final Judgment over the Book is quite unseal'd in Death the last Enemy overcome and then the Book the Symbol of the Kingdom is resign'd with the Kingdom it self into the Hand of the Father 9. Hereupon the State of the Christian Church in its Apostolical Purity with the Order of the Living Creatures first and then drawing that of the Elders along with it in a Song of Redemption in Praise of the Lamb with a Prophecy of his Kingdom in which his Servants and Saints shall reign above the Earth or over it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in several Places of the New Testament joyn'd with a Genitive Case particularly Matt. 25. 21. 23. I will make thee Ruler over many things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 10. To sum up all The State of the Church in the thousand Years Kingdom of Christ is given in a second Song of Praise wherein all things bow in the Name of Christ as Lord and that not ceremonially but in real Subjection Phil. 2. 10. Things in Heaven and in Earth and under the Earth and that to the Glory of the Father For the four Living Creatures having said Amen to this high Celebration of Christ the four and twenty Elders as having by the Apostolical Church receiv'd an explicate Knowledge of Christ to shew The New Testament did not at all derogate from the Old The four and twenty Elders after they had fallen down with the four Living Creatures and joyn'd in a Song of Praise to the Lamb now as making up the Concent worship him that liveth for ever and ever and conclude that which the four Living Creatures or the Apostolical Ministry began and herein shew the Resignation of the Kingdom of God at last that he may be All in All Rev. 4. 10. compar'd with Rev. 5. 8. 14. For as all began in God that made all things so here it ends in him The sealed Book being now in the Hands of Christ and all due Acknowledgments made to him that sits on the Throne and to the Lamb immediately follows the opening of the Seals and therein the Course of Time flows out and so flows on of which we are now to take a particular and strict Account only I would desire every Person that sets his Mind and Thoughts to view this so august Inthronization of God and of the Lamb That he would ponder within himself Whether the desolating either the Jews or the Heathen Empire can be Events great enough for so stupendious a Pre-Representation or any thing less than the Glorious Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ could answer to it And now that we may establish the Line of Time according to these Seals and the Time of their opening there are three Things to be consider'd 1. What it is that is the principal Jewel and Treasure that lies under these Seals and so to be set free by the unloosing them 2. What is the principal and supream Visum or Thing to be seen in every Seal and the opening of it and how it serves the disclosing that Jewel 3. What is the true method of fixing the certain Time that the whole Course of the Seals took up and how it is to be measur'd and fix'd If we can now determine and settle aright upon the Resolution of each of these Particulars we shall be able to understand this first Sett of Apocalyptical Visions and to have ample satisfaction concerning them and have great Light into the following Visions also 1. As to the First then That great Treasure and Jewel of Truth that is inclos'd within these Seals and so also as we shall see that the Trumpets ultimately sounded unto is the Glorious Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ Every Event and the Stage of Time it was to pass over is as a Seal or Stop upon this Kingdom till it opens into Glory and the opening of every Seal was an Advance towards it and although when the seven Seals were open'd there appeared a greater and more prodigious Cause of Delay viz. the Antichristian Kingdom yet every Trumpet was as an Alarm of War to the subduing that Mock-Kingdom that rose in Despight and Opposition to the Kingdom of Christ And because all things were so set and placed in their Season and Order that no one thing could come to pass before that which was set before it had had its free Egress and Event therefore every of these Events and the opening of the Seals to let them out though they did not in the Issue open to the true Appearance of that Kingdom yet because they did as it were what they could and there was a Remove of so many Prohibents or Obstacles to that Kingdom and Time so advanc'd from Point to Point that by the opening every Seal the Kingdom of Christ might be nearer to its Appearance therefore they are justly understood and expounded to be Seals unloos'd and opening to the Kingdom of Christ Now besides those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or IT IS DONE IT IS DONE at the End of the Apocalyptical Time and all its Events whither they one and all run together besides this there is this absolute Assurance That the Kingdom of Christ was under the Seals The Kingdom made so magnificent a show of it self at the sixth Seal that had not the Servants of God been seal'd in their Fore-heads that they should not then appear with him in Glory the Kingdom had even then appear'd for in Constantine's Christian Empire to the End of the Reign or at the Victory of Theodosius the Great over Heathenism of which he endeavour'd the utter Extirpation that Kingdom so far came out of its Retirement that there was a solemn and loud Doxology in Heaven that the Kingdom of God and the Power of Christ were come and yet at the very same time the Woman is recorded as fled into the Wilderness Rev. 12. 10. 2. The first Particular then being resolved with so much Evidence and Assurance we may with the greatest Clearness resolve concerning the second or the principal Visum of every Seal open'd for it must be some State of the Kingdom of Christ defin'd by the joyning together the Voices that summoned to the Sight and Observation so far as these Voices continued and then when they ceased the State of the Kingdom of Christ must be considered by the Visa themselves as under the Cessation of those Voices and by any sort of Voices we can find equivalent to them And in this Method and no other that I can understand we may justly and truly comprehend the Intention and Signification of the Seals For if all the Seals carry on the Kingdom of Christ by so many Degrees and Steps of Advance as I have in some measure I hope made evident they do By undeniable Proof then it must needs be That every Seal hath some State of that Kingdom protuberant or swelling out in its Appearance upon that opening and that the Voice that says Come and see calls to observe it and
Conversions to Christianity though so great as to be a very strong Argument of its Truth were small in comparison of what this shall be for the Mistery of Iniquity began early to work Ephesus the Type of the Apostolical Church left its first love as soon as the Apostles went off the World and notwithstanding all the sufferings of the Primitive Christians under the Type of Smyrna yet a Synagogue of Satan an authoritative Ecclesiastick Apostasie then overshaded it till in the times figur'd by Pergamus all was cover'd with the Throne of Sathan a Supremacy of Apostacy and so things went on and they are not yet recover'd in the Best Christian Churches but they shall be after the space of ten prophetical Days that is years to that degree that the Kingdoms of this World shall be proclaim'd to be the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and so things shall go on amain to the Restitution of all things as God hath spoken by his Prophets since the World began the Lord will hasten all this in his own time and if it be wonderful in our Eyes should it be therefore wonderful in Gods The Witnesses shall then put off their Sack-cloth the everlasting Gospel shall be preached to every People and Language the Monarchy of Christ Jesus shall be an Vniversal Monarchy and the Tenfold Principality the ten Kings shall fall perfectly off from the Beast and the City that is born up on high by it that hath so long reign'd over the Nations and Kings of the Earth shall fall Stay then you Atheists and Despisers of all Religion and asswage the high Atheistical Humour see whether God hath not call'd the end and declar'd it from the beginning and declar'd all along the great things to come that you and all may know that he is God have so much Patience as to see what these ten years will produce at their end but if you will not be perswaded take your fill of Atheism and your farewel also for the very Air you breath in will be too bright and hot for Atheism to live any longer in Let us considering at what Door this fatal Apostasie Remark 2 enter'd even at a departure from the Apostolical twelve and so grew up to its number 666 let us I say fear the least remove in Doctrine Worship and Practice from the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles or from Christ the chief corner stone We need not so much mind combating Parties in Religion by names hateful or reproachful to them much less those little snatches at them by trifling Reflections upon them let us center our selves upon Truth it self in the word of God and grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and that will secure us from this Error of the Wicked and from falling from our own stedfastness this will cut off Offence from all but those who are resolved to take Offence this will preserve us in due regard to Authority if we dissent from it in matters of Religion and yet we shall preserve our Religion while we keep close to those Images of things Scripture hath given us and observe those notes of Time it hath fitted to them and suffer History which is every mans Priviledge to read to hear or to know even by the Law of Nature to declare what fell out and this we cannot be deny'd since God hath furnished us in all things and commands us to search his word and to hear and read the Words of his Prophesie and count the numbers he hath given with Wisdom and Vnderstanding and his Ministers are to expound to us and then we are to search and try whether those things are so or not and in all things receiv'd from the word of God we know and all know it is more reasonable to obey God than Men. These are two things in which the Happiness and Welfare of Man consists for this World and for that to come both which he hath made as certain and evident to us as the Light One and the First and Principal is true Religion fix'd in his Word with the present Consent of Natural Conscience and the Awes of that even whether we will or no. If we would but rest in the clear plain and undoubted Truths of it and not be hasty of removing from them till we have full Evidence from them to conduct us farther into Divine Knowledge without suffering our own Fancy to mislead us or our Credulity and sudden Belief of others to hurry us according to their Impositions The Second is Loyalty or Subjection to the Sovereign Power set over us by God and what that is we may easily know For the Sword of Justice is Supremely in the Hands of it and the Government of that World in which we live that the Disorders of Mankind may not swallow up it self depends upon it It carries before it a Terrour to evil works and a praise to them that do well Upon which account we must be subject not only for wrath but for Conscience sake And when this is in the Hand of a Prince whose Ancestors have been Princes throughout many Ages when the Succession is Clear and Lineal we can have no greater Assurance The Power that is is ordain'd of God And such blessed be God is the Case of our Nation that we can have no possible Scruple Now our Subjection is clear what it ought to be even in all things but our Religion whether Reveal'd or Natural for that is Gods and to be rendered to him onely All things else are Caesar's A Christian as a Christian can have no Scruple or Doubt in any thing else whatever it be This he can by no means submit It is to impeach Sovereignty in its highest Orb even as it is to obey a Subordinate Magistrate sent by the King against the King and his Supremacy But in all things else he needs as a Christian ask no Question for Conscience sake What men may as men as the Subjects of such Laws such Establishments as every Nation hath peculiar to it self insist upon I leave to those Laws I know as Christians the rendering our Lives our Estates if call'd for by God and the Edicts of Princes cannot hurt our Consciences but rendering our Religion to any but God and his Word will So these two things Religion and Loyalty can never clash can never interfere for to deny the surrender of our Religion can never hurt our Loyalty for to be Religious according to the Word of God onely and Natural Conscience guided by that is the highest Loyalty This is all the Loyalty Man can require to render All things else without Resistance and to Love Honour Pray for the Prince that requires all our Loss God will recompence in the Resurrection of the Just So a Christian hath no need to be Disloyal if he understand his Religion aright It is not our Loyalty to our Prince to be of our Prince's Religion though it be right
sort of Idolatrous Worship of Christ ecclips'd and drowned And all this was fulfill'd especially from that War concerning the Worship of Saints and Images 725 or 26 at the famous 666 as is after to be shewn Now the Pourtray of these Things is admirable in this prophetical Table and the Travers from the God who is superiour that is Christ to the whole Gentry of Saints in such a confused manner as the Text gives it The Maozzim and the strange God whom he shall acknowledge and encrease with Glory and shall cause them to rule over many so passing out of one into another that the very Frame of the Context does above all Expression by the Elegancy of the Scheme exquisitely present it and it hath been with wonderful Fidelity expounded by that ever to be acknowledg'd Duumvirate of Prophetical Interpreters Dr. More and Mr. Mede 5. It is very extraordinary in this Prophecy that upon this very Idolatry and at the very Time when it was contested by the Iconoclastick Emperours so profess'd Enemies to Images and Worship of Saints and yet sanction'd by the second Council of Nice however palliated by that of Frankford Cabbasut Notitia Eccles p. 314. which Palliation is yet abhorr'd and the Truth of the History of that Council decried at this Day At that very Time the Mahometan King of the South by the Saracens or Locusts and after the King of the North the Turkish Horsemen according to the Military Language of Daniel's Time with his Chariots and Horsemen like a Whirlwind and with his Gallies or Ships pass'd and overflow'd And this in the same order the Apocalyps after describes and at the same Degrees of Elevation The King of the South first does but push he torments and hurts but does not kill or swallow up in Conquest The King of the North comes after and does overflow and pass over and inherit a great part of the Antichristian Territory as the Beast would have it that is the Grecian Empire and yet leaves to the Beast his proper Bestian Demesne still for the sake of which Mahometan Kings of the South and the North as well as to draw a Line of prophetick History upon the sixty two Weeks from the Wall built to Messiah There is so much said of the King of the North and the South the Seleucidean and Lagidean Potentacies in the Prophecy 6. It is very observable after a Description of the very great Conquests and vast Tracts of the Turkish Empire v. 42. c. given His End is foretold upon the Mountains of Tzebi or the pleasant Holy Land and from thence the last end of Things and the glorious state of the Kingdom of Christ in the Lustre of his Saints and the Shame and Contempt of his Enemies seems to be given and not from the breaking the Image in the Bestian State of it which both here and in the Revelation is the most definite Thing that can be that the End should be so plac'd on the Beast These two Considerations yet will make a perfect Reconciliation of that Objection 1. That indeed The End of Things is not given from the Turkish End but from the Day of great Trouble such as never Dan. 12. 1. was since there was a Nation Now that Day of Trouble is the same with the Battel of Armageddon under the seventh Rev. 16. 16. c. v. 12. Vial. The Turkish Power therefore coming to its End and none helping it is under the sixth Vial poured out upon the River Euphrates that the way of the Kings of the East the Jews upon the Mountains of Tzebi might be prepar'd where the Turk receives his final Overthrow except the last Remainders of him rallied from this Fatal Blow on the Mountains of Tzebi may be congregated by the Spirit like a Frog that shall immediately after it go out of the mouth of the Dragon to the Battel of Armageddon upon which immediately follows that Resurrection describ'd in the Glory of the Saints the Ministers of Divine Truth who have turn'd many to Righteousness in an Excellency and the Enemies of Christ rising to everlasting Shame and Contempt according to Dan. 12. 1 2. c. and Revel 20. 4. c. to v. 7. Where we may observe the use of the Word Many to shew there is another Determination of the Future State of Mankind at the end of the 1000 Years both of them written in the Book and whose Names are not found in the Book of Life compare this with Apoc. 20. 15. From hence therefore compar'd with the Turkish Woe going off at the end of the sixth Trumpet Rev. 11. 14. It seems most probable but I dare not in Particulars be too definitive There is a reducing of the Turkish Power at that Trumpets end sending it to Euphrates from whence it came at the Beginning of it and a DE-PORTING it from Constantinople At the sixth Vial there is a drying it up in his proper Euphrates in some Encounter on the Mountains of Tzebi or Judea and what Mahometan Tail may remain shall be wholly cut off at Armageddon when neither Head nor Tail Tyranny nor False Prophetism to hurt with shall be left in the World 2. After the End had been thus given leading from the sixth Vial to the seventh Then the true orderly native course of that End is drawn within its proper Channels and Successions of Prophetick Time as is now in the next place to be demonstrated upon this Danielian Prophecy SECT VII Of the whole Line of Time from the Resurrection of Messiah unto the Time of Blessedness in the Lotts of the New Jerusalem and its Royal Priesthood On Dan. 12. v. 4. c. to the End AFter the full and ample Discovery according to the Allowance of Prophecy of the State of the Honourable Resurrection of the Servants of Christ and the despicable Resuscitation of the Wicked inclusive of all Misery follows the Delineation of Time Immediately upon this Declaration of this Resurrection Christ commands Daniel to shut the Book and seal it to the time of the End which End must be that End When many of them that sleep shall so awake But in regard of the Laxitude of the Expression The Time of the End we must understand The whole Time from Christ's Resurrection to this Resurrection is call'd The last Time The End The End of the World The last Days frequently in Scripture All Progresses in which Time are still yet nearer the End and so more the Time of the End and the last Days than the former Parts are This then being first conceiv'd Under some sealing more or less The Book must continue till Christ says Seal not the Sayings of this Book for the Time is at hand relating just to the Time of the Vials when the Kingdom of Christ was not only entred and proclaim'd and all Things were in finishing in the seventh Trumpet but the Time of the Dead that they should be judged was nigh when the
Usage by Pharaoh argued against their Deliverance by Moses All the Disaffection in the Age to Interpretation of Prophecies or its insensibleness of them can no more disprove them than Christ's coming as a Thief upon Sardis at an Hour it knew not shall be disprov'd by the Sleepiness and Unwatchfulness of that Church Let us then with Resolution Constancy of Obedience Strength of Faith Labour of Love Patience of Hope wait for and come to the end of these ten days and from them to the 1335 Days where Blessedness shall certainly be But if we should say We may dye before those Ten Years are come to their Period and there is no Probability or Possibility we should live to the seventy five beyond or the 1335 of Blessedness I answer The Saints of God living on Earth shall receive their share in all the Glories of his Kingdom and the several degrees of it and they that dye hoping waiting desiring praying shall be rais'd in the very same posture of Soul wherein they died so that they who by a general Faith and Obedience waited and came in Daniel's Time and ever since viz. by earnest Prayers Come Lord Jesus Come quickly shall be blessed even as they who by particular Faith and Obedience wait and come at the Time it self And in the mean time the Souls of Saints above the Spirits of just men who shall be perfected at that time celebrate in Heaven all the Advances of Christ's Kingdom even as they pray for it as the Souls under the Altar cry How long Lord c. so they rejoyce at every Rising of Christ's Kingdom so do the same Souls Rev. 12. 10. So Rev. 14. 3. They that sing that new song harping with their Harps So They Rev. 15. 3. So they Rev. 19 c. Such is the universal Song of Triumph of the Palm-bearing company Revel 7. 10. Let us not therefore despond but be abundant in the work of the Lord knowing our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Why should it be thought an incredible thing that God Remark 6 should draw in his Word the Plot of Future Time to so great a Period as the Kingdom of Christ That all Futurity is within the Grasp of Infinite Omniscience cannot be doubted Known to God are all his Works from the beginning to the end The Scheme of all that hath been before it was or that shall be is always with Him as if it just now was in all the circumstances and Life of a present Appearance in whose Eternity All present past to come are all one The whole Table of Time is always before Him Does it then pertain to the Prerogative of Omniscience that Future Things should be known only to himself It does so indeed any further than he is pleas'd to reveal them But He that challenges the false Divinities of the Heathen that they could not declare things to come hath certainly given Isa 42. 23. Instances of his own Prescience and Demonstrations of it to his People Hath he not done so in all Ages by his Servants the Prophets Is he not as Liberal to the Ages of Christianity to the state of things under the Gospel of his Son whom he hath constituted Heir of all things and put in subjection to him the World to come of which we speak Or is the Glory of Divine Truth so great that even as immediate Appearances the Power of Miracles and extraordinary Revelations have ceas'd since the full Settlement and Sealing the Volume of Truth in the Gospel so Prophecy needs not now This indeed hath much of Reason yet even as all Truth is compriz'd in that Volume so are the Grand Revolutions pertaining to the Christian Church in the same Volume and therefore whatever God hath done for the former World the very same hath he summ'd up in the New Testament When therefore we have besides the Interspersion of Prophecy in several places of it a Book wholly Dedicated to Prophecy Blessed is he that heareth and readeth the words of this Prophecy Have we not reason then to expect the course of things to the very end in it But does not the Prophecy it self say The Things were shortly to come to pass So that what is to be found in it pertain'd to the primitive Age the Destruction of Jerusalem to the Time when Christianity was well settled and till Pagan Rome became Christian It is true indeed The Divine Revelator Jesus Christ our Lord does say the things were shortly to come to pass that is to begin to come to pass They were then upon motion but as a great Army is said to come immediately when the Avant-Corriers are coming or come although the whole Body and Rear may be considerable distances off so this whole Series and Chain of Events in the Revelation come quickly although the first and the last part differ so many Ages Is it not clear and visible that there is the Beginning of Things and the End of Things in every mans Apprehension plain and evident that is from the Resurrection and to the Day of Judgment and why then should we not believe there is the Middle of Things also Why should we imagine Prophecy hath made such a Leap over the Between Lying Times seeing they were very great Did it not behove his Church and Servants to know of so great and wide spreading an Imposture as Mahometanisme Was it nothing to it Christianity should be in so low and dark a state as it was from the lowest Fall of the Western Empire to the Ruine of the Eastern Empire in both which the principal Residences of it were and so long space as from 666 to 1453. But still it may be said If such a Prophecy be it does not become us to pry into it it is the Ark of secret things that do not belong to us Why then does Christ say Blessed is he that heareth the words of this Prophecy Why doth he command him that hath Wisdom and Vnderstanding to count the Number of the Beast Why doth He in explication of the Seven Heads say Here is the Mind that hath Wisdom Why had Christ the Revelation to shew to his Servants But was it not all one as if they had not been reveal'd since the Revelation was not pretended to be understood in former Times I answer we do not know what was understood the Apostacy so cover'd and muffled all Things and does yet so darken them The universal prejudice against the Explanation of this Prophecy is I doubt not the effects of this Apostasie But that there hath gone a stream of Light from hence to the Servants of Christ by the Witnesses in every Age is to me out of all question and that it hath discover'd the Things most necessary to that Age although the Light hath been not only clearer but the knowledge that such a Light hath been more certain to us since the last Age and Half and shall be every day clearer and clearer When
to 1697. We have found the order in which it hath come on very clear brought down by Prophecy in Symbols so justly proportionate to matters of Fact and Events all along History first to the Apostacy and from thence by as unquestionable a Chain of Events during that Apostacy as hath been before describ'd till the Reformation and now we shall find the Reformation as admirably set out and no other things in the whole course of Time answering to each Representation as those Cardinal Points of History do What greater Demonstration then can we have that we are upon the right sense and scope of Prophecy Since such admirable Correspondencies as if we our selves by our own Judgments had been to contrive the one for the other we could not under Veils have desired so much and therefore they can no more be suspected of chance then that the Letters Sillables and Words of the Apocaliptick Prophecy should come out by chance into that exact System wherein we now find them I pray therefore which of these grand Events can by History be contested or what fitter prophetical Symbols could be found out for them or in such a Succession And so we shall find in this particular of the Reformation so recent and fresh in History and all most in Memory at this day and at this day running on so that the Instances of it are most notorious confess'd and even to be admired in the Wonders of Providence that brought it to pass and yet sustain it When therefore the Bestian or Antichristian Kingdom was coming so near its number as that the Image of Supremacy had been made to the Beast at the 606 confirmed to it and Life given to it to speak and to cause c. by the Lateran Councel at 649. come to its very number at 725. The War was between the Beast and the Witnesses represented by the Jeconoclastick Emperours and their Constantinopolitan Councel damning Image Worship 754 but then the Witnesses were overcome by the Cessation of those Emperours and by that Councel of Nice 787 and so they lying dead till their first motion to a rising 1517. While all these things were the Judgment of God in just Degrees and Measures pursued with Vengeance this Antichristian Kindom First by Mahomets setting up his false Prophetism as near the Supremacy given by Phocas as 622 to 606 by the Locusts or Mahometan Saracens ready to enter their first five Months and to strike as a Serpion about the Time of the War with the Witnesses especially at their Death 787 And together with the Apostacy strengthning it self they advanc'd into their second five Months of hurting with the stings of their Tails and when a winterly torpidness seiz'd them then by the Turks as a far greater and more severe as also more continuing Scourge God Executed his Judgments on this Antichristian Empire But the Impenitency still continuing Christ Appears as it were from Heaven in the Reformation and how evident is it that the Reformation followed on such a state of the Latine or strictly Roman World for can any pretend there was after the taking of Constantinople any shew of Repentance Repentance of their worshiping Demons departed Spirits or Images and Pictures of Gold or Silver Wood or Stone which neither hear see or walk nor did they repent of their Murthers those cruel Butcheries of the Saints and Servants of God nor of their Sorceries those bewitchings of Men with a false sensual Religion their lying or magical and Necromantick Miracles ascrib'd to Relicks Images and the Idolized Host nor of their Fornications allowed Concubinacies and Stews nor of their Thefts their pious Frauds and wiping men of their Goods and Estates by Cheats and to false and impious Ends and that this high and avowed impenitency was not only then but hath continued ever since appears too much by the Councel of Trent and the whole Tract of time after the Reformation 1. Let us then consider the Appearance as it were of Christ from Heaven against this Impenitency He the mighty supream Angel of the divine Presence comes down from Heaven though sitting in Heaven in his mighty Administrations 2. He is cloathed with a Cloud his Face as the Sun breaking out of the Cloud and creating a Bow as in the day of Rain These Appearances are as after a Flood not yet removed the Clouds were yet hovering and flying the Rain not yet gon the Brightness watery and yet with significations of Mercy and the Grace of the Covenant That the Flood should be drawn off and return no more to cover the Earth 3. His Feet as Pillars of Fire signifying both the refining and purification of his Servants as also their Vivi Comburin their Death in the midst of Flames as we know how frequent they were at that Time 4. He had in his Hand an open Book the Book of his Kingdom as if he were now ready to publish the Decree of his universal Psal 2. 7. Reign which had been so often stay'd by sealing and now after the Seals opened and the six Trumpets sounding ready to reveal it self 5. As a signal of his unbounded Dominion He sets his Dan. 12. 6. right Foot on the Sea and his left Foot on the Earth as from the Sea to the end of the Earth 6. He cried with a Loud Voice as when a Lion roars when he received the Book He is call'd the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Then he prevail'd to open the seven Seals now as the same Revel 5. 5. Lyon he holds the Book open shewing his just right to the Throne of David the Throne and Empire of the new Jerusalem and roars from his Holy Habitation 7. When he had thus roared seven thunders utter their Voices as in an Eccho or resound of Heaven above to his just 2 Sam. 2. 10. claim and as Hannah prophecyed of old The Lord shall thunder from Heaven on his Adversaries so he on the Adversaries of his Kingdom when he comes to judge the end of the Earth when God gives strength to this his King and exalts the Horn of his Anointed Now all these things were that powerful sound of the Gospel and divine Truth by Luther and the first Reformers like the Angels coming down from Heaven and rouling away the Stone in Preparation of the Lords Resurrection This arous'd Matt. 28. 1. and amaz'd the World then even as the Keepers of the Grave were as dead Men when Christ arose and this was more a dreadful stroke upon the Bestian Kingdom then Mahometanism it self For this was an Arrow levell'd at the Heart of his Kingdom and declared it to be Antichristian an Usurpation upon the Glory of Christ This was a dawn of the most terrifying Appearance of Christ and shaked the very Foundations of his State This accompanied with the Separation of so many Princes and States from that Antichristian Empire was more formidable then all the Assaults of a false and barbarous Religion however
accompanied with the Mahometan Force and yet even that remains a scourge upon it since the Reformation until now and cannot cease to be so while Antichristianism it self shall survive But if things had thus gone on The Kingdom of Christ had long ' ere now appear'd Let us then consider the Agreement of the Symbols of Prophecy with the stay of this Glory of Christ that it did not proceed to the utmost in the Ruine of Antichrist and the Revelation of his supream Dominion The first Estopple on the Kingdom of Christ is the sealing of the Thunders the constant Symbol of some breaking out of Christ's Kingdom for they were such powerful Voices of Highest and most Excellent Truth that if they had been written as John in Zeal to the Glory of Christ was about speedily to write them and not seal'd They had rent the Heavens and the Kingdom of Christ had been proclaim'd as by the Voices of the seventh Trumpet The clear shrill and exalted Voice of Divine Truth is Luc. 17. 24. as the Lightning that with the Thunder shineth from one end of the Heaven and that shineth to the other end of Heaven and brings forth the Day of the Son of Man which the Antichristian Kingdom trembles at and is shiver'd by as by the stroke of Thunder But written and seal'd are oppos'd in this Prophecy as immediate coming to pass and reserv'd to come to pass hereafter are oppos'd one to the other There is a Recognition and Renewal of the Oath of Christ concerning Time Times Half-Time Dan. 12. 9. Indeed the Front and Aspect of the Oath there is turn'd another way for then it was directed upon these Times as to come and the Oath is They shall be here it points upon them as past and Christ swears Time shall be no more but till the seventh Trumpet and then all should be finish'd spoken by the Prophets of his Kingdom which is such a Mystery the World will not believe however told them They are angry whenever Christ takes his Power to him and reigns and much more angry at Rev. 11. 18. any mention of it before hand at any unlocking or reading viz. interpreting Prophecy concerning it But Christ swears There shall be no more Time Or no Kalendar of any Kingdom but his own at the seventh Trumpet it shall then immediately succeed and be proclaim'd Till then Time is allowed for the thunders to remain seal'd Then they shall be opened And if the Thunders had not been sealed before the Oath the Oath had cut off that Time also but because the half Time cannot be less then it self The Thunders remain seal'd neither more nor less than the half Time So it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Time but only a half Time and a whole Time could be no more 4. The eating the Book It s being sweet in the Mouth and bitter in the Belly and prophecying again signifie altogether the retirement of Christs Kingdom anew into Prophecy in place of present Accomplishment and of that Kingdom then appearing For therefore was Its sweet in the Mouth because the Discourse of that Kingdom as in the Voice of Thunder was exceeding sweet as importing its present Appearance But the Discourse of it as matter of Prophecy and the Re-absconding it to that purpose into the Belly was exceeding bitter as signifying its Delay and Secrecy for longer time yet as Belly imports secretly Whereas therefore the Book in regard of the half-season ended was opened as if then to be accomplish'd and the things written in it to be finished It s remanding into the Belly of the Prophet concludes its delay and this was bitter The Book therefore was sweet in any presence bitter in any Delays of the Kingdom The Kingdom is not to be yet while the half day lasts It must be when that ends in the seventh Trumpet therefore it remains in Prophecy And of the Servants of God continuing to Prophecy in Sack cloth because of the delay of Christs Kingdom and to prophecy again before many Peoples and Nations and Tongues and Kings whom this Kingdom concerns John is here the Representative the prophetical Scheme or Symbol For this Prophecy is unto and so before many who will not vouchsafe to hearken or attend to it yet it is unto them before them and will take hold of them But while the Book is in Prophecy in the Belly It is Bitter and the Witnesses prophecy in Sackcloth So John Personates or Proxies for them The sealing then of the Thunders as also the Voice of the Roar of the Lion by implication retiring the Eating of the open Book or returning it into Prophecy Argue It must remain in Prophecy as it had done the whole Time of the Trumpets after the Seals opened because of the 144000 seal'd and that the Kingdom did not appear when it had in the Christian Emperours made so loud a claim And now by the Thunders utterances a so publick challenge of its Right yet it must return again into Prophecy and be Bitter in the Belly All these are the clear and evident Importance of these Symbols in a due compare of the Parts of this Prophecy between themselves And if we look not only into History but Knowledge it cannot be denyed but that the Kingdom of Christ hath not yet appear'd in Glory The blessed Effects of Christian Religion The great Prophecies concerning those Effects that even swell the Womb of Prophecy have not yet been brought forth The Antichristianism the Bestianism the Apostle Paul the Apostle Pet. Epist 2. c. 2. c. 3. Peter the Apostle John especially in his Apocal. describes hath yet a too sad Interest in the Christian World Mahometanism covers a great part of the habitable Earth and till very lately as in signification of the Time of Christ's Kingdom to be proclaim'd near at hand hath been the Scourge and Terror of Christianity but more particularly as according to this Prophecy of the Antichristianity of East and West and holds a very considerable part of the Profession of it under Slavery Pagaism we know possesses except obstinately blind interspers'd Judanism the rest of the World All which must remove at Christ's Kingdom And if we consider the State of Christianity more Reformed to it self to speak in the Language and Symbols of this Prophecy There are very great Parts of the Reformation that are within the Bowels of the yet Antichristian Princes and so within the Dition and Kingdom of the Beast when ever it pleases God to give scope to that Power They are all manner of ways persecuted and harrass'd even as the Succession or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Church of Thyatyra were to be and their last Works and Sufferings thereby became more than their First Rev. 2. 19. c. and are so far from being perfectly risen and out of Sack-cloth that they make an appearance of the Witnesses again Hungary France slain as in Neighbour Countries of