seat and suitable habitation in the hearts of his Children who is the Father of all Unrighteousness and Deceit these flow from him as from their Fountain and Well-head and he is their Countenauce Protection and Propagation for the encrease and enlargement of his Kingdom of Darkness By the means of this Two-fold hatred that Satan begets in the subjects of his Kingdom against the Light of God's Glory shining in the Face of Christ and in the witness of those that are the Members of his Mystical Body here on Earth he blows up a continual War and keeps on foot a fixed Enmity between the subjects of the one and of the other Kingdom and the Enmity is still the same in effect whether it be open and allowed or dissembled and hid the hatred and opposition is not the less in it self but the last of the two is the worst and most dangerous This he Heads with a visible Power as well as sowes the Seed of it invisibly in the Children of his Kingdom and either by violence or fraud or both hath never failed from the beginning of the World to this day by the wise permission of God for the bruising of the Heele of the Womans Seed in the Head and Members to shew himself the God or chief Potentate and Ruler in and over the whole World And so influence in such manner all the visible Rule and Authority whether Civil or Ecclesiastical that is exercised on Earth and is supported by humane Wisdom and Power centring in the foresaid Principles of batred and prejudice against Christ and his Kingdom that he hath ever got the better of it in the eye of flesh and blood over the true subjects and servants of Christ and hath as much as is in him slain Christ's Witnesses and kept them under in a most oppressed and dispersed condition Of this the Seed of Abrabam beginning in Sem and so downward until Christ's Incarnation and Death and as the Consequence thereof the rejection of the Seed according to the flesh were the living and known examples in their dayes what Servitudes and Captivities were they not exposed unto and did they not undergo And at last the very visibility of their own Church and State was wholly defaced and lost though both of Divine Constitution and supported not only with divine Laws but with the visible signet of the Divine Presence and by whom was this People upon whom the Name of God was called brought under persecuted and suppressed but by those who were foretold by Dan. ch 2. and most lively represented and described by that great Image which was the subject of Nebuchadnçzzar's Dream that none but Daniel could rehearse and interpret signifying the Persons and their Successors that should be found possessing the Universal Empire and Command of the World during the continuance of those known Four Monarchs that have followed successively one after another according as they were fore-told and charactered out some thousand years ago and are now standing upon their last legs the time drawing on apace when the spiritual seed of the same Abraham shall be made heirs even of the World by Faith and what was done by Abraham in Figure and Type as to his Conquest over the Four Kings Gen. 14. must have its accomplishment in Reality and Truth by those of his seed that are the true Israel in Spirit who by the Spirit of Life entring into them at the appointed time together with the Charge committed to them of pouring out the seven Vials of the last Plagues of God shall bring the final downfal and destruction of those Four Monarchs and in and with it of the Kingdom of the Beast and of Antichrist and bring home again and receive the true Lots that have been sojourners in the Sodom of this World all this time under the Power of their Oppressors And as it did befal Israel after the flesh that were Abraham's Natural Seed under the three first Monarchies and part of the Fourth our Saviour suffering Death Under the Roman Empire so are the Scriptures very plain and express if considered with a spiritual eye that the Israel after the flesh that have been adopted into the room and place of the former and though wild by Nature yet engrafted upon the same Stock and Root of the good Olive Tree the true anointed One that is the Father of many Nations as he is the Second Adam whose standing is by Faith that if they exalt themselves and become hardened and resist the Ministry of the Holy Ghost as the Jews that were their Predecessors did Christ will then make it appear also in the Case of these latter Jews who say they are so but having not the Spirit and Nature of true Faith in them do lye and deceive themselves as well as others that it is not they that bear the Root but the Root that bears them who therefore can cast them off as he did the others and once more not only shake the Earth but the Heavens although called Christian to make way for that Kingdom of his that cannot be shaken whereof we have already shewed and how nigh this is accomplishing and is even at the very doors we shall have occasion to make mention of more particularly as the next and last Particular we are to speak unto For an Introduction whereunto let me only mind you of some few things that the Apostle John in his Book of the Revelations layes before us on this behalf declaring first the things that were to befal the Heathenish Roman Empire and the Church of God abiding under its Protection during the time of the first Six Seals which by Computation continued till somewhat more than four hundred years after Christ j about the end of which period that Empire as Heathen dissolved and a new face of things in Church and State rose out of it at last for so mnch as concerned that part of the World which thereupon in Name became Christian And because the Spiritual part of the Church at that same time began to be most suppressed being forced to fly from the fury of the Serpent into a wilderness-state and condition therefore the visible Constituted Frame of Civil as well as Ecclesiastical Power called Christian were represented unto John The First under the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast that came out of the Sea And the Second under the two-horned Beast that came out of the Earth answerable to what was under other similitudes intimated of them in the Iron Legs and the Feet and Toes of Nebuchadnezzar's Image part of Iron and part of Clay Whereby the Iron leggs are the Civil Power as it became Christian and retaining still the Reliques of the Roman Empire and by the Feet part of Iron and part of Clay is meant the Ecclesiastical State and Power partly Papal and partly Reformed as an earthly Jerusalem yet visible and both enemies to the Jerusalem that is above and yet not very good friends between themselves whose
continuance is measured out by the time of the six Trumpets that is to say in the exercise of these three distinct Powers under the Name Christian the one Imperial and Magistratical the other Spiritual and Ecclesiastical in the two Horns and branches of it pretended unto of Divine Right and Institution or whether it be more diffusive in a Collective Body of Church-Rulers and as more particularly it is expressed to last twelve hundred and sixty Prophetical dayes that is to say years in the 11 12 and 13 Chap. of the Revelations and by comparing what is spoken and described in the foresaid Chapters with Chapter 17 concerning this Constitution and Face of the Christian Church and State that was fore-seen to rise up out of the dissolution of the Heathenish Roman Empire and the driving into the Wilderness the Spiritual part of the Church made up of those who are said for the heavenliness of their Principles and Converse to be those that dwell in Heaven chap. 12. vers 12. and chap. 13. 6. It seems very plain that upon the Disputes that was likely to arise in the Christian Ecclesiastical State and Government upon the bottom of the Papacy and Rule in the Church by one universal visible Head under Christ here upon Earth as one of the Horns belonging to the second Beast by Daniel called the Little Horn mentioned single because he was most Potent and for a long time was able to uphold his Authority without any considerable cruelty and division that was visible But in process of time the separation and division happened as John in mentioning of the two-horned Beast did fore-tell there would alwayes be within the bowels of the visible Church of the outward Court-worshippers a more and a less corrupted and backsliden part the one of which compared with the other would or might be likened to the earthly Jerusalem in the temper it was in when Christ was upon Earth for persecuting the Prophets and killing the Heir himself when he came amongst them As the other might be to Samaria and the worshippers of Jeroboams Calves after that he had headed the ten Tribes in their defection not only in the Civil State but from the Purity of God's visible Worship kept up according to God's Ordinances This latter being the lively resemblance of the Papacy and all that acknowledge the Papal Authority as the chief Ruler and Head of the visible Church throughout the several States and Dominions of the Christian Empire the other figuring out the Jerusalem that now is and is in bondage with her Children distinguishing her self from Popery on the one hand and from them that dwell in Heaven as the true Citizens of the Jerusalem that is above the Mother of all those that are Heirs according to the Promise on the other hand accounting the one Babylonish Antichristian and Heretical and the other Schismatical and Erroneous Fanatical and Blasphemous And because the Woman as the Apostle calls the earthly Jerusalem which was amongst the Galatians in his dayes as being in bondage with her Children to the Law and worldly Rudiments that perish in the using Touch not taste not handle not as Objects of Divine Worship which feed most the outward senses doth make a very fair shew in the flesh having the Form of Godliness but denying the Power of it and withdrawing from and disowning the Children of the Promise that are of a more heavenly birth and of the free Woman Therefore we shall find this sort of Professors described by John in his 1 Epist 2. 19. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us and not have made a manifest distinction of themselves from us that is to say from being followers 1 Thess 2. 14 15. of the Churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus that are the Circumcision in Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh For which cause sake the Thessalonians in adhering to the primitive pattern which shewed it self in those Churches did suffer the like things from their own Country-men the Jews among whom they lived as those Churches of God in Judea did from the Jews there who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and chased out the chiefest of the Apostles from amongst them and they pleased not God and are contrary to all men forbidding under pretence of too much familiarity with the Heathen and prophane World that the Gospel should be preached unto the Gentiles whereby they might be saved every way filling up their sins and bringing wrath upon themselves to the uttermost This is the Woman which John saw in Rev. 1. that was drunk with the blood of the Saints ver 6. and with the blood of the choicest Martyrs of Jesus at which he wondred with great admiration as little expecting to find what he saw or to reade that name written upon her forehead which he did of Mystery Babylon the great the mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth with whom the Kings and Inhabitants of the Earth commit Fornication and have been made drunk with it For at last her false unchaste whorish spirit to her Lord and Husband is discovered and made manifest by the open rejection of him in his Members and by the Combination and Conjunction which she is found in with the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast and his Adherents under the Papacy thereby to make War with his Witnesses and slay them and expose their dead bodies to shame and reproach in the streets of this earthly Jerusalem who for her exceeding Apostacy and fierce Enmity against the true Temple-worshippers is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified and though she have strengthened her self as one that sits upon many Waters and who is the City that reigns over the Kings or chief eminent Persons men of Name of the Earth which the Children of the earthly Jerusalem are yet sayes he God determines to bring her to Judgment and in order thereunto the Instruments he will employ therein are the several Potentates and Kingdoms that have given their Power to the Papacy who at the time appointed shall find it their Interest to agree and become of one mind in hatred of this Whore or unchaste Spouse of Christ that sitteth upon Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues and shall therefore combine together to make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire For God hath put it into their hearts to fulfil his Will in this Judgment which they are to execute as Nebuchadnezzar formerly did upon the earthly material Jerusalem in his days until which be fulfilled they shall agree and hold together giving joyntly their Counsel Authority and Strength in support and maintenance of the Beast that is the first and chief Horn of the two-horned Beast which is the Papacy And how to give a right interpretation of the things in
or to fasten the one to the other and the one part shall go toward the East into down-right Popery the other unto the West at the vastest distance and greatest contrariety one to the other that is imaginable so as half of this Mountain of visible Saints in Name shall remove North deeper into the Apostacy and the other half South nearer to the Heavenly Jerusalem And in this state of things when the Iron shall break the Kingdom of the Clay to pieces And again that Kingdom of Clay shall divide and remove one half to the East and the other to the West causing a most terrible Earthquake as in the dayes of Uzziah at which time of this Earthquake the tenth part of the Papal Sea shall make a final defection from her and the Lord my God shall come and all the Saints with thee that is to say He shall Muster up his Heavenly Troops and take to himself his great Power in which he shall begin to reign by the executing of his Wrath and divine Vengeance upon his Enemies in the pouring out the seven vials which is the time of the end that is to say of ending the 1260 years for the two Witnesses Prophesying in Sackcloth and the Womans remaining in the Wilderness and the time when the rising of the Witnesses doth begin and that Saviours shall come upon Mount Sion and judge the Mount of Esau spiritually as the ten Kings shall judge them outwardly and give the flesh of the Whore to be torn in pieces and burnt with fire These with others that might be alledged are the characters and signs to prove the first particular that the Testimony which Christ declared so long ago was to be given by the Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom in all the World and unto all Nations is upon its finishing point The Second which is the ending of that Dispensation and the beginning of a new one by the pouring out of the seven vials to the utter destruction of Antichrist's Kingdom and the cutting out the stone without hands in preparation to the perfect deliverance of the Church out of Babylon and the compleat bringing them out of their Captivity in order to the actual Restoring the Kingdom of Israel is that we shall likewise give some short discovery of Two things are comprehended in the Restoring the Kingdom to Israel First Israel it self the true Inhabitants and Citizens of the New and Heavenly Jerusalem must be restored to a Kingdom that is a visible incorporated Society of Subjects relating to the true David their King as their Soveraign and only Law-giver disclaiming all other reigning or exercising Dominion over them Secondly Over Israel thus restored to be a Kingdom Christ will shew and own himself visibly their King and the Universal Monarch over the whole World who at that time shall be one Common-wealth of Israel and Children of Abraham under one of the two Covenants yielding either true or feigned Obedience if not out of Love yet from the fear of Wrath Divine Vengeance begun to be revealed and poured forth upon all the Disobedient For no sooner shall the Vials begin to be poured out but the time is come of Christ's Wrath that is to say when he shall come forth in the visible execution of his Royal Office and Power amongst them in the hands of his undoubted Officers executing Judgment upon all that shall withstand his Peoples Freedom and coming out from under their former servitude and bondage under the Kingdom of Antichrist and this in order to restore Israel unto such a constitution of a Kingdom which Christ is to exercise over them during the space of a thousand years And therefore that which first begins this new dispensation called the time of the end is the rising of the Witnesses by an extraordinary pouring out of the spirit as the latter rain which like Life from the dead shall enter into them and set them upon their feet and qualifie those in office amongst them as their Rulers in State or Church with a like and greater power than was given in the Type and Figure to Moses and Elias at whose word the earth was smitten with visible plagues and curses as often as they saw cause to promote the end for which they were sent and employed and so it must be again in a much more glorious dispensation thereby to restore and constitute Israel into a Kingdom in despite of all opposition which plainly evidences that such a dispensation as this is necessary as that which must be preparatory and conducing to give the actual being and constitution of a Kingdom to a People that are found in so great and universal a state of servitude and bondage far beyond that which Israel was in to whom Moses was sent to bring them out of Egypt Therefore behold the dayes come saith the Lord Jer. 23. 7 8. that they shall no more say the Lord liveth which brought the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt but the Lord liveth which brought up and which led a parallel dispensation to Moses his bringing them up and leading them as a horse in the Wilderness Esay 63. the seed of the house of Israel out of the North Country and from all Countries whither I had driven them and they shall dwell in their own land The spiritual seed of Israel driven in the time of the Gentiles into the Wilderness and kept slaves to the highest degree during the reign of Antichrist must have a time of gathering and bringing up into their land under their own King and the Nation that hath kept them in bondage God himself must and will judge more signally than he did Pharaoh and the Egyptians by which means this stone that hath been fallen upon and suppressed for so many hundred years even these fixed unmoveable chaste followers of the Lamb must rise and stand again upon their feet with great power and authority so as they shall not onely be a burthensome stone for all people that burthen themselves with it Zach. 12. 3. to the cutting them in pieces though the people of the earth be gathered together against them but vers 5 6. In that day saith the Lord I will make the Governours of Judah like an hearth of fire in a sheaf and they shall devour all the people round about on the right hand and on the left and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place even in Jerusalem and the Lord himself shall defend in that day Jerusalem and he that is feeble amongst them shall be as David and the house of David as God as the Angel of the Lord before them so as the Governours of Judah shall say there is strength to me and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem in the Lord of Hosts their God I know it is and will be Objected that these places refer to the conversion of the Jews that are the natural seed of Abraham which are expected to be first received again as
knowledge of the Life which is hid with Christ in God Those that are in this Kingdom and in whom the Power of it is are fitted to flye with the Church into the VVilderness and to continue in such a solitary dispersed desolate condition till God calls them out of it They have VVells and Springs opened to them in this VVilderness whence they draw the VVaters of Salvation without being in bondage to the Life of Sense and the objects depending thereon as touch not taste not handle not which perish in the using 2. But Secondly Christ's Kingdom is also outward appearing to sense and to the eye of the sensual or inferiour part of the mind which works only by bodily organs judging by the sight of that eye and the hearing of that ear whose life is in and by the body consisting in bodily exercise and is therefore compared Revel 11. 2. to the outward Court and the VVorship thereunto appertaining This is the Dominion of God in the Conscience also though but in the inferiour or sensual part of the mind where it becomes a Law in our Members to put in execution and perform the Law of the Spirit of our Mind that so our very bodies may become the Temple of the holy Ghost and we may be able to glorifie God not in our Spirits only but in our Bodies also as clean Vessels and earthen Tabernacles upon which may be written HOLINESS TO THE LORD Zech. 14. Now the Kingdom of Christ comes not properly to appear in outward shew and visibility but as it shines forth in this lower and earthly part of the Soul witnessing the Dominion and Power of God to be there as a Law and commanding Principle in and over the outward man With respect to this kind of its Appearance in affecting and influencing the bodily part of man and becoming the Life thereof it is capable to come forth in a Power and Glory that is corruptible fading and that wears away as also in that which is incorruptible and abides for ever The first of these is meant 1 Joh. 3. 1 2. where 't is said Now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him or have the like appearance with him for we shall see him as he is The Sons of God are not yet in the proper appearance of his Sons but do bear the form and appearance of the fleshly man to the making a fair shew in the flesh They have their Treasure but in an earthen Vessel unredeemed from its present bondage unto corruption But the time is hastening when they shall in Spirit shine forth as the Sun in its strength in the Kingdom of their Father and their very bodies shall be as the Firmament transparent and of service to unvail the glory of the inward man and not cover and disguise it as now they do But alas This fair shew in the flesh which may also be made by those that are strange Children passes with most for the Kingdom of Christ even yet in these last dayes some crying Lo here and some lo there according to that form of service and divine worship they are perswaded in their minds is according to the Rule of God's VVord though it be but that only which appertains to the outward Court which is given up by God into the hands of the Gentiles to possess and tread under foot at their pleasure The Heavens hereof are passing away with a great noise and these worldly Elements are melting apace As a Vesture they shall be folded up and changed they shall perish and wear old as a Garment whilst Christ's inward and spiritual Kingdom shall remain and in its due time come forth in an appearance that shall be lasting and unshaken for ever VVherefore we receiving this Kingdom which cannot be moved let us hold fast and have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear For our God is a consuming fire But to return and apply our selves to the subject we were on before which is To give the view of what Word God is fulfilling and what part of his Counsel he is executing among us in this our day The Heavens are now black over our heads the Sun is turned into darkness the Moon into blood and mens hearts are failing them for fear of what God is bringing upon the Earth Great distress is in the Land and upon the Nations Wrath is coming upon that People who say they are Jews and are not but shall be found liars The Sea and the waves also will roar the prophane heathenish party of men will be in great perplexity too Surely the Figtree and all the Trees are shooting forth and after this cruel sharp Winter that is and for some space is yet to be upon us the Summer approaches that will make amends for all Great cause there is for the Sons of God to lift up their heads as foreseeing that their Redemption draws nigh In this point the Book of the Revelations will be every day more and more opened to give us light and instruction the Providences of God helping much every day too as to the interpretation thereof together with the Spirit of Truth that dwells and lives in the hearts of Saints Through mercy the Lord who is that Spirit hath not been wanting in his Teachings of this kind to a poor Worm in my present solitude and bonds I shall have occasion to tell you by and by that there appears cause to me of dissent from Mr. Mede as to some applications that are made by him in his learned Commentary on that Book when I come to speak of some particulars concerning the Witnesses and their twofold time and state of prophesying 1. Their thousand two hundred and sixty years prophesying in sackcloth in a persecuted wilderness state 2. Their prophesying in power and glory during the space of the pouring forth of the seven Vials of Wrath as a fore-running Eliah-like Ministry preparatory to Christ's thousand years Reign on Earth Yet as to that which Mr. Mede calls his great Key for the opening of that whole Book to wit his Synchronisms or Contemporations of things which he finds to agree and fall out together in the same age and time I exceedingly reverence his Judgement and look upon him as one that hath most happily found out the hidden order and method used by the holy Ghost in that Prophetical Book This method being once known to the very rational judgment of man that may be exercised upon the matters contained in that Book they are thereby rendred much more easie and intelligible Let us also take it for granted as that which is the common judgment of those that acknowledge the Scriptures that in this Book of the Apocalypsâ— are contained and revealed in an orderly method the things which were to fall out in the course of God's Providence and wise ordering of
matters for the good of the VVomans Seed during the third Day or Age of the world This day reaches from Christ's Ascention or departure into a far Country to God's bringing again this his only begotten Son into the world that every tongue may confess and every knee bow to the honour of his most glorious Name Then shall he in the quality of Universal King as well on Earth as in Heaven enter upon and keep the possession of his Kingdom against all Usurpers and Opposers whatsoever This space of time between Christ's Ascention to Heaven and Reign on Earth is measured out in three great and distinct Sections or Divisions in the Book before-mentioned as Mr. Mede takes notice and every of these three are again made to contain in them seven Sub-divisions of that portion of time that is allotted unto each of them Hereupon Mr. Mede's own words are The order of the Seals and in them of the Trumpets is certain and undoubted to wit the same which the number to every one ascribed doth point out 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. The rest therefore of the Prophecies in that Book being compared first between themselves and afterwards with the Seals by way of Synchronism the Order of the whole Revelation will be evident This Assertion of his I take to be most clear He therefore begins with that notable quaternion of Prophecies which are so very remarkable by reason of the equality of their times 1. The first is the Prophecy of the VVoman's remaining in the VVilderness for a time times and half a time or 1260 dayes as is there more manifestly declared 2. The second is that of the seven-headed Beast restored and ruling forty two months 3. The third is of the Court or of the holy City trodden under foot by the Gentiles 4. The fourth and last is that of the two Witnesses prophesying 1260 dayes that is years Now although as Mr. Mede well observes the character of equality of times will not be sufficient to evidence that they are the same times but may be before or after yet by other characters which that Book affords to make out the demonstration it seems very clear These other characters he brings as well he may out of the twelfth Chapter where 't is plain that when the Dragon is cast down by Michael out of Heaven the VVoman escapes from his â—â—â—sence into the VVilderness ver 6 and 14. The Dragon being 〈◊〉 that he had failed of his attempt to destroy her in Heaven reâ—â—â— to his earthly weapons and applies himself to make war with the VVoman and with the rest of her Seed to wit those which she should bring forth in the VVilderness ver 17. And for this purpose he gave his Power his Throne and great Authority to the ten-horned Beast out of the Sea ascending Chap. 13. 1 2. By Chap. 11. it appears that the times of the Beast and of the Prophecy of the VVitnesses are equal and that they are finished together at the end of the sixth Trumpet which shews they began and held on together the whole space The twelfth verse shews the Ascention of the VVitnesses into Heaven which puts a period to their mourning Prophecy as also that great Earthquake wherewith the Imperial City being overthrown the Kingdom of the Beast comes to be abolished noted by the very moment in which the second Woe which is under the sixth Trumpet went out On this the third Woe is quickly to ensue at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet In that very moment of time that the Witnesses whom the Beast ascending out of the bottomless pit had slain being at the point of finishing their Testimony in sackcloth were revived by the spirit of life from God entring into them and ascending up into Heaven the same hour the tenth part of the City fell by means of the great Earthquake Then matters are brought to that pass that the seventh Trumpet sounding all the Kingdoms of the World become our Lord's and his Christ's In the same moment also the Wrath of the Lamb comes to be poured out by the Ministry of the Vials and the Temple of God is to be seen in Heaven ver 15 19. The great Harlot or mystical Babylon chap. 17. is of the same time with the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast as are also the hundred forty and four thousand sealed Ones being Virgins these are of the same time with the Whore of Babylon and the Beast The period of the Tyranny of the Beast and of this Company of the sealed Virgin-Saints is at the coming forth of the multitude of Palm-bearers For out of what tribulation could they come but of the Beast's persecuting the Saints Therefore they leave the Tyranny of the Beast behind them and are of one Mystical Body or Church with the sealed Ones and have been under the same Persecution with them but are Saints of an inferiour rank and station to those that have the priviledge and dignity to be sealed with the Name of the Father in their foreheads Chap. 7. The two â—orned Beast hath contemporized with the ten-horned Beast Chap. 13â—…e Whore with both and all these three with the Woman in the Wildernâ—… the treading under foot the holy City and the Witnesses mean time mourning in sackcloth The company also of the sealed Virgins and the company of Palm-bearing Virgins brought from under great tribulation into a safe and blessed state though no mention be made of their being sealed these as to the season of their tribulation under the persecuting Beast contemporize with the Whore and the Beast All these contemporize one with another and fill up the same space of time After this succeeds the Ministry of the seven Vials at the Rising of the Witnesses and the moment of their ascending into Heaven This will come to pass at the beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet Then the triumphing state of the Witnesses will come on The power of the Keyes and the pouring forth of the Vials of God's Wrath upon the Kingdom of the Beast will be visibly committed to them and the time of the Beast's and Babylons inclining to Ruine or the visibly declining sinking state of both will fall in together with this Dispensation of the Vials to make way for the Marriage of the Lamb and the coming down of the New Jerusalem out of Heaven to be seen as the Tabernacle of God amongst men here on Earth The remaining difficulty then is to fill up the first of the three great Sections and Divisions of time before-mentioned to wit the space which had an end put to it by the Womans actual flight into the Wilderness This began when John received this Prophecy in the Isle of Patmos Mr. Mede very judicially summeth it up in these three Particulars 1. The value and preference which is put by God upon the state of the Church as it answers to the inward Court of the Temple of old comparatively with those who in their spirit principle
as in a wilderness condition for 1260 years now near expired And although from that state of servitude and hard bondage unto which you have been exposed by the Rulers no wrestlings or contendings by humane wisdom and power have availed to work your deliverance because the appointed time set by God is not come Yet this ought to be your comfort that so soon as that time comes there will then need very little other help than the Grave it self to cast you forth as the Womb doth her fruit which it cannot longer detain For of this be assured that Christ's dead body mystical can no more be held in its figurative grave after the set time is come than his natural body could in his literal grave Acts 2. 24. where it is said that after Christ by wicked hands had been slain God raised him up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible he should be held of it Nor are you to be too much grieved and discouraged in this your low depressed and dead estate under the rage and indignation of the World and Powers of it since to you is the promise of Life and Resurrection and you are sure for the present to be fed in the Wilderness and to be kept green and flourishing in your inward man by secret dew inspired and distilled from Heaven whatever perishing and decays are brought upon your outward where you are bearing the marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus Hearken therefore to the Call that is given you of retiring inward into the life of your Head and Root the life that is hid with Christ in God And as the means to be so with more freedom labour to keep the door of your sensual part shut and fast closed about you as much as may be that the noise and diversions of this sinful and unquiet World may not disturb nor interrupt you For though through impatience and unbelief you may be arguing and concluding against your selves as the whole house of Israel did Ezek. 37. 11. that your bones are dried your hope is lost and you are cut off for your parts yet ye shall know that the Lord he is God when he hath opened and brought you up out of your graves v. 13. He will then own you visibly for his people by wonderfully putting his Spirit within you and causing you to live And when you see this your heart shall rejoyce and your bones shall flourish like an herb and the hand of the Lord shall be known towards you his servants and his indignation towards his enemies He hath the weapons of his vengeance in readiness full Vials of his wrath to be poured forth by his heavenly Militia and Troops upon the Beast and his Worshippers when all humane means fail This you are therefore to know that though the Saints who have adventured to oppose the Beast and the kingdom of Antichrist all along contending in a good Cause have been still crushed and subdued as is foretold Rev. 13. 7. yet the time is coming yea is even at the very door for God to take the business into his own hands and to put forth the power of his wrath by heavenly Instruments forasmuch as the earthly ones as you have seen have proved ineffectual And this ought to be a teaching to us to depend upon God for the avenging of his people even when all humane ability to perform it is vanished and not hastily to run out in the use of any indirect means though tempted and allured thereunto But to return to the things which we propound to set before you in this Epistle They are reducible unto these particulars following 1. First The sight and knowledge of Christ as he is the Invisible and Holy One from whom as from the Head all natural as well as spiritual good doth flow 2. Secondly Christ's Headship exercised by him ever since his Ascension as he is the Son of man glorified and this in the two distinct branches and administrations of it The one that wherein he is the Lord and restorer of pure incorrupt Nature upon the Principles of the first Covenant renewed and confirmed in his blood The other that in which he is the giver of the Holy Ghost or the Minister of the Spirit and new Name as Ointment poured forth which where it is received upon the Principles of the new Covenant never fails but abides with such for ever 3. Thirdly The true Annointed Ones or Witnesses of Christ according to both his before-mentioned Administrations and the Annointing which is given by the one and by the other 4. Fourthly Those that in Principles are opposite unto these two Annointings and the effects of them declaring their enmity in and by the continued war they maintain against them in the posture of open enemies or dissembled friends both making up but one and the same Kingdom of Antichrist 5. Fifthly What Word and part of his Counsels contained in the Promises and Prophesies not yet accomplished is the Lord now fulfilling in the present dispensations of our day 1. To the first 'T is the Testimony which came out of Christ's own mouth concerning Himself and his Father Luke 1. 22. That no man knows who the Son is but the Father nor who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal Him which plainly declares that the beings both of the Father and of the Son are great and hidden Mysteries The one as well as the other is mystical and invisible and must be taught and revealed before it can be truly and fully known and understood what they are Agreeable to this is that Joh. 1. 18. No man hath seen God at any time that is immediately but by the means of the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him The Son therefore who is the only begotten is said to be the Image of the invisible God The first name and similitude whereby God is possible and capable to be known to others beside himself For by and from Him as the Head the knowledge and fruit of the whole Deity is derived and communicated in such fit Images and lively Representations as He hath fore-determined within himself to be known by unto his whole Creation from the beginning to the end thereof Hence it is that we find Christ the Mediator by the Prophet Isa 43. 10. speaking of himself after this manner Ye are my Witnesses saith the Lord and my Servant whom I have chosen The Lord the Mediator hath and owns for his Witnesses the Womans Seed in the head and in the members the promised Seed in his Servant the Branch the chief and principal one and in his Brethren the same Seed and who are made to bear his Fathers Name by Adoption as well as himself and to continue it for ever that one Seed Gal. 3. which saith the Apostle is Christ the mystical body that are Heirs according to promise Ye are my Witnesses sayes
unto him unto whom as he is his Equal for saith he I and the Father are one So also he is his Servant and hath his Office of Ministry under him For the end of Christ's Ministry is to unvail the Glory of his Father and to shine with him as second in the Throne which he prefers much before the drawing of all men to himself to depend and rest on him only and not on the Father in and through him as well those do that rest in the knowledge of Christ according to the flesh and behold not that vail rent upon his spiritual Cross in order to live to him that died for them and rose again By what we have already shewed we have or may have the sight of him who is the Holy and Invisible One from whom as from the Head all Natural as well as Spiritual good doth flow 2. The next thing propounded is to set forth the two distinct Branches and Administrations of this Headship exercised by Christ as he is the Son of Man glorified ministring the Inspiration Anointing and Image of God which is given according to the Principles and Law both of the first and of the second Covenant The influence and effect hereof upon all rational beings whether Angels or Men in their mutable estate or immutable doth proceed from Christ as he is the second Adam that quickening Spirit who is Lord from Heaven And hereof he hath his living and undeniable Witness in the Hearts and Consciences of his Subjects and Followers from the beginning of the World to the end thereof 1. The Headship which Christ exerciseth by the first of these Ministries is that of Supream Natural Lord and Sovereign over all Creatures by the breath of whose mouth they were made Psal 33. Rev. 4. 11. and redeemed by his Blood Rev. 5. 9. So that his right of Rule to them and over them is indisputable and their obligation for duty and service to him indispensable and perpetual The Angels that fell are charged Jude 6. with defection from and rebellion against this their Prince and Sovereign Lord leaving and deserting him who was their appointed Habitation and Object of Worship and Duty by the very Law of their Creation And unto the same Disobedience and Revolt from Christ was the first Adam tempted who was subjected at first to none but God While God the Mediator ruled and man obeyed all went right For God being most perfectly wise and just could not erre in commanding but man though innocent yet being free and mutable was capable to be tempted from his Obedience as it fell out Satan that by his disobedience had overthrown himself knew thereby the way how to overthrow man He perceived God could not be corrupted nor tempted to unwise or unrighteous Government And if neither King nor Subject could have been corrupted the Kingdom must needs have stood But he quickly found man was frail though holy and had not yet attained to his incorruptible estate though upright and was therefore capable to be wrought upon and corrupted in his mind from the simplicity that is in Christ Man would be as God have no guide but his own understanding hating that just restraint which was needful as a bridle to be put upon him to keep him from falling and which God provided to offer to him as the means to remain innocent and pass out of his mutable into an immutable holy state without sin But this would not go down nor be born The resignation of his Will and absolute resolution of it into the Will of his Sovereign by believing who required it for his good would not be hearkened unto He could not or would not or would not think he was such a fool as stood in need of being so absolutely at the will and dispose of another when as yet he was his own man free to continue under the guide of his own self-rule a thing very beautiful and good as he thought to be put into practice This was the Choice God had given unto man in this his righteous mutable state either to trust to his own guidance for the ordering of his steps according to the Rule set before him and the conditional Terms of the Law of Nature and first Agreement or Covenant made with him at his Creation or else to distrust his own Wisdom as insufficient to be his guide and his own power of Will that was mutable and uncertain in its best state and thereupon commit and resign himself through Faith unto the guidance and power of his Natural Head Lord and Sovereign to do as by the sight of Faith he should find him do and cleave close to him whatsoever he should go before him in The first of these the first man determined himself in and in that Act chose for his whole seed as well as for himself who if God pleased might have been then concluded by it without any new offer of Grace made unto them or their ever being brought to so fair a tender again But so far was God the Mediator from applying himself speedily to any severe course of proceeding against the first Adam and his Posterity that sinned with him in his loyns as that he takes this occasion to renew his first Offer upon the experience Man now had of trusting to his own wisdom and strength God freely of his own accord makes a Promise to man of a Redeemer that should come in his own Nature and be made flesh to recover him out of his sinfull corrupted state and bring him and his Posterity once more into a state of Reconciliation with God that what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh might be done by God's sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh who by the sacrificing of himself condemned sin in the flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in all such as walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And here behold the Righteousness of God which is and declares it self by the Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe making no difference but as all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God in the Act of our first Parents disobedience So all should be restored and brought into a capacity of being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ and made the Righteousness of God in him against all that can be objected by the Malice of Satan or from the Justice of God's Law that hath been broken and must be satisfied either by the person offending or some other proper to make Atonement by his Obedience in the imputation whereof we may be accounted righteous as by the Act of disobedience in the first Adam we were made sinners This is done by the Redemption which is wrought for all men and forgiveness of sins through the Blood of Christ either conditionally or absolutely Col. 1. 20 23. Hereupon God expresly and sincerely declares he
times are brought all the concurring and fore-running Symptoms and Characters thereof Secondly That the time of the End that is to say the fore-toldof day in which Christ is to judge the World in Righteousness so as to make up his Jewels on the one hand and gather them as his precious Fruits into his Granary and to kindle an Oven of his fiery Vengeance to burn up the VVicked root and branch and gather together the Tares to be burnt in unquenchable fire is at the very doors and ready to open it self upon us as the day of Redemption to the Good and Terror and Amazement to the Wicked Thirdly That this Day shall begin with the Rising of the VVitnesses clothing those that then shall be in the World with such a Ministry of Power and Glory as shall qualifie them to discharge their several Witness-bearing Duty before specified with great applause and good reception from the World God permitting none to stand before them that make resistance or opposition which shall be as a necessary fore-running dispensation for Christ's Personal Manifestation and Rule on Earth a thousand years but by these Savioxrs that thus shall be brought up upon Mount Zion as a Stone cut out without hands New Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness shall be constituted and the four Monarchies utterly broken to pieces and destroyed and the Kingdom of Antichrist and the Beast brought to final ruine and destruction The very mentioning of these three Particulars without alledging particular places of Scripture will bring them to your mind which teach and speak expresly concerning the truth of them and the matter of fact it self as to what progress and course this witnessing-work hath made from Judea where first it was lighted step by step into all Nations and Kingdoms all the World over who have been acquainted with these VVitnesses and have seen their Light shining in these Golden Candlesticks and can give an account how from time to time they have been put out and removed from one place to another till atlast the bodies of these two Prophets are found dead in the streets of the earthly Jerusalem and spiritual Egypt and Sodom if they might be suffered to be put into their Graves and surely it is not without great wisdom that these Witnesses are called Two considering the two distinct Ministries of Christ which they bear witness unto and how each Ministry hath two out of whose mouth it receives its Justification But further That this Testimony is upon its finishing point let us enquire whether the last slaying of the Witnesses declared by the sight of their dead bodies Rev. 11. fit to be put into their Graves be not already before out eyes The right opening and understanding whereof is of great use as a key to many other most considerable and difficult Scriptures These two Witnesses as they justifie Christ's second Ministry the knowledg of him in spirit are the Saints in their invisible Church-state fled into the Wilderness from the violence and rage of Persecution which Satan stirred up against them by the visible Church and Powers of the Civil Rule Government called in for assistance How these Witnesses are two we have shewed being the two Orders of Believers which Christ's Mystical Body hath been ever consisting of though rather mystically figured out than appearing as they are in the truth and brightness of their proper Glory as Heirs of the Spirit of Promise in the single and double portion thereof These in their Spirit Nature and Principles have been disowned persecuted and slain by the visible Church as much as in them lies by exposing of them to the utmost of bodily sufferings and harms and this from the time that the visible Church hath degenerated grown Papal and been defended by the ten horns of her Civil Government in the Western Empire of the World and the sharpest and most bitter Enemies to these two Witnesses are the Reformed part of the visible Church who declare their ripeness to be rejected by Christ and have the flood of the Papal Power and Tyranny let in upon them as they hate and reject the heavenly Seed and spiritual part of the Church and can find opportunity to go back again into Conjunction with the Corrupt part of the visible Church to hinder the growth of that which is Spiritual rather than to go forward and become one with it So that it might be made appear in the whole progress the Gospel hath made from East to West the Reformed part of the Church never lost ground nor was swallowed up again by the Papal till it self first took up its stand as to going on forward and refused to be more Spiritual and Heavenly being fiercer enemies hereunto than any other whatsoever And the greatest demonstration of this is given in the last act of this Enmity that hath been acted and is yet in acting to the last slaughter which is to be made of the Witnesses in order to expose their dead bodies in the open streets of this Earthly Jerusalem where they are as spectacles to be seen three dayes that is years and an half by them of Peoples and Tongues and Kindreds and Nations headed by the Papacy who shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in their graves by the Inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem who were willing enough to do it as exceedingly joyed at the sight of their dead bodies but shall rather chuse to quit those dead Carkases in way of contempt from any further prosecution of them and instead thereof apply themselves with the strength of their whole Party to strengthen and besiege the earthly Jerusalem in whose streets the dead Carkases of the Witnesses are to lye in a way of open reproach to be gazed upon and shall make a gathering against it as Zach. 14. 2. as to battel so as the event of it shall be the taking of the City and the utter ruine of that part of the visible Church distinguished from the other by the Name of Reformed which when it happens will be a Fourth sign and by conjecture this work is already begun and materials for this Siege are not only in readiness and the Design laid and the Parties agreed that are to undertake it but the open Defiance to the Battel is given and both sides fixed in their resolutions to abide the issue which will not exceed the term of three years and an half before it be fully decided Upon which decision that according to Dan. 2. 43. is to happen between these two parts of the visible Church immediately after they find they cannot pitch upon the way of piecing up together against those that dwell in Heaven though it be both their interests and that they earnestly desire and labour it Nay this Mount of Olives on which this second pair of Witnesses or visible part of the Church Reformed are that shall Zach. 14. 4. cleave also in the middest as not being able to hold longer together
an irrecoverable fall in their own persons they come to be fixed in evil and bound up with the fallen Angels in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day â— Pet. 2. 20. Jude vers 12. and vers 6. This wavering spirit of Japhet considered singly in its own sphear and activity as neither advancing towards the tents of Sem and things above nor declining to the heathenish and prophane state of Cham is that spirit which properly constitutes the Israel after the flesh in distinction from the true Israel of God or Circumcision of the Spirit on the one hand and the heathenish uncircumcised Nations on the other whilst God kept up the war in the line of Abraham or seed of Israel according to the flesh till Christ's incarnation For in Abraham's line deriving from Heber and Shem did God renew and maintain the war with the Seed of the Serpent and continued it till his signal rejection of that line and utter cutting them off from being any more a Nation and People of themselves at the last sacking and destruction of Jerusalem after the death of Christ by the hand of Titus Vespasian 3. The mind that declares it self in the third sort of Inhabitants who dwell in the Sea or in the depth of alienation from the life of God without any sense or feeling of that which is morally and naturally good according to the Law hating and despising God's image in any kind where-ever it shines forth is that which was in Cham. For this was he cursed and judicially fixed in his bondage as a servant of sin resembled by that servant under the Mosaical dispensation who for refusing his freedom when offered was bored thorow his ear in token of his perpetual servitude Exod. 21. 6. 1. The first sort of these Inhabitants are heavenly having a mind and principles fix'd in that obedience of Faith which is acceptable and by entring into God's Rest through Faith do become unmovable in the right way of working Righteousness wherein they attain the end of their hope that is the salvation of their souls 2. The second are earthly unfixed either in good or evil wavering between both having a mind sometimes serving the Law of God and sometimes the law of sin These however they may draw near to God with their words and tongue their heart is alienated and at a distance from him at least may be for ought they know notwithstanding the form of godliness they live in For they are not able to make a true and certain judgment of themselves till they partake of that Anointing from above that can teach them all things This is that only that will enable them to keep the word of Christ's patience in the day of their tryal Without this Grace extended to them and possessed by them they will become Apostates forget they have been washed from their old sins and will shew themselves at last the most hardned and bitter resisters of the holy Ghost and Power of Godliness 3. The third are like the Sea foaming out their own filth and they are constant and fixed therein having minds and consciences seard and made harder than the nether milstone in works of darkness Being past feeling they have sold themselves to work wickedness Peradventure sometime they may be made a little sensible of the sting and penalties of the Law so as to make some slender acknowledgments and feigned professions of obedience and subjection thereunto the Devils also believe and tremble but no hearty or sincere repentance from dead works or pure obedience of love springing from the spirit of Adoption and appearing in a steady amendment of life is to be found in them Yea they are by God himself judicially hardned and unchangeably fastned in their own chosen wayes of darkness They give themselves up to work all uncleanness with greediness and God gives them up to vile affections to take their course and fill up the measure of their abominations till he see time to strike them once for all The first and last of the above-named minds or principles are the two extreams in the one or other of which the middle or second sort of Inhabitants that are in the wavering changeable contending state with whom God is striving by his Spirit will come at last to be unchangeably fixed The perfect and righteous state which Man was at first created in was this middle wavering and unfixed state of perfection which was at first and upon renewal thereof is again capable to be guided by the Spirit of God through Faith into a higher and better or to be tempted and seduced by Satan into a lower and far worse The sinful state likewise into which mankind was plunged by the first transgression and fall of Man is not fixed or made immutable and desperate until a new proof and tryal be made of all men In order to this by vertue of the Blood of the Redeemer and through observation of the Rules appointed by God for recovery out of the Fall a restitution to the rectified Principles and Righteousness of our first Creation is in Christ most certainly attainable by every sinner without exception For by Christ's Blood there is remission to be had for all sins past and a new tryal is propounded and set before every one for time to come upon the terms and according to the tenor of God's conditional or absolute Covenant Hence it is the War arises and the Enmity is set or comes to be fixed between the two seeds each serving as it were for the proof and tryal of the unmovableness of one another either in good or evil Through this was occasioned the quarrel between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent growing up out of Noah's family The usurpation of the universal Government of the World in favour and assistance of the Serpent's seed was attempted and pursued by Nimrod and his successors Afterwards it came into Nebuchadnezzar's hands and by Daniel's interpretation of that prophetical Image of worldly Monarchy that Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream the continuance thereof in his line and three other successive branches of Universal Monarchy in the lines of the Medes and Persians Grecians and then Romans was foretold All these have been the inheritors of Cham's spirit upholding a heathenish state of Idolatry Ignorance and Prophaness against the Kingdom and Obedience of Christ kept up and witnessed unto all along in and by the line and seed of Abraham from Sem downward to the last sack and utter ruine of the Temple and City of Jerusalem under the Romans The chief memorables in this space of time that concern the opposit interest to these worldly Monarchies were the eminent Call of Abraham Isaac and Jacob to the Faith the giving of the Law the building and rebuilding of the Temple the long continuing of the Prophetical Office in the Jewish Church Christ's Incarnation Ministry Death and Resurrection About forty years after the Resurrection
and way answer but to the outward Court thereof and the Worship appertaining thereunto The former have the true inward Circumcision of the heart in the spirit whose praise is not of men but of God The latter are those who at best have but the Circumcision of the heart in the letter which labours to shew it self in such outward Circumcision of language and practice as may serve to keep up a shew or form of Godliness in the sight and to the well-pleasing of man whilst they are at an utter distance even in their hearts from the very life and power of Godliness that springs up from the new nature that is found in the true Circumcision which worship God in the spirit and answer to the inward Court Paul takes notice of this in his time Gal. 4. where he distinguishes between an earthly Jerusalem that is in bondage with her Children under the Covenant of Works or Dominion of the Law and a Jerusalem above which is free and is the Mother of all that Seed of Abraham who are Heirs according to the Promise These are described Rev. 12. by the Woman clothed with the Sun that hath the Moon under her feet and upon her Head a Crown of twelve Stars This figurative description shewes the Glory of the City Jerusalem as it is above inward and in spirit who with her Children is in freedom under the Covenant and Dominion of Grace The same is also signified by the inward Court appointed to be measured by the Reed of God in distinction from the outward Court which is not measured but abandoned and given up as it were to the power of the Gentiles to be by them troden under foot and defiled 2. In this same space of time falls out the impregnating of the Woman or her growing Great ready to be delivered of a Man-child The principal care of the Apostles and other Teachers who succeeded in their Spirit in the Primitive Church described under the representation of the seven Churches of Asia and the Angels or Officers appertaining to them was to be doing what had the most conducible tendency to the hastening and forwarding this birth of the Man-child which the Dragon opposed diligently watch'd to hinder resist and if possible to devour as soon as born 3. The seven-headed Dragon's lying in wait and managing the battel against Michael and his Angels about the aforesaid birth must needs contemporize with the two fore-mentioned Particulars All the three do therefore fill up the first space of time or age succeeding the Apostles measured out by what is contained in the six first Seals and was fore told to John as that which should happen both to the Church and World until the Womans flight from the Dragon after this great battel in Heaven and retiring into the Wilderness there to be nourished of God her appointed time These three are the immediate Antecedents of those things which have been shewed to contemporize under the seventh Seal and six Trumpets that is to say the distinguishing between the inward and outward Court with the Worship and Service appertaining unto each Secondly The impregnating of the Woman And then Thirdly The battel hereupon arising in Heaven or within the Primitive Church and continuing a long time till at length the Man-child comes to be born Then the Dragon loses his credit and authority in the Church His subtilty in accusing and laying false imputation on the Brethren the truly pure and spiritual part of the Church is detected Hereupon he is cast out into the Earth confined as it were to the outward Court and the Worshippers and Service belonging to it as the only matter for him to work upon for the increase of his Kingdom by the number of Hypocrites and Apostates drawn by him out of the true Church They were in truth never of it though for a while they were in it At length they find it their interest to make a Separation from it being sensual and not having the Spirit they can no longer endure those that have it and that shine forth daily more and more in the Life and Testimony thereof The old Dragon became hereby necessitated to manage and prosecute the War with the earthly Weapons only of worldly Power and Government in a way of outward force and compulsion exercised by the power of humane Laws and of the civil Sword This Power and Sword the corrupt sensual and malignant Church founded and consisting in the worshippers and service of the outward Court getting into their hands or engaging it on their side by mingling Interest with worldly Governours committed Whoredom like Tyre with all the Kingdoms of the VVorld upon the face of the Earth Isa 23. 17. Yea this Beast with two horns so influenced encouraged and back'd the ten horn'd Beast that he became thereby fixed and engaged in his Mind as well as Power to continue and carry on the War forty and two months longer against the Woman and her Seed and to blaspheme God his Name his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven Thus in brief Heads have we seen how the two first great Sections or Divisions of time in the third Age are filled up to wit the space from John's receiving the Prophecy of them in the Isle of Patmos to the end of the first battel or war made in Heaven and as the issue of that the catching up of the Man-child unto God and to his Throne and the Womans actual flight into the VVilderness and from thence to the rising of the VVitnesses which puts a period to the suffering season alloted to their Prophesying in Sack-cloth And as to the third and last Section of time it is that which is measured out by the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and the pouring out of the seven Vials which begins with the beginning of that Trumpet and continues till the Whore be judged Babylon sunk and the whole Kingdom of the Beast for ever ruined and destroyed This makes way for the marriage of the Lamb to be celebrated here on Earth and so for the coming on of the Kingdom of Christ into the actual exercise of a visible ruling Power and universal Empire over the whole VVorld for a thousand years Having thus had a view of the distinct periods of time together with the matter of the Prophesies which were to be fulfilled in and under each of these distinct Revolutions it will yet much prepare and help our understandings rightly to discern and look into the Mysteries of this most excellent Book if once we can but arrive at a satisfactory opening and interpreting at least in some chief particulars the things which are signified under many of the Figures and Allegorical Expressions made use of throughout the whole Prophecy For Example Let us consider these The seven Churches and the Angels of them The Throne in Heaven The sealed Book The Woman The Dragon and his Angels Michael and his Angels The Man-child The throne and seat of the Dragon's
Power and Authority The outward and inward Court The Floud issuing out of the Dragon's mouth The distinguished Inhabitants of the Heavens of the Earth and of the Sea The 144000 sealed Virgins The Palm-bearers The Remnant of the Womans Seed that keep the Commands of God and have the Testimony of Jesus The seven-headed ten horn'd Beast The Beast's Image The two horn'd Beast The false Prophet The Whore Mystical Babylon The great City that rules over the Kings of the Earth The Number of the Beast's Name The two Witnesses their hidden or obscure Prophesying in Sack-cloth their glorious Appearing and Prophesying in Power and in a Wonder-working Ministry like to that of Moses and Eliah The Kingdom of the Beast and his ascent out of the bottomless pit The slaying of the Witnesses at the finishing of their Testimony or perioding of their Sack-cloth-Prophesying and their lying Dead in the streets of the great City spiritually called Sodom and Egypt The Witnesses rising and ascending up into Heaven The coming of the Wrath of the Lamb The sight of Heaven opened with the Temple and Ark therein contained The Harvest and Vintage The marriage of the Lamb The coming down of the new Jerusalem out of Heaven to be as a Tabernacle of God amongst men on Earth all the Kingdoms of this World becoming the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ The Charge given John by him that was dead and yet liveth for evermore the Amen or everlasting Truth of God Rev. 1. 18 19. was to write First The things which he had seen in the description of the fulness and excellency of Christ's Person exhibited to him vers 12 17. Secondly The things which are or the state of the Church in his time as it had for its chief places of abode those principal Cities in Asia by name expressed chap. 2 d. 3 d. together with the Representation in them as in Type and Figure of the state of the Universal Apostolick Christian Church which was to continue under the seven distinctions of time contained under the seven Seals under the last whereof six of the Trumpets were as 't were included There was that also found in those seven Asiatick Churches that did typically represent the decrease and sinking down of a great Party in the visible Christian Church into the Apostasie foretold in this Book of the Revelation until the very time of the rising of the Witnesses Thirdly and lastly John was Commanded to write the things which shall be hereafter or which were to succeed that present state in which the then seven Churches were at that time respecting as well the Corruption and Apostasie coming upon the face of the Primitive Church as the continuance of it with countenance and support from worldly Powers till the sounding of the seventh Trumpet These things that shall be hereafter when time shall be no longer or when the Mystery of God shall be finished and all persons and things shall appear plainly and manifestly as they are amount in general to the Constitution and Concerns of that glorious state of the Church which is to be from thenceforth for evermore To proceed then to the Explicating of many of the chief Allegorical Expressions in this Book of Revelations 1. By the seven Churches in Asia let us understand as in type the state of the Christian Church characterized and described as Brightman intimates under the distinct periods of time held forth by the things done during the seven Seals which reach to the sounding of the seventh Trumpet 2. By the Angels of the seven Churches are to be understood not only or principally the Officers or Persons ministring but rather the Light of the Gospel in its distinct measures and degrees administred according to the nature of the times and seasons which the things done under the first six Seals did occasion For upon the rejecting of that there was caused a gradual and successive removing of each Candlestick out of its place and the Church sinks down at length into an universal Defection and Apostacy as to the visible part of it This renders it in its concluding and final state so naucious and loathsome to God that he resolves to spue them out of his mouth and reject them for ever To confirm this we find each Church to consist of two very different sorts of Members one that are spiritual prepared with spiritual senses or eares to hear what the Spirit sayes to the Churches the other though they have the name and credit of Church-members yea and in process of time the greatest visible Power and Sway in it saying they are Jews or right Heirs of Promise yet are they not so but do lie They are indeed of the Synagogue of Satan They came out from the spiritual and better part of the Church as no longer able to joyn and go along or keep pace with them in their heavenly Life and Conversation Being sensual and having not the Spirit they separate from the true spiritual worshipper seeking their upholding and maintenance in this or that Form and Way from the Powers of the World And having once got worldly Power and outward strength and force on their side they resolved to persecute and make War upon the better and more spiritual part of the Church with earthly Weapons and by compulsion of the Civil Sword 3. The Throne in Heaven described in the fourth Chapter is the Seat which God hath made for himself in the Creature-being of Christ the Mediator as his own Sanctuary from whence to issue forth all his Authority and Power decreed to be by him exercised whether in Heaven or on Earth in the capacity of Head and universal King over all the works of God's hands He that sits on this Throne is the same that chap. 19. is cloathed with a Vesture dipt in blood and whose Name is called the WORD of God He is said chap. 5. vers 6. to have seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth and this by his being made flesh and by his Death and Resurrection in which he shewed himself the true Sanctuary which God pitch'd and not man This had been in type from the beginning a most glorious high Throne Jer. 17. 12. designed from all Eternity to be the Throne and the place of the soals of his feet whose Name is the WORD of God in order to dwell in the midst of the Children of Israel for ever and bear unto their sight and enjoyment the clear and compleat vision of the invisible God 4. The Book chap. 5. written within and on the backside sealed with seven Seals as it is part of the Vision given to John is a description of the inward and hidden meaning of the matter of this Prophecy whether as to that which more especially concerns the Affairs of the Church or that which more generally relates to the Affairs of the World and the Empire thereof The seven Seals with which it
of their Wilderness-condition Yet this earth or miry clay cannot when all 's done cleave heartily and thorowly to the heathenish prophane Spirit of the first Beast but at last is preyed upon by it This Earthly Jerusalem is unexpectedly surprized and overflowed as with a flood by that prophane Interest it ventured to call to its assistance against the true Seed of the Woman in which respect it is said that the Earth helps the Woman the wrath of the prophane party of Antichrist's Kingdom or of the ten-horned Beast being chiefly spent and poured out upon that Professing Party that make up the second or two-horned Beast 11. By the Inhabitants of the Heavens of the Earth and of the Sea chap. 12. 12. are meant First The Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem who are under Grace Secondly The Citizens of the earthly Jerusalem who are under the dominion and curse of the Law And Thirdly The prophane Party who live under sin moving therein as in their Element past feeling by reason of the blindness and hardness of their hearts This state of Sin is nevertheless not unchangeable nor those that are Captives under it in a condition irrecoverable for Christ died to redeem men out of it 12. By the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast arising out of the Sea is to be understood the Empire or Governing Power of the World in whose hands soever it be found as it is made the Seat and Throne of Satan and promotes the Interest of the Devils Kingdom in corruption of manners and prophaness even by the countenance of humane Laws or at least in the execution of them 13. By the two-horned Beast arising out of the Earth we are to understand the Usurpation of the Prophetical Office of Christ by a false Spirit or the said Office as deceitfully executed in a private Spirit of self-byassed Reason in disjunction from the Spirit of the true Head undertaking to counsel and lead men in the interpretation of the written Word or other evident signification of God's Will This once joyned with worldly Government and Power made its vassal and ridden by it is that Spirit and Principle for promoting of worldly Religion which is founded in and supported by humane Laws under the Name and Form of Christianity The two-horned Beast and the false Prophet are therefore the same as by comparing chap. 13. vers 14. with vers 20. of chap. 19. is most clear And the ten-horned Beast is wont also to be called the Image of the Beast where ever therefore the Beast and the false Prophet are mentioned together as they are three times there by the name of the Beast is meant no other but the ten-horned Beast as by the false Prophet the two-horn'd Contrarily where with the Beast we find coupled the Image of the Beast as chap. 14. vers 9 11. chap. 15. vers 2. chap. 16. vers 2. chap. 19. vers 20. chap. 20. vers 4. there by Beast is to be understood the false Prophet and by his Image the seven-headed and ten-horn'd Beast as restored For this Beast seeing he acknowledgeth the false Prophet as his Restorer and suffereth himself to be guided by him as his supream Lord chap. 13. vers 12 14 15. he is not without cause called his Image not as representing or bearing the similitude of the two-horn'd Beast but he is the Image which the two-horn'd Beast speaking like the Dragon did restore and which he challengeth for his own To justifie this that very Image of the Beast which the false Prophet did give life unto did cause that whosoever would not worship the Image of the Beast should be slain To conclude of the self-same is the Image of the Beast and the Name or Number said to be chap. 15. 2. The Name and Number seem not to be called the Name and Number of any other Beast than of the two-horn'd as of the principal Founder and Lord. 14. The Number of the Name of the Beast being said to be the Number of a man signifies that it is the sensual part of man's Wisdom or Reason become devilish by joyning in combination with Satan in his revolt from his true Head and in exercising enmity against all Righteousness upon one account or other This sensual part of man's Wisdom savours and minds Earthly or seen things and delights in corporeal fleshly objects whether actually corrupt or only corruptible This is the Wisdom that is prevalent with the generality of men in the World according to the Principles of which the Empire and Government of the World is managed and the judgment and interpretation of the very Law and Word of God is made for the Rule in matters of Faith and Worship This Wisdom is in its best estate unstable and unfixed so as from the top and height of its honour there is suddenly a being made like the Beast that perishes and so a falling short of the true Rest This was the case of the first Adam who was created on the sixt day and whose unstable perfection is therefore numbered by six thrice repeated This sensual part of man's Wisdom is the executing or performing Power of the Soul in reference to the dictates and enlightnings that declare themselves in the intellectual and angelical part of the mind which many times serves and approves the Law of God whilst the sensual part serves and obeyes sin and as with a Law of common consent from the Members opposes and resists the good and right Rule which shines forth in man's intellect and which we call sound or right Reason But as this sensual part in its movings and actings holds agreement and is in conjunction with the intellectual part as its Ruler and Guide following the dictates thereof so far the actings thereof are sound and right holding conformity to the Law of God Thus even the sensual part as subject to the right dictates of the intellectual is it self a Rule unto humane action and is the principle and foundation of righteous Magistratical Government amongst men Now when this Principle in Magistrates ceases to be any longer found in a state of down-right Paganism and comes to be healed and restored out of darkness and prophaness by receiving of the Scriptures or written Word of God opened and interpreted by such as pretend to be commissioned and gifted for that purpose unto which it owes its healing and restoration it doth by way of acknowledgement receive and set up that prophetical Office in an administration countenanced by humane Laws and the Magistrates Power Where-ever this kind of Magistracy is in both the branches of it both Civil and Ecclesiastical setting up for themselves and their own Interests in their own wills in disjunction from Christ and his Spirit the true Head and in opposition to the Remnant of the Womans Seed and their testimony in word and action there is the Kingdom and Seat of the Beast and Antichrist leading the People over whom it is exercised into servitude both of Soul
and Body This is that Principle and Power that after the limited time of 1260 years must fall and be taken out of the way 15. By the Witnesses Prophesying in Sack-cloth are meant the true Circumcision in Spirit who Worship God in Christ Jesus and live in a through-resignedness of mind to him that is risen from the dead who is the Spirit of Truth which is given them by the Father to be their guide of whom and of whose Testimony they are not ashamed what ever disgrace it be in or however rejected by the Government under which the Providence of God hath placed them They do therefore own it as their Principle and make it their practice to bear and suffer under such worldly Powers and Governments in Faith and Patience whatever befals them for their Testimony 's sake without attempting to resist the Powers that are to disturb their peace or give them any just cause of offence They are called Witnesses because of the word of their Testimony which they forbear not to give in the worst and most suffering times whatever it cost them And they are Two described by two Candlesticks or Societies of Believers and two Olive Trees or Sons of Oyl because through Faith they are the receivers of the Anointing which comes from the Holy One and is Truth and no Lie This Anointing proportions it self in its Gift either according to the measure it finds the Nature of man capable to take in and possess without any new addition of a distinct superiour capacity and reception or else gives forth its self in a vast and boundless communication wherein it is capable to flow forth into man and to form in him an answerable Reception thereunto beyond and above that capacity and measure of knowledge and discerning which is proper to man in his first make or building to the extending and enlarging the intellectual part of man's Being into a more abundant fruition of God in a superiority to that of Angels even to a joynt inheriting seeing and enjoying of God with the exalted humane Nature of the Son of God in that Name which he obtains above Angels and wherein he is more excellent than they At this more excellent Name of Christ as it originally shines forth in Christ's own Person every knee must bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father These two sorts of Saints are in most intimate Union and inseperable conjunction with the Lord that Spirit who is the Son of man glorified or justified in Spirit and who hath the gift of the Anointing in both the respects before-mentioned The one sort of these Saints as well as the other do with open face behold as in a glass the Glory of the Lord whether that wherein he is perfect man or that wherein he is more than man the man that is God's Fellow and Equal and so Superiour and Head to Angels Principalities and Powers ascended far above all Heavens And they are changed into the same Image respectively whether of the one Glory or of the other by the Spirit of the Lord or the Lord the Spirit These Two Witnesses do live and abide in their Principles and word of their Testimony when their persons die and they have put off their earthly Tabernacle For the Witnessing-work is carried on in a succession of new Witnesses brought upon the stage of this World one Generation after another during the time declared of 1260 years whilst they are appointed to prophesie in Sack-cloth And when that suffering season of theirs shall have an end put to it as it must the like two Companies and Societies of Saints spirited with the same Principles that these sackcloth or suffering Prophets are of both of them making but one Church and House of the Living God shall be quicken'd and rais'd up in Power by such a Redemption wrought in and upon their bodies even here in this life from the bondage of Corruption as is called the Adoption of the body Rom. 8. 23. This Adoption or Redemption of the body on this side the Resurrection will hold proportion very much with Christ's Transfiguration This state of the body is prophetically described Dan. 12. 3. where we are given to understand that the bodies of the Saints or of those that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and their Spirits as the Stars for ever and ever For into such an intimate relation and conjunction will Christ as he is the Head of Angels take and adopt the Spirits of Angels and men regenerated with himself and with one another as by his own influence on the Spirits of Saints and by his and the influence of their own Spirits on their bodily or sensual part to reduce their bodies into so near a relation to and conjunction with the Life of their Spirits and Christ in Spirit as will raise and advance them into a heavenly frame and render them meet for so great a glory of Spirit or eminent exercise of spiritual Life and Power This will be a glory of the body not before known as a common and general dispensation since the World began nor yet hardly so eminently experienced even by those few choice Types and Shadowes of it Enoch Moses and Elias or others This is that state of body or of the very outward-man and sensual part of the Saint whereby Christ will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all those that do believe A LETTER OF Sir HENRY VANE To his LADY from the Isle of SCYLLY My Dear Heart THe Wind yet continuing contrary makes me desirous to be as much in Converse with thee having this opportunity as the Providence of God will permit hoping these will come safe to your hand It is no small Satisfaction to me in these sharp Tryals to experience the Truth of those Christian Principles which God of his Grace hath afforded you and me in our measures the knowledge and emboldned us to make the profession of For surely by this Fiery Tryal which is from God appointed to try us no strange or unusual Dispensation of God hath happened to us differing from that which all his Servants and Prophets from the beginning of the World to this day have found also to be their Lot Nor is it other than the Condition as I may say and Law that all those must come under and submit unto that will approve themselves Christ's Disciples indeed Luk. 14. 26 27. And it is no small Mercy that the greatest Extremities we have already under-gone and which do as yet threaten have found that strength and rooting of the Grace and Love of Christ in our Hearts which causes us not to despair of being made more than Conquerors in the end without desiring those Conditions of peace vers 32. which are not consistent with our being such Disciples of Christ as will cheerfully when called to it forsake all they have in love to him and subjection to his Will Why should Christ ask us