2. Onely they and none else had their stand thereon all the rest of the common Israelites were hurt by the withholding of the windes Chap. 7. by the Locust Chap. 9.3 and were utterly supplanted by the Beast Chap 13.8 Matth. 24.24 Hence I deduced this consequence that the Elect alone must make up this Temple Sion and that all other Christians that had but the externality bring in a false visibility had not so much as outward measurement but were wholly the patrimony of the Beast and Whore 2. What was her condition here In Chap. 7 that she was some of every tribe distinguished from the rest onely by the seal of true election 2 Cor. 1.20 21 22. In Chap. 11.2 that all her outward court was taken from her and it being excommunicated became another even the possession of the Nations In Chap. 12.6 14 that she who vers 1. in the primitive day was in heaven there clothed with the sun had the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars all seen in open type as being enriched beautified and completed with full power in her outward visibility afterward by this apostacie fled into the wilderness beneath her former visible orbs where all about her was dry barren and confused earth the Kingdom of God was during this time within Luke 17.21 Her place vers 6 14. must be the abovesaid Temple void of the externality of Order Also the call for separation inters as much as Cant. 6.13 Return return O Shulamite also Isai 35.10 The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Sion the word ransomed imports their being captive before and their return their absence from that Sion they come unto also Chap. 51.14 The captive exile hasteth to be delivered from the pit which implies their former being in again Rev. 18.4 come out of her my people intimates that they were a company in Babylon before the time of this departure even in that city which is called Sodom and Egypt Chap. 11.8 by which the Spirit would teach us that as Lot was in outward Sodom Israel in Egypt Judah in Babylon so the Lords people should be in such a visible constitution as spiritually was Sodom for beastly idolatry Egypt for bondage Babylon as being in a strange land from the native Canaan of a gospel-Gospel-Order where they were strangers under other lords And in which Country there was another earth sea rivers and fountains sun throne rive viz. Euplwates and air Chap. 16. They cannot properly be called out to reward her in these but they must be before within In Chap. 11.3 4 The Witnesses even those who were the chiefest administers of light to the Temple had their outward clothing not with the sun as before but with sackcloth their external investment into Membership and Office being Antichristian and their stand before the earthly god of humane Hierarchies even in the above-said wilderness or great city vers 8. where the Beast those strange earthly lords have power to do and trample them under foot with tyranny vers 2. Chap. 13.5 making their estate mournful And in this dark night of their desertion they were as those asleep as not altogether sensible of their outward state till God by his call awaken them out of this drowzie Coma Cant. 5.2 Matth. 25.5 6. By these Scriptures me may gather that this mystical Church or sealed number was stript of all the glory of his visible inheritance in Church-order and outwardly in a false Babylonish station as in a foraigne country under strange Lords where she was in a mixed estate partly hurt defiled and through blindness deluded partly untouched undefiled undeceived they were indamaged dimmed and seduced in the externality but in the radix of the internal grace could not be subverted it being sustatined by the immediate hand of heaven 3. The next remarkable thing is How the Church was fed in this desolation In Chap. 7.1 2. we may deduce that there was some secret vertue of the Covenant to secure and perpetuate the sealed company In Chap. 11.1 that as there were worshippers in the temple and an altar so their worship must flow immediately from those internal closets that were measured and not at all from the outward court of order which was excluded in vers 3. that Christ himself gave power to the witnesses by an immediate gift when there was none outward of office from man and by that they fed the woman in her place Chap. 12.14 In Zech. 4.12 that though there were not seven pipes a fulness of ordinances as was in the primitive day vers 2. yet there were two remaining to empty out their golden oile as before that these must be such ordinances as are promised in the word to continue which is declared in this cessation above Hence we may draw two observations First For the resolving of a grand paradox propounded by the Episcopalists and Presbyterians against the separation viz. How there can be conversion in a false Church Here we may take notice that there was a temple within a woman Sion and a feeding by the witnesses where all the order was Babylonish Secondly that this more intrinsecal dispensation is weak and sparing and the Saints under it in a low and almost famished condition Amos 8.11 12. Their strength and perfection is then when this more internal work dilates and spreads its vertue to the superficies therefore the way and journey of separation is not a retiring in but an outgoing both of Christ and his people Isa 52.12 Revel 14.4 Mat. 25.6 and is compared by the Lord Jesus to a spring Mal. 24.32 33. as diffusing its vital sap more outwardly and blossoming that magnificent kingdome of the marriage is likened to a summer Luk. 21.29 30 31. The not observing this nor marking what ordinances were left of God to be meerly formal and what remained with some degree of power hath occasioned many to run into another extream and draw the work of the Spirit so within its self as might stop all the expirations or out-breakings thereof and under the notion of highness bring men into a lower condition then that of the Antichristian stand that was a narrow and sparing breathing their 's a stifling and suffocating of the Spirit as obstructing all its passages by which it should reflow in its workings out 4. The last consideration is the time of this great desertion and loss when it began how long it abides and the computation thereof This time cannot begin with the first trumper as Master Brightman and others carry it but must receive its initiation with the fifth deciphered in Chap. 9. For 1. It cannot be with any clearness of sense begin till the woman had taken her full flight into the wilderness chap. 12.6 In the former trumpets two parts in three of the visibility remained true and the star in fifth was in heaven till he fell to the earth and by that apostacie all the externality of church-policy became
tread the holy City the sealed number under foot are tyrannical and bestial But such National Churches do so tread as is further asserted And the holy city shall they tread under foot The truth of this hath shewed it self not onely in the cruelty of Rome but also by the like tyranny of the Bishops in England and the rigour of the Presbytery in Scotland and that the same aspiring spirit is in many amongst you if the sword of the Magistrate would second and impower you the declarations of some both in their writings and in their open Pulpits which men look upon as the oracles of Truth have sufficiently manifested to the world we hope they will be more wise and tender of the consciences of others for the future These National Churches considered in one universal body are the great city Babylon Chap. 17.15 18. Chap. 11.8 9 10. Now if the visibility of Church-constitution was onely National for many generations as is cleared by all the evidences of former times and these National Churches Babylonish then must there be a fail and cessation of the truth of the same visibility Compare this Scripture with the event and you may finde that as here the whole outward court was given to the Nations and then cast out by the Spirit so the event is parallel to the prophecie which tells us that the total Order of Ecclesiastical regiment became National and was for many hundred yeers Romish in the full possession of the Pope where by the common grant of all Protestants it is held to be Babylon and when the visible Church became a stranger and bottomless the key of outward Government in Confirmation Ordination Excommunication c. must be of the same nature with the Church as is declared in the former Paragraph The truth of this is likewise confirmed by the state of the true Church in the times of this apostacie who was onely a sealed elect number which by an invisible union made up a mystical temple a Sion a women c. whose visible abode was in the wilderness of Babylon as you may read in the Cessation I shall here demonstrate it by another Scripture which was there omitted The text is Micah 4.10 where the prophet speaking of the daughter of Sion saith that she shall go forth out of the city her genuine and celestial Order and shall dwell in the field answerable to the wilderness into which the woman fled Rev. 12.6 and shall go even to Babylon to such a field where is meer confusion from whence the Lord will at last deliver her by separation and redeem her from the hands of her enemies And that this alludes to the condition of the Gospel-Church in spiritual Babylon is evinced by the gathering of the nations against her vers 11 which agrees whith these last combinations against the Saints Zeph. 3.8 Isai 54.15 Revel 16.14 16. by her horns of iron and hoofs of brass to thresh and beat in pieces many people also after her complete victory by her consecrating their gain to the Lord which never was fulfilled in the majesty here delivered but must be proper to the time of the vials wherein the people coming out of Babylon reward her and her assistants with the like degree of punishment Rev. 18.6 Dan. 7.22 The event doth likewise comply with this Scripture as face answers to face in a glass For the primitive Church who was glorious in her visible constitution setled and beautified with Apostolical power did after decline from thence into the vast barren field of the Babylonish nations where she was scattered here and there a godly person outwardly mixed with the rude multitude from whom she was not distinguished either in Membership or Office and where she was held in chains of thraldom by Popes Bishops and the like beastly Hierarchies who in this strange country monopolized the key of Government into their sole tuition and in this desolate estate she must needs be an exile in a forraign land From this bondage also the Lord begins at last to call her out and deliver her from her enemies From hence we may necessarily conclude that if this external station wherein the daughter of Sion visiby stood was a field a wilderness a Babylon or forraign country of strange confusion then must all the beauty of her former outward Order be dissolved and turned into a rude Chaos that if her key of visible Rule was taken solely into the usurpation of Antichrist the Beast those alien lords Then must the Ordinances thereof lie void as did the Temple-vessels in the house of Nebuchadnezzar's idol-gods We will now with God's assistance proceed to answer your Objections made against this Object You alleadge that to say the visible Church did fail is as much as to affirm that the pillars of the earth were broken down the Church standing as firm by Gods ordinance power and faithfulness Answ It is true that the pillars of the earth are born up by the Word of God albeit the earthly governments thereof have the times of their shake and dissolution Psal 75.3 Isai 2.19 21. Hag. 2.21 And withal it is as true that the Church in the being of election inward grace outward profession and the more intrinsecal rule of grace is a kingdom that cannot be shaken Heb. 12.28 it being promised to be perpetual Matth. 16.18 But the visibility of Church-government was not so pillared in the Word for its successive abiding this is rather fore-prophesied that it should be corrupted by Antichrist and become Babylon To lay the ground-work of your after-discourse you here distinguish a visible Church M. Elmest First say you by a visible Church may be meant a company of Christians joyned together in one place set in true order of Worship and exercise of all Gods Ordinances that such a Church hath been in any one place or many successively you think cannot castly be proved Answ By such a Church if we understand you aright you mean a Church set in a right order of Discipline and furnished with true Officers And if such a Church cannot be proved to have been successively through the apostacie then must you yeeld that the primitive chain of Order was broken and so justifie its cessation for such an one it is that you have maintained to abide and we have proved to discontinue This grant of yours duely pondered doth at one breath unmount the whole fabrick of this your Babel and might soon put a period to the major part of this Controversie M. Elmest Secondly by a visible Church may be meant a company of persons professing true religion abstaining from all false worship and worshipping God in a pure way though for the most part in sundry places and meeting in small companies such a Church hath been perpetual Answ 1. Such companies may thus assemble for Ministery Prayer as did the one hundred twenty before they received powerfrom on high and we do now and yet not be a visible Church
during the time of their administration and thus were the former fort of Ordinances as Ministery Prayer c. But for others that are so upheld though their being may remaine in the Scriptures yet their vital existence by some occasions and in some seasons may faile lie deserted and their dispensation resolve into its prime original cause from whence till it flow forth againe into these chanels they cannot be made use of without presumption as bottoming on the name and power of man Thus the vessels and ordinances proper to the legal temple even when that was destroyed and the vessels carried into Babylon had an institution and being in the Scriptures and minds of the godly yet lay void of their ministration and could not be officiated with either there or after in their journy of separation till they were come to Sion and there sanctified Thus also under the Gospel Ministry and Baptisme were foretold to be successive as we have shewed from this text of Matthew and from Isa 55.11 and Chap. 56.5 and in that last Scripture Chap. 56.5 which foretels the continual succession of Baptisme the place or hand is secluded from the same promise Nay when the externality of government was ruined by antichrist and made a desolation then the administration of Christ was withheld from it then did the key become another then was it cast out by God Rev. 7.1 Chap. 9.1 2. Chap. 11.2 and cannot be assumed but upon an humane bottomless key till the Lord return into them by the visible blast of the Spirit Isa 32.15 Hence the Lord Jesus himself Mat. 24.26 Mark 13. 23. warnes us to beware of these visible Lo's as delusive and shews that such as build them be antichrists during the antichristian time And this command of Christ is to be taught for as his dispensions are various so are his precepts and commands thereunto parallel when Christ and his Spirit were in them he chargeth his people to observe them when he had left and antichrist had surprised them he commands his servants to beware Object You tell us That herein the example of the Israelites will not help us because the use of those vessels was confined to a certaine place the Temple at Jerusalem but now God may be worshipped in any place Answ Many of those things which were literal and local to the Israelites under the Law are by way of an allegory and in a mystical sense fulfilled on the Israel of God under the Gospel For as then the temple vessels and the use of them were confined to a certaine place mount Sion so Gospel-constitutions with the ordinances proper thereto are limited to a more manifest dispensation which makes them a stated visible Sion and this is confined to the two daies of Christ the primitive and his last coming like lightning it cannot but upon an antichristian root be taken up when the kingdome is more retired and neither of these two dayes are to be seen Luk. 17.22 As Babylon then was an outward place without the precincts of the land of promise so is it now a confused Church-state without the limits of a Gospel-order then the king of Babel ruinated Jerusalem and the outward temple carried the vessels thereof into the house of his idol-gods where they were abused as quaffing bouls to the praise of graven and molten images now antichrist the destroying king hath made desolate the outward couâ—t troden the holy city under foot introduced a false and bottomless key into Church-government whereby the ordinances of Ordination Confirmation c. are changed into the image of the beast then the Jewish Church was carried from their native country Canaan into the wilderness of Babylon where she was a captive in a foraign Country in which she was to abide for the space of seventy yeers now the woman declined from her own heavenly order into the wilderness of Babylonish constitutions where she was an exile in a strange land and there trampled upon by other lords in which condition she was to remaine for 1260 yeers then the Lord provided a little sanctuary for them in the place of their captivity Ezek. 11.16 now he had a spiritual place or mystical abode for his scattered sealed ones then the date of those seventy yeers being expired they were called to come out from Chalaea now the 1260 yeers of the Saints thraldome being finished Christ calls Come out of her my people then they had a long and local journey to return to their own resting place in the way to which they passed over proper Euphrates and so at last to Sion now the Saints have a spiritual journey of separation by the vials or a way cast up for them in the which they shall go over the figurative Euphrates and thence forward till they come to the visible Sion of their own native order Revel 16.12 and that this passage answers to theirs towards outward Sion is further evidenced Isa 48.20 21. Chap. 43.14 19. Chap. 35.8 10 where the Saints go out of captivity to a Sion they were absent from before then they in their voyage did bear the Lords vessels up to Sion which were of no use in their travel till that was accomplished and they sanctified in their peculiar place now we carry the Ordinances of external Church-government as the Lords vessels in our minds but dare not officiate in them till God smoke them from his glory and power according to that precept given to the separation of our time Isa 52. 11 12. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord by way of allusion to that of old Thus we may take notice how the wise distributer of the times doth so order his dispensations in suting season to season that what was more outward of old doth under shadows and vailes figure out what is now under the Gospel he so declares the end from the beginning that there is nothing altogether new under the Sun Isa 46.10 Eccles 1.9 Chap. 3.15 though there be something peculiar to this latter as every thing hath its appropriated difference and I do foresee wherein Master Elmestone doth think to evade but when he publisheth his oppositions I shall be willing if the Lord please to meet him and declare from Scripture the grounds of some dissimiltudes I shall now proceed to resolve some doubts made by you in the 9 and 10 Pages of your book about my study of the Revelations which I will here divide into a distinct Paragraph Paragraph II. I Acquainted you that the reason of my diligent search in the Revelation was because it being a prophecie of all Gospel-times contains the full testimony of Jesus wherein as in a cabinet Gods several dispensations proper to every period with Satans opposite works are included c. You wish me in searching the visions of the Apocalypse together with the prophets to do it with humility and self-denyal as not having any conceit that I have a more excellent spirit of revelation then
not hid in that City nor the adjacent territories nor fled they from thence by a personal flight These two extremes will hardly come together 5. This call here specified pertains not to all times and persons For as Israel was to be in outward Babylon for the space of seventy yeers before the call for their departure so the woman was to remain in the mystical for a full season even 1260 yeers Rev. 12.6 as before the wheat and tares were to grow together till harvest which belongs to the vials chap. 14. and then this call for separation had its peculiar time prefixed the war and it being conjoyned together The primitive Saints failing in their first love sunk into the same earthly confused condition and were left asleep in that wilderness for a full season till the times of God came for their deliverance from bondage 6. This of Protestantisme cannot properly be termed a separation in respect of Church-constitution but rather a dividing of the kingdom Dan. 2.41 The true separation consists in a number out of Nations Rev. 7.9 who are off from the beast and his thorne over consciences as standing immediately before the highest throne and were not defiled with women chap. 14.2 3 4. But theirs was whole Nations good and bad together and they set up a beast originally derived from Rome and by consequence must in their Church-state be a strange woman as is proved in Paragraph 1. Sect. 3. Indeed Antichrist reigning long in his Catholique pontificalitie grew so foul at last that he was found out by the Protestants and being discovered was contented with them to sit down in Episcopacy but lording it there with too much tyranny was also disclosed to be the same beast trimmed in other habit and where he could not be admitted that attire in policy that he might the easier deceive masked himself under a more curious dress in Presbytery yet his ground-work arising by descent from the Pope is the same with the former and he also there usurps or chalengeth the like popedom over consciences The same beast remaines in all onely his Kingdome is divided To your fifth Objection we answer that by the word only we exclude stating not assembling for Ministery Prayer c. Section 3. Your next Objections are directed against our seventh Reason where we tell you that we are yet but in the way towards Sion Before we give a reply to yours we shall acquaint you what we conceive of this subject to prepare for that following We hold that there was a Sion 2 Temple a Woman a Kingdome of grace and a reigne of God therein through all Gospel-times yet withall that this did not constantly abide in the external order of Ecclesiastical government but was in its outward stand and dispensation various In the primitive day Sion was not onely inward in the work of grace and the hidden man saith c. but likewise visibly stated by Christ in the glory of her outward order In the dark night of Antichristianisme she was more retired subsisting simply in the grace of Election mystical union with some weak degree of profession and witness had the badge of the covenant but visibly in a false strange and Babylonish constitution as is cleared in the Cessation After the final subversion of Antichrist the like visible government shall againe descend from heaven as is shewed in the Cessation also Quaer 2. This is diversly stiled in the Prophets answerable to the sense it is opposed against or applyed to Sometimes to teach us that before the Saints were outwardly a scattered and bondaged people in a strange land or Babylon the visibilty of true gospel-Gospel-order and regiment is by a Synecdoche termed Sion Rev. 18.4 Isa 35. The ransomed of the Lord return from Babylon to Sion The redeemed ones were never absented from the mystical Sion but from the visible they were and to that are said to return Likewise to inform us that a mystical or more invisible Sion remained and to point out in particular what failed and what againe reverts the Prophets tell us that it is the visibility of regiment shall be added to the former as Mich. 4. after the vials wars are ended in a full peace ver 3.4 the Lord shal reigne agreeable to Rev. 19.6 and then thou O Tower of the flock the strong hold of the daughter of Sion unto thee shall it come even the first dominion the Kingdome shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem ver 8. then judgement shall be given to the most high Saints Dan. 7.22 Now to apply this to our case we affirme that in the former of these two acceptations we are in our way to Sion in the latter we are on Sion expecting the glory of her government to come from the Lord Jesus So that Sion in the Scriptures is sometimes taken only for the mystical or mount of true grace and thus it is in the times of the apostacy sometimes for the visible order of the Church-constitution or outward rule The not marking this hath caused many in the daies of this more intrinsecall administration to bring the promises belonging to Sion unto their stated formes and so to Babylon thereby deluding both themselves and the people thus did the Pope thus did the Bishops and the like do all the rest We shall now proceed to remove your obstacles Object 1. It is the state of all imbracing the Gospel to be come to mount Sion and the celestial Jerusalem Heb. 12.22 Answer This was spoken to the Gospel-Church of the primitive day who was Sion as in the being and profession of faith so also in her outward corporation and discipline and cannot in its latitude be extended to all Gospel-times Object 2. To prove the perpetual succession of a Gospel Sion stated in outward order through the Antichristian age you instance Rev. 14.1 Answ Sion here specified figures out the mount of true grace and the unmoveable foundation thereof For all the Elect sealed number and only they stood with the Lamb upon this mountaine See the Cessation If this be meant of a visible constituted Church then must if follow either that all the Elect in the world and only they through the whole season of tribulation must successively in every generation thereof be congregated apart by themselves and set in a true order distinguished from the Papacy Patriarkship c. or else that Rome and the Greek Church as corrupt as she carrying this continuance of visibility must be true and orderly constitutions made up of members elect and pretious and none but such If the former be asserted the Scripture and the event both manifest that the Saints were scattered and mixed amongst the nations if the latter more must attributed to Rome then she dares chalenge to her self Besides this daughter of Sion was visibly in Babylon where all the beauty of her exteriour order was turned into confusion as you may at large read in the same Cessation as also Parag.
1. Sect. 4. Object But say you This Sion must be visible because seen of John Answ This we also assent unto for her inward grace was not so concealed but that it did in some measure manifest it self in visible profession and an holy godly life And thus was one godly man to be seen of another though mixed amongst the common multitude thus also the world espied them and with us of late branded them by the name of Puritans Your insuing words tend to the confounding of two types parted by the Spirit to wit that of the one hundred fourty four thousand vers 1. and that of the harpers vers 2 c. 1. That of the one hundred fourty four thousand is a symbol of the elect remaining amongst the common national Israelites during the one thousand two hundred and sixty yeers of Antichrist his prevailing and some space after Chap. 7 to verse the 9. 2. That of the harpers is a new addition of a number who are in their stand distinguished and redeemed from amongst men which figures out the separated people as is declared in the beginning of this Paragraph whose song was so intricate that none amongst the false Churches were capable of the mystery but the one hundred fourty four thousand redeemed from the earth who by degrees will learn it and come out of their intanglements Answ We grant that those truly pious amongst you may be and are of that catalogue and stand upon the same Sion but that all your national members most of whom are prophane are of this number or that your reformers that were sanctified may be saved though their works burn Why you are not of these harpers we shall inform you in the Postscript Object 3. Admit we be but in our way to Sion yet what lets but that we may set up all Gods ordinances as well as some in this our journey The Israelites in their way to Canaan had all Gods ordinances set up amongst them Answ Such ordinances as are spirited for abiding may be and are exercised such whose administration lies void as Ordination c. proper to Church-constitution cannot till the Lord inspires them as is cleared in the first Paragraph The example of the Israelites serves not for your purpose For they were wholly separated from Egypt we are not so as yet from the great City they first took their full journey to the place appointed which was not mount Sion but mount Sinai the answered to the legal Jerusalem Gal. 4.24 25. we are yet but in our journey of separation are not passed from Euphrates into the mystical Canaan of a pure Gospel-walk nor to the Sion of visible order the peculiar centre of a Gospel-marriage they did not erect their legal constitution by themselves it was the Lord that framed it by his servant Moses and clouded it with his glory much less can any now build up Gospel-Churches till our Lord Christ creates them by the descending influences of his Spirit Section 4. The fourth is touching the temple which was not opened for visible entrance till after the vials pouring evidenced from Rev. 15.8 chap. 11.19 Isa 4.5 6. Because you complain that we have not explicated our sense we shall here briefly declare what we apprehend of the temple To pass by the temple of Christ manhood wherein the essence of the Deity dwels bodily Iohn 2.19 20. Cor. 2.9 we shall speak of it as it relates to the Saints and Gospel-Church And thus we understand the temple to be the house wherein the Lord inhabits by the presence of his grace Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone And this may be either a single person 1 Cor. 6.19 or the compection and conjunction of the Saints which is the intendment of the Spirit in the above-cited places The same temple may be more hidden Rev. 11.1 The first is spiritual and mystical union of the Elect and all the work of the graces wherein the Lord dwels as in a more secret habitation The second is when together with the former the Saints are knit together by the powerfull administration of the Spirit into an external corporation stated with Officers and having in their jurisdiction all the Ordinances belonging to visible Church-power and Government this is usually called a stated or constituted Church The inward rooms of true grace with the invisible relation are the temple within the outward Order is represented by the court without vers 2. and is by a Synecdoche the whole taken for the part stiled the temple 2 Thess 2.4 You may see by its ruines what and how it was before its casting out We shall lay down a few distinctions betwixt the mystical and the visible constituted temple The former being combined by the invisible bond of the Spirit comprehends onely the elect sealed number the later being an outward corporation hypocrites may creep into the one was always true during the time of the apostacie the other was false and rejected in that season and when true doth presuppose the former the first when alone hath a more sparing breathing of the Spirit with a hiding of his power Revel 7.1 Chap. 11.1 3. the later hath a manifest apparent-blast as is said The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and his power Chap. 15.8 Isai 4.4 5 6. the like was in the Primitive Acts 2.2 Isai 6.4 into the former there is no visible entry mentioned it being internal undiscerned and shut up from the outward court the other hath an evident opening and entering This word open argues a shutting before and withal presupposeth smoking or keys given by the visible dispensation of the Spirit to open with and also doors to be opened and entered by which maketh it to be a stated Church and will not be till after the * Vers 1â— subversion of Antichristian enemies But to prove a stated Church to be before and during the vials you produce Rev. 11.1 Chap. 14.15 c. Chap. 15. Answ The temple in Chap. 11.1 is a mystical temple made up onely of the one hundred and fourty four thousand sealed ones as is shewed in Parag. 1. Sect. 4. Also the Angel or Minister Chap. 14.15 came out of the same mystical temple from his former retiredness into a more open view to invoke the fitter on the cloud to thrust in his sickle c. I shall be a little larger in delivering my judgement on Chap. 15. The Spirit in the five first verses briefly sets down general figures first Of the Angel-pourers vers 1. Secondly Of the harpers or separated people vers 2 3 4 by their stand at the glassie sea which was in all the season of separation by their victory over the Beast that was gradual by each vial but completed by the last and by their song and praising of God for their several trophies which goes hand in hand with every vial and expires in the noble exulting Hallelujahs specified Chap. 19. Thirdly then after these things to wit
19.7 8 9 His wife hath made her self ready hath the grant of the wedding-garment and the call to marriage-supper Blessed is he that shall be called to this nuptial feast for none that are unfurnished uncircumcised or unclean shall enter thereinto Isa 52.1 Zech. 14.21 therefore will the door be shut against the foolish virgins Let us take the counsel of our Lord vers 13 Luke 21.36 Watch and pray that ye may be counted worthy to escape all these things viz. the vials wrath and to stand before the Son of man when he comes in the glory of his Spirit The arising taking and trimming of the Lamps both of the wise and foolish virgins is now the discerning of the one from the other about the sixth vial Revel 16.15 the wedding is after the vials pouring on Antichrist As these virgins go from Babylon and the Lord by his call guidance and protection leads before Isa 52.12 so do they follow the Lamb as they have an aspect toward the marriage to Christ coming then in the visible manifestation of the Spirit so do they go forth to meet the bridegroom There be some other difficulties to be unfolded in this text which for brevity I shall here omit till I see my opponents exceptions In the going forth or travelling of these virgins or returners towards the marriage we find two noted and observable passages The first-is from the beast his earth sea rivers and fountains and throne c. The second is over the river Euphrates at the sixth vial Chap. 16. The Saints going over this great river are stiled the kings of the East which is not a proper but figurative and borrowed speech as well as the earth sea c. and are so tearmed partly in allusion to the kings of Judah who went to the temple by the way of the East gate Ezek 36.12 partly for that they will be increasing flourishing kings resembling the Sun-rising by which they are distinguished from the kings of nations who are then declining and upon their fall like to the Sun in the West partly as they will resemble their King Christ who is called the Angel of the East Rev. 7. And these are not only Jews but Gentiles also unless you intend to disrobe them of their kingly dignity and do suppose that the Dragon Beast false Prophets kings of the whole world with their adherents do make war only against the Jews and are not gathered against the godly Gentiles an idle fancy to imagine Besides these are the men that pour out their vial into the aire Thus far in general But because you seem to require it and that it may more fitly answer yours we shall now divide it into particular Reasons why this walk of these harpers is separation without stating Reason 1. Our first ground is because in this season there is no divine call for visible Church-constitution or marriage if there be we should desire to be informed where the highest we can finde in the Scripture is for separation and rewarding There was never any new work begun in Church-matters either not in being before or after a general and long privation without a new call to authorize and impower men for the work Noah built not his ark till God commanded him Gen. 6.14 Abraham departed not from his country till the Lord said unto him Get thee out Chap. 12.1 Aaron assumed not the honor of the Priesthood till called of God Heb. 5.4 nay Christ our Lord honoured not himself but he that said unto him c. vers 5. David durst not build a resting place for his God without asking counsel of the Prophet the Lords oracle and being forbidden prepared abundantly for the work but durst not attempt to build 1 Chron. 17.1 3. Chap. 29. his son Solomon a king of Peace being called begun and finished that magnificent building 1 Chron. 17.12 Chap. 28.6 the same temple being after ruinated by the king of Babylon was not reedified but by a heavenly voice directing Cyrus and the Jews to do it Isa 44.28 Chap. 45.1 4.2 Chron. 36.23 Ezra 1.2 3. the Apostles waited at Jerusalem and went not forth to state visible Churches till they received power from heaven calling and priviledging them for that designe Acts 1.4 Chap. 2.2 And questionless Jesus Christ in his Revelation exactly marking out and shewing to his servants all the remarkable changes and dispensations of his Saints would after so long a cessation and confusion of their first order the greatest for matter and time that ever was have in this book confirmed the work of stating and made it indubitable by his call in its first return as well as that of separation if there had been any such fabrick now to be erected If you object the primitive call The Cessation of that insuing and the other new call to come makes that to be to us insufficient Again there is not any visible administration of the Spirit to begin any Church-constitution since the windes were with held Rev. 7.1 nor will be till the same winds are loosed and the Spirit again poured out in a visible symbol as is proved in the Cessation Quaer 2. Reason 2. Our next ground why we cannot at this time state and but only separate is because the book of the Revelation prescribes two distinct and severed periods for separation and visible Church-marriage the first to be during the rewarding by war Chap. 18.4 6. the last to be after a full separation and the downfal of Babylon Chap. 19.7 9. Now time is Gods peculiar prerogative and proper interest who can appoint him the times without intrenching upon his incommunicable royalty Jer. 51.44 Again as there is a time fixed for every purpose so every thing is beautiful in its time Eccles 3.1 11. but out of his season there is and must be a deformity and disproportion the reason is because many concurrences fall into the point of opportunity that contributes a comliness goodness and sometimes truth of existence to the thing or action which being done out of its season loseth its grace and beauty and in Church matters is vaine false and unlawful Thus in this honourable work of stating there will at that day be the raine of God the bright and powerful administration of the Spirit the grant and gift of the beautiful wedding garment the lively call of Christ to make it incomparably glorious and of surpassing lustre but now in this your day there is not only the want but the contrary to all these which causeth it be both obscure formal narrow as also disuniting dangerous and sinful Now the harpers above specified are virgins not the defiled married women they are obedient followers of the Lamb in the call of separation are not intruders and goers before him in the act of stating Reason 3. The third is because there is not now a sufficient dispensation of light sutable for the majesty of a Gospel-constitution How various are â—iens observations about the