Beast that hath Fourty two Months determin'd to Him and though there needs nothing to make that good but to take the two Chaps c. 13. and c. 17. of the Apocal. and to write down all the particulars of agreement between those two Beasts and it will be impossible for so much as the thinking Mind to doubt of their being one and the same But I will only insist upon the former Argument in this matter that Beast that is so destroyed as the Beast in the c. 17. is to be destroyed must needs according to the former Argument be the same Beast But the Beast that hath Fourty two Months determin'd to his Continuunce c. 13. v. 5. hath such a Destruction affix'd to him as the Beast c. 17. hath For who can assume the Effrontery or Boldness to deny that the Beast c. 19. who is taken and cast into the Lake v. 20. is the same with the Beast c. 17. And the Beast c. 13. hath this very same Destruction foretold to him For he is to be Taken and to go into that Eternal Captivity of the Lake with his False Prophet inseparable from him according to v. 10. and his Ten Crowned Horns or whole Circle of Kings are to be killed with the Sword of Christ's Mouth c. 19. v. 21. compar'd with ch 13. v. 10. he that leadeth into Captivity shall go c. and he that kills with the Sword c. now Christ's Captivation and Killing are such as argues Divine Justice and Power and such is that declar'd c. 19 20. The Apostle John hath declar'd that so obstinate unyielding Bar to the Man of Sin being reveal'd still in his Time as the Apostle Paul most emphatically speaks signifying the impossibility of his Coming till that his own proper Time Now the occasion of that great Apostolical Paragraph was an Expectation of a sudden Appearance of the 2 Thess 2. Glory of Christ's Kingdom this very Kingdom of which we are now speaking which was the great Expectation of the Apostles till they were better Instructed and of other Christians after them upon a general but not particular Apprehension of Scripture Prophecy For that this Day was the day of Judgment there is no Sense for in those lightsome Days before the Apostacy seeing all the Prophecies are big with a Glorious state of Christianity in this World To this the Apost for their Information and of after Ages much more speaks punctually That it could not be expected so soon and does most vehemently obtestate by the very coming of Christ and our gathering unto him against the Expectation for saith he There must be an Apostacy first and the Man of Sin must be reveal'd but that must be in his own proper Time and not before for there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Person witholding and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an effectual Thing witholding or each of these taking such Fast Hold of their proper Space and Time that the Bestian Prince cannot come forward till they by going off let go their Hold and then shall be reveal'd that lawless one that Man of Sin which is an Exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is to be understood of a Body of Successors So this is the Apostle's Sense The day of Christ viz. of his Glory and Kingdom cannot come till the Man of Sin come The Man of Sin comes indeed out of the Apostacy as out of a Womb but as no Birth can so he cannot come till his own Time Sathan is eager enough every thing works to it as fast as it can the Mystery of Iniquity is now already at this very moment at work But every Thing that God hath ordain'd will hold its own it s own Time it s own Place and such a Holding Thing there is and such a Holding Person there is that possesses and fills that Time and Place Thus far the Apostle Paul goes in his Epistle so far he was order'd by the Holy Spirit to go and no farther the rest he refers to former Personal Discourse Now whatever prudential reason there might be of saying no more The great Reason was the Holy dictating Spirit order'd no more but that all Scripture might be search'd and compar'd Holy Writers say so much in one place so much in another so much one Holy Writer says so much more is said by another by every ones part the Harmony is made up The Apostle John therefore speaking as I have prov'd of the same great Matter and aiming at the Glorious Kingdom of Christ the grand scope of all Prophecy declares the Reason why the Kingdom of Christ could not Come because there was an unalterable Succession determin'd by God before that Kingdom There were seven Kings five of them he gives in the Lump because Prophecy was not concern'd in them or in the manner or order of their Succession they are only a Character of the Monarchy a distinctive of the Fourth Beast by its seven Heads or Forms of Government in a Succession as Kings signifie Dan. 7. But in three of them the Prophecy then in motion by the Apostle John was highly interested The first was then and it was in its course according to five of the seven Seals The seventh King was not yet Come it was not very far off comparatively but it was not as yet Come it was to come in the sixth Seal and when it came there was a necessity upon him he must continue by the same Comparativeness but a short space viz. during only the time of the sixth and seventh Seals Now this seventh the Spirit is industrious to assure us He was the Christian Emperour though he was a King of that great City and Empire yet he pertain'd not to the Beast indeed there was a Declination to the Apostacy in his time but the Church was yet pure all those Seals as appears by them it appears too it was declining the Apostacy drew near a declining from one Degree to another there had been from the first Operation of the Mystery of Iniquity forming the Antichristian Prince no with great Curiosity in the lowest parts of the Earth where no Eye saw the way of the Sathanick Spirit but he before whom Hell and Destruction have no Covering However this Christian Emperour was none of the Heads but wounded the Pagan sixth Draconick Head The Beast he is the eighth and is of the seven Seven what but Heads Clearly joyning this Vision with the seven Heads of Chap. 13. He that as the Son of Perdition goes into Perdition I say again Goeth into Perdition that Perdition just before the Kingdom of Christ and so hath no Successor but Christ consuming him Now this Succession stands firm God himself had fix'd it As then no Prince can succeed till the former is avaunted in so exact a Succession one cannot crowd out another no more than one Month or a Day following can crowd out the precedent but when any goes off the next succeeds immediately there can
signalizing himself unworthy Cap. 8. v. 1 2 3. v. 15. Notice I looked and saw I Daniel and to me Daniel very agreeable to parallel Expressions of the Apocalyptick Prophet I John But in short I conclude from the whole The prophetical Contexture hath given all possible Advantage to the Greatness of this Vision and its Line I will now briefly add the Arguments from the whole Course of prophetical Scripture which will much fortifie these Textual Arguments even as they receive Strength from them Every Scripture Line of Time argues this so great a Line Argu. 1 from Adam to the Flood from the Flood to Abraham from Abraham to the Redemption out of Egypt from thence to Solomon and so to his Death are indisputable and general Sense of Interpreters carries the 390 Days or Years as far as the Temple burnt After the Captivity few if any Christian Interpreters doubt of the seventy Weeks as 490 Years reaching to Messiah Now if these Lines are not continued fill'd up throughout the whole space of Time even as a Vacuum is in Nature so would such an empty space be in Time it turns all to Confusion we see how hard it is to fix the beginning or end of any Line for want of acknowledged continued Lines as we find by Experience how few agree in either the Beginning or Period of the Weeks while they universally agree in the definiteness of the Line Let then Ezekiels 430 days reach to Cyrus as I have endeavoured to prove and how justly will these 2300 days joyn them which were prepar'd as a medium betwixt Historical and Prophetical Time And why should we think God who hath taken Care for some parts of Time hath not taken Care of all Seeing the Provision else is maim'd and unequal or why for Historical Time and not for Prophetick Seeing Prophecy and History are alike present to him and to us Prophecy is the more noble and requires that assurance most Why for the Church of the Old Testament and not for that under the Gospel when Revelational is higher and more perfect It is a vain subterfuge That when the Times of these Gentile Monarchies came in God trusted the Records of Time with them which he did not trust with his own People without a supream Hand of Revelation fixing such Lines of Time as were most exact either before by Prophecy or after by History as we see Now if this Argument have strength in it where can we find such a Line as this so aggrandiz'd so extended from its Epoch to the last end of all We shall find this long Line of Time distributed into its Argu. 2 parcel and collateral Lines and supported by them Daniel in the very next Vision gives us the first in the Time or space of the words going forth and from thence seventy weeks Then follows the sealed Time which by the revelational Prophecy we knew certainly laying it to History to be 400 years Then follow immediately the thirteen hundred thirty five twelve hundred sixty of which are given as we shall see in a ninefold variety and yet consent Now those two four hundred Ninety of the 70 Weeks and thirteen hundred thirty five can allow space but for 475 more Having then so good ground to fix four hundred between the Weeks and the 1335 we may find in the Time of the Words going forth space for the seventy five but for no more All which I propose rationally to make out So then we have this great Proof of the 2300 Evenings Mornings as 2300 years That we find them in the direct stream of Scripture Prophecy and the Conspiration of History hitherto which is more satisfactory then History giving us a course of Time and its Events one answering the other for here History and Prophecy meet as we shall see After so solemniz'd a Prophecy or Vision of the daily or Tammith taken away we find the last seventy five in the thirteen hundred thirty five so remarkably epoch'd with the Tammith daily or continual taken away and Daniel assured his Lot at the end of them as it were in the New Jerusalem or the Sanctuary cleans'd to either of which as the Inheritance of the sealed Tribes or the courses of the truly holy Priesthood the word Lot invites very lively our Thoughts so that from hence we know in this after Vision what might else puzzle our Thoughts viz. How many of 2300 days are to be assign'd to the daily taken away seeing the whole Number appertains not to the taking away but to the whole Vision We know I say the Daily taken away begins at the first of those 1335 and ends in the last of them viz. in the Sanctuary cleans'd perfectly and not in the preparation only at the 1335 ended And so having finished the first Position concerning the Posi 2. just measure of this Line I come to the second viz. That the Vision intends Antichrist in every Part wherein Antiochus stands as a Type And these two last Positions confirm and strengthen one another For if the Vision and its 2300 days run to the end they must run to Antichrist seeing Antichrist is at the End of all Things And if Antichrist be at the end of the Vision Antiochus can stand in the Vision but as a Type to Antichrist who is at the End Further if the Roman Antichristian Power be not the Anti-Type to Antiochus The Head of the Image is not only lopp'd off in this Vision but the Roman Entayl which appears the principal and at the End in the former Vision is dock'd in this even where the End is so often memoir'd whereas indeed the Imperial Roman Power given in the former Visions Revel 13. 4. as preceeding the Antichristian is in this Vision set in the Antichristian Power as the Dragon in the Beast and so in the last Vision c. 11. that we may know He is the principal in it and so may understand him in the Apocalyps accordingly Further yet Antiochus is every way too small to be any more than the Type in so great a Vision What remarkable End did Antiochus give that-the End is so often recorded in his Vision he gave none to the Monarchies of the former Visions or to the Indignation against the Jews nor to the delay of Christs Kingdom there is no Monumental End but of himself and that not deserving this Prophecy His Days were not many why then should the Prophecy be shut up Nor were they so far off as the Things seen in the following Vision c. 9. nor till we encounter the same again c. 11. c. 12. as running to the same End do we meet with any such mentions of the End Why was Daniel so faint sick astonish'd in a dead sleep at Antiochus's Tyranny Who had known the daily so long taken away in the Captivity who foresaw the Romans desolating Wing of Abomination and the Jews after Troubles recounted Dan. 9. after Antiochus Epiphanes in the Maccabean
is summ'd up in Ev. and Mor. And all this we may conceive least the 2300 Ev. Mor. should be misapplied to that part viz. of the Daily which is proper only to the whole So then if the Line be commensurate with the Vision it must begin with the Persian Monarchy and not with the daily taken away for That in whatever sense expounded was not till long after in the same manner If the Vision goes on to the great visional End in Daniel viz. the breaking of all the Monarchies in Antichrist and the Kingdom of Christ appearing in the Sanctuary cleans'd it cannot be applied to any taking that was begun and ended long before that End as all takings away of what kind soever that have been thought of did and most particularly that of Antiochus except that taking away by Antichrist which therefore is the only taking away here to be understood And from every Particular of this Discourse it undeniably appears These Ev. and Mor. are not mere Natural Nycthemers but 2300 Ev. and Mor. importing so many Years for a less space of Time could not contain so great a Vision and its Charge If a Line of Time were given applicable only to the Time Argu. 3 of the daily Sacrifice taken away there would be some certain Time fix'd when that taking away was to begin according to all Usage in this Prophecy The 70 Weeks are dated from the going forth of the Word the 1335 from the taking away of the daily And in the Apocalyptick Prophecy we shall find some certain Epoch of each numeral Line but there being no Epoch to these 2300 Ev. Mor. but the general Epoch of the Vision one and the same as we shall find with the seventy Weeks That must be the Epoch Seeing the Answer And the Sanctuary shall ba cleans'd Argu. 4 and the Exposition of the Vision touching the King exercising the Tyranny Broken without hand gives the full End of all Tyranny on the Saints and of all taking away their daily Worship as it was under Babylon continued to be taken away at that Time and after by Antiochus last of all by Antichrist it is plain according to Scripture-Usage The End is principally intended which such a course of Time is to attain As the complemental End of the 70 Weeks making an end of Sin c. is chiefly pursued in the next Vision The end of Wonders and the State of Blessedness in the 1335 Days of the last Vision and here the Sanctuary cleans'd and Antichrist broken is the main Intention and from the present Vision at that NOW given to those Ends there would be 2300 Ev. and Mor. So that the taking away the daily does not spread it self upon the whole 2300 Ev. Mor. and so end with them but e're all such Things as a tyrannous taking away the daily Worship of the Saints would be at an end it would be so many for the Vision indeed spreads it self upon all the 2300 being for those many days but the taking away begun but at its own Time as we shall see and ended at the 2300 ending so many from the Time of the Vision and so was unto them that is whenever it began it reached to the end of the 2300 of the whole Vision e're the Sanctuary was cleans'd That these 2300 Ev. Mor. are a Line of Time of so great Argu. 5 comprehension as from Literal to Mystical Babylon's Fall from the Restoration of Literal Jerusalem to the New Jerusalem may be argued from several extraordinary Notes of Honour upon this Line and the Vision of it 1. The very drawing it out to so great and unusual a length is unparallel'd in all the Scripture so that if it were not great in its Beginning as that State of Things would admit great in the End as that State of Things imports and great in its subordinate Lines it could no ways answer the Magnificence of so great a Number especially when the prophetical Abbreviation of Time was come into use by so peculiar an Ordination of God in Ezekiel Even this does sufficiently argue where it begins whither it tends what space of Time it spans Cypher or short-hand was of Old in prophetick use a Week for seven Years Gen. 29. 27. c. 41. v. 26. Numb 14. 34. fourty Days for forty Years in the Wilderness seven Ears of Corn for seven Years seven Times for seven Years Dan. 4. 22. But God declar'd and promulg'd it as the Law of Interpretation of prophetick Time Ezek. 4. So we understand seventy Weeks Weeks of Years without controul or 490 Years Dan. 9. 24. Now if contrary to so many Instances of the prophetical Usage of such Abbreviatures it should draw out Years into their full Length or Number of Days How could we understand the Divine Mind in it especially on no greater occasion than Antiochus's Tyranny as shall be after argued Prophecy that amasses Time by giving Years in Days cannot rationally be suppos'd to wiredraw Years into Days But this is not All There are fourty Days for fourty Years 390 and 40 Days for so many Years seventy Weeks for 490 Years 1260 Days for so many Years and Months proportionable But 2300 Ev. Mor. taken for so many Years is very august and speaks a divine Zeal to grasp that great End of putting down all Rule and Authority and Power and Christ taking his Power to himself and Reigning yet not so as to diminish from Government but to perfect it to its highest Ends under himself and his Supreme and Universal Monarchy To grasp this I say within so great a Line given from the very Time in which it was given This great Number is given by the divine Numberer 2. For Jesus Christ the Lord of this Prophecy hath the peculiar Title of Palmoni to which whatever sense we give it Dan. 8. 13. admonishes us to enquire for something extraordinary and if we rest in what is every way nearest The wonderful Numberer it comes exactly to the wonderful Line and the great Secrets to be found in it 3. Gabriel the heavenly Envoy upon all Declarations of the Kingdom of Christ as Dan. 9. Luc. 1. is employ'd in its Exposition 4. Daniel's extraordinary Title Son of Man allowed him only in this Vision as bringing to him the glorious Appearance of Christ of which Glory Ezekiel being more often an Eye-witness Cap. 1. Cap. 10. Cap. 43. 2 3. is more often call'd Son of Man For if the Learned Dr. Lightfoot's Account of this Title as a Chaldaism were good Daniel who was the more eminent Chaldean should be oftnest invested with it On the contrary He only in this Vision is so stiled but Ezekiel often and they alone enjoy it under the supreme Son of Man of all the Prophets and Daniel never but here shewing the high pitch this Vision makes and its close approach to Christ's Kingdom from which his other Visions do but derive or are but preparatory to it Nor is Daniel's Attention and
Story betwixt these Visions and the Messiah But the so strange the so unaccountable foul longsome Apostacy of Antichrist lying so long on the so excellent Religion of the Gospel ecclipsing the Kingdom of Christ Full of all the most pernicious Effects is deservedly Astonishing to Angels and Men and captivating the Many the Wise and the Great against all Scripture Reason and even common Sense and were it not for that Captivation as unworthy Confutation as the Alchoran The very History of Antiochus as it were proper to Antichrist is only to be found in the Antichristian Canon of Scripture and only Typically given in Daniels Prophecy shewing it of no great Account with God The Time The understanding dark Sentences the growing great not by his own Power are no way applicable to any historical Memoirs of Antiochus A Prince furious active enterprising at the Head of his warlike Affairs Lastly the very Ev. Mor. of this Line a manner of Speech not used in Scripture from the very first of Genesis till now lead us to the new Creation to the Restitution of all things to the bright Mornings Stars display of his Beams and in the mean time even as Days compounded of Ev. and Mor. so these Ev. Mor. with equal Fitness and Naturalness sustain the prophetical Type of Time Days for Years Of all which let this be the applicatory Remark to lead Remark us with Confidence Assurance due Preparation Faith Prayer and earnest Desire to him who saith Behold I make all things new and immediately after as it were in remembrance Dan. 8. 26. compar'd with Rev. 21. 5. of his Declarative Amen upon the Vision of the Ev. and Mor. It is true imposes his perfectory Finitive Amen When he says no longer Seal but write in Capital Letters These Sayings are faithful and true Whoso then by following the Lamb whithersoever he goes overcomes shall inherit all Things Christ will be his Father He shall be the Son of God and of Christ. But the Fearful who are frighted into Antichristian Cympliances the Abominable c. sunk down into the Defilements of all sorts proper to the foul State Falshood and the great Lye of the Apostacy shall have their part in the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone where the Beast and the False Prophet are Let us then live by Faith and not draw back for He that shall come will come and will not tarry Even so Come Lord Jesus Come quickly Amen SECT III. In which a Line of Seventy Five Years precedent to the seventy Weeks is asserted and endeavour'd to be prov'd Dan. 9. HAving in the precedent Sections establish'd the Grand Line of 2300 Ev. Mor. and their Determination to the Kingdom of Christ I now proceed to the Distribution of this Line and first to the Line that must however subordinate and collateral yet set out at the very same instant with the 2300 Ev. Mor. and that is of the Word going forth Now of this It is most evident by Scripture that it must begin at the Persian Monarchy or the Monarchy of Cyrus for at Darius the Mede to whom Scripture allows only one Dan. 9. Year it did not begin for in that Year Daniel prayed and had this Vision in Return of Prayer as appears enough throughout this Chap. At Cyrus's first year it did begin for so Ezra assures us chap. 1. For must not that most necessarily be the going forth of the Word when Cyrus sent forth his Proclamation and put it in Writing v. 1 2. c But although the Word began here to go forth yet it is most manifest It did not here attain its effect for then would it not have rested and ceased to go forth any farther But we find it stop'd after the Altar set up and the Foundations laid all the Reign of Ahasuerus and in the Days of Artaxerxes which two as we shall after reason must be Cambyses Ezra c. 4. 24. the Son of Cyrus and the Counterfeit Smerdis so that it as plainly went forth again in the Reign of Darius known in common History by the Name of Darius Hystaspis After that although it came much nearer its Perfection yet it was contradicted in the Days of Xerxes Ahasuerus by so severe a Decree for the Destruction of the Jews throughout all the Provinces so that Artaxerxes call'd by Historians Longimanus Esth 3. 8. illustrated his seventh Year with the Word compleatly going forth The Eccho of which for the building of the Wall was in his twentieth and in his thirty second the Quavers of that same Word in leave to Nehemiah to restore Jerusalem into its perfect Order and Polity which plainly argue the Word gone forth in his seventh Year Now although the great Perplexities of the Persian Chronology are no way to my main Intention to be concern'd in yet the making it Evident that the Going forth of the Word must take up such a Time as 75 Years is of very deep behoof in that Intention both as it gives great Assurance to the former principal Line of 2300 Years shewing how seventy five of them were spent and also as it will inlighten some Concernments of the Kingdom of Christ to which all Accounts of Time tend Upon this whole Consideration I shall endeavour the proof of such a space implied in the word going forth And first I shall observe that which I do not look upon so considerable as to call it an Argument The very Phrase of going forth implies some protracted and prolonged going Mich. 5 2. forth by the Word The same Word is us'd of him whose goings forth are from everlasting But more enforcingly to press this I thus argue It is impossible to spare any of those great Decrees we have Argu. 1 so specially recorded Ezra 1. c. 1. c. 6. c. 7. from the words going forth Not the first because it was the first so much foretold of formerly by the Prophet Esay of so famous Memory and that first broke the Bonds of the Jewish Captivity Who can with possible Reason suppose That had no Interest in the words going forth in which Prophecy gloried so long before-hand that was even pointed upon by Gabriel and from which the other Decrees were deriv'd as is expresly mention'd in Darius's Decree Ezra c. 6. compar'd with Dan. 9. 21 Nor can the second Decree of Darius be denied a place in it which so united it self with Cyrus's Decree that if either was the word going forth both must be so for tho they were distant in Time they were one in Substance and by it the Temple was built And least of all can the Decree of Artaxerxes in his seventh Ezra 7. year be impeached as to this Right for it was the perfective Decree so liberal and ample with such Peculiarities in it all along that there is not a word in the whole but yields an Argument It excells all that went before and leaves no Room for any to come after It
carries a great Sense of God revives all his Statutes and Judgments It gives the last Hand of Beauty as Ezra expresses it to beautifie the House of Jehovah Ezr. 7. 25. and all this by the Decree of the King his seven Counsellors and Great Princes Such a Decree as there was none like it before it nor after it any such The King only writ Letters after it to the Keepers of the Forest and after that Neh. 2. 8. gave only a Paroll Leave to Nehemiah without writing any thing so that this must be the Conclusive Terminative Decree after which the seventy Weeks proceeded immediately By the building and restoring Jerusalem we are to understand the Temple in the first and most eminent sense so the Argu. 2 Enemies of the Jews remonstrated to the Princes of Persia because the Temple was the Glory of the City and carried the Building of that with it this therefore they accus'd but the Ezra 4. Building of their own Houses was quickly permitted God upbraids the People therefore by Haggai Is it Time for you Hag. 1. 4. Oh ye to build your own Houses and to let this House lye waste Now the Temple was said to be finish'd by the Command of the God of Israel of Cyrus Darius and Artaxerxes King Ez. 6. 14. of Persia and does as it were point to the Angels Embassy to Daniel upon his Prayer that the Commandment was come Dan. 9. 23. forth that is from God and was to run as a Line of Time through these three Kings who are every one nam'd and the Kings between them comprehended in Time but left out as to the Building of the Temple The Decrees of these three Kings are most distinctly and by this peculiar History of Ezra given as an Explication of Daniel's Prophecy and God's peculiar Care over it the want of which Care over Antiochus's History argues him only a Type of Antichrist to whose Bible his Story is rejected This then is the natural Order of the words going forth by which the Temple was built The original and supreme Commandment was God's The subordinate and ministerial Commandment was of Cyrus Darius and after them of Artaxerxes King of Persia Ezr. 6. 14. Which last is indeed proleptically nam'd or before hand but is so remark'd The King of Persia that he could be no other than that Artaxerxes whose Decree immediately follows chap. 7. the History of whose long Reign and as long-liv'd Friendship to the People of God makes so great a Figure in the sacred Persian Story And although it must be acknowledg'd we have no Evidence from those sacred Records that this Artaxerxes was the Son of Esther by the Great Xerxes yet his long continuance to restore Jerusalem by his Decree his Letter his Leave to Nehemiah first restoring it fully in its Temple then Neh. 2. 8. c. 13. 6. in its Wall lastly in its Order and all with such a strain of Piety Love to God and his Church savours of such a Descent and that God honour'd his Servant Esther with such a princely Son however his Education in a Pagan Court the Interests of Government the Permission of Providence to Things to go on in their own Course the very Current of Prophecy in this second Persian Monarchy might surprise his Proselitism to the Religion of the true God and so he is no farther honoured in Sacred Story than with that general notice he took of the Laws of God and his fear of his displeasure for why saith he should there be Wrath against the Realm of the King and his Son viz. from that God whom he solemnly styles The God of Heaven SECT IV. Gives the proof That the Time of the Words going forth was the first Seventy Five Years of the 2300 Evenings and Mornings HAving now settled the natural Order of the Words going forth and finding that it must needs possess such a distance of Time as from the first of Cyrus to the seventh of that Artaxerxes who succeeded a Darius in his Decree for the Building of the Temple after the Estoppage of the Building Ezr. 4. 5 6 7. in the Reign of Ahasuerus and in the days of a former Artaxerxes and as we shall see of another Ahasuerus Esth 1. I come now to offer proof This Space was a Space of seventy five Years The first Proof I derive from the chief Scope of the Vision Argu. 1 of the seventy weeks which was the Allowance of such a space of Time for Daniel's People and Holy City to continue such a People of God and such a Holy City until Messiah came and fulfill'd all the Types of the Law and Prophecies concerning Himself which could only be fulfilled during the State especially of the Tribe of Judah till Shiloh came and of the Temple of Jerusalem and the Worship of it in its ancient State and before the rejection of it So that whereas often in Ezekiel and the other Prophets the Babylonish Captivity and the Ezek. 16. 53. Desolation by the Romans are tack'd one to another The Waters or Ocean is divided for these 70 Weeks and then They return and close again till the End of the Indignation when these Weeks expire ebbing back till the Flood by Titus Vespasian desolated All. Before therefore these seventy Weeks could begin Jerusalem must be restor'd so far as in its Temple Its Wall and its whole Order and State must be returning within the seven first Weeks of the 70 according to the Prophecy Now what more probable Proportion than just so many Years as Prophecy hath so evidently destin'd for the Space between the Fall of the Great City Mystical Babylon and the Restoration of all Things in the New Jerusalem which by the general view we may see and shall farther see is a Space of 75 Years added to 1260 and making 1335. This may be therefore an introductive Argument We see most demonstratively The Time must be so long Argu. 2 as from Cyrus's first Year to Artaxerxes's seventh now seventy five Years according to the best Chronologers is about such a space That Grave and most Learned Emendator of Time Tho. Lydiatt who was very industrious in this very Joynt of Time allows seventy Years and others come nearer If then in that great Maze of Chronology at this very Period Scripture umpires so with the best Timists for Seventy five we have reason to accept it and that it does so under the next and last of Daniel's Visions we shall have farther Advantage to prove in the mean time It is no insolent Presumption That great Line of 2300 Ev. Mor. as we have found it Argu. 3 distributed so necessarily by Prophecy and History giving space for seventy five and no more may stand as a strong Argument That this was a space of so many and no more For when we find every way this bids fairest to be the Number and that for the ascertaining the Beginning of the seventy weeks which
the whole Series of Visions concerning the Beast deriv'd from the Dragon will be best understood and most fully believ'd even as at the Reformation there was most necessarily an Acknowledgment of a long Apostacy of the cruel Tyranny of the Beast over true Christians and a visible Pledge The Ten Kings on the Head of the Beast that carries the Woman would at length fall from it but the End of that Half-Time will make a farther both Notoriety and Assurance of these things This allowed the Prophecy takes no Freedome but what is due to the gravest History to place by way sometimes of Anticipation sometimes of Recollection the Parts of the History so as may best serve the Purposes of the History And yet we cannot deferr so little to the Majesty of Divine Prophecy as is even challengeable by Humane History For that is justly entitled to a Right of secret and insensible Transitions Connexions Transpositions from one part to another which require leisurely Meditation and thoughtful Pauses to find them and yet are so plac'd as when found they give Light one to another with Vsury Altho therefore I rise up with greatest Reverence and Honour to those great Names who have thought otherwise I can allow no Beginning of Apocalyptical Time anew either at the open Book ch 11. or at ch 12. but only a Recollection of those things after their redundant Swellings out of their Channels one to the first Trumpet the latter to the fifth Seal Only The two Systemes have each one and the same Epoch given particularly to each The Churches are close and evenly cemented and souldered one to another and so the Seals Trumpets c. and their Connexion even hermetically seal'd And Both from the same Epoch the Resurrection of Christ derive themselves And as to the Interpretation of the whole even as it is a Rule of great use in the Interpreting General Scripture that the literal Sense is to be preferr'd where no Analogy of Faith or Scripture-Reason is destroy'd by it so here the mystical sense is rather to be chosen where no such Injury is committed upon the Analogy of Scripture Truth and yet as in the one case a subordinate mystical sense may be allowed so in this a subordinate literal sense may be allowed To give only two or three Instances Hearing and Reading this Prophecy hath first the mystical sense of a close Conformity to the Rules of Faith Worship and Practice according to it which makes All Blessed who so read and so hear tho' they do not interpret nor concern themselves in the Interpretation of this Prophecy and yet there is in the literal sense an Accumulative Honour and Happiness on those who joyn both these Senses in themselves together As on the other side They who add and take away by Antichristianism from the Words of it by breaking its Holy Measures in Faith Worship and Practice shall lose their part in its Promises and have their part in its Plagues altho they neither added nor took away in the litteral sense and yet They shall receive accumulative Plagues who have done the first and then by false and distorted Interpretations added the latter also Thus Opening the Book of this Prophecy and its Seals are principally the several Effects of the Kingdom of Christ and that principal one at the Reformation and not the Exposition of the Book or a new course of Prophecy and yet it is subordinately true There was then a greater Clearness and Illustration of the whole Doctrine of the Christian Religion and a new order as it were of Holy Prophecy and Instruction And this Prophecy did then Recall its own Discovery of Things at that Time after the Apostacy so long darkning it and the Gospel and enlarge its former brief Notes And so Coming quickly to pass hath the literal sense That then immediately began Apocalyptical Events each in their own order to come speedily and immediately to pass altho' so many hundred years run out ' ere all come to pass As an Army may be said to come presently when the Avaunt Corriers first appear altho' the Rere may be long in coming because of the numerous Body coming on orderly and in just Files Thus every Apocalyptical Event was on the Wing and darted it self into Existence without the least of slumbring or lingring when its Time was to come But the mystical sense is that whereas that sublime Event of the Death and Resurrection of Christ rose up as a Mountain dividing and parting the former World and Time from the latter Time or the last Days and All beyond the Resurrection was as a Book clos'd and seal'd up so as that it could not till the Resurrection make an offer of Appearance Then it did and therefore then properly seal'd down with seven Seals and yet by their opening it was in a daily motion to its Appearance But those two Worlds were of such different Lines of Communications that nothing pass'd in prophetical Account into Existence or Being out of one into the other even as the World on the one and the other side of the Equinoctial Line are remarkably taken notice of as two distinct Parts of the World how near soever they joyn who are on each side next to it Thus nothing on the other side the Line before the Resurrection was so much as coming to pass that was to be after the Resurrection or to have any motion accounted to it But after that Resurrection every thing pertaining to the latter days is describ'd as coming quickly to pass each in its own Order and Time and knowing its Place and marching in its own Distances none as that Army Joel 2. 7 8. thrusting another or breaking rank but all duely plac'd in their Climes as on this side the Line And now having given this general view of the Apocalyptical Prophecy and its Order of Times I will discourse briefly first on the Systeme of the Church-Prophecy or of the seven Churches and observe their Concert with those Lines of Time that rule the Evenings and Mornings or Nights and Days of Apocalyptical Time SECT IX Wherein a Proof is given The seven Churches carry with them a Line of Time contemporizing with whole Apocalyptick Time Apoc. c. 2. c. 3. THat these seven Churches are intended to bear by their Symbolismes a Line of Time equal to the whole Apocalyptick Time I shall at present use no other Argument but these general ones reserving the more particular Treaty upon these Churches to another part of this Discourse These Churches are as the whole Prophecy of a Mystical Argu. 1 Sense and Importance Christ therefore prefixes I will shew you the Mystery of the seven Candlesticks the seven Candlesticks are the seven Churches where the meaning is not that the expounding the Stars into Angels of the Churches and the Candlesticks into Churches is all the Mystery opened For even Angels of the Churches must be acknowledged to be still Mystery or a mystical Expression except
Reason such an Apostasie Apostate Church and falling Star must have a Foundation in Antiquity even while the Church was pure and in Sufferings and that very Church and its Bishop bore a part in it and yet was every day more and more under the Aspect of that Caution given to it Rom. 11. 17 18 c. and cspecially when it was crown'd in Constantine The Apostasie must come to be such a high enthron'd Apostacy Arg. 7 and so obscuring over-shadowing covering the true Church under its self that the very Apostatiz'd Synagogue usurp'd the Title of the true Church and yet because God owns the true Church only he speaks only to that as having under it in his Account the false Church and as bearing in the Type of the false Church polluted with Idolatry spiritual Fornication horrible Corruption of Manners while indeed the true Church is oppress'd and its Members martyred and slain as Antipapal Witnesses by the false Church and the Antipas true Church carries the Name of the enthron'd false Church the high and lofty Pergamus and therefore the Things that would be great if the Church were directly guilty of them are call'd small things and the threatning diverts from that true Church and falls on the false Church only I will come to thee and slay THEM with the Sword of my Mouth and as a Church partly abhorring the Pollutions of the false Church partly excommunicated and anathematiz'd hath the Promise of hidden Manna in the former case and of the white Stone of Absolution as to the latter Now I appeal to all Protestants Whether this was not truly the State of Things in the depth of the Apostasie And I appeal to all judicious Considerers of the Epistle to the Church of Pergamus Whether such a State could be given in more expressive and significant Shades It is then most evident There must be a Time wherein the Mystery of Iniquity began to work seeing it did begin gradually and that Beginning must be within the Apostolical Times for the Apostle declares it so to begin besides from this Neighbourhood it derives a Pretence of Authority tho' indeed there can be from thence no Authority gain'd to Antichristianism seeing the Scripture and not Neighbourhood to the Apostles Time is our Rule and seeing any Authority no higher deriv'd is stain'd and blemish'd by that Apostolical Declaration yet a Face a Countenance of Authority will be thence deriv'd to deceive and delude with It is also most evident The Progress of it must afterwards grow so high to be a Synagogue of Sathan and after to be a Throne of Sathan so that from hence may arise the Symbols of Ephesus Smyrna Pergamus After the Time that Antichristianism did thus prevail seeing Argu. 8 it was not to be perpetual and everlasting however long and that the Ruine of it is first to be gradual and then at last sudden there must be some preparatory Wrestles and Struggles for the Eluctation and Recovery of the true Church after this Oppression and being muffled up under the Name of a false Church call'd Catholick and Vniversal and HOLY MOTHER CHURCH at the same Time yet in regard of the remaining Power of Antichristianism united with the Powers of the Kings of the Earth the state of the true Church must needs be still cover'd under the Appearance of such a false Vniversal Church over and above it and so must in that regard bear in Type the Name of that apostate Daughter Thyatyra while in the mean time its Charity Jezebel Daughter of Ethbaal c. Faith Patience Service Works against that false Church grow continually greater and greater to the very last and its disownings of the Depths of Sathan and not accepting them for Deeps of Religion are very evident and eminent to its Praise The suffering Jezebel therefore or the false Church regnant over it because it cannot help it are small things against it because but Types for yet it is accounted so perfect as to be commanded only to hold its own and no other Burden of Command impos'd on it but to hold fast what it had already whereas to suffer Jezebel had it not been over-power'd had been a very heinous thing Now so much therefore of this True Church as did so eluctate and force its way out of the False was while it was forcing its way under one Notion or Denomination and when it had forc'd its way under another and while it in any parts and portions of it continues in the midst and within the Bowels of Kingdoms and States still keeping up and submitting themselves to the Power of Antichrist It may still retain its name Thyatyra and although the Time or interval it properly measures when the whole True Church was compris'd in it may be past yet it may continue in Being in no higher State then of Thyatyra till the appearance of the Morning Star and the fall of the Tenth of the Great City Now it is most evident there have been such earnest Motions of the True Church from under the Tyranny of Antichristianism There still continue such in Antichristian States and Kingdoms according to their Power I demand therefore what more agreeable and expressive Lineaments hereof could be given then in the Church of Thyatyra first espying and as under Affliction looking for the first dawns of Light and after advanc'd to Rule the Nations c. in the New Jerusalem After the Emersion and actual manumission of several parts of the True Church from Antichristianism and a settlement Argu. 9 in Recess and Separation from it some Churches through the Favour of Princes States and their Laws entred into a Condition of outward Splendor and Glory Riches Power and Authority of which the Sardius Stone may be a fit emblem But this outward Elevation not so becoming nor agreeable to the Patience of Christs Kingdom such a Church may be too much taken up about Rites and Jurisdictions and such extern Decencies and not press forward upon Things that remain in an order and sequence to the Kingdom of Christ and so fall under severe Censures This Church represents Churches which are yet accepted by Christ as True Churches they have on their own proper Title Names though but few that have not defiled their Garments And these few though best are not yet made the Church but the whole though in a sleepy and defiled State are the Church that has the few Names that had not defiled their Garments contrariwise in Pergamus and Thyatyra the false Church that calls it self the universal is not the Church but the Few suppress'd overcome Witnesses are yet the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the whole Earth which is a most remarkable Difference shewing Sardis a True Church Now since the Reformation it is known by general Observation There are such Churches that are in a State and Splendor Sardian but let the Application of the Characters remain till he comes that says He will Come
the beginning of this Line which is one great Confirmation that we are upon the true Time of it for to declare this as it were with Industry there are even thirty joyn'd to the 1260 and more openly Three Fifteens or Forty Five to the 1290 that we may thereby be engag'd to look back upon the whole Line and find it throughout so compacted as may be easily computed and hath been before observ'd on Daniel's Vision 3. Each Community hath its just share in the intimate and full extended Time of this Line and each twice given The Beast hath first his intimate Time twice given in Daniel and by two forty two months given first to his Gentiles till his own rising and then forty two Months to himself he hath the utmost extent of Time Times half time as before declared and drawn out of the 2300 Evenings In just correspondence with which the Servants of God as collected and congregated in the Woman the Church that they might not be accused as having Relation to no Church and single in the Witnesses and the Seed who have the Witness that Apo. 12. 17. the Church might not seem a Notion onely have each one and the same 1260 da. drawn out of the 2300 mornings assign'd to them and the Witnesses three dayes and a half and the Woman three times and a half or season or intimate Time answering the Beasts intimate Time who must have the Servants of God as a subject to work upon while his Tyranny lasts Now that the Time at large or the Twice 1260 Days must needs be the same and differ only in notion as the Church and the Witnesses or the Seed that have the Witness of Jesus do is most evident because lying within the same Continent of Time Times Semi Time and being both of the longest reach and exactly of the same size it is not possible they should begin or end sooner one than another as we have found it possible the Gentiles and the Beasts months may do For neither are they so united as the Woman and the Witnesses And their months though of the same size one with another are yet not of an equal extent to time times half time at their full length nor to the 1260 dayes the just measure of the three times and half although both the Forty two months uniting as we have said are neither longer nor shorter than the 1260 dayes nor than the Three Times and half the common Womb of all And even so the three Times and half of the Woman and the three dayes and half of the Witnesses must be the same also seeing the Witnesses and the Woman are the same and the 1260 dayes the same and no difference but only notional as was explain'd For if they were different the Woman should have no parallel to the three dayes and half of the Witnesses nor the Witnesses have any parallel with the three times and half of the Witnesses which as most unbecoming so Uniform a Type are impossible also in such a sameness Thus the Marches or Out-lying Borders as well as the Intimate Time are full on the side of both Communities the Beasts Tyranny and the Sufferings of the Servants of God The last Seventy five years by the Voices Revel 14. and by the Vials Rev. 16. move on to the two utmost Pillars of Time It is done It is done Rev. 16. 17. Rev. 21. 6. Object In the former or after Parts of this Discourse I offer as I hope most Convictive Proofs of all these things in particular and answer all Objections I shall only at this time remove this one viz. There seems no more reason to understand the forty two Months as Lunar Months than the days of Years as Lunar Years Answ There is very great difference for if we look throughout the Scripture and the whole manner of Jewish Computation of Time we shall find They always understood Months Lunar Months and the very Solemnity of their New Moons absolutely requir'd it so that to understand them otherwise must needs be to understand against that constant use of Scripture and the Importance of the Name of their Months Scripture uses But now their Years were so necessarily Solar Years for there can indeed be no Year but strictly Solar that they most industriously provided to Adequate their Lunar Time to their Solar by Intercalations and Inserted Months or a double Adar which was their last Month of the Year we every Leap-Year by a double Twenty Eighth of February As may be seen by the Learned in that Excellent Tract of Maimonides of Intercalations which gives great light to this whole Matter As shall be farther taken notice of in the after Management of this Discourse Having given this general View of this Grand Prophetical Line of Time which appears to be of sovereign Use to the Church of God by the so often Repetition of it I think it necessary to make these Practical Remarks upon it for the universal profit of all that read it It ought to administer no Scandal to us that Christianity Remark 1 hath yet had no greater Effect in the Universe upon Jews Mahometans Pagans That it hath not won upon the world to an universal Conversion to it That it hath not prevail'd upon Christians themselves to higher degrees of Religious and Holy Affections and Actions That it hath not reconcil'd Men more to one another and made the Wolf and the Lamb to lye down together That it hath not fill'd the Earth with the knowledge of God as the Waters cover the Sea That it hath not deriv'd down a more universal state of outward Blessing Prosperity Peace and Happiness For these are the great Promises and Pretentions of the Kingdom Christ design'd to erect in the World now an Enemy hath done all this in the Wisdom of God and Christ the old Dragon the Serpent Satan hath inhabited and acted a Bestian Empire first as Pagan and in the very appearance of a Dragon watching to devour the manly Birth of Christianity and since That Empire became Christian in a Bestian Kingdom of Apostasie and this hath surpris'd and cut off the blessed Emanations of Christianity and the Gospel and made the Christian World except in some small chosen Parts of it like the Wilderness like Heathen Pagan Nations and Kingdoms full of Scandals to the great hinderance of the other parts of the World from submission to the Scepter of Christ or taking upon them his Name and Profession and made ineffectual this Profession to the very Professors of it And this hath been lo these twelve hundred and fifty years wait only till the ten are run out also and you shall see a greater change in the World than ever yet it hath known Christianity shall then prevail more in a little time than it hath done ever yet The Light of one day shall be as the Light of seven till it grows brighter and brighter to the perfect Day of Christs Kingdom the first
it is our Loyalty to God in the first place so it is not Disloyalty not to be of the Princes Religion if it be not according to the Word of God when we render All but our Religion He can require And this we need not fear to do because we cannot lose by it our Reward will be great from our Father who is in Heaven and as Christians we should be asham'd to deny it but in Religion even to the least Ceremony of it except determined by natural decency or order we have but one Father and Master God and Christ and here he hath neither Vicar nor Vice-gerent but his Spirit in his Word We should be content in this time of the Apostasie with a Remark 3 mean Condition upon the account of Religion not to seek Grandeur and Honour upon that Title If God casts it on us we should improve it to his Glory and the support of the Service and Servants of Christ it is the Beast and his Adherents that carry the Pomp and Greatness of this World in a Religious Equipage it is even a suspition upon what is high and stately and in Opulency by Christianity for Christs Witnesses are in Sack-cloch it is the Time of the Delay of his Kingdom and all his Servants are with him in the Patience of it they ought not to ravish Glory and surprise Dignity before the time but to stay for it till the appearance of Jesus Christ the 1260 Days of Mourning and of the Church in the Wilderness are not yet run out the Beast is yet in Power the Tenthliness of the City is not yet fallen the Kingdom of Christ is not yet proclaimed It is no wonder there is yet so great a Rent and Division Remark 4 in Christian Religion that any thing unreasonable or a frame of things most contrary to it bears up against all the urgencies of Scripture and Reason and will not be bafled nor ashamed but vouches high and pretends aloft so it should be that Prophesie may be fulfilled The Beast and his Adherents are obstinate to the last even when the Elevation of things against them shall be much higher then now when Evidences from Heaven shall be much more sensible they blaspheme and repent not Christianity from so long an Antiquity and the profession of it shields and defends their Pretensions and carries a shade over them even wherein they depart from it and most Apostatize this keeps up the Controversie and perpetuates the Dispute But within a Time a short Time it will be decided it will come to that publick Declaration of the Witnesses Ascention of their Song before the Throne the positive Denunciation If any man worship the Beast and his Image He shall drink of the wrath of God and c will put an end to all Dispute Revel 14. 9. In the mean time let not any pretence stagger us The man of sin ought to sit in the Temple of God his seat then must be founded in a profession of the true Religion his Antiquity signifies nothing for he ought to be a Beast of forty two months of years or above twelve hundred years standing His Pretences from any thing said or done before that 1260 how early soever if it be not found evident in Scripture is of no avail for the Mystery of Iniquity the Womb out of which He came was at work and in a Mystery so secret so cunning as not to be discern'd by many good men and all to bring him to what he was and is the Spirit of Antichrist was then in the World It is no wonder Princes continue so devoted to him and his City he calls a Church the words of God are not yet fulfilled concerning him but they shall consider and change their Minds when God puts it into their Hearts and therefore we ought earnestly to pray for them whatever their Perswasions are now that God would continue their Lives for they shall then be Instruments in his hand that change so near approaching shall be most orderly most regularly by Princes themselves induced by Evidences from Heaven of an extraordinary nature God will not be help'd herein but by his own Vicegerents whom he hath appointed whom he hath ordain'd no Sedition Rebellion may grow from hence It is to be quieted appeas'd and even rooted up by this Doctrine even as it is utterly condem'd by it for God will appear and Princes with him But yet on this nor on any other Account can there be a Reconciliation a Composition with this false state of Christianity there may be such Attempts for there will be a Synagogue of Satan rising a-new at the very approach of Christ's Kingdom before the end yet of the 1260 Days It appears as if there would be so for Philadelphia the best State of the Christian Church before the New Jerusalem and with which it united shall receive Acknowledgment from such a Synagogue that Christ hath lov'd it Revel 3. 9. But this Representation of Bestianism obstinate impenitent to the Last in the Body of it as it is the decisive Argument and beyond all Volumes of Dispute because it is divine perpendicular down-right swift and sudden in its Determination so it shews the impossibility of meeting half-way accepting Terms to any good Effect We know not what may be between this present Time though but a Remnant and the end of the 1260 Days There may be an Eye of the Witnesses kill'd and lying dead three days and a half a return of former Darkness in some parts at least I apprehend it not in this Nation yet God only knoweth it is not so far reveal'd so far as I have found but I hope not There may be a Synagogue of Satan a Project of Compounding this I more fear but let us obtain and maintain a full Victory over the Image the Mark the Name and the Number of the Name But it is certain it is but ten prophetical Days and the Witnesses shall not only every where rise but every where come out of their Sackcloath out of which the true Witnesses of God are no where yet come Then they shall for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it So many certain Notes Characters and Boundaries of Time as I have drawn together in the compute of this Line of Time with it self and that are given as Assistants to it though not immediately of the Essence and Body of it can be no more by chance than many Pictures exactly resembling several Persons pertaining to a Family and found in the Mansion of such a Family and at such Times when such Persons were known to be so appertaining to it can be by chance Forc'd they are not for things themselves conspire Fancyful and Arbitrary they are not for they cannot be chang'd or remov'd at Pleasure nor any like them made If then they are truly Scriptural and Divine How certainly shall they be fulfilled in their Season All counter-Appearances can signifie no more than the Israelites severer