probably at the Jews Conversion in the former part thereof when that nation will be born in a day Isa 66.8 and the marriage of the Lamb will be v. 7. Then in v. 11 c. is set forth the glorious coming of Christ to destroy the said enemies to the end of the ch when he will eminently make his foes his footstool as Psal 110.1 at the Armageddon Battel p. 7. The 4th Prophesie Rev. 11.13 14. to the end concerns the ruine of the Roman Empire the time whereof shall be no more as saith that Angel of the Covenant probably ch 10. when the 7th Angel begins to sound and Christs visible Dominion is then to take place c. See the Divine Thesis ch 2. p. 3. of the Irenicon November 3. 1663. This part of a Letter to a Friend Nov. 3. 63. now ten years past I had given order to leave out of the Abridgment but upon perusal thereof the 7th of April 74. I find it so considerable many ways being a Summary of my knowledg then of these Doctrines that I now order it to be re-printed and I would have all sorts take notice that all I have written since except my last great Discovery of the Scope of Revelation Prophesie on ch 20.5 and some other late Discoveries and Distinctions in our Key and that late Summary occasioned by my late Noble Learned Judicious good Friend Sir Robert Morai in the 2 folded leaves and the latter part of the Divine Theses from the 11 12th to the end with the addition now following them I say all others written since tend chiefly to the confirmation and explication of the same truth of the mystical part of the Gospel of Christ both in respect of those Principles and Practicals as in the first leaf of the 12 Foundations of Faith and for both purposes also I commend to them the due consideration of our 31 Observations useful for understanding mystical Prophesies with answers to objections both after the Tract on Rev. 22.20 in the 4th part AS for the New Jerusalem since the Bar viz. how Christ could personally make intercession in Heaven and yet personally reign on earth at the same time which occasioned my opinion of a mystical reign c. was taken away whereby I have formerly conceived it to be an Article of Faith which the Scripture expressly declared viz. That the Heavens must contain Christs Person till his coming the second time to Judgment my meaning was to the last Judgment having not then understood his coming in the clouds of heaven at his appearance and Kingdome to judge quick and dead at the first Resurrection of the Saints 1000 years before the rest of the dead to be the beginning of his great day of Judgment I have I say found much since in Scripture but especially in the book of the Revelation to tend to a coming of Christ as the great Monarch to set up his glorious Kingdom upon the putting down all worldly Powers that stood in opposition to him 1 Cor. 15. when he will begin to judge the quick and dead Rev. 11.17 18. I have lately perused Mr. Archers Book of Christ's Personal Reign and though in all things therein I am not satisfied yet I cannot find solid reason in many things to dissent and in other things it seemeth convincing and doubtless in his time he was a very discerning Christian and I had of late before I read that or any other of the like nature since my most earnest search into mystical Prophecies of the latter times the same apprehensions of divers passages in Scripture which I find to agree with his Book as the applying what our Saviour promised to his Disciples when he came to his Kingdom which I find will be in the Thousand years Rev. 20.4 promised to the New-Jerusalem Inhabitants Rev. 3.21 that then they should sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And that of our Saviour Luke 21.24 that Jerusalem should be trodden under foot till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled but to be raised up again then And when he wept over Jerusalem he said They namely the People of the Jews should not see him henceforth till they said Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Mat. 23. ult denoting that then they should see him And that promise Zach. 12.10 to the end which is in a way of mercy foreshewing how upon their conversion they should mourn in humble contrition and look to him at his appearing when that Nation shall be born in a day Isa 66.8 which judicious Expositors apply to the expressions Rev. 1.7 Behold he comeh with Clouds and every eye shall see him and they also that pierced him that is the People of the Jews that after their imprecation on themselves and on their children shall be accomplished will as the Apostle Paul speaks Rom. 11. appear to be beleved for their Fathers sake when those times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord Act. 3.19 and then all Israel shall be saved both of Jew and Gentile And though many grave Divines for a long time interpreted all that hath been spoken to this purpose for the most part to a spiritual sense yet the things that some hold out to the contrary 〈…〉 answered so that if this Opinion or rather matter of Faith â—e but freed from those evil additions that the subtilty of Satan in the Primitive times thrust upon it as if it should be a Kingdom of sensual pleasure for before thse misrepresentations or false aspersions rather as Mr. Mede notes it was very antient And freed likewise from that bold presumption and scandalous wickedness of our latter times for any under pretence of Christs Kingdom given to the Saints to go about by the Sword or any other unlawful means to divest Magistrates and Governors of their Offices to take that Kingdom before Christ give it to them to whom it will belong as being appointed to them by his Father in his own time namely at Christs appearing Here consider that Christ saith he came not to destroy the Law and Paul saith he established the Law and this is necessary to vindicate this Doctrine from scandal and to warn well-meaning persons that they think not upon seeming-fair pretences of good to attemp to do evil God having revealed that he will set up that Kingdom himself and that only in his own oppointed time On the other side saith our Saviour He that breaketh the least Commandment and teacheth men so shall be the least that is none in the Kingdom of Heaven as he answered the Mother of Zebedees Children Mat. 20.23 It shall be given to them for whom it is appointed by my Father appointed as well for the time when as the persons to whom These and the like errors being removed from it I think it may have an hnorable and comfortable place in matter of true Christian Faith as containing the best times of the most
abiding that they might be accepted who was their spiritual Priest to intercede for them and their King to protect them spiritually Again Chap. 11. the two Witnesses prophecying in Sackcloth 1260 days have as a general Consolation to the Church all that time foreshewed to them that they shall rise again and ascend into Heaven at the end of the days and soon after have the state of the Kingdom of Christ on Earth foreshewed unto them in the end of the same Chapter So likewise the other 144000 Lamb-followers in the Western Empire are set forth to be with the Lamb in Mount Sion and have this Character of the New Jerusalem upon them That they have his Fathers Name written upon their Foreheads Chap. 14.1 Again Those that should be Sufferers under Antichrist towards his fall they sing the Song of Moses coming out of their Wilderness-condition and praise God for his Judgments upon their Persecutors and have the entrance of Christs Kingdom upon Earth set before them for their comfort Chap. 15.4 5. so that unto this scope drive the Consolations of the sufferers and faithful Christians of all times since this most holy and comfortable Book was given to Christs Church and so both those Arms of that Red Sea of Blood running through the Eastern and Western Empires in the Churches meet together at the borders of the Land of Canaan promised to the Fore-fathers and their Seed about the end of the sixth Trumpet and entrance of the seventh And whether it reacheth further than unto that New World may seem questionable First because it is one of the Woe Trumpets and no such things seem suitable to the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth in the thousand years Secondly because the whole continuance of that is set forth by another Title for the comfort of the Church namely Of the Saints reign with Christ a thousand years as it were by way of distinction from the former suffering times of the Church Thirdly there is nothing clearly said in the Text that it should continue longer than to bring the Woes upon Antichrists Kingdom and other Enemies in the World and seems to end with the last Plagues so called because they are the portion of the Churches Persecutors before the thousand years and utterly bring them to perdition and as the sixth Vial seems to end with the Armageddon-Battel Chap. 19. so the seventh binds and shuts up Satan for that thousand years wherein he must no more seduce the Nations Chap. 20. And what this Author saith of Satans being cast into the Lake after the thousand years as a Vial and the last Vial of the seven is contrary to the Text Rev. 16. at the latter end of the Chapter where it is said that when the seventh Vial was poured out the great City was divided into three parts and then great Babylon came in remembrance before God executed Chap. 18. which will be done above a thousand years before Satans casting into the Lake of fire where the Beast and the false Prophet were cast so long before Besides Satans casting into the Lake seems not to be reckoned in the nature of such Vials as gradually brought destruction on the Beast and other persecuting Enemies on Earth but as his last doom at the comsummation of all things and the dissolution of the World which is as much a mercy to such as are saved as a beginning of woe and wrath to Satan and all damned Men and Devils but an end only to the being of inferiour Creatures which had long before in the thousand years enjoyed the liberty of the Sons of God as is said Rom. 8.21 Again the drift of the Trumpets were to blow out Wrath and Judgment upon the Earth and Grass and Trees Chap. 9.4 c. and such things as were upon the Earth belonging to wicked men till they should be destroyed from off the face of it and there to end and Satan was then bound in the Pit when there was no work for him to seduce such after their destruction who was their Captain and Counsellor before It is likewise observeable what Mr. Mede saith of the thousand years wherein the Saints were to reign that Satan afore-hand in the time of Antichrist set them up in a false way of reigning to eclipse their true reigning that afterward they should have on Earth and therefore taught Antichrists Followers to set them up superstitiously and idolatrously to worship and pray to them and before their Shrines and Images making them sinfully to have a reign with Christ on Earth in shew but really against him and his Father And all that said time of Antichrist he hath played the Ape in seeking to pour out the Vials upon Christs Kingdom to come as Christ had before declared that he had seven Angels in their times to pour out seven Vials to the destruction and ruine of Antichrist The first of Satans seeming Vials was by imposing Chiliasm upon it by carnal pleasures and typical Worship though upon slight unjust and false pretences as Mr. Mede manifests Secondly By the advantage thereof he obtained that some of the Ancient Fathers were so prejudiced that they wrote against it though the former for the most part were for it Thirdly By such prejudice and the like he obtained that good men all along misplaced the thousand years by way of anticipation though differing in the time they began and expounding them all along the Popes time only of a Spiritual Reign Fourthly By Popish false Glosses and Expositions upon all the Revelation and that part in particular c. Fifthly By seducing men of latter times since the Light of Truth began more than of a long time before to break forth to seek disorderly to set up Christ's Kingdom which will be God's own work in his own time to anticipate the same and that by acting against the Divine Precepts that Christ came to establish in casting off due obedience unto Magistrates and endeavours to suppress the Ministry thereby to scandalize the Doctrine of Christ's Kingdom on Earth Sixthly More lately by such as this Author names in the end of his Book Gr. Ha. concerning whom he declares much in a few lines who would make the Revelation an History of things past rather than a Prophesie of things so long to come so that the Pope should not be Antichrist in his forty two moneths much less Christ have a thousand years Reign on Earth afterwards And lastly The seventh Vial that Satan hath to pour on Christ's Kingdom seems not unfitly to be conceived to be by displacing the Vials Chap. 16. from their own time unto Christ's Reign whereunto they are not competible whereof the subject matter will be then taken away or making a groundless great Chasm of above a thousand years difference from the sixth to the seventh when Satan is to be cast into the Fiery Lake which is a business of a much differing nature many ways from all the Vials as well as in time
the want of which discovery occasioned many learned men to err as Assert 5. of the Key also of several senses of Christs comings in the New Test Assert 6. and large proofs of his personal appearance coming and reign Assert 7. also many needful distinctions not known to many before as two sort of Christs subjects 1. Raised Saints at his coming 2. Converted Jews and Gentils Assert 13. and for them two Jerusalems Assert 14. also the twofold consideration of Christs execution of his three great offices Assert 17. not in any former works that I have known c. the difference of the two last Trumpets namely of the last mystical and last sounding Trumpet above 1000 years after Assert 18. and note the distinction of the two Gogs and Magogs one in Ezek. 38.39 the other Rev. 20. Assert 19. also observe that as the spiritual divine foundation of Redemption of the souls of the Saints was surely wrought by Christs first coming so the visible glorious perfecting of Christs work of Redemption for the bodies of his Saints with the restitution of all things c. will be performed at his second coming with all promised Mercies and Covenants to and with the Fore-fathers Assert 21. with the consideration of those Covenants pag. 5 6 7 8 9 10. besides many other profitable matters in divers other former Assertions in the said Key Also take special notice of those great foundations of these truths in our last practical piece on Rev. 20.5 pag. 1 2. where many great differences of Christs second personal coming and his descending at the last Trump with those other great foundations mentioned pag. 2 3. with the hints of the subject nature times and end or scope of Revelation Prophesie p. 3 4 5 6. which last is largly proved in our System and in that whole next ensuing Treatise by the use of Christs own Divine Key Rev. 20.21 22. as may appear by this our last and great discovery through divine grace pertinently applyed to other proofs of the first bodily Resurrection of the Saints 1000 years before the rest of the dead with many other evidences and improvements of these Doctrines now needful to be known in these last times by the observant perusal of these matters and references men may by Gods blessing apprehend much Divine truth of this nature which God hath been pleased for a time much to set forth mystically by many divine Hieroglypsicks and resemblances of a weak woman for the Church and of strong and cruel Beasts for the successive enemies and the womans Divine Seed first to be her Saviour at his first coming about the 4000th year of the world 2. Her great Redeemer at his 2d but her head and Husband in their Sabatism of the world to come and 4thly to be actually her all in all with the Father and Holy Spirit in full reconciliation and perfect fruition upon Christs sentence of approbation and his delivering up his Mediatory Kingdome for all eternity Which way of these Divine Doctrines I have often in my thoughts compared to the Astronomers teaching that art the tearms of the circles seem strange at first to the learner as the Polar Circles Collures Tropicks Eccliptick Line Zodiark Meridian Orizon with the Zenith Nadir and the like but easie to be understood when their use is discovered so in the turning of Gods great Sphere of the worlds Millenniums of which Moses first made an Ephemeris viz. of the old world of the new world or now world and the world to come as in ch 5. of the Iren. about the middle whereof Daniel makes his great Kallender in his 2 3 8th chap. of the four Gentile Kingdoms for 2300 years until the Messiahs second coming and his little Calender of 70 weeks or 396 years ch 9. to his first within the compass of the former and John adds the last of that world to come in the three last chap. now discovered to be Christs Divine Key of all times with Gods great design in them from the fall respecting the Lamb and the Bride in that said designed estate by God of the 1000 years Rev. 20. before Christ shall give up the Kingdome to the Father and when such Scripture Chronologie is a little well considered with the carrying on of Gods said design therein as in our last Systeme of the seven millenniums may be observed these Divine Doctrines will by degrees appear I doubt not more and more easie to many See our Table of Chronol in the beginning of the Iren. with ch 5. Ibid. and the book of the Parallels of Dan. and Rev. to that purpose if they seem at first hard they will soon be familiar and after both enlightning and delightful as Divine Discoveries have ever been formerly and there is an excellent Divine art to be observed in them which by practise and due application with observing their right seasons may be made familiar and more and more perfected 3. But 3dly as for those seasonable Prodromal texts of Scrip. in the Revelation respecting these latter times p. 5 6 7 8. we shall hint a few things observable as first of that Rev. 16.12 to the end of the sixth Vial on vers 13. by the three unclean spirits according to Paraeus may be meant 1. Those Legatia Latere or plenipotentiaries sent to Princes 2. Popish Bishops and Doctors 3. Priests Jesuits c. by a joynt mission 1. from the Devil the old Dragon by instigation 2. from the Popes Councel of Cardinals and their associates by advice 3. By the Beast himself by his authorized Commission pag. 4. The latter part of that prophesie seemeth according to Mr. Mede to concur with that which followeth Rev. 14.14 to the end which he conceives may be fulfilled in the utter ruine both of Pope and Turk who seems to be therefore called Gog in the Land of Magog Ezek. 38.2 as having gotten a great part of the old Roman Impire and is that King of the North that overflowed with his multitudes after the Saricens pushings in the Holy Wars were over as Dan 11.40 who will be both probably destroyed then v. 45. at Christs appearance Rev. 19 20. ch and the discription of one in a cloud with a Crown and sharp Sickle Mr. Mede noteth always to belong to Christ and v. 16. by the reaping of the harvest he understands the Turks ruine and by the gathering the Clusters of the Vine v. 19. the distruction of the Pope though probably like to be of both suddainly See Joel 3.2 to 13. being gathered then with their Armies as those Tares Mat. 13. into bundles to be burnt and both as is conceived making up together one mystical Antichrist the one holding the worldly Babylon the other the spiritual to the great prejudice both of Jews and Gentils then to be united in one sheepfold The 3d. Prophesie more fully setting forth the destruction of Antichrist is Rev. 19.11 to the end of the ch after that joyful exultation
is described Dan. 7. And in this Book chap. 14. is conceived by judicious men upon considerable grounds to be contemporary with the two Beasts setting out the opposite state of the true Church in the same time not successive as this Author takes it though the Beasts ruine is therein more fully described yet he hath many considerable things against and concerning Antichrist in this Chapter and likewise he is very excellent upon the seventeenth and eighteenth being a like subject to prove the Pope to be Antichrist But for the particular Vision concerning the Vials Rev. 15 16. which appears to be a larger explication of what was spoken of Antichrists downfal and ruine in the latter part of chap. 14. As the seventeenth was an explication of divers things concerning the Antichristian Church of Rome and the eighteenth a special Vision of the terrible suddain irresistable and cursed destruction and desolation of Rome about the sixth Vial after which probably will succeed the conversion of the Jews and the Armageddon Battel upon which he hath many profitable notes upon chap. 19. But for the beginning of the seventh Trumpet at the beginning of the pouring out of the seven Vials and placing so many of the Vials after the time wherein the thousand years chap. 20. is begun and making the casting of Satan into the Lake after the Battel of Gog and Magog chap. 20. to be the seventh Vial I conceive to be much differing from the sense of the Scripture and for that the seven Vials are called the seven last Plagues which Phrase is the same in sence with the end of the days Dan. 12. both setting forth the period of wicked Monarcy when the Feet and Toes of the Image he saw before are wearing out toward the expiring of the Roman Monarchy and are both spoken of the Beasts ruine and poured out to accomplish it by degrees which the last Vial finisheth and reach no farther and in this sense learned men understand the Oath of the Angel of the Covenant chap. 10. That Time should be no longer viz. to that wicked Dominion for thenceforth was to begin a new World as after Noahs Flood wherein Christs glorious Reign on Earth should take place in an eminent manner for then the Scene of the World will be visibly changed the old being ended and the new begun wherein a King shall Rule in Righteousness whose Officers shall be Peace and his Exactors Righteousness as the Prophet foretold c. then will come in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that world to come Heb. 2.5 but the Vials are the last Plagues because they at last dispatch and rid Antichrist and all his supportors out of the Earth neither are any such Plagues suitable to or seasonable in the state of things in the said thousand years while that happy World remains and the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ which this Author applies to the time of Luther which he judges to be the beginning of the Vials I conceive unwarrantably when he thinks the Witnesses were slain chap. 11. not dinstinguishing of the former and last flaying as we observed Grounds of the Doctrine of Christs Kingdom on Earth throughout the whole Book of the Revelations ANd here I shall take occasion to hint what I have all along observed this Learned and Religious Author to have been defective in namely as one not owning the Doctrine of the Glorious Kingdome of Christ to come one Earth in the thousand years Rev. 20. That he passeth over many things in the Book of Revelation which evidently respect that time without observation as first in the Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia wherein those promises are set down again repeated c. 21 22. concerning the New Jerusalem many of which are evidently incompetible to any other state of affairs but of that time as to have power over the Nations chap. 2.26 to receive the Morning Star and to eat of that Tree whose Leaves shall be for the healing of the Nations to sit on a Throne of Christ distinct from his Fathers Throne chap. 3.21 and to have a Name written of the New Jerusalem which comes down from Heaven which are inconsistent with the state of the Church Triumphant in Heaven with divers others which the Primitive Christians were so well resolved of in the best times to belong to those that obtained a better Resurrection as the Spirit of God expresseth it Heb. 11.35 which Saint Paul seems to aim at the attaining to by the fellowship of Christs Sufferings Phil. 3.10 11. whence the Faithful are called the Children of the Resurrection Luke 20.36 Yea observe farther they are called by our Saviour Such as are accounted worthy to attain that World and the Resurrection of the dead And to this purpose it is storied of the Primitive Christians such was their Faith in this particular that out of an holy ambition as it were to have a share amongst the raised Martyrs they were forward to suffer upon that account for the Name of Christ But in the next place likewise he passeth over what evidently refers to that state chap. 5.10 though he spake of what the representative Church are said there to obtain from Christ to be Kings and Priests spiritually unto God but he altogether passeth over what the Holy Ghost teacheth them there to praise God for for the time to come and which they greatly exult in and rejoyce in aforehand for the time to come as a duty belonging to all Saints in that happy priviledge upon Earth till then and say they We shall reign upon Earth which is joyned to the other as an other part of their joy and matter of praise foreseen by the eye of Faith as if they had said For so we all Ministers and People shall their reign not only as we did spiritually in our former condition in the world but as will be suitable to that world to come in Christ's Kingdom on Earth We shall reign with him there a thousand years as chap. 20. is farther explained and to make it clear it must not be taken for Celestial Eternal Glory the place is set down where that Reignishall be namely on Earth and for the time future noting that it was not their present spiritual Reign but they shall so reign there viz. on Earth What can be spoken more clearly yet by him all together over-look'd So usual it is for prejudice to blind the eyes even of otherwise judicious and good men though some mysteries of God are discovered in their seasons only to whom and when and so far only as he is pleased to reveal them as Mr. Mede recordeth of a Tradition that the Apocalyps should be little understood in Antichrists time till about the twelfth Century and suitable in some things afterwards in such times as God sees good c. Again he takes notice of another innumerable company cloathed in white besides the 144000 sealed ones chap. 7. which
ΠΡΟΔΡΟΜΟΣ OR THE FORE-RUNNER OF The Peaceable Consideration of Christs Peaceful Kingdom upon Earth Abridged made useful for those that have the former and those that have them not ALSO Containing many necessary matters often since referred unto in the following parts of the wole work and briefly pointing out such things as are elsewhere more fully explained with some Additions and Amendments Unto which are Annexed divers things most useful of those contained in the Irenicon and also directing where the substance of the rest is to be found in the other parcels printed since the year 1666. when many hundreds of all the first four parts were burnt or lost which may supply the want of them as are particularly set down in the end of this Prodromus Mal. 4.5 Behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Mat. 17.11 Jesus answered and said unto them Elias truly shall first come and restore all things but I say unto you Elias is come already and they knew him not c. Post funestam Gogi Magogi cladem i.e. Papae Turcae Ez. 38.39 Describitur Nova Hierusalem cui nomen Jehovah Shamma Dominus Ibid. c. 48. ad finem By W. Sherwin Minister of the Gospel London Re-printed in the Year 1674. TO THE READER Christian Reader BE pleased to observe with me that the subject of mystical Prophesis respecting the seven Millenniums or a thousand Generations of the World may fitly thus be described viz. To be Gods appointed space of time divinely couched in his word for the accomplishing of his own great design for his own infinite glory concerning his Son Jesus Christ as Mediator and all those that he hath given him in the world and for the carrying on of his work of Redemption in his 3 great offices of Prophet Priest and King for his Vniversal true Church in the said time of his Mediatorshop until the happy restitution of all things shall be compleated in the world by him both for his Saints and all inferiour Creatures in their capacity as in reference to things which will mostly be seen being temporal until those eternal things shall be obtained which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor entred into the heart of man to conceive both for men and Angels for ever more In which way Gods most wonderful and most gracious design towards all those blessed intelligible creatures for his own glory according to his word will gradually be discovered and fully at last obtained by them for all eternity And this which was first declared in the word will be last accomplished in the world until from their temporal being they all pass to the confines of eternity To which purpose take notice 1. That what was briefly declared Gen. 3.15 by God the Father Son and Holy Ghost at mans fall is the foundation and short comprisal of all future revealed mercy That the Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head and with Psal 110.1 Rev. 19.11 20.4.8 9 10. 2. That in Gods Covenant with Noah for all flesh Gen. 8 9. for the earths continuance not only as a stage to act all future mercies to men and other creatures upon during the said space but by its fruitfulness to be for an accommodation to them but chiefly in that world which is to come Joel 3. 3. By Noahs Prophesie God sets forth the lineal discent of such as for the future should chiefly be given to Christ Gen. 9.25 26 27. viz. Jews according to the Covenants and Promises after made to their Fathers and Gentils by their first and second calls c. 4. God afterwards accordingly made Covenants with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and for their seed and though the natural seed of Abraham forfeited their Typical Canaan by breaking their Covenant Mich. 2.10 yet faithful Abraham through his one divine seed Christ hath obtained for all his spiritual seed that City spoken of Heb. 11.39.40 5. Gods mercy was after set forth to David as by a Kingdome first also forfeited by his natural race to the casting down of Davids Tabernacle by the Babylonish Captivity thereby making way for the long interim or interruption of Davids said Kingdome for the 2300 years of the four Gentil Monarchies but by his divine seed Christ Gods Covenant is renewed with David for his spiritual seed 2 Sam. 7. who shall partake of the sure mercies of Davids Kingdome Ezekiel 55.3 with and by Christ in his Mediatory or Davidical Kingdome Revelation 20.4 3.21 when will also be restored to the Saints a Paradise in that world to come instead of that lost by the first Adam on earth when there will be new heavens and new earth and the old will not be remembred c. When the New Jerusalem state shall be set up for all Abrahams faithful seed Heb. 11.10 16. and all Israel shall be saved upon their union with the Gentils of which from the possession of Canaan the whole world mostly consists concerning which particulars I shall refer you to the intent perusal of our last Treatise on Rev. 10.5 as guiding to the scope and drift of such first so divinely declared and last in the world to be fulfilled grace which we all ought to be very diligent and active to obtain W. S. THE PRODROMUS 1. THis previous intimation I conceive may be of good use that these Abridgments of the Prodromus and Irenicon may not only be an helpful introduction to serious enquirers into the mystical part of the Gospel of Christ respecting that world to come but may together with those latter printed principles serve both for a commentary as well as a confirmation of the sum and substance thereof in the two folded leaves and other parts therein quoted which is also illustrated by the practical parts on Rev. 20.5 Gen. 3.15 Jer. 3.17 Rev. 22.20 but may be also as a directing table to find such things as are after supplyed in the latter parcels and relate unto them upon divers accounts And in the Irenicon will be shewed how the first intended method chap. 1. which was many ways first interrupted after the degrees observed c. 2. Instead of those Prodromal texts to page 5. formerly being after spoken of in our latter Parcels we here direct to consider well the nature and use of our several books contained in the first leaf of the General Title page or twelve foundations of faith the knowledg whereof may much advantage many and to our account after the Key where many other useful directions are also included and to the Key it self whereby much previous matter against mens mistakes is tendred Assert 1. page 2. and very useful and necessary informations of many sorts not observed by many others are also observable as that Daniels short hints of the subject matter of the Revel were shut up till the time of the end but opened since though mystically divinely by Christ himself in the book of Revel
rather to the beginning of the thousand years The first four Trumpets which are reckoned the milder miseries upon that World of the Roman Empire contain somewhat above two hundred years after Constantine Rev. 8. When the Goths Vandals Hunnes Almains c. by degrees took away the Emperour who was he that letted the revealing of Antichist spoken of 2 Thes 2. The other three Trumpets called the Vae vae vae Tubae or three Woe-Trumpets Rev. 8. last vers are as follows The first Woe-Trumpet or fifth Trumpet is coneived to begin Anno Dommine 622. according to Helvicus when those Locusts out of the bottomless Pit viz. the Saracens subdued and over-ran one half of the Eastern Roman Empire bringing in with them that horrible Imposture of Mahomatism Rev. 9. first part of the Chapter which continued till about Anno Domini 1300. When the second Woe-Trvmpet or sixth Trumpet is conceived to have begun when the Turks the other Mahometan Locusts overcame the Sarecens and overcame likewise the other half of the Eastern Roman Empire Rev. 9. latter part of the Chapter which Trumpet will end with the utter perdition of the last Head of the Roman State viz. the ruine of the Popedom being the Feet and Toes of the Image expounded by Daniel cap. 2. And for the state of the Church contemporary with these contained in the little Book in the Angels Hand Revelations 10. after a short Chronological Table as it were of both Prophesies chap 11. to vers 15. and thence to the end of the Chapter a short Relation of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and state of the World then and thence forward as after follows The first Contemporary State of tho Church is set down chap. 12. dontaining the Primitive times till Constantines and the Dragons flood of Arrian Pesecution from those times till the Womans the True Church her flight into the Wilderness not long after the Year of our Lord 400. when its probable the Date of the Beast began the false Apostatical Church when the Western last Head of the fourth Beast which had received a deadly wound was again healed set forth by two Beasts chap. 13. The first having seven Heads and ten Horns deciphering the Politick State the other with two Horns like a Lamb and speaking like the Dragon the Ecclesiastical State thereof whose time is forty two months the same with the Lord Christs two Witnesses Prophesying Sackcloth 1260 days of years Rev. 11. and the Womans the True Church her abode in the Wilderness for a time times and half a time as chap. 12.14 where the Lord 's said Witnesses nourish her to the end of the said time and last period of the sixth Trumpet under which most if not all of the seven Vials the seven last Plagues Rev. 15.16 are poured out upon the beast the Popish State and Church to the utter destruction thereof whilst the 144000 followers of the Lamb stand with him upon Mount Zion Rev. 14. harping with their Harps and singing as it were a new Song before the Throne and the four living Wights and twenty four Elders who are excellently described ver 4 5. till all the Angels had done their Messages and the Son of Man that sate on the White Cloud had thrust in his sharp Sickle several times at the request of the last Angels to reap the Harvest Grapes of the Earth fully ripe to the end of the chap. Which Angels seem contemporary if not the same with the seven Angels pouring out the seven Vials chap. 16. particularly set down And it seems probable that the sixth of those Vials is now pouring out by the Turkish Army drying-up the great River Euphrates of the German Emperors dominions and forward towards Rome whereby the maintenance honour and desence of the Popedom hath been long upheld and conveyed to it As the great River Euphrates was useful unto old Babylon until the great Army of Cyrus having turned the waters another way passed thorow the Channel thereof into old Babylon Or if by such means with others as by the conversion of some and plagues and confusions in others the Turks Dominions as the great River Euphrates shall be dryed up in the issue to make way for the Jews the Kings of the East to come into Palestine yet so it will but the sixth Vial upon the great River Euphrates and it may not improbably be true of both The seventh Vial will end the Popes Being and all evil Dominion being poured upon the Air where the Prince of the power of the Air hath so long prevalently ruled which is called the end of the second Woe Rev. 11.14 at the end of which the seventh Trumpet will sound which is called the Wo-joy Trumpet first bringing for the most part destruction to the Wicked in the World and likewise bringing in great happiness to Gods faithful People following in the thousand years Rev. 20. and other things concerning the New Jerusalem and the contemporaries therewith in the two last Chapters of the Book of the Revelations Concerning which state of things in the Church then I conceive the not distinguishing between the seventh mystical Trumpet and the last loud-sounding Trumpet 1 Thes 4.16 is the occasion of some misapprehensions of some things to be in the said thousand years which are also an occasion of stumbling to many as to the matter of Doctrine of the Kingdome of Christ upon Earth whence the great and sudden change of all the Faithful is apprehended to be at the beginning of the seventh mystical Trumpet which I conceive from the Apostle's words will not be until the other loud-sounding Trumpet above a thousand years after at the last Resurrection and great day of the last general Judgment at the end of the World 1 Thes 4. which will follow the last attempt of the Devil by Gog and Magog Rev. 20. at the end of the thousand years at which great sudden momentany change in the twinkling of an eye at the Voice of the Archangel and sounding of the said Trumpet both all those that were raised at the beginning of Christ's Reign or all along the thousand years as learned Mede conceives and all the Faithful that are found alive at last on Earth must all then pass through that momentany change and be rapt up with the Faithful likewise which departed this life in the said 1000 years then raised to meet Christ in the Air in a glorious condition For though such as were raised before the beginning of Christ's Reign were before in an excellent state in regard of their bodies suitable to what Christ's was in before he ascended unto the Father yet then it seems probatile they will be more glorious bodies than formerly mortal eyes could endure to behold therefore saith the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 15.51 We shall not then all sleep but we shall all then be changed both living and dead All be changed both living and dead or raised before namely all that are faithful