degree Which kind of blasphemy seems here to be chiefly intended Also our Saviour says to the Philadelphian Church I know the blasphemy of those that say they are Iews c. viz. Spiritual Jews or Christians The belying the Truth and Righteousness of God in believers in making that to be it which is not is there called blasphemy And so this Beast is v. 5. said to speak great things and blasphemies and v. 6. to blaspheme the name of God and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven whereby seems to be signified his enmity against the Saints with whom v. 7. he makes war but doth v. 6. discharge his wrath against them with blasphemous scoffs and reproaches to overwhelm them with contempt c. Of which see v. 6. Ans. That the Name of Blasphemy does chiefly if not onely intend Idolatry is the current sense of Expositors Papists and Reformed And Blasphemy being an Iconisme of Idolatry that sense is more probable for its being Iconistical the Genius of the Apocalyptick style being such as to signifie things Iconistically rather than plainly See Blasphemy in the Expositor's Alphabet of Iconisms Moreover this Vision sets out the state of the visible Church which visible state of things in the Church is the main object of those Visions of the Apocalypse that concern the Church as this Prophecy of the opened Book does wherefore the Vision in this 13 th Chapter comprizing those times of the Church wherein she was so visibly apostatized into Idolatry some Iconistical passages or other must particularly indicate that nor the Vision be content with that more slight and unobservable intimation by calling the two Beasts that appear here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which does more palpably denote their cruelty than Idolatry and therefore there is this farther Intimation and plainer in saying there was the name of Blasphemy on his seven Heads and that his mouth spoke great things and blasphemies v. 5. Where great things being joined with blasphemies it is a plain Indication that blasphemy here has no such dwindling sense as the Remarker would put upon it And lastly that it does not signifie Blasphemy in the Remarker's sense viz. reproaching and speaking evil of the Saints may appear from hence because this Title of Blasphemy is set in common upon all the seven Heads whenas several of them as the Kings and Decemviri had nothing to doe with the Saints or any of the Church of God Nay six of these Heads were gone before the Saints which the Remarker means were on the Stage and so had no occasion to blaspheme them But that they are all seven Idolatrous Heads is unquestionable with those that understand sense Wherefore Blasphemy and to blaspheme in several other places of Scripture signifying Idolatry as well as here as is abundantly made out by Mr. Mede and Peganius upon the place see also the Alphabet of Iconisms it seems to me an homoursome business in the Remarker that he should balk the Exposition of that excellent Interpreter Mr. Mede and take up with one so little approvable with any unless with some conceited touchy souls that fansie themselves Saints before they be so and love separation and cry out Stand off I am more holy than thou that when they are sharply though justly reproved for their real Hypocrisie factiousness and other vices and miscarriages they may imagine themselves to be blasphemed by the Beast or his Worshippers and so be the more confirmed in their presumed Saintship and in all the enormities that attend such a delusion So little edifying is such a precarious Exposition as this There wanted no prophetical Monitions or Prefigurations that wicked men will speak ill of good men from that Antipathy which is betwixt them But that the pretended Church of Christ still professing Christianity and declaring against Idols should really become Idolatrous and establish Idolatries by a Law to be able to predict this was becoming the Prescience of God and to predict it his Goodness it being so usefull for the Reformation of the Church There is nothing more that is material in this Remark unless I should take notice of that Assertion which seems to insinuate that mens speaking evil of the fruits of God's Spirit appearing in good men though of a private and ordinary quality not special Missionaries from God as Christ and his Apostles were nor publick persons or Grandees in Government that reproaching such is termed Blasphemy in Scripture Which I dare say is false let him search all the English Bible and find a place if he can And if so then this Interpretation of the Remarker is quite out of doors Vers. 2. The Dragon's power here given to the Beast is the same with the Beast's power v. 8. Over all that dwell on the Earth whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb c. viz. All who by entrance into life by faith do not attain to become members of Christ's Kingdom are shut out under the powers of darkness and so become subject not onely to Idolatrous delusions but to cruel bondage also c. The Dragon's seat and great Autority is not the Imperial Crown for that he lost being cast out of Heaven but it 's his dominion over those dwellers on Earth whose names are not written in the book of life c. Which is like the Dominion which a Rebel may gain over a great part of the Prince's Subjects that revolt from him though the Prince keep his Crown Ans. The Dragon's power here in this verse does not signifie the same that the Beast's power in the 7 th and 8 th verses For here the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies Military forces and what they are the Expositor has explained And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used here also and rendred Autority shews that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Military forces or else it were a needless tautology Indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may well be parallel to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in v. 7. and explained thereby For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this great Autority is said v. 7. to be an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power or autority over Kindreds Tongues and Nations and that is a great Autority indeed saving that there is made that diminution from it It does not reach those to make them submit to the unlawfull edicts of it whose names are writ in the book of life of the Lamb. That the Dragon could not give the Imperial Throne to the Beast because he was cast out of it himself is wittily observed But you must understand he surrendred it not willingly but because he could not keep it It signifies onely that the Beast succeeded the Dragon and that is imputed to the Dragon as done by him which was done onely upon occasion of the condition he was in by a Zoopoeia of the second kind But the furthering of
predict the entire Event of the Medial-Visions to the accuracy of one Prophetick day nor yet month yet the Spirit of Prophecy has not herein trifled at all but that there are several considerable uses of this variation that no man for the want thereof may obstinately pretend that the other must needs be the use thereof whenas yet there is no necessity at all of that viz. that the 42 months or 1260 days should signifie the full extent of that time whenas that full sense is so easily abatable by a Prophetick Synecdoche or Numeral Diorism there being given also intimations thereto Having thus therefore dispatched the two first Queries we proceed to the third and last the Solution of which I shall transcribe out of the abovesaid Letter to a friend Which Solution is as follows First having fixt the Epocha of the beginning of the Church which I conceive is to be reckoned from the year in which our Saviour suffered ascended into Heaven and sent down the Holy Ghost to assist his Apostles which is the most indubitable and unexceptionable Epocha that can be pitched upon and must needs seem the least strained to serve any design in the next place we are to consider whether the Epocha of the threefold Prophecy of the Apocalypse that is to say The Prophecy of the seven Churches the Prophecy of the Sealed book and the Prophecy of the Opened book is not to be fixt in the self same year that the beginning of the Church is And that it is so to be fixt these few Reasons seem to infer First They are Prophecies all three of them of a large universal extent reaching from the time at least of their reception which was but a few years after the beginning of the Church especially in comparison of the time succeeding even till the day of Doom Wherefore in all likelihood they are a Transcript of the Divine Decree or Provision of the State of the Church such as God foresaw it would be in its general successions from the very beginning thereof to the end of the World that so the three Prophecies or Visionary Representations of the State of the Church may be complete and unmaimed Secondly It is acknowledged by such Interpreters that otherwise dissent from us that the Prophecy of the seven Churches begins from the very beginning of the Church why should not then the other two Prophecies do so too Thirdly The beginning of the Visions of the Sealed-book-prophecy and the Opened-book-prophecy are naturally applicable to that Epocha of the Church we have pitched upon viz. the year when our Saviour suffered ascended and sent down the Holy Ghost to assist his Apostles For what more natural and fit application can there be of the Rider of the white Horse with a Bow in his hand to whom a Crown is given than to Christ ascended and sending down the Holy Ghost to assist his followers to conquer the Roman Empire and subject it to the Sceptre of the Son of God that that might be fulfilled which was predicted by our Saviour Fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom And this Rider came from the East Oriens nomen ejus See the Interpretation of the first Seal in the Exposition of the Apocalypse Wherefore this Vision does that right to our Saviour as to represent his glorious and miraculous assistence at the very beginning of his Church in the beginning of the Prophecy of the Sealed book Now for the two Initial Visions of the Opened book that comprized in the eleventh Chapter which begins with the measuring of the Inner Court it is manifest at the first sight how applicable that is to the Church from the year that Christ suffered till the Apostasie came in and the more Primitive the more applicable and therefore here is but justice done to that part of the succession of the Church which reaches from the first year of the Church of Christ to the Reception of these Visions that it be as well as the rest of the time before the Apostasie noted as Symmetral in this Visionary Representation And now for the Initial Vision comprized in the twelfth thirteenth and fourteenth Chapters the Throes of the Church begun in the Head thereof Christ on the Cross of whom it is truly said There was never sorrow like his sorrow These were the pangs so early begun for the bringing forth in his Church a man-child that should wear the Imperial Crown at last the Emperours becoming Christian. And so the fight of Michael with the red Dragon the Paganick Roman Power the battel was begun in Christ on the Cross crucified under the Roman Power by Pilate their Governour But this strategem of the Captain of our Salvation in suffering thus himself to be crucified was the spring and source of all his Conquests and Victories afterwards as is obvious to observe and therefore it were very unfit and unjust to have this left out of the Visionary Representation which yet it would be did not the Prophecy of the Opened book reach to the very first beginning of the Church and take in the year of Christ's Crucifixion And fourthly and lastly Whenas it is observable in Daniel chap. 7. in that Set of Visions that represents the four Monarchies by four Beasts viz. the Babylonian Persian Greek and Roman that notwithstanding those Visions are received in the first year of Belshazzar which is according to Thomas Lydiat about 50 years from the beginning of the Babylonian Monarchy yet merely that the Set of Visions might be complete the Babylonian Monarchy is represented from its very first Rise and Original though above two thirds of its duration was then past when Daniel received those Visions Wherefore the Spirit of Prophecy affecting as I may so speak this completeness in Sets of Visions though the Representation be of profane Kingdoms and we finding no cause of the Vision reaching into some part of time before its reception saving that Intent that the Visionary Representation of such Periods of time should be complete we may hence much more be assured that these Sets of Visions are so they so much concerning his Church and for whose completeness there were such weighty reasons as were even now alledged namely why they should reach into the very first year of the Church when Christ suffered ascended into Heaven and sent down the Holy Ghost and being the space of that time to the Reception of the Visions though they were received under Domitian bears nothing that proportion to the space of the Antemedial Visions or of the first six Seals that 50 years bear to 70 which is above the proportion of two to three but of the other the proportion is less than of one to six I say he must be a Sceptick even to stupidity that is not hence convinced that all these three Prophecies I have spoken of the Prophecy of the seven Churches the Sealed-book-prophecy and the Opened-book-prophecy
Dream of the Sun and Moon and eleven Stars worshipping him where the Moon is interpreted his Mother though no Priest as the Sun his Father Chap. 9. Vers. 2. THE Sun darkned here is not the Gospel but the Autority or Legislative Power of those Dominions over-run by the Saracens and Religion but secondarily concerned as it suffers by the suffering of the Autority which upheld it And as the Sea denotes the many Dominions of the Earth so does the Sun here signifie the various Powers or Autorities that governed them Ans. That the Sun does not signifie Legislative power in abstracto but the highest person in Autority I have noted already And though one great Sea may signifie a comprehension of several distinct Kingdoms subject to tumultuate or rather War one against another as having no union under one Head yet the several Heads of these Kingdoms cannot so properly be represented by one Sun which naturally implies one Head over them all Wherefore being that the Saracens over-run so many Kingdoms and Principalities if this must be the darkning of them it would then have been said that the smoak of the Abyss darkned the Stars For when Multitudes of Kings and Princes are concerned together that have no dependence one of another they are then signified by Stars Whence the Red Dragon is said to have pulled down so many Stars with his tail that is to have subjected so many Kings and Princes to the Roman Empire Wherefore it is rashly pronounced That the Sun-shine of the Gospel of the Sun of righteousness is not meant by the Sun that is here said to be darkned whenas the smoak of the pit must be Mahometism And therefore in this passage Religion most certainly is related to and is the main concern of the whole Book of the Apocalypse and other things predicted merely in order to it viz. to the right worship of God through Jesus Christ. And therefore that sense which is easie and natural and tends that way is most assuredly the true sense of any passage of these Prophecies See the spiritual signification of Sun in the Expositor's Alphabet of Iconisms Chap. 10. Vers. 2. THE Ten-horned Beast did rise out of the Sea and two-horned Beast out of the Earth and our Saviour setting his right foot on the Sea and his left foot on the Earth does signifie here his coming down from Heaven to put down all Autority and power under his feet the Earthly Powers within his Kingdom being within the seventh Trumpet to be abolished and all things to become new by forming a new Heaven and a new Earth or establishing the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth and so making the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Ans. This Remark is not much amiss saving that it lears toward that foul conceit that there will be no Monarchy nor Princes over their respective Principalities and Kingdoms where the Kingdom of Christ is set up whenas the twenty four crowned Elders do most certainly denote the pure Apostolick Christianity of those many Kings and Princes that will be contained within the Kingdom of Christ in the Millennium And setting one foot on the Sea and another on the Earth refers particularly to the vanquishing the ten-horned Beast that came out of the Sea ch 13. and the false Prophet or two-horned Beast that came out of the Earth v. 11. out of a Clay-pit for the Clay in Daniel signifies the Ecclesiastick regenerating party which two ch 19.20 are taken alive and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Vers. 3. The sounding of the seventh Trumpet is plainly not at the time of the roaring of the mighty Angel and therefore cannot be branched into the seven Thunders For after his roaring and the seven Thunders uttering their voices thereon and the other matters after declared there is a Regress to begin a new Prophecy of the Contents of the opened Book and to bring the same down to the seventh Trumpet also that the affairs of the six Trumpets and the opened Book viz. during the time of the Antichristian and worldly Powers being connected as synchronizing the seventh Trumpet might close both together The seven Thunders therefore seem symbolically to signifie a preparation of the Christian party against the great day of God at the seventh Trumpet as the three unclean spirits like Frogs are of the Antichristian party That as the latter bestir themselves with miraculous deceits to excite the Princes of the Earth to battel so the former signifies a miraculous power of spirit that shall exert it self in many Christian Heroes whereby they shall become exciters and conductors of the Christian party to the same and hereunto shall also become Boanerges's thundring out such powerfull convictive testimonies against the abominations of their Enemies and such denunciations of God's judgments against them for the same as were not meet before that time to be uttered and therefore were to be sealed up c. Some such meaning seems to be signified in Micah ch 5. v. 5 6. Ans. The more clearly to decide this point let us consider that the Apocalypse consists of three Prophecies The Prophecy of the seven Churches The Prophecy of the sealed Book and the Prophecy of the opened Book And that as it less derogates from their perfection to be conceived each of them to reach from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World viz. of the affairs of this Earth so of the first of them I have proved the same as also shown that the second commenceth from the beginning of the Church and that it reaches to the end of the world is plain from hence The whole time of the Book consists but of seven Seals and some things of the book reach to the end of the world therefore the seventh Seal must reach to the end of the world And the seventh Seal being divided into seven Trumpets the seventh Trumpet must reach to the end of the world Wherefore it is plain that the Prophecy of the sealed Book reaches to the end of the world And if this Reasoning will not serve I will anon confirm it by the Oath of the Angel But in the mean time let us farther note that the sounding of each of these seven Trumpets and the Visum of each Trumpet do synchronize or are of equal extent begin and end together As for example The Visum of the sixth Trumpet which contains the over-running of the Turks and the general Impenitency of the Western Christian World for their Idolatry c. c. 9.20 The sixth Trumpet I say is conceived to sound all the while this Visum continues Now the seventh Trumpet belonging to the Prophecy of the sealed Book it was before we come to the Prophecy of the opened Book immediately to succeed the sixth and to sound all the time its Visum is exhibited But it is manifest the roaring of the Angel immediately succeeds the sounding of the sixth Trumpet wherefore
it is plain that the roaring of the Angel is substituted in the place of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and that the roaring of the Angel as well as the sounding of the seventh Trumpet reacheth to the end of the world But the Text says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he cryed or roared not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he had cryed seven Thunders uttered their voices Wherefore this roaring of the Lyon of the Tribe of Iuda which reaches from the sixth Trumpet to the end of the world is divided into seven Thunders But the seventh Trumpet reaches from the sixth to the end of the world therefore the space of the seventh Trumpet is divided into seven Thunders And how easie natural and indeed inevitable is this to one that is not blinded with prejudice That in this Prophecy of the sealed Book as the seventh Seal is divided into seven Trumpets so the seventh Trumpet which as the rest belongs to the Prophecy of the sealed Book should be divided into seven Thunders those seven Thunders immediately following the sixth Trumpet as the seven Trumpets immediately follow the sixth Seal Out of all which it is manifest that the Prophecy of the sealed Book reacheth to the end of the world as well as the Prophecy of the seven Churches Now therefore to consider the Remark on this verse it is manifest out of what has been said that the seventh Trumpet does synchronize with the roaring of the mighty Angel because his roaring is substituted into the place of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet which reacheth to the end of the world and that roaring being branched into seven Thunders that the seventh Trumpet is branched into seven Thunders Nor does the Regress to begin a new Prophecy of the Contents of the opened Book clash at all with this synchronizing of the seventh Trumpet with the roaring of the Angel and the seven Thunders but most naturally agree with it this roaring and seven Thunders reaching to the end of the world to the utmost term of the Laodicean succession of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Ptolemy calls it Laodicea combusta Laodicea burnt down by Thunder and Lightning from Heaven at the Conflagration which congruity in all likelihood gave occasion of denominating these seven divisions of the last Trumpet from Thunders and farther confirms that these Thunders reach to the end of the world and therefore the most fittingly intimates a Regress to a new Prophecy namely to that of the opened Book Which if we will not derogate from its perfection must as the two former reach from the beginning of the Church to the end of the world And as for the synchronizing of the affairs of the first six Trumpets with those of the opened Book till the seventh that it is a precarious surmise will appear in its due place But now it being so plain that the seven Thunders synchronize with the seventh Trumpet it is manifest that all that the Remarker delivers about the Frogs and Hero's and Boanerges's the seven Thunders being a symbol of no such things but of a distinction as other sevens in the Apocalypse of that last space of time into so many Intervals and those things being before the seventh Trumpet according to his supposition it is manifest I say that all those conceits of the Remarker are onely an idle evanid Dream Vers. 4. As Write not viz. the things which the seven Thunders uttered is the general translation so is it far more agreeable with the command to seal them up than that singular Translation Thou shalt write them hereafter For if they were to be written at all where should they be written but here where they are uttered And to write them hereafter is to make them belong to the opened Book whereas they belong to the sealed Book if the seventh Trumpet be branched into seven Thunders Ans. His Remark upon this verse is more material But I answer that it is not one single copy we rely on The Biblia Regia says David Pareus has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt write them hereafter And Andreas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Write them hereafter And the copy that Grotius comments on whatever it is has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt write them hereafter And I must confess I do little question but that is the true Reading whenas our ordinary copy has it which our English Translation follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which corrupt Reading I conceive proceeded from the heedlesness or unskilfulness of some Scribe and some ill writ copy which made him turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 written contractedly thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so made it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the future tense and therefore not so fitly applied to a present action others turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But from this and for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is superflous for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been enough or if a Pronoun had been to be added it would rather have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the whole command would have run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But whatever Writers or MSS have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I conceive that after the true Reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was corrupted into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was turned into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by some busie Critick or Scribe which others afterward might follow From these considerations I say I do strongly suspect or rather not at all doubt but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the true Reading And it agrees very well with the command to seal them up as being needless to relate the affairs of the seven Thunders here because they shall be related in the Prophecy of the opened Book that Prophecy containing the Fate of the Church as the other of the Empire And therefore this is but a more Majestick Transition from the finished course of the Prophecy of the sealed Book to make a Regress to the Prophecy of the opened Book Nor is there the least Inconvenience that the distinct Visions writ down in the Prophecy of the opened Book and in that Regard belonging to it should as to the Intervals of the Thunders spoke of in the Prophecy of the sealed Book be referred Synchronistically to that Prophecy also Vers. 6. If There shall be no more time did denote the end of the world it would be very improperly placed here above a thousand years before But it 's meant of the Political Order and Government of the world which Time does symbolically signifie because all Political government is managed and upheld by certain Laws and Rules and Forms and Methodical ordering of affairs as Time is measured by Days and Months and Years c. Whenas in the Millennial State all Government will be regulated wholly by the guidance of the Spirit of God dwelling among them
of affairs on this Earth whence I inferred that the Sealed-book-prophecy did so Which is an Article so contrary to the belief of Atheistical and sensual men that it is no wonder that so strong an Asseveration is used to impress it on them But this answers to his calling himself the Amen c. in his Epistle to the Laodicean Church where the same Article is asserted See the Exposition it self on this present Chapter This Angel therefore swearing at the Expiration of the sixth Trumpet that there shall be no more time saving in the days of the sound of the seventh Trumpet and this before there is any entrance into the Prophecy of the opened Book plainly joins the seventh Trumpet to the sixth and so makes a decursion from the beginning of the Sealed-book-prophecy to the very end of it conterminating to the end of the world and by mentioning the seven Thunders also before the said Sealed-book-prophecy is finished points us plainly to a division of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet into seven such Intervals as the seventh Seal was divided into viz. seven Trumpets as we noted above And thus by the Oath of the Angel as I observed before by the bye it is assuredly true that the Prophecy of the sealed Book reacheth to the end of the World Chap. 11. Vers. 1. IT 's very incongruous that the Temple or Thysiasterion and the Outward Court being one Entire Fabrick should signifie prophetically things succeeding one another But they here signifie indeed things that synchronize For the Worshippers in the Temple and at the Altar are measured to be preserved from those evils which they in the outward Court do suffer by its being trodden down and are the same with the two Witnesses in the next verse the Moses and Aaron or those that officiate in the ruling or judicial and in the Priestly offices The Worshippers in the Temple signifie the first because there was the Law in the Ark on which the Divine Presence was seated in the Mercy-seat as on a Throne of Judgment to be consulted with and the Worshippers at the Altar do plainly enough signifie the latter Ans. That things coexistent together may signifie things succeeding in time one after another may appear from that Analogy Space has to Time and they partake so much in the common similitude of one nature that Spatium signifies as well Spatium Temporis as Spatium Loci as is abundantly manifest in reading Latin Authours And as in the Extension of Space or Place one part is out of another not confounded one with another and upon some respect one part counted in site before another another after So it is also in the succeeding parts of Time And as the parts of Space are measurable or numerable so are the parts of Time And there may be the same proportion betwixt a part of Space to a part of Space that there is betwixt a part of Time to a part of Time and alternatim So that even from hence we may be satisfied that the Area of the Inner and the Outer Court without any Incongruity may be made prophetically to signifie things succeeding one another If the Inner Court have an aptitude to denote the Church in her purer condition and the Outer in her less pure as questionless they have and she be first in that first condition and after in the second it 's plain that the Inner and Outer Court though they be coexistent yet have an aptness to signifie things succeeding one another And if the Area of the Inner Court bear the same proportion to the Area of the Outer that the Time of the Purity of the Church to the Time of her lesser Purity by easie Analogy the Proportion of the Outer Area to the Inner will give us the proportion of the time of the less Purity of the Church to the time of her Purity These things will be whether we will or no. And these significancies are so congruous and natural that they are ordinarily hit upon Thus Cornelius à lapide on Ezekiel says Atrium gentium non mensuratum significat innumerabilem gentium multitudinem Ecclesiae adjungendam And H. N. makes the Sanctum and the Sanctum Sanctorum two Dispensations the one following the other and favourably interprets the latter of the Dispensation of his own Followers Also the three immured Intervals of Space in Cebes his Table signifie three States or Moral conditions of men succeeding one another in time And the seven Churches in the Apocalypse though coexistent together yet the spirit of Prophecy makes use of them to signifie seven succeeding States of the Church Catholick and Apostolick And the parts of Nebuchadnezzar's Image he saw in his dream though view'd altogether represented notwithstanding four successive Kingdoms according to the number of the Metals it consisted of And lastly Aretas even upon this place by the Inner Court understands the Iudaical Church by the Outer the Christian Wherefore it is very congruous to understand though they be States in succession the Inner Court of the pure State of the Christian Church and the Outer of her State Apostatical But to make the Inner and Outer Court to signifie things that do synchronize spoils those elegant Analogies of Time and Place which I noted above For as the Outer Court's dimensions lye out from the Inner so the Time that is signified by the one should be distant from the Time that is signified by the other and should by no means synchronize which is as gross and harsh as to fansie the stones that paved the Inner and Outer Court laid confusedly and intermixtly one by another Besides making the things signified here by the Inner and Outer Court to synchronize makes the Prophecy of the opened Book to commence no higher than the beginning of the seventh or last Seal Which is a strange mutilation or if you will decollation of the Prophecy of the opened Book whenas the Prophecy of the seven Churches and of the sealed Book and it was a point of their perfection to doe so commenced from the beginning of the Church Wherefore this is a surmise very absurd And the Absurdity still appears greater in that the proper undertaking of the Opened-book-prophecy is to set out the affairs of the Church as the other of the sealed Book the affairs of the Empire And yet thus it would omit the chiefest and most notable times thereof viz. the Primitive Times and the Victory of Christianity over Paganism For if this present Vision begin so low as the seventh Seal the next of the Woman cloathed with the Sun must do so too or else it would be a gross neglect of order and method not to begin the Prophecy of the opened Book with a Vision that had as high an Epocha of time as any Which considerations may assure any intelligent Reader that the Remarker is enormously out in making the things signified by the Inner and Outer Court to synchronize Such a monstrous mistake as
obstinate like the Fool in Solomon whom if you bray in a mortar with a pestil yet will not his foolishness depart from him the conceit of Infallibility has so far infatuated them What remains in the Remark is spoke with a great deal of confidence though what is alledged against the 1600 furlongs signifying Symbolically not Numerically is exceeding weak For the Numerical signification applied to the extent of the slaughter is so far from being plain and easie sense that it is a sense incredible yea impossible And therefore a certain Indication that this slaughter is to be taken in a Parabolical sense such as the Expositor has given Suppose an Army in the field of a square figure and that the men were so closely set together that each of them had but half a pace or five half-feet squared to turn them in and that this square Army took up near upon 200 miles let the Latus be but 14 miles and square it The whole Army will consist of Seven hundred eighty four thousand thousand men whenas one thousand thousand is ten hundred thousand men which therefore is near three hundred times a greater Army than that prodigious Army of Xerxes which Herodotus says consisted of 2641610 fighting men Can the Remarker believe that there will ever be such an Army so numerous meeting thus in one place But suppose it and the bloud of this Army even of every single Souldier of it to be wholly let out of his body which is scarce done in any one slain In a vessel of two foot and half square how deep would the bloud be Certainly scarce an Inch. But scarce thirty Inches deep will reach to the Horse-bridle So that the bloud of an Army above thirty times greater than what I have described and nine thousand times greater than Xerxes his Army will scarce suffice to make such a deluge of bloud though wholly effused as to reach 1600 furlongs I mean 200 square miles to the Horses bridles And the Saints the Executioners of God's wrath must be the Butchers to let out all this bloud What a monstrous conceit is this what more incredible what more impossible And if we should make our Hypothesis yet more modest and instead of the 200 square miles be content with 1600 square furlongs the root of which would be put 40 furlongs or five miles yet according to this Hypothesis bloud to the Horse-bridles for such a space will require the slaughter of above a thousand times more men than those in Xerxes his Army though his Army consisted of 2641610 fighting men Wherefore this is a certain sign that the sense is Parabolical and that the number is not Numerically but Symbolically to be taken Nor needed there any Intimation of extracting the square root here as there is in the Number 666 because that Number is not a perfect square number and the less need because this way of extracting the square root was freshly intimated before in the Number 666 and lay obvious to the eye in the 144 Regiments or Chiliarchies in the beginning of this Chapter and in these 16 Hecatontads it does lye as obvious here to an observant eye and unprejudiced judgment if he be acquainted with the Symbolical meaning of the Quaternary or Number Four The aptness of the Application whereof to the present occasion the Expositor has fully made out in his Exposition and Notes And it is notorious ignorance or prejudice in the Remarker no mistake in the Expositor if he be not thence satisfied Chap. 15. Introduction THE Introduction to this Chapter does make these three places ch 11. v. 15 16 17. ch 14. v. 8. ch 15. v. 2 3 4. to signifie the same Triumphal Song which is a triple errour The first being the Doxology at the seventh Trumpet the second no Song but the denouncing the commencement of Babylon's fall by the Waldenses the third no Triumphal Song of Victory though sung by the Victors over the Beast and his Image but of admiring and glorifying God for his judgments by the pouring forth of the seven Vials then in view in the Angel's hands so as to make all to fear and glorifie him Ans. These three places do most certainly refer to the same thing to the fall of the tenth part of the City of Babylon or the Rising of the Witnesses which is in a manner the same They are also three testifications of Ioy and Triumph upon that notable passage of God's Providence call them Songs or Doxologies or joyfull Annunciations it is all one to the Expositor The first is a Doxology at the seventh Trumpet but for the Rising of the Witnesses immediately mentioned before The second is the joyfull Annunciation of the good news of Babylon's fall in part namely the tenth part of the City which the Waldenses could not tell was fallen nor any for them in their time for it stood then entire and so continued for about 400 years after The third is a Song of Victory it being a Song of the Lamb in imitation of that of Moses when they triumphed over Pharaoh and his host after they were overthrown in the Red Sea What can be plainer And these are said to be Victors over the Beast and in the Song it self it is said All Nations shall worship before thee because thy judgments are manifested namely upon Babylon in the fall of the tenth part of their City and in the Rising of the Witnesses How clearly and naturally do these things hang together Which if it were not there would be no occasion nor object of this Triumphal Song For who but fools or mad men triumph before victory Nor could it be for the future pouring forth the Vails then in view For it is not said these Victors saw them but that St. Iohn saw them Nor did St. Iohn see them before this Song of the Victors was ended For the first verse is onely a general Title of the Chapter about the Vials The particular order of his seeing them is afterwards For he says expresly v. 5. That after this Song of the Victors he looked and behold the Temple of the Tabernacle of Heaven was opened Which implies it was shut or his eyes shut to it before And the seven Angels came out of the Temple c. And it is farther manifest from v. 7. For one of the four Beasts there mentioned had not given the Vials to the Angels till then How could the Victors then see them have them before they were given them So that this Song will have no Object of praise and thanksgiving Which is a plain demonstration that the Remarker is in a mistake Vers. 1. The Beast is not the Roman Hierarchy but the Ten-horned Beast headed by the false Prophet or Roman Hierarchy It 's sufficient to call the Vials the seven last plagues if they begin after the sixth Trumpet and end with the seventh especially the Trumpets belonging to the sealed Book and the Vials to the opened Book and so may rather
1260 days have For chap. 8. the 2300 days which are said to be the time of the ceasing of the daily Sacrifice and Pollution of the Sanctuary caused by Antiochus Epiphanes making both these days and Antiochus Typical of Antichrist and to point at the continuance of his once begun Pollutions yet the Epocha of those Prophetical days or 2300 years is not the Epocha of the 1260 years of the reign of Antichrist but from the beginning of the literal Pollution of the Sanctuary Which yet might better have been there than here in these Numbers of 1290 and 1335. Because it is expresly said here That from the time that the daily Sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be 1290 days c. So that the Epocha is set to us here when it was free in the other place and yet not there neither is the Epocha the same with the Epocha of the reign of Antichrist It is sufficient there that the days be Typical of years though the Epocha of them be not the Epocha of the Reign of Antichrist of whom Antiochus Epiphanes is a Type For were it so the Reign of Antichrist would continue above a thousand years longer And lastly it may be considered whether the express fixing the Epocha of the Numbers 1290 and 1335 on the taking away the daily Sacrifice may not be set down on purpose to be a guide to us where to fix the Epocha of the Number 2300 days supposing it also Typical of years and to indigitate to what time the Antichristian Pollution will reach having once begun and so point at the end of it as the other does at the height of it Secondly Though the two Numbers consist of Indictions yet there is no betterness in the Remarker's way than in Mr. Mede's way both because the beginning of Constantine's Indictions was about an hundred years before the Epocha of the 1260 Prophetical Days as is plain out of Petavius and Sigonius so that they could give no aim at that Epocha and also that it is sufficient that they point to the times in which these Indictions were in use that no man might fansie them to be literal Days not prophetical and also that may give a latitude of compute by Quindenaries of Fifteens and not bind the event of the Prophecy to a strict Prophetical day Thirdly Nor does this way give a much more agreeable answer to the question v. 8. What shall be the end of these things which does fecond the question v. 6. For the question v. 6. is manifestly of all the wonders from v. 36. of the precedent Chapter to v. 5. of this Upon all this matter the question is put v. 6. How long shall it be to the end of these wonders Amongst which is the New Ierusalem intimated and the first and second Resurrection And therefore the answer of him that sweareth by him that liveth for ever reacheth to that extent and endeth with All these things shall be finished that is even to the second Resurrection And this I think is a very pertinent and satisfactory answer to that question which was How far to the end of those wonders And his Answer is to the end of the World As I noted above that Daniel said The Time appointed was long But here now v. 8. Daniel to whom it was said v 4. But thou O Daniel shut up the words and seal the book even to the Time of the end which phrase denotes the fourth Monarchy is made to ask this question understanding nothing by the question of one of the two Angels and the answer of Palmoni thereto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What the latter part of those times which was called the time of the end For so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Which place because our English renders What shall be the end of these things the Remarker understands what shall be the End or success of them which is a mistake But the genuine sense is What is the latter part of those Times which are called the Time of the End by which is understood the Roman Monarchy And then though Daniel was no wiser than he was before who is bid to go his way for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the End whether you take it in a more restrict sense or in the same it is taken v. 4. yet those two Numbers from the Epocha given v. 11 12. do most plainly and satisfactorily answer to the question and evidently point at those latter times of the Time of the End or last Monarchy which is the Roman viz. at the Time and Times and half a Time which by S. Paul are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter Times of the last Which is of very weighty use for the discovery of the Times of Antichrist But the Remarker's way leads the heedless into groundless hopes of such an Acceleration of the Millennium as to any prudent and knowing man must seem incredible And flesh and bloud had rather be blessed by reaching into the prosperous times of the Church on Earth than be peculiarly happy in the other state by suffering Martyrdom here Fourthly I deny that the End of the 1260 days does signifie a time wherein the scattering of the power of the holy people will be ended forasmuch as the Vials follow the 1260 days and do not precede them nor are they poured out till the Rising of the Witnesses And therefore Fifthly It is impossible that these two Numbers in this Chapter from the Epocha of the Reign of Antichrist should reach into those times wherein the glory of the Millennium is more advanced And Sixthly I say it is a mere surmise of the Remarker to make the proper Millennial state so dim and imperfect and contrary to the description in the Apocalypse which makes the state of the New Ierusalem so soon as it is settled exceeding glorious When once the New Ierusalem is descended and the Millennium begun the glory will be so excellent that it is not probable that the Intention of it will increase but onely the Extension more people being Proselyted to it And Seventhly and lastly As for that place of Zechary chap. 14.6 7. If it respect the state of the Christian Church as Grotius declines it yet how does it appear that it is understood of the Millennial Times and not rather of the Times before The Millennium being the latter part of the Day of the Gospel and therefore more fitly answering to the Evening and also a time of much more light glory and prosperity than the times before which may answer to those words of the Prophecy But in the evening it shall be light But if it must respect the Millennium as the Remarker would have it the most natural sense of the Original makes plainly against him For v. 6. the Hebrew runs thus And it shall come to pass in that day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non erit lux pretiosa
that is There will be no rarity or scarcity of light as in Winter time when days are short and the Sun seldom appears by reason of Clouds and makes but a short stay when he does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec erit gelu Nor will there be any Frost Wherefore in this sixth verse of chap. 14. of Zechary the State of the Church is compared to a perpetual Summer But in the next verse the Description advanceth higher and taketh away the Vicissitudes of Days and Nights according to the description of the Millennial state Apoc. 21.25 and 22.5 where it is expresly said there shall be no Night there So here v. 7. Verbatim out of the Hebrew And there shall be one day known to the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No day and no night that is no natural Day nor Night which are parts of the Nychthemeron which therefore Castellio thus paraphraseth Perpetua lux erit says he nulla diei noctisque vicissitudine and it shall come to pass that at Evening time there shall be light that is to say Whenas other days close in darkness and are parts of a Nychthemeron which is the proper Notion of a natural Day to be part of the Nychthemeron it shall not be so here but even the Evening-tyde all of it shall be light So Castellio that excellent Hebrew Critick on the place Which is a lively Portraiture of the Laodicean state whose light will not fail them but zeal and heat will be wanting which is the condition of the Evening-light It is not so hot and vigorous as that of the Day And the Laodicean Church is blamed for her lukewarmness The sixth verse therefore in this place of Zechary is a description of the Times immediately precedent to the Millennium properly so called the latter end of verse the seventh of the Times subsequent thereto viz. to the Millennium which is the Laodicean state And thus the more cloudy and misty conceits of the Remarker vanish and Mr. Mede's Interpretation of these Numbers is found the onely sound and solid Account AN ANSWER To Several REMARKS UPON Dr. Henry More HIS APOLOGY Wherein with the right placing of the VIALS the late Reformation begun by LUTHER c. is demonstrated to be the Rising of the Witnesses Written By S. E. MENNONITE And Published in English by the ANSWERER Together with his ANSWERS thereunto LONDON Printed by M. F. for Walter Kettilby 1684. REMARKS UPON THE Apology c. Remark upon Pag. 269 270. THE Comparison here betwixt Daniel's Visions and the Visions of the Opened book and the Inference therefrom is an elaborate insignificant Argument a For the two first Visions of Daniel running through the four Monarchies and the transition from each Monarchy to the other being here called Ioints if a succeeding Vision prophesie but of the three first of those Monarchies it must of necessity end in the third Joint and does not doe it out of Relation to or contexture with the precedent Prophecies and so can be no example whereon to infer the like is to be done in the Visions of the Opened book farther than there is the same necessity of it For the said three Visions were received at such divers times and in such divers manners and the first is but an Interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream that they have no more relation to each other than the Prophecies of other Prophets on the same subjects have to Daniel's Visions b But as to the conceived Ioints in the Opened book which are imagined to answer to those Instanced in Daniel's Visions the first is a mere Imagination For the measuring the inward Court and not measuring the outward Court from which the distinction of Symmetral and Asymmetral Ages is taken do synchronize as is shewed in Remarks on the Revelation chap. 11. c The second Ioint I agree to be so viz. as it is a Transition from the Antichristian Reign to the Millennial State but then say that the Vials do not begin but end in that Ioint Which does therefore the better agree with the Instance in Daniel viz. of the Partial Vision ending in the third Joint d Yet is there no need of such partial Visions beginning or ending in such a Ioint For the three admonishing Angels Rev. 14. is a like Vision which does neither e The great pains taken to prove that the Vials do not begin with the Trumpets might have been spared For that without scruple will be agreed But no use can be made of it for the purpose designed viz. That they must then begin at the end of the Trumpets which is the next Joint For the Trumpets belonging to the sealed and the Vials to the opened Book and they being distinct Series of Prophecies which have no contexture or Relation betwixt them as is aforesaid of Daniel's Visions though they synchronize the Vials in the one are not to be guided by any Ioints in the other Series for their beginning or ending f Nor as I have shewed is their beginning or ending in such a Ioint needfull though I have agreed they end in such a Ioint Ans. It would amaze any man of an ingenuous Spirit to observe how strangely the Remarker in the very entrance shuffles and flunders to evade the force of the plain and orderly Reasoning of the Expositor which in brief is this In the Book of Daniel it is to be noted that after the two first Visions which synchronize and contain the Representation of the four Monarchies the conterminations of which Monarchies that is the Times wherein the precedent ends and the subsequent begins are as so many eminent Ioints in the two Visions there is a Vision that begins short of the time of the two former and is added for a more full Representation of some things to fall out in some of the Monarchies of the former And that it also commences with the first of the three eminent Ioints of the former It is noted also in the two first Visions of the Opened book in the Apocalypse that begin from the same Epocha and end in the same times and have two eminent Ioints as Daniel's had three viz. The first the Contermination of the Antemedial Synchronals with the Medial which is the same with the Contermination of the sixth Seal with the seventh Seal or first Trumpet The other the Contermination of the Medial Synchronals with the Post-medial which is the same with the Contermination of the sixth Trumpet with the seventh the Time of the Risen Witnesses and partial fall of the City It is noted I say that after these two synchronizing Visions there is a Vision of the Vials that comes short of the Epocha of the two former Visions as that other does in Daniel And therefore the Apocalypse being such an Imitation of Daniel as it is and they such a mutual Key to one another it is reasonable to conclude That this third Vision in the Opened book whose Epocha falls short of the two former that its Epocha
I say must be placed in one of the two eminent Ioints of the two foregoing Visions and so as it may serve the like end as that third Vision in Daniel does viz. more fully to represent the matters belonging to some space of time in the foregoing Visions The Remarker himself is agreed that it is not to be placed in the first Ioint Wherefore its natural place is at the second Joint after the Risen Witnesses and partial fall of Babylon For upon this it is presently said The second Wo is past viz. the second Wo-Trumpet or sixth Trumpet This is the first Argument of the Expositor the following arguments are to be considered afterwards Now what says the Remarker to this a If a succeeding Vision says he Prophesie but of the three first of these Monarchies it must of necessity end in the third Joint and does not doe it out of any relation to or contexture with the precedent Prophecies c. But I answer that the succeeding Vision does not Prophesie of the three first of these Monarchies but of the second and third and for that very purpose begins at the first Joint viz. with the Persian Monarchy Nor does end at the third Ioint but with the affairs of Antiochus Epiphanes they respecting the Church of the Iews for whose cause this succeeding Vision is subjoined but the line of this part viz. of the third Kingdom continued near an hundred years longer though I will not gainsay but in some considerable sense the times of Antiochus Epiphanes may be said to be in the close of the third Kingdom But it was the beginning at the first Ioint for the passing to the second and to the third Kingdom which was the design So that we see that this succeeding Vision is in mere subserviency to the fuller illustrating some affairs touching the Church that were to be in the Times of the third Monarchy and therefore has relation to the foregoing Visions as a supplement to some parts thereof and thence is a fit example whereon to infer the like was to be done in the Visions of the Opened book And that which he farther adds of these three Visions being received at such divers times and in such divers manners one being but an Interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream how weak and impertinent is this as if that Wisedom which inspired Daniel could not so attemperate his Visions that they might be thus subservient one to another And besides they are actually placed thus in Daniel's book of Prophecies as the other three are in the Apocalypse So altogether nothing is it that the Remarker has hitherto alledged b But now secondly as to what he says of the first Ioint in the two first Visions in the Opened book that it is a mere Imagination the Inward and the Outward Court synchronizing I have so fully confuted that fond conceit of his in my Answer to his Remarks on that place that I need onely here remind him of it Nothing can be more rude and absurd than that c Thirdly As for the second Ioint it is most certainly an Authentick Joint whether the Remarker will agree to it or no and plainly demonstrated by Mr. Mede in his Synchronisms and solidly maintained by the Expositor nor to be denied by any one in his Wits it being the Contermination of the Medial Synchronals with the Post-Medial and of the sixth Trumpet with the seventh But where the Vials are o be placed is the thing in dispute and consequently the beginning of the Millennium properly so called d Fourthly His arguing that there is no need that a partial Vision should commence with some eminent Ioint of the more general Vision preceding because the three admonishing Angels is a like Vision and does not is very infirm Forasmuch as that of the three admonishing Angels is no partial Vision in such a sense as the third Vision in Daniel is and the Vision of the Vials but merely part of a Vision viz. of the second Vision of the Opened book And the first Angel belongs to the Medial Times the second to the Enterance of the Post-Medial Times the joyfull Annunciation of the fall of Babylon respecting the fall of the City at the time of the Rising of the Witnesses which was just at the close of the sixth Trumpet as I noted before So that all that follows chap. 14. from vers 8. to the end of the Chapter respects things or events after the Rising of the Witnesses e Fifthly The Expositor's pains in proving that the Vials do not commence with the Trumpets is not mis-spent because some learned men have been inclined to that opinion and there are some shews and plausibilities for it And sixthly the pains taken to remove the Vials from the beginning of the Trumpets is not to place them at the end of the Trumpets For the end of the Trumpets is no Ioint at all the seventh Trumpet reaching to the end of the World but it is to place them in the second Ioint of the two foregoing Visions viz. at the contermination of the Medial and Post-Medial Synchronals which is the same with the contermination of the sixth and seventh Trumpet At the close of the former of which the Witnesses rise and the City of Babylon falls in part So that if they be placed at the second Ioint of the two first Visions of the Opened book it is all one as the placing them in the second Ioint of the Vision of the Sealed book And besides to say The Trumpets belonging to the Sealed book and the Vials belonging to the Opened book and they being distinct Prophecies have no relation one to another is a wonderfull groundless Assertion and point blank against the express Indication of the Spirit of Prophecy in the Apocalypse who referreth the Rising of the Witnesses and the partial fall of Babylon to the exitus of the second Wo-trumpet or sixth Trumpet And yet the Rising of the Witnesses is part of a Vision of the Opened book And what correspondency things have prophesied of in the Sealed book to those prophesied of in the Opened book it were easie to shew but it would take up too much time f And seventhly and lastly what the Remarker will call needfull I know not but that the placing of a partial Vision should be at some eminent knot of the more general Vision preceding is wonderfully natural and congruous which is the first argument of the Expositor for placing the Vials at the second Ioint of the preceding Visions when the first would not do But besides this there are four arguments more added which we will now see how well the Remarker can evade in his next Remark which is as follows Pag. 280 281. The imagined slight intimations saith he of the seven Vials Rev. 11 18 c. is a very slight fancy a The Nations anger is that for which the wrath of God is there said to come upon them and not their anger or exulcerate Rage at the
point at the Iews But I cannot insist on these things f Now let us see what account the Remarker gives of those verses of this second Vision which the Expositor says do glance at the four last Vials But he begins a verse higher viz. with the 8 th verse which saith he is supposed to glance at the second Ioint of the Prophecy viz. that voice of the Angel Babylon is fallen is fallen c. This saith he relates to the Revolt of the Waldenses c. Which is plainly to make the Angel pronounce a gross untruth For Babylon was not then fallen but stood till about four hundred years after they appeared But in the first Vision at the close of the sixth Trumpet where the Witnesses are said to rise there the City is said to fall in part and by the tenour of the second Vision Babylon there can be fallen but in part the affairs of the last Vials being so plainly glanced at after the mention of Babylon's fall So that the fall of that City in part chap. 11.13 and the fall of Babylon chap. 14.8 do more fully expound one another the latter plainly declaring that City to be Babylon and the former telling us the fall is but partial which the glances on the last Vials in the latter Vision do fitly agree with So that the fall of the City in the first Vision must of necessity be the fall of Babylon in the second And indeed what can it refer to but that And who but an exorbitant Humourist that being mentioned in the first Vision can imagine any other meant but it in the second Especially if he consider that these two first Visions of the Opened book comprized the former in chap. 11. the latter in the 12 13 and 14 Chapters begin from the same Epocha and end in the same time concluding with the seventh Vial and that they have parts all along correspondent one with another and thereby give to one another mutual light Wherefore as there is War viz. betwixt the Beast and the Witnesses in the first Vision so there is betwixt the Beast and the Saints or Souldiers of the Lamb in the second and as there is an actual victory of the Witnesses and a fall of the great City in the first Vision so there must be some thing actual in the second Vision that must answer to so notable an Occurrence in the first And what is this but the second Angel's Annunciation of the fall of Babylon which both answers to the fall of the great City in the first Vision and also gives light thereto by plainly shewing it is Babylon that is there meant and that Babylon's fall is but in part Babylon chap. 14. shews that the fall of the great City chap. 11. is the fall of Babylon and the fall of the great City chap. 11. being but in part shews that the fall of Babylon chap. 14. is but in part also viz. the tenth part of the City Thus do these two correspondent passages of these Visions give mutual light one to another And there being nothing in the whole second Vision that answers to that notable occurrence in the first but this Babylon in the second Vision and the fall thereof must answer to the fall of the great City in the first and the Rising of the Witnesses that is to say The City is in part actually fallen in the first Vision therefore Prophecy being an anticipatory History and these two prophetical Visions corresponding one with another it ought to be and is so in the second What can be more clear And therefore the City fallen in the first Vision being at the close of the sixth Trumpet Babylon fallen in the second Vision must be also at the close of the sixth Trumpet and at the Rising of the Witnesses which was the thing to be demonstrated Now let us proceed to the Remarker's account of those verses of the second Vision which the Expositor says glance at the four last Vials The 9 10 11 and 12 th verses which glance at the fourth Vial he will have to respect all the Vials as a Monition But if merely they did so being the effusion of the Vials is for the confusion of the Beast and for the victory of the Saints it would not then be said Here is the patience of the Saints c. but Here is their Ioy and Exultation So that this is a confounded account and absonous the Expositor's distinct that makes it respect chiefly the fourth Vial not all of them alike and is agreeable to the nature of the thing And the same may be said of the 13 th verse That the Expositor's account is more distinct that makes it relate to the fifth Vial for the reason above alledged that the Sardian Church will emerge then out of some more than ordinary affliction which it was under during the fourth Vial which affliction is predicted or menaced in the Epistle to that Church But all this is lost in the confused account of the Remarker The 14 15 and 16 th verses which respect the sixth Vial he will have to respect the Rising of the Witnesses which is a thing plainly impossible it having been demonstrated and will be still farther that all the Vials are within the seventh Trumpet after the Rising of the Witnesses And it was more particularly even now proved that the fall of Babylon in this Vision mentioned synchronizeth with the fall of the City mentioned in the former Vision and with the Rising of the Witnesses and therefore what things are prefigured in these 14 15 and 16 verses must be after the Rising of the Witnesses And by the bye I will here note the fall of Babylon synchronizing as hath been proved with the fall of the great City chap. 11. and the Remarker making the third Angel a Premonitor to all the Vials it necessarily follows from what I have proved and from what he himself asserts that all the Vials follow the fall of the great City and Rising of the Witnesses The 17 18 19 and last verses which glance at the seventh Vial he will have to respect the preparation of the Antichristian Party to the great battel at the seventh Vial and the issue thereof And why not I pray you the Battel it self also So that here the Remarker if he would speak out and the Expositor do agree and he as well as the Expositor makes the second Vision end with the seventh Vial as it is plain the first Vision does which ends with an Earthquake and great Hail which in the seventh Vial are said to be Hailstones of a Talent weight which are great indeed The first of the four arguments mentioned at the beginning viz. That the placing of the Vials at the second Ioint of the two first Visions does illustrate the Remainders of those two Visions several passages of the said Remainders respecting several of the Vials and receiving light therefrom and also giving light thereto being thus unexceptionably and
before the Vials has a very fit and fresh Object the fall of Babylon and the Rising of the Witnesses and worth the praising and glorifying God for his Judgments therein and it is said in the Song All Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments are made manifest Again The fall of Babylon and the Rising of the Witnesses cannot but imply a victory over the Beast and there is in this Song mention of those that had got the victory over the Beast and over his Image c. Thirdly The fall of Babylon is really the fall of Aegypt the Pontifician Power being denoted by both and therefore the Rising of the Witnesses implies a deliverance from the yoke and bondage of that Aegyptian Pharaoh and his overthrow in the Red Sea And those that sing this Song are said to stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is on the shoar of that Sea that was converted into Glass or Ice Exod. 15.8 while the Israelites passed over and to sing the Song of Moses the servant of God c. Fourthly and lastly the Song is exquisitely framed to signifie a Thanksgiving for a victory and deliverance actually obtained and therefore if we cannot be certain that it is for such an actual deliverance and victory we can be certain of the sense of nothing This I hope is invincible evidence nor can any thing be more demonstrable and may deserve better language than what the rude Remarker gives viz. That nothing is here demonstrated but onely how the weakness of arguments is supplied with strength of confidence and imagination b And now for the fall of Babylon synchronizing with the Rising of the Witnesses there wants no new proof thereof here What has been said already on this Remark proves it over and over again And if any one will consult my Answer on S. E. his Remarks upon chap. 11. and chap. 14. it will be evident unto him that what he says there signifies nothing to the invalidating this present Position So that it is a groundless boast of S. E. to make any such Reference c And for the next clause of this Remark I say the Expositor does not make chap. 14.8 to signifie the same with chap. 11.13 For this latter contains onely the fall of the great City but the former the bringing the joyfull News of the fall of the great City or of Babylon which joyfull Annunciation supposes what happens chap. 11.13 and the Annunciation of it it self follows in order of time after that Accident as well as the Acclamations in Heaven or Doxology of the Elders d And now lastly for that boyish Clause of S. E. so grave a Divine as he may seem to be from his skill in the holy tongue whereby he is able to note that Sar in Sardis may as well signifie a Remnant as a Song though it be but a childish chiming piece of wit of his thus to allude to that old Proverb As the fool thinketh so the bell clinketh yet to give him his due he shews himself a man of no small judgment in the manner of his Application he omitting the mention of Fool and so closely reserving that Title to himself In which that he has done himself all imaginable Right I shall prove in that he has so fondly substituted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Reliquiae for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Canticum in the Aetymological account of the word Sardis For his reasoning here is wonderfull weak and sorry For First Though Sar in Sardis signifies as well a Remnant as a Song yet it signifying both and the latter sense complying so well with the joyfull Annunciation of the Angel with the Acclamations in Heaven and Doxology of the Elders and with the Song of Moses the servant of God and of the Lamb which all respect the commencement of the Sardian Church the Expositor had most solid and unexceptionable reason to make choice of that sense of Sar in Sardis that comported so manifestly with the Song of Moses and those other significations of Ioy upon the fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses and the commencing of the Sardian Interval of the Church the late happy Reformation so many strings drawing and tyeing us to that determinate sense rather than any other Secondly Suppose Sar to signifie Remnant how will he rid himself of the latter part of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dis which signifies Ioy. So that this Remnant will be a Remnant of Ioy however or a joyfull Remnant Who therefore cannot but break forth into Doxologies Praises and Thanksgivings for so great a deliverance It would be a very sensless and mute Remnant if it were not so But being so there is a real agreement and harmony betwixt even this Etymon of Sardis and those Songs and Doxologies above mentioned But thirdly and lastly To make Sar in Sardis to signifie Reliquiae or a Remnant in reference to the emerging of the Sardian Church upon the Rising of the Witnesses and the fall of Babylon is an apert Repugnancy or gross Nonsense those Kingdoms and Principalities then gained by Christ out of the hands of Antichrist being the Primitiae of his Acquists by his Wars and Victories not the Reliquiae and a Pledge of greater Accessions to his Dominion to be made hereafter So that this sense of Sar which S. E. would have is utterly unapplicable to the Church of Sardis And therefore must as the Expositor would have it signifie Canticum not Reliquiae and Sardis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Song of Ioy or Ioy breaking out into Singing So that this Exception of S. E. is so very slight and sorry that the grave Divine seems to have been in some more freakish fit allured thereto merely that he might vent his boyish wit of thinking and clinking with which he seems as much tickled as a Squirrel with the Musick she makes in her Wire-Cage with Bells hanging over it Pag. 283. a Whereas it 's said here that as Mr. Mede has placed the Vials onely the seventh followeth the sixth Trumpet he hath placed all of them within the sixth Trumpet b For the Bohemian War on the suffering of Iohn Huss was many years after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks at which the sixth Trumpet must commence if not sooner c So that though onely the seventh Vial follows the expiring of the sixth Trumpet yet all of them follow the commencement of it d And whereas it s argued that all the seven Vials must be after the seventh Trumpet because they are called the seven last plagues e it 's a strange crippling the sense of the words to make them serve the end designed But as it 's said in Remarks they are most properly called the last plagues in respect of the precedent plagues of the Opened book viz. those signified by the Monitions of the two precedent Angels chap. 14. and the plagues the Witnesses smote the Earth with chap. 11. yet also with
which the Remarker not considering imagines a great strength in an Objection which in reality has no strength at all Pag. 289. a As for the first Reason for the said conceit of the Witnesses c. Apocalyptick Nasuteness and Sagacity will not lead one to hold an opinion against which there is such an unanswerable Objection as I take that now mentioned to be b As to the second Reason Half a year in so short a time as three years and an half may be considerable to take notice of And perhaps it may be also taken notice of in reference to the Profanation of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes and shutting up the Heavens from rain by Eliah both which were for the same time and so may have partly a Symbolical signification viz. that this shall be a like short time of Trial and have the like happy issue And in Rev. 9.15 There is a prediction that reacheth to an Hour which what sense is to be given thereof this may admit of the same And the time here signified seems to be like a short discord before a sweet close and such a turn of affairs as was Iulian's Apostacy before the establishment of Christianity in the Empire and as also was the Relapse in Queen Mary's days before the settlement of the Reformation so is this such a turn before the advancement of Christianity to that Ascendent-state it will gain over its enemies by the Rising of the Witnesses As to the third Reason c This condition of the Witnesses will not be so sad as is imagined but they are likely to be very heart-whole and to possess their souls in patience and comfortable hopes of what they have a prospect to be near at hand And though it seems so incredible that they should recover in so short a time yet it 's not so that the commencement of their Recovery should be within so short a time but their Rising and absolute Recovery may continue long though it will be to a much better condition than they were in before d As to the fourth Reason The Apologer himself saith he makes their Political Death to be represented by their mournfull prophesying 1260 days And it is also sufficiently exprest by the suffering none to buy or sell that hath not the mark of the Beast and also sufficiently implied by the cruel War against them For to be sure they would not be admitted to any Autority by those who were so enraged against them c As to the fifth Reason This Persecution will chiefly respect as I have said the strickt restraining of them from tormenting their adversaries as formerly For having so prevailed as to be about to finish their mournfull Testimony and to begin to get the Ascedent of their Adversaries before this turn of affairs their Adversaries jealousie of them by reason thereof will make them use all watchfull diligence to keep them under f And this Answer includes an Answer to the sixth Reason if it need any For this is a different War from the former being not to destroy but silence and subdue Ans. He comes now to the Expositor's six Arguments whereby he would prove that the three days and an half that the Witnesses are said to lye dead are the same with the three times and an half or 1260 days or 42 months And to the first which is taken from the obvious answering of three Integrals and an half to three Integrals and an half viz. Three days and an half to three times and an half the same with the 1260 days and the 42 months he saith That Apocalyptick Nasuteness and Sagacity will not lead one to hold an Opinion against which there is such an unanswerable Objection as the Objection even now mentioned But I have shew'd it to be so far from being an unanswerable Objection that I have fully answered it with all ease and clearness imaginable I will onely add that Peganius a very learned and pious Writer is of that Apocalyptick Sagacity and Nasuteness that though he do not hold the Witnesses already risen but that they are to rise in the year 1860 which is 177 years hence yet he makes the three days and an half to be the same with the three times and an half or 1260 days b As for his Answer to the Expositor's second Reason which is That the Affectation of predicting to the curiosity of half a year is improbable it is manifold First That half a year in so short a time as three years and an half may be considerable Secondly That it may be taken notice of in reference to the profanation of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes and shutting up the Heavens from rain by Eliah and may be a Symbol of the short continuance of the Trial and the like happy issue Thirdly That there is a prediction Rev. 9.15 that reacheth to an hour which what sense may be given thereof this may admit of the same Fourthly and lastly That it will be such a sudden turn of affairs as was Iulian's Apostacy before the establishment of Christianity in the Empire and the Relapse in Queen Mary's days before the settlement of the Reformation But to the first I answer That the whole three years and an half is so inconsiderable that no such small Periods of time are Typified in all the Apocalypse by any number set down therein the very nature of this Book of Prophecies being such as onely to prefigure the more large or general strokes of Providence and Periods of time So that to say half a year in respect of three years and an half is considerable is a mere sophistical quibble So half an hour would be in respect of three hours and an half for the proportion is alike in both The strength of the argument is this That the Apocalyptick Prophecies intending to prefigure the state of no such small Periods of time by any number as four years suppose nay if you will of four times four years that it is incredible that they should be so curious as to predescribe the condition of just three years and an half whenas if they had said roundly four years it would have served all intents and purposes that three years and an half could do To the second I answer That the three years and an half of the Profanation of the Temple does rather confirm the Expositor's opinion that makes the three days and an half the three times and an half or 1260 days the outward Court of the Temple being profaned or troden down by the Gentiles for that time according to the Vision So that as Antiochus Epiphanes his profanation was a Type of the Profanation and conculcation of the outer Court or holy City by the Gentiles so the three years and an half is likewise a Type of that Time they containing 1260 days to be expounded prophetically as the three years and an half are to be expounded And the like is to be said of the shutting up the Heavens from rain for three years
from the Whore of Babylon by Mr. Mede is a thing not to be overlookt or slighted nor this use of numbering the same time one while by days another while by months to be contemned it stearing us off from such mistakes Fifthly It is well known to them that concern themselves in these Speculations that the artifice of concealment is a thing driven at in the frame and contrivance of the Apocalyptick Visions as well as certainty of Revealment as is noted in Book 1. Chap. 2. Synopsis Prophetica and the usefulness thereof there intimated And it is obvious to conceive that disguising of the duration of the Medial-Visions under so many variations of a Time and Times and half a Time of 42 months of 1260 days of three days and an half must needs contribute something to the obscuring of the Visions and make them not lye so open and obvious to every eye but gives a pleasant exercise to the sagacious and intelligent to find cut the mystery and to reduce all to the ancient Authentick measure Sixthly But there is yet a farther usefulness of the varying of Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months or 1260 days and that a notable one For forasmuch as neither the Greek nor Hebrew though they have the dual number expresses the word Times by it what assurance have we but that Times in A Time and Times and half a Time may signifie more Times than two and so it will not be seven Semitimes but nine whenas seven is the sacred Number the Apocalypse seems to affect But that they are seven and not nine or more the varying of them into 1260 days or 42 months does fully assure us and that by A Time and Times and half a Time is understood Three prophetical years and an half or seven half years Of which Seventhly There is this farther notable use For though I have made it plain in my satisfying the former Query That these variations of Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months and 1260 days was never intended for a more accurate computation of the predicted Event from some certain Epocha to a month much less to a day yet it being known by those variations that Daniel's Number is seven Semitimes and that those seven Semitimes are seven Prophetical half years or seven Spatia semestria by virtue of these Notices and by Iohn's measuring the Temple of God c. chap. 11. that is the Inner Court and leaving the Outer Court to be trod under foot by the Gentiles for 42 months from these Indications of St. Iohn and from the proportion the Outer Court bears to the Inner the precise Epocha of the Duration of the Medial-Visions is certainly to be collected For as the Outer and Inner Courts are two steady and unalterable proportional Terms understood in their full settled extent or magnitude so there can be no scruple but that the third proportional Term viz. 42 months offered by the Spirit of Prophecy is to be understood as to this use in its full apparent extent for a steady and determinate Inference of the fourth proportional Term for a timely discovery of the enterance of the Apostasie For no number given for such or such an use if that use do not require it nor there be any thing intimated that way For the three days and an half respect the Vision of the Witnesses not the measuring of the Temple and 42 months Conculcation can abate of its full significancy by any prophetick Synecdoche or Numeral Diorism much less can it doe so when the use it serves to requires the contrary as here it does or else the measuring the Inner Court and the offering this third proportional Term to infer a fourth is to little purpose But taking this third proportional 42 months in its proper full extent as the Outer and Inner Court is taken in theirs which are as 7 to 2 it will necessarily infer 12 months in the full extent which therefore is precisely 360 prophetick days that is 360 years for the commensurate Time of the Church before the Apostasie came in And this I think is no contemptible use of the variation of Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months or 1260 days And Eighthly and lastly Though the variation of Daniel's ancient and Authentick measure into 42 months and 1260 days be not to predict the entire Event of the Medial-Visions to a precise Prophetick month much less to a Prophetick day yet these variations of Daniel's seven Semitimes into Months and Days have no contemptible use in that they are fitted for the punctual setting down the particular progresses and spreadings of the predicted Event which one Day nor one single Prophetick Month could contain We need instance but in that one example the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses which began with Luther The right Epocha of the Medial-Visions being found from whence the seven Semitimes are to commence the Event is not to be expected till the seventh Semitime be entered into But then if we would count in a natural and accurate order we might say for example That Luther appeared first upon the Stage the fourteenth day of the second month of the seventh or last Semitime That Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown on the twenty sixth day of the third month of the last Semitime and so of the rest as we find in History For still as any fresh Provinces States Principalities or Kingdoms or any Rulers and Grandees in them which were Pontifician before received the Gospel or any Evangelici before oppressed were advanced into Autority the Witnesses slain before do in these revive and ascend into Heaven and obtain rule and government For the suffering Evangelici and the reigning Evangelici are conceived but as one body though the succession be for many Ages And this I think is one considerable use of varying the phrase of a Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months and 1260 days and takes them in both together But now which I also noted in my Letter to a friend In whatever Month or Day there is an example of the Resurrection and Ascension of the Witnesses there their mournfull Prophesying ceaseth from that Time in that place As for example here in England A. D. 1559 which is the 26 th day of the third month of the last Semitime the time when Queen Elizabeth was advanced to the Crown and several Evangelical Grandees in Church and State to high Dignities and Employments Upon this Resurrection and Ascension of the Witnesses their mournfull Prophesying ceased here and so it was at other times and in other places The close Affinity and Connaturality of the things predicted do plainly evidence this to any one that does not wilfully wink against the Truth In the mean time I think I have made it abundantly plain that though the varying of Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months and 1260 days was not to
More 's arguments Synops. Proph. lib. 2. cap. 6. sect 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17. and then freely judge It is not a probable business but to the intelligent and unprejudiced plain demonstration The Annotatour's last attack is upon Mr. Mede's Notion of a twofold Series or Systeme of Prophecies which he says is his chief argument whence he would infer that the time of the Inner Court precedes that of the Outer viz. the Systeme of the Sealed book and that other of the Opened book which latter says he he fansies must needs begin ab ovo again and commence from the Epocha of the Seals c. To which the Annotatour answers 1 That there is no necessity of such a division of the Prophecies into those of the Sealed book and those of the Opened book as he could shew by several arguments Or 2 If there were yet what necessity is there that this latter must needs commence from the same starting place with the former Or yet 3 if there be then I say this is done chap. 12. where the woman cloathed with the Sun is the Primitive Apostolical Church But to the first I reply That there was indeed no necessity at first that constrained the Divine Wisedom to frame the Apocalypse thus as it is this part I mean we speak of into this twofold Series of Prophecies is true But now it is thus framed as it is it is surely want of Wisedom in us not to discern it to be so That it is so I need produce no new arguments here but refer you to Dr. More 's Synopsis Prophetica lib. 2. cap. 6. in the above named Sections 10 11 c. To which you may add what I have answered to the Remarker on the 10 th and 11 th Chapters But for the several arguments the Annotatour could produce to shew that there is no necessity of conceiving those two Series of Prophecies if they be no better than the six arguments in the other cause he does well to conceal them but if they be better why did he not produce them I am sure Mr. Durham's arguments are very weak and sophistical p. 465. and built all upon that passage chap. 11. vers 14 15. The second Wo is past and behold the third Wo cometh quickly And the seventh Angel sounded The former part of which does not continue the Vision hitherto in this 11 th Chapter to the sixth Trumpet So that all that is hitherto herein said must belong to the Sealed-book-prophecy because the exitus of the second Wo-Trumpet or sixth Trumpet is here mentioned no more than all that follows the sounding of the seventh Trumpet to the end of the Apocalypse belongs to the seventh Trumpet and so is to appertain to the Sealed-book-prophecy But in these two verses there is a marvellous artfull Intimation of the Coincidence of Time viz. That this Vision chap. 11. of the Rising of the Witnesses and falling of the great City ends as to time with the second Wo-Trumpet In virtue of which Intimation the Visions of the Opened book and Sealed book are reduced into clear and usefull Synchronisms and we are assured that what follows in chap. 11. after the seven Trumpets beginning to sound follows the sixth Trumpet and belongs to the time of the seventh c. But to infer from the Time of the Exitus of the sixth Trumpet falling in with the Time of the Rising of the Witnesses that this Vision must belong to the sixth Trumpet which appertains to the Sealed-book-prophecy when it is so plainly and expresly from the Text a Prophecy of the Opened book is so weak a reasoning and so absonous as nothing can be more And this weakness and mistake makes both Mr. Durham and the Annotatour give such an odd and incongruous sense of that passage chap. 11.11 Thou must prophesie again as if it concerned the preaching of the Gospel taking prophesying in so large a sense that it may signifie preaching whenas the word again plainly intimates that the prophesying must be of the same kind as before that is Predicting of things to come But how strangely does prejudice blind the understandings of men To the second I answer That there being two Series of Prophecies acknowledged the one chiefly respecting the affairs of the Empire the other of the Church there is a necessity unless we will be very absurd and conceive that the Spirit of Prophecy will not be as punctual at least in prefiguring from the beginning the affairs of the Church as those of the Empire as if he were more curious in things extraneous than in things more nearly concerning himself and as it were domestick to acknowledge that some Visions commence as high as the Vision of the Seals Which is a plain demonstration that the woman in the Throes of child-birth and the fight of Michael with the Dragon begins as high as the first Epocha of the Church See what we have answered the Remarker upon chap. 12. And to the third and last I answer If this be true that the second Vision of the Opened-book-prophecy viz. the woman in the Pangs of childbed began so high as the Epocha of the Seals or commencement of the Church any one whose perceptive faculty is not grown insensible by callosity or gross Prejudice must needs feel perceive and abhor such an ugly and harsh piece of preposterousness in placing thus this headless Vision first that falls short of the Epocha of the Church by the space of the first six Seals or of betwixt three and four hundred years Whenas it is so fitly placed to shew in Mr. Mede's way the Purity and Unapostatizedness of the Primitive Church and the continuance of that State as the woman in the pangs of childbearing and the fight of Michael with the Dragon to set out the Churches sharp sufferings and conflicts in endeavouring to propagate the Gospel and subdue the Roman Empire to the Sceptre of Christ. Wherefore all things being so easie natural smooth and coherent in Mr. Mede's way as to these things we here speak of it would amaze a man that after things are made so plain and convictive that either Mr. Durham the Guide or Mr. Clark his Follower should have their eyes so held that they should not see so clear and manifest a truth I must confess I was very much astonished at it till I considered the power of Prejudice from education or faction and espousing the cause of a Party And the Annotatour does here in the conclusion ingenuously confess the Malady he labours under His dear regard to Presbytery and disgust against Episcopacy this has made him not content with the faithfull conduct of Mr. Mede and Dr. More but he must have another light to guide him out of the paths and tracts of solid ground in which they would have safely led him to be carried into Fenny and Marish places And prejudice has so hoodwinked his judgment that notwithstanding all his arguments against Mr. Mede's way in these points are thus unconclusive as I have demonstrated yet he most triumphantly concludes This then being evinced That the Temple and Altar measured and the Court unmeasured do synchronize all those Inferences which Dr. More so frequently deduces from his opinion will of themselves fall to the ground As Episcopacy simply in it self is not Antichristian Presbytery is not jure divino Pref. to Myst. of Godl p. 19. And elsewhere concerning the Office and Dignity it self of a Bishop It cannot sink into my mind That that Order of the Church which was instituted and in practice in those Ages thereof which were Symmetral can with any face or conscience be judged Antichristian Myst. of Iniquity p. 472. But why has the Annotatour noted that Inference of the Doctour also that the Doctrine of the Divinity of Christ and Triunity of the Godhead is in this way confirmed by Divine Autority against the Socinians who admit of no other autority but such and by tricks and quillets think they can shuffle off other places of Scripture that are produced for those Doctrines Had he rather that this Inference also should fall to the ground than that Presbytery should not perk up and prevail in the world against Episcopacy But I will rather charitably surmise he did not think of that And declare that it is great pity but that a person so active and industrious to communicate truth to the World as the Annotatour is should light upon any other Guides but such as are both skilfull and faithfull And lastly I will not despair but that he seeing so plainly all his Pretences of evincing That the Temple and Altar measured and the Court unmeasured do synchronize to be utterly routed and vanish and the Doctour's Notion of the Symmetral Times of the Church antecedent to the Asymmetral to stand firm and unshaken that he will admit or rather embrace the Inferences the Doctour deduces therefrom That neither Episcopacy is Antichristian nor Presbytery jure divino FINIS