observed until the Empire and Church become one under Christ's Kingdome in the time or haply after the time of the seventh Trumpet Therefore after the Lamb Christ Jesus had received the Book at the Hand of him that sat upon the Throne chap. 5. in the Chapter following John heard the thundring Voice of one of the Beasts saying Come and see when the Lamb opened the first Seal where he beheld a white Horse and he that sat on him had a Bow and a Crown was given to him and he went conquering and to conquer denoting the dispensations of God's Grace in the world through Jesus Christ who received of the Father this Book of Revelation of the things concerning the Church and her Enemies and hath all power to fulfil and execute them accordingly here first set forth by the white-horse so tendering Peace by the Preaching of the Gospel which like a Bow shoots out Arrows as Psal 45. piercing the hearts of all sorts it is sent unto and by which Christ will be Victorious and Glorious c. and therefore in the sending abroad of his Gospel he goes conquering of all sorts thereby and to conquer and subdue all such as shall oppose and persecute it This hath been his design ever since this white horse was sent abroad guided by that Rider and this is and will be pursued till he fully have the Crown of Victory when his Enemies shall become his Foot-stool Psalm 110. at the day of the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Titus 2.13 to begin at or about the destruction of Antichrist 2 Thess 2.8 when he will come with Clouds Rev. 1.7 and when all Families of the Earth shall mourn seeing the Son of man coming in the Clouds with Power and great Glory Mat. 24.30 and 26.64 of which design the Spirit of God by the holy Prophet speaketh eminently Psal 45.4 saying Ride on in thy Majesty because of the Word of Truth of Meekness and Righteousness viz. to subdue unto his Obedience by conquering and his right Hand will teach him terrible things by conquering and subduing his Enemies and such as withstand him And this in all parts of the Revelation will be evident for persecution will follow the Gospel as the Shadow the Substance so long as the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman have their aboad together in the world and therefore in this Book in the following Seals God seems thereby to manifest what dispensations he would shew towards such persecuting Enemies in all the following Seals and Trumpets till that time of eminent victory and conquest begin to be manifest unto men in the World at the foresaid Period for the great comfort of his Church to be believed from his Word and which should be applyed daily for the warning of wicked men if they will be admonished Mr. Mede doth very appositely apply the Red Black and Pale Horses to such purposes in the three following Seals observing from the Histories of the Primitive times how they were accomplished as likewise Mr. Fox observes remarkably that after the Roman Governors had rejected the offer of receiving Christ and that Satan had engaged them in Persecutions above thirty of their Emperors successively came to untimely deaths but how such Judgments of Sword Famine Pestilence followed one another upon the Empire and sometimes altogether besides as may be observed from the first second and third Seals but especially from the fourth as more particularly is set down by the aforesaid Mr. Mede I would therefore have observed in the fifth Seal the remarkable different dispensation of God when most of the ten Persecutions had reged and sent home such multitudes of believing Christians to blessedness by their sufferings that by the opening of the fifth Seal is signified to the Church how God was mindful of the Blood of the Martyrs by the crying of the Souls under the Altar for revenge not that they in Happiness then did complain or so did really cry for Vengeance but that God looked upon what had been done to them as an occasion whereupon he would revenge them but yet not presently but after their Brethren which should soon after suffer as they had done had been likewise killed which seemed to have been fulfilled in the Tenth Persecution under Dioclesian and others which continued ten years to gether which probably was the ten days Tryal and Tribulation formerly spoken of Rev. 2.10 but the sufferers under the Beast are included also And accordingly in the sixth Seal came the great Earthquake when the Sun became like Sackloth of Hair and the Moon like Blood and the Stars fell and the mighty men hid themselves in the Caves of the Earth when the wrath of the Lamb was two ways manifest first In dethroneing the Dragon and casting him down to the Earth in abandoning the Heathenish Idolatry and secondly By curting off his Instruments the then wicked Rulers of the World by the means of that Reforming Victorious Conqueror the Emperour Constantine the Great when God's hand was so heavy upon Dioclesian Maximinianus Galerius Maximinus Maxentius Licinius and many Governours under their Command with their Armies and particularly on Pontitius Culianus Theotimus with many others as Stories testifie And afterward by taking away by degrees the Seat and Throne of the former Beast who received afterward the deadly wound upon which the Dragon had so prevailed before to persecute the Saints as appears in the Trumpets following which proceeded out of that seventh Seal all of which sounded their several Wrath and Judgments against it till it went into utter perdition under every form both East and West But before the execution of that Wrath God would Chap. 7. and 14. have both his 144000's of the Faithful sealed where those Trumpets Blasts should come who should be saved from the spiritual mischief of them and after the sealing of those 144000 Cap. 7. are an innumerable company of Palm-bearers of all Nations and Tongues which the said Author rightly conceives to be the great confluence of Christians when the Jews with the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in which will I doubt not be in the time of Christs powerful Reign for this is the course observable in this Book as may hereafter be more manifest that the spirit of God first setteth down what blessedness shall ensue the sufferings of his People before those sufferings come Now I conceive with a Learned Author that these 144000. sealed Ones Cap. 7. are another from those 144000 Cap. 14. for which he gives divers Reasons shewing those in Cap. 7. were to be preserved in the Greek Church in the Eastern Empire and that from the fifth and sixth and the part of the seventh Wo. Trumpet that might fall there as towhat evil might there fall at the begining of the sounding thereof which said sealed Ones are specially to be preserved and secured at the entrance of the fifth or first Woe-Trumpet by the
and repeats it again the more strongly to assertain it ver 52. latter part of the verse for the Trumpet saith he shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed See this explained in the Treatise on Rev. 20.5 p 56 57 c. It seems also necessary that there be a distinct consideration of the state of such as are of the New Jerusalem come down from Heaven which seems to be the City whose Maker and Builder is God as it is said Heb. 11.10 which is again said v. 16. to be prepared by him for the faithful Fore-fathers that died not having received the Promises v. 39 who without us will not be made perfect ver last having all died in Faith which is probable to to be meant by our Saviour when he calls it the City of the great King Mat. 5.35 where his Deputies the twelve Apostles shall sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Luke 22.30 on whose twelve foundations of the Wall thereof shall be written the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb Rev. 21.14 and seems to be the chief mansion-place of the blessed holy then raised Saints having part in that first Resurrection wholly then freed from the second death Rev. 20.6 upon which the Glory of the LORD will then eminently shine continually to the eclipsing of the glory of the Sun and Moon Isa 60.19 Rev. 21.23 22.5 Very glorious things saith the Psalmist in a Prophetical Rapture are spoken of thee O City of God Psal 87.3 as is observable in that whole Psalm Again the then happy estate of the converted and reduced twelve Tribes of Israel and Juduh those two sticks united into one Ezek. 37. together with the converted Gentiles in their fulness then come in Rom. 11. who together with very large endowments of inward spiritual Grace and therewith abundance of temporal prosperity which the Prophets largely spake of with very much exemption from the evil of sin and suffering when Satan is bound the Churches enemies destroyed or subdued and brought under which happy estate they and their posterity will successively enjoy through all the Generations of the said thousand years according to the Prophecies or Promises Deut. 30. ver 1. to 11. Isa 61.1 The Seed which the Lord hath blessed Ezek. 37.25 They and their Childrens Children for ever and my Servant David that is Christ the Messiah shall be their Prince for ever Isa 59. last Deut. 4.30 31. with many texts more and which were theirs not in a mortal that is a changeable condition from a natural life by some removal or Translation as otherwise they should have no Seed or Posterity to enjoy those many Promises all the thousand years so neither should they at last be lyable to any evil attempt of Satan and wicked men called Gog and Magog though by gracious Promise such as live at that last Period of time are secured from the evil even of the attempt likewise many other things the holy Scripture seems to hold forth in reference to the differing state of the naturally living and the Saints raised at the beginning of the thousand years and as for the restitution of all things in respect thereof without Scripture-warrant why look we for any more than Gods removing the Curse as the inflicting that from the Fall hath been the efficient Cause of all that bondage that hath been ever since upon the Creatures held on by the means of Saran till then when he shall likewise be bound Thus in such a way if the distinction between the last mystical Trumpet and the last said sounding Trumpet and the state of the raised Saints and such as then will remain in their natural Life be well observed it may greatly make way for the clearing by degrees by the help of Gods Word and Spirit many excellent Truths respecting these things wherein much caution and moderation will still be very useful and necessary in what things are not clear and evident c. The third Paper of December 7. 1664. of Mr. Durhams Book of Scotland occsionally sent to be perused c. and is added here as a Supplement to the two former Papers AS for the perused Author he was manifestly a man of great Abilities Worth and Piety as is evident from his grave judicious and truly pious Determinations Discourses Cases and Treatises of several Subjects and many Expositions along that large Book of his upon the Revelations and first more purticularly in the most things handled by him on the three first Chapters of the seven Churches of Asia and on the fourth and fifth Chapters setting forth the glory of God the Creator and Christ the Redeemer But as for the right series of things following in that Divine Book he appears not to have attained the right Key so far as I can by the guidance of God's Word and Spirit as I believe with such other helps which in special mercy have hitherto been afforded me discern and to this purpose I shall endeavour by his Grace to set down some brief hints of Differences between him and others which upon the former accounts I much rather approve of as namely of judicious Mede and some others since him yet living though haply in some things I may differ from all yet I conceive Light and Darkness may so thereby the better discover themselves and illustrate each other that whoso like the noble Bereans shall search the Scriptures answerably concerning what shall be set down may probably find whether all these things be so for as no mans eminency should lead us into error so no mans meanness should make us neglect or despsie the Truth he tenders especially the Divine and Heavenly Truths which God hath set forth in his Word for the true comfort and Edification of his Church I shall briefly for what is past give only some hints of both for the most part referring to a former Letter to such purposes dated May 20. 1664. with the foregoing Key to both which this Paper may be a supplement but haply somewhat more largly of what is to come as God shall direct and enable me whose assistance I must confess to his glory I have formerly experimentally found First then What this Author understandeth in the Seals That the Horses signifie the Church and the Persecutions thereof along the Primitive Times seem to me more aptly otherwise to denote with Mr. Mede and others the dispensations of God in the world as in Zach. 1.10 both towards the Church and others with whom they had to do namely the Roman Empire called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament and though both the Books in the Seal-prophesie and the little Book chap. 10. speak much in some sort of both yet each chiefly relates to one as namely the Seal-prophecy for the most part to the Empire and the Book-prophecy for the most part to the Church as after may more by Gods assistance appear which is to be
is described Dan. 7. And in this Book chap. 14. is conceived by judicious men upon considerable grounds to be contemporary with the two Beasts setting out the opposite state of the true Church in the same time not successive as this Author takes it though the Beasts ruine is therein more fully described yet he hath many considerable things against and concerning Antichrist in this Chapter and likewise he is very excellent upon the seventeenth and eighteenth being a like subject to prove the Pope to be Antichrist But for the particular Vision concerning the Vials Rev. 15 16. which appears to be a larger explication of what was spoken of Antichrists downfal and ruine in the latter part of chap. 14. As the seventeenth was an explication of divers things concerning the Antichristian Church of Rome and the eighteenth a special Vision of the terrible suddain irresistable and cursed destruction and desolation of Rome about the sixth Vial after which probably will succeed the conversion of the Jews and the Armageddon Battel upon which he hath many profitable notes upon chap. 19. But for the beginning of the seventh Trumpet at the beginning of the pouring out of the seven Vials and placing so many of the Vials after the time wherein the thousand years chap. 20. is begun and making the casting of Satan into the Lake after the Battel of Gog and Magog chap. 20. to be the seventh Vial I conceive to be much differing from the sense of the Scripture and for that the seven Vials are called the seven last Plagues which Phrase is the same in sence with the end of the days Dan. 12. both setting forth the period of wicked Monarcy when the Feet and Toes of the Image he saw before are wearing out toward the expiring of the Roman Monarchy and are both spoken of the Beasts ruine and poured out to accomplish it by degrees which the last Vial finisheth and reach no farther and in this sense learned men understand the Oath of the Angel of the Covenant chap. 10. That Time should be no longer viz. to that wicked Dominion for thenceforth was to begin a new World as after Noahs Flood wherein Christs glorious Reign on Earth should take place in an eminent manner for then the Scene of the World will be visibly changed the old being ended and the new begun wherein a King shall Rule in Righteousness whose Officers shall be Peace and his Exactors Righteousness as the Prophet foretold c. then will come in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that world to come Heb. 2.5 but the Vials are the last Plagues because they at last dispatch and rid Antichrist and all his supportors out of the Earth neither are any such Plagues suitable to or seasonable in the state of things in the said thousand years while that happy World remains and the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ which this Author applies to the time of Luther which he judges to be the beginning of the Vials I conceive unwarrantably when he thinks the Witnesses were slain chap. 11. not dinstinguishing of the former and last flaying as we observed Grounds of the Doctrine of Christs Kingdom on Earth throughout the whole Book of the Revelations ANd here I shall take occasion to hint what I have all along observed this Learned and Religious Author to have been defective in namely as one not owning the Doctrine of the Glorious Kingdome of Christ to come one Earth in the thousand years Rev. 20. That he passeth over many things in the Book of Revelation which evidently respect that time without observation as first in the Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia wherein those promises are set down again repeated c. 21 22. concerning the New Jerusalem many of which are evidently incompetible to any other state of affairs but of that time as to have power over the Nations chap. 2.26 to receive the Morning Star and to eat of that Tree whose Leaves shall be for the healing of the Nations to sit on a Throne of Christ distinct from his Fathers Throne chap. 3.21 and to have a Name written of the New Jerusalem which comes down from Heaven which are inconsistent with the state of the Church Triumphant in Heaven with divers others which the Primitive Christians were so well resolved of in the best times to belong to those that obtained a better Resurrection as the Spirit of God expresseth it Heb. 11.35 which Saint Paul seems to aim at the attaining to by the fellowship of Christs Sufferings Phil. 3.10 11. whence the Faithful are called the Children of the Resurrection Luke 20.36 Yea observe farther they are called by our Saviour Such as are accounted worthy to attain that World and the Resurrection of the dead And to this purpose it is storied of the Primitive Christians such was their Faith in this particular that out of an holy ambition as it were to have a share amongst the raised Martyrs they were forward to suffer upon that account for the Name of Christ But in the next place likewise he passeth over what evidently refers to that state chap. 5.10 though he spake of what the representative Church are said there to obtain from Christ to be Kings and Priests spiritually unto God but he altogether passeth over what the Holy Ghost teacheth them there to praise God for for the time to come and which they greatly exult in and rejoyce in aforehand for the time to come as a duty belonging to all Saints in that happy priviledge upon Earth till then and say they We shall reign upon Earth which is joyned to the other as an other part of their joy and matter of praise foreseen by the eye of Faith as if they had said For so we all Ministers and People shall their reign not only as we did spiritually in our former condition in the world but as will be suitable to that world to come in Christ's Kingdom on Earth We shall reign with him there a thousand years as chap. 20. is farther explained and to make it clear it must not be taken for Celestial Eternal Glory the place is set down where that Reignishall be namely on Earth and for the time future noting that it was not their present spiritual Reign but they shall so reign there viz. on Earth What can be spoken more clearly yet by him all together over-look'd So usual it is for prejudice to blind the eyes even of otherwise judicious and good men though some mysteries of God are discovered in their seasons only to whom and when and so far only as he is pleased to reveal them as Mr. Mede recordeth of a Tradition that the Apocalyps should be little understood in Antichrists time till about the twelfth Century and suitable in some things afterwards in such times as God sees good c. Again he takes notice of another innumerable company cloathed in white besides the 144000 sealed ones chap. 7. which
probably at the Jews Conversion in the former part thereof when that nation will be born in a day Isa 66.8 and the marriage of the Lamb will be v. 7. Then in v. 11 c. is set forth the glorious coming of Christ to destroy the said enemies to the end of the ch when he will eminently make his foes his footstool as Psal 110.1 at the Armageddon Battel p. 7. The 4th Prophesie Rev. 11.13 14. to the end concerns the ruine of the Roman Empire the time whereof shall be no more as saith that Angel of the Covenant probably ch 10. when the 7th Angel begins to sound and Christs visible Dominion is then to take place c. See the Divine Thesis ch 2. p. 3. of the Irenicon November 3. 1663. This part of a Letter to a Friend Nov. 3. 63. now ten years past I had given order to leave out of the Abridgment but upon perusal thereof the 7th of April 74. I find it so considerable many ways being a Summary of my knowledg then of these Doctrines that I now order it to be re-printed and I would have all sorts take notice that all I have written since except my last great Discovery of the Scope of Revelation Prophesie on ch 20.5 and some other late Discoveries and Distinctions in our Key and that late Summary occasioned by my late Noble Learned Judicious good Friend Sir Robert Morai in the 2 folded leaves and the latter part of the Divine Theses from the 11 12th to the end with the addition now following them I say all others written since tend chiefly to the confirmation and explication of the same truth of the mystical part of the Gospel of Christ both in respect of those Principles and Practicals as in the first leaf of the 12 Foundations of Faith and for both purposes also I commend to them the due consideration of our 31 Observations useful for understanding mystical Prophesies with answers to objections both after the Tract on Rev. 22.20 in the 4th part AS for the New Jerusalem since the Bar viz. how Christ could personally make intercession in Heaven and yet personally reign on earth at the same time which occasioned my opinion of a mystical reign c. was taken away whereby I have formerly conceived it to be an Article of Faith which the Scripture expressly declared viz. That the Heavens must contain Christs Person till his coming the second time to Judgment my meaning was to the last Judgment having not then understood his coming in the clouds of heaven at his appearance and Kingdome to judge quick and dead at the first Resurrection of the Saints 1000 years before the rest of the dead to be the beginning of his great day of Judgment I have I say found much since in Scripture but especially in the book of the Revelation to tend to a coming of Christ as the great Monarch to set up his glorious Kingdom upon the putting down all worldly Powers that stood in opposition to him 1 Cor. 15. when he will begin to judge the quick and dead Rev. 11.17 18. I have lately perused Mr. Archers Book of Christ's Personal Reign and though in all things therein I am not satisfied yet I cannot find solid reason in many things to dissent and in other things it seemeth convincing and doubtless in his time he was a very discerning Christian and I had of late before I read that or any other of the like nature since my most earnest search into mystical Prophecies of the latter times the same apprehensions of divers passages in Scripture which I find to agree with his Book as the applying what our Saviour promised to his Disciples when he came to his Kingdom which I find will be in the Thousand years Rev. 20.4 promised to the New-Jerusalem Inhabitants Rev. 3.21 that then they should sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And that of our Saviour Luke 21.24 that Jerusalem should be trodden under foot till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled but to be raised up again then And when he wept over Jerusalem he said They namely the People of the Jews should not see him henceforth till they said Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Mat. 23. ult denoting that then they should see him And that promise Zach. 12.10 to the end which is in a way of mercy foreshewing how upon their conversion they should mourn in humble contrition and look to him at his appearing when that Nation shall be born in a day Isa 66.8 which judicious Expositors apply to the expressions Rev. 1.7 Behold he comeh with Clouds and every eye shall see him and they also that pierced him that is the People of the Jews that after their imprecation on themselves and on their children shall be accomplished will as the Apostle Paul speaks Rom. 11. appear to be beleved for their Fathers sake when those times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord Act. 3.19 and then all Israel shall be saved both of Jew and Gentile And though many grave Divines for a long time interpreted all that hath been spoken to this purpose for the most part to a spiritual sense yet the things that some hold out to the contrary 〈…〉 answered so that if this Opinion or rather matter of Faith â—e but freed from those evil additions that the subtilty of Satan in the Primitive times thrust upon it as if it should be a Kingdom of sensual pleasure for before thse misrepresentations or false aspersions rather as Mr. Mede notes it was very antient And freed likewise from that bold presumption and scandalous wickedness of our latter times for any under pretence of Christs Kingdom given to the Saints to go about by the Sword or any other unlawful means to divest Magistrates and Governors of their Offices to take that Kingdom before Christ give it to them to whom it will belong as being appointed to them by his Father in his own time namely at Christs appearing Here consider that Christ saith he came not to destroy the Law and Paul saith he established the Law and this is necessary to vindicate this Doctrine from scandal and to warn well-meaning persons that they think not upon seeming-fair pretences of good to attemp to do evil God having revealed that he will set up that Kingdom himself and that only in his own oppointed time On the other side saith our Saviour He that breaketh the least Commandment and teacheth men so shall be the least that is none in the Kingdom of Heaven as he answered the Mother of Zebedees Children Mat. 20.23 It shall be given to them for whom it is appointed by my Father appointed as well for the time when as the persons to whom These and the like errors being removed from it I think it may have an hnorable and comfortable place in matter of true Christian Faith as containing the best times of the most
holy Catholick Church upon earth that we are to believe or hope for and the excellent Communion of Saints that we are in this world to expect And likewise that we are now especially by our prayers to labour to promote as God of old directed his people when their time of deliverance from Babylon drew on Jer. 39. Then said he they shall call on me and I will answer c. And when Daniel by Books understood the mind of God therein he set himself by fasting and prayer to seek for and help forward if it might be the accomplishment of such revealed Grace So now also that new Babel is abundantly revealed to God's People to be shortly to be thrown down and the New-Jerusalem much more abundantly revealed in Scripture shortly thereupon to be set up The Faith and Prayer of God's People ought in their sphear to seek to promote it and I observe the Dutch Notes though by men of different Judgments yet in the Preface of the nine last Chapters of Ezakiels Prophecy apply what is there said to some wonderful Glory of a Jerusalem to come of which the former restoring of the Jews from old Babylon was but a Type Besides I observe many Psalms and many passages in many other Psalms more than I read in Mr. Archers Book to tend so this way that otherwise as such prophetical-Scriptures besides seem not to have any probable fulfilling but according to Revelation Interpretation as I may call it which I must acknowledge I never did nor ever was like rightly and groundedly to have understood but according to the tenour of that blessed book And as Israels coming out of Egypt tended to the actual giving of them after forty years space the possession of Canaan of old so God's Peoples coming out of the spiritual Egyptian Antichristian bondage now approaching tends to bring all God's true Israel into the New-Jerusalem that comes down from Heaven Rev. 20. and is it not a main drift of the most if not of all the petitions in the Lord's Prayer to this purpose for when hath Gods Name been so comperably hallowed in Earth as it is in Heaven as then it will be both by Men and Angels in all he is made known by to his People When will his Kingdom come with such power to any suitableness in Earth as it is and will be in Heaven but when the Kingdoms of this World are the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ Rev. 11.15 And likewise when at the same time Rev. 19. God's People shall so rejoyce when the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth because as it followeth in the next verse his Bride hath made her self ready And consequently when will the Will of God be done in Earth as it is by the blessed Aegels in Heaven but when his Subjects are of most obeddient hearts and loyal spirits as they will be under suh a prevalent reigning of Christ When my daily Bread this day any day be so comfortably and confidently prayed for and expected as when the particular promises of the greatest confluences of Temporal and Spiritual Blessings are to be fulfilled in their proper season to their best purposes c. When may we with such comfort and confidence pray for forgivieness of our Trespasses this day any day as when our hearts shall witness with us we least allow our sins When shall we be so assured of our own pardon as when our spirits are most free and clear in pardoning others in case they offend against us When can we so confidently pray to be delivered from the evil one and evil works with the consequents thereof this day any day as when Satan shall be known to be bound Rev. 20.3 and many great temptations removed and a very great measure of Grace attained and neer Communion with Christ enjoyed in this World Yea and will not the following enforcements of Prayer set down by our Saviour be then most clearly aplicable when the Kingdom is most manifestly Gods and the Power both to obtain it at his own time and pleasure and so likewise to retain it appears clearly his and consequently all Glory as his due shall be rendred unto him to all eternity Amen Amen And for the Martyrs and Saints to be raised at the entrance of Christ on this his Kingdom to have their part in the New Jerusalem I had the like thoughts before to what I find in other Authors That they should be in a state such as Christ was in after his own Resurection while he was not acssended to his Father but when I consider the many Prophesies of all those great things in the Old Testament so confirmed in the New and especially applyed in the Revelation to the New Jerusalem not only by allusion but by application of the Spirit of God and Christ himself in a special manner Rev. 10.7 as he declared to his Servants the Prophets And at that time reward is to be given to his Servanis the Prophets Rev. 11.18 and to his Saints and to them that fear his Name both great and small as it follows in the same Scripture And it is of main weight in this point that when the Chorus was set about the Throne Rev. 4.1 2 3. c. when Saint John was to receive the visions of that Book there is a Glorious appearance of God described and the Rainbow round about the throne as doing all to his Church through the Covenant of Grace through the Blood of Christ his only begotten Son and the seven Lamps burning before the Throne deciphering the seven Spirits or the Holy Ghost with his Gifts and Graces as Rev. 1.4 more clearly in Rev. 5. there is a Book in the hand of him that sat upon the Throne which none was found worthy to open but the Lamb that had been as it were slain having seven Horns and seven Eyes vers 6. which occasioned the four living Wights and twenty four Elders to sing a new Song and afterwards fall down and worship but the top of rejoyceing for all that was in the Book and after all that should be done and suffered by and for and in Christs Church which they represented in that vision it was this which was the great enforcement of their joy while the World was to continue And say they vers 10. we shall reign upon Earth And that Subject of such their reign there after all their labours and sufferings of the Saints as their time of refreshment Acts. 3.19 and Sabbatism or rest Heb. 4. is largely treated of in sundry Particulars in the 19 20 21 22. the four last Chapters of the Book of the Revelations and that those things therein contained must necessarily be understood of the state of God's Church upon earth according to the series and order of the Book in the last times and therefore were never yet accomplished take into serious consideration the brief abridgment of Reasons and Testimonies following to that purpose 1. The New Jerusalem is said to come down
ended Isa 60.19.20 Her Joy everlasting Isa 61.7 For ever shall her Land be inhabited Isa 60.21 Zech. 14.11 For to the Lord is she married Isa 62.4 who sweareth by his right Hand and the Arm of his Strength to give her no more over to her Enemies Isa 62.8 As that day the Lord shall be King over all the Earth and in that day shall there be one Lord and his Name one Zech. 14 9. Thus we see what glorious Promises are made to the New Jerusalem when the Promises of the New Heavens and the New Earth shall be accomplished with many other of the like nature whence it may appear how strongly pre-possession of prejudice against an Opinion of Doctrine may carry grave and otherwise judicious men away from the Way of Truth sometime upon one advantage or other as by Prescription by Multitudes of wise learned or even good men If they try not all things to hold that which is good which was mine own late Error in this particular or at least want of defecation of appendant Errors cunnigly by Satan affixed on this Truth as we observed in antient and modern seducements not distinguishing between the Depravation and Corruption of that Truth and Truth it self which in its Original was pure and untainted as in other cases many times when the corrupt super-additions of men have long prevailed to mingle themselves with anciently untainted Truths which when men can learn to view with unprejudiced minds and adhere to with uninteressed Affections will soon appear to them in their native excellency But for the said New-Jerusalem the more I observe many places of Scripture not only in the New Testament and Revelations but in the Psalms the Prophets and even the Historical Parts the more I am minded thereof from time to time And besides Psal 2. 8. 96 98 99. which one mentions especially I have taken notice of sundry others since God hath opened my eyes as he did Hagers of old to see these refreshing Waters of Comfort as Psal 89. 50. and divers passages in others which seemed to tend that way as Psal 146.5 6 7 8 9 10. 148.11 12 13 14. 149. throughout and those nine last Chapters of Ezekiel 〈◊〉 the Dutch Bible reckons like Daniels to be Revelations of the old Testament which set forth things to be accomplished in the New though they seem not to own the Opinion yet sometimes again lay grounds of it The second and seventh of Daniel speak much of Christs Kingdom and many other places too largely here to rehearse The Spirit of God seems to me to have spoken so largely thereof and in many specialties likewise to these purposes and the things themselvs seem so to approach as evidently may appear from the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ th best Expositor of the meaning of his own Prophetical Spirit that it much concerns all Gods People diligently to search and examine all such Truths as he hath set down there for our now seasonable Instruction and Consolation being sunk down near to the very dregs of the Worlds evil Times And as our Saviour on Earth directed to search the Sciptures for Salvation so now being in Heaven he directs his people to search them in this for consolation And as then he said In Moses the Prophets and the Psalms as it is written of me for the former so for this he not only points out Moses the Prophets and the Psalms in the old Testament but hath likewise taught the Apostles the Evangelists with many other persons divinely inspired in the New Testament to give witness to these things and lastly by his own wonderful gracious divine Vide the Irenicon or Peaceable Consideration of Christ's Kingdome c. though mystical Revelation to the beloved St. John wherein very much is held out concerning his own Kingdom and the New Jerusalem and as it was when by the Ministry of Christ and his Apostles the Doctrine of the Resurrection had been more cleared than in former times yet afterwards the Apostle Paul shews a farther Mystery concerning the same 1 Cor. 15. We must saith he all be changed though not all dye so many things are still Mysterious to us concerning both the New Jerusalem and the Resurrection though concerning both our Saviour in his Revelation hath last super-added greater farther Discoveries in both than any were before at least in evidence and clearness Yet how are the Eyes of very many withheld from discerning these things and in great part it is like to be so to all save to them to whom it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God which he uses to do as Christ himself informeth us to Babes and Sucklings when they are hid from the Wise and Prudent Mat. 11.25 and therefore to be humbly and faithfully sought And though the Apostle Paul concerning the Jews general Conversion had discoursed largly in the ninth tenth and eleventh Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans yet still he reckons that Doctrine mystical v. 25 c. Let all such therefore as are of truly Christian Spirits wait upon God as by other means so by faithful and earnest Prayer to the true Teacher of his own Mysteries as may appear requisite in a matter of so great importance concerning all Gods faithful People who seem to have their peculiar interest therein Rev. 3.21 and 20.4 5. and 10.18 which is incomparably greater and better for that thousand years than all the Crowns and Scepters and Kingdoms of the World not improved in Christs service in the mean time This part of a Letter of May 20 1664. to Mr. Cal of the order of the times of the Seals Trumpets and Vials perused with that Abridgment of the Seal-Prophesie with the large Note page 26 27 28 29. of the Irenicon with the following Paper of two defects in Mr. Durhams book of Scotland may to observant Readers give much light to the book of Revelation and the Scheme of that whole book and Summarie of Daniel before the Parallels after drawn up when many hundred of both the other were burnt Anno 1666. serves for the like use but with somefarther advantages therein observable c. THe first six of the seven Seals are the first Times after the giving of the Revelation to St. John toward the end of the first Century or first hundred of years after Christs coming in the Flesh the which said six Seals reached to the time wherin Constantine the Great threw down the Heathenish Idolarry 〈◊〉 Romane Empire about the year 320. after Christ they are set â—ow Rev. 6. But out of the seventh Seal proceeded the Seven Trumpets whereof the six first contain all the ensuing time of the Roman Empire both Christian and Antichristian and the seventh Trumpet will begin at the ruine of Antichrist Vide Paper of Decemb. 7. 1664. where divers Reasons are given for it and continue as some conceive to be the last day of Judgment or
abiding that they might be accepted who was their spiritual Priest to intercede for them and their King to protect them spiritually Again Chap. 11. the two Witnesses prophecying in Sackcloth 1260 days have as a general Consolation to the Church all that time foreshewed to them that they shall rise again and ascend into Heaven at the end of the days and soon after have the state of the Kingdom of Christ on Earth foreshewed unto them in the end of the same Chapter So likewise the other 144000 Lamb-followers in the Western Empire are set forth to be with the Lamb in Mount Sion and have this Character of the New Jerusalem upon them That they have his Fathers Name written upon their Foreheads Chap. 14.1 Again Those that should be Sufferers under Antichrist towards his fall they sing the Song of Moses coming out of their Wilderness-condition and praise God for his Judgments upon their Persecutors and have the entrance of Christs Kingdom upon Earth set before them for their comfort Chap. 15.4 5. so that unto this scope drive the Consolations of the sufferers and faithful Christians of all times since this most holy and comfortable Book was given to Christs Church and so both those Arms of that Red Sea of Blood running through the Eastern and Western Empires in the Churches meet together at the borders of the Land of Canaan promised to the Fore-fathers and their Seed about the end of the sixth Trumpet and entrance of the seventh And whether it reacheth further than unto that New World may seem questionable First because it is one of the Woe Trumpets and no such things seem suitable to the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth in the thousand years Secondly because the whole continuance of that is set forth by another Title for the comfort of the Church namely Of the Saints reign with Christ a thousand years as it were by way of distinction from the former suffering times of the Church Thirdly there is nothing clearly said in the Text that it should continue longer than to bring the Woes upon Antichrists Kingdom and other Enemies in the World and seems to end with the last Plagues so called because they are the portion of the Churches Persecutors before the thousand years and utterly bring them to perdition and as the sixth Vial seems to end with the Armageddon-Battel Chap. 19. so the seventh binds and shuts up Satan for that thousand years wherein he must no more seduce the Nations Chap. 20. And what this Author saith of Satans being cast into the Lake after the thousand years as a Vial and the last Vial of the seven is contrary to the Text Rev. 16. at the latter end of the Chapter where it is said that when the seventh Vial was poured out the great City was divided into three parts and then great Babylon came in remembrance before God executed Chap. 18. which will be done above a thousand years before Satans casting into the Lake of fire where the Beast and the false Prophet were cast so long before Besides Satans casting into the Lake seems not to be reckoned in the nature of such Vials as gradually brought destruction on the Beast and other persecuting Enemies on Earth but as his last doom at the comsummation of all things and the dissolution of the World which is as much a mercy to such as are saved as a beginning of woe and wrath to Satan and all damned Men and Devils but an end only to the being of inferiour Creatures which had long before in the thousand years enjoyed the liberty of the Sons of God as is said Rom. 8.21 Again the drift of the Trumpets were to blow out Wrath and Judgment upon the Earth and Grass and Trees Chap. 9.4 c. and such things as were upon the Earth belonging to wicked men till they should be destroyed from off the face of it and there to end and Satan was then bound in the Pit when there was no work for him to seduce such after their destruction who was their Captain and Counsellor before It is likewise observeable what Mr. Mede saith of the thousand years wherein the Saints were to reign that Satan afore-hand in the time of Antichrist set them up in a false way of reigning to eclipse their true reigning that afterward they should have on Earth and therefore taught Antichrists Followers to set them up superstitiously and idolatrously to worship and pray to them and before their Shrines and Images making them sinfully to have a reign with Christ on Earth in shew but really against him and his Father And all that said time of Antichrist he hath played the Ape in seeking to pour out the Vials upon Christs Kingdom to come as Christ had before declared that he had seven Angels in their times to pour out seven Vials to the destruction and ruine of Antichrist The first of Satans seeming Vials was by imposing Chiliasm upon it by carnal pleasures and typical Worship though upon slight unjust and false pretences as Mr. Mede manifests Secondly By the advantage thereof he obtained that some of the Ancient Fathers were so prejudiced that they wrote against it though the former for the most part were for it Thirdly By such prejudice and the like he obtained that good men all along misplaced the thousand years by way of anticipation though differing in the time they began and expounding them all along the Popes time only of a Spiritual Reign Fourthly By Popish false Glosses and Expositions upon all the Revelation and that part in particular c. Fifthly By seducing men of latter times since the Light of Truth began more than of a long time before to break forth to seek disorderly to set up Christ's Kingdom which will be God's own work in his own time to anticipate the same and that by acting against the Divine Precepts that Christ came to establish in casting off due obedience unto Magistrates and endeavours to suppress the Ministry thereby to scandalize the Doctrine of Christ's Kingdom on Earth Sixthly More lately by such as this Author names in the end of his Book Gr. Ha. concerning whom he declares much in a few lines who would make the Revelation an History of things past rather than a Prophesie of things so long to come so that the Pope should not be Antichrist in his forty two moneths much less Christ have a thousand years Reign on Earth afterwards And lastly The seventh Vial that Satan hath to pour on Christ's Kingdom seems not unfitly to be conceived to be by displacing the Vials Chap. 16. from their own time unto Christ's Reign whereunto they are not competible whereof the subject matter will be then taken away or making a groundless great Chasm of above a thousand years difference from the sixth to the seventh when Satan is to be cast into the Fiery Lake which is a business of a much differing nature many ways from all the Vials as well as in time