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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65195	Two treatises ... both written by Sir Henry Vane, Knight in the time of his imprisonment.	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662.; Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662. Epistle general, to the mystical body of Christ on earth.; Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662. Face of the times.	1662 (1662)	Wing V80_PARTIAL; Wing V67_PARTIAL; ESTC R7026	96,369	132

Freedom than that wherein man was at first Created in that mutable and Primitive state of purity And what this Freedom is we shall shew that is so worthy to be obtained and fought after in exchange for the other This Freedom consists in the witnessing every respect which is wrought in the Understanding and Will of man by Regeneration and Divine birth of the one or other sort to render them of entire use and service unto that higher and superiour Will in the second Adam the Lord from Heaven that is made and given of the Father to be a quickning Spirit unto them in a twofold capacity First of their natural Head and Sovereign whom they are to serve as in relation of Subjects to their King and Law-giver and therein fulfil and answer the very end of the Law of Nature and actually become those righteous persons against whom there is no Law that can take hold of them to punish them or take the least exception to their perfect Righteousness that have given to them a constant and perpetual Will to do right to every one and love the Lord their God most intirely by influence from their Head who in this respect is the common Parent to both the sorts of Children whom he makes free Citizens and Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem his own glorified man-head which is the Mother of us all But secondly Christ the second Adam comes forth also in another Headship to the second sort of these Children which is that of Husband and Bridegroom gathering them up into a state of higher Love and Duty than that of Servants and Subjects and receiving them unto more honorable use in familiarity intimacy and a kind of equality comprehending the Love and Duty of righteous and faithful Servants but in respect of the nearness of relation and union becoming much the more excellent and transcendant The Inspiration and holy Anointing which flows from Christ in this twofold Headship of his into the hearts of these his Members hath that effect upon them as joyns them to him in unity and agreement of spirit or of judgment and will and so entirely possesses them engrosses them in the service and to the use of their Lord that it leaves them at no liberty to 〈◊〉 the use or service of any other but in subordination to his will which excludes sin and all evil esteeming it their greatest happi●… thus to be bound up in a way of love delight and entire ob●…nce in the Will of their Head their second Adam and Lord fr●… Heaven Hence they experience that they are not their own in ●…ny thing for it is not they that live but Christ liveth in them and with his Princely prevailing Influence as their Head is their infallible Guide and firm Security in all their operations giving them such an abiding and growth up in all things into him in an entire resignation and obedience to his Will as co-workers together in every thought word and work that they cannot miscarry nor shall ever be hurt by the second death but shall be rewarded with those pleasures that are at his right-hand and at his left in his Kingdom for evermore And although this most perfect Freedom which is obtained by this binding and conjunction in unity and agreement of spirit with Christ be esteemed by the Possessors of it of price inestimable yet it is the greatest bondage and cross that can befall a wicked heart and is that which is reserved by Christ to be their torment for ever in the end which will be given by him to his first Ministry in the hearts where he is finally rejected from whom after he is departed and withdrawn for a season as if they should never hear of him as indeed they shall not to their comfort yet they shall to their terrour and sorrow be made sensible of him by the fastning which he will make of his Darts of enlightnings into the minds of the wicked as sharp Arrows and a gnawing Worm that shall never dye when by the breath of his mouth he shall kindle a fire of Conviction and self-judging in their Conscience together with the just sence of his Divine Vengeance they can no longer flee nor escape from But on the contrary the truly regenerated souls are made willing and exceedingly pleased to draw in this yoke with their Head to see with his eyes and act by his quickning in all they do and to put on with him this lowliness meekness and purity of spirit which feeds on that which is incorruptible and is with God of great price so great as no righteous workers have his praise and blessing but these who are properly Christ's Mystical Body the Branches that abide in him and whose Fruit is permanent unto Life Eternal and this Body or Church of invisible Saints and spiritual Worshippers of the true God even whilst they are in their Wilderness and suppressed state Christ the great Overseer of their souls doth feed with Teachers af●●● his own heart and is not wanting by an outward Ministry under him ●o feed and refresh with Oyl the Lamps of all sorts that he makes use of as his Witnesses and bear his Name whether according to the knowledge his Will that is revealed in the first or in the second Covenant that so h● may by upholding such an Office under him edifie all that are under his Charge as he sees occasion and is agreeable to the condition the Church is in whether of restraint or freedom from the Powers of the World By those which Christ puts in to the Ministry of his Spirit under him we are to understand such ahe gives his Vnction and Mission unto as he is the Head of Nature or of Grace and from their own Experience are made able to minister the knowledge of Christ in his healing and restoring work or in his regenerating and New-creation-building before described giving their Witness according to what they themselves have received of the Spirit in the three distinct Dispensations of it before expressed in the first of which because of the mutable state of the operation thereof both in themselves as well as in their hearers they that are eminent Preachers unto others by the excellency of Gifts with which they are anointed and that from Christ may nevertheless themselves be found at last Cast-awayes But in the other two they which experience the Anointing thereof become Pillars in the House of God that never go out more and may obtain the highest Order and Rank of Ministry in the Church even that of Apostles in the same way as Paul himself did by such a Spiritual Light of Christ as he sayes 1 Cor. 9. 1. Am not I an Apostle have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord And as thus the Apostolical Order came to have being in the Church by the immediate sight of Christ in Spirit as we see in Paul's Case which comprehends in it all other the inferiour Ranks of Ministers whether Prophets

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

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

take an account who they are that have acquit themselves as they ought to do in their witnessing-stations and callings and what fruit their witness had how it took place in the hearts of others among whom they conversed and what returns they met with from a wicked and ingrateful world for all the labour of Love and Service they shewed amongst them Of all which Christ intends to take a formal and judicial account at the time of the end that is set by him to this witnessing-work in his witnesses that upon this employment Prophesying in sack-cloth were to continue as in constant war and violent persecution from the Powers of the world for twelve hundred and sixty years together At the end of which time the Judgment or time of Wrath is to come not that which is the final Judgment and Wrath of the great Day but a like proceeding of God towards the World in pleading with it by Fire and Sword upon the finishing the Testimony of his Witnesses as he did by Water upon the first World where he made a visible distinction between the Wicked and the Righteous and between them that truly fear God and are sincere and them that fear him not but are tainted and corrupted with Hypocrisie and Apostacy as is plainly expressed Rev. 11. 18. And the Nations were angry and thy Wrath is come and the time of the Dead or the Cause of thy slain rejected Witnesses that they should be judged and an Inquisition made after their Blood and the hard usage they have met with in the World in order now to receive Countenance and Reward for their Sufferings according to the nature of them and the condition and place in which they gave their Witness whether they were Prophets or Saints that fear God's Name small or great and to yeeld Vengeance and Destruction to impenitent and hardned Sinners that they may no longer corrupt the Earth And therefore as in this place we may see Christ lighteth up his Candles in the World of all sorts and sizes and indeed in all places of it from East to West and hath given the Light of his Glory and Kingdom as that Testimony which is appointed to be given and preached in all the World as a Witness to all Nations and immediately after this is finished then the End comes the End that God will manifest of his patience and long-suffering which he hath exercised towards the World in forbearing to avenge the Cause of his Elect which hath been night and day crying to him How long Lord how long which in this day of his Wrath he will avenge and that speedily and cut the work short in Righteousness And because we have said the Candles or Lamps which God lights up in the World for this his Witnessing-work ever since his Ascention to this day according to the Commission he gave to his Disciples Act. 1. 8. and in them to all his Saints small and great that fear his Name as we shewed before are of several sizes and kinds it may not be improper to declare them As first Their Witnessing-Lights may be such as are in publick Office and Place in the visible Church and so are either those that are in the Ministry or those that give their Witness as the Body of some particular Congregation that own themselves in the sight of the world as a Golden Candlestick or some particular Church-Assembly of visible Saints in order and practice of the Gospel according to their measure and light And under this first head will fall all sorts of Principles and Professions of Godliness that make the Rule of the Word and Spirit of God the Ballance of the Sanctuary the Standard by which they desire to regulate themselves in their Doctrine Worship and Conversation what-ever difference in Principles or Ministry of the knowledge of Christ they are under as hath been before opened and distinctly spoken unto Secondly Their Witnessing-Lights may be Publick Persons with relation to their Office in the Magistracy For it is by me saith Christ that Kings reign and Princes do Justice So that in the administration of pure and impartial Justice as a Magistrate in whatever Place and Calling we are set by God and a lawful Appointment from men we keep on the right way without turning on the right hand or on the left for fear or favour discovering a just mind that is a constant and perpetual or unchangeable will to do right to all whatever discouragement opposition and hatred we meet with in doing our duty This is a Light before men which Christ will own in the day of his appearance to have been for his Service and shall not go without its due reward Thirdly There are also the same witnessing Lights in the lesser sphears of every man's particular station and calling which shine forth in a personal righteous and blameless conversation or where their vote or consent is given in reference to the good of the Church or State or to the private Rule which every Master and Head of a Family is by Christ entrusted with in reference to his own Children and Family who are under his charge and not so much at their own dispose as his who hath a right over them by God's Law and man's and by the duty of this relation every man may be somewhat directed even by the world what he is and what Witness he gives in the measure of the Knowledge and Light of Christ he hath received and shall accordingly be taken notice of and judged by Christ in the day of his Judgment ministring Perdition to ungodly men In this little a faithfulness to Christ is expected and that according to the measure of Light received and the Anointing we are under of which there hath already the several degrees and kinds been made known The use therefore that Christ makes of this Light in the world that these several wayes he makes to shine like Lightning from the East to the West from Jerusalem to the utmost ends of the Earth is as to the world to leave them without excuse and ripen them as white fields to the harvest of his just Vengeance when the time is to put in his Sickle And as to the Witnesses themselves to bring upon them a time of refreshing and rest from the presence of the Lord in the sight of their very Enemies where a Table shall be prepared for them and their Cup shall be made to overflow This then being the Testimony that must be finished and these the Witnesses in their several Places and Callings who have been imployed in bearing and giving their Testimony in the World ever since Christ's Ascention the course whereof hath had its progress from East to West and is now come to these utmost ends of the Earth The Scriptures do with great clearness as to the present dispensations of our day teach us three things First That this Testimony is now upon its finishing point in the World and upon these

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

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 ●●●sence into the VVilderness ver 6 and 14. The Dragon being 〈◊〉 that he had failed of his attempt to destroy her in Heaven re●●● 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 ●orned Beast hath contemporized with the ten-horned Beast Chap. 13●…e Whore with both and all these three with the Woman in the Wildern●… 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