â—EWS of a NEW WOâ—… FROM The WORD and WORKS of God Compared together Evidencing that the Times of the Man of Sin are Legally determinâ—… and by the same Right the Days of the Sâ—N of MAN are already Commenced Being some Account of Eight Sermons Delivered at a Lecture in London Whereto for further Evidence are Added Two Small Tracts The One touching the Times of Gog Magog the other touching the 3 last Vials By J. S. Psal 102.13 Thau shalt rise and have mercy upon Sion for 〈…〉 to favour her yea the Set time is come LONDON Printed for Francis Smith at the Elephant and Caâ—… near the Royall Exchange in Cornhil 1676. If this be true as here our friend divines The promis'd morning-star appears and shines Which will us guide into the Land of peace Where errour sin and death shall wholly cease Added by his Friend Panagathophilus The PREFACE Candid Reader WAving all Apology for the neglected garb of the ensuing Discourses which being not pen'd before they were delivered owe their preservation from oblivion and their seeing the light in this way only to the value that some of the hearers put upon the subject and import of them which moved them out of their own notes to prepare this copy of them Waving also a particular account of the special arguments of the several sermons which by a continued series of evidence pursue that one scope of the nearnesse of the approach of the Bridegroom beginning first with the computation and calculation of the prophetical periods both in Daniel and the Revelation and thence discending to the signes given by our saviour Mat. 24. and thence proceeding to the days of the Son of man spoken of Luk. 17. shewing the complexion thereof and that probably these days are begun offering evidence thereof from the ancient Tipes and thence taking into consideration the Vyals and shewing contrary to the sense of many the probability that six of them are poured forth whereby a great stumbling block is removed out of the way of our faith and hope of the Lords coming being so near I say waving all these and referring the Reader for satisfaction to the discourses themselves I shall discharge the pâ—rt of this preface in 5 short notes on that text Is 52.7 how beautiful upon the Mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings of good that publisheth salvation that saith unto Sion thy God reigneth where we see 1. That the sum total of those good tidings or tidings of good things that the eares of the whole creation desire to be blest withall the substance the crown of that peace that salvation that every creature without stretched-neck waits and looks for is the reign of Syons God the reign of the Lord Jesus this man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land when he shall tread in our palaces Mich 5.5 The Assyrian by a metonymy is the head-enemy comprehending under him every subordinate enemy or evil that shall be found at last upon the place afflicting the Israel of God at Christs coming which must receive their Discharge by the exercise of his regal power the reign of Christ Syons God and king is that visible and glorious state of Christs kingdom in the earth with reference to a set appointed time for its commencement and continuance when he takes to himself his great power and reign Rev. 11.17 as the great and only potentate king of kings and Lord of Lords 1 Tim. 6.15 which time is immediatly without any Interregnum to take place from the expiration of Antichrists times measured in the Revelation by 1260 prophetical days which when they began and ended and so by consequence when the days of the son of man began is calculated in the ensuing discourses these days of the Son of man not beginning with Christs personal appearance but with Daniels 45 prophetical days at the end of his first number of 1290 days ch 12. which 45 days or years as I humbly conceive are that generation spoken of by our Saviour wherein all these signes that are immediatly to precede his personal appearance are to come up in view and receive their accomplishment and in the rear of them the Lord himself will as I humbly expect and believe appear in person By this stating and bounding of Christs reign those â—…es and acts of his mistical and spiritual reign all along 〈◊〉 great and glorious soever in the overthrow of Judaism and heathenism and wasting the man of sin are shut out 〈…〉 account as amounting to no more but the keeping up 〈…〉 in the world during the militant state of the 〈◊〉 called the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ Rev. 1. but not yet making these enemyes as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor to be carryed away with the winde and no place found for them as they must be Dan. 2.35 which is the work of these days of the son of man This is my sirst note upon these words upon which I have been something long I shall be briefer in the rest My 2d is this the peace the good things the salvation of Syon and the reign of Sions God commence together this arises also clearly from the text no other no earlyer messengers bring good tidings or publish peace to Sion then those that say unto her thy God reigneth there is a two-fold appearance of Christ testifyed of in the Scriptures the first as past the second to come each of them have their proper and distinct work and efficacy assigned to them we are said to be reconciled by his death saved by his life Ro 4.10 which life is his second appearance Heb. 9. last till his second appearance we are saved only in hope Ro. 8 24. Gal. 5.5 The second appearance it self is but in hope to this day then must all the fruits and advantages of it be so too how doth this endear Christs second appearance it self to us how should it make us watch to it long and cry for it come Lord Jesus come quickly our actual and compleat salvation depending in it which till then is a mystery then and not till then will be the glorious manifestation of the sons of God then will a full and glorious account be given of every letter and title of the glorious hopes and priviledges of the state of believers in Christ of those glorious things that are spoken of the city of God as their being not in the flesh but in the spirit their not sinning nor being able to sin their being the righteousnesse of God that those that live and believe in Christ shall never dy with many more which now are mysteries but then the vision shall be made so plain that he that runs may read it this is my 2d Observation 3ly The manifest glory of the Lord Iesus breaks forth out of the mystical state of it as out of a cloud silently secretly and unawars even to the surprize of Sion her self else what
nothing of the son of man in all those voices You shall desire to see them and go forth as many shall do but shall finde themselves mistaken for the days of the son of man are of a more general import and influence and they are of a spiritual discerning there is the first time that you meet with days And the 2d is in my text you have 3 times in this chapter the word day in the singular number spoken of So shall it be in that day when the son of man is revealed and so shall the son of man be in his day now if days in the plural number and day in the singular number be not the same then they are thus to be distinguished The days are that tract of time that lead to Christs giorious and visible appearance I shall stand no longer upon this because it will be more fully made forth when we come to shew the import of these days what these days do import what they contain in them which I do therefore immediatly address my self unto I have already shewed you that they do import this that the days of the man of sin are ended the days of Antithrist are over that is his 42 months spoken of in Revel 13. I shall repeat nothing that I have said concerning that but only this that the holy Ghost doth not speak so improperly as to call those the days of the son of man which are the days of the man of sin there is therefore a legall determining of the right of the man of sin though he may be actually troublesom for a while after even till Christs glorious appearing and so there is a legal commencement of Christs time though we see not yet all things in his possession yet he may have a legal right and so he hath in these days to which I add that as Jacob took hold of the heel of Esau so doth Christs kingdom take hold as I may say of the times of Antichrist I shall not give more authority to the Apocripha then what may seem fitting Let it stand or fall to that evidence of truth that shines in it but in Esdras you have such a question as this propounded by him who holds forth himself to be Esra There is a question held forth touching the parting of times he desires to know of the Angel what is the parting of time between the two worlds and he receives this answer that Esau is a figure of the old world and Jacob of the new and says he look as there is the hand of a man between the hand and the heel so there is no more time between the old and the new Now I can make no sence of that answer but this that as there was no hand at all between the hand and the heel that is the hand of Jacob the power of the new world that took hold of the very heel of the old world and thrust it out so doth the power of the son of man and his days the very begining and commencement of his kingdom thrust out the old world And let me observe this by the way that this kingdom and these days of the son of man if they did take place in our spirits and in our faith we might be so much the more serviceable in thrusting forth the old state of things Therefore now I shall come to shew what makes them to be called the days of the son of man for if you see Antichrist the man of sin still upon the stage you will say upon what authority do you lay Christs claim to these days what ground have you for it how are these his days more then any other Let me tell you my beloved friends these days are not only the days of the son of man because they are not the days of the man of sin as wafts and straies belong to the Lord of the Mannor it is not only for that reason I call them the days of the son of man but Christ hath a legal right unto them and his term begins in these days You may say we have always been otherwise instructed it is a common received thing that Christ's kingdom begins with his visible appearing and that 2 Timo. 4.18 v. seems to countenance this which runs thus I charge thee before God and our Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom where his appearing may be conceived to commence with his kingdom and his kingdom not to commence or begin till his glorious and personal appearing To this I shall answer it is true that text doth necessarily import that Christ must appear in his kingdom And that I do verily believe and do expect but that Christs day or Christs kingdom hath no beginning till there be an Adequate revelation of his person untill he appear as a man in that kingdom as well as God cannot that I see be thence infer'd For we shall shew you by and by by the types that were held forth and the times of the old testament that there may be a beginning of Christs kingdom and is so before his glorious appearance and manifestation and there may be many kingdom-Acts done before Christ in person do exhibit himself visible to our eyes that which I would begin with you shall finde in Dan. 12.1 At that time shall Michael stand up This is the first thing in the days of the son of man Michaels standing up for I look upon the action which is shewed unto Daniel here for the consuming and bringing to nought the four Monarchies both in the East and in the West to fall into these days of the son of man and to be performed by Christ who is the Michael here that stands up Now I confess there may be some question whether this Michael be Christ or no because we read of Michael in this prophecy of Daniel that is spoken of as one of the chief princes one of the chief Angels which is not proper to be applyed to Christ For he that is the supream is not in a rank with the Angels nor consigned to a particular charge or province as he is called Michael your prince in the 10 chap. and the last verse Now if it be but the standing up of Michael the Archangel there is something to be done when Michael stands up and it being a word which is both passive and mean too It signifies to be raised or roused up as if before this time he did couch or lye down therefore if we take it of Michael the Archangel it imports somthing but I have two or three reasons why I take it for Christ First because he is mentioned singly then at that time shall Michael stand up For though a single Angel may be sent to carry tydings unto the Saints yet a single angel is not competent to have the whole affairs of Christs interest and his kingdom committed to him and to stand up singly for it this is
the falne and corrupt state wherein there is both weakness and corruption and both these must be removed or else we cannot enter into the kingdom of God now the Lord give us a sence of this how unfit we are in our present fram and temper for that which we are so earnestly calling for may it not be said unto us as the prophet speaks it is not for you to desire the day of the Lord the day of the Lord is darkness and not light what will you do in the day of the Lord I tell you my brethreu the day of the Lord is a trying day alas when it comes to demand of us the giving up of such and such interests or lusts we cry O let me fly unto this it is a little one and my soul shall live O let not the Lord dsscompose this part of the old building we are for keeping up of one or other shedd of the old building I have been more within these two days thinking upon those words the carnal minde is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be then I ever was in my life that I know of and it is that I should be glad to hear others sensible of even the enmity that is in the carnal minde it is enmity aga nst God it is not subject neither can it be I tell you if yon do not know this by your selves you know not your own hearts and do we think that we shall pass into that new state of things by translation we might iudeed have done so if Adam had not sinned out of that which is natural into that which is spiritual But now believe it there must be knocking work there must be dissolving work and you will feel this it will put you to pain I would not discourage you for the Lord will be ut the whole charge of taking down the old state of things as well as the setting up of the new and he doth and wil make his people a willing sacrifice as Isaac was he can make this cup to pass from you or otherwise he can sweeten it to you though it be a cup that Chrish natutal flesh it self desired might pass yet I say the spirit is willing and if the Lord please to call up his spirit in us it will make us a willing sacrifice but then is a great change to be brought upon us Now hen having spoken so much of the time let me come a little to minister of this strength and help unto you we should look up to God that we might be ministers of the spirit when we converse in the things of God I shall propound two or there things unto you to help you in this tydeing it out with patience The first is this to reconcile you to all he hardships and tryals all the bitter things that God sees good to exercise his people with all consider the harmony that there is in all the ways and works of God how all of them conspire and work together they clash not one with the other but they are all of them by his wise contrivance set in their places as he says he hath set prosperity over against adversity he hath set evil days over against good days and they all of them deliver us up as from Constable to Constable one dispensation hands us unto another and that to a third and so they all bring us in our journey as the waves and billows of the sea do that makes the passage rough but yet they carry on the vessel so do all the waves and works of God and although you may think here comes a providence that will set me quite back again as Israel was set back in the wildernesse they were within a little of Canaan at their coming out of Egypt they were over against the land of Canaan where unto they did passe at the last and then they were brought back again yet God calls this a strait way yet if you had seen it delineated as I have done and observed their wandrings in the wildernesse you never saw such a crooked line in all your life but the rubbs of a bow I make it run so much the stronger And this I will propound to your further consideration that all the whole schem and all the scenes of Gods providences and dispensations to his people when they are set before us in an entire view as in some parts of the Scripture they are they are called a song as in that Deut. 32. Where Moses speaks of the several changes that should befall that people he calls it a song so like wife the book of Canticles which doth prophetically hold forth the feveral changes of the state of things from Solomons time to Christs coming it is called a song so if we could but look upon the whole body of divine counsel and of divine dispensations as a peice of poesy or a song it would sweeten it unto us you know this age is much given to plays to Comedies especially which begin tragically but end very satisfactorily so do the ways of God but if you should in a song leave out some or any of the feet in any of the lines the song will be lame it will hobble as I may say so I say if any thing of Gods dispensations if any of his purposes should fail and should not have their accomplishment alas ye whole would want something of its beauty so here in my text Let patience have it's perfect work that you may be perfect and entire lacking nothing men would be contented might they come to the end of their journey though they lost a great deal of the glory that God intends them by the way though they lost the advantages that afflictions would work out for them as that text says a far more exceeding wait of glory Look upon the contrivance of God the project of God there is not any one passage in his whole contrivance that can be spared not any one trouble either to the Church or to any particular member but all conduces to the beauty and the entrance of the whole Secondly consider this and it is a main thing and I pray set your hearts to it withdraw your own concerns out of the work of God and wholly look upon it as the Lords concern Let God alone be concerned do you engage him by your faith as the himself is engaged in his own glorious counsel and purpose That which makes things so troublesome is that we take Gods part upon our selves and that makes it so heavy we set our selves like Atlas to bear up the heavens and the pillars of the earth alas it is not our work to do it it is wholly Gods work it is his project and his undertaking and it is that which he would have us wholly to concern him in it is his work it is him glory so that he himself is concerned and he would suffer it any of his work should fail or miscarry pray
of the Angels when Christ comes from heaven the spirit is that power by which it is done and that being with us what advantage might we make to this day of God through the affistance of the spirit It is possible for men to have the name of the new Jerusalem written upon them before the new Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven else what means that promise Rev. 3.12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the house of my God and the name of the Citty of my God even of the new Jerusalem c. The overcomer is the person to whom this promise is made we must fight the good fight of saith we must be over coming all our spiritual enemies and this is the work of this present day let the Dutch and others grapple with their enemies we have other enemies to deal with though we desire that God would fight the battels of his people every where and give them the advantage in every battle ye I say we have other enemies that we are engaged with I tell you this overcoming is only by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ he is the overcomer that hath suffered in the flesh To this overcomer is the promise made of writing on him the name of the citty of God what is the meaning of that why he shall walk in the name in the power in the spirit of that new state An APPENDIX to the Former Discourse Of the 5th Trumpet with a general view of the four precedent trumpets THat the 5th trumpet is not to be ranged so high into the ages past as most interpreters do applying it to the incursions of the Saracens soon after the 600 year of Christ and allowing the space of 700 years well night between that and the 6th trumpet which they place upon the beginning of the 13th century There are many reasons to disswade as First from the general doctrine of the trumpets it is agreed by all that the man of sin or Antichrist hath as well his growing as his judgement and fall under the trumpets it must also be affented to that his sin must be full before his fall and judgment comes accordingly the four first trumpets are the time of his fin and corruption rising to the height and breaking forth and though those trumpets are applyed by most expositors to the judgment of the beast gradually destroying him and may with some fitness of allusion find ground and matter for such application for God though he gave up the Antichristian world to that Apostacy did not forbear to witness all along against gainst their growing corruptions in such manner as may answer the language and expressions of the 4 first trumpets yet I humbly conceive they properly set forth to us the gradual growth of corruption and degeneracy in that sinagogue of Satan and the occasion and means thereof which was 4 fold 1. The waxing cold of their love and the breaking forth of contentions about outward things exprest by the haile and fire mingled with blood and cast on the earth the generality of professors under the first trumpet The 2d degree ambition and burning desire of rule and supremacy in the clergy as they will be called exprest by the burning mountain cast into the sea under the 2d trumpet The 3d corruption in their administrations by a malignant star falling on the Rivers and fountains under the 3d trumpet 4ly A corruption of their light exprest by singling the 3d part of the sun the moon the stars under the 4th trumpet and here by this time things are come to that pass that the Lord sees it time to give a stop and to take in hand to judge this abominable state and therefore sin being finished so far as was ordained to be before for the rest of their sin breaks forth under their judgment and it is not the least of their sin there is an Angel sent to fly through the midst of heaven to denounce wo wo wo to the inhabitants of the earth i.e. to the worshipers of the beast by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the 3 Angels that are yet to sound now these three last trumpets being of a classis ranged thus together distinguished from the 4. preceeding it is a strong presumption that they are of a different nature and import and that as the former trumpets discover the growth of Antichrists sin so these acquaint us with the steps of his judgment under the 4 first he was climbing up higher and higher in his state and in his sin under the 3 last he is declining still more and more and sinking into the wrath of God under judgment till at last he is cast into the lake both head and tail this is my first Reason My 2d is from the non-quadrature of the application of the 5th trumpet to the Saracens in respect of time the Saracens I grant were a sore judgment and infested the Roman world exceedingly by courses and by times from the year 60 till the time of the Turks prevailing which was for many hundreds of years and were that hand and judgment whereby God testifyed against those growing corruptions of Rome all along while they were springing up but these Locusts under the 5th trumpet are bounded and limited within their 5 months which take a day for a year make but 150 years how this time can give an account of the incursions of the Saracens by the space of 6 or 700 years I cannot see nor am I satisfied with Mr. Medes falve for it having I think good reason to dissent from him and to understand these Locusts under the 5th trumpet of the 1st times of the Turks from the beginning of the 13th century while by the space of 150 years they were very noisome and offensive tormenting the men that had not the seal of God in their foreheads but not killing them as after that time they did for about the year 1450. or 53. as Mr. Mede hath noted out of History was Constantinople taken by the Turks which was a killing or an extinguishing of the Roman name in the East where you have the 5 months exactly from the 1st uniting of the 4 families of the Turks under the Ottoman family My third ground is from the mother text as I may call it from whence this allusion of the Locusts is taken which is from the prophecy of Joel as Mr. Mede hath observed to my hand which prophecy throughout is a celebrating of the day of the Lord or the day of his judgment in a prophetical strayn as is in so many words expresly owned more then once or twice in that prophecy chap. 1.15 chap. 21.11.31 and chap. 3.12 And in this day of the Lord judgment begins at the house of God and that takes up the one half of the prophecy unto the 18th verse of the 2d chapter and from thence to the end is the judgment of the enemy and God brings this judgment
themselves of the great works of God to come have constantly led them out of the way so that they have not known those works when they have been before them mistaking both the Quid and the Quando both what and when they were which were the 2 grand enquiries of the prophets as might be instanced in all the great works of God recorded in Scripture would Israel in Egypt else have been so deaf to Moses message when he came to deliver them would the Jews have been so surprised with their return out of Babylon that they were like them that dreamed would they also have overlook't the coming of Elias and Christ himself had not their minds been prepossest with other figures and representations of these things like as Naaman the Sirian that thought the prophet would have come forth unto him and have stroaked the Leper and have called upon his God when his way was none of all these The misteries of Christs kingdome are spirituall things and must be compared with spiritual the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy the way of God towards particular believers is a little but true model and abstract of those greater ways of his providence and administration towards the Church for they are both cast into the same mould Taking my measure hence from the spiritual analogy I define and determine the general nature and import of this last enemy Gog and Magog that as the new birth of a soul is not without it's pangs and dangers his course and progress through a wilderness of temptations his issue and conquest ordinarily with a sharp conflict either at or before death so the Church in like manner at her first coming forth is watch't by the dragon exercised all along in the wildernesse by the beast and false prophet and at last when none of these wiles can prevail but that she gets ground every day and is ready to be crown'd with an absolute victory and rest then the devil being loosed rages and foams as he did in the Gospel when Christ came to eject him out of his long usurped possession To discourse these things at large is what I have neither time nor patience now to do only as to the last 2 or 3 brief hints in evidence that such a dispensation is common and we are taught to expect it 1st From the great law and pattern our Lord Jesus Christ who as he was sought to be destroyed as soon as born and was all his life time a man of sorrows and temptations so last of all had the sharpest tryal by an hour and power of darkness and the Apostle acquaints us that whomsoever God foreknew be predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son and therefore 2ly The Authour to the Hebrews in strengthning believers to sufferings tells them ye have not yet resisted unto blood as much as to say they must look for that first or last a fiery tryal as Peter calls it conform and agreeable whereunto In the 3d place hath been the experience of the Saints all along as if they were all ask't one by one ho they get to heaven or to assurance in this life they would all tell you with one mouth that besides their ordinary and familiar exercises with which they lived and were brought up they had at last the greatest shock and most signal tryal which was as the parting blow And as Gog and Magog are the last so that they are no new or strange enemy but an old enemy known to the Church too well we have the Lord himself asserting Ezek 38.17 Thus saith the Lord thou art he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel this is plain also in the book of the Revelations the devil that was loosed is the same that was bound viz. the Dragon with 7 heads and ten horns he changed his form and carryed on his design by other methods during his bynding but the same enemy all along and when at last he resumes his 1st shape of a dragon he carries on his work by the same hands of the beasts worshipers all that are lest him for the beast and his worshipers were these he entred into at his bynding these he is in a confederacy with from his loosing as we have exprest at the 6th Vyal by attending this character we shall finde it is the Roman Antichrist from first to last for as the beast that makes warr upon the witnesses is said to ascend out of the bottemlesse pit Rev. 11. so also the Dragon after the thousand years of his consynement is said to ascend upon the surface or bredth of the earth Rev. 20.9 For so the word translated they went up is in the greek they ascended correspondent whereunto is their judgment fire descended from God and fell on them so that by this character the beast that slays the witnesses and the Devil loosed are the same enemy though this of Gog and Magog be not the same action for this is after the slaying of the witnesses Also by this character the loosing of Satan should bear date from the 5th trumpet the first of the wo trumpets during the first 4 trumpets there was no such wo pronounced the Church had her thousand years of a mistical reign but under the 5th trumpet we first read of the bottomles pit opened and although this be by inter preters applyed to the issuing forth of the Saracens about the year of Christ 600 yet I conceive it will be found otherwise and that this opening of the bottomlesse pit was not till about the year 1300 when the devil was let loose after the 1000 years from Constantine of his binding of which more hereafter if this hypothesis can be made out as I trust it shall it will dissolve many knots in the Revelations In order whereunto I premise and lay as a fonndation that the man of sin is the last enemy the Church is to be exercised with until Christs coming and that is clearly intimated by the Apostles 2 Thes. 2. where speaking to this argument the times of the day of Christ he shews it is not to be till Antichrist hath run his course That may be you will say yet it follows not but another enemy may succeed but the Apostle cuts off all pretence to that by saying that this man of sin is to be destroyed by the brighnesse of Christs coming as much as to say he is to last unto Christs coming though he will be much wasted before by the spirit of Christs mouth in the ministry of his servants and witnesses yet so much of him will remain as to give Christ the oppurtunity of the last and dispatching blow at him whence I conclude either this man of sin takes in Gog and Magog or else Christ should concern himself with a lesser enemy and leave the greater untoucht which were not for his honour I know what will be said that Gog and Magog come not up till after