arose a Smoake and out of the Smoake came Locusts Chap. 9.2 3. And on their heads were as it were Crowns like Gold Ver. 7. And on theirheads c. Here 's deceptio coronata crowned deceit Deceit hath its Exaltation in these grand deceivers of themselves and others The right solution of this Question What is Truth may seem to be the summe of satisfaction to all Sects people and Professors And the diligent disquisition of it that all might know what Truth in Opinion and practice is is the summe of the design of this Treatise But here it seems not needful only but of necessity and our prime duty to endeavour to discover unto all what the truth of those Gold-like Crowns of the Locusts is or if there be no truth in them what their deceits are The deceits of the Locusts are in Form and profession And Secondly In Practice and Power Their deceits in Form and Profession are shadowed forth by their concomitant Smoake Their Deceits in Practice and Power are presignified by their Crowns as it were like Gold And first Their deceits in Form and Profession are shadowed forth by Smoake For All Profession all Zeal Prayer Prophesie without practice is but Smoake whose bottom is no where True practice is the bottom of true Profession and the substance whereof that is but the shadow To seem and not be Religious is but groundless appearance and deceit and all gifts be they never so great give no bottom to a fruitless Profession Though I speak with tongues of Men and Angels saith the Apostle and though I have the gift of Prophesie and understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge and though I have all Faith and have no Charity I am nothings 1 Cor. 13. If Paul having all these had been nothing without Charity Then all these and all strict Profession and gifts of Prayer and Prophesie without practice-producing Charity are at best but Smoake What that product is and what produceth it claimes our more serious care to enquire in this place Faith Hope and Charity the first fruits of attentive animadvertency are subordinate to Christ that threefold Tree of Life that bears the true fruits of all obedience to God and good manners towards men That Tree during the time of the grand Apostacy seems like that Tree in Daniel that was hewn down and had its branches cut off and its fruit scattered but it shall bear twelve manner of fruits saith the Text Dan. 4.14 Revel 22.2 We shall shew here the Series of it and so proceed Faith is the Root Hope the Stem Charity is the Branches that bear and extend the fruit of it Faith is Faith Hope and Charity impressive as the threefold life of the Tree is in the Root Hope is Faith Hope and Charity intensive as the threefold life of the Tree is in the Stem also Charity is Faith Hope and Charity expressive as the threefold life of the Tree is likewise in its Branches And first True Faith is Faith Hope and Charity impressive For Faith without Hope and Charity is but a false pretence Hope is Faith Hope and Charity intensive For Hope without Faith and Charity is but Smoak Charity is Faith Hope and Charity expressive For Charity without Faith and Hope is but like Locusts Crowns a Crown of deceit Faith works in Hope by Charity Hope works from Faith by Charity Charity works from Faith and Hope The fruit of this threefold Tree is true Christian practice We have shewn what the deceits of the Locusts are in Profession we shall now shew what their deceits are in Practice Secondly As the deceits of the Locusts in Profession are figured by Smoake So their deceits in Practice are shadowed forth by the false appearances of Crowns like Gold Crowns of Gold in Scripture are Hieroglyfick-intimations of Equity and Emblems of Righteousness But the Crowns of the Locusts are deceptious appearnces of truerighteousness and most contrary to it And what 's most like Gold and most contrary to it Nothing is more like it and less the same then Straw The Locustâ— liberality though it look like Gold is Chaff or Stâ—â—w for levity and withall so dilatory that it tends to destroy those that receive the deceitful benefit of their seeming good works Their Crowns are made of Gold-like Straw which many besides them mistake for pure Gold But because Contraria juxtase posita maxime clucescunt contraries appear clearest by being set together we shall here handle the Locusts deceits in practice and true Christian practice and that the difference betwixt both may better appear compare both together The Righteousness of Locusts as is the Righteousness of all Hypocrites is clipt dilatory or accompanied with censorious insolence or performed by halves or however inconform to Gospel-Rule But true Righteousness in practice is not dilatory defalked or performed by halves or inconform to Gospel-Rule For The Kingdom of God must be a Kingdom of Righteousness and the Streets of the holy City shall be not Gold-like-Straw but pure Gold Revel 21.18 That is All the wayes and works of her inhabitants shall be right in practice conform to Gospel Rule And wherein consists this conformity Truth in practice is a Quadruplex conformity and containing these gradual parts is Incomplex Complex Triplex Quadruplex Truth Incomplex Derivative is a Conformity Est conformitas rei cum principiis a quibus orta est vel est ipsius rei veritas A Conformity in itself with its own Principles Complex Truth is a Conformity Est Conformitas saith Swarez judicii cum rebus unde provenit ut res ita vere dicantur sicut judicatae It 's a conformity of the judgement with things whereby they are rightly called as they are judged to be Verit as triplex Truth triplicit is a threefold Conformity more comprehensive then the two former it comprehends Incomplex and Complex Truths Conformity of things in themselves and of the judgement with things and is itself a conformity also of the will with both And therefore in truth Triplicit is first Truth simplex which is the first Principle of true Practice and the Extrinse Subject of true Righteousness The mind of man is the intrinsick And Secondly Therein is Complex-Truth conformit as intellectus cum rebus a conformity of the judgement with things wherein practice-producing animadvertency must of necessity be first versant For De ignotis nulla agendi ratio There can be no right of Action where there is no right understanding of the Incomplex Principles of true Righteousness or of things to be done And Thirdly Truth Triplicit comprehends a third Conformity Est conformitas non solum rei in se cum re intellectus sed voluntatis etiam cum rebus agendis It 's a conformity of the Will as well as of the Understandng with causes or things to be understood willed and done whereby they are willed as they are rightly understood This is that Truth in the inward
largest Magnitude must needs amount to a Redemption from death Righteousness saith the Text delivereth from death But the want of this Righteousness is as Death to those that want it and their usual both Temporal and Spiritual overthrow Vespasian asked Apallonius what was Nero's overthrow Nero said he could touch and tune the Harp well but would sometimes screw up the Pins too high sometimes too low And this ill-tuned Harp a Heart tun'd too high or too low like the Harp of Nero is the almost Epidemick overthrow They thereby usually perish that have it and are the cause that others perish I shall but present this perfect pattern of a wel-tuned Harp The man wounded by Thieves wanted help There was res rect a in se right in itself The good Samaritan the best Harper considering that Incomplex-right made it Complex took care to know it and to conform his Will and work to that known right They that are so busse as to pass by that which is right to others or take no due notice of it have not the Harps of David but Nabals voice Folly is with them be they never so wise or Learned But God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth 1 Tim. 2.4 God therefore as the greatest meroy to fallen Man and Saints revolted hath promised to call raise and draw them by the delicious harmony of the Harps of God that so they hearing his call may come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved For Truth is the Door of Life and Knowledge the Key to open it Knowledge of the Truth is twofold In Theory In Practice Theorical knowledge chiefly from Scripture as its Fountain is the knowledge of sound Doctrine Practick Knowledge is the Knowledge of that which is right in it self and due to be done to every man The first is opposite to Heresie The second opposeth Heathenism and Hypocrisie The first serveth to acquire a Form of Godliness The second conduceth to procure the practice and power of it The first is the Extrinse ground of Faith The second is the fruit and proof of Faith and the immediate Foundation of all good manners The Object of the first is Janua Doctrinae Truth in Doctrine The Object of the second is Janua justitiae Truth in practice Both are the Key or Means to Men Saints and Sects to come to the Door of Life that they may be saved without both can none come They that read not the Scriptures nor hear them read or seek not diligently to understand them by reading such Books or hearing such Teachers as fitly unfold them come not to the knowledge of the Truth Therefore such slothful Professors that would be saved by a Faith Implicit or wanting practice come not to the Door of Truth that they may be saved For God would have all men to be saved by a Regular means in a rational way and come to the knowledge of the Truth truth in Doctrine Truth in Practice without which they cannot be saved He that will come to the knowledge of the Truth must try all things Try all things saith the Text 1 Thes 5.21 Jacob wrastled with God by prayer all night not without much corporal labour prevailed and obtained the blessing So they that would come to the knowledge of the truth must not only wrastle with God by Prayer but expect to take serious pains in trying all things that they may find that which is pleasing to God and profitable to men Which Beroean-disquisition is the greatest pleasure to such as are sincere but a burden to base minds Heathens and Hypocrites Therefore Few find the strait-Gate the door of Life by coming to the knowledge of the Truth because they wrastle not like Jacob with God by Prayer nor take the pains to try all things But If Prayer without Pains will procure it many will not want this blessing But De Caelo ignavis precibus Deus ipse repugnat God resists the slothful though they make many prayers Hence we may demand why such Sects Jews Papists Turks c. and many Formal Professors so long abide in their blind Schisms and fruitless Formalities The Answer is almost as Obvious as the demand easie They count it Sacriledge to try their own Tenents Filthy Heathens hold it the highest Profaneness and so do Formalists and Hypocrites to examine what themselves mis-suppose to be true Religion But Sola nobilitas est unica virtus Virtus consist it in actione Actio virtutis est disquisitio veritatis None are noble but who try all things to find the Truth Ther 's no Nobility but what 's faithfully and soberly disquisitive A second Answer to the same demand may be this Therefore Sects Saints and Nations are so far from agreeing and so ready to make and maintain Divisions Because these Harpers that by their exemplary practice shall appease their Rage scarce yet appear to be the presidents those predicted first-fruits for others to follow Samuel's sons the Text sayes not they knew not the Law but walked not in his wayes turned aside after lucre took bribes perverted judgment They gave no good examples for others to follow Samuel was sufficient to teach his sons the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and manners but they were so wicked that they would not learn to know that particular Truth that attends upon practice for which cause they were cast out and their Government translated For men may and many do attain to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and Manners and may add the greatest Gifts and Parts to the strictest Profession and soundest Doctrine and yet never come to the knowledge of the Truth to be saved but remain as Eli's sons did men of Belial and most wicked if they seek not to come to the knowledge of the Truth that particular Truth that attends upon practice That is If they do not duly consider that right and mercy that is due to be done and that they may do it to every man For the doers only of the truth in practice and not the sayers hearers or knowers of the Truth in Doctrine are justified and accepted in Gods sight But it 's the common practice of many strict Professors of Locusts and Hypocrites especially and too much of true Saints to take competent pains to come to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith But to the knowledge of the Truth in practice they come not or scarce come They have hired Farms or are busie in seeking perhaps to come to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith without regard to the knowledge of it in practice whereby they may be saved and by which true conviction and peace may be procured to all people Lastly Supercilious Pride surpasseth all other means that most oppose the peace of Men Sects and Nations Who is David sayes Nabal who 's the Son of Jesse Nabals folly might further thus plead I
took care of him saith the Text and said to the Host Take care of him Care is to all good works the Girdle of Truth without which they are neither true nor good Had not the good Samaritan though he had done all he did besides taken care of him he had wholly omitted his Christian duty For as Faith without Charity is dead so Charity without care is dead A true christian care to do good is the edge of Charity and the life of it It 's the grand misery and mistake of Men and Saints to do perhaps many good works carelesly whereby they become not good works but deceits Such works though commonly practised by sealed or Wilderness-Saints are far from that practice which they should perform but are the proper works of the members of of Antichrist and the Characters of them By those Characters therefore we shall discover who are or appear to be careless Professors and who are careful in the practice of Christianity And first They that are careless to collect and consider the incomplex-principles of right in it self are careless in their conversations and cannot come to the knowledge of the Truth in Practice These Incomplex-principles rightly collected are the Basis and Grounds of all Mercy and Equity to Men And that which the Scriptures and we commonly call The cause of any man Plantiff or Defendent stated Neither doth the cause of the Widow saith the Text come unto them Isa 1.23 That is They do not collect nor consider the Incomplex-principles aforesaid of Mercy and Equity Such Professors Judges or Magistrates it matters not what their Church-Society Sect or their repute for Learning Strictness or Religion is are corrupt and unjust Professors and at least in appearance Members of Antichrist But we shall illustrate the Premises for the Reader 's better understanding by one or two Examples And first A Prophet's poor Widow made her address to Elisha and stating her own cause her self thus laid down the principles of Right in it self necessary and due to be satisfied unto her Thy servant my Husband said she is dead 2 King 4.1 There 's the Cui a desolate Widow to whom mercy and equity was due to be done A second Incomplex-right in it self was A quo or from whom which is implyed in the same words of the poor Widow To wit Prophet who was principally concern'd and bound both by the Levitical Law and by the royal Law of Love to make her Incomplex-condition Complex or to take notice of it and duly consider it Levit. 25.35 to the end Deut. 15.8 11. A third Incomplex-right is exprest in these words Thou knowest that thy servant that Widow's late Husband did fear the Lord That was a further tye though he must do right and shew mercy to all men to the Prophet to make her condition Complex or to have full knowledge of it A fourth Principium praecognoscendum or truth in it self which the Prophet was bound to know is exprest in these words And the Creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen These Principia praecognoscenda or Truths in themselves thus lay'd down were the Cause of the poor Widow stated before the Prophet And they that are not truly careful and diligent to know and rightly apprehend the causes of Plantiffs or Defendents stated by word or writing are unjust Judges corrupt Magistrates careless Christians make themselves at least appear to be the Members of Antichrist The cause of the Poor of the Widow of the Fatherless and of strangers in distress comes not before those careless Christians nor can they discharge any duty of Mercy or Equity to men But the Prophet did not tell the poor Widow she was a trouble to him or that he was busie about matters of much higher concernment nor did he bid her come two moneths hence and talk with him Nor tell her to encourage her he would move it to friends at his best leisure as many Professors commonly do and at last perhaps revolt from all he had promis'd to little purpose and she expected But he immediatly bid her borrow many Vessels and pour Oyl out of a Vial she had into those Vessels and filling them with Oyl sell so much as would pay her Creditors and live her self upon the rest Thus the Prophet took effectual care to make the poor Widows Incomplex cause Complex or to take full cognizance of it Secondly He took care to make her Complex or by him known cause Triplex by conforming his will that he might relieve her to his right informed intellect Thirdly He took care to conform his works to his right-informed will and intellect wherein he had due respect to another incomplex-right To wit Quantum The fruit of his charitable care was not a fragment or piece of a good work nor an half-performance but a plenary supply of full relief to all her wants with due respect to all Principles of Right in it self Such works only are Christian and shall be the practice of that incontaminate company of conscript Harpers that shall be found without fault in Gods sight We shall shew a contrary Patern in Pilat's careless practice Pilate was careful to do right by halves or but half careful Christ's Cause came under his disquisition The first incomplex Truth in his Cause was that he was blameless or without fault Pilate made that Truth in it self half-complex or took half cognizance of it For he having examined him said thrice I fina in him no failt John 18.38 Ch. 19.4 Luke 23.4 He was willing to release him but not effectually careful to do it For overpowered by his adversaries importunities he gave sentence to put him to death So all Laodicean half hot half cold half careless half careful Spurious Professors though never so strict devout or zealous will but talk trisle cavil delay promise not perform practise by halves falsifie forget or before they begin be weary of well doing and thereby wear out the Saints of the most high and destroy his faithfullest Witnesses as Pilate by like practices caused Christ to be put to death For All Professors Judges and Magistrates half-careful only to collect and consider the Systems of Incomplex-causes cannot expect to exceed Pilat's unjust practice by whom our Lord was crucified Had Pilate been faithfully careful to do right he had not regarded the Jews favour nor been by any business or other means drawn or deterr'd from doing of it A second Incomplex-Truth in Christs Cause was That the Scribes and Elders as Judas had betray'd him to them through covetousness had delivered him into Pilates hands out of envy who was but half-careful to make this Truth it self Complex or to know it He knew saith the Text that for envy they had delivered him Mat. 27.18 But his care to know the cause of Christ was but by halves For To this end said our blessed Saviour was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should
the first-fruits are in future to come then these pretenders incult and careless of true Christian practice cannot be the first-fruits for others to follow Such Professors cry up with vain acclamations old Errors and Deceits for new Lights and are so far found lyars We shall now enquire Fourthly What is here meant by Mount Sion in the Text It s Type had its higher and lower parts It s higher part contained Moriab Sion and Calvary On Moriab stood the Temple On Sion was the Tower and City of David On Calvary was Christ crucified Jerusalem was built on the lower part of it The upper and lower parts had the denomination from its highest part of Mount Sion Sion and Sinai are Synantitheses or directly contrary So was the Wilderness and the Land of Promise As Jerusalem was the Metropolis of the Land of promise and Sion the chief place of note therein So Sinai was the Head and Symbole of the barren Wilderness Their disparities appear thus expresly from the Text. Tell me saith the Apostle Do ye not hear the Law for is written That Abraliam bad two sons the one by the Bond-Maid the other by a Free-Woman which things are an Allegory For these are the two Covenants The one from Mount Sinai which is Hagar and engendreth to bondage But he of the Free-woman was by Promise And Jerusalem above the Mother of us all is free The Mother of us all That is of all Sarah's Seed the sens of promise Wherefore Sion and Sinai as Types differed as Hagar and Sarah as the two Covenants as Grace and the Law Life and Death Bondage and Freedom Type Sion was a threefold foundation the substructure of the Temple of the City of God of the City of David Thither the twelve Tribes came to keep the Passover Therefore Type Sion was a Figure of the Foundation of the Church of God and a literal place But Spiritual Sion no literal place shall be the Antitype-foundation of the Gospel-Church For the Lamb and with him 144000 having his Fathers Name written in their foreheads shall stand there Ch. 14.1 The Foundation of the Church of God is transcendent Secondly Derivative The Transcendent Substructure is Deus in Christo pacatus God reconcil'd in Christ This Foundation the Rock and Pillar of Truth from eternity stands for ever The Derivative Foundation of the Gospel-Church is the knowledge and love of the Truth or a fruitful Faith in the Promises of God through Christ Christ said to his Disciples But who say ye that I am Peter said Thou art Christ the Son of the living God Jesus answered Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church Matth. 16.15 This Derivative foundation of the Gospel-Church was the Faith which Peter confessed and it had respect to and was built upon that first and transcendent Foundation This Derivative Foundation a living and fruitful Faith shall be that Mount Sion Ch. 14. where those conscript 144000 the Antitype of Solomons Temple shall stand and whereon the City of God shall be built Chap. 21.2 The Prophetick-promises are express and the Texts full and clear that prove it which notwithstanding many may object and say That this Foundation was laid long before The Assertion I confess and grant that this foundation was laid long before even in the Primitive times But a falling away was to come and a departing from the Faith 1 Thess 2. 1 Tim. 4.1 For the Church at least in a very large measure forsook the Rock of her safety the Foundation of her standing fell from Heaven where she stood and fled into the Wilderness for 1260 years Revel 12.1 6 14. So the Prototype-Church Jacobs family fell away departed out of the Land of Promise fled into the Wilderness and into her place there prepared of God To wit Egypt the most barren place in that Wilderness were it not miraculously prepared of God and as it were in the middle of it and returning thence through part of the Wilderness turned aside there also They were then far remote and long removed from the Type-foundation Sion literal where Abraham would have offered his son Melchizedeck was King of Righteousness and where the Lord was twice seen in abundant Grace and Mercy So their Antitype the Gospel-Church was long removed as aforesaid into the Spiritual Wilderness from the foundation of her standing But as many of the captives carried to Babylon were mindful of Sion and would not forget Jerusalem Psal 137.5 6. So some of the faln servants of God in the Gospel-Church have had some weak desires of Sions welfare and are somewhat though very little mindful of their first foundation But may some say this foundation Faith in the Promises stands still firm I Answer Sion stood after the City and Temple built upon it were turned to ashes but it was left desolate the living were departed the dead only and the slain were left there as the Lamentatious declare at large And so the Faith of the Antitype revolted-Church in the Spiritual Wilderness was and is a desolate Faith a Faith fruitless or far from being fruitful in the practice of good Manners and at least drawing near to a dead Faith and therefore no way fit to be the Foundation of the Gospel-Church adorned to be the Lambs Bride Ch. 21.9 But Antiype Sion shall be a fruitful Foundation a living Faith giving life to the City of God that shall be built thereon For Such as the Tree is such is the Fruit and such as this Foundation shall be the Superstructure upon it But these 144000 the Antitype of Solomons Temple built thereon shall be undefiled and withour fault saith the Text vers 4.5 That is Their Righteousness shall be so perfect in a fourfold conformity but there is no man that sinneth not I Kings 8.4 6 that it shall be a sweet Savour and a Sacrifice well-pleasing to God But the Faith of the Gospel Wilderness-Church is as was that of her Prototype a barren faith affording very little fruit to Gods glory or the good of men The Wituesses we read were to be killed And this faith is much after the manner of the Carcasses of those killed Witnesses And indeed their Carcasses was such a Faith a dead or dying faith having some small insensible and almost unperceivable true life For Faith without Works saith the Apostle is dead a Carcass of Christian Profession without power James 2.17 20. And such a Carcass of the killed Witnesses or somewhat like it the Spiritual Gentiles kept unburied to be a foundation to build the Apostacy of Antichrist upon and it 's the Pillars of it to support it Nor are inanimadversive clypt inconform half-performances any fruits of a living but the deceits of a dead faith Such a faith Such a fruitless foundation is Sinai not Mount Sion and most unfit to be the Substructure of the Church of the living God Nor can it procure his favour but his anger or enmity for so Sinai signifies
Therefore was God angry forty years with the Type Wilderness-Church and swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest So the Antitype-Wilderness is the place or dispensation of Gods heavy anger and sore displeasure even against his own Church and People because saith he of the Figure of these they do always err in their hearts and have not known my ways Heb. 3.10 Do always err c. Their Antitype also err always because they are ever inanimadversive and mind not or mind not much what they say or do One said of the troubled Sea Nibil bio nisi Pontus Aether So may we say of the dead faith of this Spiritual dreadful Wilderness There is nothing there but errors in mens imaginations and little else in the hearts and hands of Saints For the fruits of a dying or desert-faith are through brutish inadvertency erring imaginations ignorant animosities Schisms deceits in Opinions and mistakes in Manners A dead faith the foundation of the Apostacy of Antichrist is threefold or subsists of three parts First Inanimadvertency Secondly Ignorance or erroneous knowledge which the Apostle calls Science falsly so called 1 Tim. 6.20 From these two proceeds the love of a Lye And these three constitute a fruitless dead faith And Secondly Antitype Sion or a fruitful living Faith the Derivative Foundation of the Church of God is also threefold or subsists of three parts First Animadvertency Secondly true Knowledge and from these two proceeds Love the life of a fruitful living Faith For Knowledge comes by animadvertency and from both springs Love the life of Faith And I looked and lo c. Animadvertency is the Root of Faith Knowledge the Eye of it Love is the Life thereof But a dead faith Acts and looks not Censures and sees not Reads and minds not or with an evil Eye minds amiss mistakes pieces and fragments of good Works for perfect Obedience and deceits for Truth no better fruits must they expect that make a dead faith the foundation of their-Works and the substructure of the Church of God Break off thy sins said Daniel by righteousness and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lenthening of thy tranquillity Nebuchadnezzar no doubt did as Daniel directed But it 's not a careless clypt Righteousness of a dead faith nor half-performed mercy to the poor that can secure Professors Salnts States or Churches from dreadful Calamities He was driven as a man without Rule or Reason from amongst men and his dwelling was as in a Wilderness with the Beasts of the field till twice 1260 days past over him His Faith was a Wilderness dead Faith bringing fruits forth by halves The dreadful evils of the barren Desert Literal and Spiritual and the contrary benefits and blessings of Sion in Type and Antitype may briefly appear from the fastings of Moses Eliah and Christ forty days in the wilderness The time was above fourty days and perhaps about 42 days conform to 42 moneths Propbetical which was the time that the Gospel-Church should fulfil in her place in the Spiritual Wilderness Chap. 12.6 14. Ch. 13.5 For Christ had finished 40 days fasting before the Devil began to assail him with his fiercest temptations Matth. 4.2 So Eliah took one days journey into the Wilderness and was miraculously fed there before he fasted 40 days 1 King 19.4 And Moses fasted 40 days and 40 nights before God gave him the Tables of the Covenant Deut. 9.11 Forty days and forty nights rotunditatis gratiâ or as a round number are exprest but the whole time of the fastings of all the three appears to be longer That time was an abbreviated adumbration of the Gospel-Churches continuance in the Antitype-wilderness and what they did or suffered in that time there prefigured Prophetically the state of the Profuga-Church And first Moses fasted two several times 40 days and when he had finished his first 40 days in Horeb he found Israel more degenerate in Manners and Opinions than they had been before worshiping a Calf Deut. 9.12 So the Gospel-Church and Professors having now near finished their Wilderness-Pilgrimage are so far from being nearer to Mount Sion that they are much more erring in their hearts and ignorant of the ways of God More abundant in mistaking evil Manners for good Works and more blindly Superstitious in Worshiping as Israel did a Calf the works of their own hands The works of their hands Revel 9.20 And what are those works I Answer All careless deficient long-delayed or half-performed works of mercy and equity are though wrought by Saints the works of mens hands which God abhors Such much more are the works of all Saints and Professors that mistake their Cui persons or things whom they misintend to right or promote We are debtors saith the Apostle not to the flesh to live thereafter Rom. 8.12 But this is the misery of Modern times that all men and Saints for the most part mistake their Creditors and mind not to whom they themselves are Debtors For the miserable Wilderness-Christians are all Debtors and owe almost all they have to themselves little or nothing to their neighbours to whom what is part of their due they pay as the Pharisees did to their own Proselytes Kin Friends or Members of their own Societies But to things profitable and honest and to the pursuers of such things they find nothing or the least part due and accordingly repay them These are Debtors be they never so Spiritual to the flesh and these their fruits the works of their own wicked hands are worshiped almost by all as Israel when Moses had finished his 40 days fasting were found worshipping a Calf No less wicked are the Works of the hands of Hypocrites that make the Witnesses the Cui of their condemnation and false accusers forgers of lyes through their indulgent or not diligent examining of them their Cui of Credit and Reputation For this cause multitudes of blind zealous careless Professors readily give credit to and capitulate with the greatest Impostors against the injured most innocent This practice is the power of the Prince of darkness in the Mystery of iniquity whereby he crucifies Christ Mystical and kills his Witnesses in the Spiritual wilderness Secondly Eliah wandered and fasted forty days in the dreadful Wilderness and when he had finished that sore travel he was so sar from Mount Sion that he was got to Horeb quite contrary to it So the Gospel-wandring Saints and Professors having almost finished their much more sore travel in a far more troublesome Wilderness are so far from drawing near to Mount Sion that they are come to Horeh So horrible are the mistakes and deceits of these men and times But how and when did Eliah begin his Eremitetiavel I Answer He fled for his life from Jezabel as his Antitype the Gospel-Church fled from the second Dragon but indeed at first from both combined Ch. 12.6 14. He came to Beersheba where he left his
manifest to themselves and others The signal congruity betwixt the seven Vials and 7 trumpets and that in all their transactions and in the series and places of their transactions shews plainly that both contrary to the opinion of many that are contrary minded run parallel and import if not all together for the most part the same times and things One and not the least of the Plagues of those six Vials and not the Plague of one particular Vial but of all the six is the restraint of spiritual Rain The duration of which is the next and last Epoche we shall here insist upon The Twelfth Epoche IS of the restraint of spiritual Rain And in handling of it I shall exert that promised Epitome of the series or the Mystery of Iniqnity by shewing some of the chief transactions of those twelve Epochaes for 1260 years I shall here also shew what that iniquity and those sins are which shut Heaven that it should not Rain And what that obedience to God and right to man is that shall open Heaven and bring down plenteous showers of temporal blessings and spiritual Graces upon all Churches and Nations The restraint of Rain in type was 1260 dayes literal Rain literal dayes This restraint of Rain was of spiritual rain for 1260 dayes annual That is for 1260 years That 's the Epoche of the restraint of Rain spiritual Rev 11.3 6. as 1260 dayes literal were in the type the restraint of literal Rain Luke 4.25 James 5.17 These have power to shut Heaven that it Rain not saith the text in the dayes of their Prophesie ch 11.6 And what the dayes of their Sackcloth-prophesie are the third verse expresly tells you that they were 1260 dayes to wit dayes annual that is there should be a restraint as in the patern of literal of spiritual Rain To wit of spiritual graces in a great measures or 1260 years No true Grace-figuring-rain fell in the Patern for 1260 dayes which shews the grievous restraint of spiritual Graces figured by Rain which should be in the Anti-type for 1260 years that is there should be rather a continued decay then any vigorous and visible return of frugiferous Graces for 1260 years Apostate Israel had water to keep them alive for 1260 dayes but no rain to refresh the Land That went daily back became more barren nor were the hearts of the people turned back to obedience till about the end of those 1260 dayes 1 Kings 18.17 So it seems Gospel revolting Israel was to be preserved as it were alive by some secret sick Graces for 1260 years but not raised to a fertile life so long or not until the spirit of life should first raise her Witnesses whose three days and an halfe of their Spiritual death is as a second record of confirmation the same Epoche with those 1260 years of Rain restrained So long the Land of Gospel revolted Israel in some sort also dead did or should decay daily inGarces grew unnatural growing seeds and became terra tota dehiscens a most barren dry Land all parched into cracks and ClyftsofSchisms full of errours and evil manners And yet a people fondly pleased with the opinion that they have repented whiles their hearts according to theintent of this Prophesie are not turned back from the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and pride of life which threefold covetousness is Idolatry the grand Idols of Anti-christ sensual secular and spiritual and threefold root of all evil They Nor are true Saints free from the same faulr turn to a form not to the power of godliness get faces like faces of men Hair like the Hair of Women but retain teeth of Lions Rev. 9.7 8. And what 's repentance If it be not some sound shallow carelesly shallow Doctrine in a fruitless form they know not what it is They place repentance in the strict pursuit of their own Seers blind prescripts And why were not the hearts of legal Apostate Israel turned back till about the end of 1260 dayes Because they turned their backs upon obedience and their faces from repentance all that time That time was the Interval the Epoche of type Israels grand Apostacy And 1260 dayes annual or years are the Anti type duration of the Gospel-Churches grand defection from faith and obedience But this fully confirms it to wit because we find here the same duration of 1260 years to be the Epoche of the restraint of spiritual Rain of spiritual Graces figured by Rain which necessarily infers for what can Earth without water bring forth the Churches and her witnesses defection at least in part just so long Therefore these 1260 years were to be that time wherein Gospel revolted Israel and true Saints too much should turn their backs upon obedience and faces far from works worthy of repentance That time wherein self-seducing Professors retrograde by going forward and run into perdition whiles they seek to shun their own ruine But they have been busie as he was here and there whom the disguised Prophet personated About what In seeking things that belong unto their peace to wit according to the common careless blind custom of formal Professors But never did they know little did they ever think that they were only busie all that time in turning their backs upon obedience and faces from repentance A man would think they verily believe that their blind zea lous endeavours are a perpetual pursuit of true repentance and things that belong unto their peace whiles they thereby turn their backs upon both Little did the blind Syrians believe they turned their backs upon Dothan when they went forward with their faces wards Samaria Little did the Pharisees think they did by all their devout endeavours hide the things that belonged to their peace from their own eyes And as little does the Anti-christian world believe they take a wrong course whiles they by their proud and profane contempt of things profitable put felicity far from them and exile peace They well content as the Parisees were with their wonted knowledge will not know these things what profit cometh say they by knowing of them This is not the course that such Professors take to obtain the Rain of righteousness but the ready way though they will in no wife see it to shut Heaven that it rain not Eliah prayed and endeavoured earnestly that the hearts of apostate Israel might be turned back which was not done till about the end of those 1260 dayes of Rain restrained Then their hearts were turned back from halting betwixt two Opinions and from dead idols to serve the living God That was done in a shadow and so less permanent But it may seem more then probable that the hearts of revolted Gospel Israel about the end of those 1260 years restraint of spiritual Rain shall begin to turn back from halting not betwixt two but many opinions to a permanent unity of true faith and manners That Anti-christ sensual secular and spiritual may then begin
begin effectually to return from the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and pride of life to true Christian sobriety mercy and charity That the Son of perdition as Judas convinced hanged himself shall begin to strangle with his own hands his own barbarrous inhumanities that sensual Professors shall begin to forsake open profaneness secular Professors sordid tenacity and spiritual false Professors their blind sensless prescripts of pride and ignorance that all their errours being made manifest by Gospel-light may glorifie God Sic Anti-christus penitùs evictus exibit So Anti-christ beirg fully and clearly convinc'd shall turn true convert Then shall his prophane heart be turned back Back from proud contempt of sacred truth and neglect of the practice of it Back from blindness of heart to heart-enlargements in the light of the truth of the gospel And turned back from blaspheming God and his tabernacle by bringing as the spies did upon the Land of Promise evil reports upon Gospel-truth and the witnesses of it So many Papists and Protestants too much blaspheme the sacred word of God saying It s insufficient ambiguous dangerous deceitfull And formal Professors please themselves with a careless trivial shallow sound Doctrine fondly affecting the stony grounds grand curse for the greatest blessing They pretent that the plain Scriptures please them well that the rest yields much labour little profit profane sloth pride covetousness imprint such blind opinions in the hearts of hypocrites who catching as they conceive at part loose the profit of all the Scriptures wherefore as Bede much complained that many in his time were contented with a trivial literature So it hath been the misery of all times of those times especially wherein Heaven being shut the Rain of Graces should be most restrained that men Sects and Saints too much content themselves with a trivial shallow knowledge of sacred truth For the stony ground of all evil grounds the worst had a trivial shallow superficies of fertile Earth only it wanted depth therefore it s most deceitful and destructive to it self and to thesowers of it For it s a true saying Non babet Ars inimicum praeter ignorantem And it may be no less truly said that this careless Heaven-shutting shallow ground of Professors profanely prond contentedly ignorant or puft up with their shallow though perhaps literally sound knowledge are the greatest opposers of profound truth persecutors of the Witnesses of it and the chief matter as we shall instantly shew of the Son of perdition properly so called For filthy lucre and pride constrains them to cast aside all faithful care and pains in searching after substantial truth Therefore their Doctrine and their doings are both but deceits For such as their Doctrine is such their doings are such as their knowledge such their practice Tali Patellâ dignum operculum a careless blind shallow persecuting obedience best befits their fruitless superficial knowledge So the Pharisees figured chiefly by the stony ground and by whom especially our Lord was Crucified had like these their Anti-type a trivial superficial knowledge with like obedience Said but did not and were the principal part of the type-Son of perdition Search the Scriptures said our Saviour for they are they that testifie of me The Pharisees searched the Scriptures as they thought di igently but divided them not aright They divided the word and their obedience thereunto by a division not of right distinction but of separation and by that separation separated themselves from all right to any part of it They searched the Scriptures diligently to wit such literally and those chiefly that held forth legal and ceremonial Ordinances But they searched them not as they shadowed forth Christ nor those Prophesies that clearly testified of him or they searched those Scriptures sleightly They had no doubt as modern hypocrites have their thunder-bolts of blasphemy against such Scriptures and the diligent searchers of them and could call them perhaps ambiguous dangerous deceitful useless allusions vain Allegories and the sober disquisitors of such sacred Oracles they might account curious Quaestors about trifles and trivial expenders of wasted pains in searching things im pertinent or to little purpose Therefore was their obedience also conform to their knowledge divided and separated They diligently observed legal Rites and placed their Religion as their Anti-type doth in empty forms in their observing of them But the grand duties or great commands judgment mercy and faith they separated from the less and as least regarded rejected Math. 23.23 Luke 11.42 Wherefore whiles they divided separated rejected the knowledge of those Scriptures that chiefly testify'd of Christ from those that literally as they took them testified less of him they wholly abandoned all benefit that might redound from both to themselves And whiles they divided separated rejected the grand duties of obedience to God judgment mercy and faith to men from the less they cast off all obedience So these Professors their Off-spring and Anti-type that affect a fruitless shallow knowledge and such obedience search the Scriptures as they suppose diligently but divide not the word aright They divide the word and their obedience by a division not of right distinction but of seperation They separate the plain from the prophetical as Saul rent Samuels Mantle and thereby separate themselves from all right to any part in either For as that wicked Harlot would have the Child divided So they well approve as they pretend the plain Scriptures but reject the rest as useless qor impertinent And so as she had no part in the living Child they deprive themselves of all right to the word of life They therefore as the Pharisees did affect and make a schism in Doctrine and obedience separate and reject the solid and retain the trivial which serves them only to blaspheme bring evil reports upon all sound knowledg sincere obedience And this profaneness may be found to come in the Van of those sins that shut Heaven Heaven shutting profaneness is threefold Sensual Earthly and Devilish This threefold profaneness is also threefold In thought word and deed And versant in a threefold subject the high-way thorny and stony grounds whose Fruits are a slothful worldly and proud non-vacancy to seek or submit unto sound knowledge and sincere obedience This threefold profaneness in thought is a threefold inward deception of the Intellect will and affections But in word and deed the same deception exerted The ourward attractives and objects of this threefold profaneness are three different forts of divertisements The divertisements of sensual profaneness are sloth and sinful pleasures Of secular or Earthly profaneness worldly profits Of spiritual profaneness pride opinion blind superstition busie ignorance The first non vacat a ventre sensual high-way-Professors are ever so busie in gathering Grapes of Sodom that they have no leasure to look towards Zion Professors secular are so set upon the world that they see no benefit but in worldly business Their