therefore and plainly does the Harvest mentioned chap. 14.15 glance at the sixth Vial For conversion to the Gospel is reaping the Harvest as our Saviour himself has used the similitude Ioh. 4.35 And lastly what an assured Complication of time and affairs there is betwixt the Vision of the Wine-press the seventh Vial and the battel of the Rider on the white Horse is so fully made out by the Expositor that no man that has read what he has writ can doubt of it e Farthermore Whereas the Remarker says it does not appear of what use the so glancing at the affairs of the Vials here and the slight Intimations of them aforesaid at the seventh Trumpet can be save onely to give colour to the placing of the Vials in the seventh Trumpet I say that that use alone were abundantly sufficient for the Spirit of Prophecy to frame these two first Visions of the Opened book so as that by those Intimations and Glances not onely colour but sound evidence may be given that all the Vials are placed within the seventh Trumpet For from hence it will infallibly follow that they are to be placed after the Rising of the Witnesses and that the Rising of the Witnesses was the late Reformation begun by Luther c. which is of vast consequence to be understood and acknowledged That God may have condign praise and thanks for so great a mercy to his Church That broils and stirs of Phantastical and Fanatical people may be prevented who are apt to be encouraged to attempt Innovations upon that false conceit that the Rising of the Witnesses is near and that then forsooth that very Reformation will be indeed that is the true Rising of the Witnesses Whenas most certainly the Vision is accomplished already It will also beget a just esteem of the present Reformation and make men with quiet of conscience and chearfulness of mind hold communion with the established National Churches which is good for all the Reformed Nations and Kingdoms And lastly it will whenas things shall appear so well constituted without make men that have any sense of or propension to Religion and a desire to excell therein to look within themselves and to use all their zeal and heat against those faults that are to be reformed within as Pride Self-conceitedness Envy Wrathfulness Implacableness Censoriousness Covetousness Persidiousness Contemptuousness Malepertness against their Betters Indulging the use of the Creature Unconversableness Cavils against publick administration of affairs and despising and speaking ill of them that be in Autority with whatever other vices they discover in themselves I say they having no proper Object without to exercise their zeal on in reference to matters of Religion it will be more hopefull they will turn it inward against their own corruptions but now falsly fansying so much defect or corruption in the established Religion and Ecclesiastick Constitutions they are prone foolishly to imagine themselves Saints for their bitter inveying against the publickly constituted Religion and the administration of things there when as they lye cold enough to that necessary inward Reformation and are little sensible of it Wherefore as I said this use alone of the Intimations and Glances of the two first Visions on the Vials namely that we may thereby be assured that the Vials are all to be placed within the seventh Trumpet is sufficient that the frame of those two Visions should be so contrived But questionless there are other Uses also which would be too long to note These Intimations and Glances give the better assurance of the sense of the Vials As in the sixth Vial for example which Interpreters expound of the Conversion of the Iews understanding them by the Kings of the East But there is nothing to signifie conversion there But in this glance here by the mentioning of Harvest conversion is implied And if any one will say There 's nothing signifying the Iews yet I say the Intimation in the first Vision respecting the sixth Vial is the Ark of the Covenant which must needs
before the Vials has a very fit and fresh Object the fall of Babylon and the Rising of the Witnesses and worth the praising and glorifying God for his Judgments therein and it is said in the Song All Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments are made manifest Again The fall of Babylon and the Rising of the Witnesses cannot but imply a victory over the Beast and there is in this Song mention of those that had got the victory over the Beast and over his Image c. Thirdly The fall of Babylon is really the fall of Aegypt the Pontifician Power being denoted by both and therefore the Rising of the Witnesses implies a deliverance from the yoke and bondage of that Aegyptian Pharaoh and his overthrow in the Red Sea And those that sing this Song are said to stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is on the shoar of that Sea that was converted into Glass or Ice Exod. 15.8 while the Israelites passed over and to sing the Song of Moses the servant of God c. Fourthly and lastly the Song is exquisitely framed to signifie a Thanksgiving for a victory and deliverance actually obtained and therefore if we cannot be certain that it is for such an actual deliverance and victory we can be certain of the sense of nothing This I hope is invincible evidence nor can any thing be more demonstrable and may deserve better language than what the rude Remarker gives viz. That nothing is here demonstrated but onely how the weakness of arguments is supplied with strength of confidence and imagination b And now for the fall of Babylon synchronizing with the Rising of the Witnesses there wants no new proof thereof here What has been said already on this Remark proves it over and over again And if any one will consult my Answer on S. E. his Remarks upon chap. 11. and chap. 14. it will be evident unto him that what he says there signifies nothing to the invalidating this present Position So that it is a groundless boast of S. E. to make any such Reference c And for the next clause of this Remark I say the Expositor does not make chap. 14.8 to signifie the same with chap. 11.13 For this latter contains onely the fall of the great City but the former the bringing the joyfull News of the fall of the great City or of Babylon which joyfull Annunciation supposes what happens chap. 11.13 and the Annunciation of it it self follows in order of time after that Accident as well as the Acclamations in Heaven or Doxology of the Elders d And now lastly for that boyish Clause of S. E. so grave a Divine as he may seem to be from his skill in the holy tongue whereby he is able to note that Sar in Sardis may as well signifie a Remnant as a Song though it be but a childish chiming piece of wit of his thus to allude to that old Proverb As the fool thinketh so the bell clinketh yet to give him his due he shews himself a man of no small judgment in the manner of his Application he omitting the mention of Fool and so closely reserving that Title to himself In which that he has done himself all imaginable Right I shall prove in that he has so fondly substituted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Reliquiae for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Canticum in the Aetymological account of the word Sardis For his reasoning here is wonderfull weak and sorry For First Though Sar in Sardis signifies as well a Remnant as a Song yet it signifying both and the latter sense complying so well with the joyfull Annunciation of the Angel with the Acclamations in Heaven and Doxology of the Elders and with the Song of Moses the servant of God and of the Lamb which all respect the commencement of the Sardian Church the Expositor had most solid and unexceptionable reason to make choice of that sense of Sar in Sardis that comported so manifestly with the Song of Moses and those other significations of Ioy upon the fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses and the commencing of the Sardian Interval of the Church the late happy Reformation so many strings drawing and tyeing us to that determinate sense rather than any other Secondly Suppose Sar to signifie Remnant how will he rid himself of the latter part of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dis which signifies Ioy. So that this Remnant will be a Remnant of Ioy however or a joyfull Remnant Who therefore cannot but break forth into Doxologies Praises and Thanksgivings for so great a deliverance It would be a very sensless and mute Remnant if it were not so But being so there is a real agreement and harmony betwixt even this Etymon of Sardis and those Songs and Doxologies above mentioned But thirdly and lastly To make Sar in Sardis to signifie Reliquiae or a Remnant in reference to the emerging of the Sardian Church upon the Rising of the Witnesses and the fall of Babylon is an apert Repugnancy or gross Nonsense those Kingdoms and Principalities then gained by Christ out of the hands of Antichrist being the Primitiae of his Acquists by his Wars and Victories not the Reliquiae and a Pledge of greater Accessions to his Dominion to be made hereafter So that this sense of Sar which S. E. would have is utterly unapplicable to the Church of Sardis And therefore must as the Expositor would have it signifie Canticum not Reliquiae and Sardis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Song of Ioy or Ioy breaking out into Singing So that this Exception of S. E. is so very slight and sorry that the grave Divine seems to have been in some more freakish fit allured thereto merely that he might vent his boyish wit of thinking and clinking with which he seems as much tickled as a Squirrel with the Musick she makes in her Wire-Cage with Bells hanging over it Pag. 283. a Whereas it 's said here that as Mr. Mede has placed the Vials onely the seventh followeth the sixth Trumpet he hath placed all of them within the sixth Trumpet b For the Bohemian War on the suffering of Iohn Huss was many years after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks at which the sixth Trumpet must commence if not sooner c So that though onely the seventh Vial follows the expiring of the sixth Trumpet yet all of them follow the commencement of it d And whereas it s argued that all the seven Vials must be after the seventh Trumpet because they are called the seven last plagues e it 's a strange crippling the sense of the words to make them serve the end designed But as it 's said in Remarks they are most properly called the last plagues in respect of the precedent plagues of the Opened book viz. those signified by the Monitions of the two precedent Angels chap. 14. and the plagues the Witnesses smote the Earth with chap. 11. yet also with
year hence which year is divided into twelve months or 365 days the completion therefore is deemed defectuous for the event not falling out at the very expiration of the year in the last day or at least in the last month thereof But this being allow'd which is so obvious and ordinarily known we farther add that as the seven Hexamenons the seven Hecatonogdoconthemerons and seven Semitimes exactly Synchronize in their full extent so do they also in an event that falls short of that full extent and is before the expiration of the seventh Semitime For such an Event is conceived to fall out in such a month of the Hexamenon of the seventh Semitime and in such a day of that month which is the very same day in reality also in the Hecatonogdoconthemeron of the seventh Semitime So exactly is Synchronism observed in computing the Event by Semitimes even to that of the day of the month of the Hexamenon with the day of the Hecatonogdoconthemeron and with the eventual point in the last Semitime And yet the Event suppose of the Rising of the Witnesses is not restrained to one Day or Month in the last Semitime but spreads into several Months and Days the Rising of the Witnesses and the ceasing of their mournfull Prophesying still all along Synchronizing one with the other according to the partial fulfilling of the Prophecy within a certain compass of the Hexamenon or Hecatonogdoconthemeron of the last Semitime The thing I hope by this time is clear to any one that will not wilfully wink against the Truth or by heedlesly confounding the Cortex of the Vision with the Pith or Rind with the Pulp create to himself needless difficulties And thus the use of the Solution of the two first Queries is sufficiently illustrated And the Usefulness of the Solution of the third may appear from hence That common Epocha of all the three Prophecies that of the seven Churches as also of the Sealed book and of the Opened book being so rationally fixed and unexceptionably and consequently the Epocha of the Medial-Visions or of the Apostasie or Kingdom of Antichrist according to this solid compute the 1260 days of the Witnesses prophesying in sackcloth expired in the year 1652 which is 34 years before the expiration set down in those Apocalyptick Papers I mentioned in the beginning So that all his Enthusiastical hopes and conceits of the year 1686 vanish As the Event also I question not but will farther prove viz. That his computation is vain and groundless And the falsness of his Prediction is the more plainly and precisely discoverable in that he is forced to compute by Days not Semitimes And therefore to be out but one Prophetick day argues the prediction to be false And yet he is out above 30 such days already But what better can be expected of what is built upon such weak grounds as the making the Epocha of the Sealed-book-prophecy and Opened-book-prophecy to be the year of our Lord 66. As if in that year S. Iohn received his Visions under the reign of Nero in the Island of Patmos Whenas both the Epocha is not to be taken from the time of S. Iohn his receiving the Visions nor in truth did he then receive them viz. in the year 66 but towards the end of Domitian's reign and about the year of our Lord 94. This the Current of Antiquity and Interpreters agree in And even those that could wish the Visions had been received sooner before the destruction of Ierusalem that they might with better plausibility interpret some Visions of the destruction of that City yet the force of this truth is so great that they do not onely admit it but with all earnestness and confidence aver it as Alcazar does for example namely That the Apocalyptick Visions were received by Iohn toward the latter end of Domitian's reign Reade but Ribera Alcazar and Cornelius à lapide upon this point and thou canst not but be satisfied of the Truth thereof And yet the above named Enthusiast having deduced from this false Epocha 66 that Babylon will be ruined the Beast and false Prophet taken and all Antichristianity rooted out of Christendom in the year 1686 does not stick to dance and skip for joy upon this rotten Ground or shaking Quagmire with Doxologies and Hallelujah's in his mouth as I noted at first Who can sufficiently admire whether the fraud or fury of such Enthusiasm or be so wanting to the publick good as lest this malady should hiddenly spread not to antidote men against it that they be not shaken in mind nor troubled as if any Pretender to the Spirit can make it out from Prophecy that either the Witnesses are not risen or at least if they be their mournfull Prophesying does not end upon their Rising till the year 1686. But that then a new Scene of things will come on and the Son of Perdition that man of sin the Antichrist be blasted at the brightness of Christ's appearing For assuredly as has been noted at the close of the Solution to the second Query whereever the Witnesses are risen their mournfull prophesying immediately ceases there and therefore whoever upon that account fansies himself or others the mournfull Witnesses if the matter be sifted to the bottom they will be found mere murmuring Male-contents and wretchedly blind and unthankfull to Divine Providence in that they so slight such an unexpressible favour to the Reformation here in England suppose established by the risen Witnesses And though they pretend to a greater Holiness and Righteousness than is consistent therewith or than ordinary Reformed Christians have or if they neglect not the advantages offered to them may have if they will they do thereby but shew themselves to have exceeding much less and to be far greater sinners every sin against the Publick as much transcending a private sin as the concern of the Publick does a private concern Which weighty argument I will leave with the Reader as worthy his more full and leisurely Meditations Onely let me beg this one thing of him before I take leave that he would not mis-interpret this my care and diligence in supporting so certain a Truth as that of the Rising of the Witnesses and the ending of their mournfull Prophesying where they are risen that the Prophecy thereof is already fulfilled in the blessed Protestant Reformation and that all computing now by the 1260 days for any fresh accessions to the Reformed Churches or farther ruine of Antichrist is quite out of doors But that the onely true computation of the approach of his farther fall and of the farther advancement of the Kingdom of Christ is to be taken from the Christian behaviour of the Reformed Churches By how much more truly holy and humble they become and instead of their zeal every one for the self-chosen mode of Piety in their own way which is very smally or nothing to the purpose of true Piety indeed the heat concerning which ways is the very fire
to the affairs of the Church and the seventh saith he contains both the Trumpets and Vials and the Vials relate to the affairs of the Church and therefore three or four of the Seals being clearly and confessedly descriptive of Church affairs why should the others be of a different nature from them it being the very argument Mr. Mede himself uses against those that would interpret some of the Trumpets of Heresies and othersome of warlike Invasions and so bring things of a different nature under one Name This is the main of the Annotatour's justification of himself for his deserting Mr. Mede in the Interpretation of the Seals And To this I answer That the true Church of Christ being so mingled with the body of the Roman Empire it will be hard to find any thing to fall out on the one but it will some way or other concern the other but the distinction of sorting the affairs to the one and to the other is to be taken from the opposition of the true Church of Christ to the body of the Empire and the Religion thereof as counter-distinct to that of the true Apostolick Church And therefore those Visions that relate to the state of the Empire so described as to a fit object of them must be the Visions appertaining to the state of the Empire but those that in such a sort relate to the state of the Church must appertain to the Church that is to say The pure Religion of the Church or its body must be the Object in the one and the false Religion of the Empire or its body must be the Object in the other And this therefore it is I declare in the behalf of Mr. Mede that the Visions of the first six Seals and the first six Trumpets which are part of the seventh Seal that is to say that all the Visions of the Sealed book so far as it has pleased the Spirit of Prophecy to unseal them before he descends to the Visions of the Opened book are rightly said to respect the state of the Empire remembring also that Axiome that Denominatio est à parte potiori Wherefore I answer as to the first and sixth Seal that they do most palpably and eminently set out the intended Conquest and final overthrow of the impure Pagan Religion of the Empire and the Imperial Crown is given to the Rider of the white Horse and the success of this Heros is against the Religion of the Empire and the sixth Seal the overthrow thereof to omit the affairs of the Iews and the siege and sacking of Ierusalem which concerns the body of the Empire and is referrible to the Rider of the white Horse Nor was the overthrow of the Pagan Religion under the sixth Seal without large effusion of the bloud of the body of the Empire So that five of the six Seals plainly respect the state of the Empire as their Object And if the fifth did not yet Denominatio est à parte potiori as I said But under that Seal the Christians being part of the Civil body of the Empire and the vast effusion of their bloud there intimated though it was Semen Ecclesiae yet a weakening of the Empire and the Empire threatened therefore that Seal plainly respects the Empire also In brief the fifth Seal is a most terrible commination of a dreadfull vengeance on the bloudy and Idolatrous Empire So plainly is the Empire the Object of that Seal And for the seventh Seal the Vials are no part of it but belong to the Opened-book-prophecy the Object of the Vials is the true Churches gaining ground upon Antichrist till the utter Subversion of his Kingdom But the seven Trumpets belong to it viz. to the seventh Seal and as they are Martial Instruments so they every one of the first six of them betoken Invasions and war and spoil and destruction on the Empire and Mr. Mede's application of History thereto is very apposite and fit So that it is plain that the Sealed-book-prophecy so far as it has pleased the Spirit to unseal it respects the Fate or State of the Empire in the six Seals and six Trumpets But the seven Thunders that succeed in the place of the seventh Trumpet as the seven Trumpets did into the place of the seventh Seal what they uttered Iohn is commanded for the present to conceal So that the Annotatour's reason for his interpreting the Seals all of them of the affairs of the Church quite vanisheth and in so doing he must needs find himself in a wrong box or others will easily so find him he not interpreting the Visions according to the genuine meaning of the Prophetick style as Mr. Mede does but according to his own private fancy But that I swell not my Appendicula to an undue bulk I must not enter much less insist on these things We haste therefore to what follows In Sect. 7. The first thing that occurs is his allowing the Doctour's dividing of the third Period or seventh Trumpet into seven Thunders to be an ingenious Invention but withall perstringing it as a Notion that has no ground in the Text. But what we have answered to the Remarker in his Remarks on the tenth Chapter of the Apocalypse will sufficiently demonstrate that this Invention of the Doctour is plainly grounded upon the Text and confirmed therefrom and so is not onely ingenious but also true To which Answer therefore I refer the Reader and proceed to what occurs next which is his Assertion that the things prefigured by the Inner and Outer Court of the Temple do synchronize The absurdity of which conceit I have abundantly demonstrated against the Remarker upon chap. 11. Whither I might again refer the Reader But because the Annotatour here in his Preface pretends to prove his erroneous Assertion which he follows Mr. Durham in by no less than six arguments I will briefly hint the weakness of every one of them Arg. 1. His first Argument insinuates that the Coherence betwixt the first and second verse of chap. 11. is no other ways to be understood than by allowing what things are signified by the Inner and Outer Court to synchronize V. 1. Rise and measure the Temple V. 2. But the Court that is without or rather according to the Greek but the Outer Court of the Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast out or pronounce to be rejectaneous For it is given to the Gentiles and the holy City shall they tread under foot Of which two verses the most easie and natural coherent sense is this That Iohn is bid by the Angel to arise and measure that is forthwith to set himself to the measuring of the Inner Court as denoting the present state of the Church which he should find symmetral to the Rule But as for the Outer Court denoting a state of the Church to come that should bear the same proportion of time or duration to the present state of her that the Outer Court does to the Inner of