most precise Time of that Happy Revolution The KINGDOM of CHRIST in its Succession upon such undeniable Prophetic Evidence I most Humbly pray that for an Evangelion or reward of so good Tydings I may be Enabled by the Assistances of so Great Protestant Princes Assembly and Nation to perfect the whole Prophetical Ministration committed to me And that it may be laid up for so near a Time to Come as 1697. and the Truth may be Justified by the Event In the mean Time I most Humbly Appeal to the most Reverend Episcopal Robe who are so able and whose proper Function it is to Judge whether any Line of the Chain of the Scripture Argument I have us'd be loose or weak Now that the Contempt of so great a Message and neglect of the Messenger may not rest as a Reproach of the Goodly price Jesus Christ is prized at but that your Bounty may be accepted as a Sacrifice of sweet smelling Savor to God and Abound to the Account of the Nation valueing the Kingdom of Christ shall be the prayer of Soveraign Princes Most Noble Lords Most Honourable Representatives of this Protestant Nation Your most Humble Petitioner and Servant in this Evangile T. Beverley Parts Printed The Scripture Line of Time from the first Sabbath to Abraham From Cyrus to the Millennial Sabbatism The Prophetick Song of Solomon from Davids Kingdom to the Kingdom of Christ. The Command to come out of Babylon The late Revolution Daniel's two Visions Expounded To be Printed The Scripture Line of Time from Abraham to Cyrus The Prayer of the Kingdom or the Lords Prayer The Sacrament of the Kingdom or the Lords Supper adjusted to this Kingdom The Doctrine of the Kingdom and the New Jerusalem The Epistles to the seven Churches the seven Voices or Thunders the seven Vials Expounded To the Angels of the Churches of Christ the Evangelical Ministery most particularly in England Grace and Peace from Him that Holdeth the Seven Stars in his Right Hand and walks in the midst of the Seven Golden Candlesticks and hath the Seven Spirits of God. IT is to you My most Reverend and Dearly Honoured Fathers and Brethren in Christ that in the Second place as in due order I Present the following Discourse Not because you know not the Truth but because you know it and that no Lye is of the Truth and so according to the Apostles prescription concerning Prophesying 1 Cor. 14. 29. are able to Judge when a divine Revelation by way of Exposition as well as of Immediate Inspiration is given to Any One. Not as you well know that you can add or take away from what hath the Evidence of Divine when you find that Suffrage and Joynt Publication Blowing the Trumpet and Giving warning is Your All. I therefore Communicate to you Apart the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the particular Good Tydings I declare least if I am not able to undergo Gal. 2. 2. your Test I had or should Run in vain But I am able if I may so allude to be Baptiz'd with that Baptism and to Render an Apology with Meekness and Fear to any that shall most severely Examine me of the Hope I Promulge through his Grace that I Trust in to work in me Mightily to that purpose I onely Fear Prejudging without Hearing I know I have not onely Believ'd and therefore Spoken but that I have Prophesied according to the Rom. 12. 6 Analogy of the Faith at once given to the Saints according to the Doctrine of Godliness and the Symmetry of All Scripture Prophecy the Light of which hath from God shone into me above what I can express As the Prophets of Old Divinely mov'd were more Inwardly assur'd of being Sent then They could expose to Others I would Humbly offer that one Credential concerning the Time Times Half Time to strict Judgment What greater Argument the Spirit of God design'd That Time should be search'd then giving Dan. 7. 1 it so peculiarly to the little Horn call'd so disertly by Him The Beast and to the Beastian Times in the Revelation and to no other And why search'd if not to be found And is not the Dividing and Multiplying among Themselves those Characters according to precise certain Epochs of the First Time and of the Half Time even Mathematical Let none therefore say the Book is Seal'd or I am not Learn'd Isai 29. ◠〈…〉 Acceptance with God tho' the Things being of difficult Interpretation require greater Attention Especially You will not say so Most Reverend and Learned whose peculiar office It is to Search the Scriptures And you know Daniel and the Revelation are Scripture And Loe I present you the Book unseal'd by the Assistance of Him who prevail'd to Open the Book of Seven Seals And now How would this so near Appearance of the Chief Shepherd oblige us to Feed the flock of Christ not as Lords nor for Filthy lucre but as Ensamples of the Flock â— Pet. 5. 2. How would this Doctrine of the Kingdom Open a door wide and Effectual to all manner of Re-Reformation and to a new and Apostolick mission for the preaching the Everlasting Gospel as by the speed of an Angel flying through the midst of Heaven Rev. 14. 6. It will be so anon within a Prophetical last Half Hour of the Three Days and a Half if not just now How would this preserve us from Grudging one against another â—ames 59. and cause our Moderation one towards another to be known to All Because the Judge is before the doors and the Lord at Hand â—hil 4. 5. How would it cause us to cease to De-Synagogue one another so â—ev â— 8. proper to the Synagogue of Sathan especially when for Indifferents least we come to worship at the Feet of Them we have endeavour'd to shut the Door upon and to acknowledge Christ lov'd them Lâ—t us then Hasten to the Philadelphian State of Purity Love and Peace And so the God of Love and of Peace shall be with us For this cause I bow my Knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is call'd I most Humbly and Earnestly Recommend to you also the assisting and Furthering of me in this work of the Gospel according to my Humble Petition Prefix'd who am however otherwise most justly through the Riches of his Grace as in an Isle of Patmos 〈◊〉 the word of God and for the Testimony of Jesus Christ And as Prostrate upon the ground I most earnestly beg pardon of Heaven and Earth Acknowledging my self Less then the least of All the Ministers of the Gospel and not worthy to be call d a Minister of Christ but by the Grace of God I am what I am and I have Labour'd more Abundantly in this great point thro' the assistance of that Spirit who Divides to all as He will and because He will. Most Reverend and Dearly Loved and Honoured Fathers
Prophetical of the Kingdom first comming to the Jews when it shall be Given under the whole Heaven to the Saints of the most High. Thus jealous was Divine honour not onely over it self but careful of presenting to Universal view and notice its great design of setting up an Vniversal Monarchy and Kingdom in a visible Glory by that great Son of Man who is also the Son of God The Glory was not so Given to another but that it was seen to this Gentile Ruler as sitting on a Throne far above Him and He on all occasions was humbled and abased before it And whether these Acknowledgments of the Father might not have an influence on Evilmâ—rodach the Son and move Him to that kindness to Jehoiachin and to set his Throne above any of the Kings the word of God gives us no possitive Rule to assert Yet probable it is both the Father and the Son however convinc'd of the true God knowing Gods determination of the Seaventy years Captivity of the Jews They minght not release it as Cyrus did It being God's Councel it should not be done during that Monarchy because as in Time so in other great Regards it could not Agree to that Type Babylon was to Bear to be so honour'd Argu. 3d. The very Frame and Fabrick of the Dream or Vision it self is a full Evidence of a Calendar of Time to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ For the Image it self is a Calendar of Time and while that sands the Calendar cannot be out of date for the Monarchy like the Sun from sign to sign moves on and slides down from the Head to the Arms and Breast then to the Belly and Thighs then to the Legs and Feet and points to time all along according to the nature of a Calendar both by its duration and by its motion and while the Feet are unbrokan the Image stands and remains a Calendar 2. The Four Mettals Gold Silver Brass Iron and a mixture of Clay according the General Emblem of successive Ages in this very order signifies the Flower and top of Time and the Head of it at first and at last the very dregs of Time. In which the second is said to be a Kingdom Inferior not so Dan 2. 39. much intending the strength or Temperament of the following Persian Monarchs in many regards exceeding the Babylonian as the Inferiority and Posteriority of Time in regard of which the Head was of Gold as further off from Ruin and Desolation to which every succession approached nearer till the very Feet and Toes of Clay had the Fatal and Destructive stroke wherein all fail'd and fell So as in Litteral Bobylon the Glory began in Gold so in mystical Babylon the Feet and Toes of Iron and Clay shall be struck and Broken and the whole Image shall Fall and Great shall be the Fall of it 3. The Monarchies themselves into which the parts of the Image are Interpreted Describe a long Time since it is sufficiently known such Potentacies must have Time to display Themselves in And that if They succeed one Another it must be a long Tract of Time that must give them oportunity to Come on and go off from the Stage of so publick Action Therefore They themselves as Kingdomes or Monarchiies describe long Time. And seeing the Kingdom that shall stand for Ever and Ever and that shall have the dominion under the whole Heaven is plainly plac'd at the End of these Four and Breaks in peices the last The Kingdom of Christ that does this and so the whole Falling and Beaten to Powder and passing away as the Chaff of the Summer Floor must needs be the Scene that must open last and its Times be beyond all their Times Till therefore These Four Kingdomes have had their Time the Kingdom of Christ comes not on nor breaks them in pieces and till the Time the proper Time of the Kingdom of Christ be come these have not had their Full Time So this is an Indented Character of Time if any one That if the last of these Kingdomes be yet continuing It is certain Christ's Kingdom is not yet And if Christs Kingdom be not yet it is certain the last of those Kingdomes is yet continuing and is not dash'd to powder and all the Image with it as it shall be by the Stone cut out of the Mountain Filling the whole Earth when his Kingdom shall come Argu. 4 After a most stately and Magnificent description or Iconism of Four mighty Monarchies that visibly and sensibly rul'd over the World and aw'd it and that by force and power broke in pieces all who did not submit There is subjoyn'd the presence of a Fifth Kingdom or Monarchy that the God of Heaven should Set up and had never yet been set up that should Break in pieces and Consume all these Kingdomes and should it self stand for ever And the description of the Four precedent is evidently on purpose to Introduce and set at the clearest and fullest Light the last The doubt then is what Kingdom this last should be The Sovereignty of Supreme and Universal providence is at all Times alike The most High always Rules changes Times and Seasons Pulls down and Sets up It cannot therefore be understood of that For to what Account would so particular and express Iconism of that Turn that is always the same and always alike or why should that Kingdom of the supreme Godhead administred by his Providence that is an Everlasting Kingdom and Endureth throughout All Generations be thus Postpon'd to Four great Monarchies that existed before them and by and in which they Themselves always subsist while they do subsist This divine Providential Kingdom then it cannot be Let it then be suppos'd to be the Spiritual Evangelick Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ beginning at his Resurrection and Christianizing so great a part of the then Known World and which by degrees brought Nations and Princes into Subjection to it not onely Spiritual but also Politick Civil and Monarchic from the Time of Constantine And that it was not the Spiritual and Evangelical Kingdom of Christ I will contest onely on this Topick When an Image is made up of Four Monarchies Sensible Visible and that did all their work in such a Sensible Visible manner It is against those curious Laws of Iconism in which the Holy Spirit is as Exquisite as in the very order of the Creation or in the Fabrick of Mans Body to subjoyn a Spiritual Stone and Mountain that should as a Stone smite the Image and Break it in Pieces and then it self became a great Mountain filling the Earth and all this onely in an Evangelical Spiritual sense and then Rise up into a perfect Spirituality or Heavenliness and therein continue for Ever This I assert and leave the assertion to every judicious Considerer to be so unlike the admirable Emblematizings or Representations of the Divine Spirit as to be by no means endured For the Stone and the Mountain
thus understood take up no Room nor give any more Resistance or Anti-typy to the four Monarchies before then the Hoasts of Immaterial Beings do to Bodies how innumerable soever or then the Omnipresence of Immensity does to the motion of material Beings throughout the whole Sphere of worldly space or the Notions of Vertue and Justice make resistance after the manner of Armies to the Insults of bodily Puissance and therefore though the Kingdom of Christ had great Effects upon the World in that very spiriritual Sense and by way of Consequence upon bodily Action yet the Imagery of it were as improperly joyn'd with the Imagery of the Monarchies as the laying Spirits in Colours would be when the Action of Body and Matter is intended to be represented first and then that Body and Matter forc'd out of its place by other however purer Matter that should fill its Room and Space for so it is here the Stone though Cut out of the Mountain without Hands becomes a Mountain filling the Earth and the Saints of the most High take the Dominion under the whole Heaven which Expressions plainly shew the State of these Monarchies is not taken away and supplyed by a State above All Heavens but by a State as well under the Heaven and upon the Earth as on high so that the taking away all Earthly State and a Heavenly State succeeding it cannot be the meaning of this Vision nor a spiritual State before that can be the meaning for the highest spiritual State that hath been yet in the World. viz. the Ministery of Christ and his Apostles gave no disturbance to the Monarchies of the World noâ— made any remove of them Argum. 5 The Heavenly State of Christs Kingdom or in the pure and perfect Eternity being foreprized by those Expressions forenam'd from being the meaning and importance of this Vision we may further argue that neither the Spiritual State of Christs Kingdom at his Resurrection nor that Spiritual State prevailing upon the multitude of Christians first by Conversion and then upon Temporal Princes as Constantine and Princes since the Empire becoming Christian under Him can be the purport of this Vision For though the Kingdom of Christ did grow great in its Spirituality and Divine Truth in the Ministry Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ And though the World was in very Great and wonderful manner converted to Christianity after it and though the Kingdom of Christ did become visibly and sensibly Great under Constantine and did break in pieces the whole material and secular frame of the Heathen Roman Monarchy and might seem hereupon to become a Mountain filling the whole Earth and indeed great notice is taken of it in the Revelation as if the Kingdom of our God had been come Revel 12. Yet by comparing two things one in this Prophecy the other in the Apocalyps we shall be plainly convinc'd that neither the Spiritual Kingdom nor his Kingdom supposed in the Christian Empire can be this Stone Mountain nor Kingdom and certain Knowledge not only of History but of the general State of the World will make it good 1. That the Kingdom God sets up shall not be left to other People that is It shall not be as the other Kingdoms bequeath'd left by Will or as we speak demised to other People not without the Death that is the Ruine of the Testator as to his Dominion however his Life might be prolonged This is ordain'd by him whose Dominion is to all Generations Thus the Babylonian demis'd to the Persian the Persian to the Graecian the Graecian to the Roman the Roman shall be forced to surrender to the People of the most High But they shall never pass away their Dominion over whom the Lord Jesus is Prince to any diverse People as the Inheritor of their Power But now let the Kingdom be understood of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ or of the Empire as Christian becoming the Kingdom of Christ and this Character will fit neither for the Spirituality of Christs Kingdom was thus far left to other People that the Apostle after the Resurrection of Christ says That day shall not come except there come an Apostasie First a defection â— Thes c. 2. from the Kingdom of Christ and the Man of Sin who is a Prince most opposite to Christ be Revealed accordingly it is said The Spirit speaketh expresly some viz. a Generation of men shall depart from the Faith c. How then can so much as the Spiritual 1 Tim. 4. 1. Kingdom of Christ be said to stand for ever and ever And then for the Kingdom of Christ being supposed to become Great by Constantine and other Christian Princes since Him It cannot be made good for besides the Inrodes the Barbarous Nations made on the Empire and the Kingdom of the Beast Rising so soon as the same Hour the Empire fell Besides all this the Mahometan Imposture and Pseudo-Religion arose against the spiritual part of Christs Kingdom and its Tyranny against the appearrance of the Kingdom of Christ that should fill the Earth How then did the Kingdom of Christ in this Sense break in pieces all other Kingdoms and consume them that It might it self fill the Earth Or how was the Kingdom under the whole Heaven given to the Saints of the most High Or how was his Kingdom such an Everlasting Kingdom But when ever Christ takes the Kingdom It must be thus universal in its spread and Everlasting in its Duration From whence I conclude neither the Spiritual Evangelical Kingdom begun at the Resurrection of Christ nor the Christian Imperial Kingdom at Constantine is the Kingdom here foretold but one yet to come and though the Spiritual Kingdom then begun never indeed can be totally destroyed nor so much as the Imperialness of the Name of Christ declared in Constantine shall ever be deposed yet the Consumption of all other Dominions and the Greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven cannot so much as be pretended to be Fulfilled while Popery and Mahometanism have such a Name in the World nor can the Prophesie possibly allow any Abridgment of what was once obtained by this Kingdom which yet hath certainly fallen out to Christianity in both the Spiritual and Imperial Kingdom of Christ from whence it is certain It is not the Kingdom here prophesied that hath yet been Nor to speak Impartially can It be understood by either of these Prophesies that there should be any visible Regiment at least in the then known parts of the World but what shall be given to the Saints of the most High when That Kingdom shall appear for All shall be taken from those of the four successive Monarchies that had it before or what ever was enjoyed by any of them within any of those Territories seeing of Them particularly It is prophesied that their Dominion shall be taken away and given to the Saints of the most High and then are added more large and comprehensive
of it measur'd out by the Holy Line of whom this Seed was to Come according to the Great Revolutions order'd by God with Relation to this Seed As first by the Patriarchal Ages till Abraham From Abraham to the Giving of Canan to his Seed from the Giving of Canan to the Kingdom of David and Solomon the Great Type of the Kingdom of Christ But because This Kingdom fell from the very Glory of the Type by the Rending Ten Tribes from the House of David at the Death of Solomon and that within 390 years after Both Houses of Israel and Judah were in Captivity Time is drawn from Solomons Death to the Great Vision of the Restoration of All Israel in Ezekiels Temple and City and by Forty Additional years to the Restoring the House of Judah particularly out of the Babylonish Captivity by Cyrus The other Half of Time beginning soon after Ezekiels Vision till the New Jerusalem is call'd by our Lord The Times of the Gentiles 1. Because the Jews the then People of God from that Time would be till Ezekiels Vision came into Effect under Gentile Servitude 2. Because the Church of God would after the Death of Messiah by Jewish Hands be to Remove from the Jews to the Gentiles and so the Gentile Monarchies having the Jews and the Gentiles Christianiz'd under them would be Fit Representatives of the Vniversal Monarchy of Christ over all Mankind and yet till the Jews shall be perfectly restored according to that Vision of Ezekiel The Kingdom of Christ cannot Come which shews the Superiority of the Jews in that Kingdom shadowed therefore by their City and Temple and called for their sakes The New Jerusalem This Honour they have because Christ God over All in that Kingdom Blessed for Ever Came of Them. 3. Because however the Church of Christ was to be planted among the Gentiles as Engrafted among the believing Jews Yet so Great an Apostasie was to Rise in the Gentile Church as uniting with the Pagan Gentilism would Ecclipse and stay off the Glory of Christs Kingdom from appearing during those Gentile Times and so till the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Coming of the Glory of the Church out of its Ecclipse among the Gentiles Ezekiels Vision cannot become Effect nor All Israel sav'd Rom. 11. and thus the whole Gentiles Times are Times wholly opposite to the Kingdom of Christ in its Glory except about an 120 years of the Christian Empire which God supremely interpos'd and the last Half Time or 180 years since the Reformation in part reconcil'd to it These Gentiles-Times are double Calendar'd because of so Great Account 1. By a Calendar of Four Great Monarchies Each latter in Succession to the foregoing Dan. 7. Monarchy The last of which remains till the Kingdom of Christ shall break that and all others with it To so Great a Monarchy of Christ These Monarchies lasting until it are an agreeable Calendar And because the last State of the last Monarchy would be very long and of Great Consideration There is a Numeral but Mystic Calendar of Time Times and Half a Time given to that Alone 2. This Monarchic Calendar is arm'd with a Full Numeral Calendar beginning at Dan. 8. the end of the last Joynt of the whole Scripture Line before it viz. at the end of Ezekiels last 40 Days for Years and in the beginning of the second of these Four Monarchies viz. The Persian The Monarchic and the Numeral Calendar admirably serve One Another For so Great Pyramids of Time as Vniversal Monarchies and their Changes cannot but be generally known and observed and the Numeral Calendar keeps these Monarchies to their own Bounds and particularly joyning with the Numeral Mystic Calendar of the last part of the Fourth Monarchy binds it to its own Time and also adjusts the Kingdom of Christ after 75 years of preparation to its own Sabbatic Milenary by the note of 2300 Even Morn as Six Evens Morns led to the First Sabbath The Calendar of Monarchies was duly given when the Ten Tribes Jerusalem as Sodom of Old and Egypt also lay in Ruins under Litteral Babylon that Rome or Mystical Babylon bearing the names of all these Spiritual Sodom Egypt and of the City where Our Lord was Crucified what was Irrecoverable in Them All might fall into its Everlasting Burnings The Calendar of the 2300 Even Morn is given most opportunely precisely and exactly to adjust the Scripture Line of Time to the great Sabbatism and so could neither be more nor fewer then the 2300 Even Morn to be prophetically Multiplyed into Years In this Numeral Calendar every part of Time is kept not onely to its own proper Time in regard of Time but the Beauty of every part is seen in its own Season by the distribution of this great Calendar into several lesser parts of the whole Wherein though it be the Numeral Calendar of the Gentiles Times yet there is particular respect to the Church of God under the Gentiles Times as to the Jewish Church till it was Renunciated by Christ and so to the Gentile Church after under the Apostasie or Gentiliz'd Christianity This Numeral Calendar is united to Ezekiels vision of the City and Temple by Dan. 8. v. 14. the note of the Sanctuary Cleans'd It is united to the Monarchic Calendar by the Prince viz. The Antichristian Prince or Little Horn broken without Hand the last of the Princes in the Monarchic Calendar v. 25. If we then take the first 75 years of the 2300 and account them by the Word going forth by the Three Persâ—â—n Kings Cyrus Darius and Artaxerxes for the Restoring Jerusalem and Judah we are so far assur'd by Scripture according to the Monarchic and Numeral Calendar that so many years may be allowed and then parallel to these 75 the last 75 years at the end of the 2300. viz. from the last 1260 to 1335. in preparation for the New Jerusalem and the parallel is very beautiful of Litteral Babylon Falling and the Litteral Jerusalem Rising at the beginning of the 2300. Even Morn and Mystical Babylon Falling and the New Jerusalem Rising at the End of the 2300 E. M. And 75 years at the Beginning and at the End 75 years for the Restoring each Jerusalem Answer One Another in number and as a Time of preparation one for the Litteral the other for the New Jerusalem The Jerusalem that then was being thus Restored It was preserv'd 70 Weeks of Years or the 490 years immediately following the first 75 though in Straits or Troublous Times that in that as in the Holy City the Type of the New Jerusalem Messiah might Found his Spiritual and Evangelical Kingdom and the Right to his Glorious Kingdom because to it the Kingdom was first to Come And hereunto agree the Monarchic and Numeral Calendar that 490 years might be thus dispos'd Jerusalem having been preserv'd so long under the Persian Graecian and succeeding Roman Monarchy Ruling over Them. At the Death
Testament gives no Representation of them any further then as They are Recapitulated in the Beast So that the whole Apocalyptick Prediction appertains onely to and gives the Schemes of the state of the Roman Empire after it had subdued all the Three first Kingdoms under it self and become the Vniversal Monarchy of the World. And this it does with Relation to the Church of Jesus Christ as its principal object and aim which is a most remarkable Consideration Assuring us the Revelation is a Continuation and further Explication of what remain'd unfulfill'd of Daniel's Prophecy from those very first days of the New Testament or when They began That we may then go on with the Prophecy of Daniel As the Calendar we are upon was most declaredly brought down to the Roman Monarchy at the Birth of Jesus Christ So there are several Periods of the Calendar from that Time wherein the Prophecy of Daniel and of the New Testament Agree most Illustriously with History in Relation to the Roman Empire Period 1 It is most notorious notwithstanding the Birth Death Resurrection Ascension of Jesus Christ and the Apostolical preaching The Roman Empire continued one and continued Pagan in the supreme Powers and in the Body and Bulk of the People From hence it is evident the Calendar was not Run out because the Kingdom of Christ did not onely not Fill the Earth but did not consume other Kingdoms as it is first to do before it Fills the Earth And therefore no Interpretation of Filling the Earth with the Gospel or Spiritual Kingdom can stand Good And further the Calendar was not come down to the Feet and Toes of the Image nor into the Head of the Beast dishevelling it self into Ten Horns as it must in its last state But during the Pagan Empire it remained perfectly One and therefore was not in its last state Now of this Pagan Empire Two Things are most known That Jesus Christ having come into the Flesh under the Roman Monarchy Sathan the old Serpent and Dragon being aware that that Kingdom which shall utterly destroy his Kingdom was entred He as a Dragon watch'd that manly Birth to destroy it if it were possible first He then inhabiting the Pagan Roman Empire it is fitly Resembled to a Dragon in regard of that Spirit that inhabited it by a most particular influence over it And because when Christianity began to spread it self in that Empire in a multitude of Christians It had a Jealous eye over it and over the Empire it might raise Therefore by Ten so known and Famous Persecutions it endeavour'd as a Dragon to devour it and to surprize that Supreme Monarch Jesus Christ who should Rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron which the Christian Church compar'd to a Travelling woman was to Bring forth Herein the Pagan Empire is Resembled to Pharoh the Egyptian King of Old who fearing the overgrowth of Israel into a Kingdom as a Dragon lying in the Nile waited to devour it by Killing the Male Children And thus Herod the Roman Vassal though King of the Jews watch'd to have devour'd Jesus Christ the Incarnate King who shall sit on the Throne of his Father David and of whose Kingdom there shall be no End. Thus admirable is the Concinnity and Agreement between the Pagan Emperors of Rome that was to be a Spiritual Egypt and the Dragon How plain therefore is the Calendar of the Roman Empire in this particular to the very last of it as Pagan Dioclesian and the other last Heathen Emperors being among the Persecutors of the first rank and therefore we must needs be certain whereabout the Time of the Calendar then was For we know this state lasted about 300 Years after the Resurrection and in the clearness and particularity of this the New Testament exceeds the old Consider further this Imperial power with relation to the rest of the World and it was Salvage Dreadful and Terrible as Daniel styles it and as the Revelation styles it as a Dragon devouring and Consuming all other powers as with Iron Teeth and stamping on them as with Legs of Iron on which account the Dragon is said as it were to sweep down the Third part of the Stars or other Princes Rev. 12. 4. and powers of the World with its Syrma its Tail or Train of Power and enlarged Empire And in that it is call'd the Third part of the Stars It thus sweeps down It is agreeable that its Succession to the Third or Graecian Empire should be Connoted which it so particularly drew down from whence the Third or Third part becomes in this Prophecy a Cypher or private Character of the Roman Empire Whether in the West the most proper peculiar Rome and Roman Empire or in the East that affected also to be call'd Roman Empire even as Constantinople New Rome and These Two are therefore in these Prophetick Hieroglyphics call'd Two Wings of the one Great Eagle or Roman Empire And that we may know the Prophetick Calendar was taken care of in this Pagan state of Roman Empire the whole Roman Beast that is said to be diverse from the other Beasts in regard of its many and more Eminently Seven forms of Government very strange to the other Three Kingdoms before it especially in the last the Papal Supremacy was pictured as with Seven Heads Heads of that City that when St. John wrote the Revelation Reign'd over the Kings of the Earth and therefore could be no other then Rome And it is particularly said Five were Fallen One then was which we know could be no other then the Pagan Emperors Thus exact is the Calendar or account of Time till Constantine under whom the Empire became Christian Because all History Agrees whereabouts in Time it was Period 2 The second Period of the Roman Empire since the Resurrection according to Prophecy and most known in History is the Christian Roman Empire under Constantine and his successors And the Time is very well known in History and Agreed whereabouts it was But it must be acknowledged this Period or change of the Empire from Pagan to Christian is not at all shaddowed in Daniel's Prophecy in either of the Two Visions of the Image or of the Beasts it hath no Lines or Mentions And the reason is very clear and plain For when the Spirit of Prophecy was pleas'd to give a Calendar of Time by Two Visions Both representing a Monarchic Frame though of Four Monarchies Yet they were but One in a Bestian enmity and Contrariety to the great Kingdom of Jesus Christ A Christian Monarchy that was given for a short space as an Emblem shade or Specimen though but a dark one of that Kingdom of Christ could have no proper place there but must have confus'd the Frame But as if it were on purpose to compensate the silence of the Christian Monarchy in Daniel and because it may seem a Discontinuer in the Bestian Calendar of Kingdoms and in that Frame of Four and
transplanted themselves from their own Seats and by armed force plac'd themselves in Italy and the several parts and Provinces of the Roman Empire And yet they all made still the same Roman Monarchy and the same Beast because whereas the Persian King succeding the Babylonian did not place his Royal Greatness in Babel but in Shushan nor Alexander in Persia but in Graece nor the Roman in Graece Persia nor Babylon but transferred all to Rome The barbarous Nations on the contrary do not remove the Potentacy from the Roman Territories to the Countries from whence they came but continue it where they found it and Inhabit and Inherit the former Residencies of Roman Power and so are the same Empire in Feet of Iron and of Clay For if the Feet of Iron make no Transplantation much less would or could the Feet of Clay much more tyed to the same Earth from whence they sprung and above all to the Roman Earth of St. Peter where He say they as Bishop left the print of his Foot as in Clay that the Roman Hierarchy might sprout from it And they are all the same Beast also whereby the Calendar and Succession is maintained for to shew the same Idolatrous and Hostile Spirit to the Kingdom of Christ influx'd all the Dragon gave his All as was noted before and the whole is as nearly allyed as part to part in the same Body acted by one and the same Spirit And this was all certainly an Illustrious and adorable Care of Providence over Prophecy That Things should be just thus that Prophecy might be fulfilled in the Roman Monarchy continuing One and the same Monarchy as we shall see in Ten Kings united in one Ecclesiastic Roman Supremacy as Ten Horns in one Head and the Capital Imperial City Rome was continued for the same Head by a most astonishing and even amazing Ordination of God as the other Capital Cities within the Roman Dominion for the Ten Kings each in their own Kingdoms But still there were all the Violences of War made use of for the Succession of the Ten Kings as Feet of Iron and they were as necessary for the Feet of Clay to rise in the midst of those Noises stilly silently unobservedly to their Grandeur and the Supremacy of One Pontiff even He of Rome among them To adjust therefore every thing to this Succession with the Decorum of the prophetical Types let us now observe the admirable Concert of Providence and Prophecy in this Period In the first place therefore as a great Emblem of the Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ and his Vniversal Monarchy over all Nations and especially his Triumph over that Ancient Kingdom of Sathan Pagan and Heathenish Idolatry wherein Himself and his Angels and the Demoniz'd Spirits of his Servants were so immediately worship'd there is a wise Ordination by God of a Christian Empire to remonstrate this Victory in an Empire then own'd as the Vniversal Empire of the World and where Heathenism had seem'd to Triumph over Christianity but Christians thus overcame by the Blood of the Lamb by the word of his Testimony and by Christians not Loving their Lives unto Death This Empire therefore enter'd as into the Heart of the Fourth Monarchy in Daniels Visions by a High Dominion and Ordination of God though so contre-natural to it that on all Accounts It is as a casting Sathan out of Heaven and as it were the Coming of the Kingdom of our God. The whole Order therefore of these Emperors throughout the whole Time of the Christian Empire is so far all one order Revel 17. v. 10. that from first to last they are All one seventh King as the Kings of Judah were All One House of David but this Empire in its former and in its latter Times differ'd much in the purity of the Christian State and in the Illustrious Presence of God with it as Zedekiah and those latter Kings did from David and Solomon yet so that while the order it self stood there could be no Succession of the Bestian Kingdom for they are specificly distinct which is a note of great weight in the Calendar and it is even demonstrated That all those Christian Emperors in sacred Register are but One because They are called One other King and that they are specificly distinct because the Eighth is of the Bestian Heads the seventh before it is not But now as to our Note this Christian Empire look'd like an Infracture on the Calendar for that a Succession was due to the Feet of Iron and Clay and to the Ten Horns and to the little Horn that is to the Ten Kings and the Papacy as soon as ever the Legs of Iron and Head as of the Teeth of Iron that is the Pagan Empire was depriv'd of supreme Power so that this Christian Empire according to Daniels Visions was to have dyed as soon as it was born Prophecy therefore as it were remembring in the New Testament what it self had said in the Old and as conscious of the short space This Empire was to continue and knowing well That there were four Trumpets of War decreed and prepar'd as Storms and Tempests to remove it in the very next Vision to that of Heathenism desolated which was Revel 6. last It presents four Angels c. 7. 1. Holding the four Winds that They should not blow by those Trumpets c. 8. and a charge is given them to take heed to their Commission that they should not let out those Winds until the Servants of God were sealed in their Foreheads that is That the Christian Empire should continue and continue in Glory and Peace till Things were prepared for the Succession of Antichrist that Man of Sin or Beast as this Prophecy styles Him and as we shall find presently that sealing of the Servants of God in the Forehead imported Till the Feet of Clay then were ready for their Succession the Feet of Iron should not succeed for they were Feet together though of so different a Mettal and not to cleave nor the Ten Horns till the little Horn though in another appearance viz. of a Head in the New Testament-Prophecy should be ready for his Succession also for at the same Hour Both were to receive Power Now what does this so peremptory Charge import but a miraculous as it were and immediate over-rule of the natural course of Things according to Daniels Visions and the vertue of it lasted in full force from the Christian Empire of Constantine the Great till the Death of Theodosius the Great Then there was such a Relaxation of this Charge that the Angels prepared Themselves to sound but did no more then prepare Now how agreeable is this to History soon after Theodosius's Death these Clouds and Storms began to hover and hang but did not fall in their full effect of doing the Christian Empire out of the middle as the Apostle speaks 2. Thess 2. 7. where it stood as a Wall of partition betwixt the Bestian Times
For if not we shall in vain call to the Mountain to Hide us and to the Rocks to cover us when the Great Day of His Wrath is Come The Prophetical Map of which Holy and Blessed State is too large here to present but it is necessary that a short delineation of it so far as is agreeable to support the last and most excelling part of the Calendar be given For in both the visions the vision of the Image and the vision of the Beast There enters at the end inseparably and no way possible to be divided a divine Kingdom of which the expressions are so full and high that it is self evident the grand Intendment of the Holy Spirit was by the four Monarchies to lead to that Supreme Kingdom that where They end That may begin which is of it self a great proof that if we are thus far right in the Calendar as the Evidence of Divine Revelation assures me we are We must be near so great and happy a Revolution the Complement of the Calendar and are now as on a Pisgah view of it For the Kingdom of Christ hath an immediate succession to the Times of the Beast even as the Bestian Kingdom and Times had to the Christian Empire The succession is immediate but the Illustrious Glory hath a Time of Preparation after the succession In the Face of all Prophecy This succession appears in Daniel's two Visions the Divine Kingdom follows the Feet and the Little Horn even so close as to be said in their Days of those ten Kings The God of Heaven Sets up a Kingdom Dan. 2. 47. as it were within them because so just at the end of their Time The Apostle Paul tells us The approach of Christ to the Bestian Times is so near that Christ blasts Him with the Spirit of his Mouth and brings to nothing the blaze of his Moon by the full Glory of his own appearance That Illustrious Man of Sin the Antitype of Antiochus the Illustrious is so out-shone that He is a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness In the whole view of the Revelation the Glory of Christ's Kingdom rises as the Beast falls and when He and his False Prophet are cast into the Lake or as Daniel speaks His Body deliver'd to the consuming Flames Then the Kingdom is given to Christ and his Saints as in full Glory They sit on Thrones and Reign with Him. But nothing is so express as the Oath of Christ as at the Morning of the Half Time or Reformation a beginning Glory Seal'd or stay'd in the Thunders seal'd till the end of the Half Time Christ solemnly swears at that Time There shall be after Time Times and Half Time allowed No more such kind of Time The false High Priest the Counterfeit of the True is not made without an Oath indeed But because he is but a Counterfeit He is cut off at his Half Time by an Oath also and cannot be a Priest any longer He is broken without Hand from Heaven As soon as ever the Oath takes place That Time of the former date of Times and Half Time is no longer it Immediately follows The Mystery of God that is the Glorious Kingdom of Christ so much and so long spoken of by the Prophets shall be immediately in Motion by it self to its complement and perfection Accordingly at the end of the Twelve Hundred and sixty days and of the Three days and Half the same as hath been prov'd with Time Times and Half Time There is as in their Days of those Ten Kings the appearance of the Kingdom of Christ in the Witnesses rising c. even just before the Blast of the seventh Trumpet And then the Seventh Trumpet sounds and immediately there are Loud voices in Heaven The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ The Kingdom is proclaimed and advances all the Time of the Seventy five years in which the Twelve Hundred sixty years become Twelve Hundred ninety years and then Thirteen Hundred Thirty five the Epoch of the perfectly Blessed state of that Kingdom of Christ All which lay'd together is perfect Scripture Demonstration of the Complement of the Calendar and of the Kingdom of Christ in its succession so near to us as 1697 and then rising to perfect glory And until that Time there is to be a continual prayer for and Expectation of such preparatory motions in the World as by which Bestianism shall not onely not be allowed to Regurgitate on any of the reformed Nations by any of their Princes Giving anew their power to the Beast that had Revers'd their power from Him but that the rest of the Ten Kings and Kingdoms shall hate the Whore And that within the Reformation it self that Synagogue Prophecy Brands as the Synagogue of Sathan that was always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Friend to Primacy and to casting out of the Church on its unscriptural Canons should be bending to worship at Philadelphiaes Feet and thereby the Reformation become perfect and Illustrious Let us then take off our Hearts and Eyes from all worldly Glory whether Civil or Ecclesiastic which is now in its low West and adore the Glory of Christ in his Kingdom as the rising Sun now near its East and Morning Dawn As the Stars let every one move and even Fight in their Courses and help the Lord against the Mighty Let us wait for Jesus Christ from Heaven who before Pontius Pilate witness'd that good Confession of his Kingdom which though it is not of this World is yet of the approaching World to come whereof we speak and though it is not from hence or from beneath yet is the Jerusalem coming down from Heaven which he in his own proper Time now at Hand will shew who is Lord of Lords and King of Kings FINIS The Rationality of this Calendar in a Review and in Compare with the Numeral Calendar of the 2300 Evens Morns Or a Table of Time especially of that part of it within the foregoing Calendar and Explanatory of it so that its Truth is Evinc'd by iâ—â— Conformity to the Infinite Wisdom that hath made every Thing Beautiful in its Season THE Great Reason of All Time is the Allowance of space to the World for the variety of Action in it under the Government of supreme Providence whereby things are Roll'd this way and that way between the Kingdom of Sathan in the Apostasie of Humane Nature and the Restoration of it by the Seed of the Woman Jesus Christ until his Kingdom shall swallow up the Apostasie and appear in Glory which Appearance in Glory is determined by God who hath Reserved Times and Seasons in his own Power to Come â—igh upon the seventh Millenary of Time which is the Grand Sabbatism under the Son of Man the Lord of it who is also the Son of God. Time therefore being seven Millenaries in the whole as Inclusive of the Kingdom of Christ was for about the First Half